. hello i'm wolf blitzer t.'s 1:00 p.m. here in washington. 6:00 in london. 7:00 p.m. in paris. wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. we begin with breaking news from paris. prosecutors have now opened an anti-terror investigation after a man wielding a hammer at the notre-dame cathedral. amid chaos, people inside the cathedral forced to put their hands up as police officers swarmed the area. we'll go live to paris in just a moment.

also president trump meets today with congressional leaders, all republicans, to discuss health care and tax reform, but the administration concedes that the russia investigations are distracting from the president's agenda. meanwhile, we're only two days away from the fired fbi director james comey's testimony before the u.s. congress. comey is expected to discuss his conversations with the president and he could say whether he felt pressured to drop the michael flynn investigation. we're also standing by for today's white house press briefing set to begin the top of the next hour. the press secretary sean spicer, he will be back at the lectern today taking reporter's questions and there are lots of them. first let's gets to the news out of paris. the breaking news where police are investigating the attack at a popular tourist spot right in the heart of the city. cnn jim binnerman. we're learning what the attacker yelled out as the incident unfolded. >> and this is why they've

opened up a terrorism investigation, wolf. he cried, "this is for syria" as he came at the plea man police patrolman with a hammer. he struck one of the policeman in the back of the neck. he was not badly injured. one of the partners immediately responded with his firearm and shot two shots according to witnesses. the attacker went down and he's not dead. he's been treated in the hospital now as we speak. they'll be wanting to talk with him. they want to confirm his identity. as you mentioned, he was carrying an algerian student i.d. card which might case where he was coming from. it's not clear if he was here just temporarily or if he lived here for some length of time. in any case, hundreds of people were in the cathedral at the time. they went on immediate lockdown and they kept them inside. they've been slowly releasing them over the last two and a half hours since this took place. questioning each person as they let them go just to make sure there's no one else with the

attacker. the interior minister said they think he acted a loelone, but they're going to be investigating that. >> we know some of these terrorists have been inspired by various terror groups who have told them if you don't have a gun, get a knife. if you don't have a knife, get a hammer. you don't have a hammer, get a car. this seems to be potentially one of those incidents. has anyone yet claimed responsibility? >> not to this point. but i think that's going to be one of the things they'll be looking at. the other thing is they're going to be looking at, even though this country has been in a state of emergency since november of 2015, they're looking at stepped up ways they can improve security. they realize these low tech attacks like we saw in london and now here in fact are very difficult to prevent. but they are talking about increased surveillance means and that sort of thing. there's going to be a defense counsel meeting that was scheduled anyway tomorrow morning to talk about these kinds of things with a new

government taking office. they wanted to increase things given the fact that had been the attack in london. now they've got even more reason to look at different measures that they can take to help prevent this kind of thing from happening in the future. >> jim bitterman on the scene for us in paris. thanks very. we'll check back with you. let's get back to politics here in the united states. dramatic politics unfolding. president trump trying to get his agenda back on track as the white house braces for testimony from the fired fbi director james comey. our white house correspondent sara murray is standing by on the north lawn of the white house. our congressional spent phil mattingly is up on capitol hill. sara, the white house had been working on what's call a war room to respond to the russia investigation. comey's testimony on thursday. what's happening with that so-called war room? >> wolf, they had hoped to create kind of a war room to

krooet there a create their own narrative. it does not look like that will come to fruition before comey testifies. they've had difficulty setting it up. they've had difficulty trying to create this. at the same time that mark kasowitz, the president's outside legal counsel is trying to stand up his legal team. in many ways it leaves the administration a little bit flat footed going into these hearings. obviously we know this is something president trump has been very preoccupied with. we've seen him tweet about it. we know he was very frustrated when jeff sessions recused himself from the russia investigation stepping aside and then allowing rod rosenstein to appoint this special prosecutor. so we have a frustrated president and a white house struggling with how to deal with this at a time when russia questions are popping up everywhere. today secretary john kelly was on the hill. he was asked about jared kushner and russia. this is what he had to say. >> we have to make the assumption, and i will, that jared kushner is a great american. he's a decent american.

he has a security clearance at the highest level. the >> there's no red flags that come up for you at all on this? >> not at the time. i didn't know about it. since it's been reported, back channels are normal in the course of interactions. >> more questions of course about jared kushner trying to set up some kind of back channel with russia during the transition. an indication that while we watch the comey testimony, we may be looking for his interactions with president trump. what exactly was said there. but these are questions that go beyond the president to his inner circle. >> stand by. i want to go to phillip on capitol hill. how frustrated are republican lawmakers up there, phil? and the white house is pretty frustrated clearly that the russia investigations are derailing the president's legislative frustrated is one w. exhausted is another. if you look at what republicans are trying to do, when it comes to a legislative agenda, it's

ambitious. health care, something extremely divisive. hits people at home in their districts, in their states. it's something where you really need all hands on deck. when you talk to members particularly now in the senate where they're trying to figure out some path forward for their repeal and replace of obamacare plan, the reaction you get is there's no central focus from the white house. yes, the russia investigation certainly a cloud that's hanging over everything. but it's not just that. it's the president in general. can't seem to focus on one thing at a time. when you talk to lawmakers, they recognize when it comes to the details, particularly in the senate, they want to be on their own. they want to be able to work on things. when it comes to selling something, that's when they need the president fully on board. focused on the issue. focused on the policy. focused on the details. that's why they feel things have been looking. that's why they their agenda has done stymied. i think the big issue is as they figure out some path forward on health care, when you look what they've stacked up to do for this year it's health care reform, tax reform,

infrastructure. border wall. things that are incredibly ambitious. take a lot of work and take a lot of unity inside the party. unity that at least up to this point hasn't really been selgttd on. one of the things you hear constantly is the president that can help bring that together and up to that point that's been lacking. >> with a republican majority in the u.s. senate it becomes really, really hard. phil mattingly on capitol hill. sara murray, thanks to you as well. donald trump demanded that the justice department crack down on leakers. now a national security agency contractor is in custody after being accused of leaking a classified government document on russian hacking attempts. her name, reality winner, a 25-year-old contractor in georgia. sources say winner sent the document to an online news site called "the intercept." diane gallagher joining us now. what was in the document? how did investigators track down

the suspected leaker? >> wolf, we're talking about a classified report from the national security agency dated may 5th of this year. it details how a russian intelligence unit attempted to hack into the voting system. we should point out there is no evidence that any votes were actually affected by this attempted hack. but according to cnn sources, the classified reports that winner allegedly leaked is the same one "the intercept" described in the piece. it gives us details of how it is russians went after local election officials and a voting software supplier. here's the thing. prosecutors say they were able to catch reality winner almost instantly it appears because of the way that the intercept may have operated. "the intercept" said the document was provided anonymously. the d.o.j. says that the news outlet support a copy of the

doum document to the u.s. government to verify the authenticity. the government could see a crease indicating it had been printed out. according to the complaint six people print today out and winner was one of them. the complaint says winner admitted that she intentionally leaked the classified information. >> diane, wikileaks founder julian assange came out in support of reality winner. what happens next for her? what kind of punishment does she face? >> right now she's in custody in georgia. on thursday her attorney says a judge is going to decide whether to let her out on bond. but if convicted, she faces up to ten years in prison. winner did not enter a plea at her initial hearing yesterday. her attorney said that winner is, quote, not a traitor. she's a veteran. he believes the government has a agenda by going after her. her mother said her daughter is not political. we can now conform she did follow the likes of edward

snowden. several wikileaks and accounts that became popular after donald trump was elected. she also retweeted posts about leaking on her twitter account and didn't really hide her disdain for president trump. she even directly tweeted at him back in february. her last tweet was march 5th. she tweeted at a noun mounonymo happened to -- her attorney can't confirm it's actually her twitter report. >> coming up, the president seemingly taking credit for the isolation of qatar. what does that mean for the united states strategic alliance with that gulf state? all eyes on fired fib director james comey ahead of his public testimony before congress on thursday. we have new details about what he could reveal. that's coming up next.

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most people using stelara® saw 75% clearer skin and the majority were rated as cleared or minimal at 12 weeks. be the you who talks to your dermatologist about stelara®. we're only two days away now from the fired fbi director james comey's testimony to the senate intelligence committee. comey is expected to speak about his private conversations with president trump. but may offer few details on the

fbi's russia investigation. joining us now is grand rapids michigan is former congressman pete, former chairman of the house intelligence committee. also michigan co chair for the trump campaign and adviser to the trump transition team. thanks for joining us. >> good to be with you, wolf. thank you. >> let me read a little bit. the lead paragraph of today's lead editorial in "the wall street journal," a publication you're familiar with. i'll put it up there. quote, some people with a propensity for self-destruct tiff behavior can't seem to help themselves. president trump apparently among them. over the weekend and into monday he indulged in another cycle of twitter outbursts and pointless personal feuding that may damage his agenda and the powers of the presidency. you're familiar with the editorial page. writers of the "wall street journal." they went on and bitterly criticized the president. your reaction? >> i think the criticism is

well-founded. there are many of us, including the president, who probably would like to have a lot more focus on what he proposed for the faa yesterday, what they proposed for the veterans health plan yesterday, tax reform, and health care. so yeah, we'd much rather be talking about other things, but he's getting done what he's gotten done than these kinds of things which really do undermine the agenda. >> but he has huimself to blame for that for all that tweeting and he goes ahead and krcriticis his own justice department because of the revised travel ban whch ban. when he lashes out at the mayor of london. when he takes these tweets and goes public, you can't ignore that. >> you kaecan't ignore that. you move on. i've been writing about the things i think important. the underlying threats, the

underlying issues in places like the uk, in europe that have created the environment where you see the kind of actions and the activities we've seen over the weekend in trying to identify what we need to do here in the united states to make sure that we don't fall victim to the same mistakes. that we go through and lessons learned activity. sure, wolf, yeah, this distracts -- it is his way of communicating. we have different -- everyone has their own style. obviously this is a very unique style. >> but if he called you up and said congressman, what do you think, you would immediately say, you know what, stop all the tweeting, right? >> i would encourage him to limit his tweeting. i wouldn't get out of the business of tweeting, but i'd be more judicious. he can be effective but he's got to be a little bit more restrained. >> what's at stake for the president when his fired fbi director james comey testifies before the senate intelligence

committee on thursday? >> there's a tremendous amount of things that may be at stake. only he and james comey know what was part of the conversation between those two. the president hass said move forward with the hearings. if that's an accurate reflection, there's not that much at stake and then we can get back to what the senate and the house intelligence committee said that they were going to be focused on. what mueller said he was going to be focused on. and that is russia's involvement and activities in trying to influence the 2016 elections and hopefully that is where we will stay focused and that's the only place that we have any issues. >> what happens if comey brings along contemporaneous memos that he wrote about those conversations with president trump in which the suggestion might be that the president tried to get him to pledge loyalty and then to stop the

investigation of the fired national security adviser michael flynn. how will those memos be interpreted? you're a formaer chairman of th house intelligence committee? >> if i had the opportunity and a former fbi director came in for the first time revealed that information, you'd say wow, this was a successful hearing in terms of bringing that out. without knowing exactly the context or exactly what is in those, you know, self-written e-mails. it's hard to know exactly what they will mean. you know, asking for loyalty, you know, the president is not necessarily asking for loyalty to violate the law or something but just say hey, if i'm moving forward on this type of an agenda, i need people who are moving forward, quote/unquote, legally, to make sure that my agenda is put in place. he's had enough people that are still holdovers or in the bur

yok r -- who work for the president, who work for the executive branch who are undercutting him. >> former congressman, thanks as usual for joining us. >> always good to be with you. thanks, wolf. >> president trump fired him and now the congress and the world gets to hear his side. tune in thursday morning beginning our coverage at 9:00 a.m. eastern for special life coverage of james comey's historic testimony on cnn as well as cnn.com. coming up, new developments in a deadly terror attack in london. a third attacker now identified. police revealing he had been on a watch list. i'm ryan and i quit smoking with chantix.

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you're looking at these live pictures coming in from the white house briefing room. sean spicer expected to come out soon start taking questions from reporters. we will of course have live coverage. british police have identified a third attack ner saturder in london's terror attack, youssef swr youssef zaghba. he was placed on a watch list after attempting to travel to syria and having extremist material on his phone. police say youssef zaghba and two other men rammed a van into pedestrians on a bridge. the three attackers were shot and kill by police at the scene. meanwhile, the uk foreign secretary boris johnson told british media that the country's intelligence service has

questions to answer, like how one of the london attackers was well known to authorities and had even been featured in a documentary entitled "the jihadis next door." theresa may is facing rather tough questions when it comes to security especially by her opponents in thursday's national election. let's bring in our chief international correspond chrissian nana amanpour. give us a sense the serious questions surrounding the prime minister and her handling of the terror attacks with the elections two days away. >> it's unprecedented. there hasn't been an election in modern times with this amount of security and fear and terrorism just preceding. it is the third in three months. so yes, her record as prime minister for a year and before that home secretary. in other words, dealing with all issues of police, law and order

and the rest is coming under the microscope. now, particularly she's being accused by the opposition, including the mayor of london, of presiding over cuts. but police on the beat that many in the community think are the vital front line for intelligence gathering on a street level. and an interface with the community. >> how much second guessing is going on about the intelligence community, law enforcement, that had knowledge at least or at least two of these terrorists who were shot and killed but apparently not enough was done? >> there's a lot of second guessing going on with one side defending saying there's nothing we could have done about it. specifically one who was featured in that documentary and also a radical preacher who i interviewed several times before he was arrested and finally put

in jail. they're saying when we had him on our watch list, it was 2015 and there was no evidence of any attack being planned so therefore they downgraded the supervision or the watch list that he was on. so this is causing a huge amount of questioning. is there a sort of midway between actually following every last person which they obviously cannot, or figuring out some kind of reversion back to the sort of old days of the control orders. in other words, people who are under suspicion for hate speech or belonging to rad dical group or even if they're not planning an attack, can they be put back in restricted surveillance, tags and restricting their internet use and the like. >> serious questions and i'm sure they're all looking at trying to find lessons learned from this horrific incident. thanks as usual. thanks very much. meanwhile president trump suggesting he's the reason that major gulf arab countries have now isolated qatar.

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fmy doctor recommended ibgard. abdominal pain and bloating. now i'm in control of my ibs. nonprescription ibgard - calms the angry gut. yan. chrysti we're waiting for the white house press secretary sean spicer to come out and start taking questions from reporters. we'll have live coverage. that's coming up. in the meantime, president trump is applauding a major decision by several gulf arab nations to cut diplomatic ties with qatar. the president even appears to be taking credit for that decision. saudi arabia, united arab emirates, yemen have all broken relations with qatar.

it's a move that could disrupt efforts to fight isis since qatar is a host to a major u.s. military presence outside of its capital. let's bring in retired admiral john kirby, diplomatic analyst, former state department and pentagon spokesman. john, this is a very significant move. you spent a lot of time studying it. how significant is this break? it could be very significant. breaking diplomatic relations and want a small move. i think it goes against the president's ultimate goal. he wanted to unify the sunni states. but the way to get this in a better place is to try to unify them for all of them to stop supporting. >> the president is clearly on the side of the saudis and

emirates. he tweeted this morning during my recent trip to the middle east i stated there could be no longer -- that there can no longer be funding of radical ideology, leaders pointed to qatar. look. then he tweeted an hour later so good to see the saudi arabia visit with the king and 50 countries already paying off. they said they would take a hard line on funding extremism and all reference was pointing to qatar. perhaps that had been the beginning of the end to the horror of terrorism. >> i think that's overstated. qatar is not the only state that supports terrorist groups. extreme view of the muslim faith that started in saudi arabia. most of hijackers on 9/11 were from saudi arabia. i think that, again, this isn't necessarily going to move them in the right direction. it is good that pressure be put on countries like qatar. but it really is better going back to his riyadh message that every work together to try to stamp this out. >> as you know, the u.s. has a

major ground and air force presence at the air base which is outside. thousands of military personnel are there. pentagon says the u.s. is clearly watching the situation carefully to see what the reaction from the government of qatar will be to the president's tweets. this is a statement from jeff davis. there has been no impact on our operations either in qatar or with regard to air space missions around it and we don't anticipate there will be. we hope for a quick resolution. we have no intention of altering our current operations. but there could be some angry reaction from the government of qatar. >> that's right. so far i think they've been pretty measured in their reaction to the president's tweets. i think that's encouraging. i hope that stays the case. qatar is an important ally in the fight. important logistics base in the fight. you yourself have gone through there as you've covered our conflicts in the middle east.

we have like 11,000 troop there is just alone. i think it would behoove to calm this down. >> i've been to the air base and there are a lot of american military personnel . if the qatar government were to shut down that, relocating those troops would be a big problem for the u.s. military. >> the military could accommodate for that. we would find alternatives as we always do. that's what the military does best but it would be a blow and it would hurt. it is still a logistics hub. still a forward headquarters for central command. we still have flights that are going to support the fight in afghanistan as well as iraq and syria all coming out of there. >> thanks very much. john kirby with his analysis. we have some live pictures

coming in from the white house briefing room. once again the press secretary sean spicer expected to give the daily press briefing. we'll have live coverage of that of course. it's isis's last territory in iraq. families risking their lives to escape the horrors in mosul. cnn exclusive. heart wrenching stories from the front line. arwa damon has an extraordinary report you will see when we come back. at red lobster's lobster & shrimp summerfest, the lobster and shrimp you love are teaming up in so many new ways. like new coastal lobster and shrimp, with a lobster tail with butter and herbs, sweet, smoky bbq red shrimp, and shrimp crusted with...get this...cape cod kettle chips. or try lobster and shrimp overboard. a dish this good... makes you this hungry. it's the highlight of the season, and can't last. so hurry in.

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. looking at live pictures from inside the white house briefing room. the press secretary sean spicer expected to come out now fairly soon, start taking questions from reporters and there are many questions. we'll have live coverage. also we're following new developments in syria right now where u.s. backed forces are launching a major new offensive to drive isis out of its de facto capitol in raqqa. isis has been in full control of the city now for more than three years, but as that fight gears up, the battle rages on to recapture the city of western mosul in northern iraq. united nations says there are

some three quarters of a million people who have now been caught in the crossfire. in a story you will see only here on cnn, our senior international correspondent arwa damon went to the front lines. met families so desperate to escape the devastation. just a word of caution. this report contains some very graphic images. >> they stumble towards the iraqi troops. they're breathless. their voices are shaking from fear and shock. they use single sentences that seem to hardly encompass the scope of what it is that they've actually just been through.

and as isis is squeezed into even smaller territory, the civilians they're holding hostage are running out of food. it was only enough to feed the children, to try to keep them from crying out. she and her husband, they went hungry. on the front line helping the iraqi army is dave eubanks. with his team of burr m arrange, volunteer medics.

dave was called to the scene. >> we saw 13 bodies and saw movement. he they are. look at that wall. >> a man alive and a i little girl who creeps out from under her dead mother where she'd been hiding for two days. hugging her mother's corpse. they use the tank for cover to move out dragging those they just saved past the corpses of those who parished. the little girl has not yet spoken. not a single word. no one even knows her name. the next morning they spotted even more movement.

>> we ran, got across the road. went through rubble like this. we could hear them talking. crawl throw. find a street where isis is shooting. tloo threw a line to her. three days, no sleep, no water, wounded. >> much of western mosul is already -- the fight is going to be so much worse than anything we've seen before. there's no past blueprint for this kind of warfare. no one has fought an enemy like isis holding civilians hostage in a dense urban battle field. we go to a clinic that's further back from the front line. there's an old man who can't speak from the shock. and a little girl. her name is maria. she's 10. there with her older sister.

they say a mortar hit their house just as they were trying to make a run for it. one sister they know is dead. they saw her lifeless body. the others are buried under the rubble of their home, but isis still controls the area. the reality of what she's just said perhaps not quite sinking in. or maybe she's just looking for any distraction from a loss that she cannot yet fully comprehend. >> and arwa is joining us now live in north iraq not very far away from mosul. amazing reports. what can you tell us about the

effort being made to try to get more civilians away from the front lines in mosul? >> well, wolf, that's really the crux of the problem. there's really nothing that can be done given as you saw in that report there the fact that isis does not allow civilians to leave. and this means that the iraqi security forces, despite the fact that they have been trying to tell si vil yacivilians to s from areas that the fighters are gathering in, that's impossible because the fighters are using civilian homes to fight the iraqi security forces as they push forward. every single explosion that we hear and see, you can be fairly certain that it's happening either next to or directly targeting some sort of a building and the vast majority of them, especially in this last chunk of territory that isis controls, they have families hiding in them. the united nagtions is estimatig they believe around 100,000 children are still living in very dangerous circumstances in

the area that sis controls, but also other not just targeting the iraqi security forces but deliberately going after gatherings of civilians and, wolf, we're only really beginning to right now understand the depth of the trauma that the population of mosul, especially its children, have been going through. >> and even if they do eventually liberate mosul, the eastern part of the city, i take it, pretty much liberated, the western part under contention, this could take some time, right? >> reporter: it's going to take a fair amount of time to root out the city of mosul. the streets are incredibly narrow and it's densely packed and they still have around three more neighborhoods to go before they have the actually whole city surrounded and then you're going to have to deal with the

various different pockets of resistance that exist out there. and let's not forget, isis is very capable of regrouping and going after the iraqi security forces but what is much more their status quo soft targets. so people are very anxious and worried about the potential for car bombs and the likes of going after the civilian population. and then you look at the city and swaths have been completely destroyed. this is a multifaceted challenge that is going to be facing this country when they do manage to root isis out. and once again, the sheer psychological impact of everything that the population has been through, everything that they have lost and suffered and endured. >> i was there years ago in mosul. it was the second largest city in iraq. it was thriving. and look at it now. arwa damon, thanks so much for your very courageous reporting.

arwa joining us from erbil in northern iraq, not very far away. coming up, we're standing by for the white house press briefing. the return of sean spicer to the lectern after a series of questions about his whereabouts yesterday. we'll discuss that and more when we come back. wish your skin could bounce back like it used to? neutrogena hydro boost water gel. with hyaluronic acid it plumps skin cells with intense hydration and locks it in. for supple, hydrated skin. hydro boost. from neutrogena

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>> is he in a new position now? >> he is taking on a little bit of extra duty at this point, so i think it's -- >> has his position changed, then? >> it's probably upgraded at this point given that we don't have a communications director. >> joining us now, our cnn politics reporter, editor at large, chris cillizza. is he now taking over as communications director because the communications director the other day resigned? >> if so, it's a strange way to announce it. sarah huckabee sanders backing into it after a question from april ryan. the reason for that is probably because they don't know the answer. what sarah sand seers is that deputy secretaries fill in all the time and you and i both know that. but they usually fill in because the principle press secretary is out for some reason, sick, on vacation. this, sean is just there but not

there, doing what is principally his main job. i think it's strange. i think the context matters here. we know donald trump has not been terribly happy with sean spicer for quite some time. he seemed unwilling to say anything about almost anything. he'll be back today. i've said with this presidency, today is not predictive of yesterday. tomorrow, thursday, friday, who knows. >> he was busy tweeting once again this morning, one of them the fake mainstream media is working so hard trying to get me not to use social media. they hate that i can get the honest and unfiltered message out. >> okay. on that one, look, you don't have to like the media, but you should -- no one in the media is telling donald trump to tweet less. we are about access and we're about trying to get into the

mind of the president, whoever it is. him tweeting is a massive bonus for us. we've never had a president like this. there is literally not one reporter on earth who wants donald trump to tweet less. what he's talking about there is if you saw msm, mainstream media, rather than people on my staff, you have a more accurate reading. i want him to tweet more. >> what happened to the war room? they were supposed to establish on thursday a big hearing from the fired fbi director. >> they are still struggling to put it together. what happened with the staff changes that we thought were coming. there is all of this talk and not much action on the legislative front, too. >> true. it's going to go on and on and on. some are already calling the thursday testimony the super bowl. >> look, i think it's the biggest tempo tensionally since clarence thomas and anita hill. this is a huge moment in

washington and in the nation. >> we'll have live coverage starting at 9:00 a.m. eastern and we'll be watching every second. chris, thank you. i'll be back at 5:00 p.m. eastern in "the situation room,". the white house press briefing is about to get under way. in the meantime, the news continues right now. hello. i'm ana cabrera in for brooke baldwin. thank you for joining me. there is not just one but three major story lines developing. any moment now, the white house press briefing is set to begin as the administration admits the russia probe is impacting the president's agenda. at the same time, the state department is expected to brief reporters and this, as president trump seems to be taking sides in the worst diplomatic crisis in decades to hit several arab states. and finally, breaking details on the attack against police in paris. was it a terrorist at