finally, after many, many decades, on its way. we are giving control back to the cities and the states. you know best how to plan your communities, analyze your projects, and protect your local environment. we will get rid of the redun cy and duplication that wastes your time and your money. our goal is to give you one point of contact and one decision, yes or no, for the entire federal government and to deliver that decision quickly, whether it's a road, whether it's a highway, a bridge, a dam. to do this, we are setting up a new council to help project managers navigate the bureaucratic maze. this council will also approve transparency by creating a new online dashboard allowing everyone to easily track major

projects through every stage of the approval process. this council will make sure that every federal agency that is consistently delaying projects by missing deadlines will face tough new penalties. i know it won't happen with these two. we don't have to worry about them. we will hold the b-- we will alo hold the council of environmental to rule out inefficiency, clarify lines of authority and streamline procedures to communities wican modernize. this massive permit reform and that's what it is. it's a permit reform. doesn't sound glamorous. they won't write stories about it. they won't even talk about it.

but it's so important. but it's only the first step in renewing america's roads, rails, runways, and rivers. as i discussed in ohio recently, my new vision for american infrastructure will generate $1 trillion in infrastructure investment which we desperately need. we've spent as of a few months ago $6 trillion in the middle east. think of it. $6 trillion in the middle east. and it's worse than it was 15 years ago by a factor of 10. and yet if you want to build a little road in one of your communities in pennsylvania or ohio or in iowa or north carolina or in florida, you can't get the money. state and local leaders will

have more power to decide which projects get built, when they start, and how they are funded. and inn vvestors will have a mo predictable vie predictable environment that encourages them to invest billions of dollars in capital that are currently stuck on the sidelines. together we will build projects to inspire our youth, employ our workers and create true prosperity for our people. we will pour new concrete, lay new brick, and watch new sparks light our factories as we forge metal from the furnaces of our rust belt and our beloved heart land which has been forgotten. it's not forgotten anymore. we will put new american steel into the spine of our country.

american workers will construct gleaming new lanes of commerce across our landscape. they will build these monuments from coast to coast and from city to city and with these new roads, bridges, airports and seaports, we will embark on a wonderful new journey into a bright and glorious future. we will build again. we will grow again. we will thrive again. and we will make america great again. thank you. god bless you. i appreciate it. thank you very much. thank you. [ applause ] okay to "inside politics." i'm john king. you're watching the president of the united states donald trump just finishing an event at the transportation department. part of what he had hoped to be a big week focusing on infrastructure. other things have dominated the conversation. he's promising his

administration will do away what he says are burdensome regulations that slow down infrastructure projects. leaving the transportation there. back to the house for a meeting with romania's president. secretary of state rex tillerson due to deliver a statement at the state department any moment offering for the united states to mediate disputes between arab countries in the gulf qatar, saudi arabia and other countries now at odds over a big diplomatic break. we'll get word from the secretary of state on his plans in a moment. also major turmoil in the uk and its global implications. theresa may after a stunning defeat. the former fbi director repeatedly called the president a liar. said he was certain the special counsel is now reviewing whether the president obstructed justice and raised troubling new questions about the attorney general jeff sessions.

>> i knew that there might come a day when i would need a record of what had happened. i was home concerned that he might lie about the nature of our meeting. >> the president shocked washington by staying silent during comey's big day but he counter punched today somehow claiming, quote, total and complete vindication and seemingly if you read that tweet accusing comey of lying to congress. the president's lawyer today leaked word he plans to file a leaks complaint, that's how washington works, against comey. that's a stunt from the president's lawyer. nothing more. it comes a day after a statement from that lawyer that contained several factual mistakes and ended with this political spin. >> the president feels completely vindicated and is eager to continue moving forward with his agenda with the business of this country and with this public cloud removed. >> with us to share their reporting and their insights, margaret tal lan, michael share,

perry bacon and julie. we're going to hear more from the president as i said this afternoon. he's scheduled to take questions from reporters after a meeting at the white house with romania's president. the outlines at the white house damage control strategy are now clear. attack comey's credibility and try to distract attention away from the many damming things he said about the president. like this take away. when the president ordered everyone to leave the oval office and according to comey said he hoped he could find a way to drop the investigation of the former national security adviser michael flynn. >> i took it as a direction. this is the president of the united states with me alone saying i hope this. i took it as this is what he wants me to do. i didn't obey that but that's the way i took it. >> on the many damming things james comey said about the president of the united states from a legal jeopardy perspective, that perhaps the biggest. saying that he took it that the

president, when he asked the attorney general and others to leave the oval office, looked him in the eye and said make this go away. >> i think part of what it hard for us in the sort of sound bite i era is not look at the individual pieces but look at the big picture. step back. what director comey kind of laid out was a pattern of repeated efforts by the president of the united states to communicate his dissatisfaction with the direction of all of these russia investigations and the various pieces of them and repeated lie try to indicate that he didn't want them to continue. with the kind of idea sort of floating in the background not stated was that if they didn't happen that somehow comey's job was on the line. of course, as we know, he did get fired ultimately, so that's the sort of narrative that comey laid out. and it's pretty damming, you know, obviously we'll see what happens with the investigations. but that was i think the big

take away. >> also that seems to have been the moment when that idea of obstruction of justice first entered comey's mind. from that very moment he then leaves that meeting, goes and commits the, you know, his account of that and his memory of that meeting to writing with the clear thought in his head that he might need this later, this is something that was completely inappropriate. he felt he was -- he had been asked to do something or lose his job for it. and what we saw him do was sort of put in place a series of fail saves with these memos, meeting after meeting, that he then activated once it game clear and as he believes his fear was confirmed, that he was in fact trying to obstruct something. >> what do we make of the white house strategy. comes out and calls into question the accuracy of comey on a couple points. it was remarkable that the president himself stayed out of this yesterday especially after

some of his aides were saying he planned to live tweet as comey was up there. the president stayed out of it yesterday. again, there is a special counsel investigation. we have every reason to believe is at least looking at the president's conduct. it's hard to describe that in any detail more than is the president under investigation, is the special counsel taking what jim comey says and deciding whether to go further. those are things we will learn in the weeks and months ahead. for the president to come out and essentially accuse james comey of lying under oath to the united states congress, he's escalating this, not deescalating. >> the white house and the president's legal strategy which is sort of removed from the white house appeared to be twofold. one is to say that the president is not under criminal investigation because at least up until the end of jim comey's tenure that was true according to jim comey. and then the second is to turn this into a comey versus president trump fight to kind of brand jim comey into democrat, the mainstream media and other critics and make it a he said/he

said. it's not really he said/he said. it's the storied fbi director whose career has spanned a lot of crime and credibility across the part son aisle saying that the way he dealt with president trump deviated in many ways from the way he dealt with other presidents because of the way the president had approached him. two meetings ever with president obama. nine meetings with president trump in the span of four months on. on and on, these sort of things. that's the white house's approach. that makes sense. i talked to norm eisen, the former obama aethics adviser. so the one thing that he kind of says is he's not saying it has gotten to this point yet but that for the president and his lawyer marc kasowitz, they need to be mindful of overstepping the political response. when you're doing things, filing a complaint, there's boundaries which that is acceptable, even if it's a strategically

questionable political response and then boundaries at which that response itself praerhaps draws you closer to those who want to make a case about obstruction. that becomes ammunition for that case potentially. >> the second part of the lease is he talks about a leak and he's trying to lump it in with these classified leaks t.'s different for comey to talk to a reporter. plenty of people talk with the president from congressmen to journalist. he's trying to assess comey of something illegal or wrong when it's not clear he did at all in terms of passing his notes to the professor. >> as we listen to comey yesterday, he knows how to work the system? washington. a lot of trump team is saying he's manipulating the system in washington. we could have that conversation. we're going to have this throughout the hour. one thing you did learn is one of the things team trump is focusing is on the former director said several times that while he was director of the fbi he did tell the president you are not under investigation.

people investigation but you are not. listen to this part jim comey dropping in. remember he spoke to the special counsel bob mueller before he testified before congress. he said he shared his memo about his conversation with the president with bob mueller. listen here. >> i don't think it's for me to say whether the conversation i had with the president was an effort to obstruct. i took it as a very disturbing thing, very concerning. that's a conclusion i'm sure the special counsel will work towards to try to understand what the intention was there and whether that's an offense. >> the president was not under investigation when james comey was the fbi director but in firing james comey the president might have put himself, pretty likely, put himself under investigation. >> comey was pretty strong on that point saying i talked to mueller. mueller is going to look into this now. he was asked questions about the firing himself.

ros rosenstein and mccabe hinted in their hearing as well. the actual behavior of trump up to now -- we also don't know the investigation where it is now. the fbi is investigating your campaign, you're the candidate, was not under investigation zrnt mean is not. so i think it's important to say that as well. >> particular lie saying he has all the memos. that was pretty enlightening. we'll take you to the uk for the election fall out there. waiting for the secretary of state rex tillerson to deliver a statement on qatar and what we were told will be a new u.s. mediation effort. we'll be right back. will you be ready when the moment turns romantic? cialis for daily use treats ed and the urinary symptoms of bph. tell your doctor about your medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain,

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welcome back. a lot of big international news today. we're waiting there. that's the state department. secretary of state rexton about -- rex tillerson will come out and speak. nine arab nations have broken ties at the moment with qatar. the secretary of state we are told is going to offer some diplomatic bridge there. some mediation effort. we'll take you there live as soon as the secretary of state comes out. the british prime minister vowing to stay in power after an embarrassing election setback. she was so confident they would grow their majority when she called for early elections. instead her party lost his majority in the house of commons. the head of the opposition labor party calling on may to resign. she promises to stay in power by forming a coalition with a political party from northern ireland that has historically

sided with conservatives. >> what the country needs more than ever is certainty. and having secured the largest number of votes and the greatest number of seats in the general election, it is clear that only the conservative and unionist party has the legitimate malegi commanding a marmgt jority in t house of commons. phil, the prime minister speaking, she's talking of certainty. i would make the observation from across the pond that we don't see much at the moment. >> reporter: yeah. indeed. she's trying to talk about certainty or trying to talk about the need to talk about -- to establish certainty, john. but that's really her greatest challenge. interestingly, she's not acknowledging this scale of the political setback she's facing, the degree to which her authority is being diminished in her party in terms of government, the country.

she's talking about getting on with it. trying to form a government because she believes that's what's in the national interest. there's been no humility. no real apology. or this being a rejection from the people or leadership. she's saying she has to get on with this because brit tain is beginning the whoprocess. she should form this and get on with the job. >> so many things factor into an election but why did this happen? if you call snap elections, back then she was clearly briefed on data that said the conservatives were in the driver seat. something happened in the ensuing weeks. why do people think this happened? >> reporter: seven weeks ago this seemed like such a safe bet. she was so far ahead in the

polls. her main rival was largely considered not a credible alternative. as prime minister she was expected to sail through and really increase her majority. of course the campaign dna pout way. she stumbled a few times. often looked uncomfortable. policies weren't well received. she even backpedalled on a few of them as well. of course, you probably have to consider the fact that the campaign was interrupted twice by terror events, one in manchester, one in london. that affected the flow of campaign politics here as well. so for all of these reasons, she came out in a much diminished position and the final result was just so much closer than she expected. no doubt she's feeling considerable regret that she began this whole process in the first place. >> phil black for us outside 10 downing street. phil, thank you. just a short time to go about dealing with the aftermath, i'll play a little

bit of interview here where her party lost a dozen seats in the house of commons. here's here speaking to the candidates saying she's sorry. >> i'm sorry for all those candidates and hard working party workers who weren't successful, but also particularly sorry for those colleagues who were mps and ministers who contributed so much to our country and who lost their seats. >> we're across the atlantic ocean so i don't want to get into exactly what happened in great britain, but you are reminded again of all the volatility in all the democracies. we saw an interesting process play out in france. the brexit vote itself was stunning after the trump victory in the united states and now a politician who you don't call for snap elections unless you see overwhelming data, and in the course of seven weeks, what a stunning turn around. >> no dispute over crowd size, but still an outcome that was

surprising. i think it does call into question, again, we don't want to sort of speculate too much, but was there unease about brexit which she supports, was it her performance? was it as you said the terror attacks. it does give you a accepts that there -- sense that there's a lot of upheaval. >> it's not all about donald trump, but it's probably not great for him, although maybe it's too soon to say that. if this does carry a message about brexit. if it does represent the rise of more an an anti-president trump fashion, the uk remains this partner of the united states and a lot of in the age of brexit a lot of the u.s. and uk relationship matters visa ees c sare --

>> he ran on a free college campaign. he ran a very populace message. bernie sanders praised him today for his campaign. i don't want to compare britain and the u.s. too much, but labor, tony blair was a bill clinton like leader. might show that the left party in britain has moved to a bernie sanders style approach. i saw a lot of liberals on twitter saying bernie could have won too. i'm not sure that's true but we might hear that coming forward. >> we will likely get some over reaction. the beginning of the campaign there were a lot of people within the labor party and affiliated with the labor party who thought jeremy corbin was the wrong leader and if the party lost in this election they would be done with him. a lot of people thought they needed a new generation, next generation leader. now the labor party didn't win the majority, but it took theresa may's majority away. jeremy corbin taking his moment to say that may should want stay on as prime minister. >> if there is a message from

tonight's result is this. the prime minister called the election because she wanted a mandate. well, the mandate she's got is lost conservative seats, lost votes, lost support and lost confidence. i would have thought that's enough to go, actually, and make way for a government that will be truly representative of all of the people of this country. >> this uncertainty is at a pretty important time. the eu says it's time. let's negotiate. you're out. let's go. send your team. the prime minister before she can send a team has to form a new government. >> i think it's interesting to hear her talk about certainty, because it absolutely undercuts theresa may and raises the uncertainty particularly surrounding brexit not just for the uk but for the rest of the world watching how this will all play out, how this will affect our relationship with the united kingdom. there's no question that this is

a much more fraught process than i think donald trump or any of his advisers thought it would be. now they're going to have to sit back and figure out how that's going to play for us. >> you think about all this volatility. theresa may bake prime minister because david cameron made a bad bet against the brexit vote and he lost so he stepped down. she's relatively young in the job. now as the prime minister. i just want to show you the london evening standard. the front tapage, the tab loidle often not kind. the queen of denial. again, for me we're not there. i don't want to overanalyze it, but the volatility in politics and about brexit, which is the role of jobs, which is the role of government, the role of technology, that volatility is alive and well. >> that's where you see potentially, depending on what we learn about what was behind this, potentially where you see some of the parallels on the

u.s. side. if brexit was the thing that people wanted at the time to shake things up, it certainly injected uncertainty in the process. brexit itself injected uncertainty. if this was election was a response to the uncertainty and not just theresa may not doing a great job. >> on a more political point, theresa may was the closest european leader, had been more supportive of donald trump than the rest macron criticizing all the time. now the european election, another sign you should talk about donald trump a lot and be very, very critical. >> excellent point. we're waiting for secretary of state rex tillerson. also next a white house spokesman says the president sent a liar. the former fbi director james comey said he is and said he worried about the president's credibility from day one. she makes from that airline. what'd you earn double miles on, please? ugh. that's unfortunate.

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public about why he fired comey. and the former director wasted little time sharing his thoughts on that. >> the administration then chose to defame me and more importantly the fbi by saying that the organization was in disarray, that it was poorly led. that the work force had lost confidence in its leader. those were lies plain and simple. >> tough words there. later as comey detailed how stunned he was by things the president was asking him, the former director brought up that tweet from the president suggesting there might be tapes of their conversations. >> remember every word he said, i was playing in my miend, what should my response be. i very carefully chose the words. i've seen the tweet about tapes. lordy, i hope there's tapes. >> you both hope there's tapes and recording? >> all i can do is hope. the president surely knows whether he taped me. if he did my feelings aren't

hurt. release all the tapes. i'm good with it. >> he's good with it. for the record, for the record, the white house spokes woman says the president sent a liar. that will be in the trump presidential library. it an official white house statement. but she can't say if there are tapes. for all the legal issues raised by the director, the political fallout that we'll get to as we consider the conversation on the day after comey's testimony, number one it's a he said/he said. number two, the question of these tapes, silly to some, but incredibly important if there's an investigation, if there are tapes and you're gig to get to the president's intent. the president's allies says if this came up, it wasn't what comey said, his friend michael flynn was in trouble, he's a good guy, can he get off easy. not an obstruction thing. the tapes would tell us that, wouldn't they? >> the tapes, we've been down this road before with tapes in the white house, right? during the nixon years.

but even without the tapes, one of the things that jim comey did in that seven-page statement that he released before and then in his testimony, was to sort of provide a road map to how you might build a circumstantial case even without the tapes. he made a point of saying who was standing outside the door listening or watching when the oval office meeting happened. who poked -- reince priebus poked his head in. this person was, you know, the stewards were there. >> translato >> the attorney general, all of them are going to have to be interviewed and get lawyers. >> absolutely. and can you be 100% by interviewing all those people what happened? no. there were only two people who were in the room. but you can build a case. >> just the why did you have -- if you were going to just say gee, mike flynn's a good guy, why can't you say that in front of other people? >> the president's legal team's approach addresses the tactics

of -- or the progress of the con congressional hearings. there is a completely separate process going on, which is bob mueller's process. and mr. kasowitz's approach so far really does not address that. it addresses the politics, the perception, the credibility of republicans or even critical of democrats or critical republicans who are asking questions. but fundamentally, it has always been the mueller process which will be much more important and michael flynn remains at the center of the questions about that. while yesterday's theater and substance was laid down a number of markers that will all be followed up on, it is behind the scenes process that bob mueller that is running that is crucial. >> to be clear, some things director comey said were somewhat favorable or not total negative. listen to senator marco rubio in the campaign. he was pressing director comey.

sometimes the president told you actually i want you to go forward, i want the answers, right? >> the president agreed with your statement that it would be great if we could have an investigation, all the facts came out and we found nothing. so he agreed that would be ideal. but this cloud is still messing up my ability to do the rest of my agenda. is that an accurate assessment? >> yes, sir. he actually went farther than that. he said if some of my satellites did something wrong, it would be good to find that out. >> that's a president saying if someone around me did something, let's find out. that is favorable to the president of the united states if you take that. the problem is you can't cherry pick. if you say look what director comey said, you're saying he's a credible witness. >> he also actually used that phrase, comey did during the hearing. you can't just cherry pick. so what mr. kasowitz is trying to do is to say it's true that mr. comey told president trump that he wasn't under investigation on three separate occasions. it's true that mr. trump said it

would be good if all of these fa fac facts came to light. everything else he said is untrue. he never asked for loyalty. he never asked for the flynn matter to be dropped. in addition to raising a lot of questions about why do you believe him on one thing and not on another? it also gets to the issue mark brought up before, that's a lie, that never happened, you are going to draw to a process where the people are going to want the president to testify or at least say something officially about if this is a lie and a miss reputation, y representation -- >> i think his testimony lays a trail for the special counsel. will the republican leadership in congress say mr. president, you're going to call him a liar, you're going to do it here in an official interview with us. another interesting thing is the attorney general is due on capitol hill next week for a budget hearing. guess what?

he's going to have to talk about some other things including ron wyden was asking comey about his interaction. why did he not share some of the president's conversations with him with the attorney general of the united states? >> what was it about the attorney general's own interactions with the russians or his behavior with regard to the investigation that would have led the entire leadership of the fbi to make this decision? >> our judgment as i recall was that he was very close to and inevtae inevitably going to recuse himself for a variety of reasons. we also were aware of falcts i can't discuss in an open setting that would make his continued engagement in a russian investigation problematic. >> again, if you love comey, you love that. if you're a critic of comey you're saying wait a minute, why drop the bait. if you can't discuss something

in an open session, why say it at all. but we are told from sources in a private classified session after the fact that director comey said there is a possibility that there was a third undisclosed meeting between the attorney general of the united states and the russian ambassador to the united states. democrats are saying if there was such a thing, then the attorney general has a lot of explaining to do because he initially said there were no meetings. then he acknowledged one meeting and said it was not a big deal. if there was another one, it's not just the president's conduct now being looked at by the special counsel. the question is does the attorney general have jeopardy here, political or legal? >> based on comey was not subtle. he said we were all debating when sessions recused himself, it was surprising. the president apparently is very flustered that sessions recused himself. comey used the word inevitable which means it was a clear case and he in h no options. which is not something i know based on the evidence i have

heard making me think there are other things out there beyond the three meetings with sessions and this one meeting session won't confirm so far. >> we are also aware of facts i d cannot discuss in an open setting. he knew what he was doing. >> and whatever legal jeopardy there might be and one of the things that happens in these investigations is that simply telling untruths to the investigators can get you in trouble, right? but there's also political -- you know, the political pressure was what caused sessions to have to recuse himself in the first place. not really the legal pressure. it was the fact that it was sort of his misleading congress had built up to the point it was untenable to leave the investigation. if he misled them again, there's a lot of political -- >> drutrust me. once there's a special counsel investigation, often the conduct during, what people say, when everyone has to lawyer up, this gets very, very complicated. everybody sit tight. up next you won't find

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. as we've discussed, the president accused james comey of lying to congress and the president's lawyer yesterday disputed comey's account that the president asked for loyalty and comey's account of the president asking him to drop the michael flynn investigation. resolving those he said/he said disputes is a critical job for investigators for the legal side of this drama. on the political side this is important. team trump is questioning comey's credibility. but not once did any republicans on the senate intelligence committee question comey's account or his credibility. some did suggest there were less nefarious interpretations of the president's intent in those encounters, but no republicans on the committee suggested comey wasn't telling the truth. instead, republicans coming gently to the president's defense or suggesting this. he's new here.

maybe he didn't know any better. >> this is the first president in our history who has had neither a military nor a political background. and i think he just does not fully understand or appreciate the boundaries and that it is totally wrong. >> to quote from another former president who spent a lot of his time under investigation, will that dog hunt? >> i don't think so. you also had the house speaker say something similar, you know. he just didn't know any better. i think in this -- >> he's a 70 year-old man. he's been involved in lawsuits against the man or sued by the government for his entire life. >> in some ways the phrasing that he used you could see as suggesting actually that he knew rather than -- if he had come out, if comey's accusation was that trump had come out and said

you should stop the investigation, i want you to stop the investigation, that might almost seem like more like he didn't know that that was wrong. but by using the sort of i hope you'll consider dropping the -- you know, it almost has a sense of being more knowing. >> i had a really interesting conversation with the presidential historian doug brinkley yesterday where he said that he has a theory that president trump had a plan a and a plan b. plan a was to talk to jim comey and see if he would agree that the investigation was dumb, let flynn go, move on. and that plan b was to demonstrate on the record in all of his multiple conversations with jim comey such intense loyalty to michael flynn that if any of this became a runaway train michael flynn would get a clear message that the president stood by him and that he could count on the president's support. >> to this notion that he didn't know any better, there's two possibilities. one is that he doesn't understand the separation of

powers, the limitations you have to operate under as the president of the united states which is bad in and of itself. secondly, the fact that he did clear the room for these conversations, the fact that he worded it the way that he did, it makes it seem like he was trying to bully or lean on him in a way that he clearly knew exactly what he was doing. while he may not have known the details of the law or particularly what it takes to prove obstruction of justice versus just a political no no, he knew some way it was inappropriate f. you believe jim comey's account, you have to imagine that's the case. for republicans i don't think it helps them either way. >> the private incoming from republicans is not good from yesterday for the president. they thought that comey was credible, that what he said was damming. they don't think much of the white house legal strategy. >> think about how aggressive republicans can be and have been. for example on panels where they were investigating benghazi and susan rice and administration officials came forward.

think of the intensity of the -- of their -- and they didn't, you know, display any of. that they were much kind of -- >> not one of them said to comey i don't believe you. not one of them said to comey i don't think you're telling the truth. >> senator burr concluded the hearing saying that thank you for telling it like it is which essentially was -- he obviously thinks that was true. >> you could argue it was his job to donald trump to donald trump winning the last election. we're waiting for the president. he will speak at 2:45. it will be interesting who the president calls on and b, what he says. i'm certain one of those will be about james comey. we're also promising you an event at the state department. wolf blitzer in the chair after a quick break.

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as noted earlier the president of the united states due in the rose garden with the president of romania. we expect he will get asked about james comey testimony. if you look at his tweet today, question comey's integrity, suggested he may have lied under oath to congress, also said he was vindicated. that's a public statement from the president, just as much evident's value in an investigation as well as his words. what can the president say? what do we expect him to say? do we have any idea? because he's donald trump. >> he didn't do a news conference during that nine day foreign trip. he's now obviously ready to make a statement or they wouldn't be doing a news conference. it's romania. i get it. it's a nato ally. they've got a mission defense shield. nevertheless, there were a lot of reasons to talk during that foreign trip. the president wants to make his message clear. the question is will it be entirely negative about comey if asked or will he also have a positive or healing or united or

i'm all for an investigation of what's real message to the public? >> vindication. i think that word will be used. also the idea that comey said i'm not an investigation. >> at 2:45 p.m. thank you for joining us for "inside politics." this time i mean it. wolf blitzer in the chair after a quick break. my ancestry dna results are that i am 26% nigerian. i am just trying to learn as much as i can about my culture. i put the gele on my head and i looked into the mirror and i was trying not to cry. because it's a hat, but it's like the most important hat i've ever owned. discover the story only your dna can tell. order your kit now at ancestrydna.com.

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hello i'm wolf blitzer. 1:00 p.m. in washington. we're an hour or so from hearing from president trump. about to take questions from the news media for the first time in three weeks. it will also be the first questions he'll answer since the former fbi director james comey whom he fired testified before the senate intelligence committee. that was yesterday. president trump appears next hour with romania's president. they will take questions from reporters. two questions from american reporters. two questions from romania reporters. among the top questions the president could face is whether he taped his