work on the kinks in it. work out the kinks. give center to the insurance companies who need it. that's why they're sitting on the sidelines right now, because of all of this uncertainty that the republicans created about what's coming next. >> right. >> create that certainty and we can move on with this. >> governor steve beshear, thank you very much for giving us your take on this new health care bill. great to see you. >> you're welcome. following a lot of news, including a live interview with president trump's counselor kellyanne conway. so let's get right to it. >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news -- good morning, everyone. welcome to your chris is off this friday. david gregory is with us. busy friday. >> very busy friday. >> a baombshell report in "the washington post" that vladimir putin ordered the hacks on the u.s. election. the cia captures putin's instructions to hurt hillary clinton and try to help donald

trump win. >> the "post" writes about how to punish the kremlin and what impact his potential involvement would have on the outcome of the race. joining us now one of the journalists that broke the story, "washington post" reporter adam intest. adam, welcome back. let's drill down on one of the really important aspects of this piece. definitive prove according to your reporting that russian president putin wanted to influence the election, and help trump and hurt hillary clinton. tell us more about how you know it. >> yes. so the cia obtained from what it considers to be one of the most reliable sources of information, basically they captured the order itself from putin to his, to his, you know, to his government to carry out this operation. this is information that was so sensitive that the -- that the

cia had it couriered to the white house so that obama and his top advisers would be able to look at the intelligence, at that point was what we consider to be largely raw. it had yet to the processed, it was so newly obtained, and that led to a series of secretive meetings at the white house in the situation room that excluded most of the top members of the president's cabinet, because they were so worried about leaks. and those deliberations continued basically until -- until after the election, which resulted in the sanctions which were imposed in december. >> now, this was weeks, or months, before the election. why didn't president obama do something more aggressive once he got this information? >> yeah. basically, obama prioritized deterrence. he wanted to prevent the russians from going to the next step, which might be actually trying to tamper with voter rolls and with voting machines on or before election day.

so his first priority was basically to not have russia go that far. so if they retaliated before the election, the fear is that putin would go to the next step to actually interfere in the vote itself. so that was the number one priority for him. and then after the election, the plan was then to go with the retaliation and as we go into detail in the report, one of the undisclosed responses was basically finding a covert operation, which is still underway as we speak, after obama left office, to basically plant little time bombs, if you will, in the cyber infrastructure in russia to be able to retaliate in the future. >> was he hedging? was the president hedging, counting on the fact that in his mind hillary clinton would be president and, therefore, she could respond? because he'll face criticism based on this reporting that they identified an action, an attack, and failed to retaliate? >> i think it would be fair to say he was sort of, if you will,

kind of a little paralyzed by concerns that no matter what he did, it would make matters worse. if he did something too soon, then it would feed into the narrative that trump -- that then candidate trump was basically saying, that this election was fixed against him. so if he did anything, no matter what it was, he was concerns. it would potentially be used by trump to say that this election was somehow illegitimate and designed, those actions by obama, would be designed to help hillary clinton win the election. so that was one of the concerns. >> adam, i know that you're being very circumspect because all of this is such sensitive information, including the sources and methods and don't want to reveal too much, but why are you revealing this covert operation of these cyber time bombs to go off in russia, if that's still covert? >> obviously, you know,

intelligence reporters like myself and those at cnn are always trying to find out what is going on on the covert side of the ledger. when it came to discussing the nature of this thing, that the cia had with regard to putin's instruction, that is very sensitive and potentially, you know, could affect the ability of the u.s. government to continue to get that information. and we discussed with intelligence officials just, not disclosing certain pieces of information about that intelligence in order to protect those sources and methods. when it comes toed finding, the covert finding that was signed, dwoe don't think after discussing that with intelligence officials we don't see there are any lives at risk basically by us disclosing there's this operation that's still under way to this day to basically plant these potential cyber bombs, if you will, in their networks. >> okay. very good to know. >> yes. >> adam, thank you very much for sharing all of your information with us.

we appreciate it. >> thank you. joining us now, we want to get to the counselor to president trump, kellyanne conway. good morning, kellyanne. >> good morning, alisyn. >> thanks for being with us. this is a busy day. >> my pleasure. >> as it always is. lots of breaking news. i want to ask you about adam's reporting just shared from "the washington post," this goes the furthest we've seen to connecting president putin of russia to actually giving the directive to interfere in the u.s. election, and to try to hurt hillary clinton. what's the white house's response to this? >> well, the president has said previously and we've got confirmation now from jeh johnson from adam schiff, jim coats, jim comey, admiral rogers, no evidence of collusion and this doesn't have an impact on the end result. it's important to show no nexus has been proving between what russia or any other foreign government tried to do and the actual election result.

the only person making that case prominently is hillary clinton and you have everything saying no nexus. not a single vote changed and we stand by that. we know donald trump won fairly and squarely, 360 electoral votes, no interference at all. >> we know that as well. what about the three dozen high-level officials that say they can connect president putin with giving instructions to hack the dnc computers and to plant fake stories? what is the current white house doing about this? >> well, alisyn, the president has said previously, and he stands by that, particularly as president-elect, that he would be concerned about anybody interfering in our democracy. we saw a lot of people interfering with our democracy saying he couldn't win here at home. but i really am struck by former homeland security secretary jeh johnson's testimony earlier this week which you covered extensively, he seemed

frustrated the dnc refused to help with dhs. they knew the dnc was vulnerable, the rnc i'm sure was vulnerable and had safeguards in place and had a different result. it's clear even the obama administration there was concern. there were actions trying to be taken. the question for the dnc is, why were you so arrogant in not letting the security of your own administration help you? >> that's fine. my question is, what is the white house, what is president trump now doing from preventing russia from 0 doing this again? >> this report is new and we'll discuss it with him later. he's been very clear on the record he believes in any tie of numbers of measures to make sure that democracy flourishes. voter integrity intact. >> such as -- i mean, against russia what is he doing specifically to try to stop this? >> i realize we just like to say the word "russia, russia" to mislead voters. aiding and abating this -- >> you're not answering the

question. >> yes i am. he's the president of the united states. he has said, he has said very clearly that he wants the voter integrity and the ballot integrity to be protected. >> and what action is he taking? >> at this very moment, at this very second? >> yes. >> oh, yes, because we have nothing to say about russian collusion affecting the electoral outcome. those rabbit holes did not bear fruit. >> kellyanne, i don't understand what you're trying to do talking about collusion. >> i've answered the question four times. >> what action is the white house doing to stop russian interference in elections? >> the white house, the president hars met with hi national security team many times. an initiative on voter integrity and used the bully pulpit to express resistance towards any type of outside interference. again, i've answered the question several times, in an ongoing process, you're dealing with a very new report. so we will look at that as well as we do all -- >> fair enough.

this is a new report. but the idea russia interfered has been obviously around since before the election. >> jeh johnson seemed very frustrated with his own dnc about it. i agree with you. >> and in fact said there was great concern that if they did anything openly, that they would challenge the integrity of the election process itself, and, look, you've heard from this new report that president obama was afraid that -- that vladimir putin would up the ante, ratch ed it up. i understand. you haven't read the report yet. that's fine this morning, but, still, this has been going on for months. so the president talking about it, do you think that he's done enough to sending a signal to russia to stop this? >> i think the president has been very clear on how he feels about this issue and many others. do you know, alisyn, he also has a full roster. i know cnn and others don't want to cover it. he just last week opened up a $100 million investment in apprenticeship programs. people who go through the skills

and apprentice programs are employed with a salary. just this week secretary price and i met with obama care victims. they're real, suffering, left behind out of the affordable care act. if you want the information, i'll provide it you can interview them. >> kellyanne -- >> there's so much impact happening here that doesn't get covered on the altar of russia. >> kellyanne, i think that a lot of people think that russia trying to interfere in our democracy is a big story. >> it is, but there are other stories and we're all capable of covering many of them. you have a 24/7 cable news outlet that certainly can fill lots of are content. i'm giving you great story ideas because we hear from people every day. they want him, and certainly in the special elections, people rejected this russia obsession because they like the fact there's job creation, regulation rolled back, health care is -- >> the jobs report, kellyanne, and i know everyone's a producer and everybody has ideas of what

cnn should cover, but kellyanne, i think that -- >> helping -- >> the president has not given a terribly full-throated announcement that he believes that russia interfered. he says, they may have. it may have been china. >> alisyn, so we're just asking, having the same conversation through six different semantic differences. that's fine. it's your show. you can ask me what you want. i will remind you as politely as i can that this entire conversation was irrelevant to voters in the four special ewlekzs. everybody tried hard as they could to make it something other than job creation, byzantine regulations unleashing of entrepreneurships including i was one over 20 years get to 15% to 20% tax bracket. that will be monumentally transformative in our country's

economy. this is important and what people want to focus on. yesterday the senate releasd their health care legislation. >> i'm glad you're bringing that up. let's talk about that. move on to health care. you're right. that affects every person in america and they're very interested in this. during the campaign, the president elect 1said he would not touch health care. it says it actually would cut $800 billion from medicare. how does the president explain that change? >> what he's doing with medicaid, what the senate bill is doing with medicaid as i read it, giving more flexibility to governors and the states have a choice. they can go for block grants or the current situation. that's a choice they make based on what they know of their population in their state. >> sure. what about his promise? >> no work requirement can be forced, alisyn, under medicaid on the elderly, on pregnant, on the poor, on the

non-able-bodied. >> what about his promise, where he promised no money would come out of it? >> remember, you're calling a cut something that is being reorganized over time in a way that allows states more flexibility and still guarantees people the coverage that they are accustomed to. >> not really, kellyanne. if you cut $800 bill out of it it doesn't mean the same coverage? >> we're effecting why we're doing this in the first place. what about the 20 million americans last year who opted out of this wonderful thing calmed obamacare? 600 million offered to pay the tax and penalty rather than get obamacare. >> everyone knows it's not perfect. true. i won't fight you on that point, but about that -- >> not affordable, not sustainable and you have insurance companies even this week pulling out of wisconsin and indiana in most of the markets there. >> i hear you. it's not perfect and lots of democrats say we should work on fixing. >> it's not working. >> fixing obamacare.

what about the campaign promise, no cuts to medicaid and medicare? now that's changed. >> only in washington would something like this be call add cut where over time there are protections in place for the disabl disabled, the elderly, the non-working poor for the children, for non-working women, and allow states to decide what they need to help those in need. >> sure. >> with less money. >> in their states. >> states get less money. >> not necessarily. depends on the situation. >> there are cuts out of it? >> you keep giving one statistic without reading the entire bill. i read the bill. i'm not nancy pelosi. i decided to read it ahead of time before, and i'm sure the senates are before they vote on it. >> and -- put it in somewhere else? >> alisyn what will happen, there are many different funding mechanisms at play here. what governors will do, they will have an opportunity to get block grants or stick with the current situation and as you remember in the house bill, late in the game there was an

additional, many billions of dollars infusion of cash to guarantee that very narrow slice of the population who went with 63 days of non-continuous coverage and also happened to reside in a state where that, that state will opt out of that type of medicaid funding. there are many different protections. i just don't want everybody scaring people to think they're going to lose their coverage, given a full accounting of everything this includes. it includes very generous expansions of savings accounts funding. why is that important? gives people more control over health care spending and do something called catch-up investment. >> if they want to put into them. >> those are employees, could be employer-sponsored. you and i get employer sponsored benefits. others do. we're trying to help those who were left out of it. the plumbers, hairdresser, small business owners who need to pull together and assume shared costs and risks.

>> i understand. i appreciate the points but i know you're on a, a time, a tight time constraint. i want to get to the next topic. that is the tapes. the audiotapes that the president admitted yesterday didn't exist. why did the president 42 days ago suggest that there might be audiotapes of his conversations with james comey? >> so the president made clear in this two tweets yesterday and in an interview aired early this morning alisyn on fox news that he doesn't have tapes. didn't make tapes, but -- >> why did he suggest 42 days ago he did? >> he left open the possibility they may exist. so much surveillance and leaking going on, conversations he had early on in his administration with heads of state that were leaked by, who knows. i guess intelligence officials but we don't know for sure and should be concerned. >> in the white house having a one-on-one conversation with somebody that somebody might be taping that in the white house, he thinks? >> left from the possibility based upon his own words and

based on what's happened in the part. on the issue of james comey, did he really need that push, incentive to be truthful? all we know from comey's testimony is that he's a leaker. specifically gave an individual, a private citizen, information, his own memo, reporting of a private conversation he had with the president of the united states as fbi director. >> yes. >> and specifically leaked it to a friend with the expectation that it would trigger a special counsel. >> understood. because of the president's tweets. it was the president's tweet that set this ball in motion. why did the president. >> you don't know why it was. i don't know why james comey testified untruthfully the week before that? >> the president suggested there were audiotapes. my question, why didn't the president clear this up 41 days ago? >> he cleared it up in due course. >> but why? >> it's very important -- >> kellyanne, hold on. answer this question and then we'll go to your point. >> why was a tweet like truth serum for him?

that's concerning. is that what you're suggesting? >> why did we live this shraid charade, there might be tapes or night mot? >> there was no shrcharade. >> answer definitively there were no audiotapes? >> he answered definitively yesterday there were no tapes. he didn't have tapes, but there could be. sooner?didn't he answer it >> why is he always on your timeline? nerd -- >> kellyanne, this gets back to exactly what you were talking about, kellyanne. >> why does he need a timeline? >> why does the media not want to talk about all the other things that we are engaged in? you said that. had he the day after he tweeted that said, okay -- >> you want to work on the job creation and regulation? >> you don't think this eclipsed some of the news cycle? >> i don't. i think everybody wakes up and make as choice what they're going to cover. if the media is always going to

not acknowledge their responsibility, at least acknowledge the role. you have a premiere position to help americans understand what going on. the connective tissue to veterans, there's a new hot line they can call. the president today is expected to sign the v.a. accountability and whistle-blower recollection act. so much is going on here that people need to e no about and we would appreciate -- help. >> and the veterans story, which we've been out in front of on cnn, but, kellyanne, i don't think your answering this question. >> i am. >> the president played a, cat and mouse game for 41 days about, are there audiotapes or are there not audiotapes. was that a good use of all of our time? >> well, you choose to spend your time on your show however you wish. he's busy doing many things here. >> this is understood. we've covered those. the question, are we supposed to take the president seriously

when he tweets those? are they honest tweets? >> yes, of course. first of all, he uses a social media platform cuts out the middleman and we know the middleman doesn't always like that, but this is the democratization of information, people get all the information at the sam time. >>ed hard to know when to take him seriously if that suggestion, or that some people think it was a threat, he better hope there's no audiotapes. if that wasn't a serious tweet, that-what do you make of that. we should always take the president seriously. just like too many americans foolishly took seriously president obama when he looked them in the eye and said if you like your plan, keep your plan, if you like your doctor, keep your doctor. that cost a lot of people a lot of money it great angst and health coverage. >> why are the press briefings not being covered on camera? from the white house? >> some are. some are covered off camera, as they've been in other administrations. i'm all for a full and fair access to the white house.

i think that if there are people who want to make a name for themselves and increase their speaking fees asking the same question 50 different times and never asking about job creation, never asking how we're tackling the odoid crisis what we're doing for veterans and military families and job seekers and creators -- >> that's what you're worried about? >> i'm not worries about anything with respect to that because this is a very busy, very accessible press shop. all day long members of cnn and others ask -- not parts of press and com but i support their efforts. they are asked to provide information to update information, and you have very hard working men and women in this press shop doing that all day long. >> understood. we're used to it being on camera. >> all things don't need to be on camera to be useful for the public and to be useful to our press corps. alisyn, why? you'll get the same information. i find the richest points of are the entire press briefings that

sean or sarah or others do to be at the very begins, when literally reading what the president and the cabinet secretaries and the vice president are doing that particular day. it debts such poserty of press than the other areas do. >> when you can't answer about russia interfering or what he's thinking about the tweets. when they say i haven't talked to the president about this, that is what is confusing and frankly, there is accountability that then shows up to the american people on camera and it's helpful to hear what the press secretaries can and can't answer. >> they're being truthful when they say that. perhaps they haven't had a specific conversation with the president that day on that issue. i just answered your question. the president did say, i believe as president-elect in january, when he read the report that's very concerning and that he thinks other people hacked this country as well. try to hack this country, hack into our system as well, and that he, of course, i told you

probably six differ ways as best i could at the beginning of this conversation that the president himself has said he wants integrity at the ballot box, but we also know, just don't want to confuse viewers today. especially those who are detractors and love to hear the word "russia "away no reason to prove that nothing affected the election result. there's no effect on the election result. the 70,000 votes people love to crow about in pennsylvania, wisconsin and michigan, nothing. nothing to do with moscow. everything to do with macomb coun county, michigan. >> we would love to hear exactly what the president is doing to make sure that russia never interferes in our democracy again. >> i'll make you a deal. you'll see that over time and wei would love more coverage on the odoid crisis, on job crazy, on the regulatory rollback on entrepreneurship. how about fantasy graphics what the market thinks? the manufacturers and -- >> let's do it, right now.

>> in waning seconds, since you're being pulled away what exactly is the president doing to fight opioid addiction? >> several things. here at the white house put full force in effect he and the vice president established the white house commission on odoid addiction and the drug crisis. it is headed by new jersey governor chris christie. a bipartisan commission. >> yes, and -- >> includes form are congressman patrick kennedy, a very outspoken recovering addict who fights for mental parity here. north carolina governor, democratic governor. >> an impressive commission. i ask because this gop health care new bill actually does nothing to address the opioid. >> that's not fair. that is so not fair. >> from all sorts of rehabs saying that he are disheartened what they see in this new bill and it's not helping them. >> alisyn, it actually helps no one to peddle the false rumor that this health care bill does "nothing" to help -- >> beyond the commission.

>> hold on. second of hhs tom price and travelled around talking to law enforcement, first responders, faith-based employers, families that suffered. recovery stories of those who have successful undergone treatment and he has given out the grants close to half a billion dollars in assistance to these, these different states. every state received according to their need and population figures. there is funding to help combat this but it has to be a combination of interdiction, prevent and treatment and recovery. you never hear the success stories. you could fill up every seat in yankee stadium and that aapproximates the number of american who will succumb to drug addiction. >> we know. every knows somebody connected to somebody struggling. >> there is a tension, a multicabinet assault on this. it's doj, hhs, d.o.e. to educate

our youth on this. >> great. >> the opioid addiction is a gateway to heroin use, fentanyl. >> understood. >> we're so happy we have bipartisan juice behind this. a meeting with ten senators, six democratses, happy to see that. >> we are happy to hear that. kellyanne, we'd love to talk more about this. >> thanks for the platform. i'll be back. >> we would love to have you back to talk more about this. >> thanks, alisyn. take care. >> you, too. david? turning back to the debate and battle over health care. four gop senators came out against the senate gop bill. one says the bill needs to meet the jimmy kimmel test and joins us now. does it do that in your mind? >> i haven't finished reviewing but has potential. the challenge -- >> never mind, remind people what that test is? >> jimmy kimmel's child was born and as the child came out they

understood the child would die unless surgery was performed immediately. he will have surgeries throughout his life -- health care throughout his life. how do you make sure you have enough coverage for your loved one when he or she is sick? but you have to balance that with lower premiums. the good thing kis say about this bill, i have not finished reviewing and not decided whether to vote for, good things, lowers premiums immediately. middle-class family struggling with $20,000 and $30,000 premiums will be lowered. it appears if your loved one has a catastrophic illness, that care will be there, that resources, if you will, for that child. and that's also a good thing. now, david, i have not finished reviewing, you have to acknowledge -- >> let me get to the process question. is this a way to run a rodeo? a way to implement 1/6 of the economy doing it behind closed doors? leaving very little time to hash this out in public? i mean, there's the politics, which are difficult. you know even a republican

they're difficult, but also trying to gauge the impact on our health care system? something you also know a lot about as doctor. it takes time to understand how this would be absorbed into the system? >> you have at least four things in that question. let me hit them. first it doesn't address 1/6 of the economy. it's focussed upon the individual market. it does not touch medicare. does not touch v.a. the employer sponsored insurance, which most american, covered through. secondly, i don't defend the process. i would have preferred a better. but that said, if two democrats walked in to mitch mcconnell's door right now and said we're leer to deal, twhoe have incredible love ratc incredible leverage. >> could have been said about republicans when democrat was designs the obamacare bill to begin with. >> a little bit of -- i disagree. because they had 60 votes. they did not need a republican,

and in that is probably the weakness of obamacare. so -- so -- and i think it should be bipartisan. let me say the bill that susan collins and i put forward was a good faith effort to reach across the aisle allowing blue states to do blue things and red states to go a different direction nap was rejected by chuck schumer before he read the bill. so -- that said, two democrats walk into mitch mcconnell's door right now, they bargain. >> what's hard, and i don't think we'll accomplish in a couple of minutes the full complexity. zeroing in on what should the goal be? the goal of obamacare, not completely fulfilled, cover we'll in the individual market as you said. that was accomplished and consequences. there were issues. premiums went up. here, no question that this approach would cover fewer people, right? would offer fewer subsidies works contract the expansion of medicaid.

so how does that jive with what your goal is as a lawmaker for how to change health care in the individual market? what should government do and what shouldn't it do? >> first i say, my goal is not as a lawmaker first. it's as a position for 25 years focused on the physician/patient relationship. our goal should be to make that patient, that family, our first priority. if we can do that, it works. >> right, but you are -- whether you like it or not, people who are covered will not longer be covered. taking away an enentitlement. a physician, a politician, not easy to do. >> medicaid, not covered, but not covered on medicaid expansion. for example, eligible for a credit. indeed, some folks are not eligible for any subsidy under obamacare who now would be eligible for some help in purchasing their insurance. probably 4 million, 5 million people in the united states for whom that is the case. there's other folks on medicaid

expansion now who would then be covered on their employers' insurance as opposed to medicaid. >> you think the votes there are in the end? you think it passes the senate? >> i don't know. my concerns have to be addressed. four senators are very open about their concerns, but i do think that there's a good faith effort. i repeat if two democrats walked into mitch mcconnell's door now he would bargain. >> all right, senator. thank you very much. appreciate it. >> thank you. alisyn? were she to ta we have to talk about another suggestion by a hollywood star flirting with the idea of assassinating the president. live to what johnny depp just said as a festival in the united kingdom. >> when was the last time an actor aassassinated a president? [ cheers ] i -- item want to clarify, i'm not an actor. [ laughter ] i lie for a living. >> well, after mentioning president trump, the eccentric actor appears to make a reference to john wilkes booth,

the actor who assassinated abraham lincoln. the secret service is aware of the comments. weeks after kathy griffin apologized for posting a picture of her holding a bloody head that looked like president trump. hideous that people who have a - public forum do this. i was in virginia, at my son's basketball game this week speaking to a secret service agent whose yob job it is to investigate threats like this. come in as an attack on the institution of the presidency every day and cannot be trivialized by actors spewing this. >> it's horrible. there are copycats. somebody with a high-profile platform says something like this, it's just horrible. it's not funny. it's just disgusting. so we'll see what the reaction and what happens with johnny depp, next. a stunning new report saying this morning russian president putin ordered the interference in the history to defeat hillary clinton and help donald trump

win. this reporting from "the washington post" being very clear saying this was an attempt to influence of the election. we'll get the bottom line and the white house response, coming up next. the new guy? what new guy? i hired some help. he really knows his wine. this is the new guy? hello, my name is watson. you know wine, huh? i know that you should check vineyard block 12. block 12? my analysis of satellite imagery shows it would benefit from decreased irrigation. i was wondering about that. easy boy. nice doggy. what do you think? not bad.

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there is exclusive new reporting in "the washington post" this morning that the cia captured russian president vladimir putin issuing orders to hack the u.s. election with the goal of helping donald trump win. let's get the bottom line from cnn's senior political analyst mark preston. we're still working out our timeline and chemistry. >> only going to speak for designated periods. >> that wasn't one of them. mark what do you make of this new reporting? >> well, what's so significant about this report is that the information is coming out from deep inside the russian government, which only corroborates what our intelligence agencies knew late last summer, you know, heading into the fall. i think a couple things coming out of this report that are very, very important. a., the obama administration did

they fumble the ball on this? as much as we are looking ahead to see, how do we stop it in the future? you have to look in the past to look for clues to see where they mishandled the situation, and, two, there are three lines of investigation coming out of this. right? russian meddling. there is perhaps collusion and then there's obstruction of justice and a line in "the washington post" story today i think is very relevant where it talks about how everything la been clouded basically by the fight over the obstruction of justice or perhaps collusion. and that's why i think the american people are not able to grasp on in this situation. >> mark, interesting is, where is the pressure and what is the pressure, on the administration to retaliate against russia, and at the same time prevent it happening in the future? the white house doesn't really speak to that, because there is a question about what the obama administration did or failed to do, or was unwilling to do. where's the pressure from republicans? you know, with regard to how the

administration are respond? right now they say, you mention russia. no collusion. didn't have an impact less move on. >> you go to the point of that interview that alisyn just had with kellyanne conway when she tries to talk to her about this and kellyanne conway tries to redirect. say let's talk about this job apprenticeship program. yes, it's very important we talk about that, but let's stay focused on one issue. give us an answer and move on. what we've seen, david, throughout the first three, four months of this administration, they seem so chaotic and scattered and often his aides, the president's aides are cleaning up after him because he seems to refuse to grasp the reality that russia did meddle with the election. >> you know, mark, funny is that i was asking kellyanne what is sometimes referred to in our business as a softball, which is, what's the president going to do about this? obviously, there's a must -- must be a plan, we would assume, and what will the white house do about this?

that is isn't a gotcha question, but she heard it and interpreted it differently. here is the moment -- >> this goes the furthest we've seen to connecting president putin of russia to actually giving the directive to interfere in the u.s. election and to try to hurt hillary clinton. what's the white house's response to this? >> well, the president has said previously and we've got confirmation now from jeh johnson from adam schiff from dan coats, jim comey, mike rogers, there's no evidence of collusion. number one. and number two, that this doesn't have an impact on the electoral result. it's very important -- >> right. you weren't asking about collusion. right? you weren't asking about the outcome of the election. >> i didn't mention that. i actually really thought she was going to make news by telling u.s., here's what president trump is doing to stop this from ever happening again, but they don't have that answer. >> isn't it a very simple answer, though to say, listen, we have a working group right now working on it.

haven't discussed it publicly because it's so sengstisitive o talking about getting together with national security folks, come together on this. no. they always go back to listen, president trump was legitimately elected president. no one's questioning that. he was legitimately elected, but that doesn't mean that these other things don't need to be looked into or might have happened. >> so far we're never getting from the president a real condemnation of russia. they seem to be irritated with the attack of democracy and irritated if you don't get your paper in the morning, but still have to focus on the substance. the substance has been tough against russia. we'll see how this unravels. >> mark, thank you. >> thanks, mark. >> thank you. and a story we've followed closely. separation and recovery of two formerly conjoined twins. dr. sanjay gupta has an update on how they are doing now, coming up next.

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time now for the five things to know for your "new day" -- a stunning report in "the washington post." the cia capturing russian president vladimir putin issuing orders to hack the u.s. election to help donald trump and defeat hillary clinton. number two -- alisyn, actually not this tall. and president trump is admitting he does not have any tapes of his conversations with former fbi director jim comey. >> number three -- prove it. the senate health care bill facing resistance from all sides. four gop senators publicly saying they oppose the plan, meaning currently not enough vee votes to pass it. qatar accused of leaking a list of demands from arab neighbors to undercut negotiations with them. demands include shutting down al jazeera and afill channels, balk reign a bahrain cutting ties that fend terrorism. david's favorite stories, hoop dreams can come true. the philadelphia 76ers making

freshman point guard markelle fultz -- >> mercy. markelle fultz. >> why did i read this one? >> he's from the district of virginia where i live, didn't even make his varsity basketball team until a junior. it's not a straight line to the nba. good for him. >> keep reaching for the stars, as i am, this morning, even cheating it, i'm not as tall as david gregory. >> on a box the size of nebraska. >> for more on the five things to know go to our website. and capturing the world's attention after surgery to separate this pair of very rare conjoined twins. how are they doing today? dr. sanjay gupta previews his special report with us, next. hey, bud. you need some help? no, i'm good. come on, moe. i have to go.

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so you can travel the world better. so i use excedrin.ments from my life. it starts to relieve migraine pain in just 30 minutes. and it works on my symptoms, too. now moments lost to migraines are moments gained with excedrin. sfx [heartbeat] their story captivated the country, a true medical miracle, and tonight a cnn special report "separateded: saving the quitwi" cnn chief medical corners dr. sanjay gupta joins us with a preview. great to see you. how are they? >> they're doing well. i got to tell you, i've never seen anything like this. this is neurosurgsry but so rare what happened here and it's access they gave us to actually be in a hospital, a 27-hour operation. the entire time we were talking to the parents i said what are your hopes?

what are your dreams out of all this? most immediately nicole, who's the mother, said, look, i've never been able to hold my boys. they've always conjoined, always got to be two people. never been able to just hold one of them. when they're crying, need comforted. the moment. i want you to take a look, because a few days after the operation now, which went well, this is what happened. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: meanwhile, four days after the operation, jadon wakes up. he is ready for something his parents had only dreamed of. he can be picked up and cuddled for the first time. it's as if nicole sees him for the first time. >> as a mother you know when you hold your child, you know every bit of their face. well, his face also encompassed

anias'. so as my first moment of relearning his face. and he looked up at me for the first time in that way, and i got to see that he was reassured and he was comforted in my arms, something i was scared of. scared he didn't want to be held because they had never been held and he melted in, and it was wonderful. >> wow. that's powerful. >> i mean, they didn't know what to expect. talk about, you know, they knew this operation needed to happen. these boys may not have survived. certainly wouldn't have had a normal life of any sort if they hadn't been separated, yet it's such a risky operation. it's a near impossible decision, i think, for parents to make. and this is what, what happened, and at least a few days after, that's what things looked like. >> so, for us, it's all about, will they be successfully separated and once you know that, wow. what an amazing ending. but it's just a beginning for this family. right?

>> no doubt. i mean, they were -- just over a year old when they had this done. after the operation, one of the surgeons, dr. goodrich put it to me like this, it's kind of like they're reborn because they haven't done anything that baby wos have done at that point. money learned to move the way they do, certainly have walked. never been upright. even their eyes have been looking up. never able to look down. so the rehabilitation as part of this is a huge process. just the postoperative care. yeah. there's going to be a long process involved, but we -- these are still relatively new operations in terms of this technology. so how they're going to do and the things they do to try and help them is constantly changing. >> we all fell in love with the parents, because, i mean, these are just remarkable people. how are they doing? >> they're -- they're doing well, but it's been hard. they've had to change their whole lives. therapy from a small town in illinois. they searched all over the world to try and find the right doctor.

they found this guy, dr. goodrich, the most experienced cranial pegas conjoined twins surgeon in the world and moved their lives here. gave up jobs, gave up everything in an effort to save their twins. they're doing okay. they may stay here now in new york, make their lives here. we don't know. but they're doing okay, all things considered, but there's no question when you have children who are ill, when you have children who need, have medical needs like this, it encompasses everything. >> all-consuming. >> right. >> and the fact they were able to keep their spirit through it whenever you would check in with them was just remarkable. >> yeah, and they never left the hospital, seemingly. nicole, she was always there. christian was pretty much always there as well, but they have another son as well, they had to care for. 3 years olds. it's -- it would be taxing i think for anybody, but somehow they've been able to do it, and it certainly helps that the boys recovered as quickly as they did. >> what does that mean? because for all of us being

parents, it's hard when everything is perfect. what is normal for them now? >> well, for them, it's -- it's, they have certain milestones they want to hit. again, you typically think of a child who's a year old starting to take their first step es. 14 months and never even off their backs. they're re-assessing their milestones. i don't want to give away too much, but they're able to do things much more quickly than doctors anticipated. i can tell you, the operation was in october. they were out of the hospital by december. dr. goodrich said this was the most complicated separation he's ever done and also the quickest recovery he's ever seen. so you know, two differing things there, but in the end works out well for these boys. >> we understand a tease. you want us to watch the special, sanjay. so don't miss it. >> right. >> a great ending. >> don't miss the cnn special report, "saving the twins" 10:00 p.m. tonight only on cnn.

our great ending. david, thank you for being here. >> my pleasure. will go back to making cough ff for you. >> and also i want a pedicure. "cnn newsroom" picks up after this. have a great weekend. your insurance company

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