hello. i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. in washington. wherever you're watching from around the world thanks very much for joining us. we're following several major stories unfolding this hour, including a brand new bombshell report in "the washington post." the paper detailing today how the cia first learned of russian president vladimir putin's direct and very personal involvement in the cyber campaign to interfere in the u.s. presidential election. the cia's intelligence reportedly came from sources deep within the kremlin, and even captured putin's specific

instructions. defeat or damage hillary clinton, and help then candidate donald trump win the white house. the details once considered so sensitive they were delivered to president obama in a sealed envelope are now being made public for the very first time. plus -- we're closely following every move up on capitol hill right now as republicans try desper e desperatedesperat desperately to make good on a promise to repeal and replace obamacare. several in the republican party, however, already saying they'll vote no on the new health care bill, unless it is changed dramatically. can they be persuaded, or is the legislation as-is dead on arrival in the u.s. senate? we're also waiting for the white house to start answering questions on both of these developing stories. the press briefing with sean spicer today is expected to start in about 30 minutes. but once again, you won't be able to watch it live here on cnn, or anywhere else for that matter. the white house once again

barring the news media from airing the briefing live, only after the briefing is completed will we be able to share the audio-only of the briefing, no video. those were the same rules imposed by the white house yesterday as well. go to our white house correspondent athena jones already in the briefing room getting rd for the briefing. what? 24 hours ago president trump once again called the election hacking reports a big dem hoax and a scam. what's the white house saying now following this bombshell report in "the washington post"? >> reporter: hi, wolf. what is so interesting about this russian scandal, this russian meddles in the 2016 election is that white house officials from the president on down just don't seem to want to talk about it. what we hear repeatedly is that this is the democrats excuse for losing an election they were expected to win. kellyanne conway, white house counselor, asked about this on "new day" this morning and responded to the "post pea" rep

and repeatedly tried to change the subject when asked what the administration is doing to try to prevent future incursion by russia in future elections. here's what she had to say and what jeh johnson said about the topic on msnbc. watch. >> the report is new and we'll discuss it later but he's been very clear on the record that he believes in any type of numbers of measures to make sure that democracy flourishing. >> and the current president through his rhetoric is sending signals this is something that will be tolerated. >> i have not heard from president trump a strong statement of condemnation about the russian behavior and about what all of his intelligence community is telling him happened last year. >> and johnson is right. the president hasn't given a full-throated denunciation of russia's meddling in last year's election. and as i said, asked repeatedly what the white house plans to do or what the administration is working on to prevent this sort

of incursion in the future, you don't get a lot of answers. kellyanne conway this morning talked about the president's voter integrity commission. we heard similar from deputy press secretary sarah huckabee, very different from this idea of blocking russia from future meddling. wolf? >> athena, stand by. we'll get back to you. once again, the briefing scheduled to begin in about a half hour or so. let's talk a little more about the stunning new reporting in "the washington post" on russian president putin's meddling in the u.s. presidential election. democratic congressman eric swallow of california is joining us, a member of both the house intelligence and judiciary committees leading investigations into russian interference. congressman, thanks for joining us. >> good afternoon, wolf. thanks for having me back. >> so this new report claims the cia captured putin's specific instructions on the cyber campaigns objectives to defeat or damage hillary clinton and her campaign, and help elect then candidate donald trump.

first of all, were you aware of this specific intelligence? >> all right. i can't go into what we know on the classified, wolf, but the public report released in january talks a lot about what's in "the washington post." it's unsettling to read it again, and, you know, the way i interpret it is that there was smoke coming out of the kitchen. the response was to open the windows when he needed them to really take a fire extinguisher to the problem, and i believe they worked very hard to toil away and understand what russia was doing, but it certainly was not enough and not enough awareness was known by the american people when they went to the polls. >> yes. obama administration officials had said near the end of the campaign in early october, this was done at the orders of the highest level of the russian government. they didn't specifically say putin personally. this is the first time there has not been released, according to "the washington post," intelligence specifically saying

putin ordered it. he wanted trump elected. he wanted to damage hillary clinton whom he supposedly hated. do you want to just comment on that? >> yes. i think that this demanded the president to deliver an evening address behind the resolute desk before the election to lay out what a foreign adversary was trying to do so that americans could have gone to the polls understanding that the fake news that was being disseminated, the social media trolls and the peddling of the hacked democratic e-mails was done by a foreign adversary with a purpose in mind. to elect a preferred candidate and tear down someone they despised. >> why didn't president obama do that? why was he silent? "the washington post" is reporting that he just assumed hillary clinton, according to the polls, would be elected and didn't want to give any ammunition to the arguments that donald trump and his campaign were making that the election would be rigged? >> i don't know why he didn't, wolf. i greatly admire president

obama. i wish that he and the administration would have acted differently here, but what's important now is we know what they did and have a president today who sits in the oval office who doesn't appreciate the attack that occurred, that doesn't acknowledge it and so you have people around him who do. like dan coats, and mike pompeo and mike rogers, but if everyone in the car sees there's a problem but the guy behind the steering wheel does not, that doesn't help any of us and we're going to go into 2018 eve morn you ha even more vulnerable. >> "a big damn democratic hoax and a scam." would president trump have been aware of this intelligence reported today in the "washington post"? i assume as president of the united states, commander in chief, his intelligence community would have told him the same thing? >> we hope that president trump, if confronted with evidence like this in the future, would act to secure our elections, but he has in done nothing, making us more

vulnerable to an attack going forward. the cost of this attack is not only the integrity of our democracy undermined but our ability to work on health care, on jobs, to the future for our kids has been brought to a halt. we need the president to sundree we've been attacked an have to do something about it. >> and listen to the special counsel. >> he's very, very good friends with comey. which is very bothersome, but he's also -- we're going to have to see. i mean, we're going to have to see in terms -- look, there has been no obstruction. there has been no collusion. there has been leaking by comey, but there's been no collusion, no obstruction, and virtually everybody agrees to that. so we'll have to see. i can say that the people that

have been hired are all hillary clinton supporters. some of them worked for hillary clinton. i mean, the whole thing is ridiculous, if you want to know the truth from that standpoint, but -- robert mueller is an honorable man, and hopefully he'll come up with an honorable solution. >> all right. i want your reaction. specifically says the whole thing is ridiculous? >> it's not ridiculous, wolf. it's a serious inquiry. one that he has continuously tried to disrupt, whether it's the congressional investigations or james comey's investigation. we need him to get out of the way. he needs to be president, and lead this country. we should all root for his success in doing that, and play our role to use the subpoena power in congress, thoughtfully and aggressively to get to the bottom of what happened and report back to the american people. >> had the comey memos of his conversations with the president been turned over to the house intelligence committee, today's the deadline for that?

also, the deadline for an official white house letter. not a presidential tweet. an official white house letter about the tapes or the recordings that may or may not have been made. you have received both of those so far, and i assume you want them by the end of the, the close of business today? >> yes. there's still time today and i can report back to you, wolf, when that closes, but i will say this, wolf. he tweeted out yesterday, it read more like a lawyer had written that tweet. that it tape doss not exist. and then that really raises the question, so why did you say it? and if the reason he said it was to intimidate jonames koim, it backfired. james comey knowing he may have been taped came forward under oath and provided damping testimony what the president was trying to do. that's the only version in the record under oath, uncontradicted and tells us a lot about what this president was trying to do. >> you'll confident you'll get both the comey memos and the letter from the white house about the tapes by the close of

business today? >> well, if we don't receive the memos, i hope we receive an explanation why they're not being turned over. if it is involved in an ongoing criminal probe, that's something for us to consider whether we still want to pursue it. as to the tapes we deserve more and the american people deserve more than just the president's lawyerly tweet. >> congressman eric swalwell of california, thanks for joining us. >> my pleasure. discuss all of this with our panel joining us now. cnn chief political correspondent dana bash and gloria borger and breaking a new story in the "washington post" today, ellen. thanks for joining us. let me start with you. explain for viewers just how sensitive all of this information was and why it was treated so secretly for so long. >> the information john brennan, the cia director, brought to the white house back in august was of the highest classification.

this was intelligence that was obtained from the deepest reaches of the kremlin, of the russian government, and so secret, in fact, that we were requested to keep secret, or withhold some details, which we agreed to do, to protect sources and methods. and this was information that was restricted to only four officials. president obama, his national security adviser, deputy martial scute security adviser and chief of staff. no one else was told about it for i while. >> and how good was the information that putin personally ordered the hacking, ordered the intervention in the u.s. presidential election in order to help trump and hurt hillary clinton? >> this was information that was very, very well corroborated, and the cia, brennan was

conventi convinced of it and we can't explain exactly why and how he knows that we knew that or they knew it, but it was, in fact, very well corroborated, and eventually it was shared with other members of the, of the cabinet, but it was so exclusive in a way that the other intelligence agencies didn't -- didn't have the same stream of intelligence, let's say, to be able to corroborate it. why it took a while to all get on the same page and get to a consensus on this. >> you mentioned in the article, ellen that a third country was also spying, helping the u.s. gather information on russian intentions. was that third country, and you don't name that third country, specifically responsible for the putin personally ordering all of this part of the story? >> we can't get into any of that sort of detail about the sources, but that was actually one of the reasons why the nsa came up way moderate confidence,

a medium confidence level in their assessment back in january. >> you know, gloria, there's a lot of looking back, 20/20 hindsight now and a lot of criticism of president obama. why didn't he do more? he heard about this last summer a year ago and really not much was done? >> that's right. you heard jeh johnson, former head of homeland security, testify the other day that there was a sense that they were in the middle of this election. they became paralyzed it seems to me, and he said, in his testimony, one of the candidates was openly charging that this election was rigged. so you can imagine the -- the problem they had with figuring out the timing about when they should say something, or if they should say something, and that's why this great "washington post" piece has a, has a quote from a former senior obama administration official who was involved in the deliberations

saying, it was the hardest thing about -- he's ever had to do in his time in government. to defend he said, "i feel like we sort of choked." >> strong words. go ahead? >> and the other thing that was fascinating to me, one of the many things fascinating to me about this story, is the fact it wasn't just the white house sitting on this, you know, kind of paralyzed with indecision. they went to the congress, and gave a briefing in september, i believe it was, to congress, and it turned into a partisan fight behind closed doors. republicans saying they didn't believe it. democrats saying, wait a second. we have to figure out a way to get it out there, which was very much an indicator of what would happen if and when the white house did bring this out into the public. having said that and understanding that it is completely easy to say in retrospect, that they should have come out and said it, but the fact that this is, as the story says, an open and case

shut vis-a-vis the intelligence. open and shut case, i should say, vis-a-vis the intelligence. forget about politics, forgetting a the campaign. the president of the united states had this information. the fact it wasn't made public, given how intense and how involved the russians were, it's really -- it's really a shame. and the worst part about it is that it's still the case. the current president is also not doing anything about it, but for the opposite reason. because he will not and cannot fathom the notion of the election results being anything but completely pure and not tainted at all in a way that shows that maybe there were some problems with the electoral process, that ended up with him winning. >> if you were someone who worked for the hillary clinton campaign and you're reading this piece today i bet you're very upset about it, because you believed that perhaps it would have played a difference, but there's an open question here.

would it have made any difference in the outcome of this election if the president had said, in august, or in september, that we know the russians are trying to do this? i mean, we just don't know the answer to

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abracadabra. the stage is yours. step two: choose la quinta. the only hotel where you can redeem loyalty points for a free night-instantly and win at business. welcome back. let's get back to our top story. stunning revelations about russia's alleged interference in the u.s. presidential election. "the washington post" now reporting that former president barack obama received highly classified intelligence that said russian president putin was directly and personally behind the election meddling. for more perspective bring in former defense secretary william cohen who joins us. mr. secretary, thanks for joining us g. to be with you.

>> what's your reaction to this bombshell report in "the washington post"? >> two things. number one, i understand why the president may have withheld this information. >> why? >> well, the source and method of acquiring this information. making it public in any way would have compromised assets giving us more insight what putin and the russians were doing. i'd be very careful in there. secondly, you remember candidate trump was demeaning and basically dismissing the u.s. intelligence system saying he had no confidence in the u.s. intelligence community. he had more confidence in wikipedia -- not wikipedia but wikileaks and also denigrated the u.s. intelligence committee and would have said the thing is rigged. another attempt by democrats working with discredited intelligence community we have to try and switch the election in her favor. so i understood why the president was reluctant to do that and has proved -- >> in early october finally

issued a joint statement, jeh johnson then secretary of homeland security and william, james clapper, head, director of national intelligence. issued a statement saying the russians did it at the highest levels and didn't name putin personally. was that a mistake? >> i don't think so. i think they withheld it, because, again, you need to protect that sort and method of, how did you get the information? do we want to continue to get this kind of information? if you compromise that, you've locked the door. secondly, i want to praise the intelligence committees, because they didn't leak this information. this information was given to the intelligence community and shows that -- >> given to the so-called gang of eight. the top two -- democrat and republican in the house and senate intelligence committees plus leadership. >> exactly. but kept is quiet as they should have without compromising this very sensitive information. i think what we need to have is the president of the united states say, look, the russians have fired electronic bullets at the heart of our democracy.

i want to get to the bottom of this. i they it's unacceptable. if any of my team had anything to do with this i want them investigated and prosecuted and let me get back to running the country. i have complete confidence in mr. mueller. he'll do a good job and bring out the evidence. if i have nothing to hide i have nothing to fear. that's the kind of statement i want to see coming out of the president of the united states. >> and speaking of someone as a member of the house of representatives many years ago during watergate and eventually concluded that then president nixon should be impeached. >> right. >> you voted in committee for impeachment. >> right. >> you see similarities now? >> i see some similarities, but what i see is an attempt to obscure and to cover up and suppress. let's see what the evidence is. let's not rush to judgment on this, but the president is acting as if he has something to hide. no president should be in that position. he's early in his administration. the country need to have him succeed in the various programs he campaigned on, but right now we're dealing with tweets and twitters and we're being distracted every other day on

some rabbit hole he's forcing the media to chase, while we have people dying over in iraq and in syria. we need to focus on the big issues. i want the president to say, this is serious it came from russia, i accept my intelligence community's investigation on this, want to get to bottom of it. let me do my business, and no more dangling, oh, maybe the special investigators should resign. another rabbit hole we have to go down the next week or two months. not one we should be following. >> we don't hear those comments yet. the president, at least not you're incursioning to do so, a republican congressman, i should point out, from the state of maine and he was a republican president. not an easy decision for you at that time. william cohen, thanks for joig us. >> thank you, wolf. up next, the health care debate. i'll speak what could change this representative the current

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republican leaders in the senate expect a vote on their health care bill by this time next week, but even president trump admits negotiations are needed to close the deal. much of 9 back and forth will likely revolve around medicaid, the program covers 70 million low-income elderly and disabled americans, and many could be left out in the cold under the proposed senate changes. from new york, m.j. lee, pored over the discussion draft released yesterday. what will it do to medicaid coverage? >> reporter: wolf, you're right.

medicaid will be at the center of the negotiations. you saw yesterday that a number of moderate senator republicans expressing serious concerns especially regarding the impact that this could have on constituents who depend on medicaid. let me walk through what the bill would do to the program. put it simply, it would make drastic changes to the program. states would get a set amount of money, either per enrollee or in the form of a block grant and essentially this means states rather than the federal government would have bigger responsibility to administer the program. now, another important piece of this, wolf is that there would be a phaseout of the federal funding for medicaid expansion by 2024. this would be more gradual than the house bill, but either way, the effects are huge on, you noi, people who live in states that expanded medicaid. we are talking about 11 million people who gained coverage through medicaid expansion under obamacare. this gives perspective why this

is such a big issue for so many senators. >> there's a part in here about funding correlating to the rate of inflation. explain that. it mean as reduction in money available to medicaid recipients. >> reporter: right. pretty technical language, obviously critically important. one way the senate bill would eventually shrink medicaid for significantly is that the annual growth rate to be pegged to standard inflation rather than medical inflation which happens to be more generous. this is problematic for a number of moderate senate republicans. folks like susan collins, rob portman, dean heller, put out statements yesterday saying they are very concerned about the medicaid piece of this bill. now, as you know, mcconnell needs 50 yes votes to get this bill through the senate, and it is not just moderate senate republicans who have issues with the bill. as you know, four conservative senate republicans have already come out and said they will not

support this bill. so all goes to show, wolf that mcconnell really has his work cut out for him. >> let's not forget republicans have only a 52-48 majority in the senate. they could lose two republican senators. no democrats will vote for it, but if they lose three, it's all over, last to for now. m.j. lee, thanks very much. good report. and as of right now, the health care plan revealed by senate republicans is falling short of the votes needed to get it passed. as you just heard. one of the four republican senators opposed to the bill in its current form is wisconsin's ron johnson. >> and joining us now, senator ron johnson from green bay, wisconsin. senator, thanks so much for joining us. >> wolf, how ya doing? >> thank you. talk about health care right now. what's your main concern? what do you need to see changed in this republican health care bill in order to go from no, your position right now to yes? >> well, i'm not yes, is probably a better way of putting

it. i certainly need enough time to understand the bill myself. get input from constituents. i have a hard time believing i'll have enough time by the end of next week, but primarily remember when bill clinton talked about the craziest system in the world, people bufrting it sometimes 60 hours a week and wind up with premiums doubled, coverage halved? i'm concerned about those folks. i don't believe those individuals working hard, buying health care in the individual market with after-tax dollars have seen premiums doubled and tripled, not being at quitly addressed in the health care bill wah we're not addressing the root problem. driving individual market up artificially double and triple. really i want some freedom in choice allowing americans to buy health coverage that fits their needs and they can afford, and unfortunately, we've been banging that drum the entire time. part of this discussion, prior

to the drafting of the bill it was left out, and one of the things we'd certainly want to have included in any kind of bill. >> no significant changes between now and the end of next week before the july 4th recess, you're still a no? >> wolf what i'll be doing, i come from a manufacturing background. root cause analysis and continuous improvement. if i have enough time to evaluate the bill, get input from wisconsin. how does this affect them in their lives. in the end i'll look at any bill to determine if this is enough improvement over the current system to garner a yes vote but i'll be preting hard. leadership said it was a draft open for discussion, improvement mip hope they're being genuine about that. >> right now as you know about 70 million americans mostly low-income families, the elde y elderly, disabled are covered under medicaid. how do you defend cutting medicaid? the house version cuts medicaid, according to the cbo,

congressional budget office, about $8 billion over ten years. waiting for the cbo to come up with a score on the senate version but it will cut medicaid as well. how do you defend that? >> you're using the inside the beltway terminology for cut, reduce a rate of growth and spending. i've been on the inside. listening to the discussions on what we'll do with medicaid to make it more sustainable. turn back over to the states, managed for efficiently and effectively. i don't, i haven't seen the final numbers, but as we're trying to do the projections, i don't see year-on-year reduction in spending. what i'd call a cut. >> senator, less money available under what you want, then is available right now if the rate of growth is going to be reduced, the spending for medicaid, a lot of people will be affected including a lot of people in wisconsin. a lot of young kids especially. over the next ten years. >> first of all, wisconsin's getting no funding from medicaid expansion. so i wouldn't see anybody in

wisconsin actually affected by what we're trying to do to rein in the out of control costs of medicaid expansion. but, wolf, i have yet to be in a hearing where we're describing a problem often exacerbated by government, where the solution wasn't more spending, and not solving the problems. we need to address the root cause mp the problem in health care, which is out of control spending s. it okay with you there will be zero hearings in the senate on this important legislation which affects, what, 1/6 of the u.s. economy between now and the end of next week when your majority leader mitch mcconnell wants a vote? >> it's not okay with me. we don't have any of time, both members and the public to completely evaluate this bill, see the scoring. see all the debate within the public realm. whether there's a hearing or not, this thing needs to be fully vetted. i need to have enough time to evaluate it myself and get infrut wisconsinites. very clear with leadership about that and clear pub luckily about

that. i want enough time and have a hard time believing if we take a vote end of next week that will afford me or my constituents enough time and am really urging leadership to take the time, get it right. get us the information so the american public can really evaluate this and quite honestly, prove some of the rhetoric false. >> one final question on a different subject. you're the chairman of the senate homeland security committee. on the foreign relations committee. a major article in "the washington post" today saying that russian president putin personally authorized the intervention in the u.s. presidential election. what do you think needs to be done to make sure that never happens again? >> well, i'm highly concerned about it, but it doesn't surprise me in the slightest. you're going to see evidence presented in montenegro in terms of what russia did to interfere with their election. they've been doing this for decades, quite honestly and we're just -- our election was a latest example. the american public understood

this. the administration understood this as well. we need to beef up cyber security, and quite honestly, unify and harmonize regulations from the federal government. we held a hearing last week about cyber security and the harmful effect of overregulation on the ability of different companies to protect the cyber assets. this is something we need to take seriously and will hold a hearing in my committee on this subject in the near future. >> do you think president trump takes this russian threat seriously? because he doesn't talk about it. rarely, if ever. >> we certainly all need to take this threat from russia's interference in not only our election, or elections around the world. regimes and nations around the world we have to take that seriously. >> why is he so silent? >> you'll have to ask the president on that, but i'm not silent about it. i'm taking it seriously i. know you are. senator ron johnson, thanks for joining us. >> have great day.

and up next, the white house briefing. how do you, the american people, how the administration is forcing the cameras to be turned off. what it means for the white house. that and more, stay with us. (upbeat dance music) (bell ringing) from the moment you met you wantecomfort and protection that's why pampers swaddlers is the #1 choice of hospitals

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the travel rewards credit card from bank of america. it's travel, better connected. take a look at this. live picture, we have from the white house briefing room. none of the cable or broadcast networks have access to live pictures of the actual briefing once it begins. supposed to begin at any moment with press secretary sean spi spicer. and once again, so far, unless the white house reverses itself, the white house is not allowing

live cameras. the american public won't be able to see it or hear it live, only after the briefing is concluded, according to white house rules. will the networks, cable and broadcasts be able to air the audio-only of the briefing. no video. won't be able to see the questions and answers. we'll hear them, but only after the briefing is concluded. i bring in our senior media and politics reporter dylan byers. the past two weeks we've seen what two live news briefinging at the white house with the press secretaries. what's the new strategy for the rouse about? >> avoid being seen on camera taking questions they don't want to answer, in fact, can't answer, oftentimes because they don't have the go-ahead from the president of the united states himself. it's a lot easier to do that off camera, and not be under the scrutiny of the american people watching at home, but it's twofold as well. a second part to this strategy.

an tall ntagonize us, the media. the lack of transparency and access act, there's a similar critique from this white house towards the media. they feel reporters get up in the briefing room and grandstand, and want to be seen on camera looking tough against the administration. there's such little respect between these two groups now, the white house sees that it has leverage here with the briefing and has decided simply by not holding briefings or holding these briefings off camera they can mess around, screw around obviously the word they use inside the white house is stronger than that, antagonize the media and get under our skin. indeed if that's the intended effect it seems to be working. >> but denies the american public, clearly very interested in this, an opportunity to see what the media, the reporters, are actually doing, what the briefing is all about. here's what else i don't understand. they say, as they did yesterday,

that the audio can't be heard live. it can only be heard live -- can only be heard, not live, but after the briefing is concluded. no video, audio only. what's the difference if we hear the audio 20 minutes later or during the course of the actual briefing? >> wolf, the reason you have that question is because it's totally convoluted. there really is no difference. the only difference here is, again, how much it sort of antagonizes the media and here we are on cable news and i'm sure oh news media talk about it as well. and many questions asked in the briefing room that they can't answer. >> dylan has an excellent article on cnnpolitics.com. good work, dylan. thanks very much. we'll see if the white house decides to reverse itself and at least let us have the audio part of the briefing to hear sean spicer live instead of having to

wait until it's all over and wei hear him on tape. thanks, dylan, for that report. just ahead, north korea releasing a statement describes u.s. relations can finally banish garden weeds without harming precious plants nearby. so draw the line. just give the stick one click, touch the leaves and the gel stays put killing garden weeds to the root with pinpoint precision. draw the line with roundup precision gel®. and be sure to check out roundup® with sure shot wand. another good-for-the-garden product from roundup.

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russia certainly isn't the only country causing major foreign policy concerns for the u.s. north korea poses a big, big security threat. earlier today, president trump had a closed-door meeting with secretary of state rex tillerson, homeland security secretary john kelly and defense secretary james mattis. top of the agenda, the threat po posed by north korea. our senior diplomatic correspondent is with us right now. michelle, what do we know came out of this meeting because this north korea relationship is getting very, very tense. >> we know that they're looking at options. we know that they want to pressure china as much as possible and they're looking at possibilities, what would actually have an impact when generally the u.s. doesn't have a lot of range of option. you know, we look at north korea's behavior. that's the ultimate goal here, changing the behavior, and so far, for years, really nothing

has worked. they've just been progressing and progressing and now we have this tragedy that really hits to the heart of america with the death of otto warmbier. >> the american college student who came home in a coma. are they encouraged that maybe china will do more? >> i mean, that's a great question. that's what we hear. after we saw the meetings with china this week, talking about china coming to an agreement that this is important, that they want to hit north korea economically, that they've identified hundreds of companies that continue to do business with north korea. but what we're not hearing is, here's a big list of what we're going to do and when. even though the urgency is really high, we're hearing things like, china saying, well, china's not the source of the problem. and china's not going to be the solution to the problem. we're hearing the u.s. side saying, we hope that china will do more. so, it's not hugely encouraging, but they want to at least get a message out there that china is

on board. >> let's see. let's hope. that would be very, very important. relationship awful. thanks very much. that's it for me. i'll be back 5:00 p.m. eastern in the situation room. the news continues right after a quick break. we have some congestion on the runway and i'm being told it'll be another 15, maybe 20 minutes, and we will have you on your way. ♪ runway models on the runway? surprising. what's not surprising? how much money evan saved by switching to geico. i would not wear that lace. hmm, i don't know? fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. and it's also a story mail aabout people and while we make more e-commerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country, we never forget... that your business is our business the united states postal service. priority: you

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hey you've gotta see this. cno.n. alright, see you down there. mmm, fine. okay, what do we got? okay, watch this. do the thing we talked about. what do we say? it's going to be great. watch. remember what we were just saying?

go irish! see that? yes! i'm gonna just go back to doing what i was doing. find your awesome with the xfinity x1 voice remote. you're watching cnn, i'm brooke baldwin. thank you so much for being with me on this friday. underway right now, the white house holding a press grieving that you're not allowed to see. yeah, for some reason, they have banned live on camera coverage of press secretary sean spicer answering questions from journalists, day two in a row here. we will take the audio just moments from now so stand by for that. first liet's begin with thi incredible reporting from the "washington post" this morning. you are s