jong-un is willing to do that. pressure by the chinese, diplomacy by the south koreans, it could work, but not just yet. >> that's it for me. thanks very much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in the situation. erin burnett "out front" starts right now. out front next outrage growing over the president's attacks on a female news anchor and the white house's really shameless defense of it. a top republican speaking out calling it indefensible. house investigators threatening to subpoena the white house. the top democrat of the committee is out front. plus, the secretary of state not happy coming to blows with the white house. let's go out front. good evening. i'm jim sciutto in tonight for erin burnett.

the president ignoring repeated questioning on whether he regrets vicious and personal sweets he po tweets from this morning. the president of south korea at the white house, it is in a word really, a shameless white house today defending the attacks. they may be his most defensive tweets since taking office. the president tweeting early this morning and i'm quoting here, i heard poorly rated morning joe speaks badly of me. don't watch anymore. then how much low iq, along with psycho joe came to mar-a-lago three nights in a row and insisted in joining me. she was bleeding badly from a facelift. i said no. remember, the white house has repeatedly said that the president's tweets are the equivalent of presidential statements. republicans are calling for the leader of the free world to simply knock it off and act

presidential. and, yet, the president spokesperson had one talking point about the mess. and she's sticking to it. >> and i think that the president has been attacked mercilessly on personal accounts by members on that program and i think he's been very clear that when he gets attacked he's going to hit back. i don't think it is a surprise to anybody that he fights fire with fire. everybody wants to make this an attack on a woman. what about the constant attacks that he receives or the rest of us? >> it's not clear that the white house even saw the reaction to trump's words. so here is what some in his own party are saying. stop it. the presidential platform should be used for more than bringing people down. senator susan collins of maine, also republican, this has to stop. we all have a job. three branches of government and media. we don't have to get along, but we must show respect and

civility. where does the president draw the line? and does he even care? we're out front tonight from the white house. sara, really remarkable here and more extensive than we've seen in the past. the president's own party condemning his statements tonight. is there any acknowledgment inside the white house that this may have been a mistake by the president. >> reporter: their only public defense is what you heard from sarah huckabee sanders that the president has no regrets. he feels like he's under attack and he hit back. but there is a lot the president could have been talking about today. there is a big health care vote that is sure to come up soon in the senate. he is trying to get republican senators on board with this plan to repeal and replace obamacare. he has a big foreign trip coming up. he's expected to meet with vladimir putin for the first time face to face on the sidelines of the g-20 and this was supposed to be energy week and the president did deliver a speech on energy today.

he vowed to cut back on regulations. but this was all overshadowed by the tweet and that is why you saw the outpouring of frustration that you did from both republicans and democrating saying not only did this distract from the office. we saw it coming in in a way that we haven't seen so much from some of his past statements. jim? >> sara murray from the white house. out front tonight, republican congressman joins us. congressman thank you for taking the time in what is a difficult subject. you of course saw the president's tweets. i want to ask your response? >> well, i'm certainly not going to stand here tonight defending these tweets. i look at it as a missed opportunity. he does have a very effective tool. twitter when you have over 30 million people following you, you could wake up in the morning and be talking about how you could make the economy rift with tax reform. you can talk about what you're

doing to help our veterans or a more effective foreign policy. but when you wake up in the morning and you engage on twitter to this particular level, what happens is so many missed opportunities instead of talking about your legislative again dachlt people are talking about this back and forth over twitter. >> but is it really just a missed opportunity? because this is not a sin of omission. he took an active step here, very personally attacking a woman in public from the pulpit of the white house. >> well, again, i'm not going to defend his tweet. it was ugly. and i personally do hold the president of the united states to a higher standard. i will say that i wish that some of the attacks that were on him weren't so good for ratings of the subject of who he attacked on twitter. again, the tweet he put out this morning is indefensible, but it is unfortunate that we have seen so many attacks on the part of

that particular subject on this president. so here in this country, you know, it shouldn't be good for ratings when people are calling the president a fake president and you're posting pictures mocking hand size and, you know, accusing the president of having dementia. listen, there might be people out watching this right now saying, yeah, i agree. but that shouldn't sell. as far as the president of the united states goes, he is the president of the united states. he is the most powerful person in the entire world, and a lot of people look up to that position and with regret respect, including kids. you have to set that high as possible standard and that compass because you are a leader in many ways. >> let me ask you this. you are not the only member of your party who has come out strongly against the president today. here are some of your colleagues today echoing your point of view. >> obviously, i don't see that as an appropriate comment. >> the president's tweet was completely inappropriate. >> it's just not acceptable.

we need to demand better. folks in positions like myself, the president -- >> this is maddening because this is beneath the dignity of the president of the united states or at least it should be. >> let me ask you this. he's the bear of your party. it is still quite a small minority of republicans who come out with vocal public criticism. i wonder and i'm giving you credit here for taking that something that is frankly could be politically risky for you. do you believe that gop members have a responsibility to publically reject this kind of rhetoric for the sake of the respect of the white house, but also for the sake of your party's reputation and agenda? >> well, beyond looking at the president of the united states as a standard bearer for my party, i look at the president of the united states as a standard bearer for my country. and i want to see him successful. president trump, i want to see

great success. so when we're debating health care and tax reform and, you know, what to do about north korea or iran or fighting isis and taking care of our vets, i want him -- when he talks about winning and that our country will get tired of winning, you know what, that's what people voted for. and this morning's tweet, i don't know if that's what the american public and people who voted for him had in mind of what winning looks like. i'm rooting for him. i want to see good things get done and i want to help him. i would hope with his over 30 million people that follow him on twitter and everyone that follows him on other social media platforms as well that there will be a better message. as far as what is getting lobbed at him, you know, it's -- it's a great responsibility, a great power. here we are. it is prime time on cnn and people are watching and, you know, obviously you're not sitting here, you know, mocking

the president of the united states, but for others, you know, who choose to do that because it helps ratings, that's a missed opportunity on the part of the media to be talking about, you know, vetting policy instead of, you know, just having an attack that might get, you know, some added interest or some added follows on their twitter account. >> congressman, i appreciate you taking the hard questions tonight. >> yeah, thank you. >> also out front tonight we have alice stewart, a former communications director for ted cruz, the democratic former governor of the great state of michigan and a former senior communications advisor for the trump campaign. also former white house communications director under president obama. jason, if i could begin with you, you heard republican congressman sel don just now. you heard from other republicans today using very strong words, including the speaker of the house saying that this was inappropriate, unacceptable, beneath the dignity of the

office. are they wrong? >> well, jim, if i were inside the white house and advising the president, i would have recommended a little bit of a different course today. what i would have said is, look, let's go and call out the fact that joe and her had been attacking you for weeks and months now. the fact they have attacked his mental state and compared him to someone with dementia, they call him an embarrassment on the world stage and go and lay these different comments out and make them go and defend their previous comments. the way the president laid it out, it gave an opening for folks to come back and criticize him. but he has every right to come back and push back. i think today got a little too heated and obviously that's why we're talking about it right now. but i do think it is important that we call attention to the fact how much negativity has been there. i think she really missed an opportunity -- >> he is the president. and presidents, by the nature of

politics, people will criticize the president. is it presidential to shoot back even harder? i mean, the first lady said if he gets hit, he'll hit back ten times harder. is that presidential in that view? >> the president has his own unique style and people appreciate his candor and that's part of the reason why the president won. but another important point i take is i think she missed an opportunity to take the high road in her response and to go and tweet back attacking the president on his hands shows there has been a lot of tension in this relationship back and forth. the one final thing also is it isn't just -- >> quickly. because i want to give the only panelists a chance. >> look at their attacks against kellyanne conway, their attacks against sarah huckabee sanders. >> let's set that aside. governor, your response? >> yeah.

jason, as you know, it is tough inside the white house. grow up, everybody. i honestly wonder what is wrong with him. he has no doubt heard from a zillion people to knock it off, not just today but before. he is so -- his ego is so frag ill. he's such a snow flake that anything like that sets him off. our even mois look at this and say this is a man that can be baited by a tweet. his hands are near the launch codes. it's embarrassing at a minimum. but it's a bit frightening that this man will go off after an anchor. i mean, everybody gets insults. hello. that's what this social media and media do. they prom mull gait a flow of information. but you have to be big enough and honestly noble enough as president to let it -- to rise

above it, and he just can't do it. >> listen, everyone stay with me. we are going to have much more to talk about after the next break. out front next trump's nasty tweets are the latest in a long line of shocking remarks by the president, specifically about women. what's behind them? >> and house investigators looking into trump and russia looking to subpoena the white house. plus tension between the secretary of state and the white house senior staff now coming out in the open. we'll tell you what rex tillerson is mad about tonight.

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welcome back and breaking news. we just got video of the president ignoring repeated questions about his slew of morning tweets attacking a female news anchor. have a look. >> mr. president, do you regret your tweets this morning at all? mr. president, how do you get china to cooperate with north korea? >> no regrets over your tweets you sent out this morning? >> stow wick president trump waiting to greet the north korean president. his vicious tweets of course not the first time we've seen trump speak graphically about women. jason carol is out front with

more tonight. >> i don't think it is a surprise to anybody that he fights fire with fire. >> the white house not backing down and given trump's history, many gop leaders say enough is enough. trump's twitter attack against msnbc host the latest in a long history of disparaging comments trump has made about women. earlier this week, eyebrows raised when trump made a comment to an irish tv reporter during a diplomatic phone call. >> come here. come here. nice smile and a face. so i get she teaches well. >> the reporter described it as a bizarre moment. many of her followers called trump's comments sexist. before he became president, trump had accumulated a list of unsavory comments about women. as early as 1992 then president man trump caught on an escalator talking about a ten-year-old

girl. >> are you going up the escalator? i'm going to be dating her in ten years. >> there was that feud trump had with rosie o donald when he referred to as a fat big and ugly. many hopes the name calling would stop and he would be more presidential. then came the comments about his primary rival. can you imagine that, the face of our next president? i mean, she's a woman and i'm not supposed to say bad things, but really, folks, come on. are we serious? >> i think women across the country heard what trump said. >> former fox news host megan kelly took trump to task. following the debate trump retweeted someone who called kelly a bim bow. then on cnn trump's critics said he made comments for kelly's

menstruating being responsible for her line of questioning. >> you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever. >> trump denied making such a reference. he also criticized the looks of ted cruz's wife, retweeting a less than favorable photo of cruz's wife, prompting an angry response from the texas senator. >> but you mess with my wife or my kids, that will do it every time. >> then last october, the leaked access hollywood video of trump talking about grabbing women by the genitals. >> and when you're a star they let you do it. you can do anything. grab them by the -- >> many supporters dismissed the comments as locker room talk. they stood by him then and many female supporters still standby him. >> he clearly has daughters and one of them is very important to his business and in the white house, so i don't think he's completely disrespectful to

women. >> i think everybody should be entitled to their opinion. it doesn't mean he hates women. they really don't bother me the tweets, to be quite honest with you. >> she may be in the minority there, jim. we have spoken to a number of trump supporters. heard about trump's base and how dedicated they are to him and the trump supporters we spoke to still are dedicated to this president, but overwhelmingly they also tell cnn they want him to stop tweeting and they want him to get back to focussing on the promises that he made out there on the campaign trail. >> that may be the difference. thank you very much. and now back with our panel and alice, if i could begin with you, you were a trump supporter, a trump voter. what is your response to all this? does it matter to you? >> it certainly does. and jason's piece there sums up one of my sentiments, is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. one of these comments or one of these tweets is bad.

all of them put together shows a pattern of complete disrespect to women. i was with ted cruz during the campaign when he made the attack against highdy cruz and that was extremely upsetting and needles to say, ted cruz fired back. but for the white house to come out and say that the american people voted for president trump because they knew that he would stand up and if he was attacked he would attack back. many of these instances we just saw, he wasn't attacked. he just went forward and attacked women. i think that is a big problem. i would like to see if he is going to flex his muscle, let's do that with north korea or vladimir putin. that's what the american people want to see and not these attacks against women. i did vote for trump. i support many of his policies, but i think what he did today was unacceptable and extremely unpresidential. >> jen, from the governor, part of the white house defense pointing the finger back in effect at president obama, sarah

huckabee sanders answering questions today by invoking the administration you work for. let's let our viewers have a listen to what you said. >> if this had happened in the previous administration, the types of attacks launched on this program, the things they say, utterly stupid, personality disorder, mentally ill, constant attacks calling multiple members liars. the rest of the media would have said, guys, no way. hold on. but nobody does that. but the president, he's not going to step back. >> in fairness, i should remind our viewers that president obama was attacked throughout his presidency by none other than private citizen mr. trump himself. i wonder what your response is to sarah huckabee sanders. >> if i could articulate an eye role effectively i would. i was in the administration for eight years. it requires am a suit of armor

some days to be in the white house. you get attacked from all angles. that's part of the job. you are the president of the united states. you are speaking on behalf of the president of the united states and the answer has to be better than that. and the reality here is that if you lie, you are going to be called a liar. if you have a failing agenda and you are not getting anything passed, people are going to say it is a failing agenda. if you are attacking women, people are going to say that's sexist. there is freedom of speech in the country, and i think they need to toughen you have a bit. >> jason, you are a dad, too, right? this idea from the white house that if you hit the president he's going to hit back or hit back ten times harder, i mean, i got kids. it's not what we tell our kids to do, right? we tell them to be the bigger man or woman in the conversation. i just wonder inside the white house, is anybody telling president trump that? >> well, i think you bring up an important point here and, look, i have had a number of conversations with my

eight-year-old regarding the political discourse we have seen over the past four, five months. i think it is also important to look at that a lot of these attacks are coming at the president. we had to have a very tough conversation about the kathy griffin picture that she took with obviously the beheading of president trump and all the backlash that ensued. it really does go both ways here. but, look, i can only speak from my experience of dealing with the president and how i have seen him treat women with dignity and respect. look at the strong women he surrounded himself with in the white house. so from my interactions with the president, i have seen him be very gracious and very humble and someone who i think is a much different image than frequently we see in a lot of coverage. but, look, the president does have a unique style where he's going to go and fire back when he's being attacked and that's part of who he is. >> governor, you have seen his public comments about women. i wonder how you would respond to that defense. >> well, first of all, let me

say one thing really fast in response, especially to jason and to alice. what alice did right then is to say, this is not acceptable from the republican side either. and i just think it is so important. it is one thing for people on the left, like me, to criticize the president. but if you want to create culture, sometimes it's top down. sometimes it is bottom up. and i think that the republicans who are kwquiet on this are an accomplice to this kind of behavior. yes, it is an attack on women and i am sure women all across america understood very well what mr. trump was saying. >> alice, you will remember that during the republican convention last year, melania trump, one of the strong women surrounding the president said she wanted to make cyber bullying her priority as first lady. let's remember those words. >> our culture has gotten too mean and too rough. we have to find a better way to talk to each other, to respect

each other. >> after her husband's tweets this morning, however, her spokes american released this following statement, quote, as the first lady has stated in the past, when her husband gets attacked, he will punch back ten times harder. alice, what do you make of the first lady's response to all of this? >> well, i will say this about melania, she certainly has always been extremely supportive of her husband regardless of the situation and from a female woman to her husband, i completely understand that. however, politically speaking, it is very difficult, if not impossible, for her to be rolling out a cyber bullying campaign when her husband is the poster child for whatnot to do. when you were president of the united states and any elected office, governor, an example of when you take that oath, when you are sworn in, you put your man pants in and brace yourself for incoming fire that comes from your opponents or the other side of the aisle, from the

press and you deal with that. i wish he wouldn't do those tweets because they have had a strong week and a good message of furthering our energy policies. and we're on the 11th hour of getting some true health care reform. and i wish he would focus his time and energy on that. however, we spent an entire day responding once again to some tweets that never should have happened in the first place. >> final quick word before we have to go. >> look, i think what governor said about what alice said is really important here. this is not just democratic women saying this is unacceptable. there has been on outpouring of women saying this is unacceptable. nicole wallace said that women in this white house should not find this acceptable. i think that's a really important point here. >> listen, thanks to all of you. appreciate your thoughts tonight. up next house investigators threaten to subpoena the white house in the russia

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yeah, and i can watch thee bgame with directv now.? oh, sorry, most broadcast and sports channels aren't included. and you can only stream on two devices at once. this is fun, we're having fun. yeah, we are. no, you're not jimmy. don't let directv now limit your entertainment. xfinity gives you more to stream to more screens. breaking news, the house intelligence committee now threatening to subpoena the white house. the centers on president trump's suggestion there may have been tapes of his conversations with james comey. you may remember after letting that unsubstantiates claim hang out, president trump announced he, himself at least did not have any tapes and the white

house sent the letter the kmat tee referencing back to that tweet. today in a bipartisan response, the committee said that's not enough. what proof is the committee looking for? or are they looking for something more? >> they are looking for something more. they are looking for any records, any documents, any memorandum of interactions between president trump and james comey. as you know, james comey alleging that the president urged him to back off that investigation into the president's former national security advisor michael flynn. in addition, asking allegedly for a pledge of loyalty. both things that the white house denies. saying they are prepared to subpoena if there are no records turned over to them in a timely manner. this comes as other members of trump's intercircle are now under scrutiny, including jared kushner, who is senate judiciary

committee is calling for his records in whether or not he adequately and properly disclosed contacts he had with foreign officials. earlier today i talked to senator dianne feinstein about this. >> one needs to know what was the reason that the secure form was not addressed correctly. and i'm not to ascertain what reasons are. we want to know what his reason is for making that error because it's a substantial error. >> now, jim, this comes as the senate intelligence committee is reviewing what mark warner is saying are two watchbatches of documents looking between financial documents. >> they will call suzanne rice. republicans have tended to focus on her. do we expect that kind of split

among republicans and democrats when she appears before the committee? >> yeah, i think we do, jim. sources are telling us tonight that behind closed doors, susan rice has agreed to testify before the house. they have targeted her believing she was involved in so-called unmasking of the identity. in intelligence reports she has denied she has done anything wrong, but she has agreed to testify, jim. and that's going to happen as the committee plans to interview a number of witnesses next month. >> thanks very much. manu raju on the bill. >> out front, the ranking member of the hout intelligence committee, congressman, thanks for taking the time tonight. >> thanks, jim. >> we noticed whachs a strong bipartisan statement from the europeans today saying that the white house response to the question on any potential comey tapes in the words of the statement stopped short of

clarifying. i thought this was key, too, threatening compulsory action if your committee doesn't get the answers it wants. are you saying that if you don't get confirmation, you are prepared to subpoena the white house on this question? >> you know, our practice has been we always seek voluntary inspiration from anyone we approach from our testimony or documents, but if we don't get it, we are prepared to use a subpoena. here we made a request of the white house, whether the white house was aware of any tapes of conversations between director comey and the president or documents a memoranda reflecting those conversations. and what we got back didn't answer our questions. it was a tweet essentially from the president memorialized in a letter that basically said that the president wasn't aware of tapes, didn't have possession of tapes. that didn't answer the broader question of whether the white house was aware of any recordings and didn't answer the question of whether those conversations had been put in writing by any of the staff at

the white house. we have gone back to them to insist on a full answer to our question. but i think the presumption is certainly as it is in other cases. if they don't comply then we'll have to use a subpoena. >> you know, this is all based on the president's original tweet, as you know, some weeks ago saying that comey better hope there are no tapes. i mean, there is really no other proof or indication that there are. is there a danger here that your committee is being led on something of a wild goose chase, wasting a lot of time and money finding tapes that there is really no hard evidence they actually exist. >> we certainly don't know if they exist or whether this was an effort to somehow try to intimidate james comey. but we have an obligation to find out. that doesn't require a lot of effort to do so. we sent the white house a letter. they didn't give us an adequate response. we're going to send another letter. that's going to take very little

time. but the bottom line is we do need to get an answer and we need to find out was this a hallow threat? if so, why was the president threatening james comey? more significantly, if there is evidence that would corroborate james comey's account of what happened in these meetings or any other, then we need to make sure we get that. >> we learned today that president obama's former national security advisors has now agreed to appear before your committee. i imagine that democrats and republicans on the committee have a different focus or we might expect a different focus on their questions. are you concerned republicans may want to use their testimony to change the conversation away from the president back to this eternal question of unmasking? >> you know, we're quite focussed on the russia investigation. pln conway and i, that's really the direction that we are headed. you know, there are a number of witnesses that can certainly shed light on that without

commenting on any particulars regarding susan rice. i think she could have a lot to tell us about russian intentions, russian engagement, how russian active measures work. you know, as we have commented on in the past, chairman nunez is doing an unmasking effort and we are trying to keep that quite separate and not let us be distracted from the focus of our russia investigation. >> all on the question of current and future russian cyber threats, you said it could be dereliction of duty for president trump if he fails to act on the threat from russia. the white house today confirmed president trump will actually meet with vladimir putin during the g-20 summit in germany. but one of trump's top aids couldn't say whether he would discuss russian interference in the election. what is your response to that? >> i think that's wholly unsatisfactory and more than that it is going to need the perception that putin has that

the united states is not going to confront russia over interference in the past and we very well may not confront russia over its interference in the future. that would be a disastrous message to send or reinforce by not even making this a part of the agenda. the president of the united states ought to confront putin, let him know on no uncertain terms we're aware of what the russians did. we are not going to tolerate it. russia will pay a price for it and we will not only deter russia for interference, we're going to work with our allies to make sure they don't interfere in the democratic affairs of our allies either. there is a lot to talk about there, and i would hope the president will confront putin on these issues. >> congressman schiff, very happy july 4th to you and your family. >> to you, too. thank you very much, dan. >> out front next, simmering tensions boiling over in the white house. the secretary of state lashing out. >> and isis on the run as the

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tonight as republican lawmakers reprimand the president for his inflammatory tweets this morning, tensions also rising within the president's own cabinet. secretary of state rex tillerson

facing off with the white house. we are out front with more. >> reporter: tonight, rex tillerson's frustration with the white house out in the open. the secretary of state coming to blows with president trump's aids over the process of filling dozens of key vacancies at the state department. >> i'd like to go faster. >> tillerson made clear to ryan priebus and the head of presidential personnel and jared kushner he wants to pick his own staff. white house aids describe the discussion as intense and uncomfortable. blaming tillerson for the gridlock. a tillerson aid told cnn, quote, the secretary is working on a process of evaluating people on merit. he wants to put forward the best candidate for the job. the desire for political patronage does not overcome confidence. >> we have this tradition, let's

bring in our tribe and our tribe will run things. none of these guys have a tribe. tillerson doesn't have a state department tribe. so he in a sense is building his tribe. >> the president fired the former exxon mobile ceo for his global deal making skills. >> you really have had a tremendous life heading up one of the great companies of the world and doing it magnificently. >> but america's top diplomat doesn't enjoy the same. while tillerson tries to mediate a dispute, president trump has openly sided with saudi arabia. >> the nation of qatar unfortunately has historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level. >> trump has taken the policy, including the peace process of tillerson's plate, giving it to kushner instead. and as tillerson seeks to reorganize his state department, the white house has pushed him to make major cutting, chopping

30% of his budget, shacking lawmakers who called the proposal a waste of time. >> my reaction is it's probably dead on arrival. >> former secretary of state, now a cnn global affairs analyst shows the end result is a weakened state department, unable to shape and execute foreign policy. >> if you look at, one, the budget and show me the money and i'll tell you what your priorities are, clearly the state department is not their priority. and you have to have people to run the place. in the absence of both, the state department plays a diminished role. >> tpresident ruling out many candidates who criticized him during the campaign. tillerson aids say the confirmation of his deputy, john sullivan, has sped up the nominations at the state and as a result of that white house meeting everyone's concerns are now out in the open and they expect the process to run much smoother going forward.

>> thanks very much. out front now with more. we have chris cillizza and david gergen. david, we have some divisions here breaking out within the president's own party. you have a secretary of state complaining to the white house about his level of control and then on this tweet you have many republicans calling the president not presidential. i wonder it's not the first time we have seen that kind of criticism from inside the party. but i wonder if you see any significance with more of this breaking out into the public eye. >> well, it's a little unclear that unleashed it all. i think that the frustration by secretary of state tillerson has been building for a long time, jim and i must say he has every reason to be frustrated. i had a tour at the state department many years ago and it's unimaginable to me that with 124 positions at the state

department that are supposed to represent nominees of the president and then confirmed by the senate, of those 124 positions, only 9, only 9 are filled today. and it has left many people at the state department, many officers. i keep hearing tales from them how people are sitting around not knowing what they are supposed to do because there is very little leadership. it is tillerson at the top and a handful of guards, but that's it. but i do -- also i think that secretary of state does bear some responsibility for this because it is demoralizing for the state department when their own secretary won't stand up and fight against the white house and this 30% cut. >> chris, as you know, it is not just the state department. you have republican lawmakers that took to twitter today to peg the president to get back on track. we had a republican congressman call his behavior ugly today. here is senator tim scott tweeting the american people need us to be focussed on health

care and tax reform, not twitter fights and cable news. >> i should remind our viewers a key vote, she tweeted directly to trump, do you want to be remembered for chris, do these comments from republicans make a measurable difference with this president? >> no. they just don't. i think it's important to remember, jim, that this is not someone who came up through the republican ranks, or owes anything to the republican establishment. he expressly ran against that. during the campaign. he is the first president without any military or elected office experience. so, you know, would he prefer lisa murkowski be on his side? sure. is he going to sweat that she was not happy about it? i don't really think so. you know, there is no one -- one

thing we know for a fact, there is no one in this white house would can stop donald trump from donald trumping, right? he's going to do what he wants to do. he's a 71-year-old man who has had a considerable amount of success both in the private sector and now in elected office. he's going to -- this is him, right? the idea that someone's going to come in, or ivanka or steve bannon or reince priebus, they've fallen by the wayside. trump is trump. this is who he is. he won by running against all these conventions. and it is several years from now, the american public will have to judge if they want this out of a president or if they want something different. >> when you look in this white house, david, who do you see that the president might listen to on something like this? >> well, i think there are two questions there, jim. who would talk to him straight, and would he listen.

and on the first one, i think probably jared kushner comes as close as anybody who can go in and talk to him. and he actually does have enormous amount of influence. i don't think it's healthy for the secretary of state to be clashing with jared kushner. it's not good for either one of them on foreign policy. but on the second one, whether he would listen? i don't see him listening. >> not the way he structures his businesses, and apparently not his white house. david gergen, chris, thanks vch. i should remind our viewers chris just launched a newsletter, you can sign up for that at cnn.com, called point. a must-read in washington. up next. cnn is right on the front lines in a massive battle against isis. the struggle to take back that crucial city from the terror group. when you've been making delicious natural cheese for over 100 years like kraft has,

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nick peyton walsh was with iraqi security forces during the battle to free iraq's second largest city, and brings us this report. >> reporter: winning here comes only with dust and ruin. this was a day iraqi special forces were meant to take back the symbolic al nuri mosque of mosul's old city. it ended up the day their leaders declared victory while they were still bitterly fighting. literally to the side of the mosque is where isis have been. the aim was to encircle the sacred building that isis destroyed. yet they've lost so many to isis, they move carefully against an enemy even with high-tech help they rarely see.

when an isis fighter is spotted, the artillery rains down. throughout the day. they want this fight to be over. news reports cited iraqi officials elsewhere are saying the mosque could be retaken. a bizarre scene, given how lethally, painstakingly they were advancing. huge political stakes here for iraq, yet this fight is spearheaded by a few dozen men, two bulldozers. a drone. thargs has been shot down. fighters are quiet during the day. but it appears a drone put up in the sky working out the offensive position, towards us here. more gunfire exchanges. and as they grind slowly towards the edge of the mosque, more

iraqi officials announce they have retaken it. but that's just politics. and here is the ghastly reality. civilians held as human shields by isis, risking death to flee from its certainty. they're held back, feared as possible suicide bombers. the agony becomes too much. there is nothing really to say when hell is behind you, and just dust before you. we've been shelled in the rubble, he says. fear so strong, it led this woman to walk out with pins in her leg to get her family out. mortar landed on their home. there's little she can say. there's been no liquid for days. my little ones were dying of hunger. we didn't see anyone, no isis, only the military.

this day, perhaps prematurely, iraq declared isis vanquished, yet their three years have likely consumed all of hers and the ruins from which she fled and which isis lie will take more declarations of victory to rebuild. mosul, iraq. just harrowing stuff. thank you for joining us. "ac 360" starts right now. good evening. thanks for joining us, on a day that began with the president of the united states sending a pair of tweets personally attacking a woman, expressing contempt for her appearance. i want to read you from a passage of a book. the president of the united states is the most powerful person in the world. the president is the spokesman for democracy and liberty. isn't it time we brought back the pomp and circumstance and sense of awe for that office that we all held? the writer went on to say, that means everyone in the administration should look and act professionally, especially the