their image here, their ability to protect themselves as opposing force has massively suffered with this announcement. wolf? >> nick paton walsh, thank you. erin burnett "outfront" starts right now. "outfront" next, the breaking news, senate investigators demanding answers from donald trump jr. does it point to collusion with the russian government? and who is the lawyer allegedly claiming to have dirt on hillary clinton? plus, donald trump and chelsea clinton dueling on twitter over ivanka. investigators want donald trump jr., the top democrat wants answers from the president's son. senator mark warner calling donald trump jr.'s meeting with the russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign the first, quote, clear evidence that members of

the trump campaign met with russians with the specific goal of hurting hillary clinton's campaign. now, donald trump jr. was joined by paul manafort who was then trump's campaign manager and jared kushner and top adviser in that meeting. >> it's also a continuing pattern that we've seen since the election of trump campaign and trump administration officials who have conveniently forgotten meetings with russians only when they are then presented with evidence they have to recant and acknowledge those kinds of meetings. >> so what pattern is warner talking about? well, perhaps this. not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, not six but seven trump associates. all of whom did not reveal meetings they had with russians until the meetings were reported in the media. score one, for leakers.

donald trump jr. met with natalia veselnitskaya and he said that the meeting was about 20 to 30 minutes and about a banned program for americans who wanted to adopt russian children. a day later, though, trump jr. changed his story admitting that the woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to russia were funding the democratic national committee and supporting miss clinton. now, that's a big admission, right, admitting that she said she had dirt and they wanted to hear the dirt and yet trump jr. stands by this. he says he took the meeting without even knowing the name of the person with whom he was to meet. this is the -- at that time, the nominee of the president -- for the president of the united states, his son and campaign manager and son-in-law were taking a meeting with someone who had dirt on the clintons and they didn't even know her name? consider the context. donald trump had clinched the number of delegates he needed at

this time. so why would three of his closest advisers agree to do this, meet with an individual with supposedly damning information about hillary clinton and why would they spend half an hour talking to her then about something else? these explanations don't make sense and the meeting itself calls into questions these statements made by the president and the vice president. >> did any adviser or anybody in the trump campaign have any contact with the russians who were trying to meddle in the election? >> well, of course not. i think to suggest that is to give credence to some of these bizarre rumors that have swirled around the candidacy. >> i have nothing to do with russia. to the best of my knowledge, no person that i deal with does. >> manu raju begins our coverage "outfront" on capitol hill. you asked senator warner about his requests that he wants to speak with donald trump jr. what more did he tell you? >> reporter: he wants to hear from donald trump jr. in the

classified session before the senate intelligence committee saying absolutely does he want to talk to donald trump jr. this comes when the intelligence committee is now moving into a new phase of the investigation, erin, talking to trump officials, trump campaign officials who may have knowledge about these meetings that occurred between russian officials and trump associates during the campaign season. now, one question that mark warner has for some of these trump campaign associates is why didn't they come clean earlier? this is what he said. >> for a campaign and now a president who continues to say there's no "there" there, virtually every week or two there's more stories of meetings, undisclosed meetings with russian officials that beg the question if there's no "there" there, why aren't more of these people coming clean on a more regular fashion? >> reporter: public evidence of any effort between trump associates and campaign officials and russian officials

to coordinate about the campaign to go after hillary clinton but he did not say if it's the first private evidence that he has seen. i've asked him that directly. he said he would not comment on that. other republicans, however, are not going as far as mark warner, to richard burr, the republican chair of the committee said he doesn't want to comment on don jr. because he may come before the committee. john cornyn, the republican whip who sits on the committee, says he's willing to talk to don jr. but doesn't see the evidence yet that mark warner does. clearly a new focus of the investigation looking into possible areas of coordinations and discussions that may have occurred between trump officials and russian officials during the campaign season. >> and this could be very crucial in terms of that possible connection. thank you, manu. jeff zeleny is at the white house. jeff, the white house is trying to distance themselves, just as the president, that is, from this particular meeting with three of the people closest to him were all in attendance. they are just saying he just found out about it now even

though, muof course, it happene in trump tower. >> reporter: they say the president just learned about this reading the news reports flying back from germany when that story first broke in "the new york times" on a saturday afternoon. the issue here, though, is the president has said repeatedly that he has no knowledge of any meetings with the russian officials. he said in a press conference after his election, he said at several other times, the question, though, is trump tower is a fairly small place. the trump campaign was much, much smaller than most campaigns. we know that donald trump was in new york city that day. he was meeting with republican officials or republican donors and this was the same week that the presidential campaign basically ended. the california primary was earlier that week. this was the day after that his top rival when hillary clinton accepted her nomination as well. he may not have known about it, the white house is saying, look,

he did not have any idea that the meeting was happening there but this for the first time is a suggestion that there was a meeting during the campaign. and erin, it's causing some concernation here at the white house because they thought they had turned the corner and they could focus on their agenda. that is not what is happening. again, these questions are dominating the white house. the question is, has anyone called for a full accounting of all of the meetings. sarah huckabee sanders said she did not know if anyone had asked for more meetings besides this one. >> jeff zeleny, thank you. it depends on what investigators know but everybody should have come forward and volunteered all of the meetings that they had or were a part of so this information wouldn't be coming via leaks to the press which could make it seem more sinister. "outfront," ron wyden, a member of the intelligence committee. senator, let me ask you, this meeting between donald trump jr., paul manafort and jared

kushner and a russian lawyer, what do you make of it? >> we don't know, erin, what was said at the meeting. but given donald trump jr.'s own admissions, this was an attempt at collusion so this is going to be very important to get to the bottom of and clearly we have to talk to all of the parties but while there is some discussion about whether he knew the name of the particular individual, this was a russian trying to help donald trump get elected. >> so let me ask you about this issue of collusion. you raised that word. the deputy white house press secretary sarah huckabee sanders was asked about whether this was collusion. here's how she answered that question. >> i would certainly say don jr. did not collude with anybody to influence the election. >> do you believe her? >> again, we don't know what was

said. but when you hear somebody's own words, that was an admission that he was getting together with somebody who was going to get him information of value, a russian giving him information of value that would help donald trump get elected. >> now, he's saying that the meeting was 20 to 30 minutes. and that she started it off with a few vague items that did not deliver upon the promise of delivering anything on hillary clinton and then moved to talk about an adoption bill for russians. does it make sense to you that a meeting that had a few vague things about hillary clinton then went on for 20 to 30 minutes with a campaign chairman, son-in-law and the son of what at that point was known to be the upcoming republican nominee for president? >> my first reaction, erin, we've already heard two versions of what happened. let's see if we hear a third

version. it doesn't make any sense to me what you've described. >> so don jr. has been tweeting in response to critics today and says obviously i'm the first person on a campaign to ever take a hearing to hear a meeting about an opponent but had to listen. does he have a point here? campaigns do opposition research all the time. could this just fall into that category? >> there is a really big difference here between a normal campaign and talking with a foreign hostile power who is trying to influence an american election. this is not about getting information from a previous city council race where somebody cast a vote and it wasn't recorded or videotaped. this is about somebody who is involved with the russians. we've heard about potential ways in which this meeting was arranged. the more you learn about this,

the more trouble you get. >> do you believe that this lawyer was endorsed by/directly connected to the kremlin? >> there certainly can't be any judgments made about that this evening but certainly the facts here continue to pile up and, you know, we have listened to one official in this administration after another have to change their story and this looks like one of the worst cases. >> so a washington, d.c., lawyer confirmed late today, senator, that he's representing don jr. on all things russian related. donald trump jr. has received no requests of any kind from a government agency. those are his words. is it true that your committee, after months of investigating, hasn't until tonight at least since mark warner said that he wanted to hear from don jr.,

requested such a meeting? >> you're not allowed to talk about committee deliberations but to me what is nonnegotiable here is we've got to talk to all of the parties and find out what was said. >> so before we go, i want to ask you about health care. john mccain said the proposal is, quote, probably going to be dead. mitch mcconnell hasn't given up. senator cornyn says he wants a vote next week. any chance that this passes, from where you stand? >> i hope not. i had eight town hall meetings in oregon, three in counties won by hillary clinton and five won by donald trump. i hope we can kill this proposal and then come back and work together. i've got ideas that i think would be attractive to both sides. >> senator wyden, thank you. >> thank you. up next, i asked paul

manafort about the possibility that russians were trying to help the campaign. and here's part of how he answered my question. >> i don't know anything about what you just said. you may know it. if you do, you ought to expose it. to say you know, i don't even know what you're talking about. it's crazy. >> it's crazy. that was weeks after he met with that russian lawyer. much more on what he said about russia's meddling in the election. plus, donald trump ridiculed after abandoning the idea, is it now back on the table tonight? and jeanne moos with a tale of two hats and two presidents. when you're close to the people you love, does psoriasis ever get in the way of a touching moment? if you have moderate to severe psoriasis, you can embrace the chance of completely clear skin with taltz. taltz is proven to give you a chance at completely clear skin.

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new tonight, the white house is trying to downplay donald trump jr.'s arranged meeting with a russian lawyer. at the press briefing today, the deputy white house press secretary said it's absolutely normal for campaigns to have meetings like the one donald trump jr. had. but what about the past denials that any such meetings took place? irks irks. >> it was not about collusion. >> that's the premise of the question, as to whether or not the campaign colluded with russia. that's the premise of the entire scope of your questioning and the point we've tried to makeover and over again and will

continue to make is that there wasn't. >> but here's the reality. the questions were not always about collusion. a lot of them were just about whether there were meetings. now, weeks after trump jr. and paul manafort and jared kushner attended that meeting with the russian lawyer, we didn't know about the meeting at the time but weeks after that i actually interviewed paul manafort. let me play you an exchange. russian hackers broke into dnc servers. we know that. vladimir putin and donald trump have said very nice things about each other. why is it so far-fetched to blame the russians and say that the motive was to help you? >> it's just absurd. donald trump is running for president of the united states. he's talking about the failed leadership of the obama

administration. to say you know, i don't know what you're talking about. it's crazy. the fact that we're having this conversation is the wrong conversation. the conversation we should be having is what does russia have from hillary clinton's server. that's the bigger issue. >> mark preston is "outfront," senior political analyst, assistant secretary for dhs and paul callan. i asked paul why it's so convenient to blame the russians and say the motive is to help you after he met with the russian lawyer who proposed to help them and he said it's absurd. i don't know anything you just said. if you do, you ought to expose it. it's crazy. look, he knew about the meeting. i didn't at the time. no one else did but he sure knew, mark. >> he was almost tempting you or teasing you to say do you know what is going on right now and thinking it would never be

expos exposed but this is a running theme of advisers of president trump in their memory. we saw attorney general jeff sessions who failed to disclose two meetings with the russian ambassador kislyak and saw jared kushner on his top secret security clearances forget to put in his meetings with kislyak and a russian banker as well as this meeting we're discussing right now. we saw michael flynn be very cagey about his meetings as well with russian officials as well as ambassador kislyak. >> they are saying that they had damaging information on hillary clinton and illegal donations or something from the russians but that she didn't bring the goods and then proceeded to talk about

adoptions for 20 to 30-minute meeting for the most important people in donald trump's orbit. do you buy that? >> well, no. in a sense that donald trump jr.'s story has changed in 24 hours, the only reason we believed that information wasn't past was because of donald trump jr.'s statements. so the lines about the meetings bother me a lot less than the taking of the meetings. so the idea -- everyone talks about chess in politics. let's talk about poker. do you bling when you're playing the game? in this case, it was taking the meeting. that's all the russians needed to know, was the trump campaign receptive to this information, was it receptive to russia's help, were they going to tell on the russians? and so i think while it's bother some about the meetings

themselves, he took the meeting and one only can suspect that the russians left that meeting saying they're game. we don't have to know all of the details but they took the meeting. >> paul, the meeting raises the question as to is it illegal or not? was it treason or not? was it collusion. richard painter was the ethics lawyer for george w. bush. here he is. >> we do not get our opposition research from spies. we do not collaborate with russian spies unless we need to be accused of treason. >> treason? >> no, it's not prees son. that's when the rosenberg steal secrets and you're trying to get dirt on hillary clinton even from a russian. that's not treason. and that would put a lot of people in jail. >> now, just to ask something as a point of clarification, would it be treason? some say she was an agent of the kremlin, very clearly. we have not confirmed any such

thing. if that's the case, does that change it? if she's an agent of the russian government. >> the treason statute, which by the way is punishable by death, requires you to aid and abet and aid and comfort an enemy of the united states in some affirmative way. asking if you have any dirt on hillary clinton alone i don't think makes out treason. now, when you talk about collusion, it's not even collusion but it could be the beginning of a collusion or conspiracy case if other evidence develops. right now, we're looking at an act of dishonesty of political stupidity but not criminality. >> juliette? >> i don't know if we're looking at criminality or not. the only thing we know about the content of the meeting is from donald trump jr. who has changed stories in a 24-hour period. >> right. >> i'm going to reserve judgment, as i often do, about what the legal standards will be. i think any rationale person looking at the data points about

the accept advance of tance of and the days and subsequent weeks later, the come hither by donald trump himself by urging the hacking and release of e-mails, all of that is context. it's not a smoking gun. it's context. >> and again, mark, i go back to that interview with paul manafort. at the least, what he was doing there, was completely misleading and some may use the word lying. he was directly asked, is it too far-fetched to imagine the russians trying to help you against hillary clinton. and he laughed it off like it was absurd when he knew full well that this person was trying to do exactly that. >> no doubt. and i'll go with you on the word lying because there's no way that he forgot that meeting that occurred just two weeks earlier. this came at a time during the campaign, if we all remember, paul manafort had an incredible amount of power, president trump was looking at him to run the convention, which he did and did

a good job of it. >> in the small confines of trump tower. next, president trump walks back his plan of creating a cybersecurity plan with the russians after serious backlash from his own party. but tonight, could it still happen? and donald trump jr.'s controversial meeting. there was a pop star, miss universe pageant was involved and a whole lot of well-connected russians. prestige creams not living up to the hype? one jar shatters the competition. olay regenerist hydrates skin better than creams costing over $100, $200, and even $400. fact check this ad in good housekeeping. olay. ageless.

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president's own contradiction on forming a cybersecurity plan with russia. hours later the president -- sarah huckabee sanders seems to be suggesting that the idea is still alive. michelle kosinski is "outfront." >> it's an honor to be with you. thank you. thank you. >> reporter: the first trump/putin meeting what was said in the two-hour plus discussion remains under serious debate. even and parentally by the president himself. on sunday, this. putin and i discussed forming an ichlt mpenetraable cybersecurity unit sparking an immediate backlash. from republicans as well.

senator ben sass called it bizarre. some weighed in on the morning shows. >> he's the only person i know of who has any doubt about where russia attacked our election in 2016. >> but even though they defended the idea of a cybersecurity unit, sunday night saw a complete trump about-face. now tweeting the fact that we discussed a cybersecurity unit doesn't mean i think it could happen. it can't. and today the white house again down playing the idea. >> we recognize that russia is a cyberthreat but we also recognize the need to have conversations with our adversaries, discussions may still take place but that's as far as it is right now. >> reporter: the white house couldn't answer whether trump trusts putin. and in that meeting, russia

insists russia did not meddle at all. >> the president absolutely did not believe the denial of president putin. >> reporter: though in a tweet, the president himself left things more vague. i strongly pressed president putin twice about russian meddling in our election. he denied it. i've already given my opinion. his opinion only one day before meeting with putin was this. >> it could very well have been russia but i think it could well have been other countries. nobody really knows. >> reporter: there's a big question here about sanctions. secretary of state tillerson said in order to show how serious the issue is, trump brought up with putin the fact that this bill has passed the senate that would impose more sanctions on russia, specifically for meddling in the u.s. election and would prevent

the white house from lifting those sanctions. that's a bill, though, that the white house opposes. later, trump tweeted that he didn't discuss sanctions with putin although today the white house spokesperson said there was some discussion. so what we know is that this administration has emphasized that the sanctions that are already on russia for its taking over part of ukraine will stay in place unless russia changes its behavior but we don't know how if in any way this administration will punish putin for meddling in the election. we've heard republicans say that they fear the administration will forgive and forget and let putin get away without paying any price. erin? >> michelle, thank you very much. paul begala is joining me and rick santorum and gop candidate with me as well. senator, let's talk about the cybersecurity unit that the president said was going to happen and then he said it isn't going to happen and now who knows if it's going to happen. what do you make of this back

and forth backtracking? >> well, it's not good messaging on the part of the president, that's for darn sure. look, the idea of working together with the russians on cybersecurity is a nonstarter. the russians are a tremendous threat. they are not just the russian government but the russian business network and all of these other groups within russia that constantly are attacking both our government as well as private enterprises and to think that we would collaborate with them in any way doesn't make sense. i hope that this issue goes off with a thought that maybe was prematurely tweeted and we can move on to other things. >> well, premature tweeting wouldn't be the first sign of that happening but joke aside, paul, i'm sure you agree with the senator that this should go down in history but what do you make of the fact that it's proposed that it's dead and then

maybe back? >> right. this isn't about reckless tweeting. this was a planned meeting. this was in the summit meeting with president putin. the man who hacked our election, who attacked our democracy. there is a cyberwar going on. russia against america. right now it's been very one-sided. the obama administration was very tepid in response to this attack and even some of his former aides said that they choked. but now we're not only being tepid, we're being helpful. mr. trump knows what he's doing. this is a tremendously stupid idea. why would a smart man -- trump has street smarts like i've never seen -- propose something like that. he's setting the bar at a joint cyberstrike force but he's going to get some sort of cooperation where he brings russia in. this could be catastrophic. i'm not kidding. this could open the door to russia actually having access to all that voter data that trump is trying to collect from all of

the secretaries of state. most of them are turning him down. if you have all of that information on voter rolls collected together and then this cybe cyber strike force, the russians would have open access to our democracy. they've already hacked it once with very little penalty. >> senator, this comes as we have this news of the meeting between manafort, kushner, donald trump jr. and a russian lawyer where the russian lawyer promised dirt on hillary clinton and yet corey lewandowski, who has been spotted at the white house several times, has this to say about president trump's meeting with putin. >> this is a type of president that take as problem, deliver it is directly to the person who has the solution for it and pressed him very tough to find out if russia had anything to do with the outcome of the u.s. election and vladimir putin says no. the president has taken this issue directly to the president of russia and raised it. now i think the issue is officially dead. >> that's pretty frightening,

senator. >> well, that's corey lewandowski, not the president speaking. obviously to expect the russians to admit to anything is a little bit of a fairy tale. so, look, i think that the fact is, the president did bring it up to him, vladimir putin didn't tell the truth. i'm not surprised at that. and that this issue is an issue that needs to be investigated. look, to paul's point, the idea that the president is going to go ahead and open up our cyberdefenses or any kind sign bett cyber activity to the russians, one thing that the president has done which i'm very impressed with is he listens to experts in the field and he's done a tremendous job in learning from that and in many cases changing his opinions based upon the evidence that he gets presented. he has a great team around him on the national security front. i think they are going to make sure that our country is safe and i know this president will

listen to them and make sure that that's the case. >> so paul, when the president tweeted after his meeting with putin, quote, it's time to move forward and work constructively with russia and rex tillerson said the two presidents rightly focused on how do we move forward, do they have a point? there was a lot of scoffing at that. how can you move forward when the russians are preparing the battlefield for more attacks and yet at the same time you have to work with russia on syria and other things? >> they must be punished. stalin said i stab until i hit steel and then i withdraw. putin is a stalinist character. it's a fair criticism of president obama and they did not punish putin for this. now we are not even punishing him, we're rewarding him. there has to be retribution and it has to be strong and the senate, as you know, 98-2, passed tougher sanctions on russia and the white house is complaining about them and the

house so far has been stalling them. we have got to respond to this. this was not a one-off deal. this was the pearl harbor. now the war begins and they are going to come after our elections again and again. this last time it was my party. next time it could be your party. we've got to stay united. >> senator, i want to ask you about the other controversy out there which may seem small but it isn't because we're a democracy and we have elected leaders in these positions that president trump put ivanka trump into his seat when he left the room. there was a lot of brouhaha about that and president trump responded to the criticism saying if chelsea clinton were asked to hold the seat for her mother as her mother gave our country away, the fake news would seychelles see clinton for president and chelsea clinton said it never would have occurred to my father or mother to ask me. what do you think, senator, was it smart for donald trump to weigh in not only on a controversy about his daughter sitting in the seat but to bring hillary clinton into it?

chelsea clinton, i'm sorry. >> i think he's saying that the media is treating him different than they would another and i think they are. the reality is, she was part of the delegation, this is customary, even heard chancellor merkel say it was nothing out of the ordinary. she was part of the official delegation and when the president gets up as this happens all the time, they have bilateral meetings during these types of summits and the entire team goes to this bilateral meeting, including the secretary of state and other senior members. you have someone junior sit in and take notes and represent the president of the united states. i don't think it's a big deal and the fact that the media is making a big deal makes donald trump's point. >> i have to say, i thought it was pretty shocking. paul, i also have to say it would not surprise me at all if clinton senior asked chelsea clinton to sit in the chair, if the roles were reversed. >> not a chance. >> not a chance in. >> i've known that family for 25 years. chelsea has a ph.d. from oxnard.

hillary clinton never did it when secretary of state. she didn't step aside and let her daughter step in. the president was very successful in running a tightly held family business. but the united states government is not a tightly held family business and i know it's a tight family and i do admire that. the problem is, if you're so tight with your family, now you want us to believe that when your son met with the russians, he didn't tell you about it? you know, you can't have it both ways. you can't be so tight with your family that your daughter can sit in for you and then your namesake son didn't tell you anything about it. baloney. tonight, the kremlin saying they don't even know the russian lawyer who met with trump jr. my next guest knows her and says that the rush sans are lying. and some risking arrests and maybe even their lives to be heard.

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tonight, the kremlin says it knows nothing about the russian lawyer natalia veselnitskaya and her meeting with donald trump jr. alex is "outfront." >> reporter: it was an introduction from a music agent that put lawyer natalia veselnitskaya across the table

from the future president's son and veselnitskaya stated she had information regarding illegal campaign contributions to the dnc which she believed mr. trump jr. might find important. she presented a few general remarks regarding campaign funding and quickly turned the topic to that of the magnitsky act which bans adoption of russian children. veselnitskaya was in the u.s. at the time of the meeting as part of her campaign to fight the magnitsky act which back lists dozens of human rights abusers. it was named for a russian lawyer who died mysteriously in prison after uncovering $230 million of fraud by russian officials. american businessman bill browder was veselnitskaya's boss. >> she's been trying to repeal

sanctions legislation which putin finds probably the most personally offensive of anything that's come out of the west in the last ten years. >> reporter: the kremlin was so outraged it banned adoptions of russian children by americans. it has denied any association with veselnitskaya saying we don't know who that is and we can't monitor all meetings russian lawyers have both in russia and abroad. veselnitskaya got the meeting through rob goldstone, a music agent, who has been involved with trump's pageant in moscow in 2015. it was one of goldstone's clients, russian pop star emin agalarov who requested the meeting with veselnitskaya. he once wished him a happy birthday and even appeared in

one of his music videos. >> i'm really tired of you. you're fired! >> reporter: and a lawyer of veselnitskaya has responded since the news of this meeting broke. she said nothing at all about the presidential campaign was discussed and she never acted on behalf of the russian government or discussed any of these matters with him. whatever her ties are to the kremlin, it's clear that through her efforts to destroy the magnitsky act, that their interests are certainly aligned. erin? >> thank you very much, alex. i want to go to william browder. a long-time russia krit tim has been declared a threat to authorities. he was sergey magnitsky's boss. the kremlin denies knowing veselnitskaya. you just heard she denies any links. what makes you believe that she was acting as a proxy for vladimir putin and the russian government? >> well, first of all, any time

the kremlin denies something, you should always assume that they are lying because they do so on a regular basis. but in her case, we have all sorts of evidence that she was acting on behalf of the russian government. starting with the fact that the general prosecutor of russia wrote a huge long editorial in the russian newspaper specifically talking about all of the activities of veselnitskaya in the united states and talking about how important they were in terms of their policies. on top of that, when veselnitskaya was out in washington and in brussels promoting the anti-magnitsky platform, she had television crews from all of the russian government television stations following her around. this is not some random individual person who had a position on a foreign issue. this is a person who was acting as a proxy for the russian

government or vladimir putin on an issue that vladimir putin feels very strongly about. >> now, okay, so there's your reasoning there. let me just say, donald trump jr., as you know, has changed his story twice about what this meeting entailed. but he says of natalia veselnitskaya, the woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to russia were funding the democratic national committee in supporting miss clinton. that's what he thought he was going to get out of this meeting. he says she failed to deliver on that. she has said nothing of the campaign was discussed at all which is not consistent with what he said. do you think that if donald trump jr. thought she was going to deliver this information, that she did deliver it and that they're being dishonest now or do you think it's possible that she lied to get the meeting? >> well, what i can say for sure is that the russians are very practical people and they would have thought in advance about a quid pro quo, that they wouldn't

have shown up saying if your father becomes president, can you remove the magnitsky what they were offering in return may have been what's stated, may have been something else. maybe they changed their mind. but i can assure you that she went in with a deal. what her deal was, we may never know. >> you're saying she just didn't go in and talk about russian adoption with some neigh something at the top of the meeting, she had something? >> she didn't go in to talk about russian adoptions at all, but removing american sanctions against russian human rights violators, and she's a sophisticated person representing the russian security services and the russian government. she would have been in there talking with some deal, because there's no -- the americans aren't just going to remove sanctions unless there's something being offered in return. so what was being offered, i don't know. whether it's been properly

represented by her or the other side, probably not. but surely she was offering something in return. >> all right. thank you very much. i appreciate it. a man who has dealt with this situation for many years, saying there was for sure a deal in the quid pro quo. our other top story is health care. capitol police say they have arrested 80 demonstrators after protesting gop efforts to repeal and replace obamacare. this man was removed from senator ted cruz's office and the protesters are among many voices going to washington over the republican efforts to repeal and replace obamacare. elizabeth cohen followed a group of families, many of whom have seriously ill children, as they traveled to washington to make their voices heard. >> reporter: it's a difficult journey for jessica, michelle and laura. their sons, john, paul, and gabe, have serious disabilities

and depend on medicaid. so they are driving with several other families from baton rouge, louisiana, to washington, d.c. to confront congress over the proposed health care bill. what do you worry would happen if the medicaid cuts went through? >> for my son, point blank he would die. medicaid pays for his ventilator and life support. >> reporter: lillian, marcus, and rocky are also headed to washington. they too depend on medicaid. let me introduce you to chase. she's 13 months old and has a genetic birth defect. she's the most fragile child on this bus. this machine, it breathes for her. that machine over there, it feeds her. they both have to keep working for the entire length of the trip. that's nearly 24 hours. and it's very risky. less than three hours into the drive, john paul has trouble breathing. >> he's got oxygen close by. let me see the backpack.

you all right? >> reporter: he finally proves through. angela says she doesn't regret bringing him. she says she has no choice. she says her senator, bill cassidy, ignored her at a town hall meeting. a spokesman for the senator says he can't always get to everyone in the limited time available. >> they need to see the faces of who are going to be hurt. >> reporter: as they drive through the night, gabe's blood oxygen levels plummet, and chase lee's temperature spikes. as dawn breaks, jessica is exhausted. you've sat on this bus and watched three children, three little sick children have some serious episodes. still worth snit? >> it's worth it. to not have to bury gabe or anyone else on this bus is worth it. >> reporter: less than 24 hours after arriving in d.c., chase gets a fever on monday morning,

102.5 degrees. her mother tearfully decides to pull out of the trip and takes her daughter to a nearby hospital. >> hey, hey, ho, ho -- >> reporter: the rest of the group heads to the republican national committee headquarters. >> in these cuts happen, kids and adults with disabilities will die. >> reporter: but the rnc keeps its doors locked and refuses to let them inside. >> it's extremely insulting and just -- it's almost like a slap in the face, because we're scared. >> reporter: the families met with staffers for their senator, senator cassidy, and they're still hoping for a meeting with if senator himself. we reached out to the rnc, of course. the families were in front of their building today and a spokeswoman said republicans continue to work to ensure that every american has affordable and accessible health care. >> all right. thank you very much. thank you, elizabeth. and jeanne moos is next.

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high profile hat snatching return. in the latest case, a marine's hat got blown off and retrieved by plum by president trump. the marine kept his poker smile. it's quite a contrast to president latee, a reference to the time president obama saluted a marine while holds a coffee. when it comes to a hat winning hearts, that happened when president obama ran into 6-month-old jazell at the airport in alaska. >> i saw him and i thought that guy looked a lot like obama. he said, who is this pretty girl? >> reporter: her mother tells us they bought the hat for $5 at a secondhand clothing store. mom's favorite tweet so far, always keep a spare church hat in case you meet obama. except for baseball style caps,

politicians tend to go out of their way to avoid all contact with hats. notice how president obama admired the football helmet navy gave him. >> pretty sharp, huh? >> reporter: but declined to put it on. >> here's a general rule, you don't put stuff on your head if you're president. >> reporter: except that one time at a summit with tribal leaders. the hat lasted a mere ten seconds before obama tipped it off. and who can say no to girl scouts? the president ended up wearing a tejera, and there was that poncho former president bush got tangled up in? >> first sometime >> yeah. it looks like it, that's for sure. >> reporter: so ellen got him a new one with a presidential seal. sometimes a president just can't pass the hat. jeanne moos, cnn, new york. >> those ponchos are some of the most amusing.

thanks so much for joining us. don't forget, you can watch "outfront" any time, anywhere. have a good night. "ac 360" starts right now. good evening. thanks for joining us. we begin with today's admission by donald trump, jr., a whanld it does to his father's claims about the 2016 campaign. the argument from the white house has always been no collusion. well, today we got the first suggestion of a russian offer of he will top the trump campaign and the campaign's willingness to meet about it. in a tweet today in a "new york times" story yesterday, the president's oldest son acknowledged meeting with a russian attorney who was promising dirt on hillary clinton. obviously, he tweeted, i'm the first person on the campaign to ever take a meeting to hear info about an opponent. went nowhere, but had to listen. i'm keeping them honest before getting further into the meat of the story, there's ethics professionals, most notably republicans who say no, he