americans going without health insurance if this repeal and replace bill somehow becomes law and is signed by the president of the united states. ryan nobles up there on capitol hill. thank you very much. we appreciate it. i'm jim acosta. thanks very much for watching. erin burnett outfront starts right now. outfront next, president trump about to board air force one for paris. saying, quote, i think many people would have held that meeting. plus exclusive video about donald trump in a very friendly meeting with some of the key players involved in setting up that meeting between trump junior and the russian lawyer. and the white house said to be paralyzed and in a fresh new hell every day. what's going on inside the west wing? let's go outfront. >> the breaking news, the president and melania trump are about to take off for paris to meet with the frun ch president. this will be the first time we

have seen president trump in public in four days. and it comes as trump speaks out moments ago about the controversy swirling around his son's meeting with a russian attorney. trump insists that he, himself, knew nothing about the meeting until a few days ago, telling routers that he doesn't fault his son saying, quote, i think many people would have held that meeting. now trump was also asked whether he believes putin's denial of russian meddling in the election and here's the thing. that was an opportunity for the president to say no. but he didn't say no. he dodged the question saying, quote, something happened and we have to find out what it is. of course that's news to the intelligence community. president trump tonight leaves behind a white house staff paralyzed and rattled by the n controver controversy. trump himself described by two administration officials as huddled in the oval office.

he is saying the cob tro versy is nothing more than an effort to discredit his presidency. the president will be landing in a few hours. sara, what are you hearing? >> well, that's right, erin. of course you wouldn't guess that by the president's twitter feed. he was tweeting earlier that he's not sitting around watching cable news. that health care and tax reform was moving forward. he was tweeting tonight about his upcoming trip here to paris to help celebrate bastille day. but sources inside the white house are painting a different picture. they are saying the president is in fact spending a lot of time watching television over these last few days when he hasn't been seen in public and he's fuming the focus is once again on russia. one top republican close to the west wing describeds this white house as paralyzed, which is a damming assessment considering the huge legislative items they

want to move forward. now, the president will be taking questions alongside the french president. that will be the first opportunity for reporters to pepper him about this meeting that don junior had with the russian lawyer. trump did give a preview of how he's feeling about it. he said basically anyone would take that meeting and sources who are close to the white house say that privately the president is offering a similar assessment saying he's not necessarily mad at his son but he's frustrated. he doesn't think that don junior did anything to run afoul of the law but it wasn't necessarily a smart move to take that meeting. >> thank you very much. and we'll hear from republican outfront later this hour who joins many in saying, well, that meeting didn't make sense to take. let's go to manu raju tonight. there is a lot of focus on don junior but also you're reporting there is now increasing scrutiny on the two other people in that meeting with that russian lawyer, paul manafort and of

course jared kushner, senior advisor to the president. >> reporter: those two men already were of interest to investigators on capitol hill. they both had been in contact with the house and senate intelligence committee, with manafort's team providing records to the house and senate intelligence team and kushner saying he would be open to talking to the committees uncertain when that would happen. but of course a lot of concerns from democrats about why jared kushner appears to have security clearance still. at least an interim security clearance and why that would be the case given all of these questions and given his failure to disclose some of these meetings initially. republicans on the hill, though, erin, are not calling for jared kushner's security clearance, including the top investigator on the house side in the russia investigation, mike conway telling me earlier today that's an issue for the white house, not capitol hill. and paul manafort has come under interest. the chairman of that committee

telling me earlier today that he does want to speak with manafort as soon as next week in a public session. but later they said they're working with special council bob mueller's office to make sure it does not conflict with his investigation. but if it doesn't, we could see paul manafort here as soon as next week. >> thank you very much. that's a significant development. now i want to go to a democratic congressman. and thank you very much for being with me. you said way back in april that you think jared kushner intentionally left meeting off his security application, right? now, he added some of those, and we know he came back and added again and he ornl disclosed this meeting we're talking about now with the russian lawyer in recent weeks. so he edited that disclosure form, put other meetings on it, had to come back and again add this one on it. his lawyers say there was nothing there just discovered. do you think this was left out intentionally, or do you think could be just an oversight.

>> of course it was left out intentionally. he left it out on several revisions of his disclosure forms. i assume that he keeps a calendar that as any responsible business person does and this would have been on his calendar. he revealed this only because he had to reveal it because he knew it was being revealed in the press. >> now, do you think it is possible that he didn't reveal it. he knew about it but he didn't reveal it because nothing came out of the meeting but he thought admitting he had the meeting would make people think something did happen in the meeting and that's why he left it off? >> given that interpretation, that would be criminal. he is required to reveal meetings on his disclosure forms for security clearance. he's not entitled to make judgments of whether they're important meetings or not. and here this was a relevant meeting because here you had the representative of a foreign hostile power, namely russia,

offering according to ing ting e-mails we know he was on and manafort was on and his brother-in-law publicized, we know that the russian agent was offering dirt on hillary clinton or alleged dirt on hillary clinton and donald trump jr. said i love it, we want this information. that's acting for improper purposes, to put it mildly. >> so on what -- what should happen to jared kushner now? you have said his security clearance should be revoked until he get to the bottom of this tonight. the white house press secretary says the white house won't comment on the status of security clearances. do you know does jared kushner have security clearance or not? >> we've been told he does. it ought to be revoked. further more, we've got new information we found out just in the last few days, and that is that the justice department was conducting a 2$230 million frau

case against a major russian company. the same lawyer who offered the information on hillary was the attorney for that that this was the cause or this $230 million fraud in russia was one of the causes of the assassination on him. they wanted the sanctions removed, the act repealed, but he was the attorney on this case when she met with jared and with donald trump and we know that a couple of days before -- and we know that in may, suddenly this $230 million lawsuit was settled for $6 million, no admission of wrongdoing two days before going to trial. a little while after he was fired. was he fired because he was carrying on his lawsuit? >> all right. so you raised those questions. there are some who would say now we're in the range of conspiracy theory, h huckabee sanders didno

quite that far. she said you're just playing political games. here is some of the back and forth she said during the briefing today. >> i think democrats are trying to play political games and i think it is ridiculous. >> the top advisor to the president -- >> did nothing wrong, no. >> it was just a political game? >> no. you can always ascribe political games to anybody who is doing something you don't like. we were raising certain questions. certain questions have now been answered. we know there was an illegal conspiracy involved in seeking from the russians intelligence on hillary clinton. this was denied. remember all the denials there was any contact with the russians were total. now we know they were all lying. we have a lot of other questions. before we went public, we sent letter after letter, the democrats on the judiciary committee to the justice department, to the white house. 17 letters i think.

newspaper of th none of them have been answered, so of course we have to go public with it. >> turning to what the president himself knew, even if you were to find out there was wrongdoing on behalf of anybody in that room, nobody in that room was donald trump himself who is the president of the united states. he was asked by routers tonight if he knew. he responded, no. that i didn't know until a couple of days ago when i heard about this. and his personal attorney came on cnn and denied it as well. here he is. >> let's focus on what the president was aware of. nothing. >> do you believe them? >> no, i don't believe him. i don't disbelief him. we have no information on that. that's why the investigation is proceeding. i'm sure mr. mueller will put jared kushner and paul manafort and others under oath to ask whether the president knew anything. we don't know. one thing we do know is that the

president lies all the time so, you can't give any credibility to this or anything else he says. >> congressman, before you go, two of your democratic colleagues tonight, brad ser man and al green introduced an article of impeachment against president trump. they are beginning an effort to hold hearings on obstruction of justice and russian interference in our election. that's your committee. do you support this effort? >> well, there is certainly -- no. there certainly ought to be hearings by the judiciary committee in the house as the one in the senate has announced they will do. we have jurisdiction over obstruction of justice. we have jurisdiction over the conduct of the justice department in the lawsuit. we have jurisdiction over all this. we ought to be investigating. >> so you're saying yes to the hearing but no to articles of impoai

impeachment. >> it's too early. we have a long way to go in investigation. it may lead there, but who knows. i'm certainly not going to support that now. but i am going to support a strict investigation of everything because it is a direct threat to our democracy. >> all right. congressman, good to talk to you. i appreciate your time. >> president trump leaves behind a white house in disarray. is there a circular firie iningd in the west wing. and donald trump meeting with the key players who set up the controversial meeting. there was knowledge. he knew them. >> and this is the photo that promised to solve the mystery of what happened to amelia earhart. didn't anybody google it? ♪ if you have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis,...

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a. president trump making his first public appearance in four days as he embarks on paris. he's heading to air force one, which you can see there waiting on the tarmac going to paris. ready for the president and first lady to board. this administration struggles to weather a new and significant storm regarding russia. in an interview today with the

christian broadcasting network, the president talks about russia and why vladimir putin he says would have preferred hillary clinton. >> so when i keep hearing about he would have rather had trump, i think probably not because you know she wouldn't have spent the money on the military. when i want a strong military and i want tremendous energy, cole, natural gas, we're opening up fracking, all the things that he would hate, nobody ever mentions that. >> mark preston, our senior political analyst, and michael sheer, white house correspondent for "the new york times." mark preston, you hear trump saying, look, russia would have preferred clinton but of course we have e-mails that would know russian government support for trump and we have the conclusion of the united states intelligence community, which is extremely clear on that particular point. >> right, erin. this is one of those instance where is just because the

president says it doesn't necessarily mean that it's true or accurate. let's just go back about 12 hours today and let me read to you something he tweeted out. he said the white house is functioning perfectly, focussed on health care, tax cuts and many other things and i have very little time for watching tv. we all know that this is a false statement. we know the fact from our folks who are inside the white house, from folks who work very closely with president trump, he is constantly watching television and constantly watching cable news. this this case when it concerns vladimir putin, he is clearly trying to deflect what has become the biggest story of his very, very young administration. >> michael, to this point, top republicans close to the white house telling cnn tonight that this is a white house in their words quote paralyzed. we have reported in the past, the white house has had moments they have hunkered down. this time, though, is it different? >> it does feel a little

different. i was at the white house when comey was fired, and that felt different as well. so there are these moments whenever white houses are under siege that feel like dramatic and different than your sort of run of the mill kind of washington scandal. but even with that, this does feel like the white house is trying, sara sanders tried to present a source of normalcy. and, yet, we do have the sense that the president hasn't been seen. and, you know, my colleagues, peter baker and maggie haberman, laid out the sense of foreboding and dread that seized the staff at the white house as they all point fingers at each other to figure out how to respond to this. >> jackie, that is part of the issue here. that when a moment happens, a lot of things come out of this white house that are extremely unflattering to other people in the white house, including the president. for example, just the president

himself sitting around watching television. that's not something that makes the boss look good. >> well, they also don't know where these attacks are coming from. this was already an environment, as we know, that was a bit of a pressure cooker like most white houses are, but they also add on the paranoia, the fact a lot of these senior people don't trust each other. it is a team of rivals in a lot of ways. ryan priebus is frequently thrown under the bus. he's still there. but if you constantly have people undercutting each other and sniping like they do, that doesn't create an environment where if crisis does happen that there is a well functioning machine. in fact, the paranoia there we keep hearing is quite high. and everyone is looking over their shoulders. >> so, mark, on that point of looking over their shoulders, reince priebus is still there and obviously the chief of staff. he faces, quote, fresh new hell

daily according to one senior administration official. when times get tough for this administration, mark, why is it that the guns always point inward? right? that's a moment if you really believe for what you're fighting for, you gather together and come together stronger and more bonded. >> the reason why is actually really simple. there is no loyalty. what you're seeing, back to jackie's point about war and factions -- >> ironic given trump's infakuation about that. >> but you have the new york faction. then you have the ryan priebus, sean spicer, the professional republican establishment factor who are running the trains day-to-day including sarah huckabee sanders in many ways. and then you have this other faction, the burr cats, intelligence folks, mind you, who are kind of over in their own little word.

so you have that. the second thing is there is no real bond in the sense that if this was a ted cruz or marco rubio that had won, there would be the real strong bond of republicanism, this idea that there was shared values. donald trump is still not viewed by a lot of republicans certainly here in washington as being a true conservative, and they can't necessarily trust him. and that's what you're seeing. quite frankly, erin, it is unfair for the likes of reince priebus and those folks to be getting thrown under the bus all the time when the blame lays directly with the president himself. >> well, that's who sets the tone in any organization. michael, you were in the room today for sarah huckabee sanders briefing. she was asked on this issue about why people who are close to the president, whatever, whatever words you want to use, have amnesia, lie, whatever it may be when it comes to russia, i want to play part of her answer because it is pretty telling.

here it is. >> every single day we do our very best to give you the most accurate information that we have, and we continue to do that every single day and have offered to be as transparent as possible with all committees and anyone looking into this matter. >> i mean, it is pretty stunning. i guess, michael, on one level maybe she's being as transparent as she can be because she doesn't actually know herself. >> right. so you have two things going on here. right? you have the trump administration, which comes in not exactly with a stellar record of transparency. they have shut off the visitor logs and done a lot of things that they frankly are not having briefings are televised. today was another one that wasn't televised. but the other thing you have to add into this is the presence of lawyers. this happens at a white house when you have a scandal that's not just a political scandal but is a legal scandal, too, then everybody who is involved is at

legal risk. and, so, they all lawyer up. everybody's lawyers are recommending they say one thing that might be different from what the other person's lawyer is telling the other person in the white house. so it adds to this sense of clamping down, not providing information. and it's the pointing fingers at each other because they're all trying to protect themselves, not only politically but legally and keep themselves out of danger. >> just a really serious point. thank you all very much. and next pretty stunning image. let me give you a quick peek of it. the president bowing his head in prayer in the oval office and all these people touching him. it is very strange. we'll tell you what happened there. and then our exclusive video of a 2013 trump meeting with some of the key figures involved in the donald junior russia meeting. >> the richest men in russia.

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and a new culture built around customer service. it all adds up to our most reliable network ever. one that keeps you connected to what matters most. breaking news. president trump speaking out, saying he did not know about the meeting between his son and a russian lawyer back in june of 2016. the president saying he only learned about the meeting a couple of days ago, but as you are about to see an exclusive new video outfront. then businessman donald trump appeared to be quite close to the russian family at the center of this controversial meeting. pamela brown is outfront. >> reporter: the behind the scenes video obtained exclusively by cnn shows donald trump in las vegas in 2013. at several events during the

weekend of the miss usa pageant hanging out with a man in the center of the the controversy. the man and his father, a real estate developer in russia were helping trump hold his miss universe pageant in moscow later that year. >> these are the rich et men in russia. >> trump is seen having dinner with them along with their publicist seen here leaning over to talk with trump. on tuesday, trump's son, donald junior released e-mails from goldstone pitching a meeting between the president's son and a russian lawyer. promising she would deliver damaging information about hillary clinton provided by the russian government. according to the e-mails released by trump junior, seen here between trump and goldstone told goldstone to set up the meeting. this is obviously very high

level and sensitive information, but it's part of russia and its government support for mr. trump. the exclusive footage provides a closer look at the friendship between the two families and could help explain donald trump jr.'s willingness to take the meeting. trump could be heard boasting to the men about his work on the miss universe pageant. >> the next day in front of reporters, trump spoke grandly about the prospect of taking miss universe to russia. >> honestly they really wanted it. >> trump dedikting his pageant could bring russia and the u.s. closer. >> it is a great country. it is a country that we have a relationship with, but obviously not a great relationship and i think that this could certainly help that relationship. >> investigators plan to examine the trump tower meeting and the

e-mails. on fox tuesday tuesday donald trump jr., who does not appear in the 2013 video, said he had limited knowledge of the russian family. >> i met them once or twice and, you know, maintained a casual relationship there. talked about potential deals and that's the extent of it. >> new video and others showed the president's own connections. >> what's wrong with you? >> in 2013, trump appeared in one of his music videos. >> i'm really tired of you. you're fired. >> and wished him happy birthday in a video posted on his instagram. >> i can't believe you're turning 35. >> on cnn's new day, their lawyer said the e-mails don't add up. >> it is just fantasy world because the reality is if there was something important that he wanted to communicate to the trump campaign, i suspect he could have called mr. trump directly as opposed to having his son's pop music publicist be the intermediary.

>> and the father of the russian pop star spoke out to a russian radio station in the wake of the e-mail released and said he doesn't personally know don junior or goldstone either. saying it was a tall tail. back to you, erin. >> all right. thank you very much, pamela. outfront now the former republican congressman jack king halston, who is also former senior advisor for the trump campaign. so congressman, let me start with you because you see this video. you see trump and them appearing at this dinner. put that in context with the president telling routers he did not know about the meeting between his son and that russian lawyer, which of course was set up by mr. goldstone. he was sitting at that table. apparently at their behest. as you watch all this, you realize they knew each other for years. do you believe the president was

unaware of this meeting? >> absolutely. i've been to the headquarters during the campaign many, many times and it was a wide open place. there was a bullpen where lots of people sat at tables and did things. but if you wanted to see steve bannon or kellyanne conway it was easy access. people came and went routinely. when you are running a presidential campaign in a country of 320 million people, the candidate himself is going to be off in all kinds of different locations. he's not going to worry about who has meetings with whom that day. people think, well, at the end of the day everybody sits down and talks about the events. that doesn't take place. it is always gunning and running constantly. so the idea that any -- >> so that makes sense. but can i jump in? you're saying you can see everybody doing everything, which would lend itself to the president would have seen it happening. >> well, the president actually wasn't on the same floor as they were, and not to say i'm an expert on the lay-out of it, but

you had different floors. >> well, don junior's office is on a floor below that of the president. we don't know where the meeting was of course. >> yes. but what i'm saying is people came and went, but there would be no reason absolutely more hillary clinton or bernie sanders or donald trump to know who their campaign staffers were meeting, even if it is family unless something really, really significant happened. and what we know from this meeting is that nothing happened, that there was a bait and switch. it was naive to take the meeting. it possibly was maybe an accomodation they thought for a friend of a friend and people always claim to be the candidate's best friend, whether they're hillary clinton or donald trump. and so i think donald -- for donald junior to take the meeting and as we it's been reported by the woman that other people were in there looking at their re-mails and donald junio walked in and said it was about adoptions i think there is a lot of hyperventilation here by the

anti-trump crowd and we have heard this about once a month. something like this supposedly erupts. it is a big, big bombshell and two or three weeks later there is nothing to it. >> we have bombshells once a month because we keep catching the trump family in lies and people around the trumps. so here is why the president probably didn't know. two really big important things. first of all, you had the son, the son-in-law, who was essentially running the campaign and the campaign chairman all going to a meeting. the three most important -- two of the most important people in the campaign and the son going to this meeting. they obviously thought something big was going to happen. >> wait, wait. i want you to finish that thought. but let's listen in to the president here leaving the white house going to france in air force one. let's just listen for a moment.

so obviously people cheering him. what we saw there as he and melania trump approached the helicopter to go to air force one, he was yelled a question about russia. he refused to answer it. he was yelled a question about isis, which he did choose to answer. so everyone knows how that happened and he'll be arriving momentarily at air force one. >> let me get to my point. >> you were making the case why you believe the president knew about the meeting. >> here is the really interesting piece which has got lost, i think. the washington post did a time line of watching donald trump's speeches against the time line of these e-mails from don junior and this russian intermediary. it was actually that week that donald trump started saying on the campaign trail we're going to have a lot of dirt coming about hillary clinton.

in fact, it was a few days after that e-mail came in that donald trump started talking about hillary clinton and the fact that there was going to be more investigation. now, why was that -- i'm sorry. jack, i let you talk. let me finish. >> come on. >> jack! jack! >> finish, hillary and then you could jump in, jack. >> it could be a coincidence that's when he started talking about it, but it was over that period of time that he started talking about it. and then we didn't see that promised information. that's because it didn't come from the russians. so the fact that he promised it the very same week that meeting happened, that it didn't get delivered tells us something. >> let me just say -- >> go ahead, jack. >> there has been dirt, if you will, on the clinton family for 20 years that's out there publically. people speculated all along. to say june 9th was a pivot in the campaign. >> specifically around the russian investigation. specifically around e-mails, deleted e-mails, the same thing

that we now know the russians had access to. >> maybe it was about uranium and hillary clinton giving away 20% of it. >> just to everyone knows what we're looking at, the president live approaching air force one. go ahead, finish, jack. >> there is so many things about the clintons to talk about that i don't think that -- this is probably just one of many, many meetings of people who said i have something on the clintons. and the trump campaign probably would say, hey, stand in line because we have enough. but don't act like the clintons weren't out there working with the ukrainians to get dirt on paul manafort. >> jack, how many lines do you have to hear from the trump family and associates before you start saying, oh, my goodness, these people actually aren't really telling the american people the truth? when do the trump surrogates start to say, oh, my god, this is a meeting that maybe people should have known about. yes, this should have been reported on national security

clearances. maybe we're wrong. maybe there is more to this. when he says, oh, give us more, he knows it is from the russian government. when will you trump surrogates start to doubt your own facts that don't exist? >> maybe when you guys come out with one fact -- you have been talking collusion for a year without anything. >> i'll give you the last, hillary. they are now boarded on air force one and we'll be briefly and momentarily, i should say, taking off for paris. outfront next republicans not happy with the russia scandal being back in the headlines. >> everybody knows that. there will be more shoes to drop. and i hate to say i knew it, but the amelia earhart mystery appears to have not been solved at all.

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tonight, republicans split over how to respond to donald trump junior's meeting with a russian lawyer and the bombshell e-mail chain setting up that meeting. here's speaker paul ryan today sidestepping a question about the e-mails. >> we have an investigation here in the house. we have an investigation in the senate. i think it's very important that these professionals in these committees do their job so that we can get to the bottom of all of this. >> but other republicans went

much further. >> i just wonder how much that all this russia controversy is overwhelming things here for you guys. >> everybody knows that. and there will be more shoes to drop. >> well, congressman charlie dent is out front now. i appreciate your taking the time, congressman. do you agree with senator mccain that this latest controversy in his words is, quote, sucking the oxygen out of the room? >> i do, actually. this russia issue has been a big distraction away from legislative business, no question about that. i also agree with what trey gowdy said, that if you have information or e-mails about your campaign and russia, turn them over to the special prosecutor, turn them over to the committees rather than having the media die vuling these things. in this case i guess it was "the new york times." so, yeah, i think this is a very

big problem. it's not only disturbing and in some cases it is a bit alarming that this is going on and bottom line is all of us are -- i think are very concerned about what's happening. we have to let the special prosecutor do his work and then he'll determine, you know, whether or not to make any criminal referrals. >> and, look, you are giving an honest answer to the question. i guess the question response i have for you, congressman is whether your leader speaker ryan should be as honest about this and perhaps as strongly condemning this situation or donald trump jr.'s actions as others are. >> well, the speaker is always in a difficult position. i understand where he's coming from. but i think, you know, when we get beyond the day-to-day news, the drip, drip, drip of the russia story, we have to focus on the broader context and emphasize that russia is a hostile actor, hostile foreign power.

they are not benign. they want to unravel the european union. they want to undermine american power anywhere they can in the board. they're behaving badly in ukraine, syria and our elections as well as european elections. there is nothing good about this. there is not a lot fortous do other than get them to cease and desist from this bad behavior and we can't enter a lot of agreements right now until they change their ways. >> you're giving all the context to which this latest story fits, right? in the e-mail chain, who of course as you know was the man who helped arrange that meeting between donald trump jr. and the russian lawyer, goldstone talks about, and i quote, i think it is important to hear it again for this question. the e-mail says information that would incriminate hillary clinton and her dealings with russia and would be very useful to your father. this is high level and sensitive information but it is part of

russia and its government's support for trump. he responded if it's what you say i love it, especially later in the summer. >> when you hear that, congressman, are these e-mails to you a smoking gun, proof of collusion? >> well, i'm going to let director mueller determine whether or not this was collusion or conspiracy, whatever the proper legal term may be. i'm not a lawyer so i'm not going to make any presumptuous statements. i think anybody in a campaign would be very leery that if the agent of a foreign power or somebody who in this case apparently identified themselves as being part of the russian government or close to the russian government, i think you just have to say, no, don't take a meeting like that and you turn it over to law enforcement if, in fact, that happens. i have never been in that situation, but it's just something that would strike me as something you wouldn't want to get near. >> you would think, sort of the common sense, the common gut

check that you would make. before you go, i want to ask you about something you are involved and something that's very important when you talk about legislative action in this country, the health care debate. you voted no. president trump is putting a lot of pressure now in a new interview today. here he is. >> it has to get passed. they have to do it. they have to get together and get it done. >> what will happen if they don't? >> i don't want to talk about it because i think it will be very bad. i will be angry about it and a lot of people will be very upset. but i'm sitting waiting for that bill to come to my desk. >> mitch mcconnell is a tactician of great skill. do you think he could pull it off? it's his job. >> he's got to pull it off. he's working very hard. he's got to pull it off. >> you heard the president. congressman, do you think mitch mcconnell can pull this off? >> this is a very difficult issue. we all know that it is. i would simply say that the

medicaid provisions in the bill are very difficult for members who represent expansion states like mine, states that have expanded medicaid. and the landing in the house bill and i would also suggest in the senate bill, the landing is a bit harder. it's a bit too hard. and if you're going to cycle people off of medicaid into the exchanges, you know, the tax credits have been insufficient for people to buy coverage. and as long as that problem exists, i don't know how one could pass a bill. there are other provisions in the bill, too, i think are problematic. if he moves it too far to the right, he'll lose more to the center. so he doesn't have a lot of margin for error, mitch mcconnell. he is very skillful and he's capable, but this is tough for anybody. i don't care how skillful mitch mcconnell is in this case. it might be too much for anyone. >> i appreciate your time. and outfront next, something we don't see every day here and

the image coming out of donald trump praying in the oval office and all of those hands on him. the white house not happy with questions about it tonight. it's a good thing we brought the tablets huh?

yeah, and i can watch the game 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. tonight, the white house firing back at critics of the president's meeting with evangelical leaders. it all started when an attendee, johnny moore, posted this photo of the meeting. trump in prayer with a series of people all with their hands on him. jessica schneider, take us inside that meeting. >> reporter: this was the meeting of the faith advisory board. this was inside the oval office

monday. that picture was taken by johnny moore from liberty university. people are praying over president trump. johnny moore said that unlike their relationship with president obama, they believe that they have this true, real friendship with president trump. and johnny moore talked about the meeting, the president's demeanor in the midst of this russian investigation. this was the day before donald trump, jr. released the e-mails. but saying that the president was in good spirits, he seemed tough and outgoing. but sarah huckabee sanders, the deputy press secretary, was asked about this in the press briefing today. one reporter asked, were these faith leaders gathered around the president in prayer specifically because it seems that this white house is in a political crisis? sanders issued a stern rebuke to this suggesting that the question itself was ignorant. take a listen.

>> the idea that somebody would only pray when they're in crisis i think makes you miss the entire point of what prayer is about. you should do that every day. i think you can do that in the best and worst of times. so i think it would be ridiculous to suggest the only time you might do that is in a time of crisis. >> reporter: in that press briefing today, those were the strongest words from sarah huckabee sanders, really lashing out at that reporter saying that prayer could be used in all sorts of instances, not just as that reporter suggested in a time of political crisis. erin? >> right. of course, obviously when you see the photo, one of the things that stands out is all those people with hands on the president in support of him. he sat down with pat robertson for an interview today and had this meeting. is he trying to reach out specifically to the evangelical base? >> reporter: it does seem that way, erin. you mentioned that sitdown interview with pat robertson.

it's interesting, because when we got some to have clips from that, it does not seem that pat robertson asked him any question about donald trump, jr.'s e-mail release. evangelicals supported donald trump with an overwhelming majority, 81% of them. donald trump did speak to a meeting of evangelical leaders last month and said, you didn't let me down, and i will never, ever let you down. so a very close connection there, erin. >> thank you very much, jessica. and next, about that amelia picture. jeanne moos follows up on the photo.

tonight's number, two. what do go bloggers and two years have to do with that photo so many people were hoping was of amelia earhart? jeanne moos has the answer. >> reporter: might as well put this photo in the fun while it lasted file, and it didn't last long. a history channel special on amelia earhart promised to shock us. >> i believe it's proof beyond a reasonable doubt. >> reporter: uh-oh. >> new doubts this morning. >> reporter: doubts that amelia earhart and her navigator were photographed alive in the marshall islands after crashing in the pacific. >> this is amelia earhart?

>> that's right. >> reporter: no, that's probably wrong. and her navigator, fled noonan? >> the hairline is the most distinctive characteristic. >> reporter: probably not him either. as for something being towed supposed to be the wreckage of the plane, the theory is they were picked up and imprisoned by the japanese. but a couple of bloggers uncovered the original photo published in a travel logbook in 1935, nearly two years before amelia earhart even took off on her final flight. matt holly, an american living in the marshall islands, was one of the bloggers who tracked down the photo. >> this is one of the magical mysteries of the universe, like where is jimmy hoffa? >> reporter: just last week, i and most of the world's media outlets stood there as if the latest photo weren't already questionable enough. dissecting the photo that's

since been debunked, debunked by second japanese blogger who said he found the original photo in japan's library in half hour. the history channel says it has a team of investigators exploring the latest developments. >> we want to follow the facts where they lead. >> reporter: just so they don't lead to gullible's island. jeanne moos, cnn, new york. >> and thanks for joining us. we'll see you tomorrow. "ac 360" starts now. good evening. a lot on hag tonight, including new video on cnn of donald trump long before he decided to run for president with the father and son who brokered the meeting with donald trump, jr. more on that shortly. the president is heading to paris. his mood said to be of frustration and fury, at times defiance. two officials saying president trump has spent the last few days