mall. >> good report from david. thank you very much. that's it for me. thanks very much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." erin burnett "outfront" starts right now. "outfront" next, sean spicer still insisting donald trump jr.'s meeting with the russian lawyer was about adoption. why can't the white house get its stories straight? and why he says the u.s. is, quote, closed to a laughing stock and the white house fights back. he's my guest tonight. and ann coulter shames delta airlines and a passenger but did delta get the last laugh? let's go "outfront." i'm erin burnett. "outfront" tonight, ignoring the proof. the white house press secretary sean spicer today sticking with a talking point that defies evidence and logic.

at issue is the meeting two between donald trump jr. and a russian lawyer that was promised to give information damaging to hillary clinton. when asked about that meeting today, sean spicer said this. >> there was nothing, as far as we know, that would lead anyone to believe that there was anything except for a discussion about adoption and the magnitsky act. >> that's not true because that meeting was never purported to be about adoption. how do we know that? the e-mail to donald trump jr. was very clear. it said that the meeting would, quote, provide the trump campaign with official documents and information that would incriminate hillary and her dealings with russia and be very useful to your father. this is obviously very high level and sensitive information but as part as russia and government's support for mr. trump. in those e-mails, of course, they said it was a russian government lawyer that would present this information to donald trump jr. spicer even contradicted today

in his comment the president of the united states who went to twitter to say this, and i quote president trump, most politicians would have gone to a meeting like the one that don junior attended to get info on an opponent. that's politics. the president simply says this is politics as usual. >> i think from a practical standpoint, most people would have taken that meeting. it's called opposition research or even research into your opponent. >> that comment is troubling. politicians in both parties and trump's own fbi nominee say that no one should have taken that meeting. not politics as usual, by any stretch of the imagination. here we are, it's been nine days since the story first broke. the white house is still giving conflicting answers on what happened inside that room at trump tower.

manu raju is on capitol hill. you have sean spicer and the president of the united states not on the same page. what's the reaction on capitol hill tonight? >> reporter: there's not support for the president's defense of this meeting and not even from republicans in the house and senate side who have been muted in their response and very critical about what the president is saying. a lot of members want to get more information about exactly what happened, including the leader of the key committees investigating this issue saying this is a matter that will be investigated further. i did speak with one republican who has take answer tougher line on russia than donald trump has. senator lindsey graham of south carolina. i started asking him about whether he believes jared kushner's security clearance is suspended but criticized the president's defense of that meeting that donald trump took with the russians and paul man north and jared kushner. here's what graham said. >> in this regard, we should not be encouraging people to meet with foreign governments.

it's not standard politics. as a matter of fact, there's no end to this in 2020, it will be here before you know it. >> reporter: a group of senate democrats earlier today, erin, wrote a letter to the white house asking that jared kushner's security clearance to be suspended because, in their words, he, quote, may pose a danger to our country by accessing high-level intelligence after not reviewing some of these meetings with russians and initially on the security clearance forms he's since amended them. not many republicans are joining that democratic call. however, including the senate intelligence committee chairman, richard burr, who i asked directly, should jared kushner's security clearance be suspended. he said, well, maybe not. he said that he has amended the forms and they are fairly accurate. >> manu, thank you very much. adam kinzinger is joining me. thank you for your time tonight. two former senior intelligence officers tell me that no entry

level cia analyst could get hired after doing what jared kushner did, right, change his security clearance form application multiple times, edit it, add, edit it, add. the question for you is, given that, should jared kushner have security clearance tonight? >> well, look, i'm going to leave that right now to the administration to make that decision and ultimately more information coming out, i think it's a big jump to say we demand this only because, as i've said, we need to get all of this information. this meeting, however, and different things, whether it comes to social media that we're finding out is of interest to a lot of us and figuring out what exact role was being played. you about i think when you have the two committees out here dealing with this, mr. mueller dealing with this and his investigation, i prefer to wait for that to jump to a conclusion. i'll tell you, at no point should we ever accept as a nation, as a party, as anybody anybody ever working with a foreign government to enfluns an

electi influence an election. >> let me ask you one more point that could be important here. do you believe right now -- you think this is the senior adviser to the president of the united states -- that these multiple edits and revisions to a security clearance form with this meeting, the one that we're talking about here with donald trump jr. and a russian lawyer and others added at the end of june, do you think that was an honest mistake? >> well, it's hard for me to tell. i don't know. i think it was highly improper. you think about the contacts and stuff that we have out here on a daily basis with whether they are diplomats or whatever, one would slip through the crack or something but depending on what was discussed in this meeting, i think, you know, meeting with somebody that potentially was a kgb or sfb and now car have out the details that the russians have information it would be hard to forget that but it's hard for me to put motives into

the mind of somebody until i know more and that's what we're waiting to see. >> of course, this is the top story tonight, the reaction of the president's tweet, he came out defending his son and i want to read it again to you. the president writes, "most politicians would have gone to a meeting like the one don junior attended in order to get info on an opponent. that's politics." senator graham criticize the the president saying that the president should not be encouraging meetings with foreign adversaries. you've been blunt about this. you said you would have gone straight to the fbi even if it was from someone reporting to be from the canadian government. what's your reaction to the president's tweet? >> i think it's wrong. people can ascribe bad motives to politicians all the time. they do. sometimes, politicians have bad motives. i don't know anybody out here frankly that would take a

meeting with any russian operative or anything from the russian government or at least if they did, which i don't think they would, but if they did, they'd know they would be doing something wrong, something not right. we cannot get to a point, we can never get to a point in this country where it is acceptable to take information from a foreign government to influence an election. that could be russia, canada, anybody. the foreign -- any foreign government needs to stay out of our politics because what that does is it undermines people's faith in the institution of government and their ability to have their vote heard or counted or voice heard. when people lose faith in government and institutions, that leads down the road to people feeling like they don't have a voice, which is serious instability. that's what we out here as politicians, as elected officials have to defend, is the integrity underpinning the entire system. >> there's breaking news at this hour, congressman. the russian deputy foreign

minister has just met with the u.s. official at the department of state. he says he's, quote, almost at a deal and that deal would get two seize the mansions into our hands. these are basically russian spy compounds outside new york city and washington, d.c., and they were shut down, russians sent out of the country in response to russian meddling in the election. the words tonight, almost at a deal to get them back from the trump administration. congressman, do you support giving those come poubpounds ba russia? >> it depends on if russia stops bomb innocent women and children in hospitals, that's a good exchange. if the deal is, hey, we want to give these back to you so you're nice to us or we can have a good relationship, that would be a very bad deal. i hope this isn't just an effort to make them happy to give them these compounds back.

>> congressman kinzinger, thank you for your time. >> anytime. take care. "outfront" next, the billionaire russian businessman who is behind the donald trump jr. meeting. new details tonight about his connections to putin and trump. plus, john mccain undergoes serious surgeries on his skull. dr. sanjay gupta will be here to talk about how significant this surgery is. and jeanne moos on the ongoing feud between delta air lines and ann koult ter. test. 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,

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unusual or severe stomach pain, especially with bloody or black stools. the most common side effect is diarrhea, sometimes severe. if it's severe, stop taking linzess and call your doctor right away. other side effects include gas, stomach-area pain, and swelling. talk to your doctor about managing your symptoms proactively with linzess. tonight, new details about the meeting at the controversial trump tower that donald trump jr. agreed to have with russians. he thought they were bringing damaging information about hillary clinton. one of the men in that meeting has clear connections with the kremlin. ivan watson has the details. >> reporter: alas agalarov built one of the biggest shopping complexes in moscow. his son, a russian pop singer who goes by the stage name emin.

both father and son making headlines in the u.s. because according to e-mails published by donald trump jr., they asked emin's promoter to set off a june 2016 meeting in trump's new york tower. according to an e-mail sent to trump junior, the purpose of the meeting was to deliver sensitive russian government information to help donald trump j's electi campaign. the elder agalarov, is one of the most richest business men in russia, according to "forbes." his company runs shopping malls, luxury restaurants, concert halls and a convention center. >> you and i could not build the same complex. you have to be an insider, you have to have good, strong relationships with the authorities. >> reporter: in 2013, russian president vladimir putin gave

agalarov a medal of honor. since then, the government awarded his group some big contracts, including a 129 million doll laars and more tha $500,000 to build two soccer stadiums for the upcoming 2018 fifa world cup. in 2013, the agalarovs teamed up with trump to host the miss universe contest in moscow. the future u.s. president made a cameo in one of emin's video. a trump tweet from 2013 suggests the u.s. and russian real estate moguls might have plans to build a trump tower in moscow. and there would be more contact. cnn has obtained exclusive footage of this 2013 party in las vegas when trump met with

emin and his publicist rob goldstone. now the agalarovs are under scrutiny. it was attended by donald trump jr. and two trump campaign officials as well as a russian lawyer, emin's british publicist and an unnamed representative of the agalarovs. the agalarovs confirmed to cnn that they helped set up that meeting but deny they were working for the russian government and deny that their intent was to try to meddle in u.s. politics but u.s. officials are not so sure. senior members of congress, they say they'll investigate the controversial meeting as part of their broader probe into alleged russian interference in the u.s. 2016 election. erin? >> ivan, thank you very much. new details, let's go now to our editor at large, chris cillizza

and richard painter and former cia counterterrorism official phil mudd. from ivan's report there, the agalarov's family, you've got a russian tycoon, pop star and they helped to arrange this meeting. what this report makes clear is that when they say they have information from the senior levels of the russian government, one would believe that because everything that they had is because of their relationship with the kremlin. >> that's right. when you look at what don junior is doing, he's getting a call from someone he doesn't know. one is money, two is sex, three is power. this is about access to power. if you want access to power, you need trust and credibility. the lawyer didn't have that trust. especially when she's promising to damaging information about hillary clinton. but she comes with a stamp of approval not only with somebody that the trump family knows but with someone who has access to the kremlin. so he's looking at this, i

guarantee you, and saying, i'd take this meeting not because she's coming to talk about adoptions but because she may have information about clinton and she's got the stamp of approval from people who have kremlin connections. pretty simple. >> you're not somebody who is in the 200 riches people and building all of these buildings in moscow unless you have the approval of the kremlin. >> absolutely. look, the reason that this e-mail was even listened to, i'm sure donald trump jr. gets plenty of e-mails. >> yes. >> the reason this was listened to is because rob gold stostone someone he knew because of the miss universe pageant in russia in 2013. this was already all set. to the other point, rob goldstone, unless he was lying, rob goldstone is making clear this is highly sensitive information. he uses the word incriminating, his word about hillary clinton, this comes from a russian

government official. so it's all there and, again, donald trump jr. takes this meeting because he views goldstone and the russian family, therefore, as credible sources looking out for donald trump's best interests. it's important to extricate those two things from one another. >> so on this point, about who is in this room, right, and this is what we're looking at now, the big mystery right now, ivan points out there was another person in that meeting and we now is it was a representative of the agalarov family. they actually cared enough not just to have an intermediary set it up but a representative from the family in that room. do you, phil, feel that there are a lot more details here that we're going to learn? >> heck yes. look at this from an investigative angle. we've seen a sliver. one slice of e-mails from one person. as soon as i see the number of people in the room multiply, i'm looking at investigative avenues

that will help us determine maybe whether donald junior is lying or not. every one of these people have a cell phone, e-mail address and especially the americans in the room, the people from the trump campaign, they're going to be interviewed. with all of that data and interviews, they better be darn sure they don't make a mistake about what the information is. >> with russians with links to the government, at least from my experience, they're going to have several cell phones. three, four, five. richard, you know, last month the trump re-election campaign paid $50,000 to the law firm now representing donald trump jr. that payment came on june 27th a. few days after jared kushner amended his security clearance form to add the specific meeting. is that timeline important, do you think? >> well, i think it's quite obvious that this meeting involved collusion with the russians with respect to the

election. and so, of course, any controversies come out of this meeting, any lawyers fees are going to end up getting picked up by the trump campaign because he was working for the trump campaign when he was doing it and it's very clear what was going on in this meeting. the russians want a lifting of the sanctions that have been posed against russia. the economic sanctions by the obama administration as the russian billionaire who is have the most at stake with respect to those sanctions and the adoption issues is just a side show there. they wanted information on hillary clinton. it was a quid pro quo. it was a bribe and a deal. >> president trump's attorney, jay suck ka lekulow says if the something wrong, the secret service would have done something about it. let me play his excuse right

here. >> i wonder why the secret service, if this was nefarious, why the secret service allowed these people in. the president had secret service protection at that point. >> after that comment, the secret service has elaborated and said, no, we would not have checked out the participants of the meeting because don junior was not being protected by the secret service. by the way, it's the fbi who is responsible for who they are allowing into the country and not. why would sekulow give this excuse? >> distraction. this is a political spin, political sort of deception, both parties do it, sort of, hey, look over here at this thing because they don't want you to look over here. the reality is, we should not lose sight of this. donald trump jr. released an e-mail exchange between himself and the agalarov's music publicist, rob goldstone, in which he says flat out, we want to have this meeting.

we have what we believe to be incriminating evidence against hillary clinton. it comes as a result of russia's effort to help aid mr. trump in the election and don junior says, quote, love it, hope that it's true. if so, we can use it later in the summer. i don't know that it's more complicated than that. you can throw out all sorts of things, shiny objects as spin but that's not my word. that's not phil mud. that's not richard painter. that's donald trump jr.'s e-mails that he released. so i can't get beyond that. i think we shouldn't get beyond that because that is remarkable. >> richard, let me give you the final word. is this black and white in terms of its implication regardless of what actually happened in the meeting? let's assume in the meeting it was a whole lot of nothing. >> well, yes. this is something that never should have happened. this is not the way politics is done in the united states. i do not know of politicians

going to foreign governments for opposition research for the dirt on the political and no examples and top three in the trump campaign doing this and furthermore, jared kushner did not disclose these meetings on his security clearance forms. his security clearance should be revoked and congress needs to investigate this. find out what happened. because this was clearly collusion with the russian government and it was a quid pro quo. the government wants release of the sanctions. they may get two buildings back very soon. and other sanctions in return for the dirt on hillary clinton. that's the kind of quid pro quo, the kind of deal that the united states government does not do. >> thank you all very much. i appreciate your time. and "outfront" next, trump's approval rating, the lowest at this point in 70 years. but the white house has a totally different set of numbers. is trump's base wavering or not? and the man who just resigned from running the ethics office says america is a

laughing stock under trump. he's my guest tonight. r experie. their leadership is instinctive. they're experts in things you haven't heard of - researchers of technologies that one day, you will. some call them the best of the best. some call them veterans. we call them our team.

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go irish! see that? yes! i'm gonna just go back to doing what i was doing. find your awesome with the xfinity x1 voice remote. the rating after just six months in office was 36%. and that slide of support is not coming from the president's core supporters. they are standing by their man. miguel marquez is "outfront." >> reporter: in deep blue massachusetts, president trump voters -- >> four years from now i think it will be more politically

savvy and not giving in to neb or taking crap from anybody, that's what people want. >> reporter: they certainly wanted it in this rural corner of the state. all 14 counties here voted clinton but dig a little deeper and increasingly conservative in the south and west. the highest percentage of trump voters, 62%. ralph ledger retired defensively general employee spent his days building a 1964 corvette. so far, he sees only a smooth ride for the president. >> do you think the wall will be built? >> absolutely. >> do you think health care will be repealed? >> yes. it's going to take a while to get the people in. wouldn't it be nice instead of taking all of these vacations if they just stayed and got the work done? that would be great.

i think he's the hardest working president. certainly in my memory. and he works seven days a week but that's not the way it is down in washington. >> so whether he's in florida or wherever else. >> he's working phone calls. >> there's so much on russia and collusion -- >> no. you guys talking about it. there's nothing. there's zero. nothing. >> reporter: there's several investigations going on. >> so what. there should be investigations about hillary. >> reporter: just down the road, russell once home to several paper mills. today, they are all shut. it flipped. obama nearly won here in 2012. trump won it big by more than 20 points. >> reporter: we are seven months into it. >> uh-huh. >> reporter: how do you think he's doing? >> i think he's doing okay. i'd like to see a lot more done. >> reporter: shelly , a retired

cafe workers, says that it will keep the president from fulfilling his campaign promises. >> i think a lot of it is being held up with all of these investigations and i wish they would let up on some of them so that they would give him a chance to maybe get some things done, like, you know, more with jobs, with the health care. >> reporter: the president's agenda imperilled by investigation. his supporters standing firm. two things really stuck out to me while covering this story. one is, many of his supporters will accept absolutely zero criticism of the president. even using the word tumultuous and describing his administration so far in conversation can invite an argument. the other thing that was shocking is politics are clearly driving this country apart at the tiniest towns out there. literally. republicans and democrats in many cases just not talking to each other anymore. erin? >> a real tragedy.

thank you very much. let's go to jason miller now, former adviser for the trump campaign. simone sanders, press secretary for bernie sanders, campaign communications consultant. simone, let me start with you. you look at those top level approval ratings and as i think miguel just fantastically reported, you could drill down the state of massachusetts and find a town that 500 people or 62% of the people voted for trump. they are not budging. they defend their president. they believe in their president. what is it about the democrats' message that is failing to resonate with these block of voters? >> these are voters that, look, donald trump was extremely unpopular when he got elected and doing a lot of the same things that he was doing. so folks voted for him for a couple of reasons. there's been a lot of different polling and obama/trump voters, persuadable voters and what they are saying is, look, a lot of them voted for trump because of what he said about the economy and the promises about medicare

and medicaid and they have yet to see him deliver or not deliver on that front and so that's why the support has yet to waiver. >> jason, the abc "washington post" poll, the overall number was 36% of americans approve of president trump's job performance which, as i pointed out, was the lowest in 70 years. bloomberg, 39%. down from 43% in march but flat from may. look, how big of an issue is this? they can say whatever we don't believe the polls, the polls can be wrong. so just dismiss it? >> i don't think it's an issue at all. these first six snapshots are usually wildly inaccurate. if you look at president carter's first six months versus president clinton's, president carter was a whopping 40 points ahead of president clinton and i think even the most objective person would say president clinton was a far more effective

president and carter may have been one of the most least effective in modern history. something that simone did not mention during her opportunity is when the folks were asked about the democratic party, 37% said that the democratic party actually stood for something and 52% said the only thing that the democratic party stood for and they lost a sense of messaging at this point. >> simone, on this point, i talked to a white house source who is talking to me how they are conducting their own internal polling in 15 must-win states right now. trump support there is just shy of 50%. so that's about ten points higher than in any of those other polls. they say these are the states that matter. by the way, they might be completely right about that, right? >> they could be right. i'm hesitant to touch anything coming out of this white house. look, it's a fact that, yes -- >> wouldn't you admit that on polling they would want to really get that right, right? >> i would hope they'd want to

get that right. these are the same folks bringing donald trump things and articles that are favorable to him so that he feels good. so i think what's important here are real, raw numbers and real people. if you go out there and talk to real people, people want to know what the democratic party stands for, which is why it's important for democrats to keep the pressure up on russia and more importantly to talk specifically about health care and what democrats are going to do for people and what the democratic party plans are. that's how we're going to win in 2018. not just saying that these folks are really bad. >> jason? >> i'd say in polls like this, whether it be "the washington post," abc, bloomberg, a number of other outlets that have had news polls, rather than asking five, six, seven questions trying to figure out how terrible, in their view, president trump is, let's go through the positive accomplishments, whether it's decreasing illegal border crossings, whether it's getting us out of ttp, something that simone and i both agree on, this president has done positive

things. look, we know this is a president that is trying to tip over the apple cart in washington. he's a change agent. that's not going to happen overnight. trump supporters are in for the long haul here. >> and he -- this president has not had any real legislative wins and that's what matters. i would ask the president to put wins up on the board. >> thank you both very much. that's why health care is so important. i know you both agree on that. next, according to an expert, donald trump is an ethics disaster. he is my guest and senator john mccain's medical condition tonight. it is a crucial story for the legislation in this country and it is more serious now than first thought as surgeons cut through his skull. the president wishing mccain well tonight. >> he's a crusty voice in washington and plus we need his vote. even a swing set standoff.

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meeting. so he was at that meeting at trump tower in june. it was reported that the individual was there on behalf of the agalarov but the mystery remains about why he was there. according to futerfas, he spoke to him on the phone. this person claimed to be a u.s. citizen and he also said that he was not at that meeting on behalf of the russian government, that he was not working for the russian government when he was at that meeting. this is what he told futerfas over the phone. and now a caution here, we don't have his name. don junior's name nor the agalarov's attorney will name this person. it remains a bit of a mystery in terms of who he is but he claimed to the attorney, alan futerfas, that he was not there on behalf of the russian government but there representing the agalarov family and the attorney also told me that he was also there to kind of help the russian attorney, the female russian attorney to get to the meeting and make sure she got there okay.

and so this is sort of putting the pieces of the puzzle together as we try to figure out who was in the meeting at trump tower and why. futerfas also said, because what he's trying to do here is make sure all of the stories line up and he said that this mystery eighth person, this representative of the agalarov family, also what he said was consistent with what others have said went on in this meeting, that there were pleasantries exchanged and the russian attorney talked about this alleged degr alleged derogatory information showing russians contributing to the dnc. what's worth mentioning here, the russian attorney in an interview with nbc mentioned that she left behind documents in this meeting. the attorney, though, says no one he has spoken to, including his client don junior and this representative for the agalarov family has any recollection of any documents left behind. >> now, there's also, of course, the importance here of the timeline, pamela, in terms of,

you know, jared kushner and his third revision of the security clearance form adding this meeting towards the end of june when the president of the united states found out about this meeting. obviously we now know that the trump re-election campaign paid $50,000 to the lawyer you're talking about, alan futerfas. what did you just learn about that payment and the timing? >> yeah. that's right. this was a payment of $50,000 in late june paid on behalf of the trump re-election campaign to alan futerfas for his work on behalf of don junior and this is the same day that my colleague called jared kushner's team about the meeting. he found out through a source about this meeting that no one had reported on yet so on that day apparently this is when that lawyer was hired to represent don junior. just quickly, i found this interesting, he released a statement talking about the fact that he and his client were going to provide more information about the meeting

initially before "the new york times" article. he said don junior and his counsel were fully prepared and absolutely prepared to publish and make a statement about the nature of the meeting, what led to the meeting, what the conversation was and the meeting and so sort of insinuating there perhaps, although he didn't explicitly say that, that he was not fully involved in the initial statement that came out. >> pamela, thank you very much. in president trump tweeting "most politicians would have gone to a meeting like the one don junior attended in order to get information on an opponent. that's politics". you heard a gop say he would not have done such thing. the president's own nominee for fbi director says nobody should take such meeting. the outspoken office of the ethics chief that stepped down, i appreciate you taking the time. he said that most politicians would have taken that meeting. that's politics.

anybody i have heard defend this has said that would be opposition research. does the president have a point? >> thanks for having me here, erin. that's outside the scope of the things that oge looks at. i think what you need to remember is this is part of a bigger picture of breaking with elt c ethical norms at the executive branch. we've seen it with the decision not to divest his financial interests and visit his property and bring his own children into the white house. so i think it's in that context that you have to view this kind of thing and if others have not behaved that way in the past, there was a reason they didn't do it. >> you raise a point of children in the white house and obviously the president's children, you're referring to. after we found out about this meeting with donald trump jr., one told the president that it's time to get his family members out of the white house. here's congressman -- >> i think it would be in the

president's best interests if he removed all of his children from the white house, not only don junior but ivanka and jared kushner. >> i hope he takes that advice. the office of legal counsel of the department of justice issued an opinion on the first day of this administration reversing its long-standing position nepotism in the white house. i think that's part of what we're seeing, is that the traditions of the executive branch are slipping away. these things weren't thought up in an ivory tower somewhere. they are the product of years of experience with the goal of instilling confidence on the part of public and the integrity of the government's operations. >> when you say they're slipping away, i know you've had the honor of serving in three different administrations, george w. bush and barack obama and donald trump. when obama was president, donald

trump claimed he was the least transparent president in history. here he is. >> president obama is the least transparent president in the history of this country. there's never been anything like it. >> i'd like to have him be transparent. we know nothing about our president. >> there's a total lack of transparency. some day, those papers will come out and people will say, you know what, donald trump was right. this is a very, very sad day for the united states of america. >> walter, look, president obama and the obama administration only posted and does trump have a point? >> when you make statements like anybody, i think you're going out on a limb there. my goal really isn't to defend one administration or another. what i can tell you is that in the past two administrations,

one democrat, one republican, i felt an incredible level of support for the government ethics program and oge depended on that support. we could always call the bush white house or the obama white house and with a particular appointee and by the next morning we'd have a phone call by somebody, either the person in question or somebody who works for them saying what can we do for you? and it was that level of commitment that helped set a tone from the top and it's everything. the people below you are going to follow your example and at a minimum you ought to hold yourself to the exact same standard that you're holding them to. >> so the white house has been critical of you and your comments, right, when you referred to how our country can be a laughing stock now. they released a statement actually yesterday. it said in part, quote, the truth is, mr. schaub is interesting in grandstanding for

the office he holds. you're resigning from your position tomorrow. what's your response? i want to give you a response. >> anybody who disagrees with him is partisan. i can point to two objective facts. i wouldn't be quitting this job if i wanted to continue sticking around and and i retweeted so i could try to fete more people to see it, that we have been moving their nominees faster than president obama's nominees by about a week. compared to the last presidential transition. i in my staff had had our sleeves rolled up and we're working hard to support them moving the nominees faster than the last add mgs is quite an accomplishment because they are considerably wealthier on average and have much more cop plex financial holdings. which would normally low the process down. frankly some of them have followed the tone set from the

top and pushed back with a level of intensity. we just haven't seen before. i can't count the number of times i see members of my hard working staff come out rubbing they forehead saying why does everything have to be a fight. because they're fighting us tooth and nail on efforts to help them resolve their conflicts of interest. we often say we're not coming if you. we're the prevention mechanism. work with us so we can resolve your conflicts of interest. >> thank you. >> we're following breaking news on the condition of senator john mccain. recovering from a surprise cr. e doctors have cut through the skull of mccain to remove a blood clot above his eye. >> john had not been feeling good. he had been traveling a lot. we wrote it off to being tired. he was getting forgetful and wore himself out traveling around the world. i'm glad they found out what i

think was the cause. >> you think this was the cause. >> i this hi so. after talking to him i talked to him sunday. just like the old john mccain. much more engaged in conversation. >> after cnn aired this exclusive. graham said he shouldn't have used the world forgettable. there's a lot to talk about. mccain a hero in the country and crucial member of the senate. doctor gup ta. look, mccain's office is saying this procedure came about following a routine annual physical. he would be recovering at home for a week. how serious it this though? >> it's a brain operation. i think when you read the first reports first description is said he had an incision around the eyebrow and removed a blood clot. let me show you again it's sort of obvious, but the bone that we're talking about is right in this area up here. that's if you feel your eyebrow that bone back there. the frontal bone.

that was removed in the senators case to began access to his brain. the bone was put back eventually but the goal was to get to this part of brain and remove a blood collection. and it was not a small blood collection it was about five cent meters in size. about two inches. pretty good size blood collection. we don't know exactly what caused that blood collection. so it sounds like he went home quickly, recovering well. it's a brain operation. he's 80 years old these have to be taken seriously. >> we all know the truth. there were a lot of eyebrows raised in june. when mccain directed a very confusing line of questioning to james comey. >> in the case of mr. comemy. president comey, case of president trump, you an ongoing

investigation. you're going to have to help me out here. in other words we're completely the investigation of anything that former secretary clinton had to do with the campaign is over and we don't have to worry about it anymore? >> with respect to -- i'm confused. >> his remarks were confusing. jarring for anyone listening to it. he had to issue a statement. remember i get the sense from twitter my line of questioning went over peoples heads. maybe going forward i shouldn't stay up watching the diamond backs night games. was his behavior a red flag. >> it was concerning certainly. but it could be related today what we were talking about here with the blood collection. more likely not. when someone has difficulty with memory or difficulty finding words, those can be caused by different areas of brain being affected. with this particular area of the brain again right if the front the left frontal lobe.

more likely trouble with judgment, trouble with strength on one side of the body. may have headaches or just stayed up late watching a baseball game. >> all right, thank you very much. and out front next. turbulence for ann colter and delta airlines. the twitter war between them. day 13. if only this were as easy as saving $600

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>> ann colder knows how to stir up disturb lens. she booked an aisle seat on an exit row, when delta put someone else on the seat, she went ballistic on twitter. just when you think it's safe to air them again the worst airline in america is still delta. >> the gate agent hands me a slip saying your seat has been changed. i said why. she said emergency. >> delta tweeted back we're sorry you did not receive the seat you paid for and we'll refund your $30. additionally your insults about customers ask employees are unacceptable and unnecessary. ann called airline staff, nurse ratchets. and she referred to the passenger who got her seat as the horn legged woman. >> it's referring to her short legs. >> the story has legs.

ann's twitter rant kept going and going and going. saturday, sunday, monday. she embellished a delta plane with the caption we suck. leaving a critic of the author was your broom stick in the shop. adding a witch cartoon. as for the $30 refund, ann tweeted it cost $10,000 of her time to preselect the seat. calculated by using her hourly rate. >> you just have to lie back and take it. unless you want to be dragged off the plane like that other customer. >> though at the time of the united airlines incident, he wasn't so sympathetic suggesting he should be deported. she slammed delta for bungling her seat reservation for quoting seinfeld. when it came to the woman who got her seat. >> you compared her to a dog. they are adorable. >> at least one critic agreed

adding, i would sit next to one over year any day. this turned into a real aerial dog fight. >> thanks for joining us. ac 360 begins now. >> good evening a lot happening tonight including republican senators at white house talking healthcare with the president. new poll numbers and a new record lowest job approval number at the six month mark of any president in polling history. democrats shouldn't get too quick to gloat. their poll numbers make them come off as a party without a plan. also breaking news on the russia meeting and word of an eighth person in the room. strange and conflicts accounts from the white house on that meeting. donald trump jr. had with the russian lawyer. two saturdays since the news broke. jared kushner and