hello. i'm wolf blitzer. 1:00 p.m. in washington, 8:00 p.m. in moscow, 9:00 p.m. in kabul. whereof you're watching from around the world, welcome. waiting to hear directly from jared kushner from the white house. looking a the microphone there outside the west wing. the president's son-in-law and trusted adviser spent much of the day so far up on capitol hill answering questions from senate intelligence committee staffers. at any moment now, we're told we expect to hear directly from kushner, making a public statement. we'll have live coverage of that as soon as it happens.

we expect that to begin momentarily. meantime, let's bring in our senior without correspondent jeff zeleny at the white house. national correspondent suzanne malveaux on capitol hill. suzanne, take us through what happened so far over the course of the past few hours during kushner's meeting up on capitol hill. other than jared kushner's account, will we be hearing any of his statements so far to these congressional staffers? >> reporter: well, wolf, it was true to form, about two hours ago, as promised going before the staffers of the senate intelligence committee. jared kushner and a notetaker. also present about a half dozen senate staffers and a transcript that was taken of that interview. a transcript the legal team says they certainly do not object to being made public. something that we don't know when it will be made public but certainly it will be available. also we're told before this meeting that according to a source, that jared kushner would

take all questions. our ted barrett, producer, asked him on his way out whether or not he, in fact, did do that. he said, yes, he had. all the questions they had, he said it went very well. he is on his way to the white house and we know this was not sworn testimony but tomorrow will go before the house intelligence committee that will be sworn testimony and expected to be interviewed before members of that committee. not just staffers and then a transcript made available. as you know, wolf, part of a very concertsed effort and orchestrated effort, if you will, to show some transparency from jared kushner and his team going to the white house to make a statement very shortly. wolf? >> even though, suzanne, not sworn testimony, you can't lie to congressional staffering or congressional members. >> reporter: right. >> if you do, that's a crime. so where do we stand right now suzanne on donald trump jr.,

paul manafort and their appearance before these committees? >> reporter: wednesday, looking at the notes, records, provided by donald trump jr. as well as paul manafort. they've been behind the scenes negotiating with this committee. a lot of people quite frustrated donald trump jr. will not testify publicly as he initially offered but rather behind the scenes working out these negotiations for these records. also interviews to follow later with the staffers and potentially with those committee members before any public testimony. senator chuck grassley, chair of that committee, kind of defensive, if you will, in these tweets. series of tweets he's sent out, he and senator dianne feinstein. the latest saying "on record interview with mine and senator feinstein's staff. no walk in the park. can be tougher than few minutes with members in hearing." a little pushback from gracely saying, look, you might not necessarily publicly hear their

testimony anytime soon, but bottom line, dianne feinstein says they'll get answers or are determined to, wolf. >> interesting. suzanne, stand by. jeff, the son-in-law, the president's senior adviser, while facing some of those tough questions, the president was tweeting this among other things. let me put it up on the screen. so why aren't the committees, and investigators and, of course, our beleaguered a.g., attorney general, looking into crooked hillary's crimes and russia relations? talk to us about this very, very controversial tweet. the apparent message, the attorney general of the united states, the former senate jeff sessions, calling him beleaguered? >> reporter: wolf interesting if you dissect that. one, the president trying to redirect attention to some other things. as his son-in-law is, you know, before the committee behind closed doors, this is pretty extraordinary, wolf. this marks a new chapter in this ongoing investigation here.

someone in the president's family certainly his inner circle as well on capitol hill. so the president certainly trying to divert attention, if you will, but if you look at that carefully, wolf. i was most struck by the attorney general's comments. he called hbeleaguered. this is the attorney general of the united states, jeff sessions. one of the earliest supporters of this president. the latest attempt from this president to try and -- you know, draw attention to jeff sessions. he's very displeased with him as we know because he recused himself from this russia investigation, but, wolf, he continues to beg the question, does the president want his attorney general to stay on? i am told they have still not had a face-to-face meeting since that interview last week with the "new york times," when the president just exploded and unloaded on his attorney general. so, wolf, very interesting there in those words. but i think as suzanne was saying, i believe what we're going to hear from jared kushner as he stands outside the white

house momentarily is talking a bit more about his answers to the questions this morning. and he put out a fairly extraordinary 11-page document this morning that talked about the four specific meetings he had with the russian officials. let's break those down a second. i think we have this. first is a -- a handshake he had with the russian ambassador. that was during the speech of a the mayflower hotel. second, of course, the meeting we talked about so long. june 2016. the meeting with the russian lawyer that he says he was trying to extract himself out early. this, the second two are after the election, of course. he had a meeting with the ambassador, the russian ambassador to the u.s. on december 1, 2016 and then again on december 13, wolf. this could be the most important of all. a meeting with a russian banker who is very close to vladimir putin. so those are the four specific elements that jared kushner went in to the meeting talking about. we did not know about all of these meetings. that, of course, is something that the, the senate staff was

certainly burrowing in on. we do not believe jared kushner will take questions when he speaks this afternoon in just a short period of time here, wolf. >> making a rare public statement. live coverage is coming up fairly soon. jeff zeleny, suzanne malveaux, guys, thanks very much. as we await jared kushner and his statement, let's talk about what the latest developments are all about. with us here chief political analyst gloria borger, chief political correspondent dana bash, laura coats and ryan cillizza. you've gone through the 11-page document. extraordinary in advance of this interview with congressional staffers, publicly released what he was about to say and then stood around for about 2.5 hours or so answering their questions. all of this is very dramatic. >> it is very dramatic and he kind of took a page from comey's book by putting his testimony

out there. although he isn't testifying publicly as the former fbi director did. and i think he felt that he needed to answer all of the questions about those four particular meetings, which, by the way, the media has written about, and knew about. i think there are still questions that need to be answered, and i think that this is probably what they're talking about behind closed doors. i think they're going to know, want to know more about his ties to russians as a result of his business. he was very careful today to say, i have not relies on russian funds to finance my business activities in the private sector. that's a very, know, carefully written statement. and i think they're going to want to know more about the analytics that he -- that he headed up during the campaign, because there have been some stories about whether the

russians had tried to hack into a lot of analytics. so i think these are going to be areas that they're going to pursue but as for these four meetings, he made it very clear there was nothing nefarious there. >> dana, we've covered congress, all of us, for a long time. usually somebody who is a witness releases an advance statement before an open hearing. this is what i'm about to say in my opening prepared remarks. rarely -- i don't remember a time when i've seen someone release a statement like this before a closed door, private session, not with senators or congressmen, but with staffers? >> it's absolutely unusual, but it is in keeping with what is clearly the kushner strategy. his legal team strategy, which is not to say much about the individual news stories that have come out about pretty much every, definitely everything that he mentions in this 11-page document, testimony, whatever you'd like to call it.

everything from his meeting with the russian ambassador to the meeting that was during the transition, back to june of 2016, when he attended the meeting that donald trump jr. set up with the russian lawyer. so it is unusual, but -- my point in saying it's in keeping with their strategy, they wanted to control it. they wanted to get it out all at once and the narrative we hear from kushner, gloria heard this, too, today, is they might have take an hit and clearly did take a hit in public relations, for the past several months, by keeping this all to themselves and waiting until they got it all together in one big document, but that they wanted to show that they're kind of playing within the confines of the investigations and that they wanted to preserve this information for the senate investigators to make it clear, at least to appear to be cooperating as much as they can. >> he was joined, laura, in this

session, abby lowell, a well-known lawyer here in washington. new lawyer. right there. had enormous experience dealing with these types of issues. what's the difference between testifying, answering questions before staffers as opposed to a formal sporn aal sworn in? >> the reality in public relations or legally speaking, if you present misinformation and you intentionally try to mislead congressional staffers congress, the public, you do have a public relations -- you have a legal consequence as well. they're trying to do, you're right, getting ahead of the story and crafting the narrative. that 11-page document said to me that lawyers had their hand in ensuring whatever jared kushner said was not about having malicious intent. he was trying to show that he did not have ill-will or intent to satisfy a legal doctrine he was perhaps the unwhiting

overwhelmed person asked to multitask in too many ways. in doing so he shielded himself from a lot of legal ridicule. he has no exonerated campaigners, not mention much of them. you're seeing a very carefully crafted narrative to try to avoid having any legal consequences, whatever testimony he ultimately gives. >> even though not sworn in, if he lied, that's a crime. >> yes. to be able to say, i'm lying to the media. we're out of that. congress relies upon this to be able to investigate further. you are now seeing somebody who's aware of the consequences. out of the political realm. in the legal realm now. remember, jeff sessions fell into this, you know, trap in a way, giving a statement. before a congressman, al franken, giving information that was not comprehensive enough to allow people to say, i understand you're not trying to mislead the public and congress. >> and ryan, i want to get

through a very controversial tweet from the president. why aren't the beleaguered a.g. looking into crooked hillary's crimes and russia relations? a pretty extraordinary tweet going after the attorney general of the united states. hold on a second. here comes jared kushner walking out of the west wing of the white house, down the driveway to the microphone. a rare public statement. let's listen in. >> my name is jared kushner. i am senior adviser to president donald j. trump. when my father-in-law decided to run for president, i served his campaign the best i could, because i believe in him and his ability to improve the lives of all americans. and now serving the president and the people of the united states has been the honor and privilege of a lifetime.

i am so grateful for the opportunity to work on important matters such as middle east peace and reinvigorating america's innovative spirit. every day i come to work with enthusiasm and excitement for what can be. i have not sought the spotlight. first in business, and now in public service, i have always focused on setting and achieving goals and have left it to others to work on media and public perception. since the first questions were raised in march, i have been consistent in saying that i was eager to share any information i have with the investigating bodies, and i have done so today. the record and documents i have voluntarily provided will show that all of my actions were proper and occurred in the normal course of events of a very unique campaign.

let me be very clear -- i did not collude with russia, nor do i know of anyone else in the campaign who did so. i had no improper contacts. i have not relied on russian funds for my businesses. and i have been fully transparent in providing all requested information. donald trump had a getter message and ran a smarter campaign, and that is why he won. suggesting otherwise ridicules those who voted for him. it is an honor to work with president trump and his administration as we take on the challenges that he was elected to face. creating jobs for american people, keeping america safe, and eliminating barriers to achieving the american dream. thank you very much, and i look

forward to taking questions from the house committee tomorrow. thank you. >> all right. not sticking around answering reporters' questions and there are a lot of reporters' questions. he did answer questions more than two hours earlier up on capitol hill from this closed-door meeting with congressional investigators, repeating now publicly what he said in his opening statement, a statement that he released before going up to capitol hill today. he said i did not collude nor know of anyone else in the campaign that colluded with any foreign government, to contacts or relied on russian funds to finance mybusiness activities in the private sector. basically, gloria, reiterating, hearing his voice, we haven't heard all that often, reiterating what he said in this written statement. >> you know, reiterating, but also taking it into the political realm, where he made it very clear. look, donald trump had a better message. he ran a better campaign.

and suggesting otherwise ridicules those who voted for him. meaning, that this whole russia controversy, the implication is, the whole russia controversy is being perpetrated by democrats who can't stand the result of the election, and it was, you know, a political statement coming from jared kushner. >> yes. and i think to even sort of take that, another step. we often talk about when people go out and speak for this president they are speaking for an audience of one. that line was for that audience. this is for you, father-in-law, mr. president. you know? i believe that anybody who questions the legitimacy of your election is belittling your voters. i did think that, you know, because this was legalese and i want to know what you think of this, since you're the lawyer here. i did not rely on russian money for my businesses -- okay. so, yeah. and he mentioned it also in the

statement. but i think just even hearing him say it out loud. it doesn't say, i didn't ask them for any money to help with -- >> or didn't get any. >> i didn't rely on. that was interesting. kind of big picture. the notion of him saying, back in march. that when this all started to go out in the press, that he started saying, i look forward to answering questions. he's trying to answer to the public relations question. you know? this whole thing is about his legal future and his legal culpability or potential culpability but the reality is that by not saying the things he said in this statement, or whatever he said behind closed doors, and letting it stay out there in the public realm for months without a real public answer has really contributed to his father-in-law and the president that he's working for, his agenda being sidelines. >> laura, what did you hear in the statement? >> his statement essentially is why people hate lawyers.

not me, of course, every other lawyer. a nuanced way, clear lie die fined terms, the reliance question. what i actually knew. you always tell clients do not try to remember. you can remember instantly, fine. if you don't, don't try. don't go out of your way to be pro actively coherent or remember things that happened. what you saw was that. repetitive nature what was already released to the public again today. a few weeks ago said he was more than willing to come up and volunteer talk about all he knows until a lawyer gets involved. craft your response with the eye towards litigation. anything you say can, should and will be used against you in the court of public opinion and certainly before congress. so he was very, very nuanced in his language and nothing he said, look at it closely. nothing he said is an element of intent or a crime you can actually hook to it. it's all about him saying, excuse me. i didn't know about this. i didn't ultimately rely on any

information and by the way this is a political issue not a legal one. >> and abbe lowell, an attorney well recorded here in washington vetted and went lou every single w0rd word in this 11-page documents. >> absolutely and should have. a lot of questions. you have the correctional probe and the prim nall probe led by mueller. you better believe one and both will go hand in hand to try to prosecutor or in their minds persecute somebody in the political world. essential, not really a cowardly move to have that looked by a lawyer but he's conscious of the fact the ram kifications are stp and varied. >> and he got the lawyer, gloria points out, in the statement outside of the west wing of the white house, ryan, and defending the president. even in his written statement, political points in there, at one point said it's also important to note that a campaign success starts with its message and its messenger. donald trump had the right vision for america.

delivered his message perfectly. the results speak for themselves. not only did president trump defeat 16 skilled and experienced primary opponents, and win the presidency, he did so spending a fraction of what his opponents spent in the general election. >> maybe thinking we would get bored after that first or second page and not read into the more juicy details contained in the rest of this document? his statement at the white house was mostly public relations. right? it is sort of remarkable even's president's son-in-law feels necessary to do this, donald trump is the greatest president ever routine that all of trump's aides often do before cameras. saw scaramucci do it again this weekend. once you dig into this document, three meetings, what is interesting about three of the meetings, the one famous meeting in june of 2016 and trump tower then the two transition meetings, what's interesting, how aggressive and assertive the russians are in getting to the trump people and frankly how easy it was for them to open the

doors into the trump campaign. they got that meeting, at least representatives of the people, affiliations of the russian government got that meeting during the june meeting. then during the transition, the russian ambassador got a sitdown with kushner. he said something that's, newsworthy. he says the russian ambassador wanted russian generals to get information to trump about what's going on in syria, and that that's what the discussion about the secret channel at the russian embassy was. that is the russian government saying, being very effective about getting in to this new campaign. most campaigns wouldn't have taken that meeting. the final meeting with sergey kriseliac, said he's a friend of putin wanted to discuss x? . z. my take away, naive campaign officials that the russian government had great access to and ease in terms of getting

meetings with them. >> the points he made in the document, he was inexperienceddidn't have a lot of political -- a lot of real estate, business experience. not a lot of political experience. >> and definitely contradicts the notion of the russians trying to influence american elections. >> absolutely. >> the whole investigation. >> sara murray is at the white house. you listened closely, carefully, to what we heard from jared kushner. what are you hearing from officials over there? >> reporter: well, i think it's interesting that it was jared kushner who came out and spoke on his own behalf. now, he did it in front of the white house. that will cause a little turmoil for some white house officials who would like the russia investigation to be handled far apart from the west wing, but it's telling it was not someone else who was forced to come out and answer for what jared kushner said behind closed doors today. there was no spokesman speaking on his behalf. this is not something sarah huckabee sanders answered for today. they put out jared kushner front and center to make his statement. he did not field questions from the press. did not answer whether he would be willing to make the comments

he made privately in public in front of the senate intelligence committee but he did indicate that he's staying. talked about the work he's still doing here at the white house, and did make it overtly political saying if you question why donald trump is president, you really undermine the people who voted for him. which i think is a telling message considering president trump is heading back on the campaign trail in ohio tomorrow. it's a safe bet, the questions will not end here for jared kushner. we know he's going to speak with house intelligence and there are a number of questions left unanswered. i heard your panel parsing the intricate statement he put out, and it was very carefully worded. certainly we know there are senators on the hill who have already said they have more questions for kushner. this is a drum beat that won't end here. >> a briefing, only a gaggle they call later today on air force one as the president gets ready to head out of washington to west virginia to address boy scouts later tonight. right?

>> reporter: yes. that's right. a gaggle. we're told because president trump will be speaking on his own behalf when he talks in west virginia tonight. again, look for where the president's headed. does he stay on message as he's addressing a boy scouts group? does he feel the need to weigh in on the news of the day? to weigh in on the fact that his son-in-law was on capitol hill talking about russia today? this is, a good clue where the president's head's at. saw this morning on twitter. see if he carries it to west virginia tonight, wolf. >> certainly will. sara, we'll get back to you. a quick break. reaction of what we just heard from jared kushner. you see senate cardin of maryland. ranking democrat on the senate foreign relations committee. lots of questions for him when we come back. of smart choices. and when you replace one meal... ...or snack a day with glucerna... ...made with carbsteady... ...to help minimize blood sugar spikes... ...you can really feel it. now with 30% less carbs and sugars. glucerna.

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with shoulder pain when... hey joanne, want to trade the all day relief of 2 aleve with 6 tylenol? give up my 2 aleve for 6 tylenol? no thanks. for me... it's aleve. the presidential adviser, the president's son-in-law, jared kushner strongly defending his actions regarding russia. moments ago cukushner repeated what was in a statement. >> let me be very clear. i did fougnot collude with russ nor do i know of anyone else in the campaign who did so. i had no improper contacts. i have not relied on russian

funds for my businesses. and i have been fully transparent in providing all requested information. >> all right. get some reaction from democratic senator ben cardin of maryland who joins us from baltimore. senator, what do you think? jared kushner's public declaration. we did not collude with russia nor know anyone among the trump associates who colluded with russia? everything he did he says was proper? >> certainly he hasn't been transparent. these meetings came out after the fact. he didn't volunteer that information. there is many questions that still remain. the clear point was that he did meet with russians, the russian officials, with the russian lawyer during the course of the campaign in which the meeting was scheduled in order to get information about hillary clinton. these are very troublesome meetings. we need to know the substance. his comments today were basically trying to put a

political spin on something that's very, very serious. so let's wait until we see all the facts. do all the investigations. there's lots of meetings going on here, were ut it is very troublesome. >> in his written statement released before his questioning by the committee, the committee staffers, he said he really didn't know what to expect in that meeting with that russian lawyer, you know, the -- donald trump jr. asked him to show up. he went there, said he spent about ten minutes. it was pretty boring. sent a text to his assistant asking for a phone call so he'd van excuse to get out of there. he said he never had read that e-mail chain discussing the alleged dirt that would be provided by the russians against hillary clinton. this is all sworn -- it's not sworn but if you lie to a committee staff, you could go to jail for that. so do you believe him? >> well, obviously, some of this information's going to be very hard to establish one way or the other. but we know why the meeting was set up. we know when you go to these

types of political meetings you want to have as up information in advance as possible. that's normal operating procedures. so it's hard to believe he didn't know what the purpose of the meeting was that he attended. >> yeah. that's what he said. had no idea. just going to see donald trump jr., and never read that full exchange. where do you see this going from here? >> well, we're waiting for the investigation. obviously we want to see the facts. we want to -- there's a lot of other moving pieces here. we know russia was engaged in trying to influence our election. we know that these meetings were efforts by at least the russian officials to get some more information. so what in fact did the americans do at these meetings? why did they take the meeting with the russian attorney? that's one of the questions that needs to be answered. so we want -- certainly to complete the investigations. our judiciary and intelligence committee. the department of justice, the, mr. mueller's investigation.

i've also felt we should have an independent 9/11-type commission take a look at what russia was doing here in the united states. one thing is very clear -- russia was trying to compromise our free election system. we need to know how they were operating, who helped them, and to make sure this never happens again. >> quickly. i want to move on and talk about the russia sanctions legislation. what do you think about the way the president is treating your former colleague, the attorney general of the unite jeff sessions right now in that tweet that he put out this morning? he tweeted this, and i'll put it up on the screen. one more time. here it is -- i don't have it right here, but you know the tweet where he called him beleaguered? >> yes. well, wolf, first of all. >> here it is right there. let me read it, senator. hold on. so why aren't the committees and investigators, our beleaguered attorney general looking into crooked hillarys crimes and

russia relations? >> well, the attorney general is the attorney general for the american people. it's not the personal lawyer for the president of the united states. it's the people's attorney. and it's the responsibility of the attorney general to make sure that everyone complies with the law. notdirected by the united states what's to be investigated and what's not to be investigated. this is independent. clearly, president trump is trying to interfere with the independence of the attorney general. that's absolutely wrong and should not be tolerated by anyone. >> let's talk about the russia sanctions legislation. you're the ranking member of the senate foreign relations committee. slapped with new sanctions. house expected to vote as early as tomorrow on the bill. how significant is this legislation in light of moscows meddling in the u.s. presidential election? >> wolf, i think this is a very clear congressional message. we passed the bill 98-2 in the senate. i expect you'll see a similarly

lopsided vote in the house. very strong, mandatory sanctions against russia for their interference in our elections. what they continue to do in ukraine and syria. the president is not allowed to withdraw sanctions without a congressional review first, before he can give sanction relief. i think this is a very clear message from the congress of the united states that we want action taken against russia, additional sanctions, and we certainly don't want to see any sanction relief while russia is continuing these type of activities against u.s. interests. >> and i want to quickly get your reaction to what the president also said the other day in that extraordinary interview with the "new york times." when he referred to the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein, who served as u.s. attorney from baltimore for a long time. let me put up the quote from was the president had to say. why didn't you tell me this before? i would have then said, who's your deputy? so his deputy you hardly knew

and that's rod rosenstein, from baltimore. very few republicans in baltimore, if any. so he's from baltimore. then he added, now he, we went through a lot of things. we were interviewing replacements at the fbi. what was your reaction when you heard his criticism of rod rosenstein, who did, who was a u.s. attorney in baltimore, highly regarded. a man i assume you know well. what was your reaction to that? >> well, rod rosenstein was very well respected as our u.s. attorney. he was not partisan at all. he worked very well with local officials. he clearly has republican pedigree. that was not the issue. the issue was whether he would be an independent voice as u.s. attorney. would he be an independent voice as deputy attorney general. we think he is. that's why we recommended him to president obama, to retain him as the u.s. attorney. senator mikulski and myself and that is why we also supported

his nominee for deputy attorney general. it's just outrageous that the president would demean baltimore the way he does. it's not unusual. we know he does those types of tactics, but i think it's just wrong to try to characterize the people of baltimore. we want justice in this country. we want a u.s. attorney. we want an attorney general to represent the interests of this nation. everyone in this country, no one's above the law. everyone needs to be held accountable. >> senator ben cardin of maryland. thanks very much for joining us. >> thank you. coming up, the other big story hanging over capitol hill right now. the republican plan to repeal obamacare. the president's expected to address the issue in just a couple hours or so as his leadership scrambles for votes. we'll have the latest when we come back.

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president trump trying to step up the pressure on his fellow republicans to pass a health care reform bill. the president about to make a statement later this afternoon.- "republicans have a last chance to do the right thing on repeal and replace after years talking and campaigning on it." also tweeted, "if republicans don't repeal and replace, the repercussions will be far greater than any of them understand." what happens next? >> start the bill for debate. that's the goal. a first opportunity to have a

procedural vote. mostinteresting, what you laid out. the president's statement in a couple hours. over the weekend, vice president mike pence in ohio putting pressure on senator rob portman, a republican holdout up to this point and later this evening the president travels to west virginia. shelley moore capito, the senator joining him. another holdup. the type of effort, wolf, we're used to in past administration and frankly the effort you've heard from republicans who wish the president had done to this point. is it too late? that's the question. nobody knows if they have the votes to move on this yet. the question becomes can they turn the votes over the course of the next 24, 48 hours to get the process on track? we'll have to wait and see. >> certainly will. watch it together with you every step of the way. phil mattingly up on capitol hill. up next, new russia sanctions bill triggering mixed signals out of the white house. will the president sign this?

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lawmakers set to vote on slapping new sanctions on russia meddling in the election. will the white house support it? it depends who you ask. >> he hasn't made the decision yet to sign that bill one way or the other. he'll make that decision when he makes it. >> we'll continue working with the house and senate to put those tough sanctions in place on russia. >> let's discuss this and more with our chief national correspondent jim sciutto and senior correspondent for bloomberg news and the new president of the white house correspondents association in jeff basin. the white house correspondent for reuters.

the outgoing white house correspondent's association. congratulations. today is your first day as president t. is. thank you all. >> good work. jeff, thanks for the good work you did as the outgoing president. what do you think of these conflicting messages? you covered the white house on a daily basis. we hear one thing from one person and another from another, literally minutes apart. >> my first impression when i heard the two clips, maybe sara more in the know and anthony hadn't discussed it. doesn't sound she would come out and say that if she hadn't had that conversation. i don't know. that will no doubt be something that they will realize they need to be sure and talk ahead of time, and get their story on the same page. >> and white house communications director. are you hearing there could be more changes, a little more shake-up coming up? >> two things to watch for. one is, what he wants to install and change and the other how he intends to serve?

at traditional communications director or the role that gets him in the door and things shift around agen little? jeff is right. getting his feet and now all day as we speak. we may expect to see him traveling, but i would be -- i think president trump has very little room not to go along with the sanctioning bill, if that's what passes. >> his veto would presumably be overwritten. enormous support in the house and senate. >> the question i would be looking for is, are there any strings attached for the support or tacit support. >> i was surprised by the conflicting mergesw got from the two officials. you would think you would have a meeting, you know you're going to be asked about this issue, yet you sort of come up with the same answer presumably. did not happen this time. jim, let's talk about the intelligence community. we were at the aspen institute forum, the russian meddling in

the presidential election. at the aspen security forum, we heard from current intelligence officials, people the president appointed, who said they had no doubt. listen. >> there is no dissent, and i stated that to the president. >> i am confident the russians meddled in this election, as the entire community. >> no doubt at all, and i stand by the assessment we produced. >> no doubt at all. in an extraordinary exchange that the new white house communications director had with jake tapper, we got a very different word from the president of the united states. >> there's a lot of disinformation out there, you know? somebody said to me yesterday -- i won't tell you who -- that if the russians actually hacked this situation and spilled out those e-mails, you would have never seen it, you would have never had any evidence of them, meaning they're super-confident in the deception skills in

hacking. my point is all of the information isn't on the table yet -- >> wait wait, anthony -- >> let me finish. >> you're making a lot of assertions. i don't know who this person is -- >> how about it was the president, jake? i talked to him yesterday, he called me from air force one, and he basically said, you know, this is -- maybe they did it, maybe they didn't do it. >> so everybody else outgoing intelligence officials, people he appointed say it was the russians. everybody agrees, except the president. >> the president is creating and defending his own reality. and the same that contradicts what the intelligence community has assessed here. keep in mind one of the arguments that some in his camp have used, those were obama appointees, the clappers of the

world, who were in charge when the judgment was made. we saw dan coats there, president trump, the senior most intelligence official in the country who said there is no dissent. that gets to a second point says it was only four intelligence agency, which is frankly not true, and you hear dan coates there again saying there's no dissent. that 4 versus 17 debate, but a lot of those agencies have no business in identifying whether there was -- whether there was a hack, yet the president continues to tick to this. we just don't know inside his head why he continues to stick to that at the expense of the credibility of hi own intelligence agencies independents i think it all comes down to any concern that would undermining hi victory. you say that in jared kushner's statement outside the white house just a few moments ago, where he said any suggestion otherwise about why he won

ridicules the voters who put him in the white house. i think that's completely connected to his lack of desire to really embrace the intelligence. >> i interview the former director the national intelligence, james clapper, former director john brennan, and they said the president's criticism of the u.s. intelligence community is so, so counte counterproductive. >> when the united states has to go to partner and allies and say u.s. intelligence has this information, this assessment, what does it saying farce when we have something about our adversaries that they can say that's u.s. intelligence, you already saying it's not worth the paper it's written on. these comments are disgraceful, never should have happened and the people who said that should be atamed of themselves. >> i think the on intelligence community will continue to

convey truth to power, even if the power doesn't necessarily listen. >> both really outraged by the president's comparison to nazi germany of the intelligence community. it really irritated them. >> we're all looking at anthony scaramucci to understand the new era of messaging, but this is a policy and approach set from the top, no change in staff can really shape what the president wants to do more than the president, and what he wants to do and how he wants to shape that, you know? >> you were there, of course, witnessing that conversation with clapper and brennan was really a truly somber moment. the former head of the cia agency, years in the intelligence service under multiple administrations, a years of service in the military and intelligence. they were beyond exasperated. they were sad. they were sad about this assault on these institutions here. it was really remarkable conversation.

>> you could see the pain that they couldn't believe the president of the united states would speak about the intelligence community, the men and women, the professional as along those lines. we'll continue to have much more, but right now we're out of time, jim, margaret, thanks to all of you. the news continues right after a quick break. if you have medicare parts a and b and want more coverage, guess what? you could apply for a medicare supplement insurance plan whenever you want. no enrollment window. no waiting to apply.

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all right. top of the hour, you're watching cnn. i'm brooke baldwin. jared kushner is talking. he is the quietest member of the president's inner circle, at least publicly, but today he just became the most -- member to step before congress and explain his interactions with russia and during the transition time. really the bottom like is the president's son-in-law, top adviser is denying any collusion involving him or anyone else from within the campaign as far as he knows. he also stepped in front of the cameras, which we never see, in front of the white house shortly after