hello. i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. here in washington. wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. right now we're standing by to hear from the white house. you're looking at live pictures coming in from the briefing room where the press secretary sarah huckabee sanders will brief reporters laters think hour. live coverage of that and certainly hit with questions on several major fronts. one will be the ongoing debate and the expected votes coming up over health care. president trump has kept up the pressure on republicans in the senate. once again, tweeting today and i'm quoting him "don't let the american people down." all of this while a now deleted tweet from the white house communications director anthony

scaramucci is causing ripples through washington about possible discord inside the white house, with scaramucci seemingly calling outing the white house chief of staff reince priebus for leaks. >> people know my history between me and reince. >> we begin with the in-fighting going on within the trump administration. scaramucci was clearly angry over a political article about his profits from the sale of a hedge fund company when he tweeted last night "in light of the leak of my financial disclosure which is a felony, i will be contacting fbi and the justice department." #swamp and noted, @reince45. that's reince priebus' twitter handle. scaramucci later deleted the tweet denying it was a veiled threat to priebus. let's go to our white house correspondent sara murray. sara, fill us in on all the

palace intrigue as it's being called? the bas blood clearly developing between scaramucci and priebus? >> reporter: right, wolf. we predicted it might be a rocky relationship soon as scaramucci came in for the job. we've seen so mum ch in-fightin playing out today is unusually public. listen to what scaramucci said to have today about his relationship with reince priebus. >> if you want to talk about the chief of staff, we have had odds, we have had differences. whenny a said we were brothers from the podium, that's because we're rough. some brothers are like cain and abel. other brothers can fight with each other and get along. i don't know if this is repairable or not. that's up to the president, but he's the chief of staff. he's responsible for understanding and uncovering and helping do that inside the white house, which is why i put that tweet out last night.

>> reporter: not exactly complementary words from scaramucci. he also went on to say if reince wants to defend himself and since not the source of these leaks, he could speak for himself and do so, wolf. >> let's talk, sara, also about the president's latest attacks against his attorney general, jeff sessions. sources now telling cnn some associates are urging the president to consider what's called a recess appointment as an option to replace sessions. is that a realistic possibility? >> reporter: well, it's certainly something they're talking about at the white house but the kind of thing if they were to do it would require some cooperation from the senate. one, setting off alarm bells from democrats who will try to prevent that from happening and, two, concerning republicans. republicans are sending a clear sfl signal to the without, do not do this. we are the no going to move hearings on a new attorney general. today lindsey graham told our colleague it would cause holy hell if the president decided to

fire jeff sessions. you're getting a lot of, please, do not do this. do not proceed. we are not going to make this happen for you. seems like that may not be a feasible option for the president, regardless how he feels about is his attorney general right now, wolf. >> and sara murray at the white house. and joining us, david drucker, senior congressional correspondent for the "washington examiner." eric columbus as well, former obama justice department official. we have our cnn politics editor wanna summers and chief political analyst gloria borger. anthony scaramucci said it would have been a felony to leak that confidential information from his financial disclosure, but that information after 30 days does become public. >> it's publicly available and even scaramucci said this morning, seems to be shooting, just talking, blabbering, in a

way, and he can't do. he can't do that, when you have that kind of a podium and that kind of a megaphone. by threatening to fire people and accusing people, there is such a elf will of dysfunction at this white house that you can't even keep it private. it just is spilling out into the open for everyone to see. you know? his interview with chris cuomo this morning was quite remarkable, and i think that -- that if he's going to be the communications director, maybe he ought to be a little more considerate about what he says. because it seems to me he is acting more like a chief of staff than the communications director talking about firing people, and i don't know that it really helps the president that much, because what he is setting up is a dynamic that seems to be me and the boss against the

world. and the world, meaning, the other people who work in the white house. >> in that remarkable interview this morning with chris cuomo on cnn, wanna, he complains about the leaks in foreign policy and also said this, listen. >> i can ask a couple of friends up from fox and friends and sean hannity, one of my closest friends, dinner with the president, and his first lady, without it being leaked in seven minutes. it's absolutely, completely and totally reprehensible. >> he's outraged that word got out he was having dinner with the president and some folks from fox news. you know, there are leaks and there are leaks, but if you're in the public eye, if you're the communications director for the president of the united states, you should certainly expect word of a dinner like that to get out really quickly? >> absolutely right, wolf. any one of us whose reported in this town or worked in washington politics knows these things, particularly in the age

of social media, fly like lightning. part of the palace, as you pointed out. newt gingrich, kind of blustery here, not showing himself as so ready for primetime and perhaps not the expectations of the job that he has. perhaps no the falling in line with those. >> was it a week ago we thought he was smooth, in his first appearance? >> the best thing. >> right, right. >> how serious -- i know, david, you've done a lot of reporting on this -- is this apparent rift between scaramucci and reince priebus, white house chief of staff? >> they're airing dirty laundry in public. it's clear this is a rift. when you have a communications director acting like a chief of staff, going after the chief of staff, in such a public manner, and not even trying to spin us to tamp things down, that shows you where we are here. look, i think anthony scaramucci is are positiving for an yauds r aw audience of one. clearly what the president wants and understandable that the president and anthony scaramucci

and everybody else would like to see some of the leaks tamped down's when you have leaks about national security discussions and things like that. that's very understandable. however, i think it's how are they going about it? they want people to be quiet. and they want people to show more loyalty to the president and the office of the presidency but the way they're going about this, in a very public tongue lashing does no engender that type of loyalty. for president trump in particular, somebody who came to town without the natural group of allies to rely on has to fill his white house with people that go beyond his base of loyal support, and the only way he's going to earn their loyalty, these are traditional republicans that have worked in government and policy for a long time, is to treat them in a way different than he has gotten away with treating people that worked for him in business and on his campaign who were particularly close to him and willing to put up with it. >> it was interesting. i listened to that whole interview this morning and scaramucci made a point saying he had spoken for 15 minutes on the phone with the president

before the interview. so clearly when he heard from the president, it was reflected in his public comments to chris cuomo. >> telegraphing it directly saying, look, this is what i am saying, comes from the president. so if you're a staffer in that white house right now, and you -- you see how upset scaramucci is about leaks, whether it's the dinner else, and he's threatening that people will be fired and talking about reince priebus, we're like cain and abel, and that didn't end well for abel. so, you know, he's talking about that. and i think that -- it comes from the president. you're working there. what are you to think? what are you to think? that the president is after, is after you and your job and -- i think that, that is dysfunction of, if you'll consider excuse me in, biblical pro torsion.

>> huge dysfunction. hearing all the memmering, if jeff sessions is forced out, the attorney general, one way or another. and the particular ed during the august recess could name someone while congress is out of town. listen to lindsey graham, the republican senator from south carolina. not very happy about this. >> if jeff sessions is fired, there will be holy hell to pay. any effort to go after mueller could be the beginning of the end of the trump presidency, unless mueller did something wrong. >> robert mueller, special counsel investigating the whole russia probe. is he right? lindsey graham? >> i certainly hope so. i certainly hope he's right and there would be holy hell to pay if sessions is fired. i don't have much simp tympathy the views sessions espouses but he's in trouble now, sessions, for uphoeding the rule of law.

fe hets fired for that, he better get holy hell to pay. >> and the idea the president might fire sessions as a first step to go after mueller. they've told me this week they don't want to get involved in any of this. one of the e reasons they're glad mueller is there, were ut if fired, no choice but confront the president. why they're working hard to warn him off of doing anything with sessions. one thing about the recess appointment, republicans have been holding pro forma sessions every recess since the beginning of the year to block trump from any recess, and part of the adjournment motion if republicans backed off. a recess appointment will not happen. >> you worked in the administration during the obama presidency. when the president of the united states goes after the attorney general, the acting attorney general, deputy attorney general, special counsel. how does that impact the average

personnel at the justice department? >> it can't help. it can't help matters. the people, 100,000-strong people in the department of justice, most of them couldn't care less about these issues of the day. they're focussing on doing their job. things that don't make the headlines that 95% of the time remain the same from administration through administration and they're going to keep their head down and keep doing that. exactly what they should do. >> can i underscore what lindeyy graham said? he is a republican who said that this -- firing sessions and firing mueller, i believe, could mark the beginning of the end of the trump presidency. i mean, that was -- stunning, coming -- i'm trying to get the exact quote here. if jeff sessions is fired there will be hell to play. >> holy hell. >> holy hell and any effort to go after mueller, because he sees this as a chain of events that might be in the president's mind, would be the beginning of the end of the trump presidency,

unless mueller did something wrong. that's -- astonishing, coming from a republican. now, i know he has his differences with donald trump. but -- it's really a remarkable, remarkable words and a message to the president. >> you can see the president is not a fan of either sessions or mueller for that point. he's made that clear. >> absolutely has. to gloria's point, what's going to be really interesting, how many more republicans follow senator graham's suit and speak out about this if, in fact, there is a threat of perhaps a recess appointment of in kind and what happens next? right now republicans are on capitol hill and president trump and not a lot of aligned interests seems especially on this front. >> everybody stand by. much more. we're reporting on right now including the latest reports that a member of the trump cabinet is threatening to follow -- threatening two fellow republican senators to back a final health care bill or else face serious consequences for their state.

plus, the trump transgender ban backlash. even top military leaders say they had no idea of the ban announced by the president on twitter was coming. the panel returns. much more discuss when we come back. when heartburn hits fight back fast with new tums chewy bites. fast relief in every bite. crunchy outside. chewy inside. tum tum tum tum new tums chewy bites.

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live pictures coming in from the rouwhite house now. sarah huckabee sanders, press secretary, will start taking questions. live coverage soon as it begins. also right now on capitol hill, a marathon debate under way as u.s. senators try to overhaul obamacare. one option, considering a pared down version known as the skinny repeal bill repealing the individual employer mandate, tax on medical device make peakemak medicaid and medicare protections in place. bottom line, about 15 million more uninsured by 2026 and increased premiums by about 20% once again according to the congressional budget office. so will it get the 50 votes needed for passage? it's unclear right now. the first votes, by the way,

kick off in the next hour and the senators could be in for a very, very long night. we'll continue to monitor this. bring you updates throughout the day. meanwhile, the pressure is on for republican senators today to get at least something done on health care. president trump calling on the republicans in a tweet this morning saying, "don't let the american people down." we're also now learning the trump administration is taking it one step further. both of alaska's republican senators received calls from interior secretary ryan zinke to let them know that their health care vote would put alaska's future with the administration in deep jeopardy. senator dan sullivan, a republican, who voted for the start of the debate told the "alaska dispatch news" i tried to push back on behalf of all alaskans but the message was pretty clear. let's get back to our panel. that message was blunt in that article.

the republican senator sullivan said this -- he said, i'm not going to go into details but i fear the strong economic growth, pro energy, pro mining, pro jobs from alaska part of those policies are going to stop. that's a pretty direct threat from the interior secretary speaking on behalf of the trump administration, and sullivan voted for it. you know? >> right. murkowski voted -- >> voted against it. >> look, this is an administration and we know this because there were plans on take on dean heller in nevada who is not a fan of this repeal effort, and we know that this is an administration who threatens. the problem that they have, quite frankly, is that members are not as afraid of this president as you might think. he's at 36%, 37% in the polls's they can make their case to their voters that medicaid cutbacks will hurt the state of alaska. and i will have to say, murkowski has never been one to fall in line with the republican

party. remember, she didn't get republican nomination. ran as an independent and she won. and so she's tough. and i think she's going to do what she thinks is right for people, and if you think you can level threats in this day and age and members aren't going to talk about it, you're wrong. >> what do you think of this style of governing that we're seeing from the administration directly threatens fellow republicans? >> well, defecting, one thing. argue right or wrong and getting results. they're not getting results using this kind of jawboning. then tried this in the house, when the republicans were struggling, and the president and his administration made threats about going into districts, safe republicans districts where voters loved donald trump. primary you, come after you and guess what? never did a thing. 52 republican senators, by the way, forality more than just health care. tax reform, infrastructure and budgets, all sorts of things, and they're working to alienate

people doing what they've done against lisa murkowski and dean heller and it's not helping mitch mcconnell get this thing over the finish line. that's the bottom line. >> they're anxious, you know, to get something passed in the senate. the skinny repeal, as it's called. to get the 50 votes and the vice president mike pence can cast the tiebreaking vote and at least move it back to the house, the joint senate conference committee, at least keep the process going. if they don't even pass that it's over at least for now. >> absolutely. there's a realization in congress that if republicans fail here to do something they have been talking about doing for, what, nearly a decade now, to change this law, which they say hurts more people than it helps. that they are going to own this. however, and we know this because the president has said that. that realization does not exist with the president. he believes democrats will own this failure. if lawmakers in congress can't do anything. so i think there's a really big disconnect and i wonder, instead of pressuring these republican

senators, putting them on notice on twitter, having ryan zinke come out and go to them, why not ute the bully pulpit to advocate for a policy, for a solution giving more americans health care if they concede the affordable care act is irrevocably broken? >> and they don't believe the president will ever have their back. ever. he turned around on the house republicans and called their bill mean. in didn't go over with with house republicans on senate republicans. they believe this is a president who has loyalty to one person. himself. and not to them. so i don't think the threats help. i don't think the fact they believe he's not loyal to them and will turn on them and threaten them, and will hurt them, helps either. and i don't think the sessions issue helps at all. >> there's been no consistent coherent leadership from the president. happen it existed for vice president mike pence? yes, tom price, health and human services secretary, sure.

but no substitute for the presidency. talk to democrats looking back on obamacare, how they got that done, sure, the law a political disaster for them, but why get it done every time it looked like it might fall apart? because of presidential leadership, the fact he was out there, had their back and it made them feel like it's all going to work out. they were wrong about that in a political sense at the time, but they always believed, and that's what -- the republicans on the hill really want from this president and what's missing. >> thank you all. thank you very, very much. other important news we're following including stunning testimony up on capitol hill today from an american businessman. bill browder. he sent years working in russia. he now tells the senate judiciary committee he has little doubt who was behind the meeting with donald trump jr. and russians promises dirt on hillary clinton. we have details, new information, coming in right after this. you don't let anything keep you sidelined. that's why you drink ensure. with 9 grams of protein and 26 vitamins and minerals.

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the issue of russian adoptions here in the united states took center stage in the senate hearing today on russian influence in the 2016 u.s. presidential election. remember, adoptions were cited as the, as having been in the the center of that meeting attended by donald trump jr., paul manafort and jared kushner with russians. president trump said he spoke about adoptions during lis dinner meeting with russian president vladimir putin at the g-20 summit in hamburg, germany, but this is what we heard about adoptions today. listen -- >> to a russian agent or official a conversation with an american about adoptions is a

conversation really about what? >> the magnitsky act was passed banning adoption of russian or phans. >> it's tied to sanctions, is it not? >> indeed. >> talking about adoption. >> you're not talking about adoption. nobody was talking about adoption. >> nobody was talking about children? >> nobody was talking about adoption. they were talking about repeal of sanctions so russian tortures and murderers could freely travel and keep their money in america. >> bring in senior congressional reporter manu raju from capitol hill. bill browder, american businessman, the force behind the magnitsky act on human rights. what else came out of this dramatic testimony? >> reporter: it was a rather dramatic moment on capitol hill earlier today. browder saying that it was a "major ask" for natalia vifl nets veselnitskaya, a major ask for the russians to seek the

repeal, that magnitsky action of sanctions enacted by the united states in 2012. he said that he believes that they probably wanted something in return. now, he did not have direct evidence of anything that they wanted, but said he was very familiar with russian efforts, russian intelligence and this is exactly the kind of thing that they tend 20 to do. he said with 100% certainty the russian intelligence nuew about this meeting at trump tower in advance of it happening. now, after this testimony i had a chance to talk with senator lindsey graham who sits on that committee and questioned bill browder. i said, do you think the trump team was naive in taking this meeting? he said, perhaps they were naive, and he also said that, this needs to be investigated further because he's skeptical that this was the only contact that occurred between the russians and donald trump jr. >> it's also hard for me to believe that once the trump

campaign expressed a desire to get help, maybe later in december would be better that meaning one and done. that contact came from the person that mr. browder said should have been registered as a russian agent. the russian female lawyer. the likelihood that that was the last contact needs to be looked into. because the trump campaign expressed a desire to be helped. >> and now there were also rather strong moments from, sound from lindsey graham who warned president trump rather starkly not to fire jeff sessions and not to take steps to fire bob mueller saying there would be "holy hell" to pay if that happened. even saying that "democracy would be turned upside-down" if the president took steps to fire bob mueller. clearly this hearing raising questions for senator graham and

others to look into that meeting. >> yes indeed. and what did the senate chairman tell you. >> reporter: i talked to jeff sessions and the attorney general and about concerns on capitol hill trudhat trump may e jeff sessions. in charge of any nomination hearing for attorney general said he agenda is "full" for the year. meaning he is not ready to move forward at any successor to jeff sessions. a very stark warning to the white house that if president trump were indeed to fire sessions, that he would not move on a successor this year. so that shows you, wolf, that even if president trump wants to name someone, the senate, controlled by his own party is not ready to act on a successor. >> attorney general sessions, former republican senator from alabama. popular among his fellow republican senators.

manu, thank very much. manu raju on capitol hill. meanwhile, white house communications director anthony scaramucci tells cnn the president might veto a russia sanctions bill passed overwhelmingly by the house and senate. the popular bipartisan legislation would not only hit russia with new sanctions but also give congress the authority to block the president from lifting those sanctions. but listen to scaramucci earlier today on cnn. >> keep looking at these it sanctions right now. he may decide to veto the sanctions and -- >> why? >> and be tougher on the russians and congress. >> you think because he wants something tougher than the sanctions bill? >> he may sign the sanctions, exactly the way they are. or he may veet other the sanctions and negotiate an even tougher deal against the russians. >> all right. get perspective from republican congressman mike coffman of colorado, u.s. army and marine veteran and serves on the armed services and veterans affairs

committees. congressman, thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> like almost everyone else in the house and senate you strongly support this sanctions bill, passed, as i said, overwhelmingly in the house, 92-2 in the senate. if the president were to veto the bill i assume you and your colleagues would quickly override that veto? >> we absolutely would. i don't think there's a question about that. if the president would try and do that, i'd be surprised, the comment about tougher sanctions. if the president certainly wants to add on to those sanctions he certainly can. >> did that make any sense what scaramucci said? the president might veto an order to negotiate tougher sanctions against russia? do you understand what he's suggesting here? >> no, i don't. i don't understand. it makes absolutely no sense. from what the president, he wants tougher sanctions, we should be tougher than these it sanctions on russia and north

korea as on iran and the president's free to add on to these sanctions that congress is just overwhelmingly passed. >> on to other sensitive issues now. as a veteran member of the armed services committee, let me ask you about the president's newly announced ban on transgender service members. three defense officials now tell cnn that members of the joint chiefs of staff, they were completely blindsided by the president's announcement on twitter yesterday. was the armed services committee, your committee, aware of this ban by the president was coming? >> no. absolutely not. i'm the chairman of the military personnel subcommittee and so i was looking forward to review president mattis -- sorry. what secretary mattis had already started on the transgender issue to see if any transgender personnel can continue serving in the united states military. so he had started, on july 1st,

a six-month review. comprehensive review. i trust general mattis. having served in the united states marine corps, he was an extraordinary general, a leader in our military, and so i know whatever decision he would come out with at the end of this process, that he'd started, would be for the good order and discipline of the united states military, as well as not compromising combat effectiveness of our forces. >> extraordinary, in addition to getting a heads up, chief of staff of the army, the general said, moments ago, still hasn't received guidance from the president, the commander in chief, from the white house or from anyone else about this new ban. listen to what the general just said. >> yet to receive implementation guides, directives, from the department of defense general mattis and we grow up and learn to obey the chain of command, and my chain of are command is secretary of the army and secretary of defense and the

president. right? so we will work through the implementation guidance when we get it. >> general joseph dunford, chairman of the joint chiefs, he said in a statement to his personn personnel, meantime we will kpont to treat all of our personnel with respect as importantly given the current fight and the challenges we face, we will all remain focused on accomplishing our assigned missions. are you concerned that the president made this announcement major policy decision via twitter seemingly with zero notice or preparation? >> oh, i think it's -- very disappointing. you know, to give a major policy directive through a tweet to the leaders of our military, who by all accounts were not consulted prior to the president making the decision. the president certainly has the authority to make the decision. i believe that the president, as

a member of the house services committee, a combat war veteran, should have allowed the general to finish the process, that the president was well aware was underway. so it is disappointing, but the department of defense is going to have to deal with it. it's far more extensive, what the president is asking for, than was being debated in the congress. in terms of not simply whether or not these operations, these assignment operations should take place at taxpayers' expense. the military in allowing these personnel to serve it went into simply they cannot serve at all in any capacity. i mean, so -- so the military has to now decide how to process this information in terms of how

are these people going to be discharged? from the united states military? under what circumstances? is it an other than honorable? is it an honorable discharge? how long is this process going to take? i mean, this is major policy by tweet. >> yeah. a lot of criticism of the president for that tweet yesterday. congressman mike coffman from colorado. thanks for joining us. >> thank you for having me. up next, joined by democratic congressman seth moulton of massachusetts. also a veteran, a member of the house armed services committed and we'll talk about this plan by the president to ban transgender americans from serving in the u.s. military. we have other issues to discuss with him as well and once again, only moments away from the white house press briefing. there you see live pictures coming in. live coverage. sarah huckabee sanders getting ared to answer reporters' questions. stay with us.

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welcome back. live pictures of once again from the white house. h huckabee sanders, white house press secretary, will start taking questions from reporters very soon. we'll provide live coverage of that as soon as the briefing begins. as we await that, other important news -- russian president vladimir putin is warning the united states today saying he will be forced to retaliate defense new sanctions that could soon be approved by the u.s. senate. joining us from capitol hill, massachusetts senate on the house services committee. congressman, thanks for joining us. >> happy to be back, wolf. >> president putin says sanctions would be, in his words, illegal and an attempt to provoke russia. you like almost everyone else in the house and senate virtually unanimously voted for these new sanctions. what do you say to putin's threat? >> that we don't care, mr.

putin. we're going to stop you from meddling in our democracy in our elections, and these sanctions are just a start. >> the white house communications director, anthony scaramucci, this morning on cnn, says president trump presumably could still veto the sanctions bill. as i said, it got nearly unanimous support in the house and the senate. what message would it send, though? even if you decided to override the veto, presumably, you would -- what message would it send to congress and the world, if the president were to veto this legislation? >> well, it would send the same message mr. trump has sent a lot of times since he got elected, which is he's more interested in national security of russia than the national security of the united states. he's repeatedly denied russia's involvement in our elections. he's been cozying up to putin however he can. both during his campaign and now in the administration. but congress is finally ready to stand up and say, we've had enough, mr. president. we're going to stand up for our

country and our national security, and that's what this sanctions bill is all about. >> we heard some pretty dramatic testimony today involving donald trump jr., meeting a year-plus oeg at trump tower, new york with some russians, a russian attorney and others and president putin's plan to create political disruption in the elections. president trump has serious problems with robert mueller, with the attorney general jeff sessions. if he were, for example, to fire robert mueller, what, if any, recourse would you and other members of the house of representatives have? >> well, we would have to do something to stop this, because washington is already in chaos under republican leadership, but that would be practically cat

cla president trump is obviously scared about what we're going to find and scared of vladimir putin. what we need to do, get to the bottom of it to move on to the important work we should be doing for the american people and why i continue my call for an independent bipartisan commission to find out the truth of what's gone on between the trump campaign, the trump administration, and russia. put a stop to it and let's do the things that the president was elected on. get an infrastructure bill. talk about jobs. actually work to improve health care in a bipartisan way rather than take it away from millions of americans. that's what we should be doing. >> congressman, you don't think that robert mueller, the special counsel, plus the various committees in the house and senate investigating could come to the bottom and find out what exactly happened? >> i think it's an important part of the puzzle, but it's important to understand that the committees in the house and senate that are investigating this, this is primarily the intelligence committees, their

findings will be classified. the interrogations or whatever you call it, the hearing with interviews, shall we say, with mr. kushner, was entirely classified. that was not on the record. i think the american people deserve to know what's gone other here and we all need to u.s. what's happened to prevent it in the future. ought to have a 9/11-style commission, independent commission. it's a national security issue that shouldn't divide republicans and democrats. >> standing by to hear from the white house press secretary. a briefing coming up. if you were a reporter, congressman, sitting in that front row, what question would you ask? >> well, the first thing i would ask is, why is the president as commander in chief again sending out tweets that completely contradict his own secretary of defense, and frankly, put our national security at rick? tryi risk. trying to kick out a whole bunch of people in the military who volunteered to put their livesen

on the line for the country. fought to avoid service in vietnam as we how is it that the president as commander in chief can't even get on the same page as his own secretary of defense. >> congressman seth moulton, thanks for joining us. we're once again minutes away from the start of that briefing with the press secretary, sarah huckabee sanders. we'll have live coverage. let's take a quick break. we'll be right back. do you really use head & shoulders? no, not really. i knew that not the one you think you know the tri action formula cleans removing up to 100% of flakes protects and even moisturizes for sofia vergara hair

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today marks 64 years since the signing of the armistice that paused the korean war and since there was no peace treaty, technically the war has never ended. tensions on the korean peninsula, they're mounting right now not only because of the north's growing threat to strike the u.s. with a nuclear warhead but also its silence to south korea's offer to hold military talks. cnn's will ripley has the story from the korean demilitarized zone. >> reporter: wolf, this area

that separates north and south korea continues to be a potentially dangerous flash point between the two countries, both sides have huge standing armies with a lot of weapons pointed at each other and constant intelligence and surveillance. we have seen military patrols up and down the 38th parallel here and we know that there are military checkpoints both on the north side and south side as well. this area where i'm standing used to be a point of transportation between north and south korea but that freedom bridge there has been sealed off for a number of years and even though civilians are now allowed in this area, it is very heavily fortified with barbed wire fences, sensors, a lot of equipment to make sure that there is no infiltration happening from the north side to the south and vice versa. all of this unfolding on a very important day on the korean peninsula, the 27th of july marks the signing of the armistice that ended the fighting of the korean war, even though the north and the south are still technically at war more than 60 years later. now, north korea calls this their victory day and in the past, we have seen huge

celebrations, shows of force, from the northern side, whether it be military parades or weapons tests. we haven't seen anything like that so far. we know that north korea within the last day or so tested the components for a submarine launch ballistic missile and we also know from intelligence reports that heavy machinery has been rolling into a north korean launch site that could be used to put a ballistic missile into the air. remember, north korea launched an icbm on the fourth of july. there's a lot of concern that they could do that again as they continue to move closer to their goal of developing the kind of weapon that could carry a nuclear warhead to the mainland united states a weapon that state department officials say could be in the possession of north korea's leader kim jong un by early 2018. much sooner than many analysts predicted, just underscoring the continuing dangerous situation here along the dmz. >> very dangerous indeed, will ripley joining us. thanks very much. once again to our viewers here in the united states and around the world, we're standing by for

the white house press briefing. we'll have live coverage of all that, all the coverage of the day's important news. stay with cnn. stay with cnn. we'll be right back. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

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just because of a claim. i totally could've - no! switching to allstate is worth it. hi there, i'm brooke baldwin, good to be with you. if you need to get caught up on all the chaos in washington, here you go. try to stay with me. one, the president's new guy publicly knives the president's chief of staff. two, the president threatens to veto a veto. >> proof bill. three, a republican senator warns of holy hell to pay if the president fires jeff sessions. four, a trump cabinet official threatens a u.s. senator over her vote. five,