thanks for being with me. "inside politics" with john king starts right now. have a great weekend. welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king. thanks for sharing your day with us. the president heads off today for a 17-day break from washington. and the congress -- on vacation, too. a safe bet. republicans won't brag about their half year report card. plus a strong jobs report, more than 1 million new jobs in his first six months. important context. more jobs created in the last year when barack obama was president. and an important new chapter, the president says, pay no attention and falsely labels it all a democratic charade. >> the russia story is a total fabrication. it's just an excuse for the greatest loss in the history of

american politics. that's all it is. democrat lawmakers will have to decide. they can continue their obsession with the russian hoax, or they can serve the interests of the american people. >> more on that in a moment. with us to share reporting and insights abby phillip of the "washington post," and representative of the "wall street journal," and jackie kucinich. in addition to plablaming democ which is led by all republicans the president offered advice for the special council and his legal team. >> what prosecutor should be looking at is hillary clinton 33,000 deleted e-mails, and she should be looking at the paid russian speeches. and the owned russian companies.

or let them look at the uranium she sold that is now in the hands of very angry russians. >> the crowded west virginia loved it. the "lock her up" chants a staple in the campaign erupted. and a suggestion the russia cloud over the trump white house will extend for months and months and maybe more months to come. cnn learned the special counsel is using a federal based grand jury for subpoenas and other investigative tools and at that the scope of the investigation included 2016 reactions between trump associates and russians but also financial dealings by the trump organization and trump allies that go back years. our justice reporter is joining us. shimon, when it comes to financial issues, what are we dealing with? >> a host of issues specifically

with trump properties, things related to trump tower in new york. some of the real estate records going floor by floor in cases looking to see if there were any -- any interesting connections to the russians, and so far we've been told they have found some interesting connections, that is investigators have found some interesting connections. you know, it's kind of why bob mueller hired all of these different prosecutors. 16 prosecutors, with various backgrounds and many of them specifically with financial -- you know, they have a history of investigating financial crimes, and, you know -- historically very well-known, seasoned prosecutors from various offices around the country. >> and this was an investigation, obviously, started because of 2016. russian election meddling. perhaps meetings between trump associates in 10 2016 with the russians. why are they going back as far as we know to 2013?

>> they're very curious about the time he spent, that is the fbi and the prosecutors now, are very interested in the time he spent in russia, in 2013, during the miss universe patgeantpagea. a time when they believe he was meeting with some of the wealthiest people in russia and perhaps may have built some relationships there, and they really want to see if it's family and other associates. sort of conducting business with them since that time. >> interesting to see how the president will react to details about that. he did draw that red line saying it should snujust be about 2016. now to the president's rally rant last night. >> -- most people know there were no russians in our campaign. there never were. we didn't win because of russia. we won because of you. they can't beat us at the voting

booths. so they're trying to cheat you out of the future and the future that you want. they're trying to cheat you out of the leadership you want. >> who's "they"? the president said democrats last night as the "they." they're trying to cheat you. republicans run the senate. the republican attorney general named robert mueller special council, appointed by donald trump and bob mueller himself has a republican pedigree. why is the president doing this? what's the politics behind it? >> i think he's also talking about republicans, too. he's aware many republicans are pushing back on this idea that he can somehow disband the special council. a bipartisan bill introduced now to protect the special counsel from just that kind of thing. i think this speech last night, the offensive against the special counsel was all about protecting the base from -- from

kind of being swayed by some of this news that's coming out. i think it's a sign they are actually worried about this. for a long time it has been enough for trump to say, hey, it's all fake news. hey, it's the democrats. hillary clinton is just upset she lost, but it's got -- the investigation has broadened and deepened in such a way i think there is a real risk to the base. that's why trump is changing his pitch to his supporters and making sure that he frames it as somethingalities bit more robust so he can really make a case to them they should pay no attention to the preponderance of evidence out there. this is a very serious investigation. >> and worked for him in the past. this us against them mantra. he used it throughout the 2016 campaign, and it galvanized a lot of support around him. you heard that reiterated last night. this wasn't a rant to me when i listened to it. seemed very structured. seemed very controlled. this message, we heard it from sarah huckabee sanders throughout the week.

i can't remember specifically, last week, frankly, but you've heard this refrain, this message e start to come out of the white house, and almost feels like discipline. >> also discipline and in ways, i remember covering the clinton investigation. the investigation, yes, started at whitewater, ended up about personal conduct. and the clinton keeping the democrats when impeachment started saying this was republicans, republicans, overreach republicans. what the president did last night. >> attacking me, they're attacking you, and voters et voed for me insulted by this, and, hey, how many russians are there out there? it's not the russian that won the election. it's you. what that does, effect, makes it when people criticize him, hey, they're criticizing all you good americans out there who voted for me. a fairly effective rhetorical vice. something they definitely started doing. >> and i felt the rally was revealing inner its what is going on inside president trump's head right now. we have seen a pattern from president trump. whenever he feels under siege,

he sort of hunkers down in his comfort zone. and his comfort zone are campaign-style rallies. you know, to keep this in context, he campaigned last night in west virginia. a state he easily won. a state he would not have much trouble winning in the general election if he were to run again. talking about these kinds of things, and you could tell from the crowd's reaction, they ra reacted well saying the russia investigation is a fabrication. he feelseneder attack and needs validation from supporters. >> when you take what we heard last night from the president,ut in context of reporting. heard from shimon, excellent reporting, from the "wall street journal" and in the "washington post" and excellent reporting how this is expanding. number one. a grand jury, usually means which they happen months and months and months over the trump white house. back to financial records that well pre-date the 2016 campaign. remember, in the interview,

recently with the "new york times," the president asked, if he found out bob mueller was looking into his personal information finances would that cross the line. >> looking into your family's finances unrelated to russia. is that a red line? >> would that be a breach of what his actual -- >> i would say, yes. by the way, i would say, i don't -- i mean, it's possible over something -- i sell a lot of condo units, somebody from russia buys a condo. who knows. i don't need money from russia. >> and asked if he would fire bob mueller, if he found out mueller expanded his look into these thing. he said, i don't know. it's too early to ask that question. now he knows. and we should -- every time we ha have these conversations the president knows a lot more than we do, lawyers are telling him, what documents are asked for and the like. his team tried to send the signal, oh, he's never going to fire bob mueller. can we believe that?

>> i think very poetically difficult to do it. maybe in his heart he'd love to. the fact is he'd have to order rob rosenstein, now heading the investigation in the sense that sessions recused himself to fire mueller. i would be very surprised if rosenstein himself doesn't resign in creating a saturday night massacre-type situation. might be frustrating for the president. he said as much, but to actually get rid of mueller or tell him what to can do, i don't think. >> and a clear and stark reminder that mueller's mandate is actually quite broad. the president would love to be able to draw these red lines. he would love for his finances and his past business exchanges to be, you know, off limits, but clearly he doesn't have the ability to do that, and i think what is the key thing from cnn's news reporting last night and i agree my colleagues are doing a nice job, less that trump and associates finances and past business dealings are looked at. it's more that this could potentially be the thing that

investigators are looking at as the most promising for potential conclusions drawn and at this point we don't know what the conclusions might be. >> also, it's part of the new challenge for secretary now chief of staff john kelly. keeping the president level. keeping him focused on what the tasks at hand, and be it legislation, be it another initiative he's pushing and keep away from the russia investigation. which clearly is a trigger for him. already saw him trying to mend fences with jesh sessions. reporting that he gave jeff sessions a call saying his job was safe. you see him already making moves trying to settle everything down and really create a more productive white house. >> and -- most, not just secretary kelly, general kelly, chief of staff kelly, others in the trump legal team, they've said, by the way, grand jury under way. we want to cooperate and get it over fast as we can. the statements from the trump

legal team are cooperative and understand, yes, few voices in congress saying bob mueller should go or overreached the line. the most part, even republicans say leave bob mueller a alone. dana bash sat down with people not afraid to stand up and get in the president's face at times. susan collins. >> i believe the special counsel has a very broad mandate and should follow the leads wherever they may be, and thus i do not think his investigation should be constrained beyond the mandate that he was given when he was -- >> the president called that a red line. >> the president can't set red lines for bob mueller. >> senator murkowski went on to say well put or well said. to that point, they have to understand that at the white house. the president can go to west virginia, complain about this. but they're not going to get help in congress, any real help, serious help from people if they start complaining about the scope of the investigation.

>> right. >> beyond that, congress also does very practical things to prevent a situation in which bob mueller could be fired. already said they're not confirm another attorney general nominee. if trump tried to sort of change the head of the doj to move a chain of command down to fire mueller that would not be an option. also, they've not gone into a real recess over this next couple of weeks, because they don't want to allow any sort of shenanigans in which recess appointments might put someone in place who could lead to a mueller firing situation. i think when i talk to people who have talked to this white house, they get the sense that they are allowing trump to vent, allowing him to talk about it, be upset about it, but on some level trump knows he has no good options here, and i don't think many people expect at this point he will actually carry out. >> and back to your point about the political -- restate the case. the republican congress, pro

forma session so the president can't do anything. talk about blaming democrats. these are republicans. come back to this later. first, a million new jobs during the first six months of the presidency. so why is his approval rating under water?he i can get it. i need my blood sugar to stay in control. i need to cut my a1c. weekends are my time. i need an insulin that fits my schedule. ♪ tresiba® ready ♪ (announcer) tresiba® is used to control high blood sugar in adults with diabetes. don't use tresiba® to treat diabetic ketoacidosis, during episodes of low blood sugar, or if you are allergic to any of its ingredients. don't share needles or insulin pens. don't reuse needles. the most common side effect is low blood sugar, which may cause dizziness, sweating, confusion, and headache. check your blood sugar. low blood sugar can be serious and may be life-threatening. injection site reactions may occur. tell your prescriber about all medicines you take and all your medical conditions. taking tzds with insulins like tresiba® may cause serious side effects like heart failure. your insulin dose shouldn't be changed without asking your prescriber. get medical help right away if you have trouble breathing, fast heartbeat, extreme drowsiness,

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allergytry new xyzal®.ou have symptoms like these for relief is as effective at hour 24 as hour one. so be wise all take new xyzal®. welcome back. it didn't take long for a robust jobs report from the labor department to find its way into the president's twitter feed. excellent job numbers just released and i've only just begun, the president said. movement back to the usa. look at those numbers today. the president certainly has reason to celebrate going back to the obama administration. unemployment rate 4.3%. 16 years ago last time it

reached that low. more importantly for the president more than a million jobs added in the six full months of the trump presidency so far. a good number, but remember during the campaign, the president said, get obama out of the way. we'll have a trump jobs boom? if you which ugly compare these six months of trump with the same six months last year, the last year of obama, job growth under president obama was more robust than so far under president trump. that's just the so far, but he said, get obama out of the way. things will get way better. not yet, actually. this is important. most of the job growth has been in the health care sector. the services sector. the president said manufacturing would come back. said mining would come back. infrastructure program would bring construction jobs. again, not yet. only 28,000 new construction jobs so far in the trump administration. manufacturing, up more than that. nearly 50,000. pretty good news. coal mining, the president's in west virginia. only 300 new coal mining jobs added during the trump presidency so far. that number's actually down 200 from last month.

you would think differently if you listened to the president last night. >> and as you've seen, i've kept that promise as president we are putting our coal miners back to work. we've ended the war on beautiful, clean coal. we've stopped the epa intrusion. american coal exports are already up. >> is there a risk here? i'll say it up front -- we create them every month because numbers come out every month. in terms of promises of the com industry, promise and regulations look six months, a year, two years. energy regulations, takes a while. at the moment in west virginia saying i've kept my promise. at the moment he hasn't really. too soon to grill him for that, were ut is there a risk people are thinking, where are those jobs?

>> as i've always said about jobs numbers. you live and die by the sword. when they're good, they're good. get a boost. go bad, you have to own that, too. i do think that trump is not wrong to make sure that his supporters know, even when incremental progress is made. even if not as big as he hoped for when he promised them that. it's kind of like a base maintenance tool that most politicians would be wise to use more often, but at the same time, like you said. in six months, you know, if we're talking about a couple hundred coal jobs, that's not going to completely turn around coal country in most parts of this country, and ultimately, that issue needs to be dealt with in order for trump to have a really good argument going into his own re-election. >> the economy is usually a president's best friend, but this president is still under water, asked approve or disapprove of the economy. why is that? >> i've come to think, i think a

lot of democrats felt, well,ing of course, he won't be able to revive the coal industry. it's has to do with much larger industries. his voters will turn on him. i don't think that will happen. thee feel he's on their side, against environmentalists, against the government. i have a feeling, no matter what happens, the coal industry doesn't survive, he'll blame other, cite factors and supporters will continue to support him. >> and making a critical point about his success. he comes and talks to them and treats them with respect. >> go ahead. >> go ahead. >> manufacturing is much more of a danger zone for trump, because he's promising all of these manufacturing jobs coming back. they are. the thing he's never addressed is automation. that is -- these jobs aren't all being shipped to mexico. aren't all shipped abroad. a lot of them are just as it happened at carrier. a famous example e! created.

t part is because of automation. the jobs aren't coming back ablgd the administration hasn't addressed this and that's not going away. it's going to continue. >> see it continues. live and die by the sword. go to vegas on them every month. look at wage growth. same time last year waging had d gone down during the obama, and six months of trump. weekly earnings in the united states gone up $5. a good sign for any president. if people feel it in their pocketbook not worries about the number of coal jobs. personal situation is better, you get happy. that should help a president. >> sure. we can have a pretty long debate how much credit does the president actually deserve for the numbers we saw this morning? do an industry analysis. bottom line that 4.3 number is a number most people can wrap their heads around and we talk so much about the president not able to stay on message. he's easily distracted.

can he actually stay focused touting job numbers? i think he can, because we've seen over and over again his primary occupation is how he is perceived especially by supporters. that is why we saw him go to a place like west virginia. one of the most fascinating things that came out of the transcripts released between the president and the leader of australia was that he talks so often, this is going to make me look bad. not going to be a good look for me with my supporters. >> he remembers the campaign. whether talking to the prime minister of australia or back at west virginia. sit tight. up next the president's west virginia road show and the grand jury that doesn't quite fit to blame the democrat strategy. k y. flonase sensimist allergy relief helps block 6 key inflammatory substances with a gentle mist. most allergy pills only block one. and 6 is greater than one. flonase sensimist. ♪

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any russians? they can't beat us at the voting booths. so they're trying to cheat you out of the future and the future that you want. they're trying to cheat you out of the leadership you want with a fake story that is demeaning to all of us, and most importantly, demeaning to our country and demeaning to our constitution. >> blaming democrats is a simple party loyalty play. the president's numbers, we discussed earlier slipping a bit with his base. that partisan framing is designed to keep that slip from becoming a slide. but also a diversion from the truth. of course some democrats are partisan ar the investigations but the investigation that matters most doesn't involve democrats and republicans. special counsel investigation led by the former fbi chief robert mueller moved to an important new phase. one that extends the cloud over the trump white house for months, maybe even longer.

cnn legalen lift michael zeldin joins us, a former prosecutor. what does it mean when a special counsel goes to having the grand jury help in the investigation? what does that tell us? >> you normally start the investigation with an informal process of interviewing witnesses. then you cross over to the formal process of convening a grand jury. the grand jury can then subpoena documents and take testimony of people under oath. once it's ga-- its gathered tha information, a decision to indict or not. that's the full job of the grand jury. what we see from mueller, uptick from informal to formal. doesn't portend and outcome. just that he's started the process of making a determination.

>> you said weeks ago, you've done it and know the people bob mueller is hiring. you said from the people he's hire hiring he's clearly looking at financial transactions. we know that could be true, looking back at far as 2013, potential shell companies trump tower and trump organizations. the president said that would cross a red line with him. listen to a special counsel who faced this criticism himself once, ken starr, for making his case on this point. >> i do think it is a, certainly a serious matter when a special counsel is accused, and i was accused of that, of exceeding his or her authority. that's a serious matter, because we do not want investigators and prosecutors out on a fishing expedition. >> a lot of democrats have a hard time taking that seriously, if they go back in time. i help you can help me, michael. working on these it investigations as you've done and bob mueller is doing that, hear that from the --

overstepping your mandate. do you have to go publicry a ration natural while you're doing? >> as to the last question, no. you don't go public. that's not your responsibility. second, to determine whether something is or is not a fishing xpa dag expedition you start with, what is the mandate? it was written by rosenstein. it says, investigate matters which are connected to the russian government and the trump campaign and matters which arose or might arise out of those connections. so that's his mandate. so he determines how best to fulfill that mandate and if he believes that looking at financial crime may provide an explanation or motive for the behavior of people connected with the collusion as we call it investigation, then that's appropriate behavior for a special counsel. and that would be no different than the united states attorney in any district in the united states doing the exact same

thing. so we just have to watch. here's the mandate. we know what it is. is he staying broadly within it or if not subject to criticism politically? >> michael zeldin, appreciate your insights. >> thank you, john. and back into the conversation here. to this point. an open hand. correct? despite what the president's said? not much anybody can do about it. right? >> absolutely. he has a broad mandate. we talked earlier, it's much too early not to mention i think nobody really is definitively say now this a if fishing xpa dag expedition. we are entering year two and these kinds of investigations as we know can take a very, very long time. >> and when this plays out, we had this conversation in washington, check in with key members of congress, support for bob mueller is it holding? bipartisan legislation, i don't know if it will ever pass but saying don't try to fire bob mueller. the president has supporters

herb especially in his group. process of what's happening in washington, he doesn't see it like a lot of people in town do. >> so we are now trying a criminal case without any statutory basis. in public. we're not even trying a criminal case in public. we're leaking the investigators views of a potential criminal case in public to try and destroy the presidency. to try anden build political support for when the democrats, if the democrats, take the house, to impeach the president. this is a coup. this is a coup that should upset every american trump supporter or not. this is a coup. >> now, most people in washington especially, again, the republicans leading these investigations, would roll their eyes at that. but it's important, because when you travel the country in campai

campaigns, you meet a lot of voters. hoop listen to mark levin and others. how does this play out? >> interesting to watch this format over the last couple days. there seems to be an increased sense of urgency in the ways in which the investigation is closing in on both trump and his family, and even the president kind of giving voice to some of this on social media this morning. he retweeted that sentiment that there would be "an uprising" if there was an indictment of his son. so it's a real concern and i think that his supporters are predominantly getting news from people like mark levin and others who are the kind of thought leaders of the trump wing of the republican party. but i think that for trump, it is more tricky to do that from the white house. you have to be very careful when you start whipping people up -- using language like, "coup." that's a really serious charge and i think there will be people out there in his circle who are saying, hey, we need to take the

temperature down on this and just let it play out. you heard that kind of sentiment from ty cobb this week in part because i think people recognize that. this can spin out of control quickly. >> you know, there's a legitimate debate on how far special counsel's, independent counsel's should go and what investigative byways and pathways they should be allowed to follow. looks like a fishing exercise on one side looks like a legitimate path to another. talk about ken starr. he was supposed to investigate a land deal in arkansas and went on to travelgate, paula jones and sending impeachment on monica lewinsky. democrats saying what's going on here? that's legitimate. what he came across. we're seeing a reverse now. >> and one of the reasons special counsel doesn't exist because of that back in the day. and sneak this in. announcing a new, what he says, tripling of the justice department investigators looking into leaks of classified

information. >> i strongly agree with the president and condemn in the strongest terms the staggering number of leaks. i have for would-be leakers, a warning. don't do it. he didn't name specific cases. essentially a calling card. saying if you know about this, bring on the information. a significant as sessions reacting to pressure from the president? >> it is, because -- as we all know that sessions has been under a lot of pressure from the president, but i'll tell you. republican and democrat, didn't matter when when those transcripts leaked yesterday, it sent shock waves through the national security community as well as congress, because lard to find anyone who said they would not have been apoplectic if that was their president. there is reason of concern if you're on the government side of this for sure. >> interesting to see if we get strong words from the attorney general, actually case in the prosecution. keep an eye on that. up next, the president heads

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that's the power of and. nothing in life is easy. but congress must not give in. they must not give up, but instead, congress must get to work and deliver americans the great health care that they deserve. call your congressman. call your senators. call everybody. get them to have the guts to vote to repeal and replace obamacare. >> a passion from president trump last night urging his crowd there in west virginia to stick with him in the obamacare repeal fight, but congress is not listening to the president. its home for summer vacation. the president heading off to his new jersey golf resort this afternoon as well. this was to be the gop's big year. a deal-making president and

imagine if you brought this report card home from school broke for summer? obamacare repeal. fail. tax reform, incomplete. infrastructure, incomplete. raise the debt ceiling. incomplete. pass a budget. incomplete. no wonder the president's poll numbers are in the tank and congress gets even lower ratings. 10 % of americans approve of the job congress is doing. 10 %. and 84% disapprove. if you think republican voters are more patient with the republican congress, think again. only 14% of republicans approve of congressional performance. 80% disapprove. it does remind you of your childhood, report card you wanted to crumble and sneak in the backpack and home mom didn't ask. they're home. they have to be all pretty disappointed with the performance. the question, what do they come back with? and to the president's point, i don't see any indication senator republicans are going to come back from summer vacation and say, let's do that again, on

obamacare? >> yeah. most congressional republicans watching the speech would probably say privately, mr. president, this was so two weeks ago. we have so moved on from big obamacare repeal and replace efforts, and when you put up that chart, the list of things republicans hoped to accomplish by this point or least made headway on, it has to be daunting, because repeal and replace failed in a dramatic way. you know, when you talk to house members, talk to senators, the thing they have been saying all year long is that the ramification of failing on health care is then you lose the political momentum so important to tackle something else next. something like tax reform. something like infrastructure, which, again, we know is going to be very, very tough for these republicans anyway. and now they're sort of, they lost the air in the balloon. i guess the balloon that didn't even exist in the first place. >> and remember -- excuse me me one second. obamacare was supposed to be easy. the president said so. do it in an afternoon.

haven't done that. the original schedule headed by august? wasn't that the original schedule, done by august. it's august. nowhere near. house speaker paul ryan back home in wisconsin. most guys back home and says, we'll figure it out. >> we're not going to allow the setback in the senate on health care. knock us off track with tax reform this fall. we can walk and chew gum at the same time. >> can they? walk and chew gum, have they proven they can walk and chew gum at the same way? >> a good walk and chew gum path. it is quite perilous. they failed at obamacare but talking a big game about tax reform and the next thing they'll pick up and do. that said, it's not going to be easy. there isn't a consensus. perhaps this time they'll have something to work from, instead of trying to cobble something together at the last minute. certainly, the closer -- the clock is running out on them.

the closer you get to the 2018 midterms the less anyone wants to be brave. >> we really are -- sorry. we really are at a critical point. getting to the point congress will have to decide, do we wait are to the president to sort of get it together or do we go our own way to protect ourselves for 2018? kind of inches toward, go our own way. you keep hearing deadlines from the white house. we want to get tax reform a blueprint out by the end of summer. we don't have more than a one-page document. >> right. >> telling us the broad outlines of this thing. they're not -- the white house is not necessarily helping congress get any closer to consensus on this stuff. >> one of the interesting things about that ryan comment veiled and less availed hostility between the senate. you heard fury by house members towards the senate. house members don't understand what we have to deal with.

unless they can solve or mitigate tensions between the house, senate and white house going forward it's not clear how they'll get to the other things. >> that, at least is normal. remember that moment where harry reid tried to stand next to her and nancy pelosi inched a way. >> democrats had that. republicans have it now. more republican, and the president openly campaigning against the congress. complicating trying to cut a deal with your people. ehler in the week, thank congress, same people that can't give us health care. again a republican president whacking a republican congress. works for him and his base. it's not my fault. their fault. then when you have to do a tough deal on tax e-form or something that should be small, just raising the debt ceiling sent the republican party off. >> and can i note, too, president trump and his priorities are often not the same priority, that's seen as a priority, that the republican party has in congress. we saw him just this week making a really big deal out of this

immigration bill proposed by senators cotton and perdue. they don't think it's something that could pass a republican-led congress, yet there was the president doing a big ceremony and really touting this that the next great big bill, when this is not a proposal that is on the minds of most republicans. >> the sound track of that was a little meghan trainor here. "all about the bass." and sometimes all modern presidents, all go on vacation and in common this. all get whacked for it. duncan just protected his family with a $500,000 life insurance policy. how much do you think it cost him? $100 a month? $75? $50?

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remember, president bush? and president obama, christmas, and now the president is going to his new jersey golf resort and would like you to forget he once was a big fan of actually whacking the president game. >> i promise you. i will not be taking very long vacations if i take them at all. there's no time for vacations. we're not going to be big -- we're not going to be big on vacation vacations. >> at the white house, so much work to do. why do you fly -- why do you leave so much? you'd think you'd want to work, work, work. straighten it out. get it done. fix it up, make it great and then when you finish you can be proud? >> that guy need to talk to president trump. >> that's what i -- >> he said that. >> i mean, really. i mean, he's -- one of my colleagues did, and a lot of people are doing this.

about a quarter of his presidency has been spent outside of washington in his resorts. >> chock that up as his speech. in office 197 days. spent of those at a trump property. >> the reality, presidents are human beings. this is a 24 hour, 7 day a week job. you leave the ground and don't stop working. every human being who works a job like this ought to have vacation. on the other hand, it's so uncanny the way in which the words of a year and a half ago or a year ago directly contradict what he's doing now, and the white house won't even acknowledge that he's going and playing golf, when he's going and playing goal. >> i thought it rid outside. i covered the white house almost ten years. when the president travels they take the nuclear football, high-tech information in the world, often end up launching military actions, getting -- they're not vacationing. wish they could get a vacation. as president trump goes on

vacation look at the cover of "newsweek." look at the cover. he's in a la-z-boy. they call it a la-z-boy saying donald trump is tired. pretty harsh. >> pretty harsh. the question of taking a vacation says a lot of things when not president seem easy, seem straightforward. easy to take a shot at the guy who currently holds the office. serious things like china and north korea and health care to frivolous things like taking a vacation. the real question is the next 17 days, is it a feeling the president is away and laying low or constantly in voters' face? i think in a way of test of the new john kelly white house how this plays out. >> john kelly on the trip, going with him. jared kushner, ivanka and several other aides, chief of staff kelly say, mr. president, can i take your phone, maybe, while you're here? >> ends um p at the bottom of a

sand pit or something. >> and i'm sewers wecurious abor he'll take a break from television. new things will come up about the russia investigation. does he respond? >> don't turn off the tv, sir. please. and thanks for joining us. wolf blitzer in the chair after a quick break. have a great weekend.

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allows that these forests can be sustained and enjoyed by the community in the future. together, we're building a better california. hello. i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. hee in washington. 8:00 p.m. in damascus. 1:00 a.m. start in manila. wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. in a couple hours president trump hits the road for a 17-day vacation. heading to his golf club in bedminster, new jersey,ing while back here in washington the special counsel robert mueller clearly turning up the heat on his investigation into possible collusion with russia and the election. following the money trail looking into trump team's finances. our senior white house correspondent jim acosta joins us from the white house. we heard the president push