jeff, we'll be anxious to see what the president says, what the president does in reaction to this very, very tough statement, a direct threat issued by the north korean military. we'll have continuing coverage of this here on cnn throughout the night. thanks very much for joining us. erin burnett "outfront" starts right now. "outfront" next breaking news north korea crosses trump's red line. a new threat to the u.s. territory of guam and a statement flat out mocking the president of the united states. an fbi agent staged a dramatic raid on the home of paul manafort. what are investigators looking for? plus more breaking news. state department employees in cuba possibly victims of an attack resulting in serious injuries. what happened? let's go "outfront". good evening i'm erin burnett. "outfront" tonight the breaking news. crossing trump's red line. kim jong-un firing back at president trump tonight, defying

the president's charge not to make any more threats to the united states. north korean state media announcing kim is examining the simultaneous firing of four intercontinental ballistic missiles near guam. this is something the north korean regime is saying could happen next week if kim makes that call. guam is an american territory home to 160,000 americans. guam is about 2100 miles from pyongyang which is well within kim's striking distance. now north korea also mocking president trump personally tonight as part of this response saying quote dialogue not possible with such a guy bereft of reason. and then saying this, trump's fire and fury comments is a load of nonsense. well, you know, when you hear him talk about as a guy you may say is this serious? one thing is true, it's a dangerous escalation in the war of words. kicked off yesterday when

president trump said this. >> north korea best not make any more threats to the united states. they will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen. they will be met with fire, fury and frankly power, the likes of which this world has never seen before. >> so it took about 15 hours for them to respond to that with another threat. we are learning stunning new details about president trump's extraordinary fire and fury threat tonight. multiple sources telling cnn the presidented ad libbed those wor. now trump's new chief of scandinavia john kelly who was brought on board to instill discipline was aware trump would take a strong tone on north korea, but he didn't help in writing trump's threat. just moments before he spoke

trump was handed notes about opioid addiction. notes about opioid addiction. jim sciutto begins our coverage. jim, how serious is this threat from the north tonight? >> reporter: when a hostile power particularly a hostile nuclear power makes a threat against the u.s. or u.s. territory it's taken very seriously. i spoke to a senior u.s. military official a few minutes ago who reiterated that point. this particular threat is very specific. it specifics a target, guam where there's two military bases and the type of number of missiles, intercontinental ballistic missiles and firing for you at them. a specific threat, the second threat, in fact, in 24 hours since president trump said that any such threat against the u.s. would be met by the u.s. with fire and fury. to be clear when it comes to these kind of mifrls, this kind of targeting it's not clear north korea has the ability today to carry out that threat, with force. do their missiles have the

targeting necessary, the u.s. does have missile defers in guam, the thaad system to take out missiles like this. whether it can take out four is the question. beyond that north korea knows and that was part of the message today from u.s. officials that an attack on u.s. territory would be met an overwhelming response. that's why in military exchange for north korea is something that, frankly, it wants to avoid and from the u.s. side, u.s. intelligence inside north korea is imperfect. it doesn't know where all the military and nuclear installations are. they have been hidden and distributed with intent by north korea to make it very difficult for u.s. to find them and take them out. so both side have limitations on what military action can do for them. and that's why, frankly, when you look at it rationally neither side wants to have that military exchange. that said, when the words escalate that increases the chances for misunderstanding and that increases the risk of a dangerous escalation.

>> thank you very much, jim sciutto. to be loud and clear there's no way to have a preemptive strike that would be total without the possibility of massive civilian casualties. we go to bedminster, new jersey where president trump is. sara, sounds like north korea, obviously, the president laid out this red line. no more threats and they came right back with a threat. has there been a response tonight from the president? >> reporter: that's right, north korea did come back with a athlete. we have asked white house aides who are here with the president in new jersey whether there will be any response. we've not heard anything back yet tonight. we're not expecting to see the president again tonight. as you point out the president has really set himself up in a tough position. he spent the day on twitter touting the u.s. nuclear arsenal. he talked about yesterday of raining down fire and fury if there was a threat. that's the kind of rhetoric that

raised concern among some in the national security community and even some in congress. you can't put a threat out there like that unless you're ready to take action. as we await to see if there's a response from the president from the white house. "outfront" tonight the top democrat on the house foreign affairs committee has been to pyongyang twice. congressman, breaking news, north korea seriously examining, right, a clear threat possibly firing four missiles at guam. they say they can be ready to do this, execute this week if kim decides and gives the go ahead and says go ahead and do this. do you take this as a real athlete? >> sure. i think it's a very big threat and i think it's very, very dangerous as everyone has pointed out. there are american servicemen in seoul, population of seoul is a huge city, could you have a million casualties or even more. the athletes to guam, the

erratic behavior of kim jong-un. this is a family that's been in power for decades and decades and decades, but i think that the currents leader is taking this to an all time high and that's why i think the president has to be careful. you know, this is another example of the trump foreign policy flying by the seats of your pants whatever he's thinking about at the moment comes out of his mouth and no thought to the damage or the problems it could cause. >> now, north korea is saying that these missiles, they actually gave a range where they would land. they would land between 19 and 25 miles from the island of guam. it's pretty clear they are trying to make a points. we can hit you. we can aim accurately. we can fire four at once which jim said could possibly overwhelm any missile defense in seoul. should the united states allow them to do this if we were able to get a sense of real preparations or strike preemptively because it does seem they are going to have it

land in the water, put a payload on it. >> first of all, that we have to make it clear to them that any kind of an attack is something that will be met by force. different from what the president said is he was starting. he was talking -- >> athlete. >> threat. >> north koreans should know we won't sit idly by and let our people hit. >> they are essentially saying we'll let these fall into the water to prove a point. should the president preemptively strike to stop it? >> i think it's hard to say. the results, the decision would have to be made based on all the consequences and based on the facts then. it's difficult to say now. what i think is the problem is when the president is the first one to get up and make remarks -- look north korea has been a threat for years. the question i ask is how did we allow north korea to get this

far in terms of having nuclear weapons through successive administrations. this isn't a political football. >> the president's words yesterday seemed have been uniformly condemned and even his own defense secretary seems to have walked them back. but he has a points in one thing. diplomacy has failed. they went from being a nuclear power to possibly having a intercontinental ballistic missile that could strike most of the united states. diplomacy has failed. >> it's failed and sertsly failing under the trump administration because they've cutback -- we're facing a 31% cut in state department funds. we are facing cuts in embassy security and everything else. there's no ambassador to south korea. there's no under secretary. >> but he was handed a country where the biggest threat to the united states was north korea. wasn't this intercontinental ballistic missile with the nuclear on top by president obama. >> yes. and before him by president

bush. this is a successive failure by american diplomacy. >> does the united states look weak if the president doesn't enforce the red line. may have been the wrong thing to say the next time you threaten i'll do this. is it worse now to allow the threat to happen and do nothing. >> i don't think we should worry about looking weak. what we should worry about is trying to prevents a nuclear catastrophe. back in 1962 when president kennedy and the russians over cuba, we came as close to nuclear war as we ever have come since except perhaps until now. through quiet diplomacy and calmer heads and help from other countries we were able to all back down. this is what the trump administration should be working on now. not making bluster. we can make bluster and we're certainly stronger than them but what price will we have to pay. >> rex tillerson, secretary of state has tried to walk back

what the president has said. let me play what he said this morning when he stopped in guam for a planned refueling stop. >> i think the president -- what the president is doing is sending a strong message to north korea in language that kim jong-un would understand because he doesn't seem to understand diplomatic language. i think the president just of theed to be clear to the north korean regime that the u.s., you know, unquestionable ability to defend itself, will defend itself and its allies and it was important that he deliver that message to avoid any miscalculation on their part. >> he's clearly not saying the next time you threaten we'll strike he's trying to say only to defend. will north korea listen to him or will they say we'll listen to the president? >> i hope. now, again, getting the help of other countries like china who whether we like it or not is very important here and

diplomacy quiet behind-the-scenes diplomacy is the only thing to get us out of this. if we have a nuclear war with north korea we'll win it but at what price. but we have to cool off, walk back from the brink and let diplomacy rein. secretary tillerson hasn't come out against these terrible cuts to the state department which is slashing embassies and diplomacy. we need to build these things up. the president can't fly by the seat of his pants and say what he wants to on twitter and think there's no repercussion. when i heard the president's comments i thought they more likely could have come out of the mouth of kim jong-un. we don't need that or want that. as distasteful as the north korean regime is and i've been there twice, it is certainly a regime that we don't want to have a nuclear war with. and everything that we need to do needs to be done to prevents that and that's diplomacy. >> congressman i appreciate your

time and thank you. next more on the breaking news, north korea's new threat issued moments ago. we are live in guam. plus breaking news involving the surprise fbi raid at paul manafort's home. tonight reaction from inside trump's inner circle. and any way you want it, unless it involves trump. how a visit to the white house could be the end of journey. when this bell rings... ...it starts a chain reaction... ...that's heard throughout the connected business world. at&t network security helps protect business, from the largest financial markets to the smallest transactions, by sensing cyber-attacks in near real time and automatically deploying countermeasures. keeping the world of business connected and protected. that's the power of and.

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breaking news, north korea making a new threat moments ago defying the president of the united states red line. as we speak pyongyang claiming it is quote serious lie examining a plan to launch four missiles towards the u.s. territory of guam. the plan according to north korea will be in place in just days and could have the rockets landing just about 20 miles from america's military bases in the western pacific on guam. our ivan watson is out front live from there. ivan this threat, of course, comes about 15 hours after the president said if you threaten again the united states, i will unleash fire and fury the likes of which the world has never before seen and now here we go. kim is doing it. >> reporter: that's right. and, you know, after the initial threats came from north korea where they singled out guam and said that guam could be the target of enveloping fire as

north korea put it from north korean intercontinental ballistic missiles you had local officials here on the ground, on this american island that's home to more than 160,000 american civilians trying to calm and reassure the population. the governor saying that there had been no increase in the threat level here. the local representative, the departments of homeland security saying that there was a lot of communication with local military commanders, with washington as well to ensure that there were preventative protective measures. after threats were made by north korea against guam in 2013 you had the installation, the deployment of a thaad missile defense system here on this island and that's something that local officials pointed to, a protected measure they say is in place here. when you talk to the ordinary people of guam, i'm just going to show you a bit of the scene of the beach here. there is not panic on the streets or beaches. people are playing. we came in less than 12 hours

ago on a commercial flight from south korea of all places with korean tourists who live every day under the threat of north korean weapons coming here for vacation. the hotels are largely booked solid, so the tourism industry has not taken a dent yet. some ordinary people that i've talked to here some say we don't really care. others say we're worried and they are sleeping in their clothes at night and keeping bottled water by their bed. it depends on who you talk to. >> thank you very much ivan watson from there on guam. now i want to go to former senior aide visor and communications directsor for barack obama. former congressman to the trump campaign and mark preston our senior political analyst. the ball is now in president trump's court, all right. north korea not only with the threat, not only saying they couldn't negotiate with such a man who lacked reason, they went on tonight to publicly mock the

president saying that while he put out a load of nonsense about fire and fury. they are mocking him, taking him on playing golf. can he not respond? is it possible for him to not respond? >> well, i think it is. i think what he's doing right now is being very measured. i think it's important. i think yesterday's statement was a call to the international community to say listen we need to get china -- >> wait. what is measured. the fact he hasn't responded in the past 30 minutes to breaking news or the fire and fury. i'm not joking. >> he's not expanded on the fire and fury comment of yesterday, but i believe that behind-the-scenes there's a lot of things going on that we don't know about. i've been in classified briefings and what you see in those rooms can't be repeated outside of them. i can say this the president and his team have seen a lot of things. i know that for certain. know on the state department side there's a lot of diplomacy

going on not necessarily with north korea and the united states, but through china and through other third partieser and then some other discussions that are going on. so i think there's a lot that we're not aware of in terms of the thaad system, the terminal high altitude area defense system in guam, extremely important defense that we got to keep up. there's a lot that is out there on the military side that we probably don't talk about in public and very wisely so. >> dan, what do you say? can he be quiet? >> i think, you know, we shouldn't launch intercontinental ballistic missiles because sort of a game of of dozens between a couple of guys but i think we have to really think about what trump said was not part of some strategy. he's a very distinguished national security cabinet with general mattis his chief of scandinaviaaga -- staff general

kelly. this is a grave situation with all kinds of various equities and consequences to be measured and so he should talk to his adviser come up with a plan. but to say the first thing that comes out of your mouth is not very presidential. >> he said the fire and fury the likes of which the world has never before seen he said it twice. i want to be clear because we've learned from multiple sources that that was ad libbed. he was handed a bull left sheet about opioids and instead he chose to say this. the white house press secretary today, mark, said general kelly and others on the team were well aware of the tone of the statement of the president prior to delivery. the words were his own. the tone and strength of the message were discussed beforehand. do you buy it? do you think that chief of staff kelly, h.r. mcmaster, that others on the national security council were aware of the tone

and strength fire and fury likes of which the world has never before seen. >> one, the defrgs of how severe the tone was going to be might be different from how president trump delivered it and perhaps what the discussion was before he went out and delivered it. we always talk and seems we say this every night now that words matter. when you use words that president trump used to describe the situation and basically for what north korea to back off then you better be prepared to cross that red line when you make that assertion because if you do not -- if you do not follow through then any other threats that you make going forward are going to fall flat. so, i do think we're in a very precarious position right now and to jack's point i do think when you're talking to people that china might be the way out of it at this point, perhaps there's some negotiations going on behind-the-scenes but president bushily we're not seeing it.

>> let's lay down the stark facts. this is a president who repeatedly criticized president obama for his red line that he never observed. he laid out a red line yesterday, okay. it said if you threaten i'm going to unleash fire and fury the likes of which the world has never before seen. he can't follow through with that. he can't observe that red line tonight. let's just face the definition here, right, congressman? his red line he put out yesterday is not worth anything. >> well, i think the criticism is valid but on the other hand it's not safe to say this is the red line don't cross it because it's undefined as to what the threat would be and what the fire and fury would be. >> four missiles 20 miles from two military bases in guam next week is not a threat? >> i'm not saying what the threat level would be, what the threshold would be. i'm just saying listen your criticism is valid but i'm also saying let's not goad ourselves you have to follow your word on

this. i want to point out something that's very important to the trump critics that all through the campaign all we heard is he was undisciplined in his message therefore he's going to lose this state, he'll lose this group, he offended one senator or somebody else. yet he kept going on. i would suggest a lot of what he says is not spontaneous, although it may look that way, it doesn't necessarily mean that it is. and i don't think that statement yesterday was an off the cuff statement at all. i think it was very deliberate. >> dan, if it was then what? >> look, i worked on campaigns and i worked in white houses. what you say in a campaign is important but doesn't matter that much. what you say when you're president of the united states matters. and you can't go out and threaten the equivalent of nuclear war just because you feel that way that morning. there's a process for that. i hope he doesn't feel out of some obligation of insecurity or

ego to go at north korea because he said this. but this goes to inherent flaw in the president and the system that's been sets up around the president. he has these distinguished generals he talks about so much, if he's unwilling to listen to them and follow their advice or seek out their counsel, this is going to be one in a never ending series of crisis. >> what kind of conversations did you have when president obama said don't cross this red line in syria and then lost credibility in the middle east? maybe president trump's advisors say we don't want to end up like obama we better soft pedal this and see if the diplomatic communities behind-the-scenes working with china can come up with a solution. >> that's not what the president said. he's saying something and now his aides are forced to try to walk it back, try to basically not impleaments what he's saying. anyone -- you said you've been

in briefings. you can't tell me you're not concerned about what the president said and how he said it because these are serious matters. you can't wing it in between 18 holes of golf on vacation on serious matters like this. >> but i don't think he is winging it. >> my question to you if he didn't wing it, is that worse to threaten nuclear armageddon and to do so purposely is pretty terrifying. >> it is terrifying and i don't think he's winging it so i'm not afraid to answer that question. let me point out something to you. he said diplomacy has failed and it has failed. for 50 years we've been trying to bring north korea into the communities ever nations unsuccessfully. democrats and republicans alike through all kinds of measures in the six nation talks and so forth. i think we are at the stage now where they are armed and dangerous and diplomacy is in the 11th hour along with everything else. the stakes are extremely high

right now and so, you know, i understand people being concerned about president trump built they should be far more concerned about kim jong-un. >> thank you all very much. i appreciate it. next more breaking news. what trump's inner circle are saying about fbi agents raiding paul manafort's home pre-dawn in connection with the russian investigation. and a mystery in cuba. u.s. employees suffering serious injuries in an apparent acustic attack. yes. those are the words. what is this? who did it? how is the united states retaliating tonight. that's... not your car. your car's ready! wrong car... this is not your car? i would love to take it, but no. oh, i'm so sorry about that. you guys wanna check it out? it's someone else's car... this is beautiful. what is this? it's the all-new chevy equinox. this feels like a luxury suv. i love this little 360, how do they even do that? i made a bad decision on my last car purchase. well, your car's here. bummer... bummer. wah-wah. i'm ready for an upgrade. (laughter)

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trump's inner circle rattled tonight after learning the fbi carried out a raid on the home of the man who once ran president trump's campaign. paul manafort. it was reportedly a pre-dawn raid one day after manafort met with senate intelligence investigators. sources tell our sara murray that news of the raid took trump's team by surprise and rattled a few cages of the inner circle. this is pretty stunning. we're saying he met with senate intelligence investigators and then in the early hours of the next morning fbi investigators raided his home. it's a pretty stunning thing. what are you learning about the raid? >> reporter: in a dramatic escalation this coming after paul manafort's team said they had been cooperating with congressional investigators and federal investigators as part of this probe and then this pre-dawn warrant coming to his house and raiding his house, potentially even waking him up in this no knock warrants a sign these investigators were concern

that paul manafort could have potentially been willing to destroy some documents that they were trying to obtain. what we do know is they did get some financial and tax records that they were seeking as part of their warrant. now, manafort spokesman said that they are actually cooperating fully with this investigation. they did confirm this happened. we do know this happened in manafort's home in northern virginia but did not provide any more details. but pretty significant development and a sign that's bob mull certificate looking very closely at trump's former campaign chairman. >> i'm trying to understand because you said he was cooperating and i know you learned some of the records that were seized by the fbi included documents manafort had already given to congress. what do you know about how many documents he's given and do we read into a raid a guy trying hide documents or not? >> reporter: we know he's given documents to the senate intelligence committee, the

house intelligence committee and some of the records that were seized were given to the senate intelligence committee. i'm also told roughly 400 pages of records were given to the senate, that senate judiciary committee in early august and those also pertain to that meeting that paul manafort had at trump tower with donald trump jr. and those russian officials as well as jared kushner in which those russians were promising dirt 0 donald trump jr. donald trump jr. himself turning over roughly 250 pages of documents to the senate judiciary committee. that same committee also getting new documents i'm told about the russian lobbyist who was at that meeting including how that russian lobbyist entered the united states. also that same committee getting roughly 20,000 pages from the trump campaign over all of its communications including communications with any communications that occurred with russian officials. the investigation is still moving forward at a rapid pace. >> thank you very much.

"outfront" now, a former assistant fbi director for the criminal investigative division and john dean former nixon white house counsel. you know mueller and you know what the fbi would be looking for here. when you put it in context of spoke to senate investigators he had given them 400 pages of documents. then you have a surprise raid to seize documents and other materials at his home. what does this indicate to you? >> well, first and foremost it indicates the director, former directsor mueller and his investigative team are very serious about their business. and unlike the political theater that goes on in these congressional committees they are not going to gently ask for evidence they are going to go get it if there's slightest indication that evidence will be destroyed or evidence will be withheld. in this case they could have gotten the information or the documents via subpoena. for all we know they may have tried to do so. executing a dawn search warrants, a no notification

search warrant means that they convinceed a magistrate there was potential for destruction of evidence. >> so let me ask you about that because when you put, obviously the cloak and dagger sort of thing when you hear it as a lay person you hear pre-dawn raid and seems to indicate something. sounds like it does, they are saerngd message and making a point. >> i think so. you don't get a no knock search warrant without providing information in an affidavit which is probably sealed that there is the potential for destruction of evidence and there's probably probable cause to think that served being withheld or destroyed. ordinarily you have to give notification, knock on the door possible l poli politely, ask to come in. >> you're saying that this would mean they believe he's withholding or destroying evidence. john, you're also, i think agreeing in the sense of it they were able to get the warrant to do this to just go in and take

it. that that is a big deal. >> this is unprecedented. i think of an incident where a pshl scandal involved a pre-dawn raid by the fbi. didn't happen in watergate, iran/contra or lewinsky investigations. so this is -- they are upping the game here and they are sending a message tomb involved that they are deadly serious. they think there are crimes involved. and it looks like they are looking at financial material based on the reportsing. >> as far as the raid as we understand it, took place on july 26th in the early dawn hours which is just a little bit over two weeks after we first learned donald trump jr. arranged that middle east with the russian lawyer in which jared kushner attended along with paul manafort. do you think there's a connection between this raid and that meeting or is it impossible to tell?

>> i don't have any inside information but i think it's part of the equation because if they are investigating potential collusion, there was some emails that don jr. e-mail string that i thought were very significant and may have helped provide the probable cause and that was the reference to the russian government support for trump in general and a reference to the crown prosecutor providing this information to help. so, i'm not saying one way or another whether there was collusion. i'm one of those folks that don't believe they will establish actual collusion but i think it provided building blocks that provided the probable cause to get the search warrant. >> john, a basic question. this investigation has been going on for a while. if paul manafort was going to destroy documents wouldn't he have already done it? >> you would think so or removed documents from his office to his home. that's always a possibility. there's a number of reasons

where they think a crime was committed. we can't be certain. >> of course as we know they did go to his home. thank you very much. next several u.s. embassy employees in cuba are suffering from very serious and mysterious injuries and tonight official says they have the tar guest an acoustic attack. did president obama do enough to raen in kim jong-un or is he part of the problem here. depunts a nuclear cries to president donald trump. our security adviser is on next. when a critical patient is far from the hospital, the hospital must come to the patient. stay with me, mr. parker. the at&t network is helping first responders connect with medical teams in near real time... stay with me, mr. parker. ...saving time when it matters most. stay with me, mrs. parker. that's the power of and.

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breaking news, cnn has learned several state department employees at the embassy in havana may have been subjected to an acoustic attack. these were so severe two kploes had to return to the united states due to seer health problems. the state department as bizarre as this whole story is being very vague about the perpetrator of the attacks. >> reporter: they've reported some incidents which caused a variety of physical symptoms. i'm not going to be able to give you a ton of information about this today but i'll tell you what we do have. we don't have any definitive answers about the source or cause of what we consider to be incidents. >> two cuban diplomats were expelled from the united states

as a result of those incidents and of course as we told the words they used are acoustic attacks. not only is this bizarre but explain what makes officials say these are acoustic attacks? >> well it's very unusual and very concerning about late last year a lot of diplomats, about half a dozen were having serious health problems minimmicking concussions. they were not at the same place at the same time. they were complaining about serious health problems. the state department cents medical personnel down there to examine them, to talk to the kbans. the kbans said they had nothing to do with its. they had to bring these people back for treatment, at least two of them and we heard that at least one of them could have permanent hearing loss. now they say that this could be some sonic weapon, sonic attack where you use some kind of sonic

frequency to affect someone's brain waves or someone's hearing. obviously the fbi investigating right now and the state department says it's very concerning and asked two cuban diplomats to leave until it's resolved. >> thank you very much. "outfront" to former cia operative and intelligence and security analyst. bob, i want to make a point here on the timeline on the political side there's been a change in cuban policy under president trump. she said this happened late last year which sunday president obama. i want everyone to understand the timing here. when we're talking about acoustic attack or sonic weapons, what are we talking about? >> well the cubans and russians have been doing this for years attacking our embassies in moscow and amman, jordan. they use various techniques. microwave. bombard a window with microwave and pick up acoustics.

they've done with it radiation where you can read documents by radiating a room. they did it with laser microphones. what that does you shoot it at a styrofoam cup on a desk and take that audio and send it back across the laser. could be any one of these things. the russians have been experimenting with this for years and weaver been aware of it. it's very, very difficult to prove. and that's why we probably haven't gone to the cubans with definitive proof. in a place like havana it's not the germans or somebody like that bombarding our embassy it's either cubans or russians or possibly working together. >> why would they do this? do you think that the cubans would have the ability to do this without russian assistance? >> oh, i don't think the cubans could at all. they need very sophisticated -- a lot of techniques even the cia and national security agency can't replicate. the russians are very good at

this stuff and the cubans would need the russians. it's very useful to pick up a conversation inside an embassy. you can find out who the spies are. you can find out about diplomatic initiatives in advance and find out all sorts ever things. it's very useful. you can promote an attack like this, pick up a voice inside an embassy and cuban intelligence can use it against us and have in the past very successfully. >> so what do you think the motive would be here if it was, you know, done by, sounds like you're saying the russians can do it. are they doing it to help the cubans or doing it themselves? >> i think they are working together. it's possible the russians gave them equipment and gone out on their own but we can't tell at this point. we don't know. it's almost definitely russian equipment. you know, that's speculation, but based on 40 years of experience. >> all right. thank you very much. bizarre and frankly terrifying

story. more on our top breaking story right now north korea level agnew threat crossing the president's red line warning tonight that its military is seriously examining in their words a plan to simultaneously fire four ballistic missiles near the u.s. territory of guam. about 19 to 25 miles away. this follows president trump's red line saying he would unleash fire and fury if pyongyang continued to threaten the united states. the former assistant to president obama for homeland security and counterterrorism. you've been at the center of the north korean conversation and all the classified briefings you went through on that. lisa, this threat clearly, this crosses president trump's red line. did the president box himself into a corner here or not? >> well that's going to be a real concern, erin. good to be with you tonight. look this is an area of the world and a regime where there's no room for error so the kind of apparently off the cuff statement we saw yesterday from

president trump is very concerning because what we're going to be worried about here particularly in this area of the world with this regime is the danger of miscalculation and potential escalation. and the concern is that the statement you just saw released in the last hour or so from north korea is exactly that type of cycle that we'll be very concerned about coming from seemingly uncoordinated discussions or uncoordinated statements from president trump yesterday that if the reports are true were not coordinated, were not the subject of careful deliberate analysis by his national security team, by secretary mattis and tillerson and others and were not the subject of deliberate steady leadership and discussion that has marked prior presidential statements about north korea. >> right. we're reporting did he say that off the cuff. it was ad libbed. general kelly was aware of the tone and tenor of what the president was going to say

although not his specific words. the president's personal attorney representing him in the russian investigation jay sekulow tweeted six times about former president obama. one of the tweets said this. the strategic patience of the obama administration has given north korea the time i want needed to build up its nuclear what's your response to that charge? >> first, erin, i would say this is the first time i've ever been asked to respond to foreign policy analysis from the president's private defense attorney. so leaving aside that very strange circumstance, what i would say is, these are capabilities that north korea has sought to develop over time, over many, many years in the course of many administrations. north korea did not get the capability to have a nuclear bomb on president obama's watch. but it's certainly the case that president obama's approach of not continuing to engage in prior cycle of responding to

provocations from north korea with concessions, that was not -- that approach was not changing north korea's behavior. so president obama's approach was to escalate defenses, improve defenses in the region, and for the united states itself increase pressure on north korea, and try to bring china to help bring north korea to the table. i would note under president obama's watch, we have not seen this type of brinksmanship, and that's no small feat. >> let's talk about what we did see, because this is crucial. i'm not just going to point the finger at president obama. the failures go well before that. there's plenty of blame to go around here. but when you talk about the sanctions and negotiation rounds, the six-party talks that president obama was a part of, failed. u.n. security council past round after round after round of sanctions while president obama was in office. and yet none of it worked, right? diplomacy did not work. we have to admit that, right?

>> look, i think it's certainly the case that the current approaches and the approaches employed by past administrations, including the obama administration, bush and clinton and others, has not resulted in a change to north korea's behavior. look, the sanctions that were imposed last weekend by the u.s. security council, that was a pos bif st -- positive step. and frankly, the focus ought to be on working with allies and partners to ensure that those sanctions are being enforced. and the danger we seem to be engaged in, is that we have a dangerous distraction from that type of very important work to enforce those sanctions. >> when you say president obama worked with china, that goes to the heart of this. just last year, president obama defended china's record when it came to punishing north korea and standing up to north korea. here he is.

>> i can tell you that based on not only their presentations but actually intelligence and evidence that we've seen, china has done more on sanctions implementation than they have on some of the previous u.n. security council sanctions. >> it's pretty tepid, more than on some of the previous rounds. the facts are painful here. chin china's trade with north korea this year just in the first quarter was up 35%. imports up 18%. that's china's own trade data, what they admit to. during this time, north korea's arsenal got bigger and bigger. is part of this president obama's fault? >> look, erin, i think the truth of the matter is, in that statement you just showed from president obama went on to say that there's more that china can do in this area. and that is certainly the case. and frankly, what we're seeing from the current administration

seems to be a push china towards that, to increase pressure on china to do more against the banks that china has that are continuing to do business with north korea, to increase pressure. that's all to the good. the dang we are the type of rhetoric we're seeing in the last 24 hours is it doesn't seem to be part of a larger, broader strategy, one that was done in consultation with our allies and partners, in consultation with china and japan and south korea, who, of course, are facing the artillery fire from 35 miles north of seoul, just from north korea. so this type of rhetoric really has a danger for unintended consequences. >> lisa monaco, thank you very much. i appreciate your time tonight. and next, jeanne moos on how a journey to the white house could cause the rock band to go separate ways.

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tonight, the rock band journey, famous for its open arms. but what about when it comes to politics. here's jeanne moos. >> reporter: is it possible that journey has reached its end? that it won't go. the feud was stoked last month. the band members posed for a photo with president trump. all of which caused journey's co-founder, guitarist neil shawn, to explode on social media. journey should never be used and exploited by anyone, especially band members for politics. this clearly shows no respect or unity, just divide. one way or the other, i won't be dealing with any more toxic blank. done. >> this is blowing up what's

left of this band. >> it looks like it could be the end of journey as we know it. >> reporter: the band's anthem -- ♪ don't stop >> reporter: and one fan telling the white house visitors, fellas, time to stop believing. but others said there's nothing political about visiting the white house. it's an honor. and told tmz that this was no way the band was in risk of breaking up. in the past, they've agreed we'. >> reporter: cain is married to the blond in red, paula white, who happens to be a spiritual adviser to president trump. shawn tweeted it's not about trump at all. but rather mixing music with politics. is it conceivable that they could go their separate ways? remember tony playing "don't stop believing" in the final scene of "the sopranos?"

♪ don't stop believing at the moment the band seems to be in the same place the sopranos ended. in limbo. jeanne moos, cnn, new york. >> don't let the white house break you up. thanks for joining us. anderson's next. good evening. on a day the trump administration spent trying to get its message straight on nuclear north korea, we learned that the president's threat to north korea of fire and fury and power the likes of which this world has never seen before, those lines were delivered off the cuff. and now there's a new response from pyongyang, a threatening statement from the commander of kim jong-un's strategic forces speaking to president trump. he said, sound dialogue is not possible with such a guy bereft of reason. he went on to outline of coming military action, including a plan for