hello. i'm wolf blitzer. 1:00 p.m. in washington. 6:00 p.m. in london. wherever you're watching from around the world thanks for joining us. president trump facing more fallout over his response to the deadly violence in charlottesville, virginia. within the past hour, another business executive, scott paul, president of the alliance for american manufacturing, resigned saying it is the right thing to do.

three others including the ceos of merck pharmaceutical, intel and under armour all previously stepped down in protest. earlier the president tweeted this -- "for every ceo that drops out of the manufacturing council, i have many to take their place. grandstanders should not have gone on. jobs." the president is back at trump tower in new york city now. the first time there since he took office january 20th and protestors were there last night to greet him. [ chanting ] >> all: no kkk! >> this came out hours after the president condemned the hate groups involved in the charlottesville demonstrations by name but not happy about the response to his comments. tweeting this -- made additional remarks on charlottesville and realized once again that the #fakenewsmeadia will never be satisfied. truly bad people. go to our senior white house

correspondent jeff zeleny inside the lobby of trump tower right now. i take it the president will steek there later today. how significant are the latest referring nations from the president's manufacturing council? >> reporter: wolf, i think it's fairly significant. the president likes nothing more than to be surrounded by business leaders. ceos, other corporate titans. he has them into the white house often. to have the fourth member of his manufacturers' advisory council saying he they simply don't want to be associated with him or the would us is significant. i'm told the white house was worked behind the scenes to prevent any other depap chers. departures. some want to work with the president. others haven't commented at all. having the fourth resignation, wolf, is something the white house would not like to see. despite the president's assertion online on social media saying that he can find other people who want to be involved in this. his focus is on jobs.

this stings. it's a repudiation indeed of what the president is trying to do and a sign, wolf, these are all coming, three of these resignations have come after those remarks yesterday in the white house, trying to clean all of this up. >> the president was active on twitter again this morning, jeff. talk about another one of his tweets. did he undercut his own message with a strong statement he delivered in charlottes -- on charlottesville yesterday by retweeting a right-wing conspiracy theorist? >> reporter: wolf, he certainly was at odds with his words yesterday. when he was speaking in the white house it was certainly a president's moment. he was calling for national unity. he called out the white supremacist groups, the ku klux klans and others as repugnant and hours later essentially endorsing the view of a leading conspiracy theorist, who is one of the people who's been

involved in the, you know, spreadingspiracies and other things on line. the pizzagate last year during the campaign and other things. wolf, by associating him with those conspiracy theories it was at odds with what the white house was trying to do, move beyond this. goes to show, when the president is speaking on teleprompter he certainly was locked on a message of reconciliation. when on twitter, certainly much different. >> yes. certainly is. jeff, thanks very much. jeff zeleny inside trump tower in new york city, standing by. in a little while we will hear from the president in that lobby and have coverage right here on cnn. meantime, perspective on the late-breaking developments. we have cnn political analyst david drucker with us. a senior congressional correspondent for the "washington examiner," cnn political editor at large chris

sli is celiss ai. wanna, y and also you said what the president didn't say was important. >> to say racism was evil and does not stand behind the bgotry and hate we saw in charlottesville, virginia, over the weekend. something critical this president didn't say is that he does not want the support of members of the kkk, neo-nazis or white supremacists who back him. groups emboldened since president trump was elected in november and we know they've said so to us as reporters, listen to what david duke, the former kkk and politician in louisiana said. this is why we wovoted for dona trump. he wants to make america great again. using the morals of his office and speaking forthright to the american people had an opportunity to say i don't want these people behind me if these are values you espouse, they

have no place in my white house and campaign. he didn't do that. i think people expected more from him. a president for whom everything is personal speaked very forthrightly at campaign rallies and events and that passion, energy and pushing away of those values didn't seem to exist in the statement he gave on monday. >> chris, he could fix that quickly. tweet along those lines? comes out in an hour or two, whenever he comes out at trump tower in new york city, could say what tawana is saying. >> the problem is ambiguity. the saturday statement more obviously ambiguous on many sides clearly not borne out by the facts. and not a clear dissociation, if you say you support me, i do not want your support. important to say. otherwise, this will be taken, we already know is being taken, hate to say it, something of a success for these folks.

they got a lot of publicity, plooning more rallies, et cet a cetera. yes, he could do it wolf. he brags how many twitter followers, 34 million, 35 million. he has sent out three tweets. i haven't looked since i've been on-air, but three tweets about two yesterday about the merck ceo. today obviously the one you showed about these grandstanders who quit. he sent out, by my account, zero tweets about charlottesville. i always think that tweets matter, because it speaks to what he really cares about. what he's really thinking. we've seen time and time again in this administration. the administration trying to do one thing and donald trump says something either somewhat or totally contradicts. this is who he is. his twitter feed. the most obvious natural representation. ve zero on that and three oun the national council, losers, we'll get others.

that's telling. >> it is telling. and retweets other thoughts and sends them. others, 100, 200, 500 followers, had e has 35 million followers on twitter. what he shares with his followers, that's significant as well. >> well, it's what he values. light? so what donald trump talks about on twitter versus the occasional teleprompter moment, there's a difference there. he values his twitter communications. he has talked about how they're not going to take my social media away from me. so i think that the trouble that trump is running into here is he's being judged against the standard that he set. when he has something critical to say about somebody, nothing, no matter who they are, where in the world they're located, stops him from going on twitter and being very specific in his critique or condemnation. that's why it was so glaring here in that had took him a while to do this, and then when he finally did it, he responded a couple hours later calling the media as the bad people for not being satisfied with his response.

and the point is that whether or not he has a point there, a lot of his voters and voters in general may believe we're being a little tough on him. he finally came out, said what needed to be said, but it goes to how trump choosing to operate. one more thing that goats what tawana wrote about. in talking to republicans yesterday, i was talking to john fredericks, hosts a radio show in southern virginia. he is a top trump ally in virginia, a big supporter of his. asking, how do republicans need to handle this, some republicans, especially in the governor and senator, senate race in virginia, that have had different opinions on what happened in charlottesville? he said, look, i don't care if it costs us voters. republicans need to be unequivocal saying these people are not welcome, we don't want their support specifically. he wasn't telling me that's what he wants the president to do, clearly the message was, that's what the president and every republican leader needs to do, specifically tell these kooks to get lost. >> and i think what's -- dave touches on this. difficult is, if you're a republican elected official,

let's say. you look at -- donald trump, more than willing, on repeated occasions to call his own attorney general, more than willing, on occasions to call out senate majority leader senator mitch mcconnell. not willing to call out white supremacists, neo-nazi and hate groups? >> why do you think that it? >> asking me to read donald trump's mind is a horrible idea but shows where his principles are. not things top of mind for him. waying in which he uses twitter, lash out at what he sees as political opponents. doing higher things, moral authority of the office, donald trump has not shown himself to be a president who has that same natural communicator role in moments of crisis and of concern in this country as past presidents have on both sides of the aisle have done particularly with digital communication. >> this is a law and order issue. talking about restoring law and order and all violence. i don't want to shrink the guy. i don't know what's going on in

his head, but i think that he either understands and doesn't care or doesn't understand that one of the rules that americans of all stripes tend to expect from a president is the role of pastor, the role of moral leader beyond political leader. it's something that he didn't choose to embrace during the campaign, except in a few moments and hasn't chosing really to embrace as president. >> chris, what's happening with this chief strategist steve bannon? >> i mean -- in any other white house i would say this is extraordinary. sort of being allowed to twist in the wind. but i feel like twisting in the wind is sort of the rule rather than the exception here. a number of people did this. reince priebus twisting in the wind before let go. jeff sessions is still in the job but twisting in the wind. look, i think steve bannon is getting it from a lot of sides. we heard rupert murdoch and anthony scaramucci said heeding gone, doesn't have much to do with it, but don't think donald

trump doesn't pay attention, when anthony scaramucci, yes had to get rid of him, his friend a very long time. when anthony scaramucci communicates via the media about steve bannon, donald trump pays attention. so we've gone through -- my own caveat, normally say, look at these tea leaves and say, yes, steve bannon is not long for the job. he may not be. but gone through it before with bannon fighting with jared kushner, trump stepped in, figure it out. you never wane fight with the family. laid low and survived. i don't know how many times you can do that in the normal white house, answer is zero to one. i don't know what it is in this white house. if you're steve bannon you can't be sleeping all that well in the evenings at this point. >> see what happens. could be developments. who knows. stick around, everybody. david drucker, chris cillizza, tawana summers. now wanting dealed information on more than a

million people who visited a website organizing protests against president trump on inauguration day. also, author of a new book, you see him live in the studio complaining what he calling the troubling truth behind the rise of the alt right movement and white sprim sifts. supremacists. we'll be right back. trust safelite autoglass to fix it fast, and we'll get you back on the road! [dog barks] ♪safelite repair, safelite replace.♪ no splashing! wait so you got rid of verizon, just like that? uh-huh. i switched to t-mobile, kept my phone-everything on it- -oh, they even paid it off! wow! yeah. it's nice that every bad decision doesn't have to be permenant! ditch verizon. keep your phone. we'll even pay it off when you switch to america's best

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these make cleaning between myi love easy.sy. gum brand for healthy gums. soft picks, proxabrush cleaners, flossers. gum brand. . the department of justice here in washington is now requesting detailed information on more than a million visitors to a website used to organize protests against president trump back on inauguration day, january 20th. let's go to our justice report laura jarrett following the story. what kind of information is the just is department seeking and why? >> reporter: wolf, federal authorities are aggressively pursuing all links to this website organized against president trump back in january. the latest part of a court battle that stems from a search

warrant that federal prosecutors obtained back in july as part of their investigation into rioting charges here in d.c. but now the company that hosted the website is pushing back against federal authorities that they continue to pursue their investigation and the company is saying, this request is just unreasonable. it's over-broad and would effectively mean that the company would have to provide over 1.3 million ip addresses for anyone who visited the site. something it call as clear abuse of government authority. now, it's not clear whether the justice department lawyers will stand by the breadth of this request. they could try to narrow it in some way or say the company got it wrong. their interpretation is just wrong, but dreamhost, the company, says by going after people who merely visited the website, that raises real first amendment concerns and the information could be used to identify those who opposed the current administration politically. the u.s. attorneys office here in d.c. declined to comment to

me this morning but a federal judge is expected to take up the case this friday, wolf. >> and the argument against the order would be a real invasion of the privacy of all of those 1.3 potential million folks out there. laura, thanks very much. we'll watch this case closely. the ramifications very significant. also lorning today a former trump campaign offers to set up meetings between campaign officials and the russian president vladimir putin last march. bringing in manu raju looking into this. what do we know about the campaign person who made this offer? >> george pop dadoplouse campai volunteer. told with a source in march 2016 sent a letter to several top members of the trump campaign with the subject line reading this, wolf "meeting with russian leadership including putin."

according to the "washington post" he tried at least six times to try to get meetings with the top trump officials and russian officials during the course of the campaign. now we understand that actually this was rejected by the trump campaign. a number of officials raised concerns about having such a meeting, including paul manafort, the campaign chairman. the former campaign chairman now a subject of this investigation as well. they believe, manafort believed this would not look good for president trump and did not want to have this meeting. so these requests, efforts by george popadoplouse did not move forward. . he did not respond to the "washington post" or cnn's request. unclear why he tried to seek these meetings but we know from intelligence russians were trying to figure out entry points into the trump campaign. this could be one of them. this came three months before the trump tower meeting in which

donald trump jr. and jared kushner the president's son-in-law met about the clinton campaign and other campaign contacts as well that committees on capitol hill are now going through, including roughly 20,000 e-mails detailing some contacts as well as discussion of russian issues. the judiciary is looking at this as well, wolf. senate judiciary committee calling on jared kushner, and the white house, to give more information about jared kushner's security clearance form and believe they have not gotten a response they want about how he got this security clearance approved, through the process, without initially listing some of his foreign contacts. all this going through a mountain of documents trying to piece all of this information together. >> jared kushner, the president's senior adviser and also his son-in-law. manu raju on capitol hill, thank you very much. bringing in our panel to discuss. jim sciutto, chief national

security correspondent and a former supervising agent. what does this tell you about efforts to establish some link between the campaign and high levels of the russian government, including potentially putin? >> remember, trump, the administration, campaign and now administration officials, denial, categorical for months. there that were meetings or discussions of meetings. that was belied by the fact donald trump jr. provided information on hillary clinton. we have that. ant suggests further amounts of meetings and this was rejected. at least this offer which came before the meeting that did take place in trump tower. >> this was an offer in march, 2016 and the meeting actually tack place in june in trump tower. >> to be clear, this offer to meet with the most senior russian government officials, including vladimir putin. whether this gentleman had the

power to set that kind of a meeting up we don't know. but it should be noted they turned oun, manafort and others turned down this offer, but later, of course, they did accept an offer in trump tower through donald trump jr. and russians promises that damaging information. >> james, we know the special counsel, robert mueller, former fbi director himself is looking into allegations that are right now only allegations betweening what called collusion? >> this took a turn. a lot of smoke, we haven't seen burning embers. when you go to the point are being able to get probable cause that gives you a search warrant which is different, very different from getting a subpoena from a grand jury, you have now indicated there was some type of probable cause indicative of a crime and where they went to search, paul manafort's house, something was there.

the special prosecutor, with immense powers to go that route when already in negotiations manafort camp, shows me concern. >> and a quick reaction that the justice department has been seeking the identities of all the individuals who went to this website organizing protests against president trump on inauguration day. what do you think? >> it waysing the question what is the reason noor? holding a protest against an american president in america, under the first amendment. nothing wrong with that. why would they consider that acceptable? do they have evidence that crimes were committed or violence at some of the marches? it doesn't appear at this point, that's why you have such a strong pushback from the group involved. it raises that question. what's the driving force behind this? and is there evidence of a crime? or is there an ulterior motive?

about finding personal data of hundreds of thousands -- >> inappropriate if that's the motivation. you're a former fbi agent. what do you think? >> it's hard to say. i know the president tweeted this morning, well, we've had this information for two or three years now. at least since 2004. and yes, we know and understand that groups like the russians and chinese an iran and north korea are constantly trying to disrupt or electoral process. from what we know thus far, nothing in the actual no doubt trying to interfere with the election. no doubt. >> and we'll see what they decide. very important. thanks to you both. coming up, new 911 reportings now detailing the troubled past of the man suspected of driving a car through a crowd in charlottesville, virginia, over the weekend, killing one woman,

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all right. this just coming in to cnn. getting new details about the suspect in the charlottesville, virginia, attack. james fields jr. he has a history of run-ins with police. records obtained by cnn show his own mother called 911 nine times between 2010 and 2013. let's go to brian todd following all the lake-breaks developments. what can you tell us? >> reporter: very disturbing records from these 911 dispatcher calls, wolf. you mentioned, they show that the mother of the suss detect here in charlottesville, james fields, the man suspected of ramming his car into the protestors, her name is samantha bloom. according to reports, wolf mentioned a moment ago, she

called police nine times between 2010 and 2013. on at least three occasions police were called when bloom's son act the violently towards her. we point out in these dispatcher records the son's name is redacted. however, neighbors told cnn samantha bloom lived alone with her son james fields. we also point out during all the incidents samantha bloom was in a wheelchair and remains in a wheelchair today. to answer your questions, in the fall of 2010, samantha bloom called police to report her 13-year-old son smacked her in the head with her phone and put his hands over her mouth after she told him to stop playing video games. in that incident, according to reports, told police she locked herself in a bathroom and very afraid for her own safety. about a year later in october of 2011, according to these 911 dispatcher records, samantha bloom reported that her son had assaulted her in the past, had

been threatening to her and she did not feel in control of the situation. about a month after that, there was a third 911 call. this time from a separate female caller who reported to police that samantha bloom's son was 14-year-olds os the time threatening her and spitting in her face. wolf, several incidents. three we recalled here from dispatcher records from florence, kentucky, where samantha bloom lived with her son james fields before he moved to ohio. these incidents, he acted very violently towards her and is the chief suspect in that car-strike incident here in charlottesville on saturday have a 32-year-old protestors heather heyer, was struck and killed. we've been trying to reach out to the man the court appointed, his name, attorney charles weber. knocked on his door, at his office and home, called several times. he has not responded. we're not sure if he even knows

he's been appointed as james fields attorney but we've been trying to reach out to him as well and not heard back from that attorney. we are told by city officials that they are looking for the public's help in making more arrests in connection with the violence on saturday. they are looking for witnesses to come forward with video and pictures. they are looking to make more arrests from the assault and maybe possibly regarding that car strike that james fields allegedly committed. they do have video they're looking at and they need more help from the public. as of now, they have not made additional arrests other than the arrests of three people for charges of misdemeanor assault and battery, disorderly conduct and carrying a concealed weapon. a total of four arrests up to now, none since that. >> what a history for a 20-year-old also enlisted in the u.s. army and removed right after boot camp, or to some reason as well. brian todd, excellent reporting

agency you always do. thank you. i want to bring in someone with a unique perspective on the underlying issues in charlottesville, virginia. cnn contributor j.d. vance joining us who grew up in a rust belt town in ohio, a state that easily went to donald trump in the 2016 election. author of "hillbilly elegy: memoir of a family and culture in crisis" and in the book dives into how many missed the mark on the white working class that fueled donald trump's campaign. j.d., excellent book. thanks so much for joining us. give us your, your reaction when you saw what was going on in charlottesville. >> well, wolf, you see people marching around doing the nazi salute. i come from a family with a large number of military veterans and from back in the day, people who actually went and fought the nazis. it's really disturbing to see this display of white national

inch and became doubly terrifying because it led to somebody losing their life. like a lot of people, watched the tv, was horrified and forced me to think what's going on in our country and happening that this stuff is becoming seemingly more common. >> you've done a lot of research in this area. it's the nazi slogans that you hear. the anti-semitism. racism. comments about women. what motivating it? these are young people by and large. >> that's right. there are a lot of young people. i think we have to -- in ways keep in mind what's not motivating it. because it's very tempting and i think comforting to look at this as primarily fumed by economic anxiety, but if you look at the leaders of this particular movement, richard spencer, leader of the alt right movement. grew up in a wealthy family. the guy who organized the rally actually went to the university of virginia. one of the nation's great universities. this is not economically disenfranchised people turning to hate. unfortunately, it's people who live in our midst who for

whatever reason find this stuff online, are attracted to it and eventually become radicalized by it. that truth is more troubling than saying that it's all a bunch of poor people turning to white nationalism. it is the truth and it's a truth we have to confront. >> you've said that the american public takes some sort of comfort, if you will, that these are just a bunch of knuckle, slap drawn yokels. they are not. >> they're not. when i watch this stuff and see the way people talk about white nationalism, often they assume it's the very same people that i'm writing about in the book. but it's economically, i said, economically disenfranchised folks not doing well in the economy, so-called hillbillies who turned to white nationalism. what you often see is the leaders are pretty well educated and doing well economically. we can't point at economic problems and say that's what's driving this. very often it's something that's much, much deeper.

culturally and something that consequently isn't necessarily as easy to get rid of. >> what actually -- get your reaction to the way president trump has handled this since saturday. the initial statement, didn't specifically name the kkk, anti-semites, didn't mention the white supremacists, none of that by name. he did yesterday. what do you think are the way he's handled this? >> i think the president really missed and opportunity to name this phenomenon and gish peopve a sense where it comes from and show the moral leadership people want from a president. the thing that's important from folks from the conservative side, the aisle, have to keep in mind a lot of the people who feel physically threatened by white supremacists, not people angry who see it and upset by it, that's all of us. the people who feel physically threatened for it are by and large not those who voted for donald trump. when they look to that movement the president needs to show leadership saying you may not

have voted for me but i'm coming out to deplore and criticize that particular movement as strongly as if it was on the other side of the political spectrum. many a lot felt the president could have spoken to that. mei by not naming it what it was, white sprupremacism, he missed an opportunity. >> and continuing to name these white supremacists and say something he didn't say yesterday. i don't want their support? >> yes, absolutely. if i was president trump in this situation i'd spike the football. this is one of the things that really united states the entire country. racism is bad. nazism is bad. we fought a war to defeat nazism and the president -- there's a sense in which he's ambivalent or too cautious about coming out and criticizing this stuff. >> why is that? why do you think? >> i think it comes from the fact that he's just a fighter. he criticizes the people who criticize him and basically leaves people alone who don't criticize him.

these people are so knocko onox it's not just about him using the right words. he needs to come out with the right tone and condemn this stuff and i hope he will, because it's a great opportunity to unite the country at a very divided time. >> amazing book, still out there in hard cover. been on the best-seller list for weeks. more than a year i suspect. thanks for writing it and joining us. >> thanks, wolf. j.d. vance, if you haven't read his book i recommend it. coming up, north korea's dictator backing down from threats to lob missiles towards guam. that's a u.s. territory. 162,000 u.s. citizens live there. state-run north korean media says kim jong-un will take a wait and see attitude instead. when we come back, i'll speak live with the chairman of the house armed as much as committee about north korea as well as potential new moves by iran. republican congressman, the

chairman, mack thornberry here's in the studio. lots to discuss. we'll be right back. pain when... hey joanne, want to trade the all day relief of 2 aleve with 6 tylenol? give up my 2 aleve for 6 tylenol? no thanks. for me... it's aleve. no splashing! wait so you got rid of verizon, just like that? uh-huh. i switched to t-mobile, kept my phone-everything on it- -oh, they even paid it off! wow! yeah. it's nice that every bad decision doesn't have to be permenant! ditch verizon. keep your phone. we'll even pay it off when you switch to america's best unlimited network.

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after days of fiery rhetoric between the united states and north korea the words seem to

have cooled down a bit. kim jong-un is holding off on a plan to fire missiles near the u.s. territory of guam. opting instead to watch what he's calling "the foolish yankees." whaun wants to see what they'll do before he makes his next move, whatever that move may be. jam mattis says, the u.s. is ready. >> here in the pentagon we are part of -- we stand ready to defend us. thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. >> let's discuss this with my next guest. republican congressman mac thornberry chairman of the house arms services committee. thanks for joining us. how serious is this crisis with north korea right now? >> it's very serious. you take away the rhetoric and focus just on the capabilities, we know they have nuclear weapons. press reports indicate several dozen. we know on july 4th and about a

week ago they launch eed missil that could reach the united states. whether they escalate or de-escalate the threat, we have to continue with our ability to defend ourselves. >> they've threatened to launch four missiles which could hit guam by august if the they don't like what the u.s. is saying. what if they didn't hit the island but the waters nearby? >> that's a tactical question. we do have missile defense capability against some short range and intermediate range missiles and some against the longer range directed towards our homeland. but we have short changed for years and don't have the missile to appropriately defend against north korea and the other threats we face.

the most important thing we can do is show north korea and everybody else in the world we're serious about standing up and defending ourselves and get our defense budgets through. get to repair and -- and improve our defenses. >> i know that the reports are they may have you point out several dozen. they may have at many as 60 nuclear bombs right now and potentially the capability of miniaturizing those bombs and putting them on warheads right now. do they have that capability to make those miniaturized nuclear warheads already? >> i think most of the countries in the world assume that they do. and certainly we must assume that they do when we see missiles that can already reach the u.s. mainland as well as a variety of other u.s. targets, as you mentioned, guam, hawaii, and alaska. >> here's what worries me. as someone who studied the korean issue a long time.

in the next weeks, exercises between the u.s. and south korea. the north koreans react angrily they don't like it, the chinese don't like it, but the u.s. will go ahead with these. >> we can and we should. we cannot allow them to keep us from working with our allies. the important important thing we can do, stay close to our allies, south korea and japan. the other key point to me, it is essential to put more military capability including exercises right there in the region to send a message, not only to north korea but to china saying, okay. if you don't like this on your front porch, you need to take greater measures to get this guy under control, and then we don't have to have sanctions. >> and another issue unfolding. the iranian president rouhani saying if the u.s. goes he'd and imposes new sanctions against iran, within hours iran will rip up that nuclear agreement and

resume its development of a nuclear bomb. you opposed that agreement to begin with, but how serious potentially is this? because the president did sign into law the new sanctions bill that involves iran, north korea and russia, and there will be new sanctions imposed against them. >> there will be, and those sanctions are not related to the nuclear program. we are keeping our end of the -- >> he says any sanctions. new sanctions imposed. they see that as a violation of the agreement and will then rip it up. >> yes. and part of the concern, some of us had with the nuclear agreement, that iran got a lot of the benefits up front. payload of cash, and whenever it suits their purpose, they can make whatever allegation they want and back out of the agreement. but just to tie in, again, to the north koreans. something that a lot of people missed was a few days ago iran launched what they said was a satellite into space. that's exactly what the north

koreans did, or said they were doing, to advance their missile program. so we need to keep our eye on the advances of the iranian missile program coming from the other direction, not just focus solely on north korea. >> is this rouhani rhetoric or do you take him seriously? >> i'm sure he's saying it for effect, but i'm also suspecting, when iran thinks its in their best interests to walk away from a deal, they will choose to do so. we're already seeing more aggressive activities against our ships, carriers in the persian gulf. they're testing us. and everybody else around the world is watching to see how we respond. >> quickly, the president finally yesterday specifically named these hate groups. white supremacists, the kkk. he should have done that earlier. right? >> of course. i think everybody agrees he should have done it earlier. it was a missed opportunity not to be clear or right from the get-go. >> mac thornberry chairman of the house arms services committee. thanks for coming in.

>> thank you. coming up, undercover acts in oklahoma stop a bomb plot before anybody gets hurt. we have new details coming in. stay with us. aved me hundreds of dollars on my car insurance. huh. i should take a closer look at geico... (dog panting) geico has a 97% customer satisfaction rating! and fast and friendly claims service. speaking of service? oooo, just out. it was in. out. in! out. in! what about now? that was our only shuttlecock. take a closer look at geico. great savings. and a whole lot more.

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certainly a chilling plot with similarities to the oklahoma city bombing back in 1995. the department of justice here in washington has announced that an oklahoma man is now custody for allegedly trying to detonate what he thought was a vehicle bomb in downtown oklahoma city. our crime and justice reporter is following this story for us. so, how was the plot uncovered? what do we know? >> reporter: so, wolf, this is a

23-year-old man from oklahoma. basically, a person came forward and said, back in december, what he was having conversations with jerry varnell, and in the conversations, he indicated that he wanted to conduct an oklahoma city-style attack in washington, d.c., against the federal reserve. and then the fbi started to do their work, monitoring him. they eventually sent in an undercover agent who court records call -- they call him the professor. he was the bomb maker, kind of, someone who was helping varnell, giving him ideas, perhaps, teaching him how to make this bomb. he wanted to make a 1,000-pound bomb. eventually, he decided that he wanted to do the plot, conduct it, conduct the attack in oklahoma, and this essentially became a sting operation for the fbi. they sent in an undercover.

the undercover would talk to him repeatedly. would make sure he still wanted to follow through on the attack. there are, in the court records, multiple conversations with this man about whether or not he wants to go forward, and really, the motive here appears to be that he's anti-government, parking lot of thpart of this group which has a base in oklahoma and really is just for personal rights, people's rights, gun rights, property rights, and he really wanted to retaliate, though. he said in the court records, he said he wanted to retaliate against the u.s. government. >> he hated the federal government. that's why he allegedly got involved in this plot. >> that's correct. >> but fortunately, the fbi uncovered it. they sent in an undercover agent, worked with him, and then they arrested him. >> that's exactly it. >> so fortunately there was no oklahoma city -- another bombing. i was there in 1995 and that was an awful, awful domestic terrorism incident.

thank you for that reporting. that's it for me. i'll be back 5:00 p.m. eastern in "the situation room." thanks very much for watching. for our international viewers, "amanpour" is coming up next. for our viewers in north america, "newsroom" with brooke baldwin starts right after a baldwin starts right after a quick break. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com parts a and b and want more coverage, guess what? you could apply for a medicare supplement insurance plan whenever you want. no enrollment window. no waiting to apply. that means now may be a great time to shop for an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. medicare doesn't cover everything. and like all standardized medicare supplement insurance plans, these help cover some of what medicare doesn't pay. so don't wait. call now to request your free decision guide.

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the dinosaurs' extinction... you outnumbered. don't listen to them. not appropriate. now i'm mashing these potatoes with my stick of butter...

why don't you sit over here. find your awesome with the xfinity stream app. included with xfinity tv. more to stream to every screen. hi there, i'm brooke baldwin, thank you so much for being with me on this tuesday afternoon. after taking basically 72 hours to condemn racists by name, the president of the united states had a much quicker response in calling out some of the nation's top business leaders who have now parted ways with him. he just tweeted, "for every ceo that drops out of the manufacturing council, i have many to take their place. grandstanders should not have gone on. jobs." and it looks like more