hello. i'm wolf blitzer. it's noon in houston, texas. 1:00 p.m. here in washington decease. 8:00 p.m. in tel aviv, israel. from wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. and many issues dear to the president, he went to twitter once again to air grievances earlier today tweeting this -- i requested that mitch m. and paul r., mitch mcconnell and paul ryan, tie the debt ceiling legislation into the popular v.a., veterans affairs bill which just passed for easy approval. they didn't do it. now a big deal with dems holding them up as usual on debt ceiling

approval. could have been so easy. now a mess. the president followed up this tweet with this one. the only problem i have with mitch mcconnell is that after hearing repeeg and replace for seven years he failed. that should have never happened. fwling our senior white house correspondent jim acosta and manu raju, jim, the president not letting up at all on the republican leader senate and house leaders. is there a strategy here? >> reporter: no strategy. the example of the president cutting off at the knees his own press office. remember, yesterday evening during "the situation room" where we were talking about the white house issuing this statement saying that the president and mcconnell remained united on all of these issues and wake up this morning and the president is tweeting that mitch mcconnell and paul ryan, complaining about the fact that his health care bill could not make it out of the senate. i just talked to a congressional

aide, a top one, in the last several minutes. they are lashing out, lashing back at this white house, at this president over these attacks saying that he is attacking our leaders, "while we're selling his agenda" and this aide also noted, wolf, that the white house has said in the last couple weeks of this august recess that the president was going to be selling the tax reform agenda that paul ryan has been talking about, others in the republican leadership have been talking about, and according to this aide, "weren't seen anything" coming from this president in terms of selling that tax reform agenda, but lots of attacks on fake news. according to this leadership aide. so there is frustration, i think growing frustration. manu raju will have a better handle on it up on capitol hill. wolf, when the hill is complaining to white house correspondents they're not happy there and we have to remind viewers this is not the democratic party complaining about the president. this is the president's own party, wolf. >> a fair point. manu, the tweets from the

president make it sound like he's just upset with leader mcconnell over the debt ceiling, health care, but you're learning that that may not necessarily be the total case. tell viewers what you learned. >> reporter: right. in fact, what i'm told by sources with direct knowledge of that august phone call that happened between mitch mcconnell and president trump. the president really was more angry about the issue of russia. those investigations happening on capitol hill. there are two investigations happening both in the senate judiciary committee, senate intelligence committee and on mitch mcconnell's chamber. the president made it clear he wasn't happy what was happening on those investigations including one that the judicial committee want to talk to the president's eldest son, donald trump jr., and in addition to that the president was concerned with the passage of that russia sanctions bill that overwhelmingly passed congress and president trump signed into law reluctantly. one reason the president lashed out at the majority leader and

with a proprofanity-laced conversation. mitch mcconnell is not saying much about president trump. did not answer questions from reporters or bring up the president during a public speech in kentucky. wants to get back to that agenda jim was talking about, what they have to do in september. the president himself is taking a separate tactic going after mitch mcconnell. >> manu a new wrinkle in that entire russia investigation. tell us about that. >> reporter: right. in fact, a new e-mail turned up by congressional investigators from 20,000 or so pages of documents that were given by the trump campaign over to multiple committees on capitol hill. this new e-mail came from rick dearborn, now the president's deputy chief of staff. last june, june 2016, he sent an e-mail to other officials saying that someone from west virginia

wanted to have a meeting with the trump campaign, and vladimir putin. now, this person from west virginia was not identified in the e-mail, but dearborn was passing along information they wanted to set up this meeting between putin and the campaign. now, dearborn, i'm told, was, appeared skeptical of having such a meeting in the e-mail, but we really don't know what happened afterwards, because dearborn did not return our request for comment and white house press secretary, sarah huckabee sanders, i asked about this, she she they wouldn't comment on potentially lyriced documents. investigators have a lot of questions about this and want to know exactly what happened and whether or not it fits a pattern of russians trying to find a way into the campaign, unwitting partners to discredit hillary clinton. it's unclear what happened here but just part of the investigation going forward. >> lots going on. all right, manu raju and jim

acosta, thanks very much. a list of republicans rebuked publicly by the president continues to grow and much of that angster se eanger m from the congressional investigations into russia, increased sanctions on rush, approved nearly unanimously in the house and senate. joining us utah congressman chris stewart a member of the house intelligence committee. congressman, thanks for joining us. >> good to be with you. >> all right. so you're on this key committee investigating russian meddling in the u.s. presidential election. you voted obviously like almost all of your colleagues for the additional sanctions against russia. are you worried that the president or other white house aides could soon be targeting you and some of your other colleagues on the committee who are taking this investigation very seriously? >> well, we do take it very seriously and have been doing a long time now, wolf. we started the investigation last september, but i don't worry at all about being a

target. a little, old congressman and we feel dweel the work. keep our heads down, ask the questions look at the domts ado report back to the american people. we've been talking about this a long time and it's worth noting, there is no evidence to this point of actual collusion between the campaign officials and russian officials. as manu was talk, there's evidence clearly russia wanted to have some of these meetings, they wanted to, as you said, get entry into the campaign. as they have in other campaigns and not just in this election but previous elections. not surprising at all. so far as we know the meetings didn't take place. were generally rebuffed. we'll keep asking the questions and i look forward to reporting to the american people. it's just fair to the president and to the people to let everyone know as much as we can. >> yes. so what's your reaction to the president's clear anger at

several key republican leaders in the senate, the majority leader mitch mcconnell, for example, bob corker, chairman of the senate foreign relation committee? what's -- when you hear this kind of criticism by the republican president of these republican leaders, you worry obviously, deeply worried, about the republican agenda. are you worried it could be derailed because of all of this feuding going on among republicans? >> yeah. i don't worry about it, it will be derailed but it clearly makes it harder. part of leadership and certainly part of politics is making friends instead of making enemies. bringing people in to your embrace and in to your tent rather than pushing people back. i think sometimes the president reacts emotionally. we know that. it's one of the things that endaerd him, frankly, to a lot of voters. he's very hon effort and blunt sometimes. i don't think there's a schism. there is frustration described earlier being a great chasm that's developed between leadership in the house and senate and the president. i don't believe that at all. i think mr. mcconnell and paul

ryan made that clear. i do think there's frustration probably on both sides. the president's clearly very frustrated by health care reform failing and a little us frfrust as was i, we know we have to pass a debt ceiling and important for conservatives and others, without reform. saying look what we did to help the american people tied to that. we may have lost that opportunity. but maybe not, wolf. we haven't passed this legislation yet or addressed it. we still have all of september and i'm hopeful like the president apparently we can attach something to that piece of legislation that we can go back and say, once again, we've tried to help the american people. >> we're going to -- we have to end the interview, congressman. getting breaking news coming in. thank you. we'll have you back. police now are working in what's being described as an active shooter situation in

downtown charleston, south carolina. charleston police just tweeting this. between calhoun and morris block, motorist pedestrian traffic, active shooter in 400 block of king. people -- urging people to avoid the area. let's go to our cnn law enforcement analyst former fbi assistant director tom fuentes. just getting in this information. it's very, very sketchy. tom, have you been briefed and getting more information? what do you think? >> i think right now, wolf, we need to wait and see how much of a search they have. what's going on. what type of neighborhood are they locking down? asking people, shots in place at this point. we just don't know. we haven't heard exactly what the basis was for the report of an active shooter. so we need to, you know, kind of stand by and hear what more we learn of this.

>> the information we're getting from sarah cobb, owner of a nearby store, called mosa boutique. sayre rey saying the restaurant is called virginia's saying the streets are full of s.w.a.t. and police and people heavily armed. they are blocking off the whole block. when i heard sirens i looked out my window and saw officers with guns drawn pointed towards virginia's. the name of the restaurant. on king street. i heard police talking to a woman who was a witness to the shooting. police are evacuating nearby business. i see a hair salon just evacuated. so -- that gives us a little more information on the intense reaction from s.w.a.t. and local police, tom. >> well, certainly. it would raise the possibility that you either have a barricaded subject in one of those establishments, or you actually have hostages being held. you know, if it's a restaurant, or another store.

this is the middle of the day. it's lunchtime. you know, so you would have patrons in a number of those businesses up and down that street. and so that would be the concern of the police right now, that they may have reported already, hostages, but that's what the worry would be. >> so if there are hostages, what's the standard operating procedure? what are the police doing in a situation like this? say there's a hostage or two inside that restaurant. >> well, a number of things. one, try to debit pf identify w person in there? any way to establish communication with the person? how many, if any, are held inside as hostages? what's the situation? has anyone been shot or hurt or stabbed at this point? and to making just containing the situation, and have their tactical s.w.a.t. teams ready to respond, but in the meantime, try and establish negotiations with either the one or more persons inside holding hostages.

>> yes. clearly, as we can see from the live pictures coming in from charleston, south carolina, lots of police on the scene. and an active shooter situation is what police are describing this as. involving a restaurant right in a popular part of charleston, south carolina. we're getting a little bit more information. not a whole lot more, tom. but this is something unfortunately we've grown accustomed to over the years and police are trained to deal with a situation like this. we don't know what, if any, of the motive involved in this active shooter situation is. >> no. we don't at this point. so the main thing for the police is to establish the perimeter. don't let anyone in to that area that doesn't belong to try to maintain safety of the public, but really, try to identify exactly what's the situation. when it gets reported as an active shooter, that someone called in, say they saw someone

with a gun? or someone with a gun actually shot the gun? at somebody? or wounded somebody? so that's the -- >> unfortunately i think we've just lost tom fuentes but will stay on top of this story. once again, an active shooting situation unfolding in charleston, south carolina right now. because we don't like surprises. yeah. like changing up the celebrity at the end to someone more handsome. and talented. really. and british. switch from cable to directv. get 4 rooms with hd, dvr, and every box included for $25 a month. call 1-800-directv.

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hurricane before hitting land. chat myers, cnn weather center, when will it hit and what damage can it do? >> looking at models all morning. i'm thinking sometime after midnight friday night. so maybe 36 to 42 hours from now, the center of the eyewall crossing somewhere very close to mustang, island, real close to corpus christi. give it to you now. wind speeds are now 80 miles an hour. a hurricane is flying back and forth through this thing looking for wind and found a wind speed over 80 miles per hour. it's forecast to be 115. this is still growing. understand, this morning when we walked in the building it was 45 miles per hour and now it's 80. it still has 36 hours to grow. this could be a devastating event for all of texas. from brownsville to corpus to victoria, to san antonio and

austin with flooden and flooding to houston and maybe eastern lake charles. the storm, as it comes onshore, wolf, tomorrow, tomorrow night, it will spot and rain like hurricane agnes did in 1927 flo1927 -- 1972 flooding the valley because agnes wouldn't move. we're looking at this, too. a storm that will not move. six to ten-foot surge and waves on top of that. filling in barriers in north padre. i love it there. a way to get there. drive through the dune. they moved the dune away and drive on the beach. they are filling that dune in to stop the storm surge from getting any further inland, because this storm is rapidly intensifying and tell you what. 115 may be a small estimate compared to what we've seen today. >> yes. it's amazing what we're about to remember. the 12th anniversary of hurricane katrina that happened

just right around now. you and i remember covering katrina at the time pap very different type of hurricane. right? >> it was. because katrina had a cat 5 with it a long time in the gulf of mexico. a lot of water. a 30-foot storm surge in spots. 22 feet storm surge in bay st. louis itself. this doesn't have the water under it yet, because it hasn't been in the gulf of mexico that long. it's just developing now. if this sits out here for 30 more hours it will get that surge and the surge numbers may go up 8 to 10, it may be a conservative number. we'll keep watching. >> hope for the best. chad, we're stay in close touch with you. chad myers reporting. back to important political developments we're following now. on top of his public clashes with several gop lawmakers we're learning president trump is privately clashing with them over russia. sources tell cnn president trump and the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell got into a shouting match during a phone call roughly two weeks ago and

haven't spoken since. the president accusing the republican leader, majority leader, not doing enough to protect him from the russia probes and also fumed, we're told, over the bipartisan deal that ties his hands on new russia sanctions. it was passed nearly unanimously in the house and senate. the president reluctantly signing it into law. according to politico, president trump also confronted senator bob corker about that sanctions bill. the president reportedly argued it was unconstitutional and would damage his presidency. we've also now confirmed the president reached out to senator thom tillis as well. he asked tillis why he was working on separate legislation protecting the special counsel, robert mueller. that conversation, however, is said to have been cordial. with us to discuss this and more, white house reporter for the "washington post" david and cnn political director david chalian and for bloomberg politics. are all of these clashes public

and private with republicans one theme seems to be underlining so many of them -- the russia probe. >> yes. clearly the president is consumed by this. i don't blame him. if i was under investigation by a special counsel i'd be consumed also and it would weigh on my mind a lot. it's understandable what he seems incapable of doing, though, is, as aides talked about many months ago, try to dual track things, and wall the investigation off from the business of the white house and trying to pursue the agenda. donald trump doesn't seem capable of doing these walling offs, from these conversations. the other curious thing here is why is the president's attitude to these senators, you didn't protect me. or what are you doing with this bill that is ensuring i can't fire mueller? instead of, you can imagine in ultimate universe a president might say, hey, majority leader mcconnell, make sure this goes quickly, fairly, comes to clu s

conclusion? i want to move on. i know i did nothing wrong. instead, why aren't you protecting me from this? how did you let this get to this moment? that's a different level of concern that he has than simply, let's get it done quickly and fairly. >> and politico, i mentioned, david, reporting that the president actually called senator tillis, republican senator thom tillis on august 7th and asked him, why are you co-sponsoring this legislation to protect the special counsel robert mueller? clearly, this was on the president's mind, although three days later, he was asked about mueller and he said this -- >> i haven't given it any thought. i mean, i've been reading about it from you people pup say i'm going to dismiss him. no. i'm not dismissing anybody. i want them to get on with the tank and i want the senate and house to come out with their

findings. >> here's the question. if he hasn't been given any thought at all, why did he raise it with senator tillis? >> because he has been giving it thought and a time period where congress and the president were supposed to be on vacation getting away from this. he's not sort of obsessed with this in the way david talked about, sort of personal and about protecting himself. this is an area it's gotten him into trouble, we know, calling some of the people in charge of the investigation and trying to influence the investigation and sort of try to influence legislation is slightly different. the president can, you know, maybe make missteps if he's continuing to call people in back channels and influence them. >> because potentially, you're hovering towards that obstruction of justice charge with some people taking a very close look at right now. and i want you, jennifer to weigh in as well. by all accounts, the president was deeply upset that the republican leadership in the house and senate, they were respective republican chairman

of the intelligence committees, judiciary committees, they got deeply involved in this russia probe. he's not very happy about that. what he complained to mitch mcconnell about. >> right. he is clearly not happy that they're kind of doing their jobs. if you talk to democrats on the hill and throughout washington, they say that the republicans aren't doing enough on this and not being aggressive enough and what you're seeing, i think, republicans for the most part are trying to do an honest job. they're trying -- you see thom tillis saying if he fires mueller we'll respond with this legislation to block that. you know, those kinds of things are efforts by republicans to stand up to the president, but it seems this president doesn't think anything less than full loyalty toy him as we've discussed in lots of different ways before is an acceptable position. >> if this feud that he has now with mitch mcconnell and the speaker paul ryan to a certain degree as well continues, i

suspect the republican senators, republican members. house, more than likely, most of them will side with their leader in the house and the senate as epo opposed to the president of the united states? >> certainly on the senate side. paul ryan, may be caucus members to side with trump over ryan on certain things. a little more of a trick conference in terms of the politics between trump and the establishment leadership. republicans will. but, yes, no doubt. this is what is so perplexing to me about this. both mitch mcconnell and president trump actually need the relationship to work. because it is -- they both need some victories here. we look at the polls and we see that republicans are more eager to blame the members of congress in their party for the stasis in washington than to blame the president. so while the president clearly needs a big legislative victory, so, too, does mcconnell, and his members want progress on the board to go back home and sell heading into an election year next year.

it's incoumbent upon them both o fix this. >> he tweeted, the only problem with mitch mcconnell after hearing repeal and replace seven years he failed. that should have never have happened. that wasn't exactly accurate. he has several other problems with mitch mcconnell as well. >> absolutely. again the white house is talking out of both sides. yesterday sarah huckabee, press secretary issued a statement saying the president didn't, had a good relationship with mitch mcconnell. comes out again on twitter and attacks him. leading into a very busy month of september, not just legislative initiatives the white house would like off the ground also critical things like a new, spending bill, and raising of the debt ceiling. these two sides definitely don't seem to be working on the same page. >> think about that a second, wolf. a white house statement about the relationship between the pret and the senate majority leader? that in and of itself indicates the problem at hand. you don't see that kind of -- >> fully unprecedented. >> jennifer, i assume you saw

the retweet from the president this morning getting a lot of buzz. retweeted what was seen as the best eclipse ever. this a couple days after the total solar eclipse, that all of us were covering just the other day, but you see the president slowly -- eclipsing his immediate president -- predecessor. why would the current president undermine and ridicule his immediate predecessor? people are wondering, has that ever happened before? a president really goes after his immediate president sayser in -- predecessor like this? >> unusual, petty as retweet. you see policy issues. you saw president obama criticize george w. bush, not kind of own persona and power. you note in this analogy, president trump is the moon. not the sun which is, you know, the thing around which the whole universe revolves. it's actually kind of a strange

thing, if you think about it that way. you know, maybe it's like -- a reminder that s.t.e.m. education is important. >> it's a weird retweet. isn't it? >> very weird. hadn't thought about that. and the next frame would be the trump image moving on. right? and obama re-emerging. >> exactly. >> follow to its logical conclusion. >> to 2020? >> continue to watch all of these tweets. guys, thanks very much. coming up, charities abandon plans to host various events at the president's ritzy florida resort. why the cancellations are now stacking up and what it means for the president's bottom line. we'll be right back.

president trump's approval rating at an all-time low now. republicans are deeply divided. they failed to repeal and

replace obamacare and no signed tax reform happening anytime soon. the question, why aren't democrats taking full advantage of this situation? that's the question posing to my next guest michael blake, vice chair of the democratic national committee. michael, thanks very much for coming in. a lot of criticism you and fellow democrats you're not doing enough to take advantage of republicans' problems right fou. fund-raising, for example, what, at an eight-year flow july. you're not really exploiting this political situation. your reaction? >> first, what's going on in charleston and hoping everyone is safe down there. in the republicans party, congressing organizations and success this year. look at the races we've won across the country and focusing on this as womas well.

>> you lost some districts as well. >> let's talk about the wins. two races in oklahoma. special races happened in large put part, new york, iowa, district trump won by 20 points in november we won by a 30-point swing. >> and why is it not meeting, the rnc, doing a lot better? >> they have the white house. they have senate, the house. reality is, even with the three houses can raise money but can't pass a bill. >> what do you have to do, democrats? a lot of democrats are asking, republicans have the white house, the white house, the senate. the state legislatures and majority of the state governors. what do you have to do to get your act together? new leadership out there that can bring this party and do a little better job? >> you're sitting next to one of the new leaders of the party. what we're doing, called rise and organize. the republicans obstruct and denounce, we'll gob to reorganize. how to empower the base.

communities of color, millennials women, lgbt across country. make sure we're focused on all races, from the school board to the senate, to the state house and white house. the reason we focus in new jersey. making sure we don't just have the govern and looking at the down ballot. in virginia? that the local races and also the state of washington, a great candidate in the 45th district. special elections in florida. focusing on the ground. trump can have tweets and noise, we're focusing what we're going to do. >> what the president said about democrats in his big speech in phoenix. listen to this. >> all of the democrats in congress, that's the only thing they do well. what it's called. no ideas, no policies. they obstruct. that's all they do. their word is, we resist. we don't resist. they obstruct. it's all their good at.

it's all they're good at. that's all they do. >> your response? >> well, we're good at making sure we fight for health care so 22 million people didn't lose health care and fighting for more jobs and so people can have better schools and criminal justice reform, bet e wages is what we're doing, while trump is leading, we're leading. he can continue to have his noise. we're focusing on the ground to help people. unity. demonstrating that like all different family conversations. >> and bipartisan cooperation to get legislation approved to help the american people? >> yew you're seeing that. you see the work trying to come together in that manner. the reality, if trump would spend more time actually mobilizing people on the ground rather than attacking his own party, maybe we could get things done in that manner. the democratics focus, win hearts, mind and elections. we had more than 200 events last week, wolf.

going around the country. the efforts we're able to do in florida. more than 20 voter registration drives. wisconsin, more than 3,000 door knocks to get people mobilized what's happening in these races. that's happening on the ground and making sure we get the wins. >> name three or four of the top leaders in of democratic party? >> look at leaders, not just at the dnc. myself, and -- that's part of that. can't ignore that. the people on the ground. the reason we're able to push back trying to repeal health care and mobilized with the women's march. people on the ground are helping lead. why we have resistance and reoranged the new vision coming out of the democratic party. >> you guy got a lot of work to do. busy all the time. going to my home state of buffalo. >> helping around the country. >> thank you. vice chair of the democratic national committee. other news we're following. the so winner of last night's massive powerball jackpot

claimed her get this $758 million prize. she described the moment she realized she won during a press conference only moments ago. watch this. >> i just happened to find out. i was at work. leaving work at night. and i leave with this guy rob, a firemanen. we just happen to walk out. i bet somebody won with these numbers with birthdays. i went, oh, yeah. never going to be me. it's a pipe dream i've always had. reading numbers. pulled my out. i have -- i have that -- i have that. >> let me see that ticket. he goes, you just won. >> i go, you're joking. come on, plea. >> please. he said, sign that ticket now. i couldn't drive or anything. he followed me to make sure i was safely home, to go and -- >> that's how i found out. from him. >> where did you buy that ticket? were you just there to buy a ticket or something else? >> i was just in to buy -- just

go in, buy a stack of tickets and okay. maybe it's me. and this is a chance. a chance i had to take. >> took that chance and won $758 million -- million --. remember, that's before tax, but still. hundreds of millions of dollars for mavis davis. congratulations to you. coming up, the white house is expected to offer new details about its ban on transgender americans serving in the u.s. military. we'll discuss that with retired colonel steve warrant when we come back.

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situation in downtown charleston, south carolina. go to cnn's reporter monitoring developments for us. what are you hearing? >> reporter: wolf, officials on the ground calls this a hostage situation. also believed to have been caused by a disgruntled employee according to the mayor of the city of charleston. we understand the suspect is still inside a restaurant on king street, a very, very popular area there in downtown charleston. restaurants and stores, not just because of the lunch hour, also a big tourist location as well. you imagine, authorities are making sure they're able to seal off this restaurant. information just coming in to cnn now confirming what is a hostage situation at a restaurant in downtown charleston. the suspect believed to still be inside the restaurant along with multiple individuals. a little bit of back story here from about an hour ago or so when this information first came in, or the call initially came in of an active shooter

situation unfolding in charleston. witnesses described a massive s.w.a.t. operation that then followed it, and now that's where we are right now, wolf. that stretch of road there on king street between calhoun and morris. closed at this hour as authorities there continue to work an active hostage situation in downtown charleston. wolf? >> very popular part, as you say, of charleston. a beautiful city. hope for the best. thanks very much. meantime, getting new details today on the white house's transgender military ban. the "wall street journal" is reporting the pentagon will receive what are being described as implementation guidelines in the coming days. that according to the report which also suggests some of the key instructions include the military, stop admitting transgender people. the military must consider current transgender troops ability to deploy when determining whether to expel them and the pentagon is getting ready to stop paying for transgender troops' medical

treatment regimens. discuss with my next guest, retired colonel steve warren, a cnn analyst and former spokesman at the pentagon. what happened? the president tweeted he wants to stop transgender americans from being allowed to serve in the u.s. military. he's the commander in chief. so what? now the order is beginning to be implemented? >> right, wolf. he sent out the tweet several weeks ago and now we see the implementing instructions. the details that the pentagon will then use to determine exactly how to move forward with both troops that want to come in to the army or in to the military as transgender and the ones already serving. >> if you're a transgender american, i assume from now on, if this goes into effect, fully implemented, they will not be allowed to serve in the united states military? is that right? >> fully implemented, transgenders not allowed to serve. >> how does that impact the transgender americans currently currently serving in the army, navy, air force, player corps?

>> right now we don't have those details. the military made a promise to the transgender men and women serving. the promise, you can live in the open. we'll take care of your medical expenses and you can continue your service. to break faith with that promise would be unconscionable. >> wasn't the military, the defense secretary, james mattis, involved in what was described as a lengthy stud ty to determi what is appropriate, not appropriate? and without waiting for the results of the study went ahead with that tweet? >> right. a stud fri 2015 to 2016. general mattis wanted further examination. none of that was completed. >> how does this impact? how does this impact morale on troops hearing transgender americans will no longer be able

to contribute. very patriotic, want to serve, dut now because of the commander in chief will not longer be able to serve? >> breaking faith with the troops can have a devastating impact. really can. when we, the chain of command, make promises to troops we're expected to yul hold those promises. a promise broken >> you served in the army when gay americans were not allowed to serve. now they are allowed to serve openly. has there been any significant problem since the gay americans were admitted openly into the u.s. military? >> wolf, there's been no significant problems. there have barely been any insignificant problems. this transition has been smooth. we found that gay americans, both men and women, have served with honor, with valor and with great professionalism. >> and i think the assumption was that transgender americans were also serving with honor as well. >> we've seen that now for a year, transgender americans have been allowed to express themselves and allowed to be open and we found that some of them are holders of valor

medals, all of them are performing their duties in accordance with regulations and they are across the board prm performing as expected. >> thanks for that analysis. the u.s. navy has ended search and recovery efforts for the nine sailors still missing after the "uss john mccain" collides collided with an oil tanker. some remains have been found inside flooded compartments of the damaged warship and that's where focus will go. one sailor's body has been recovered and identified. he's an electronics technician third class kenneth aaron smith from new jersey, was just 22 years old. the news continues shortly, but as we head to a commercial break, i want to show you the names and the faces of the nine missing sailors from the "mccain" that have been identified by the u.s. navy. ♪ ♪

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yet another charity now abandoning plans to hold an event at president trump's private mar-a-lago club in palm beach, florida, following the president's response to what happened in charlottesville,

virginia. cnn contributor and "washington post" reporter david fahrenthold has been reaching out to and tracking all of these various charities so david, what can you tell us about this latest cancellation? >> reporter: wolf, the latest was something called the bethesda hospital foundation. it's a big hospital that held one of the most expensive luncheons, so trump's club had both galas and luncheons and this luncheon, they could make as much as $95,000 in one day from the luncheon this particular charity put on. today, that charity has said that they're leaving, going to a different resort a little bit down the coast in boca raton, florida. >> have all of these charities that have abandoned mar-a-lago canceled specifically because of charlottesville? >> i've been keeping this notebook and you can see on here, there's a lot of red lines, charities that have cancelled. that's all since charlottesville. before charlottesville, trump was on pace to have, i think, 16 galas and 9 other events, 25 events. we're now down to 6 or 7 total

events still on the calendar. some of them have cited charlottesville or a sort of obliquely cited charlottesville but it's key that charlottesville is -- it's obvious that charlottesville was is key because all these cancellations have happened since trump's comments saying that some of those on the sort of white supremacist side of the march were, quite, fine people. >> very fine people, i think, was the direct quote, on both sides. how much of an impact do these cancellations, when all is said and done, have on the president's bottom line, specifically mar-a-lago down in palm beach? >> reporter: pretty significant one. we don't know in this case whether some of these clubs have put down a deposit or if they're going get their money back but if you add up all the revenue that trump's club was expecting from these now-cancelled galas it's somewhere north of $1.7 million that he was going to take in. so $1.7 million, if that's maybe a lowball estimate, take that out of a club that has an overall revenue of somewhere

between $15 million and $20 million a year, that's a pretty significant year. it's not going to shut mar-a-lago down. but perhaps equally importantly it robs donald trump with the role he had been able to play in this sort of high society of palm beach. they had all come to him. he was the host of palm beach. now his ballrooms are going to be empty on a lot of the nights of this busy winter season. >> well, what about other trump hotels, other golf resorts, similar developments? similar cancellations happening there? >> reporter: well, we're looking at that now and we found a few anecdotal evidence that it's happening in some places. donald trump's goal resorts and hotels are very dependent on big event businesses, companies, charities, weddings, renting out big ballroom to sort of unite on their big day, their special day, they want to put their name next to donald trump's f. that business starts to go away, if people start looking elsewhere for event space, he could be in big trouble. >> david doing excellent reporting. thanks very much, david, for that. appreciate it. that's it for me. i'll be back 5:00 p.m. eastern

"the situation room." among my guests later day, the former cia officer valerie plame, i'll speak with her about the approximate presidentpresid intelligence agency. plus she has a new campaign to buy twitter and kick the president off. thanks for watching. thanks for watching. the news continues right now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com good to be with you. i'm brooke baldwin. we begin with breaking news, this active shooting situation under way inside a restaurant in charleston, south carolina. we are told several hostages are still inside. polo, how are they? what do we know? >> reporter: brooke, it's still a very active situation that's unfolding right now in downtown charleston. the suspect is currently holed up inside a restaurant there in charleston called virginia's on king.