10,000 years ago. and that name should remain. wolf. >> all right, tom foreman, thanks very mch. very, very interesting. i'm wolf blitzer. thanks very much for watching. "erin burnett outfront" starts right now. "outfront" next, the breaking news. a top gop senator says enough to president trump. jeff flake ripping into the president, calling him reckless, outrageous and undignified. will more gop follow? >> plus, more breaking news this hour. "the washington post" reporting the clinton campaign and the dnc paid for the research that led to the now famous, infamous perhaps, trump dossier, and the second part of our series, killing america, inside the opioid epidemic, should there be a safe place for addicts to shoot up? dr. sanjay gupta on this controversial question tonight. let's go "outfront." >> and good evening. i'm erin burnett.

"outfront" this evening, heaven help us. those are the words of a republican senator taking on president trump in a remarkable 17-minute speech from the floor of the senate. senator jeff flake of arizona passionately calling out the president for being a danger to american democracy. >> reckless, outrageous, and undignified behavior has become excused and counted as telling it like it is, when it is actually just reckless, outrageous, and undignified. and when such behavior emanates from the top of our government, it is something else. it is dangerous to a democracy. >> flake challenged members of his own party, quoting teddy roosevelt and abraham lincoln in a call to conscience, demanding they give up, quote, blind loyalty, to in his words, a mercurial president. >> i'm aware that there's a segment of my party that believes that anything short of complete and unquestioning

loyalty to a president who belongs to my party is unacceptable and suspect. the notion that one should stay silent as the norms and values that keep america strong are undermined and as the alliances and agreements that insure the stability of the entire world are routinely threatened by the level of thought that goes into 140 characters, the notion that we should say or do nothing in the face of such mure curiel behavior is ahistoric, and i believe profoundly misguided. >> flake's passionate speech coming as he announced he wouldn't run for re-election to the senate. flake has long been critical of trump, never before, though, in a moment like this. trump has fired back. before backing flake's potential primary opponent, here's one tweet. this is the president. great to see that dr. kelly ward is running against flake jeff flake who is weak, all caps, on borders, crime, and a nonfactor in the senate. he's toxic, exclamation point. tonight, the white house

disregarded flake's big moments as coming from a guy who was about to lose his seat anyway. >> i think based on previous statements and the lack of support he has from the people of arizona, it's probably a good move. >> sara murray is "outfront" at the white house to begin our coverage. the president now reacting to senator flake's speech? >> reporter: that's right. we're told the president is in high spirits tonight about the news jeff flake will not be seeking re-election in 2018. obviously, there's no love lost between these two men. they have traded barbs in the past, and the president has not held back on openly criticizing the arizona senator as you saw there. so he's happy to see him leave washington. now, the one caveat to all of this is that you have another very vocal trump critic. he's going to be around in washington for at least another year. and this is something that trump is aware of. you now have bob corker, you now have jeff flake. unencumbered by the hassle of re-election, free to speak out

about the president at a time where president trump needs to pass significant legislative accomplishments and in 2020 will face his own re-election fight. the white house feels like they can keep jeff flake's seat in the republican column when it come does come up in 2018. that's going to set off its own scramble in arizona. >> certainly will. thank you very much, sara, with that reporting tonight. "outfront" now, david chalian, our political director, gloria borger, and tim nephtally, president historian. gloerj yeah, you have covered politics for long time. senator flake's speech today from the flor of the senate, 17 minutes of the utmost seriousness. have you seen anything like it? >> no, i never have. i was trying to think back whether i heard anything in the clinton impeachment or read anything about richard nixon during his troubles. >> obviously, we have some audio problems with gloria. as soon as we get it. sorry, gloria.

david, have you ever seen anything like this? >> i agree with gloria wholeheartedly, no, i haven't. and when i say that, erin, it's not that we're seeing something necessarily that is going to have some huge ramification or that somehow we're going to expect other republicans to sort of open the flood gates and come out and speak out and maybe president trump would change his behavior. i don't expect any of that. that doesn't make today any less remarkable or for the history books. i just have never seen in one day a senior statesman from the party in bob corker start the day by saying that the president really is sort of failing at his presidency and has given up hope he can turn it around. then in the afternoon, this remarkable speech where jeff flake basically makes a moral plea to his colleagues and grabs the republican party by the lapels to say, guys, don't put your head in the sand on this. we need to speak out on it. >> and on that point, i want to talk about senator corker in a moment, but on this point, tim, senator flake used a word reminiscent to some of nazi

germany. he used to word complicit when talking to others in his party. >> i rise today with no small measure of regret. regret because of the state of our disunion. regret because of the disrepair and destructiveness of our politics. regret because of the indecency of our discourse. regret because of the coarseness of our leadership. regret for the compromise of our moral authority. and by our, i mean all of our complicity in this alarming and dangerous state of affairs. it is time for our complicity and our accommodation of the unacceptable to end. >> but it won't. his will. right? he's taking a stand, but will others get on board? >> well rr see, but i think he said something else that is really troubling and important. he used the word disunion. >> mm-hmm. he did.

>> and complicit may remind people of european peen history, but disunion ought to remind people of american history. and what we're seeing here is the disintegration of the republican party. that doesn't mean that the party won't -- a party won't continue. the question is what party? jeff flake is not a liberal republican. >> no. >> he's not a marginal republican who would easily flip over to the democrats. jeff flake is a conservative. he's a committed conservative. if the republican party cannot satisfy committed conservative conservatives in 2017, what party is it? if it becomes a trumpest party, how many other republicans are going to stand up like jeff flake and say, i can't go there? i'll tell you, john f. kennedy when he was a senator, he wrote a book "profiles in courage." that's what we saw today. >> that's an interesting point. sarah sanders responded to flake by pointing out he was going to lose his re-election bid.

she also added this priceless nugget i wanted to play for you. here she is. >> i notice that a lot of the language, i didn't think, was befitting of tsenate floor. >> the irony, gloria. >> of course. and you know, i wonder what part of his speech it was. was it the part where he referred to madison, roosevelt, or perhaps abraham lincoln? what was inappropriate about a senator speaking from his heart on the senate floor, addressing his colleagues when he believes that they're doing something wrong? and addressing, in fact, his president, with whom he votes most of the time, saying that he believes the behavior is destructive. i think that's what the well of the senate is actually for. and it's a place where members who have been dually elected can speak to the country.

and that's why there are cameras there right now. so i would argue that that is exactly the purpose of the united states senate. >> pretty incredible to say, the language isn't befitting of the nat floor, because i suppose calling people whatever, we can all go through the litany of names. >> liddle bob corker. >> now you bring up bob corker, david. let me get to something today. obviously, flake wasn't the only gop senator to take a stand against the president. corker also did, in a different way. but here he is. >> i don't know why he lowers himself to such a low, low standard and debases our country in the way he does, but he does. >> so david, will more republicans speak out now? >> i don't know. we'll see. looking in the responses to senator flake's speech, to what senator corker said earlier today, speaker paul ryan tried to just chalk this up as a twitter spat between corker and the president.

not actually addressing the unbelievable claims and indictment of trump's character that corker was making while walking the halls of congress there. and after senator flake's speech, both mcconnell and ryan praised flake for being the committed conservative that tims talks about that he is, but there was no indication that they were actually, you know, listening to his words or acting on them in some way. >> no, i mean, let me, to your point, just play an exchange between reporters and mcconnell when they were asked about this whole -- this important moment happening today. i mean, this is shocking, senator mcconnell's response or lack thereof. here he is. >> at what point do you have an obligation as a leader of this party to weigh in on these very serious criticisms of the president? >> what i have an obligation to do is achieve the greatest cohesion i can among 52 republicans to achieve for the american people the agenda we set out to achieve. and tax reform is what we are

about. >> mr. leader, what is driving the day today? think about it, what is driving the news today? the president's feud with senator corker. he's feuded with you. i'll give you the whole list if you would like. mccain, flake, heller, you know -- >> look, i don't know how many times i have to say the same thing. a lot of noise out there. >> noise? >> well, and don't forget that the president had many ovations when he met with republicans behind closed doors at their lunch today. >> right. >> but mcconnell himself seemed quite emotional on the floor of the senate after he heard flake. he likes flake. it's clear he believes that he's a committed conservative. but he is one of those republicans, i believe, that flake was talking about when he said, you know, at what point are you going to learn that there isn't going to be any

pivot here, and that there is something larger than even policy that we're talking about the values of our country and the values of the presidency. and so, you know, we all understand that mitch mcconnell is in a tough place. but it's like living in two different worlds in the republican party right now. the president gets applause, and corker and flake are out there saying that he is unstable and venal and immature and reckless and undignified and even dangerous. >> and erin, i'll just add, we know from our most recent polling in the two worlds gloria is talking about, republican voters are with the president. they trust him to handle the most important issues of the day 2-1 over trusting republicans in congress. >> until that changes, i don't expect much change from congressional republicans. >> that's right. >> right. they will -- follow, not lead. follow the lead of the voter. >> president's popularity at 36%.

as low as it was for nixon a year after watergate. so his popularity in the country is low, but among republicans, it's high. that's the problem for congressional republicans. >> and thanks to you all. and next, not coming clean. the white house press secretary sarah sanders will not admit that the president lied about senator bob corker because that's what it is. why is the truth so hard for team trump? plus, breaking news. "the washington post" with a bombshell report tonight, charging that the clinton campaign funded research into that now infamous dossier alleging trump's connections to russia. in fact, collusion in the dossier, and dr. sanjay gupta's "outfront" into the opioid crisis. one addict's mother pleads for a safe place for her son to shoot up. >> at least there i know that people are watching over him, and if he does overdose, he's not going to die. ur kids go to d you start trading. >>yeah, 5 years already. 5 years, hmm. you ever call your broker for help? >>once, when volatility spiked...

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doubling down on a lie, the white house press secretary sarah sanders, insisting the president was right when he accused bob corker of helping president obama get the iran nuclear deal done. of course, this blatantly false, but the white house doesn't let the facts get in the way of a good lie. >> why does the white house and the president specifically continue to say that senator bob corker helped president obama on the iran deal when the facts clearly say that's not true? >> actually, the facts do say that it's true. it was senator corker who wrote

the legislation that legitimized the iran nuclear deal. >> but he didn't vote for it. >> but he allowed it to take place. >> if you look through -- >> as i said many times, i wouldn't use "the washington post" as my source, jeff. you should know better than that. jeff -- >> the white house clearly is not telling the truth on this. >> actually -- >> why does the president continue to say he helped president obama with it? >> because he did. >> he voted against it. >> i venture to say they're going to be thrilled. but caitlin collins is at the white house. on this issue, senator bob corker, the iran deal, what are the facts? >> that's exactly right. jeff zeleny, my colleague, in the broofing room. he was pushing back on the idea that bob corker, that he was in favor of this deal. it's simply not true. he was actually a very fervent critic of this deal. he spoke out agains it frequently. and that's a label of criticism that we have often seen the white house and more

specifically the president attach to bob corker, saying he's largely responsible for this deal. but that's actually not true. bob corker opposed this, and he was actually the one who was responsible for that legislation that required the president to recertify this deal every 90 days and put in place this process where if the president chose to decertify it, it had to go back to congress. and there's proof of this in an op-ed in "the washington post," bob corker wrote, for the administration to say there is no other deal than this one is an effort to negate congress's important role and responsibility. congress should reject this deal and send it back to the president. so you can see right there, but this is something that the white house, this current white house has used time and time again to criticize bob corker. >> all right, thank you very much. laying out the facts there. now, let's go to former republican congressman jack kingston who was a senior adviser to the trump campaign and a former adviser to clinton.

this isn't actually about the iran deal. the facts are the facts on that. caitlin just laid them out well. why is it so hard for president trump and this white house to tell the truth? >> well, look, we human beings lie, i think. jack, with all respect, i love you, but politicians procedure lie more than normal people. what's different about these folks is this white house, as you said introducing the story, they double down. when normally, when a politician gets caught in a lie, you know, he or she, they recant or at least they stop saying it. they stop repeating it, for goodness sake's. but reagan said he didn't trade arms for hostages. he later recanted and apologized. president clinton falsely said he didn't have an affair. he wept and apologized to the country. there's puffery, very big hands, my crowd was the large stz in inaugural history. there's promises. i'll make mexico pay for the wall, and flat out saying things that are factually false, like in this case that somehow corker voted against the deal and was

for the deal. he commits all threeoffs those lies, but he keeps doubling down. truth doesn't matter to him. he's not at all achasant when folks say that's at odds with the facts. >> what is the issue here? this is a factual case. okay. he's wrong. yet they're doubling down. why? they think that that wins them some fans? >> you know, i think that they felt that senator corker could be a little stronger in opposition to it, that he was involved with the legislation which allowed the president to lift the sanctions in iran without a full senate vote on it. and so that's where they're heading with that. but i think that the difference between what's going on with senator corker and the president, i think there's a deep division between the two men that has kind of devolved into a spitting contest, if you will. and you know, i don't think the republican party is necessarily winning from it. but i will say this.

i have spoken to three members of the tennessee deligation, and they said that their phone calls are running 4-1 in favor of president trump on the trump versus corker. and he's still enormously popular in our base. i think it's because, as paul said, politicians can stray from the truth, but are they getting the job done for me? are they going to cut my taxes, are they going to lower my health care premiums, are they going to defend america against terrorism? if they're doing that, the base is willing to forgive some of these day-to-day skirmishes. >> to your point about how this is being received by the base, let me play when senator corker was asked by our manu raju whether the president was a liar -- >> is the president of the united states a liar? >> the president has great difficulty with the truth on many issues. >> i think everyone on this screen right now would acknowledge that to be true. on what level you want to acknowledge that in your heart

of hearts, everyone would acknowledge that to be true. the point that the congressman raised is a significant one, paul, which is that 4-1, those calls are running in favor of the president. >> right. but he is the libberace of lyin. he's so flamboyant and so confident iprepeating these lies that he's done something also very clever. in eyes of a lot of his voters, he's redefined what honesty is. honestly no longer for a lot of americans is no longer fidelity to facts because facts have a liberal bias. honesty in trump land for a lot of his voters is being willing to say uncomfortable and politically incorrect truths. like the people in puerto rico are lazy and they should be responsible for their own cleanup. ah? right. people like me hear that and think it's racist. a lot of people voted for trump say he's a truth teller because he says bigoted things. >> i don't think he's a bigot at all, but i think he is taking on the establishment, and it's kind of a messy job, but i think people back home are saying look

at the u.s. senate. look what they have delivered for me in the nine months in the majority with the white house and the house, and there's not much to brag on it. but in contrast, president trump has fought for better trade agreements on his own. he's taken on isis, somewhat on his own. i'm not going to say -- you know, he's led the way. he stuck in the fight. he's appointed a very conservative judge to the supreme court. he's trying to get the wall built. he's taking on tax reform. he's tried his best on repeal and replace. the u.s. house and senate have not delivered on those things, and i think people are saying, you know, the old expression -- to make an omelet, you have to break some eggs. >> is he hoping everything fails because it creates a convenient bad guy he can slam all the time, and he emerges from the ashes, whether the ashes are health care or tax reform? he doesn't care, right? he's emerging as the phoenix. >> but erin, actually, where would say he's had a very successful record. i mean, look at the stock market. 23,000 points.

$5 trillion in new wealth have been created since january under this president. something like 1.7 new jobs since he's been president, the lowest unemployment level in 16 years since he's been president. i think our stature abroad has increased. he's being very tough on north korea and the middle east and showing real leadership. i think his speech to warsaw is one people will be studying decades from now. so, you know, in comparison to the u.s. senate, the president's on a roll right now. you know, my good friend jeff flake, who i had the honor of playing behind third base on the congressional baseball team, his numbers were upside down. i think his opportunity to be re-elected was -- he had like a 16% approval rating. and sometimes when you know you can't win, either in the republican primary or in a general election, you go out guns blazing. >> are you saying what he said is a lie today? >> it's proof you can fool some of the people all of the time.

president lincoln was right. some but not all of the people. i think senator flake made a point in his speech that there's -- reality does matter. the president hasn't passed or signed any important legislation. he did put justice gorsuch on the supreme court, which conservatives love, but that's because of mitch mcconnell, who trump hates. the only reason justice gorsuch is on there is because for over a year, mitch mcconnell refused to have hearings for president obama's nominee for that seat. that's not really a trump accomplishment. he did deliver, i give him full credit for that, but he hasn't pass eed anything. the stock market is growing and jobs are growing, but that's not because of policy he's enacted. he hasn't signed anything except for a bunch of executive orders. >> but paul, there again, it goes back to capitol hill. it doesn't go back to the white house. the fact he has repealed regulations. he's undone just last week on health care across state lines selling and association health plan and short-term policies to compete with the exchanges.

those are all solid accomplishments. >> look, he could have got health care done if he decided not to have a personal feud with john mccain. personal relationships can make a huge difference here. it's easy to blame. thank you both very much. we'll hit pause for now. next, major breaking news. cnn learning the clinton campaign and dnc funded research for the infamous trump dossier. it's a huge development this evening. and u.s. soldiers ambushed in niger say they think villagers purposely stalled them for the deadly attack. was it a set-up? at fidelity, you get a retirement score in just 60 seconds. and we'll help you make decisions for your plan... to keep you on track. it's your retirement. know where you stand. to keep you on track. advil liqui-gels minis. our first concentrated pill that rushes powerful relief. a small new size that's fast, cause it's liquid. woohoo! you'll ask, what pain? new advil liqui-gels minis.

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cnn learning tonight that hillary clinton's campaign and the democratic national committee helped fund the research that led to the controversial and frankly salacious and disgusting in some of its allegations dossier that detailed alleged russian efforts to help donald trump's presidential campaign. "the washington post" was first to report this. "outfront," one of the reporters who just broke the story with "the washington post." adam, good to have you back. let's start with the bottom line here. clinton, the hillary clinton campaign and the dnc. what exactly did they do? >> well, i mean, they have a lawyer. and that lawyer went about looking to hire research firms. one of the firms that they hired was this company in washington here called fusion gps. fusion gps in turn subcontracted out to christopher steele, the former british intelligence officer, to help get information about trump's relationships in russia. those reports that chris steele produced were then passed back to the lawyer who was

representing the clinton campaign. what we don't really know is how that information was then relaid to the campaign. our understanding from talking to people who were close to the matter is that those actual steele reports were not directly handed to the campaign. so we don't really quite understand how the information was passed. who got the information, and you know, obviously, we want to know what they did with that information after they received it. >> right. right. and those are crucial questions. as for the dossier itself, i want to remind our viewers. it's about 30 pages or something. it's widely available out there. we don't talk about it because it hasn't been verified, but we have confirmed some of the conversations as reported in the dossier between foreign nationals did occur. so some things in it appear to be true. others are completely uncorroborated. what you're saying is it's unclear whether it was finished and packaged as we now can see it and handed to the clinton campaign or not. right? >> well, i think the answer to that is it was not.

>> okay. >> so these reports were being produced on a regular basis, every few weeks. every few months. he would prepare, chris steele, would prepare a new report, which he would give to the people who were paying him, fusion gps. fusion gps would then want to tell the lawyer for the clinton campaign, who he's representing, what information was being collected. and then that information was then being given to the campaign. the way that it was being given is what we really don't understand. how high up in the campaign did that information go, we don't really know. but like you said, the point is that much of what steele said or at least some of what steele said is not that different from what the intelligence community later discloses in january, which was an effort by, you know, alleging that the russians were working to try to help trump. that is one of the main findings of steele's investigation. so even though, yes, we are revealing here that the clinton campaign's money and the dnc's

money was being used, at least in part, to fund this investigation by chris steele, that doesn't mean that what he produced was not accurate, was not inaccurate or, you know, some of the information was clearly accurate. and is born out by what the intelligence community later disclosed. >> right, which is obviously a crucial point. when you say the money, do you have any idea how much money it was? >> no, the people we talked to wouldn't tell us. they told us that the amount of money paid to fusion gps was shared between the campaign and the dnc. but we don't know what the dollar figures are. and we don't know exactly how that was broken down between the two organizations. >> adam, the point you're making here, right, and whatever word you want to use for this, whether it was intelligence or opposition research, right, whoever is paying for it, christopher steele, this foreign intelligence agent, went out and got this information, some of

which was true, some of which is uncorroborated. you're also reporting fusion gps, this firm that had been doing research on trump, had already been doing research, opposition research on trump during the republican primaries. >> yes. >> who was paying for it, was it ted cruz? >> we don't know. we're not sure who the republican client was. when fusion gps was hired by that client, they did not know that russia was going to be the main focus. at that point, they were hired, you know, trump was a relatively unknown in washington. you know, he wasn't disclosing his tax returns. you know, he was -- there really wasn't a lot of information out there about his business ties. and frankly, his foreign relationships. so they were hired along with other firms to do some research. initially, they were hired by a republican client who remains secret, has not been disclosed. in march of 2016, according to the law firm for the clinton

campaign, fusion gps approaches the lawyer representing the campaign and offers to basically have the democrats continue funding the research that they were already doing on behalf of the republican client. >> did they at that time, adam, i want to bring in david chalian to this conversation, but at that time, did the clinton campaign or the dnc say, we want this to focus on russia? or did that naturally happen? >> based on the information that i have, i have no evidence to support what you just said. i mean, i think, you know, i'm not exactly sure. i think steele is brought on board, becomes a subcontractor to fusion gps after the dnc and the clinton campaign hire fusion gps through this lawyer. so it's not clear to me at what point fusion gps' investigation through chris steele focuses narrowly, most narrowly on russia, but keep in mind that

fusion gps was investigating outside of what chris steele was doing a lot of other things related to trump. and also providing that through the lawyer, again, to the clinton campaign and to the dnc. so it wasn't just russia-related material. >> so david chalian, what's your reaction to this? >> well, it is not good news for the dnc and the clinton campaign to be named and attached to the funding of something that you described in part has born out and in part included a lot of uncorroborated stuff to date. that being said, we had previously reported, right, that this opo research process began on the republican side and then democrats took over funding this opposition research operation, see who would those democrats be if not the dnc and clinton campaign the we would expect them to be come the spring of 2016, the people funding opposition research. as you know, erin, opo research is a staple of presidential campaigns of all kinds of campaigns. in fact, most candidates begin

their campaigns by hiring such a firm to do it on themselves and find out all the potential holes that they may have, vulnerabilities they may have that an opponent might come at them with. but obviously, this particular document, as adam was saying, because there is a significant portion of it that the u.s. intelligence communities and news organizations reportings have proven true, it raises obviously big concerns, it is at the heart of the mueller investigation, the hill investigations. and having hillary clinton's campaign and the dnc attached to it is certainly going to give trump supporters a talking point to try to simply add to the mix that this is political theater and this will give them an opportunity to say that. >> all right, thank you both very much. appreciate it. and next, stunning new details about the niger ambush in which four american soldiers were killed, and dr. sanjay gupta's "outfront" investigation into america's opioid crisis.

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new tonight, we're learning what the u.s. army team was doing in niger when it was ambushed leaving four americans dead. defense officials telling cnn the unit was gathering intelligence on a top terrorist operating in the area. that the unit was not under orders to conduct a kill or capture mission. jim sciutto is "outfront." you're learning more tonight. >> that's right, erin. we're told they were tasked on a mission to gather intelligence on a known isis leader in the area. to be clear, as you said, they were not there to kill or capture him. but on return from that mission, they stopped in another village, it is believed, we're told by a u.s. defense official, that while they were in that village, that someone there tipped off their presence to isis. isis then came and they set up an elaborate ambush with heavy machine guns, mortars, rpgs. that's when they attacked u.s. forces there, of course, leading to the four deaths.

i should note as well, while the larger unit had had dozens of patrols in that same area, this particular green berets team had only been there on one or two missions before, one or two patrols before, so not as experienced as the larger unit. a lot of questions to be answered and the military looking into the question as to why la david johnson was found a mile away from others, some 48 hours later. >> jim sciutto, thanks very much. "outfront" now, a former member of the skroijoint chiefs of sta frederick leighton. this is one of team's first missions. first or second patrol. earlier, we were told it was the 29th. the 29th time, but only the first or second for this group. should the pentagon have done anything different in terms of districting them support? >> i think so. we don't know everything at the

moment. we have to see what the investigative report says, but it sounds at this early stage that what you're seeing here is a new unit, a new group of people first getting to know each other, getting to work in a very austere environment. they are in an area that is close to the border with mali. that area apparently did have terrorist activity. the fact that they didn't have intelligence overwatch over this mission is very concerning to me. and that is something that i think will need to be looked at very strongly. >> obviously, the investigation needs to run its course and be done. it does seem, though, when you look at this, that there are very basic things that they don't know that as a lay person, you would think they would. were they wearing body armor? what was the actual mission? it was not 30 minutes until the french jets came. it was two hours. it was not their 29th mission. it was their first or second. a lot of these things are very basic. >> significant discrepancies obviously in the first narrative

versus the second narrative. some of it can be excused to the extent that first reports are also erroneous, but these kinds of discrepancies are really not the right kinds. you want a more rigid timeline you present to the american public. you want a clear understanding, not only of what happened with these people, but what were they doing at that particular moment in time. and some of that, of course, will have to await the results of a more thorough look at this. but the real answer to this, i think, is we need not only to know exactly what happened, but also make sure that erroneous information is stopped before it ever gets out to the public. >> all right. thank you very much, colonel. thank you. appreciate it. next, combatting the deadly opioid crisis. dr. sanjay gupta's "outfront" investigation into an extremely controversial idea. it could save lives, but is it worth the cost? and trump tweets liddle bob corker. corker alerts the day care

staff. jeanne moos referees the school yard fight that's gone viral. electrolyte formula, corrects the salt imbalance that causes dry eye. so your eyes will thank you. more than eye drops, dry eye therapy. theratears®. he's brought us to the obstructed justice at the fbi. and in direct violation of the constitution, he's taken money from foreign governments and threatened to shut down news organizations that report the truth. if that isn't a case for impeaching and removing a dangerous president, then what has our government become? i'm tom steyer and, like you, i'm a citizen who knows it's up to us to do something. it's why i'm funding this effort to raise our voices together and demand that elected officials take a stand on impeachment. a republican congress once impeached a president for far less. yet, today, people in congress and his own administration know this president is a clear and present danger

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front and center in president trump's conversations with gop senators at lunch. this as he prepares to declare a national opioid emergency. dr. sanjay gupta is "outfront" for the second part of our series frk killing america, inside the opioid epidemic. >> it's a living hell. okay. you worry day and night. you try to do other things, but it's always in the back of your mind. you go to bed at night, i say good-bye, taylor, and i keep him in my prayers.

and just hope that i'm going to hear from him. >> the story has become a common one. donna prince's son taylor is addicted to heroin. right now, she's sick with worry because she hasn't seen him in six weeks. >> you worry about that? >> all the time. >> about him dying? >> yes. >> for the last six weeks, i mean -- >> no, for 20 years. >> for 20 years. >> 20 years my son has been a heroin addict. >> donna tells us there's a good chance taylor is here, at the corner project in washington heights. it's a needle exchange. but also has this. one of the most controversial bathrooms in the country. a place where people like taylor come to use drugs. but are also monitored and can be saved with the which is reverse an overdose. >> when taylor first told you

about the bathroom, what were your first thoughts when you heard about that? >> he's going to do it whether he wants to or not. whether he's going to do it under the bridge where they go or whether he's going to go in my bathroom and do it. at least there, i know peach are watching over him and if he does overdose, he's not going to die because they're going to be able to save him. >> i think there'll an act acknowledge generally that drug users are using bathrooms all over the place and people are dying in those bathrooms. there's an announcement that we have an obligation that people don't die in our buildings. >> liz evans direct the project. she moved here from vancouver, canada. over 14 years there have been over 3 million visits there and not one single deaths. the rates of overdose in the

surrounding downtown area dropped by 35%. inside users were 30% more likely to get addiction treatments. here in the united states, this is a gray area. >> how does a place like this exist in the sense of the interaction of the legal world, the law enforcement world? >> there are policies that exist the state has provided to encourage access to norican, clean services and other suggestions for how bathrooms operate in the exchange programs. >> hector mara manages the bathroom program. >> they'll sit down, they'll put all their supplies here to make sure they're preparing the cocaine or what ever substance they're going to inject. there's a cooker in there for people to use it to filter the heroin, whatever they're injecting. >> you got an intercom in here to call someone and -- >> yes. >> what you're seeing is a

provacative way to try to produce death from heroin overdose. some see it as condoning drug use but others see it as a logical solution to a big problem. within a year more people die from drug overdoses than from guns and car accidents. >> when overdoses are happening in our bathroom people are not dying. identify reversed 25 overdoses in this bathroom. >> 25 times? >> yes. >> he saved the life of taylor prince. at least today, he knows where taylor is. when we revisit the process she gets to see her son again. >> sanjay, how is taylor doing right now since you've spoken to him? >> he was arrested, ended up in jail for a period of time. he's expected to get out next week. while in jail he's been

omethadone -- on methadone getting treatment for his drug addiction. talking to his mother donna, she says it's the safest place he can be. she's worried when he gets out again what's going to happen to him. it's a constant state of worry for her. >> when you talk about all the lives saved from overdoses, you're talking about the methadone treatment he's getting in prison, there are some concerns though that the medications, the spaces like those bathrooms could actually enable and prolong addiction. they kind it perpetuates a cycle, do you think that's a fair worry or not? >> you know, erin we've been talking about the position for so long, he said we want to present some solutions to this because everyone agrees this is a big problem and that have been very few solutions that are effective being presented. it's a provocative one, but you

like at that insight in vancouver that had some 3.6 million people visit. they've had 6.7,000 overdose, not a single death. if you want something that can prevent people from dying from overdose here's something that can work. how is it for treating the root cause. right now you got people dying in staggering numbers, more in car accidents, homicide, all these thing put together in some cases. this is a solution, erin. >> as you point out it has been shown that case of insight to have people go to rehabs and nearby communities. that's what it should be all about. sanjay thank you so much. tomorrow sanjay's going to be back, third installment special series on the investigation into the opioid crisis and the solutions. thank you to son jay. next jeanie moss. adult daycare in the nation's capital.

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tonight daycare workers and dog catchers every where are wondering how that i have been dragged into the midst of a political feud. jeanie moss knows. >> president trump has brag about using tweets to defeat his enemies. now the president is being binged back. >> it's a shame the white house has become an adult daycare center. >> with a hash tag created by bob corker. >> #alert the daycare staff. >> hash tag of the year. it released a baa rauj of baby center imagery to the president

escaping the daycare to dog cones to keep him from tweeting. pacifiers were creditable including a bin can i. trump supporters told senator corker to stick a cork in it with pacifier pictures of their own. children also came up in a question the senator was asked about the president. >> do you think he's a role model to children in the united states? >> no. >> maybe somebody should have alerted the daycare staff last year when senator corker was introducing then candidate trump. >> the reason you love him so much is because he loves you. >> and trump called corker. >> great guy. great person. >> they're hug was a big stiff and their handshake was a classic trump grab and hank, sort of like this twitter feud, the daily show enabled fans to experience trump's box corker tweet storm the way its meant to be read in a child scrawl.

they call it make trump tweets aid again while seth meyer imagined him tweeting on a typewriter. jeanie moss. cnn, new york. >> thanks for joining us. you can watch out front any time anywhere just watch cnn go. anderson's next. we begin tonight with an extraordinary day in politics, unlike any eve seen in decades. two republican senator sounded the alarm the president's behavior's abasing the country. the day begans as it often does with a tweet storm. corker targeted the president did several interviews this morning and said the president should leave the details to tax plans to congress. the president lashed out to corker on twitter. the senator countered with