>> significant developments. >> thanks very much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." erin burnett "outfront" starts right now. "outfront" next, breaking news. disturbing new detail about the deadly niger ambush. a source at the scene says the u.s. soldiers wore t-shirts and baseball caps with just one machine gun to face 50 isis fighters. plus, why was a company hired by trump reaching out to wikileaks, which of course is in bed with the russians? tonight, new information on what they did for trump and more breaking news the this hour. president trump promised all of the jfk filed tonight. a sudden hold up. what doesn't the government want you to know? tonight, the breaks news. we are learning stunning new detail about the isis ambush in niger that killed four american

soldiers. the biggest combat loss of president trump's term. a soldier who was among the first on the scene describing a vicious fire fight. standing back-to-back with nigerians holding off an attack from all sides. the troops were not ready for combat. arwa damon reporting they were not wearing jackets or helmets. they were wearing t-shirts and baseball caps. as for heavy weapons, just one machine gun and one defense official tells cnn the isis figers were heavily armed. we're also learning tonight that the u.s. unit became separated on the ground. arwa damon's source says he saw two of american soldiers dead by gun shot wounds in the backseat of their vehicle. another american soldier lying dead under a nearby brush. this is a very disturbing picture of american troops sent into harm's way with no warning from intelligence on the ground. as for the pentagon in a press briefing late today, it offered

no details. >> so again, as the chairman said this week, all of these questions are fair questions. but it is under investigation. so we will have more details when we have them. >> arwa damon broke this story. he's "outfront" tonight in niger on the ground near the scene of the attack talking to those soldiers who were there and your reporting tonight is very shocking and very disturbing, but very important to understand exactly what happened in that ambush. >> reporter: and if we just look at the terrain, erin, it's hard to imagine if there was any place where any of those soldiers could take cover and really try to defend themselves against this assault now. according to the soldier who we spoke to, when he arrived on the scene, he was speaking to a number of the woundeded nigerian soldiered who toll him the assault started out with the assailants using around eight vehicles, then a fire fight

broke out. that is when two vehicles were split in the rest of the convoy and then he was told that dozens of other fighters arrived on motorcycles and that is the point at which the casualties began to get fairly severe. when this soldier arrived on scene along with the three u.s. soldiers who were killed, he also says that he saw the bodies of three nigtroge nigerian sold were further in the brush. he said that he did not interestingly see any body of the attackers, but just streaks of blood. he also noticed that it seemed as if some of the brush was still smoulderring. villagers telling his unit that the attackers had actually set some of the landscape on fire to create a smoke screen to allow them to then escape. now his unit and another unit overnighted the location. overnight, more u.s. soldiers

arrived with night vision capabilities, still trying to look for the body of sergeant la david johnson. they did not find him until very next day. he was describing the sense of being out there and his surprise at what had taken place because, erin, he said that the unit, the green berets had arrived add his base a day before the attack happened. when they received the call to go out andry respond to this, he was surprised because he said when they rooifed at his location the day before, they were they were a light convoy. what he means is that they didn't have a lot of manpower or a lot of fire power and his own unit that regularly patrols this very volatile zone, he was saying normally goes out with about 80 to 100 soldiers and it gives you an idea perhaps of

what kind of miscalculation may have taken place. now he has been working, operate ng this area for about the last five years. rotating in and out of it. and over the course of the last two year, they've seen a significant shift in the threats they were facing what used to be ban itry, then becoming some serious, severe terrorism. and he was express iing his surprise, too, that the u.s. didn't have more of its assets in the air given the sensitivity of the mission. that we know these soldiers were on trying to collect intelligence against that high value target. and he also went on to say you know, we've seen the socksacrif america is making here in niger. when is the united states going to realize that their tactics on the ground here are not working. he sees, from what he's saying, he feels that the u.s. needs to reassess its approach to niger and how it's handling terrorism in the region. >> and just to be clear here,

he's also telling you in terms of when you say a light convoy, i think just what seems very stunning about your reporting that they were wearing t-shirts and baseball caps. that is the environment that they expected to be operating in. >> it's the environment, yes, erin, that they expected to be operating ng and it's also the posture that they would have taken this kind of environment given what was their assessment of the risk. but also because they do want to maintain a lower profile than they would in other areas. they're not dwoipg to be moving around the way that we see them in afghanistan or iraq or syria with armored vehicles that you can't physically drive across some of the sands this these deserts or wearing their heavy body armor. but what the soldier was wondering about, we've heard from another of other sources, how did the u.s. assess the threat to be so low at the point

where they actually departed because from his experience, this is an area where nigerians regularly come under attack. in fact, just last weekend, 13 nigerians were killed in another fire fight that took place within the same zone. and they've been see iing this increasing terror threat in that zone. we've seen increasing indications that this isis break away unit is really making enroads into this area. >> all right, thank you very much for that incredible reporting on the ground. i want to go now to the democratic congressman of california. he was briefed on the niger ambush today. so, let me ask you. arwa damon recording u.s. soldiers had just one money gun. they were wearing t-shirts. they were wearing baseball caps. none of this came up in your briefing today. is my understanding. what's your reaction to that? >> well, my reaction to that is twofold. first of all, it's a terrible tragedy, the loss of american life and the loss of nigerian soldiers. it's tragic and yes, indeed, it is a very dangerous part of the

world. we've known that. that's why we're there along with some 4,000 french soldiers na the area to try to deal with this terrorism. with regard to the briefing, sometimes, we treat it like mushrooms. we're kept in dark and your report on the ground from niger is in many ways much more detailed than we received this morning. >> is that frustrating to you? would you have expected to hear what you just heard from arwa damon reporting what she heard from nigerians? >> well, here's where our job, we're not on the ground xa commanders. our job is to understand the region, to make an assessment as to what our goal, what our objectives are in a broad way then to put in place the proper policies. for example, do we have an authorization use force in this area or not.

very big question. but in addition to that, what kind of resources are needed given the task that we have asked these soldiers to do. our job. the pentagon has not been forthcoming. >> it has not. just take the issue of body armor. >> i was reporting they had no vests on. they had baseball caps and the t-shirts. the chairman of the joint chiefs was asked whether they had body armor. most of the american soldiers survived were nigerians. there's a lot of people to say what happened. here's how he answered that question when asked directly. >> quick follow up on whether or not the troops were wearing body armor. >> i don't personally know how the soldiers if they were wearing body armor. >> do you think the pentagon does not know this information? >> i'm not surprised. i'm really not surprised that the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff is not directly involved. obviously, the investigations

are underway. your reporter there in the region has access and frankly, much better access than we do here because all of our information is filtered through the pentagon, through the studies, which do take three to six months and general ly ly by time it's completed, we're on to the next crisis. but this is a very serious issue. in that the question arises as to what is our mission in this part of africa. keep many mind we're talking about a stretch of africa that really is longer than the entire breadth of the united states. some 4,000 miles. in which these extreme organizations operate. so we need to be very, very clear about what is our objective in this area, how are we going to carry that out. >> clearly, intelligence was off. clearly, the level of protection they would have had would have been dimpt. that is a tragedy. i wanted to ask you one other thing. what arwa is learning was that this group was very small. okay. relative, when the nigerians go

out and patrol this area, they take 80 to 100 men. just to be clear, the unit we're talking about had 12 american troops and 30 nigerian forces. you're talking half of the smallest unit size that the nigerians would take to go into the same area because of how they would assess the risk. what do you make of that? where do you think this mistake was made? >> that's going to be determined. we know that the original mission was in a different location to go after a high value target. this has been reported over and over again. when that didn't happen, it appears the mission broke into pieces. one piece came back through this village and it was clearly smaller. than would be normal in the area and quite obviously and tragically, not prepared for the violence that does and has occurred in that area. so yes, there is a serious mistake made somewhere along the line.

was it an intelligence failure, the lessons learned going forward. what is it that why are we there? what's it going to take to accomplish there. making sure that the military has the resources it needs to carry out the policies that we and the president are putting in place. now, clearly, there was a mistake made perhaps on the ground, perhaps also in the intelligence gathering mechanisms. and the support that might have been, that should have been necessary would there be any kind of a fire fight or incident. >> all right, congressman, i pleeshuate your time. i think your analogies are like mushrooms kept in the dark by the pentagon, a very powerful one. thank you very much, sir. next, new details about what a data company was doing for donald trump's campaign. that company reaching out to wikileaks for hillary clinton's e-mails. plus, breaking news this hour. secret documents about the

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. tonight, newly found video throwing cold water on a trump campaign statement. they claimed in a formal statement it did not rely on a data company that reached out to julian assange. so let's start with this new video posted today by the guardian. in it, you'll see a senior executive from cambridge anal i analytica. here is just a taste. >> we started working with the trump campaign in about june of 2016. when it became obvious that a sophisticated data apparatus would be needed by ensuring that every campaign stop was driven by data and reflecting what was currently being seen in the field, he was able to use his travel time most effectively.

>> every campaign stop driven by data that's pretty increde bable. so the data was driving where trump went to campaign. the rallies. now, the reason cambridge's deep role in the campaign matters is because the ceo reached tout julian assange to get as close to putin asking for help in obtaining hillary clinton's 30,000 e-mails. it also matters because of the statement from the trump campaign trying to down play their relationship despite the fact they paid the firm $6 million in fees. they're down play iing it becau they don't want to be linkeded to russia. we as a campaign made the choice to rely on the republican national committee. any claims are false. manu, obviously, we know now the lines between the trump campaign and this data company were deep and important. bannon was involved. jared kushner brought the firm in. you're learning that house vest

garretts are very focused on this and russia as well. >> no question about it. they're asking cambridge to provide them more documents. one senior democrat on the committee pointed out that candidate trump said a lot of nice things about wikileaks. >> president could not say enough good things about wikileaks and the campaign. you u had this atimted contact from cambridge, wikileaks was used by the the russians, it's not clear whether that was witting or unwitting, but wic wikileaks was used. needless to say, cambridge is a crew we're going to need to talk to to understand how robust that communication was. >> i also talked to congressman king of new york. the republican. he said certainly, the committee should continue to look into this matter, but the same time,

he and other republicans on this committee say that so far, they have not come across any evidence of collusion. they're saying wrap up this investigation rather soon by the end of the year. democrats are saying we don't need to -- to learn about any other contact connections, erin. >> now, former assistant secretary for homeland security. michael isakoff and senior writer for wired. you've been bringing a lot of news for this story. you know, you hear the cambridge executive talking about how much they did for the trump campaign. we know they paid them $6 million and there were very close ties between the campaign and the company. but the statement for the trump campaign seems to be saying the opposite. is that statement misleading? >> i think it can be easily misunderstood. here's what happened.

the rnc was providing the raw data. the information about who voters were. where they lived. what they like. all of that raw data. that data across the years. cambridge was working inside the trump campaign and analyzing that data. we can use it to figure out who they want to photovotvote for. i spoke to trump's digital director, they weren't relying on cambridge's data, they were relying on the rnc's, but they had 13 staffers who were using the rnc's data, yes, where should we send trump on the campaign trial? who might be an influential donor? the team at the time are denying the fact they were work wg the trump campaign and were influnable, but that statement very carefully word ed said we

relied on rnc data. there's a clear reason why they'd want to distance themselves from cambridge. i think it was carefully worded so as not to dismiss cambridge. >> which michael is pretty interesting. it's a pattern for trump. they immediately are trying to distance themselves. even in some cases when it's false like these. >> he was with the campaign for a short period of time. >> he was a virtual tiolunteer campaign and b obviously, there's been a discussion of paul manafort who played a limited role for a limit td amount of time. >> just to state the obvious, paul manafort was the chairman of the campaign. michael flynn was the national security adviser at the white house. but this is a pattern.

>> it is a pattern. because of what i find most interesting about this new development with mr. nix, the head of cambridge, who sometimes in the summer reaches out to julian assange at wikileaks and says can you provide the missing hillary clinton e-mails, where did he get the idea that wikileaks might have these e-mails? well on august 6th, and we don't know exactly when this e-mail was sent from nix to assange, but on august 6th, rt runs a story playing it up. saying headlined, does wikileaks had v the e-mails that could put hillary clinton in jail. when you have examples of where rt russian state propaganda gets into the bloodstream and in some ways is manipulating the trump

campaign. they're acting on stories they're seeing in rt. just a couple of weeks later, there's another example where manafort at a press conference calls attention to what he says was a terrorist attack on a u.s. air base in turkey. the only news organization that had reported that was rt. a bogus story. there was no terrorist attack, but you know, this, there are these series of examples where russian state propaganda was making its way into the bloodstream and in some ways, manipulatie ining highest offic in the trump campaign. >> and julia, the story is important because and this is a crucial thing. intelligence community is black and white about something. that is wikileaks and julian assange deep ties to russia. so here's trump's own cia director. on wikileaks. and obama's director of national intelligence on wikileaks just last night. here they are. >> it's time to call out wikileaks for what it really is. a nonstate hostile intelligence

service often embedded by state actors like russia. >> one case where i completely agree with director pompeo about his characterization. that's what they are. >> julia, given that, how surprised are you that a data analytic company so central to the trump campaign reached out directly to julian assange to get dirt on hillary clinton? >> well i'm not surprised in the sense they have always been this odd, unknown entity that had a crucial role in the trump campaign, but also tentacles elsewhere. just quickly on michael's point. this isn't what we call in government a principle to principle call. it is the ceo to julian assange. this is not a staffer to some random person who posts on wikileaks. these are the two principles communicating over information that is you know, essentially information that the russians

would have wanted out. and i want to also say that there's nothing any person reading the newspapers would have known well before august and certainly in early 2016. the extent to which julian assange was an agent, a tool, a willing participant with the russians to not only harm our election and infiltrate our election, but as we've seen since trump was elected in france and germany and elsewhere. you can look back to michael's article from a year before. >> he knew what he was doing. >> thank you very much. all of you. next, the breaks news, unexpected hold off in the release of the jfk files. what doesn't the government want you to see? and republican voters siding with the president over their own republican senators. is this trump's gop now? >> i wouldn't want to hang out with him. these things are getting shaken b up. ould face north east. on it. you're trying everything to get pregnant. new one-a-day couples pack

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breaking news. a sudden hold up this hour in the release of the secret files about president kennedy's assassination. a delay short only fueled conspiracy theorys even more. today was the deadline. 25 years ago, they said today is the day and whoever is president is going to make this decision and president trump himself said that he was going to release the documents. he had said that. then there was a delay later in the day then around 5:30 in the afternoon, the statement comes out and only getting 2,800 records that r going to come out. the others are secret for now. they're delaying it again for at

least another 180 days. the big question of course is why. "outfront" now, jfk historian and fbi analyst who was involved with the investigation after 1963, also the custodian for the records. you have seen these in your capacity. you've seen these documents, some of which we're getting, some of which we're not, which is crucial. and also with me is bob bair who hosted the history channel's tracking oswald. let's start though with this big question. what does the cia or fbi, they're the ones who had to go to the president and lobby to have socof these documents with held. what is it they don't want us to see? >> well, erin, it's political sensitivity is in these documents. to redakt a document, they've had 25 years after all, but it

just takes a couple of minutes per document, taking names or if there's a service. it's what happened in mexico city eight weeks before when oswald was down there and met with the kgb and cuban intelligence and met with a kgb officer who was head of department 13, head of assassinations. i was just in moscow and interviewed one of those officers who was there and he said that the russian met oswald for 20 minutes and that just throws open all shorts of questions and indeed with holding this stuff is just going to add to the crazy theorys everywhe everywhere, but the meeting in mexico city is sort of key and i would like to see that stuff. put my mind to rest. >> so you, you know, i want to get back to the theory you're

talking about a. but you pent nine years and read 500,000 page of documents about this. that is a stunning amount. 500,000 pages. now the president is saying he has no choice but to keep some of these redacted. again, it's a delay of 180 days. we'll see. but he vowed to the wishes of the intelligence community here. what documents do you think he's talking about that they don't want out there? >> well according to the national archives, the national archives has indicated that they have indeed released 88% of the comets in their swirety. again, another 11% of these documents were partial redaxs, but in fact released. the 1% we're talking about is like bob said and i was involved with the first face-to-face meet wg the kgb to discuss mexico city on behalf of the fbi and the individual he's talking about is colonel -- and thwhat

these records may or may not pertain to, the bureau from what i understand from the conference call today, the fbi was one of the agencies, the principle agencies that was wanting these documents held back. the cia had no problem with a lot of these entities, but u again, like bob said and i have agreed all along, they've had 25 years. to work these things out. >> and farris, what about what bob is talking about? you're talking about this meeting in mexico city as well with the kgb and oswald. the same meeting. do you agree with him? most people hear that right and that does fuel a conspiracy theory. who wouldn't hear that and think that? >> exactly. in bob's documentary, it backed up the same thing oleg told me

back when i did this interview with him. that is that valerie, he is focused on because of his position when in fact, all this was was a 20 minute casual, very almost informal, but highly emotional oswald meeting with the kgb. he's getting thrown under the bus thinking that a ha, we have an assassin who who has a -- an answer -- >> i think they will. the russians when they met oswald said he's too crazy to

deal with. he pulled a pistol out during the meeting. waved it around. the kgb officer had the to take it away from him. he was clearly talking about murder and he may have been trying to kill cruse chef at one time in russia. but the interesting thing to me was the cubans who picked up oswald at that point. and met the cubans. possibly after the meeting in the consulate in mexico city. and the main witness in this investigation had been tortured by the mexicans, so her testimony isn't exactly reliable. there's big pieces of this that i'd like to fill in. i think we need to put to bed these really crazy conspiracy theorys. >> the documents, i want everyone to know, they have just droppeded. so we're going to start going through them and share what we can as we get them later this hour. just breaking. before we go though an we start going through those, a poll in the 50th anniversary of jfk's death showed more than 60% of

americans believe oswald did not act alone. there's all kinds of theorys. donald trump threw that one out there about ted cruz's father, which seems to be b absurd. is there anything in the documents you remember that you've read the half a million pages that would indicate oswald had help? >> no, but you have government agencies doing unthink bable. the central intelligence agency can speak personally with the destruction of the oswald note. he came to the fbi in ten days prior to the assassination and dropped off a note at the fbi and of course, it was destroyed on november 24th after oswald was killed by jack ruby. anytime you have sanitation clean up after action, perfection where you're trying to make your agency look perfect, where you've made mistakes, that right there takes away from the credibility of the organization and impugn its

reputation throughout history. >> all right. and i swrjust want to show evere these documents. they have just come out. they're handwritten notes in some cases. these are the documents we're getting. first time anyone in the american public has seen these in the light of day. since the assassination investigation. these are what they are. and a lot of them are handwritten notes. written by individuals. this is pretty incredible stuff. we're just starting to go through these now. the 2800 records that we have that are breaking tonight. we want to share them with you. thanks so much to both of you. >> thank you. and next, a new fox news poll reveals that trump's approval rating is sinking, taking a beating with his base. this from fox news. and it took him more than two months to do it, but president trump did act today and addressed the opioid epidemic. dr. gupta is here with what he thinks. >> we can be the generation that

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tonight, president trump on his claim that there are no divisions in the gop despite collisions with jeff corker and bob flake, tweeting do not understood estimate the unity. today, paul ryan said americans don't care about the intraparty fighting. >> i don't think the american people care about that. you know what the american people want to see us do? solve their problems. i don't think the american people want to see us up here yelling at each other. >> so what do voters think in flake's home state of arizona? >> an hour outside of phoenix is casa grande, arizona. a republican stronghold. where during the lunch rush, lanny johnston doesn't weep for arizona senator, jeff flake. >> he's standing up for the core of the gop. i think it's the old core. the old republican beliefs.

>> welcome to the new gop. trump's gop. johnston says he was a registered democrat just like roger thaer. they both vote d for trump. thaer supports flake. >> but do you pick mccain and flake over trump? >> no. if trump would shut his mouth and do his job, i think a lot of things would be a lot better. >> president trump carried arizona by 3.5 percentage points. he beat clinton by double digits, but what about the moderates? they're in maricopa county where trump won by just three points. bigilbert is a quaint corner. at the roast house, every republican here is ware of the rift between the senators and the president, from john mccain'

deciding vote against a trump-backed repeal and replace plan to flake's impassioned call to fellow republicans. >> i'm aware that there's a segment of my party who believes that anything short of complete and unquestioning loyalty to a president who belongs to my party is unacceptable and suspect. >> what did you think of that speech? >> i don't remember it in detail, but i'll say this, that he's one of the first fatalities. >> i think it was timely. i think actually both of our senators, we need to have some change in our state. we need some leadership that really looks at the constituents within our state. >> he's probably not going to win the next election and so he's getting out early and making his jabs on his way out. >> sean pearson says he's glad nak is on his way out. he didn't vote for trump, but says this turmoil is healthy for the gop if it means his party will change. >> i like that there's shifting

and moving and there's change happening. like i said, i don't like necessarily trump's personality. some of his, i think i like him as a person m i wouldn't want to hang out with him, but i love that things are getting shaken up. >> so overall, we didn't experience outright vistriol. they felt trump is the future, flake and mccain the past. biggest supporters for flake, democrats. so does this mean this state will flip blue, arizona democrats released a statement that -- within the gop here in arizona, but erin, we spoke with the arizona gop and they reminded us that this state has always had tough primary, tough gop primaries and the gop still wins in the general. >> all right. thank you very much. interesting democrats liking jeff flake.

keep many mind, he did vote with the president 90% of the time. now, former republican senator and presidential candidate, rick santor santorum. senator, great to have you with us. you just saw that piece and throughout the day, virtually no one that she spoke with was supporting jeff flake. obviously, he is a conservative. i just mentioned his voting record. but i want to mention to you, this new fox poll. the president's approval rating, according to fox news, 38% and the big drop was with his base. they were say iing a 12-point dp among whites without a college degree. is that significant to you? >> that minor dip doesn't concern me too much, but the overall number, under 40% overall is not a good number. i think what you heard even from his supporters is that the kind of behavior that he exhibits on twitter and some of the personal jabs he's taken, the personal jabs between the gold star mother excuse me, bride and him, that doesn't help him.

it doesn't help the cause. i agree with him there's ewunit in the republican party, but there's not in the way he is behaving every day. but there's certainly unity behind what he's trying to do and whether it's tax reform or the regulatory reform. they just don't like his style. that's that what flake was really pointing out. >> 30i9%. that would indicate this union. but to your point, senator flake stood up on principle for what he believes. he believes your character and person matter to be president of the united states. here's just a quick bit of what he said. >> we must never meekly accept the daily sundering of our country. the personal attacks, the threats against principles, freedoms and constitution, the flagrant disregard for truth and decency. the reckless provocations, most often for the petiest and most personal reasons.

>> and to that point, of course senator trump has shown a flagrant disregard for decency. here are just a few examples. >> you got to see this guy, ah, i don't know what i said, i don't remember. he's going, i don't remember. >> maybe he should have been roughed up because it was absolutely disgusting what he was doing. this was a very obnoxious guy looking to make trouble. >> you know, i'm automatically attracted to beautiful -- it's like a magnet. they let you do it. you can do anything. >> whatever you want. >> grab them by the -- >> do you agree with senator flake when it cops to his character and his person that he is defacing the office of the presidency sm. >> the issue of character, it's not the first time the issue of character has come up with the issue of the president. just a few presidents ago and bill clinton, that was a big argument they were making. character counts. it's just what you do in office.

that's what really matters. in saens, different completely different stories, but very similar attacks. that this is an issue of character. now you know, bill clinton is now seen as one of >> he had a successful run as president and then the economy was strong and lot of good things happened under his presidency. so i think the american public is frankly willing to overlook character and focus in on what's being accomplished in the office. not saying good or bad thing, but looks like what the american public is interested in. >> fair and well put point. thank you senator. next, donald trump pledging to do something about the opioid crisis. >> an astonishing 90% of the heroin in america comes from south of the border where we will be building a wall which

will greatly help in this problem. >> will it greatly help? sanjay gupta went to the border to look at this specific issue. breaking news, jfk files just released. going through them here at cnn, tell you what's inside, first crucial bits coming up this hour. it's never been easier. except when it comes to your retirement plan. but at fidelity, we're making retirement planning clearer. and it all starts with getting your fidelity retirement score. in 60 seconds, you'll know where you stand. and together, we'll help you make decisions for your plan... to keep you on track. ♪ time to think of your future it's your retirement. know where you stand. ♪ i'm ginnwith chantix.smoking it takes a lot of planning to be a smoker. it's like when am i gonna be able to sneak out of here and go have a cigarette? i just knew i had to quit, and chantix was the method that actually worked for me.

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but there is another way to live. ♪ a way that sees the only path to fulfillment- is through others. ♪ today president trump declaring the opioid epidemic public health problem. sounding hopeful this is the beginning of the end of the opioid crisis. >> we can be the generation that ends the opioid epidemic. we can do it. i had a brother fred, great guy, best looking guy, best personality, much better than mine, but he had a problem. he had a problem with alcohol. and he would tell me, don't

drink, don't drink. and to this day i've never had a drink. illegal drug use is not a victimless crime. there is nothing admirable, positive or socially desirable about it. there is nothing desirable about drugs. they're bad. >> our chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta is with me now. you've looked inside the opioid epidemic, looking for solutions. what does the president's announcement today do? >> he's declared a public health emergency and he's given it a lot of attention. despite how much you and i talk about this, still people hearing the news, saying i had no idea this was as big a problem as i'm now hearing, number one cause of unintentional death, kills more people than car accidents and

homicides together. some people hearing this and paying attention first time. that's part of what it accomplishes. but it's not new federal dollars or money spent on this. disappointing to a lot of people hoping to fund solutions-based programs. it's also a 90 day emergency as opposed to national emergencies which are year-long. he can renew after that but it's 90 days. singled out new regulation around doctors' prescribing habits, pharmacies and how many pills they can dole out and called one particular pill evil which should lose fda approval. things he's telegraphed. but he's awaiting a commission report next week to give more details on what the emergency means. >> it's important that you lay out what it does and does not do. in light of the reporting on solutions. talked about herb that could be antidote, safe spaces, you also talked about the wall.

he said the wall is going to help today. play something that stood out in light of your reporting about that that he said. >> an astonishing 90% of the heroin in america comes from south of the border where we will be building a wall which will greatly help in this problem. >> sanjay, you went to the border, talked specifically about whether a wall would stop heroin and other opioids from coming in. >> what you hear erin is that many of the people say heroin and many things coming across the border through legalized points of entry, deep concealment in vehicles. that's what happens. different waver drugs. fentanyl for example, such a small amount, hundred times more powerful than morphine can

create a million pills in this country. easy to get across normal ports of entry and mail. asked the acting drug czar about this issue, the wall and mail. >> when it comes to this issue about the wall and border security versus mail, is there one that worries you more? >> they're both important. so i mean i'll look at whole supply challenge. just doing a better job at tightening our security. we want to reduce the drug supply coming into the country. and right now fentanyl coming through in small packages in the mail is a huge threat. >> there's a million pieces of mail as you know every day coming in with really no electronic surveillance. don't know where it came from, how many countries visited beforehand and exactly what is in it. that's the big problem with fentanyl and opioid crisis.

>> lot of better ways to spend money to combat it than putting up wall of steel or whatever material they're looking at. thanks sanjay. incredible report this week. breaking news now, first look coming in at thousands of documents released tied to the assassination of john f. kennedy, releasing the records 50 years after assassinated in the dallas. what are you seeing? >> one of the files is 14 pages, handwritten, notes about some guy's military service. it's going to be monumental digging through the pages, not counting ones they're still holding on to review again. we have found a letter sent to robert kennedy as attorney general warning him about a book coming out that would talk about him having an affair with marilyn monroe, all sorts of tidbits in here. so much people are going to look for, but if you think about it,

2,800 records, this is one of them, handwritten. going to be a long time before even the best researchers can dig through all of this. we have a team on the case. >> incredible, point about the affair with marilyn p monroe, other pieces of information that will come out. hand off to "360." we have breaking news, jfk assassination files are out, we're sifting through as fast as we can with crew of experts and historians. we'll talk about what we're learning. not all have been released and we'll explain why. in the meantime welcome back to the 2016 election. feels that wiek. two campaign stories. all familiar names are present a