hello, i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. here in washington. wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks for joining us. treasonous. that's how former white house adviser steve bannon reportedly describes the trump tower meeting between donald trump jr., jared kushner and the russians. but his explosive criticism doesn't stop there. also, nuclear taunts. president trump tells kim jong-un his nuclear button is bigger than his and now the war of words is raising questions about the president's stability. and the two men in charge of the firm behind the infamous

trump dossier say they were shocked at its findings and are warning congress to look at the president's past business dealings with the russians. all that coming up but first explosive words from the president's former chief strategist steve bannon. bannon calling the infamous trump tower meeting between donald trump jr. and jared kushner and the russians unpatriotic and treasonous. the quote first reported by "the guardian" reads, i'm quoting now "even if you thought this was not treasonous or unpatriotic or bad expletive and i happen to think it's all of that, you should have called the fbi immediately." he didn't stop there. let's go to correspondent jessica schneider. what more are you learning about all of this? >> reporter: this is steve bannon unleashed which we've seen before. but this time he's targeting the trump family in particular going after doesn't trump junior hard calling out that meeting with the russian lawyer at trump

tower saying at the very least -- lawyers should have been present and the fbi called. in terms of implications for don trump junior from the investigation, bannon saying this. they're going to crack down don junior like an egg on national tv. don junior's defense this whole time has been that he was a political neophyte and that he viewed this as a business meeting to get opposition research. bannon in this interview also speculating that this investigation will turn on that red line, the president has warned about it. the family and trump organization finances. bannon put it this way. he said, you realize where this is going. this is all about money laundering. mueller chose senior prosecutor andrew weissmann first and is he a money laundering guy. their path to expletive trump goes right through paul manafort, don junior and jared kushner. it's as plain as a hair on your face. to top it off, bannon goes after

president's son-in-law jared kushner saying it goes through deutsche bank and all the kushner expletive. the kushner expletive is greasy. they're going to go right through that and roll those two guys up and say play me or trade me. it was reported last month that federal prosecutors subpoenaed records from deutsche bank. that's the german bank that has lent hundreds of millions of dollars to jared kushner's property empire. but wolf, those are jarring, strong and damaging words from bannon. he's the man who helped usher donald trump right to the presidency. >> have we reached out to steve bannon for comment, the quotes in this new book? >> we are have reached out and not heard anything back yet. these are direct quotes from bannon himself. he spoke on the record. this is not the first time we've heard this fiery rhetoric from steve bannon. it was front and center at those rallies for roy moore in alabama and the first interview that he gave after he left the white house, he promised to wage war on the president's opponents.

but now it seems he's waging war on really the president's inner circle. >> jessica schneider reporting for us, explosive words coming in. thanks very much. it was that is interview with "vanity fair" last month during which steve bannon also opened up about the trump tower meeting using it as an example of the maturity level of presidential son-in-law jared kushner. let's go to senior white house correspondent jeff zeleny at the white house. the briefing with sara sanders coming up less than two hours from now. i'm sure this would be front and center. what does this type of revelation mean for the white house? right now, especially at this very sensitive moment? >> it certainly does one thing above and beyond. it undercuts the argument that this white house has been making to downplay and discredit the russia investigation. this has been happening for months now. steve bannon, of course, who, sat steps away from the oval office as the senior, as the chief strategist of this white

house till he was fired in august, he's making explosive charges. the reality here is that he does have as ax to grind. he's been not private at all about his dislike for the president's son-in-law jared kushner, his daughter ivanka trump. still, he was in the middle of these conversations here at the white house. these explosive charges in the book certainly add fuel to the fire that many people here at the white house had been trying to extinguish and move on to the rest of their agenda. that will be a challenge with all the new revelations. these are just a few of the excerpts coming right now. again it, undercuts the argument that there is nothing valid about this russia investigation. >> with these latest comments in this brand-new book, jeff, the earlier controversy over the roy moore campaign in alabama, where does the relationship stand right now between the president and steve bannon? >> wolf, that is one of the

central questions here. and i'm told it is essentially a personal relationship now with the president. and steve bannon. they still have phone conversations not all that often but they do have conversations. and the president is in touch with him. of course, after that explosive alabama senate race with the roy moore campaign imploding, it certainly pushed bannon out -- onto the outer edges here. it's not on the inner circle at all. it remains to be seen what the president thinks of this. wolf, the president also sat down for interviews with the same author. those excerpts are not out yet. that, of course, will fill in some of the blanks about all of this, certainly explosive as the white house tries to begin year two of the trump white house. >> jeff, thanks very much. jeff zeleny at the white house. let's get perspective on all of this bannon's latest bombshell comments.

joining us white house reporter kaitlan collins, politico's senior investigative reporter josh meyer and cnn political analyst april ryan. what do you make of steve bannon saying that june 2016 meeting at trump power in new york city was in his words treasonous? >> that's huge in the president's words. wolf, when i think of what steve bannon is saying, one, it lets me know for sure that the fight that steve bannon had with jared kushner and don junior was real. and it was rough because this is hard. treasonous, talking of the president's son, the namesake of the president that's huge. yes, and also it makes you wonder what more does bannon know we don't know or that's been trickled out. for bannon to say this who is still an adviser to the president, he calls every now and again on the phone, that's huge. what happened and not to have a lawyer present, that is saying something, he's putting something in the atmosphere. we don't even know maybe that mueller had already talked about

that, as well. so we don't know how far this goes, what more he knows. this is showing the fight between the family meaning junior and kushner and bannon was real and it's worse. is he going for blood with this. >> that meeting in june of 2016 at trump tower, josh, steve bannon is saying there should have at least been a campaign attorney present. the russians are there. the son-in-law is there. the son is there. paul manafort, the campaign chairman at the time, he's there. but they don't even bring in a lawyer to monitor it and there was apparently no phone call to the fbi saying look what the russians are doing. >> right. it's hugely significant. one of the things he also said was that in a case like this, you would want to have this meeting with the lawyers there and not the principals there. he was suggesting it was serious enough and enough exposure that they shouldn't have been there at all. i think it advances the ball. we have to seriously look at what kind of exposure they're talking about, what else does bannon know that hasn't come

forward. did bannon himself call the fbi or did anybody else. there's a lot of questions out there now even more than before. >> it's also interesting because he said it was treasonous, unpatriotic and also suggested that if the meeting was going to happen, they should have held it at a holiday inn in new hampshire with lawyers. not saying it shouldn't have happened but saying they should have chosen a different strategy or tactic. his comments about donald trump junior and jared kushner are very interesting. how will that affect the relationship between bannon and the president. one of the president's biggest fears with this entire russia investigation, is it reaching into his family and something happening to one of them because of this investigation. so like jeff zeleny was just saying, it will be interesting to see how the dynamic changes between the two. they have stayed in touch since he left the white house. >> you have to remember that fight has been going on for a long time. >> which fight. >> between steve bannon and jared kushner and steve bannon

didn't even care that junior, donald trump jr. would be road kill when he named him a couple times before. remember when the president said this is going to stop. remember there was a leaking about this internal fighting and sean spicer got at the podium when he was press secretary and said we don't like this. and it needs to stop. 'acknowledged there was internal fighting. the president said i'm going to stop it. it's gone to the next level to politically fatal level and it could be suicidal almost politically and just for reputation wise for donald trump jr. and can you bener to have someone who still is calling the president, giving him advice to say these things about his own family members. >> keeping their history in mind, it's important to note that steve bannon is not an unbiassed source when it comes to what he's saying about kushner because of their history of not getting along. it's startling the former chief strategist made these comments on the record about the

president's son-in-law and son. >> it's potential criminal exposure. you can't have treason unless we're in a time of war. a possible criminal conspiracy case could be building now. we don't know what mueller and the hill are doing. he said that trump junior could be cracked like an egg before congress but they may never call him back to testify in public. >> kaitlan, there's an excerpt a long excerpt also just now being published in new york magazine. it's already online. michael wolf the author of this article, well-known writer describes president trump's first days in the white house like there. he says "if he was not having his 6:30 kinner with steve bannon more to his liking, he was in bed by that time with a cheeseburger watching his three screens and making phone calls." he also says president trump found the white house to be "vexing and a little scary." you've covered from day one this new president. what's your reaction.

>> certainly a tumultuous first few days in the west wing. we're well well aware of everything happening with spicer coming on the podium the first day talking about crowd sizes, and it does go on to say in the excerpt from the book the president and a lot of his team did not expect for him to win on election day which is something we were well aware of on election day if you were at the tower in new york, they were not expecting this kind of a win. he wanted to be -- you saw he wanted to be president by going on you know, the glamour that comes with being president but he's also realizing what a spotlight you're on. whether he he was signing executive orders back and forth, it was almost like getting whiplash being in the west wing. it was something new for the president to take it. >> you've covered the white house from day one of this presidency. let me read another excerpt that's published in new york magazine. between themselves, and this is an excerpt by the president's daughters and son-in-law. between themselves, the two had

made an ernest deal. if sometime in the future the opportunity arose, she would be the one to run for president. the first woman president ivanka entertained, would not be hillary clinton. it would be ivanka trump. that's a quote from the book by michael wolf. what do you make of that? >> it makes sense. you know this president believes he is royal. he has a dynasty. you know, just in the oval office, he has eagles symbolizing what he feels he is, the majettety of an eagle. if you have that feeling of being royal, won't you want an heir an apparent even though we're not in that royal hierarchy. there are political dynasties in this nation. ivanka is by his side. he doesn't have his sons or his namesake. he has his daughter by his side meeting with world leaders sitting next to world leaders and state dinners. he is grooming her for something more even as she is wearing her ivanka items while in the white

house. even though she's got this great empire for business, he is trying to groom her for something more trying to groom her for the international stage, the political stage. it makes sense. >> let me get your reaction. go ahead. >> i think she doesn't have anything close to the kind of experience that she needs to do that. if he's grooming her for that, that's some role with administrative authorities. >> he needs to groom, too. >> we need to see more. there's three more years. we'll see what happens. >> the other excerpt from the book kaitlan, the steve bannon he reportedly refers to what he calls the brain trust that was involved in that trump tower meeting with the russians, donald trump jr., jared kushner and the russians. bannon said they have you had have called the fbi. they went ahead with the meeting and didn't bring their own lawyers into the meeting. could that have been the result of a lack of experience on the

part of these three men? >> it could be. we've seen them try to clauk it up to lack of experience. steve bannon is commenting more on the strategy they took and blocking them by saying if you're going to go through with a meeting like this, you should have done it far away from trump tower. it has become the center of this firestorm and caused so many problems for their white house. i think he was looking at it more of what a headache it is and how potentially problematic it could be in commenting on that. >> good discussion. there's a lot more going on. thanks to all three of you for coming in. as nuclear tensions rise, the president is telling kim jong-un, his nuclear but the is bigger and more powerful. i'll speak live with one keymaker demanding the president's nuclear power be limited. plus, the firm behind the infamous trump dossier suggesting the president's past dealings with russia may be criminal.

steyer: the president's national security adviser -- guilty. his campaign chairman -- under indictment. his son-in-law -- secret talks with russians. the director of the fbi -- fired. special counsel robert mueller's criminal investigation has already shown why the president should be impeached. you can send a message to your representatives at needtoimpeach.com and demand they finally take a stand. this president is not above the law. and my brother ray and i started searching for answers.

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a shot across the bow from president trump aimed squarely at kim jong-un following up on kim's threat about a nuclear button on his desk at the ready, president trump tweeted this boast. i'll read it specifically.

north korean leader kim jong-un just stated that the nuclear button is on his desk at all times. will someone from his defleeted and food starved regime please inform i too have a nuclear button but it is a much bigger and more powerful one than his and mine, would. that tweet raising fears how the north korean leader may respond. they offered an olive branch to south korea with talks of possible winter olympic games participation in the winter olympic games in south korea. they start in 36 days. south korea has issued an invitation for further talks with the north koreans. north korea responded by picking up the phone for the first time in nearly two years. a potentially significant development. let's go to pentagon correspondent barbara starr. was it that simple? did north korea just call the south koreans? what do we know about the substance of the talks so far. >> reporter: very little

information emerging. apparently president trump on the sidelines of this olive branch. it doesn't involve him at all. what we have now is north korea announcing that it earlier today that it would open this line at 3:00 local time on the ground there. in fact, it did. and it preceded with north korea essentially through the truth village calling the south for the first call. it lasted a few minutes and then there was a second call on the line. the south koreans are indicating that it was mainly about technical matters, re-establishing that communications line which had not been used, the north having not answered the south since february, 2016. now, that is resumed. they are having these conversations working out the technical details by all accounts of their communications. the next step that is expected is some sort of discussion about north korea sending a team of athletes to next month's winter

olympic games in south korea. and right now had, by all accounts, president trump watching all of this but not directly involved in any of it other than his tweets. wolf? >> very quickly, what's the latest on north korea potentially launching yet another missile in the coming days? know that the u.s. has seen some evidence of that. what are you hearing? >> reporter: this is a very fascinating intelligence question even as we speak, wolf. there have been signs that north korea was in fact preparing for another test of a potentially long range ballistic missile. these intelligence indicators were seen by the u.s. prior to kim jong-un extending this olive branch. so the question for the cia and the intelligence agencies now is will he continue with those missile preparations, will will he test launch a missile in the coming days perhaps by the end of the week or will the olive branch discussions with the

south overtake his interests in another test launch at this time. will the test launch be a signal to president trump, an a provocation against the u.s.? will kim continue to pursue this olive branch on a separate track to the south. >> the answer is we don't know the. everyone is watching towards the end of the week. >> we certainly are. thanks very much. an irresponsible tweet aimed at and you predictable leader how former u.s. director of national intelligence, james clapper, sees the trump tweet on north korea. listen to this. >> there are potentially millions of lives at stake an untold death and destruction here. and to me, it's very disturbing. no one in the white house knows what is kim jong-un's ignition point. where one of these tweets is going to set him off and he's going to lit that button. >> joining us from los angeles, ted lieu, a key member of the house foreign affairs committee. thanks for joining us.

>> thank you, wolf. >> what's your initial reaction when you saw that tweet by the president? >> that the president is acting highly irresponsibly. what we want to avoid in foreign policy is a fatal miscalculation. and we know that north korea is already a paranoid regime. we don't know what's going to set them off. they could read this tweet as the president of the united states wanting to launch a nuclear first strike. that's going to put pressure on them to launch a nuclear first strike and millions of people potentially are going to die. >> some of your colleagues raised questions about the president's state of mind. have you? >> congressman? >> sorry, i just lost audio. i got it back. >> that point was some of your colleagues are raising questions about the president's state of mind. are you raising those questions, as well? >> i'm not a psychiatrist or psychologist. but you don't have to be a mental health professional to

know that this tweet was highly provocative and north korea already acts as if they are under siege. they think the u.s. is going to attack them. this feeds into their pay noia and heightens tensions when we should be trying to reduce tensions. >> let me also get your reaction to these reports, the report from the guardian and this new book, in it the former white house chief strategist steve bannon refers to the trump tower meeting in new york city between the russians and donald trump jr., paul manafort, jared kushner as treasonous. that word from steve bannon. what do you think and how does play into the current russia investigation? >> i think this shows that the russia investigation is not a partisan issue. it's an american issue. not only do you have steve bannon but other republicans like senator bob corker and senator jeff flake as well as big crystal of the national review how are all saying many of the same things that democrats are saying. we need to get to the bottom of

this russian investigation to see if there was collusion but we already know there was attempted col lucas by lower level officials in the trump campaign. only question is how far up did it go. >> congressman, stand by for a moment. yef zeleny is joining us from the white house with breaking news. what are you learning. >> reporter: we've just received a statement from the president of the united states about these explosive new allegations that his former chief strategist steve bannon is making in the new book. this is what the president said in a statement released just a few moments ago. take a look at there. he said steve bannon has nothing to do with me or my presidency. when he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind. steve was a staffer who worked for me after i had already won the nomination. by defeating 17 candidates. often described as the most talented field ever assembled in the republican party. the president goes on to say this. now that he is on his own, steve is learning winning isn't as easy as i make it look. steve had very little to do with

our historic victory which was delivered by the forgotten men, women of this country. yet, steve had everything to do with the loss of a senate seat in alabama held for more than 30 years by republicans. the president then says steve doesn't represent my base. he's only in it for himself. strong words here from the president, wolf. he continues saying steve pretends to be at war with the media which he calls the opposition party. yet he spent his time at the white house leaking false information to the media to make himself seem far more important than he was. the president goes on to say this. it is the only thing he does well. steve was rarely in a one-on-one meeting with me and only pretends to have influence to fool a few people with no access and no clue whom he helped write phony books. he con cloods by saying this. we have many great republican members of congress and candidates very support of the make america great again agenda. like me they love the united states of america and are

helping to take our country rather than seeking to burn it all down. this statement just coming in, the strongest words this president has had for his former chief strategist, steve bannon. certainly some of the things in there deserve some fact checking. the reality is steve bannon was involved in many meetings. the very beginning, you'll remember almost a year ago, the week after the president took office, the president signed off on including steve bannon as a member of the national security council. his office from january through august was only steps away from the oval office. so probably not true to say that he was not in many one-on-one meetings with him but certainly the politics of this are clear, the president and white house trying to extinguish this, distance themselves from steve bannon, of course. the question here is, what did the president say to michael wolf in this book that is going to be coming out later this month, wolf. certainly an explosive way to start 2018.

>>ive indeed. >> second statement referring to steve bannon, he not only lost his job. he lost his mind. there is a war going on right now between the president and his former chief strategist. he lost his mind. obviously, powerful words from the president about steve bannon. stand by. we've got ted lieu the congressman standing by. david chalian is our political director. amazing statement from the president of the united states. >> wow indeed. here in washington, there's sort after art form how you throw someone under a bus. this is like strapping to a bomb to someone and blowing them up rhetorically in front of the country to see. this is such a strong statement and like many things, with president trump, unprecedented in the presidency to see words like there. but as jeff was suggesting, for donald trump to suggesting that steve bannon had nothing to do with him or his presidency, he says has, maybe he means today

in the present tense, this was his chief strategist, someone intimately involved from the general election campaign when donald trump was like 12 points back in the polls in august of 2016. general election campaign through the transition into the presidency. this is somebody who was clearly part of the inner circle. >> he goes on and he accuses him of being a leaker, as well. and the statement about his former chief strategist i guess it makes it clear there's no love lost any longer >> we have seen deterioration of the relationship over time. steve bannon did fall out of favor. there was the battle between bannon and jared kushner and ivanka trump. obviously, steve bannon was never going to win that battle in the heart and mind of donald trump. because it's his daughter and son-in-law, wolf. and ultimately, we saw the president sort of hang him out to dry and get rid of him. but a statement like this which doesn't actually address steve

bannon's characterization that was reported in the michael wolf book, the quotes about how steve bannon saw that trump tower meeting in june of 2016, that it was treasonous, donald trump doesn't deal with the specifics of what steve bannon described in the quotes to michael wolf. he wholeheartedly dismisses him and cuts him off at the knees. >> two instances also jump out. steve doesn't represent my base. he's only in it for himself. steve pretends to be at war with the media which he calls the opposition party. yet he spent his time at the white house leaking false information to the media to make himself seem far more important than he was, and then he adds this. i want your reaction. it is the only thing he does well. steve was rarely in a one-on-one meeting with me and only pretends to have had influence to fool a few people with no access and no clue whom he helped write phony books. maybe he's referring toing this current book about to be released. >> i'm sure that's what he's

referring to. we have to learn a detailed i tipry if you will of president trump's communication with steve bannon since he left the white house. after the president fired steve bannon, we know they have had conversations since. why if the president believes he is a total leaker of false information, why was he still speaking to him after he left? and why does he claim he has nothing to do with him if indeed the president had communication with him after he left. >> ted lieu is still with us from california. let me get your reaction. a pretty stark, bold statement from the president of the united states. not from a democrat, not from a member of your party. but from the president of the united states clearly attacking steve bannon who now runs breitbart once again as someone who has "lost his mind." >> wolf, during watergate, the administration would issue statements like this which i would call a nondenial denial. basically the president is not

denying what steve bannon said. he's attacking the messenger steve bannon. the reason he can't deny what steve bannon said is because we have e-mails about this meeting. now we also know why the president and his son trump junior tried so hard to cover up what happened at this meeting. if you remember earlier last year, they issued two press statements about this meeting that were false and misleading. they said the meeting was just about russian adoptions and nothing about campaigns. that was totally wrong. >> our white house reporter kaitlan collins is with us, as well. kaitlan, you've carefully read not once or twice but probably three times this statement from the president of the united states. it's a formal statement. this is not a tweet. >> certainly not. we rarely see a statement like this especially blasting someone that worked inside the white house with the president for several months. before that was essentially the ceo of his campaign. but we've seen this before with the president and steve bannon. he doesn't like bannon taking too much credit for anything

he's accomplished. we've seen a lot of that in the excerpt of the book out today. we see that he can codes here in this statement by the president saying steve bannon only came after i defeated the other republicans. and he didn't do that much to help me. quite a striking statement from the president that we rarely have seen in this kind of a white house. >> yeah. the president normally would not do had kind of a statement. my sense is he is angry very angry at steve bannon because of the attacks on his son-in-law jared kushner, on his daughter. once you start going right after his own family for the president, that's a big deal. >> we know that's something the president strongly dislikes. it's been one of the biggest sources of his anger regarding this entire investigation is he fears it will reach into the inner circle, his family. not only jared but his son donald trump jr. and in that those statements from steve bannon we saw on the record today, he goes after them multiple times. we weren't so surprised by the

kushner ones because we've known about this feud between steve bannon and jared kushner for some time. they're still startling to be on the record and in the statement about donald trump jr. saying he believes they're going to crack him like an egg is certainly something that didn't sit well with the president. we're waiting for a response. this is quite the response from the president. >> the fact he used the word treasonous talking about donald trump jr. and the decision to have had meeting and not call the fbi. give me your thought. >> that is a charge that is clearly what donald trump's reacting to. that is a charge and a carrieization that has the potential to stick. obviously, steve bannon may have -- i think he says he wasn't in touch with russians, shouldn't be a witness in this investigation. these are his personal characteristicizations what he saw at that meeting. having somebody who did work in the white house attach that kind of description to that meeting is politically damaging. it's also worthy of noting, when steve ban be lesteve bannon lef

white house he was careful in public to not criticize the president. he had no problem criticizing other staff or the west wing and how it operated. but he remained careful to not publicly criticize the president when he left, i think because he feared this kind of retribution that the president could deliver. >> the president flatly said he was fired. didn't say he resigned. he was fired. >> it's interesting because when steve bannon did leave the white house, there was a lot of speculation about something exactly liking this scenario playing out. and a lot of the bannon allies assured people he was going to fight for trump outside of the white house regarding the senate and the primaries, things like that. now we're seeing this escalate between the two of them like a lot of people predicted would happen when steve bannon who has his own media site and not afraid to say things on the record would say things like this. >> the president of the united states personally responding to

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we're following the breaking news an extraordinary statement from the president of the united states attacking his former chief strategist, steve bannon. i'll read the first two sentences. steve bannon has nothing to do with me or my presidency when he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind. dana bash is with us, as well. there are going to be a lot of republicans applauding the statement from the president. >> that is something that can't go without being noted and underscored and underlines that mitch mcconnell, the senate republican majority leader, it's like christmas all over again for him. because he and other incumbent republicans, establishment republicans however you want to put it have been beating their heads against the wall begging the president to try to stop steve bannon because steve bannon has made very clear that all of 2018 is all about trying to get rid of incumbents, get rid of mcconnell, run

republicans in primaries against these incumbents to try to undermine the establishment, the republican establishment. the president of the united states has just from the perspective of mitch mcconnell and others put bannon in his place. and made the power that steve bannon may or may not have with these trump voters a big question mark because remember, steve bannon and his whole m.o. has been about the movement, has been about trump's america, has been about those ho were the forgotten americans. and that specifically is what this statement refers to about the fact that the forgotten americans that the president, that steve bannon is trying to also continue to use and to convince to vote against the establishment are those that are trump voters. so those voters have to basically make a decision now, do they stick with the president

who is now saying i'm done with steve bannon or do they continue to believe in the cause that steve bannon is pushing. > yeah, and in his statement, formal statement released by the president, steve, steve had everything to do with the loss of a senate seat in alabama held for more than 30 years by republicans. steve doesn't represent my base. >> and there's another thing i was just reminded of which is that this, these quotes that steve bannon has out there in this new book, this is not in a vacuum. this isn't the first time steve bannon or people close to him have been quoted saying things or doing things that the president and those who are still around him believe undermine his presidency. and don't reflect well on his presidency. but a number of articles and the other question that people sort of in trump world are asking is whether or not these quotes were given to the author while he was in the white house or whether it was after he left.

the other thing i want to mention and wolf, you and i were both looking as we were coming back from break at breitbart because bannon runs breitbart again. it is a very influential site. a news site for conservatives who are almost 100% trump supporters. so now what happens to that site? is it still as influencing? is it still part of the trump echo chamber or is it different? they haven't reported as of yet. >> the president is at war with steve bannon. ted lieu from california, give me a final thought before i let you go. extraordinary development, you got to admit. >> yes, wolf. based on bannon's explosive comments as well as the president's inability to deny his characterization of the trump tower meeting i'm calling on congress to subpoena steve bannon to come testify. i believe steve bannon would welcome the opportunity to tell his story to america under oath. >> ted lieu, thanks so much.

as usual for joining us. congressman ted lieu of california. lease a lot more developing right now. the former vice president joe biden reacting to the president's nuclear tweets against north korea. you're going to hear his harsh words, that and a lot more coming up.

breaking news. the president's former chief strategist steve bannon revealing new information about trump's efforts to woo russian president putin in the upcoming book "fire and fury inside the trump white house," by michael wolf recounts a conversation bannon are with roger ailes after the election and quotes ailes as asking this, what is he, donald trump, gotten himself into with the russians to which bannon replies "mostly he went to russia and he thought he was going to meet putin but putin couldn't give an expletive about him so he's kept trying." joining us now national security

analyst, lisa monaco, former chief of staff to robert mueller as well as homeland security adviser to president obama. hanks for coming in. what's your reaction first of all? let's talk about north korea right now to the president's warning to kim jong-un that his nuclear button is bigger and more powerful than the new yorkian's nuclear button. >> wolf, it's hard to make sense of this. this is kind of tweet from the hip policy if you can call it that. and we need to separate the message from the medium. the medium here being twitter. it can be an appropriate way for a president to get his message out as we saw in the case of the early tweet from the president about the iranian protests and showing solidarity with the iranian people against the regime there. but the -- using twitter in this way to kind of tweet from the hip about the size of his nuclear button which is, of course, has been said elsewhere, there's not in fact a button on

the deck. button on the president's desk is used to summon the president's valet to, offer guests something to drink. that's how it has been used in the past. but really what this is a kind of a shoot from the hip and really a dangerous, a dangerous way of accepteding a message and responding, frankly, to this ruthless dictator's taunting when it comes to nuclear weapons. >> just before he posted that tweet about the button, he posted this, sanctions and other pressures are beginning to have a big impact on north korea. soldiers are dangerously fleeing to south korea. rocket man now wants to talk to south korea for first time. perhaps that is good news. perhaps not. we will see. >> look, what we see here is a real contrast between the south looking for an overture, making an overture about talks on the north making that overture, as well. we saw them reach out to the

south koreans to open up an old channel of communication and use it again. >> hasn't been used in two years foo for a long time. that's a positive potential opening. the statement by the north that they may send a delegation to the olympics, all of these things are potential to help secretary mattis and secretary tillerson in their diplomatic efforts. they have both said diplomacy should be in the lead. and this is an opening that could be used towards that end. instead what we are seeing is in coherence coming out of the white house. >> kim jong-un suggesting he might send a team to south korea to participate in the winter olympic games. have a very positive response from the south korean leadership. i want to listen to u.s. ambassador to the u.n. nikki haley who is not necessarily embracing this right now. actually, let me read to you what she said. north korea can talk to whoever

they want. but the u.s. is not going to recognize it or acknowledge it until they agree to ban the nuclear weapons that they have. so what is your reaction when she says you know what, they can talk as much as they want, we are not going to get involved until they ban their nuclear weapons? >> the question is how does that help the ultimate end, which is to support our ally ns the south, protect the united states from increase cing martha wch t are seeing from kim jong-un to get one to the united states. what we need to see is coherent policy from the united states. and we have secretary tillerson on one page saying diplomacy should be the way and shouldn't be preconditions to talks. we see the white house in the form of the president under cutting that at every turn. secretary mattis making statements about how there ought to be strong nuclear military deterrence, which there ought to

be, but there ought to be diplomacy. and you have the high bar from nikki haley which doesn't seem to advance with our south korean al allies to come to the table. >> he was just on capitol hill for the swearing in of the new senator from alabama doug jones. he was asked about the tweets and told cnn as far as the president's tweets are concerned, this is really poor judgment warned the president that words matter, quote, only war that is worse than one that's intended is one that is not intended. strong words from joe biden. >> strong words. and words of experience from vice president biden who knows what he's talking about when it comes to foreign policy. and when it comes to this escalation of a cycle we are seeing president trump engage in

when responding to the tweets from kim jong-un. >> thanks for coming? >> fangs for having me t. up next as the white house, i'll speak to american journalist who was iran prisoner 545 days. plus explosive criticism from former close advisers, why is steve bannon calling that emphasis trump meeting treasonous. now the president is firing right back.

demonstrators took to the streets in iran once again today but this time the protests were in support of the iranian government. thousands of pro government demonstrators held rallies in cities across the country. some chanted death to america after iranian officials blamed the u.s. for stirring up the anti-government protests we have seen over the past few days. those demonstrators that ghana week or so again are the most powerful challenge to the iranian regime since 2009, so-called green revolution at the time. jason is a "washington post" staff writer, newspaper former chief, imprisoned in iran for 4

545 days. jason, thanks for joining us. what's your analysis? what is going on? >> well, i think, wolf, what started here was an uprising against high prices and economic concerns among working class folks that's i don't want to say spiralled out of control, but has become more mass in terms of spreading across the country and addressing different concerns that people have with their leadership. concerns that they've had for years, but have found voice for in recent times. >> because we've had heard a lot of protests from the anti-government mostly young people where is the money? they don't feel the result themselves. they think the money is going whether to hezbollah or syrian regime or to iraqis, they want the money in iraq. >> well, and they were promised that. and i think that was probably a difficult promise to fulfill and

continues to be so. there are signs that the iranian economy is strengthening, is growing, but as you say it's not trickling down to normal folks. and they've had several years since the sanctions really started hitting in 2012 of stuff tim tough times and tougher times. >> a lot have been eased and billions of dollars supposedly has been coming in. but they are accusing of regime of spending a lot of that money in yemen or elsewhere. >> syria as well. and that doesn't sit well with the average iranian person that continues to struggle. >> social media is playing a significant role in this. smart phones weren't privileeva back in 2009. a million, if that. but now there are 50 or 60 million. >> yeah, inmaalmost everybody i online. i connect with people even now

as the internet has been really suppressed and slowed down through twitter messaging, through instagram, through all of these different channels that have supposedly been stopped because they have been completely part of every day life for most iranians. >> the president tweeted this earlier today. such respect for the people of iran as they try to take back their corrupt government. you will see great support from the united states at the appropriate time. a lot of people, you were there in iran, a lot of people have differentiated the very vocal response coming from president trump as compared to the relative silence coming from praum ba president obama back in 2009. >> i think it's always good to support in word the democratic aspirations of people anywhere in the world. but i think the people in iran are having a hard time seeing how president trump might be able to help them in this particular situation especially since he's taking tough line on the iranian people as well in

terms of immigration and other things as well. >> u.s. ambassador nikki haley said this, and i'll play the clip. >> by the thousands iranian citizens are taken to the streets to protest the oppression of their own government we must not be silent. the people of iran are crying out for freedom. all freedom loving people must stand with their cause. >> iran's u.n. mission responded to ambassador nikki haley calling it nauseous tears. how is it playing out with young people in iran? >> i think the young people in iran protesting right now find the words of power whether in washington or tehran to be hollow. and this is one more situation where they feel like they are not being heard and not being given a fair shake and they just really want their daily concerns addressed more effectively by

anyone. >> jason of the "washington post," thanks very much for coming in, always good to speak with you. >> it's a pleasure. >> that's it for me. i'll be back 5:00 p.m. eastern in "the situation room." in the meantime the news conditions continues, and there is lots of it right now, the news continues here on cnn. this is cnn breaking news. wolf, thank you so much. hi everyone i'm brooke baldwin. good to be back. we have a lot to talk about today beginning with the stunning news from one of their own. steve bannon is prompting the president to say, and i'm quoting here, lost his mind. much more on that in a second. but first to the bombshell that comes from this book, fire and fury inside the white house pend by michael wolf releases next week. so the guardian and new york magazi