♪ great to have you with us. we want to welcome our viewers here in the u.s. and around the world. i'm cyril vanier from cnn hq here in atlanta. this hour las vegas casino mogul steve wynn who has stepped down as finance chairman for the republican national committee because of allegations of sexual misconduct going back decades, the white house saying u.s. president donald trump supports the decision. the country is officially in mourning now. the u.n. is denouncing

saturday's bombing attack as officials calling it nothing but an atrocity and saying those responsible must be brought to justice. the opposition candidate has accused the president juan hernandez of manipulating the results. international bvs have said they found many irregularities. michigan's attorney general says a special prosecutor is currently examining how former msu sports doctor larry nassar sexually abused girls for decades without the university doing anything about it. so let's start with steve wynn, the las vegas casino mogul. he has resigned because of sexual misconduct allegations. a wall street journal story

detailed a pattern of sexual misconduct going back decades. this is based on interviews with dozens of former and current employees. now, wynn denies it allegations. he calls them preposterous. but the story is now bigger than just him. because he's an ally of donald trump and he was hand picked to do the job he just quit. cnn's bora sanchez has more from the white house. >> reporter: president trump supported the resignation of steve wynn from the republican national committee. there was some question how the white housewi would approach th situation considering some inconsistencies in the past with other allegations. two men were both accused of sexual misconduct, and president trump was actually supposed to

see steve wynn last weekend in mar-a-lago. the president couldn't attend because of a government shutdown. but wynn took the stage giving a speech in which he defended the president and his agenda. here's what he said. >> and then all of a sudden once again in american history an unlikely person became president. perhaps it wasn't unlikely at all since abe lincoln. donald john trump became the 45th president of the united states to the chagrin, to the hysterical chagrin. >> they were competing tycoons who have known each other for 35 years. ultimately with president trump hand picking wynn to be the finance chairman for the rnc. and now on saturday again a white house official telling cnn that the president backs his

resignation in part to limit any kind of political damage that could hit the rnc or the white house. no official statement coming yet from the white house nor any tweets from president trump as we've come to expect on weekends. boris sanchez, cnn at the white house. >> the chief diplomat correspondent for "the new york times" is in brussels right now. it seems the white house was quick to distance itself from steve wynn. do you think perhaps they've learned a lesson from the roy moore episode, the senned candidate accused of sexual misconduct that donald trump had defended? >> well, they're learning lessons all the time. and the difference with roy moore is he really needed that senate seat because the margin is so thin. and what he said and i suspect is right even though he was afraid moore would lose, he wanted to support him to keep

the majority, too, in the senate. and that's different things we're talking about. after all he's a casino owner. if you remember that great line in casa blanca, i'm shocked, shocked there's gambling in this establishment. casinos are not churches. i'm not sure what happened with moore and his staff, but you don't usually go to a casino to read a book. >> yes, not too sure how to answer that. >> the problem is that you have attractive young women offering drinks and so on. the whole point of casinos is that kind of part of vulgar -- it is what it is. but, you know, it isn't a puritan establishment. so i'm sure these allegations are fair and decent.

i think steve wynn was right to resign from the republican national committee. but is this terribly surprising? i would have to say no. i mean trump ran a casino, too. it's just a different world. >> we'll see how the allegations pan out. it's worth noting that steve wynn categorically denies all of this. let's look at what's happened this week. the state of the union speech coming up. what are the dos and don'ts for him, or is that a question that applies to him anymore? >> i think the state of the union, he knows it's a big stage. i'm sure the speech will be written carefully, and i'm sure he'll deliver it pretty much as written. there isn't a q & a session. trump will want to talk about his achievements in his first year and his aims for the second year, which you know now there's this tax bill. you can call it reform if you

like, but republicans always wanted one. now they have it. and he's going to push on immigration reform, which, you know, was a big promise of his. and on infrastructure building to try to create jobs for working class people. so i expect it will be, you know, not a shockeroo, and i spect he'll she'll stick to his script. now, whether the tone of his speech is as dire and dark as his inaugural speech i rather doubt, because trump will argue in his year he's been president he's brought a ray of sunshine to the american people. >> yaush at the time he used american carnage, and that surprised a lot of observers. as you've said, and we've confirmed this with our reporting donald trump is expected to promote a big

immigration plan. what's surprising about this is it seems it would be fairly easy, fairly straightforward if he went for a small immigration plan, border wall versus a fix for the d.r.e.a.m.ers, but he wants something bigger and getting pushed back on both sides. >> it's a negotiation. as we've talked about before, he fancies himself a great negotiator, and you don't make compromises at the start. so he's laying out his position. i was very struck. he gave an interview to a british television station in which he criticized theresa may for not being a good negotiation on the brexit issue. so this is something dear to his heart. and i imagine, you know, he will in the end have to go along with what congress ends up negotiating. i mean, he does have quite a lot

of ammunition as he goes to negotiate. and, you know, the main thing i think they'll be looking at is the mid-term elections in november. trump wants a couple more accomplishments before that rolls around so he can show to his voters that they are right to elect him and that he's shaking up washington and that he's doing pretty much the things that he said he was going to do. i'm sure he'll also praise the economy which is growing at a pretty good rate, 2.6% of gdp. now, it's not the 4% trump promised, but it's not bad. and you can argue some of is was obama policy, but the fact is the business community likes the tax cut and it likes donald trump. >> for the moment donald trump has accused democrats of obstructing the comprehensive reform plan on immigration. but he will need some democratic votes. we'll see whether he gets them.

we're going to take a short break, but when we come back, tuesday in the u.s. as we said donald trump will be addressing congress and the american people in his first state of the union address. you can see that right here on cnn. coverage will begin at 8:00 p.m. tuesday in new york. that is 9:00 a.m. wednesday morning if you're in hong kong. and we'll have the latest on saturday's bombing in cubul when we come back. how do they avoid trips to the post office? stamps.com mail letters, ship packages, all the services of the post office right on your computer. get a 4 week trial, plus $100 in extras including postage and a digital scale. go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again.

more now on the deadly car bombing in afghanistan. the country has declared today a national day of mourning. at least 95 people were killed in the capital on saturday. almost 200 others were wounded when an ambulance exploded in the city center. this was the work of the taliban. they've now claimed responsibility. cnn's military analyst rick francona joins us. there have been two attacks. i mean clearly the taliban can strike the capital and others parts of the country at will. >> exactly.

and we so also the attack in -- so it's not just the capital. they're being conducted throughout the country, increased air strikes. normally we see a lull in the activity because it's a difficult terrain to conduct military operations. so what's we're seeing this year is much higher operations tempo. the united states has just deployed eight ten aircraft to beef up that capability and they're going to take the fight to the taliban. these aircraft were supposed to go to the middle east to fight isis, but given the success in iraq and syria, now they've moved it there. this follows president trump's stated goals of increasing operations against the taliban. >> and the strength of the insurgency has ebbed and flowed over the last 10 to 15 years in afghanistan.

and if you look at the short-term, it's just not encouraging. they got stronger. they actually reconquered land they had lost previously in the last 12 months. >> yeah, and that had to do, i think, with the change in strategy. you had american forces fighting the taliban as combat units. now we've pulled back to this advise and assist mission. and that's obviously not working. we've seen the taliban resurge and take back territory they lost. now the united states is implementing another tactic. they're going to create another advisory. these are not real specialists in training and advising. now we see a cadre of selected officers, and they're going to get down to the battalion level. this worked very well on the ground in iraq.

we'll see if it works in afghanistan. >> if i read between the lines are you optimistic about the u.s. ability to turn the tide against the taliban next year? >> moderately, cyril. we've been doing this for 16 years and we haven't hit the right combination yet. that's because we haven't had a coherent strategy. if we had a coherent strategy, that might work. but this is yet another step we're going to try and see how that goes. but it's just not been working so far. the problem is not the united states. the problem is the afghan forces are just not capable. and no matter what we do we haven't hit on that right amount of training in order to instill in these people the sense of nationalism they need to defend their country. >> to me this begs the same question. is there or isn't there a military solution to this problem? is it actually possible to defeat the taliban and find that military formula that you're alluding to?

>> i don't think the strategy is to defeat the taliban. i think the strategy is bring the taliban to the table. use enough force that convinces them they cannot win militarily. now, obviously we don't appear to be winning militarily either. but if you just convince them that they need to come to the table, there might be a political solution. i'm optimistic that might happen. but actual defeat of the taliban, i just don't see that happening. >> all right, colonel, once again great to have your insights. officials in michigan are opening up about an investigation into larry nassar and michigan state university. the probe has been going on since last year. nassar was the one who was the schools sports doctor in two decades. and during that time we now know he sexually abused dozens of young women in his care. sometimes as young as six. a special prosecutor now looking into how the university failed to take action.

>> reporter: they're being investigated by the attorney general's office here in michigan. he said he didn't want to make it public until all the young women had come forward with their victim impact statements. but so much had happened in the last week, he believed that it was appropriate. he would not say whether it was an actual criminal investigation, but they are bringing someone in from the outside. his name is bill forsight, a former prosecutor for 42 years. his title in this investigation, independent special prosecutor. also he said that this was priority one for this investigation. and he also had some words for the michigan state university board of trustees that last week issued a statement saying we think the attorney general's office should investigate our university. here's what he replied back to them. >> i don't need advice from the board of trustees at msu about how to conduct an investigation. frankly, they should be the last

ones to be providing advice given their conduct throughout this entire episode. their conduct throughout this entire episode speaks for itself. >> reporter: the special prosecutor said that they will be looking for facts which can possible lead to potential evidence. and the big question in his mind is how could larry nassar been able to sexually assault girls associated with michigan state university for over two decades? jean casarez, east lancing, michigan, cnn. coming up the me too awards will be playing a part in the grammys on sunday night. and we'll ask jay-z what he thinks.

. the grammys are just around the corner, and if you look at it nominations especially

nominations for this career's best album award something is different from past year's. for the first time since 1999 there are no white male solo artists nominated for best album. and this feels relevant in light of the scandal following the oscars not too long ago which was accused of being too white and ignoring black artists and their work. jay-z and kendrick lamar have eight and seven nods respectively. and that's a welcome change as we were saying after years of criticism that women and minorities in general had been snubbed. >> generally speaking hip hop and maybe black music in general has really had its finger on the pulse of sort of like american temperament for the last few years. and i think one of the reasons why the grammys are going to be so like album of the year and these awards are going to be so

talked about this year is because a lot of people are looking for the grammys to kind of make up for the mistakes, so to speak, last year in terms of beyonce and kendrick have been overlooked. so there's a sense this year some of those wrongs will be righted. >> and the grammy awards will be presented sunday night in new york city. and members are planning to wear white roses to support the me too movement. jay-z is bringing the full force of his fame to advocate for womens rights. he spoke to van jones and described how critical the fight had become. >> in this me too moment, in this time is up moment, does that give you hope for your daughters? how do you make sense of this new rise in women's voices? >> it has to happen. this movement and everything that's going on and what we're finding out, it's like everything else. it's like racism, like everything -- it existed the

whole time. and we just -- it's almost like we normalized it. the normalization of the things we have to do to survive. for women to go to work knowing this sort of abuse was happening every day. it's happening every day because you can look and logically you'll say why would you stay there? what's the alternative? what's the alternative? you have to survive in america. and in order to survive you have to normalize it. this is what has to happen. >> for jay-z me too is personal. he and his wife beyonce have three children, a boy and two little girls. thank you for watching "cnn newsroom." i'm cyril vanier. the news continues next with natalie and george howell. have a good day.

calling it quits. a las vegas casino mogul accused of sexual misconduct is stepping down from the republican national committee. explosives, hidden inside an ambulance. we look at the horrific massacre in kabul. and one young man's determination to make history. rowing solo across the atlantic for a good cause. wow. and, he's just 19 years old. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. we are live in atlanta, i'm natalie allen. >> and i'm george howell from cnn world headquarters, "newsroom" starts right now.