getting out and allegations of domestic abuse are that. >> security team is not going away, guys, thanks very much. that's it for me. thanks for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." erin burnett outfront starts right now. outfront next breaking news, growing questions over what john kelly knew and when. how did top white house aide rob porter keep his job? and hope hicks dated him. and now government shutdown likely in just five hours. let's go outfront. good evening i'm erin burnett outfront tonight aids knew early last fall rob porter was accused of domestic abuse by

both ex-wives. but the white house tried to muddy the time line today. >> there has been reports about the chief of staff. he became fully aware about these allegations yesterday. >> fully aware. strange term if you already knew about allegations of domestic abuse. i mean what john kelly learned yesterday about what he knew months ago is not at all clear right now. here's the things, you may not have heard of rob porter before the story before the abuse charges exploded but he was arising star in the trump white house, number two to chief of staff, gate keeper, anything highly classified that went through the president's desk went through rob porter. that is power. and knowledge. and in the many months that kelly and others knew that porter was accused by both ex-wives of abuse, porter remained solidly at trump side. he accompanied the president to china in november. one of the few to actually shakes hands with president xi. he was with trump at the world economic forum in davos, stood

in for kelly. one of the state of the union address. office just steps away from the oval office. porter's ex-wives told damming stories. told story in january 2017 porter pun shds her and she shared with the fbi photos in that interview. here's of some of what jennifer will by porter second wife said she told the interview in that background interview. >> i told them all of the details of my marriage, including verbal and emotional abuse, and including the incident when he pulled me out of the shower. they were also made aware of the protective order that i signed in june of 2010. >> and there was a third woman. a girlfriend who lived with porter while he worked at the white house who reach out to porter ex-wives to talk about the abuse she was under going.

to the general counsel don mcgahn. despite this, three women, port rear mand on the job privy to the united states information. that is until the daily mail broke the story forcing their hand. only then when the ex-wife story was put out to the public did porter resign. and today raj shaw took the podium repeatedly asked contract white house and john kelly kept porter on for so long in the face of the allegations especially fighting back after the story blew up in the daily mail. >> what changed yesterday absent a photograph in terms of new allegations? >> i think what i just referenced reports had additional allegations, they had more information. >> so you are saying the initial reports were too former wives accused him of violence both physical and verbal abuse was not sufficient for him to say he's a man of honor?

>> there were a number of statements from the press secretary frrks the chief of staff, from others, that reflected the rob porter that we have come to know working here for over a year, and the chief of staff for about the last six months. but the reports were troubling. and i think the statement from wednesday night reflects the rob porter that we had seen in these news reports and kredsable allegation zbls to be clear, what was so shocking that had changed? ? was shocking. >> the full nature of the allegation particularly the images. >> that's important. it sounds like white house knew about porter ex-wives but because he didn't see a picture of the aftermath of the abuse it was not as much as a problem. here's the image she has shared this picture. taken by porter of a black eye she says he gave her. so the image bothered john kelly. the question is why the words of domestic abuse or wife beating didn't seem to absent an image? so let's go through the time

line here. because kelly's assertion that the picture changed things don't seem to add up with the time line we have. 7:09 p.m. did the stories detail their allegations of abuse by porter. in response, the chief of staff, john kelly released a statement drafted with the help of communications director hope hicks who, and this is complicated but this is real life, people, currently in a romantic relationship with rob porter, saying, quote, rob porter is a man of integrity. he's a friend. a trusted professional. i'm proud to serve along side him. >> in the morning, 8:27 picture with the black eye. kelly statement is sent out again. this time to the press core. this actually came after porter had resigned.

there were no changes, no amendment toss the statement. no comments about it being unacceptable. it wasn't until 9:30 last night, full 25 hours after that daily mail story was first published, 13 hours after the photo of colby holderness black eye became public, which she shared with the fbi over a year ago, that kelly changed his tune. he then says, quote, i was shocked by the new allegations released against against rob porter. there is no place for domestic violence in our vote. i stand by my previous statements about rob porter i have come to know. shocked by new allegations. problem is there wasn't anything new here. he knew about daily violence for months. daily mail added a picture. then he put out a new statement. and now they are saying the picture changed things. the context matters too. the reality is this white house has long fan consistent history of dealing with allegations of sexual abuse. remember roy moore two weeks after the public allegations by

four women who charged he sexually abuse ds them when they were in their teens, trump said this. >> well, he denies it. look, denies it. he totally says it doesn't happen and you have to listen to him also. you are talking about he said 40 years ago this did not happen. >> and over the decades at least 15 women have accused trump himself of sexual misconduct. the response is always the same, it's all lies. >> these vicious claims about me of inappropriate conduct with women are totally and absolutely false. >> is the official white house position that all of these women are lying? >> yeah, we've been clear on that from the beginning and the president has spoken about it. >> take a look. tell me what you think. i don't think so. i don't think so. >> the president has denied any

of these allegations as have eyewitnesss. >> so any surprise that the white house ignored accusations against porter for months in that context then tried to defend him when they broke? pamela brown outfront in the white house and pamela there is no doubt that senior staff at the white house were aware. >> yeah, that's right, erin. sources tell us that not only did chief of staff john kelly know about at least some of these domestic abuse allegations but other white house aides did months ago. but you heard raj shaw at the podium saying kelly didn't become fully aware until just recently, until this week, which begs the question, well what does that mean exactly. and the only thing he would say was that he didn't know about this picture of rob porter's ex-wife with the black eye as you saw. so it's unclear why that changed the dial so much for the chief of staff john kelly to then release the statement that came out last night wherefore the

first time he acknowledged domestic abuse. because as you'll recall the allegations prior to that that had been reported were those of domestic and verbal abuse and protective order that had come out to the public. and that the ex-wives of robert porter had told the fbi nearly i guess a year ago, erin, about what happened, the specifics of what happened. it would be a shock if that was not raised to the white house during rob porter's tenure here over the last year or so. so today's press briefing raised a lot of questions, raised more questions than answered in many ways about why it was handled the way it was the and why john kelly did not conduct internal review earlier if he knew about the allegations as our sources say. now the white house said today they wanted fbi to continue its investigations. it said that it felt that was the proper channel for this to be investigated. but it certainly begs the

question why rob porter was able to continue his work at the white house with interim security clearance continuing as sort of arising star here at the white house just recentsly working on the state of the union address when these allegations were surrounding him. erin. >> all right. thank you very much. pamela. outfront now gloria bore gear. it's hard to understand this, so if you know there is claims of domestic abuse from ex-wives, their live in girlfriend calls the white house general counsel to talk about her allegations of domestic abuse, and nobody did anything about it, and then when it broke in the press, which is only reason it would have come out, they defended him. >> sure. and that's extremely troubling. they say that they weren't aware of the full nature of all of this until recently. look, just this sheer nature is

disturbing enough. and we don't need to know all the details. we don't need a video or pictures. reason enough is someone that is accused of multiple women of abuse. what happened is john kelly let his performance at the white house. >> harvard degree got in their eyes. >> and they let that over shadow their good judgment and taking appropriate steps to do away with someone that has these serious allegations against them. domestic abuse is abhorrent and the fact they turned the other way shows they were willing to die on porter hill and that's a shame. >> gloria, what's so shocking about this is the point alice raises, to imply you are not fully aware when you know there was doumestic abuse by ex-wives

and girlfriend because you hadn't seen a picture of the abuse. >> ridiculous. >> it defies reason to think that excuse could be put out there. >> and that is a ridiculous excuse. and i think the question we have to ask is the extent to which general kelly knew about the details of this or any of this. and, you know, obviously this is an issue that the general counsel tease office deals with. kelly had to be aware in some way, shape, or form, that there were red flags with his clearance. and that the reason there were red flags was because of domestic abuse. so the question that you have to ask is did kelly have conversations with rob porter? did don mcgahn have conversations with rob porter in which porter said, these are my ex-wives, and, you know, this is just a lot of stuff that is not true and let me explain it to you. and perhaps there were those

conversations where they chose to believe him. now, we don't know the answer to that because the white house is not telling us the answer to that. so we don't know what rob porter was saying internally to people. but if i were general kelly, and i had had conversations with rob porter, i would be very upset right now. because i would be upset with myself, because i had believed him over these women, and i would be upset because he probably thinks he was misled. and if i were the president, who just heard about this this week, i would be really upset because nobody told him. and this is a guy who is literally his shadow every day. >> right. >> every day. >> right. i mean, tim, you know, it is pretty stunning when you think about the whole situation here. in any situation. why when you have the most important women in someone's life all coming forward and saying the same thing, that anybody would buy, well, they

are just scorned or jealous or whatever it might have been. again, defies reason. >> i want to play a little bit more of what jenny will a will by porter says. >> hold an interview for security background checks and that was held with the special agents that met with me. they weren't asking specific targeted questions about rob. they were asking, to my understanding, general questions about his character, about his ability to uphold the position. i told them all of the details of my marriage, including verbal and emotional abuse, and including the incident when he pulled me out of the shower. they were also made aware of the protective order that i signed in june of 2010. and they were also made aware of

another time when i had called the police to our home after domestic disturbance. >> so, tim, obviously then colby holderness first ex-wife shared the pictures of the black eye that she shared with black eye last year. we are not aware john kelly was aware of those until they came out. >> someone who signs a protective order, these are very serious things. >> well, i understand that john kelly is rob porter's boss. in the government we say direct report is to john kelly. if you are a boss of a unit in the united states government where people with security clearances, you are given updates on status of their clearances and when they are up for renewal and if there are problems with clearance. it is inconceivable to me that

general kelly didn't know that there were problems with mr. porter's clearance. if he knew there were problems, then because he's a smart man, he would have looked into them. >> as i said we have reported that he did know they were domestic abuse. >> he has right to look at the fbi file which means he didn't believe the women. >> and fbi file by the way would have had all these details, interviews were done, pictures had been produced. i'm just saying the files would have had details. >> and what's really sad about this is that given all the me too movement involved, to think that in the fall of last year general kelly didn't sit back in his chair and think, oh, wait a second, i may have this problem right here. now, we'll learn more. but i think that the fbi did, sounds like they did their job. but you know in the end the decision about classification is

made by the president and the chief of staff. >> right. >> if they want these people to keep their clearances. >> they can do that. >> regardless what the fbi finds. >> you can't do it for this reason. >> i think one of the key points people might be wondering what difference does it make about the interim clearance whatnot, when you have someone like this that is by all accounts during the day a shining star, and everyone says he has integrity and great character, but by night he is like dr. jekyl and mr. hyde clearly pattern of behavior that is contradictory during the day. he's vulnerable for any one that wants to find someone in the government that can get secret information. if he is one person by day and another person by night he can be easily compromised. >> or blackmailed? we'll put that information about what happened, i guess. alice what about the point that seems so troubling here.

believing rob porter not all the people don't believe any of the president's accusers, believe roy moore and none of his accusers, it's consistent, and it's not just the president, it's chief of staff, female press secretary, it's everybody. >> that's disturbing. it's it's a pattern of behavior, they automatically say the women were wrong, we don't believe the women, and they say the women were trying to smear them t rob porter said this was another smear campaign. extremely disturbing. and in this day of age we need to let women have the opportunity to speak out. this is a bad sign on that. and i think for them to allow rob porter to give him the opportunity to leave on his own terms when he wants to go at least 24 hours, that was the wrong impression. and also me say this about hope hicks. she can date whoever she wants to. she's free to do that. but when she's involved in a

statement. you should recuse yourself 100% from drafting a character statement about someone you are romantically involved in. >> go ahead, gloria. >> and erin, you were mentioning the president. you ran a clip of sarah sanders earlier saying the president has said we don't believe any of these women, period. and you know that has been the pattern here. and, so, in a way, sadly, it's not surprising that the white house decided not to believe these women and not to act on it. and you are 100% right. the fbi only presents the information to the white house. and the white house decides what it's going to do. and in this particular case, they haven't denied clearance, but he has some kind of interim clearance. because they were waiting and they were waiting. and what they were clearly waiting for was for this all to be swept under the rug.

the problem was that somebody did a piece on it. the daily mail did a piece on it. >> the problem for daily mail, that's the problem. >> exactly. it was publicized the daily mail did a piece and picture was eventually a part of the reporting. and then they couldn't hide it anymore or not deal with it anymore. then they had to confront it. and they were forced to confront t and i thi . and i think that is also ha pattern. >> they didn't deal with general flynn until "the washington post" posted a story. so part of a pattern. >> it's a pattern you say it's fake news and hope it goes away and then when it isn't you let a man should have been fired resigned. and then is trump's chief of staff going to leave? and government shutdown about five hours away, less than that. white house told agencies to

prepare now for a shutdown. and the white house laughing off some stunning claims by a former employee. >> was fired twi timhree times apprentice, and this is the fourth time we let her go. ♪ (vo) do not go gentle into that good night, old age should burn and rave at close of day; rage, rage against the dying of the light. do not go gentle into that good night. ♪ ♪

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that was it. now i have nicoderm cq. the nicoderm cq patch with unique extended release technology helps prevent your urge to smoke all day. it's the best thing that ever happened to me. every great why needs a great how. protecting wife abuser rob porter. this is not kelly first brush with controversy this week. just a few weeks ago bashed immigrants too lazy to get off their asses. >> then there was this. when he attacked the congresswoman frederick a gold

star widow's husband death. >> the congresswoman stood up, and in the long tra dick's diti empty barrels. >> this is the man who so many said the grown up in the room, the general running the trump white house. outfront now head of president trump hispanic counsel during the campaign. you are with me, let me start with you. the white house says retains full confidence in kelly. what do you think? >> i think he has to go after this. i don't know that he will go. we have to acknowledge in this kwhous the fish rock from the head. and we have seen this pattern of the president not believing women who even charged him. the president admitting on the "access hollywood" tape that he feels free to sexually assault and get away with it because he's a star.

cory lewandowski was accused. so i understand why john kelly thought it was firing offense. but now that we know everything, he did not have full security clearance and handling classified information presenting things to the president. man who brings in the stack of papers that the president usually doesn't read but he has access to all of it. >> every piece of paper. >> so i believe the women, leaving that a side the notion that this man was allowed to handle these papers without a full security clearance, the bells didn't go off, is a firing offense. >> and, steve, you know, just to repeat here, sources say kelly did know for months since early last fall about claims that porter emotionally battered two ex-wives. interviewed him kelly would have had access to file. we understand he did not an

intern tal investigation. veracity. what happens now, steve? >> well, listen, i think what happens, a couple things. first of all, i think all of us, in life know people who professionally act a certain way, and may act a very different way at home in their marriage or in their home in a way that we can't believe. and i think that's what happened here. so general kelly knew rob porter in a professional sense tan in his row fegsal setting rob porter was apparently impeccable. in his home life he was anything but that. once that came to light the general made a very clear statement. that domestic violence. >> but he didn't. >> is never okay. >> he knew about it since last fall and didn't launch an investigation into it to even to determine the claims veracity. so he sees him in one light, very different picture as being portrayed. the guy has access to all this classified information. i mean, shouldn't it, if kelly was doing his job, have merited some sort of investigation?

>> well, listen, no, i think he did not know that damming information. because he's not that kind of man. i think here's the thing, let's get to the crux of it, erin. what's really going on with general kelly? i think the left is trying to make him into the newest boogie man. they are trying to -- >> doing it to him self. >> steve bannon. grim reaper in the white house. here's the reality about general kelly, this man has given his life to our country literally. he's a battle tested hero. and he didn't just give his entire life. he literally sadly gave his sons life to our country. this is a hero should be honored and venerated. a man who lives to serve the american public and american security. and for you, joan, frankly, to be smer sh in this way. >> he did it himself. >> neither are you, quite

frankly. >> i disagree. >> he has given more to this country. and for you to. >> stop filibustering. >> just shush. i lament the loss of his son. i thank him for his service. and think about the two ex-wives plus a girlfriend who told the fbi this information. it's not like he just found it out last night, steve. and i don't know how you can live with your self. >> yes, he did. >> pretending. no, he didn't. you are calling cnn. you are calling our reporters here liars? they have reported and confirmed he had this information. >> they are just trying to say he wasn't fully aware so a picture of domestic abuse came out. that's their point right now. >> erin, huge difference. >> blog post where she went into great detail about this horrible event. if he wanted to know the facts were there, just because he was

a hero in one part of his life, he was not a hero in this part of his life. these women were betrayed by him. >> i disagree. he is a hero, period, american hero, period. but here's what matters, i think, okay, erin, here's what matters. did he know he beat his wife? of course not. he would have never hired him. did he know about the divorces? yes, that was known. >> he did know that early last fall. >> the fbi knew. >> by the way, the fbi did. absolutely. >> he was aware. >> how do you know that? you don't know that. >> this is reporting from multiple sources that he was aware. >> calling cnn reporters a liar? >> can you prove that erin? because you are making a -- >> multiple sources he was aware of some of the claims of

domestic abuse from rob porter ex-wives. if you were aware of that that you heard claims of a domestic abuse, you didn't know what it was, you were aware. >> restraining order. >> protective order. would you have looked into it or just take the guy's word? >> if i knew about it. my point is that general kelly did not know about it. and on top of that, if rob porter who he knew in a professional sense, and, again, i think the viewers out there know this, we all know people who act in a professional setting in a very different way than perhaps they act in a personal setting. and sometimes in a terrible way, right. that's a shame. and i'm not excusing that by any sense. domestic violence against anyone is awful, against women, against children. no excusing it. but all of us know people who know someone who might act very differently professionally than they do personally. and my point is, general kelly is a man of honor.

he's a hero. and he clearly did not know that rob porter. >> you are calling our reporters liars and other reporters liars when you say that repeatedly, steve. this man could not get a security clearance. at the very least, let's go from there, he couldn't get a full security clearance, so general kelly doesn't inquire why? oh, my goodness what's come up with the fbi investigations that my man can't get a security clearance. we all know people in our lives. we work alongside them and respect and love them. but when we are told they can't get a security clearance, we might ask the fbi to look at his file. we might discover very early on, because this was out in january of 2017. only saying he knew in the fall. he could have known as early as january. >> that's a good point. and thank goodness the process worked in that case. he didn't get clearance thank goodness. >> but he continued to work. >> and i'm glad he's gone. >> keep in mind the facts here is the white house would have determined clearance, fbi was

clearly not willing to recommend that. hadn't wrapped up the full investigation. but the white house obviously was dragging its feet. reality of it, steve, nobody did anything until the press broke this. and the press was right. thank you, both t and next breaking news unexpected drama on capitol hill. a government shutdown now likely in ha couple of hours. is one republican senator responsible? that senator rand paul who was holding up the key vote joins me next. and more on the top story, white house dodging questions about rob porter security clearance.

government is spending too much money. with four and a half hours left, not much time for government to get this through. s sunlen is on capitol hill. could there be a shutdown? where there could be. that still remains true. but the problem is right now on this hold up. where tle ahey are is they need 100 senators to go through. because they are facing that midnight deadline. as of now one senator, rand paul is standing in the way of that going forward. he does not agree with this bill. he's a no on this bill. but notably trying to push an amendment to restore the budget cap in the deal. of course we've heard him say very vocally on the floor of the

senate that he is against this bill because of additional spending. as for the deficit he's trying to force an amendment. that is something that senate leadership simply will not get him. they don't want to open up the flood gates to allow other amendments to be made. they are facing that midnight deadline. so what we have is a stand off where the senator has made very clear he intends to really push it to the limits. meaning he could push it past midnight. could push this back into the wee hours of tomorrow morning. so as of now, looks more likely that there would be a shutdown at least temporarily. >> all right. thank you very much, sunlen. let's go to senator rand paul. senator, thank you, you are in the center of this. are you going to cause a shutdown over this? obviously you have until midnight. that your plan as of right now? >> no, not really. my plan is or my position is that this issue is so big and so important that it deserves to be debated. that we shouldn't have a closed

debate. closed debate is when there are no amendments. i've offered my amendment. pushing it all day longment amendment vote takes about 15 minutes. so we've been about ten hours with the leadership saying oh, we won't allow any amendments. but i think it's really terrible way to run your government to put all the spending in one bill but then say no amendments. the other thing is there is a huk hypocrisy factor. republicans lamb blasted president obama to no end trillion dollar deficit now they have put forward this. i think the american people are going to be hurt that so the so-called conservatives elected and not much different than the people they were criticize zblg at the very least they are hippocrites and no other word for it. whatever you think the solution might be, senator, you are right about that no way to describe it. i want to play this for you. this is what they were saying when president obama wanted to spend some money. >> our debt is threat to this

country. we are on the verge of a debt crisis. our debt, it's already bigger than our economy. our debt, it's a sign of overreach. it's a sign that the federal government is doing too much. >> the national debt threat pens our way of life. the democrat spending spree has brought us to the brink of an econom economical amity. who proposes more spending to a debt crisis. >> mitch mcconnell and paul ryan do, senator. the numbers here, 84% in borrowing in the first fiscal year of the trump administration. 50% again expected this year. budget cap gone. sequester gone. $300 billion in la digsal spending over the next two years. what the heck happened tour party? >> i think this is what people don't like about politics. they see clips like that and think did they really mean it origins pra origins president obama because he's a democrat.

i'm one that did mean it. only way to believe it is be consistent against debt whether it's deck or republican. and that's a real problem is republicans have completely changed now and said a trillion dollar deficit was terrible under president obama but it's fine if it's a republican. and that's not going to wash with people. and really upsets me because there are many of us who truly are conservative, truly are worried about the debt but are consistent, doesn't matter which party is doing it, it's wrong, if it's wrong, it's wrong. >> and senator, look, i commend you for your consistency on this. let me give you a chance to explain something though that doesn't seem to fully add up because you are make thg argument. in december you voted for the tax cut which is projected according to republican numbers to add a trillion and a half dlaz to the national debt. so willing to add that, but now you are upset over $300 billion over the next two years. how is that not hypocritical? >> a couple of things about cutting taxes. i believe when you work with your hands. what you earn is yours.

you give up a lot but not half of your paycheck. so we have to give up too much of our liberty. so people should fb able to retain liberty so that's why i'm with tax cuts. but also debate over what it will do to the economy. so if you say it will only grow 1.9% it might leach a big hole. so a lot of things that actually are unknown that will happen from this tax cut. and i do think that in the end, the money is more wisely spent by the people who earned it then by the people who didn't earn it. but consistently for a smaller government. so when i vote for a tax cut corresponding cut in spending as well. >> are you concerned where the president stands on this? a man multiple times bragged about being the king of debt gs, said, quote, i love debt, nobody knows debt better than me, and now doing just that? by the way his own companies

chapter 4 bankruptcy. >> there is probably a lot of blame to go around for the republicans advocating for this debt. but i would say really primarily this is coming from congress. leadership in congress in both the house and senate has decided to move forward. but the funny thing is you know so often in the media we hear we want you to work together. they are are working together but working together to spend a ton of money. so i think bipartisan compromise. >> easy to spend money. >> isn't what it's cracked up to you. >> easy to spend money you don't have when someone down the line responsible for spending it. >> thank you. >> and out front nout outfront now steven. you look at this hyperbolic end of the world language. now they have the white house, great, give tout an iou, who cares, spend, spend, spend. >> look, i'm disturbed by the increased spending. we'll spend $300 billion above

the spending cap. one of the things that worries me the most, i don't know the exact details of the budget deal, i've been looking for this. but are they going to blow away the caps and not have any spending caps that would be a big mistake. >> chuck schumer that it's going to ash heap of history, so, yeah, that's gone. >> i think that's terrible. actually,dy a budget analysis on this. the budget control act was a great success in terms of controlling spending in 2013, 14, 15, 16. and what's happened is neither party, look, it's fine to call the republicans hippocrites here, but the democrats too. the reason as you know republicans want to spend more on military and democrats want to spend more on social programs. so what they did is say we'll

both be santa class and spend more money on these things and that has led to a larger deficit. but, look, on this point about the tax cut. i think that what has happened with the republican party, it is evolved into a rogue party. i believe most republicans believe the most important thing is get the economy growing faster, higher wages, seeing that t and the deficit and budget will in a sense take care of itself. so i think growth first, and then worry about the debt, and that's the position of most republicans now. one quick thing also erin. i don't know if this is going to pass because you have the conservatives in congress, the people at the freedom clock, like rand paul against this, then you also have nancy pelosi saying maybe the democrats may not deliver the vote. so this is nail biter right until the end. >> we'll see what will happen. but it's amazing now little people care about their own words and how it looks. >> a lot of hypocrisy.

>> thank you so much, steve. new questions about security clearance at the white house, will the outrage over rob porter lead to official investigation? and on jeannie rose on omarosa. her secrets revealed. [ clock ticking ]

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lawmakers calling for the white house to be investigate the over its process for security clearances. this amid growing outrage as rob porter resigned after allegations of domestic abuse. in white hou in fact, the white house said the president was unaware of. >> did he know working on temporary clearance? >> no, the president saw the report and informed of the resignation on monday. he was not informed about the specifics of the security clearance. >> outfront jackie speier sits on the house intelligence committee. you heard raj shaw said the

white house was not aware, allegations of domestic abuse. do you believe that? >> no, i don't believe it. i believe they knew full well. they were informed by one of his wives last year. they knew about this for at least a year. and frankly what we have here is everyone thought they would be able to weather the storm until photographs of one of his wives with a black eye came out. i wonder when are we going to be willing to believe women without a photograph or audio tape. >> well, of course. and to make the point here, he has two ex-wives both of whom said this happened. one of whom had a protective order. had ha lived in girlfriend who called don mcgahn and shared similar allegation. so they have seen this again and again and again. raj shaw today was also asked about one of porter's ex-wives who claimed she told the fbi she

thought he could be vulnerable to blackmail because of the domestic abuse allegations. we'll leek these if you don't, then he might be vulnerable to this blackmail. here is raj shaw response from the podium today. >> i'm not going to get into the specifics of the investigation itself. i think that's a question for the fbi and others. but this is not our process. this is the process u.s. government uses across agencies and has existed over numerous administrations. >> we know he went basically a full year here without full security clearance. congresswoman, do you believe porter could have been>> i thin vulnerable to that kind of conduct, who is in a special place in the white house, could be vulnerable. michael flynn was another one who had lied and then sally yates, the acting attorney general, went to the white house and said he will be potentially a subject of blackmail. you know, how many of the people closest to the president have

lied on many forms? on security forms in particular. we don't know if rob porter lied or not. but certainly, it became public or became clear that he was not going to pass the security clearance. and yet he continued to handle very top secret, classified materials. so you have michael flynn, you have george papadopoulos, rob porter. when does it all end? and meanwhile, you know, here they are in a glass white house, and they're concerned about someone else lying, in that case, christopher steele, who was the author of the dossier, and now they're trying to claim he lied to the fbi. they should check their own house first. >> should chief of staff john kelly keep his job? >> absolutely not. absolutely not. >> you think -- >> he doesn't get it. he really doesn't get it. >> i want to ask you one other

question since i have you here. obviously, you have this shutdown tonight edging closer. i don't know if you heard rand paul. the minority leader, pelosi, has said she will not vote for the bill. are you a yes or no on the bill? >> i'm a no on the bill because i'm waiting for paul ryan to do something quite simple, just signal to us that there will be a vote on the daca kids. that's all we're asking for. let all the votes fall where they may, but we want a vote on the daca kids. to those who think that somehow there's too much spending on discretionary programs here, i mean, we're talking about extending the child health insurance program for ten years. we're talking about providing money for those who suffered disasters, both forest fires and flooding. we're talking about the opioid crisis that the president said was a national emergency, and then he has not put a dime into it. so enough with the photo ops. let's do snng and mean it. >> thank you for your time.

>> thank you. >> and now i want to go to our chief legal analyst, jeffrey toobin, who is also the executive producer of the radical story of patty hearst. i want to ask you about that because there's so much interest in that. i want to start about the whole issue of security clearances. i know it can take a while to get approval. rob porter had gone a year, the fbi had raised red flags. we knew that kelly was aware at least some of them. rob porter is not the only one in the white house working on an interim, a year that would indicate there's some sort of question marks at least. jared kushner is another. how serious is that. >> the dirty secret about security clearances is they're subject to the same political pressures that everything else is in government. if you have a powerful patron, the white house chief of staff as porter did, or you have the president of the united states, like kushner does, who says i want this guy working for me, the fbi is going to hold their fire. the fbi is going to say, well, we're still working on it. and a year is outrageous.

>> a year would indicate, if you have those patrons, and it's been a year, is that an extra sign of concern? the fbi can't get to yes after a year, when your patron is the chief of staff or the president? >> it's a sign that the system is not working. during that year, these people have access to the most classified documents in the united states government. you know, the job of the staff secretary, it's not a very well known job, but it's the job that you take the papers into the president every day, which are the crown jewels of our intelligence operations and every other part of the government. so if you can't figure out within a year whether someone is fit to do that, you know, that's too much time. >> you have your answer. i think this is one of those cases where you have your answer. a lot of questions about jared kushner to come because that's still out there pending. all right, patty hearst. this is something you're passionate about. you know more about than anybody. people are so fascinated by it. the fbi says this case is one of

the strangest in its history. february 1974, 19 years old, the granddaughter of william randolph hearst, one of the most wealthy heiresses in the country. she's captured by the sib bethese army. in an image that captured the country, seen with a gun to rob a bank in san francisco. she transfixed the country with this. >> the great thing about the story and the fascinating thing and what's so wonderful about this documentary, if i do say so, is you have two kind of stories operating at the same time. you have the country in this nervous breakdown. think about this, erin. in the early '70s, there were 1,000 political bombings a year in the united states. can you imagine what it would be like in this country if there were 1,000 political bombings? so you have that backdrop. but fundamentally, what makes people so fascinated by this story, about this story, is the

mystery. was she really a member of the sla? did she really change her mind, or was she coerced? was she forced, brainwashed? and that debate continues to this day. that debate is aired out in, you know, very interesting way in this documentary. >> well, in a way that no one else can do because you know so much about this. without asking you which of those -- >> i wrote a book about this. american heiress. >> conclusions as to her role, don't miss it. the radical story of patty hearst, produced, everything, by jeff toobin. sunday night at 9:00. right here on cnn. >> the first two hours on sunday night, and then two more sunday nights, two more hours each sunday. >> it's a series. starts this sunday night for the next three weeks. >> that's right. >> all right, next, omarosa. a lot to say about life in the trump white house. so what's her truth? >> i was haunted by tweets every single day, like what is he going to tweet next?

i tried hard to quit smoking. but when we brought our daughter home, that was it. now i have nicoderm cq. the nicoderm cq patch with unique extended release technology helps prevent your urge to smoke all day. it's the best thing that ever happened to me. every great why needs a great how. tonight, omarosa is back, and the white house is playing a key role, because she's speaking out about her role next to the president for so many months. here's jeanne moos.

>> i'm omarosa, and i'm back. >> oh, brother. she just arrived on celebrity big brother. >> omarosa. >> and already, she's spilling the beans, whispering in the dark about president trump's tweets. >> like, i was haunted by tweets every single day. like what is he going to tweet next? >> what is she going to spill next? she confided to a guy best known as ross the intern, from the tonight show ages ago. >> when people ask me who you don't want to see in the house, my answer was omarosa. >> but there he was, as she tearfully described things at the white house. >> it's bad. >> when ross asked if we should be worried, she wiped her eyes and nodded yes. >> because we are worried, but i need you to say no, it's going to be okay. it's going to not be okay. it's not. >> from omarosa's lips to the white house briefing room. >> and said it is not going to be okay. >> not very seriously. omarosa was fired three times on

the apprentice, and this is the fourth time we let her go. she had limited contact with the president while here. >> omarosa said she felt working at the white house was a call to duty. >> i felt like i was serving my country, not serving him. >> her words were greeted online with wide eyes and eye rolls and skepticism. she practiced this in the mirror about ten times, read one tweet. omarosa has mastered the art of the tease. for instance, when she described what he learned from politics. >> you have to know how to watch your own back, and in some instances, you have to watch your front, too. >> but the whispered warnings about the white house were downright spooky. get the sub that found titanic, this is deep, read another tweet. omarosa could be looking for payback, and a payday. the winner of celebrity big brother gets $250,000. >> celebrities, you better watch your back. >> and your front.

jeanne moos, cnn. new york. >> thanks for joining us. don't forget, you can watch "outfront" anytime anywhere. just go to cnn go. "ac 360" begins right now. good evening. today, trying to deal with the fallout from their handling or mishandling of serious allegations of abuse by two ex-wives of rob porter, chief of staff john kelly's rightshand man. a white house spokesman said we all could have done better. keep that phrase in mind. we all could have done better, because as you're soon see, it conceals as much as it reveals. in a minute, i'm talk to jenny willoughb willoughby, who was married to porter. years of which she said she endured emotional and physical abuse and filed a temporary ordered of protection. porter's first wife colbie holderness also divorced him after