3,500 comets. >> it's got to be a commercial coming soon, right? the greatest ad of all time. ground control to major tom still in my head. >> me too. >> "new day" starts right now. erica hill alongside chris cuomo. we'll see you tomorrow. >> it is very sad when we heard about it. certainly he's also very sad. >> he continues to not to speak up for the people who abuse but for the abusers. >> he said general kel where is doing a great job and there is full faith in him. >> there's no way he knew about this. he's up to his neck in it. and he has to deal with it. >> we have 20 hear from john kelly what he knew. >> let's secure our border and solve the problem for daca recipients and dreamers. >> we are a few weeks away from the march deadline, and we still don't have a resolution here. >> what is being composed in the senate is not acceptable to

conservatives in the house. >> it's a real debate on an issue where we don't know what the outcome is going to be. >> this is "new day" with chris cuomo and alyson camerota. >> welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. this is your "new day". sit is monday, february 12th, 6:00 here in new york. alisyn is on assignment. the one and only erica hill joins me. >> nice to be here. >> quite the day for you. here's the starting line. the trump white house struggling to get just one consistent story about the scandal rocking the west wing for nearly a week. it led to the ouster of rob porter. president trump is taking heat for a tweet this weekend defending men accused of sexual misconduct and dismissing women alleging abuse. remember, this is not what the president seemed to liken it too, cheating or inappropriate workplace behavior.

this is about violence and abuse. the second ex-wife of porter is responding to the president's apparent lack of empathy in a new essay. >> meanwhile, it is a big day on capitol hill. the senate begins debate on immigration. gop senators set to introduce president trump's plan. can congress strike a deal to protect dreamers? and the white house set to unveil it's long-awaited $1.25 trillion infrastructure plan. but here's the thing, no one seems to know how to cover it. kaitlan collins is live at the white house >> reporter: well, good morning, erica and chris. though the white house is still struggling to get a consistent explanation of who knew what and when about the allegations about rob porter even though it has been days since he stepped down. aides say he has been private,

his public remarks showing just how seriously the president is taking the allegations. top aides doing damage control, denying that president trump against his right-hand man rob porter. >> he said please tell jake i have full faith in chief of staff john kelly and i am not looking for replacements. he said i saw that all of the news and i have faith anymore. >> i don't want that skwrofpbjo. i love the job -- jobs i have now. i think the chief of staff is doing a great job. >> reporter: some republicans are calling on kelly to explain why he continued to elevate porter's profile in the west wing despite learning about the allegations months ago. >> in the end we have to hear

from john kelly what he knew. and the president needs to hear that before he can make an evaluation of competence. >> reporter: the president is disturbed by the allegations and sympathetic to porter's accusers. >> he is very disappointed. he believes the resignation was appropriate. >> the president, like the rest of us, were shocked and disturbed by the allegations. this is not the rob porter any of us have worked with. but, george, in looking at contemporaneous police reports, pictures, detailed allegations by these women -- >> reporter: this characterization a stark contrast of the comments over the weekend. he preb >> we certainly wish him well. it is obviously a tough the time for him. he says he's innocent. and i think you have to remember that. >> reporter: porter's second wife jennifer willoughby slamming president trump's trump

writing that the president's words were, quote, meant to imply that i am a liar. willoughby adding, despite mr. trump's dismissal, i want to ensure you that my truth has not been diminished. axios is reporting that some strongly encouraged him to stay and fight rather than resign. porter maintaining that he never misrepresented anything to kelly, as the white house continues to insist they were misl misled. >> he wasn't entirely forth coming, and i think the photos took everybody by surprise. >> reporter: a messy trail of conflicting statements. we are seeing the outcry stretch into a new week here on the day that the president is expected to unveil his $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan. >> right. we thank you very much. money. price tag is big. all right. so let's bring in the big shots.

cnn political analysts david drucker and karoun dep. this is not the way the president put it in his tweet. it is not about stepping out on your spouse or workplace conduct. this is about violence and abuse. you have contemporaneous legal action. you have a black eye. you have two women with coordinated stories with no reason to have concerted action. kellyanne said the right thing. why can't the white house get it straight what they knew, why they they did it. >> you have gotten conflicting responses, reactions, what have you. now er hearing what he told us

publicly is not what he is thinking thinking privately. the question is ultimately one of management. should the white house have done something before this got to be a very public thing in the press that we all, the entire country, beyond the country, is seeing these pictures. they were warned several times they have been in office. shouldn't this have been something they took care of. i think the assumption for many people is, he yes, if they knew all of on this information. yet they are showing they can't even manage the response to it. it is a reflection of what came before. it shouldn't be that difficult to at least say at the outset domestic violence, domestic abuse is wrong. to give lip service that these women have been through something terrible. even if you want to say rob porter was a good guy and this is all shocking. but they are choosing to say only one thing at a time. what the president is saying

publicly does not match what senior advisers are saying. that's not the first time this has happened. this is a very serious issue on which it is happened again. >> she said last week she understands how there can be a public and private persona. is this coming from the top down from the president, or is this an issue with john kelly? >> well, it's a great question. it only starts from the top. either you like the president's performance or you don't. off he is to blame for things that don't because he sets the tone. what is interesting here, this is what john kelly was brought to clean up, slip showed chaotic style of management that saw different parts of the west wing speaking in different languages and saw things like this that should have been part of good

vetting and proper communication handled. this is the first time we have seen something like this blow up on john kelly's watch. there have been other slipups, some bumps in the road. that is to be expected. but this is a real problem. again, i think it gets back to the president, erica, simply because while you have members of the president's administration go on the sunday shows and say all the right things, it starts at the top. the only thing we have heard from the president publicly has been airing on the side of defending john porter. while there's some merit to the discussion about whether or not some men have been railroaded as there have been a greater focus on domestic abuse and harassment in the workplace, this is clearly not one of those cases. when you have not one but two women coming forth with the same story and with photographic evidence. and the president could have made this a lot easier on his staff and on kelly if he had

simply expressed some sympathy for what happened. >> right. but that would have only happened with half of it. javi is saying we have the sound. let's play it. >> it was very sad when we heard about it. and certainly he's also very sad now. he also, as you probably know, said he's innocent. and i think you have to remember that. he said very strongly yesterday that he's innocent. so you will have to talk to him about that. >> look, let's be very clear about this and take the time to do it. you know, i don't think -- in the next segment we're going to talk about the politics of what we're doing culturally to embrace the me too movement. worthy of an important conversation. however, this is not that, okay? it's part of that. but domestic abuse is a scourge

in this country. it is the only torture allowed in our society. it deserves a respect, period, that this president doesn't give it. that's one problem, a big problem. but, karoun, the other is simply you mentioned earlier in your answer. he has a temporary clearance this guy, porter. now he's guy. the reason seems to be partially inclusive of this issue. that takes us to the big problem where general john kelly was involved. he was brought in as an agent of integrity. that's what he was brought in as. somebody is lying here, karoun. somebody knew. because they had every reason to know. we keep bringing people in the same positions in the white house. they say of course you would have known. it's part of the package. it's part of the clearance. somebody knew and they didn't act on this, karoun, and now they're covering it up. >> somebody knew of reasons that a lot of white house aides have

not gotten full security clearance, including the president's son-in-law reading the daily intelligence reading. in a way -- i'm trying to put this in context. in a way, when there's over 30 people in the white house that are in limbo, their full security clearance and you're trying to figure out which one to deal with, in a way it's almost -- understandable that your attention would be divided and not fully on rob porter. however, the fact that they chose not to act on on rob porter suggests there is a complacency with having this 1950s mentality of maybe that doesn't affect the workplace because that's at at-home thing. he can keep the president in line. he helps with this law and order in the office so we will ignore everything on the home front. that is ant acquitted -- it is not antifuat he ed because it

still exists to this day. that is the tragedy of this. when you're in the white house you can set the tone for the country. >> just to pick up on that, you have a couple dozen people who have not been cleared. they have been looking at sensitive information. you can't put that genie back in the bottle. this is something that needs to be cleared up, whether this white house or other. if these clearances are to mean something and this information is as sensitive as seems to be the case, they either need to be cleared to see it or be denied to be able to see it. otherwise, the clearance is meaningless and we have let sensitive information out of the bag. >> and it makes you wonder, to put a button on that, while you're waiting for the clearance, you still have this temporary status for a little while too. all of that being taken into account. david, karoun, thank you very

much. the me too movement gaining momentum. is this the kind of movement that could take down the president? an ominous warning from the president's former chief strategist. that's next. new year, new phones for the family. join t-mobile, and when you buy one of the latest samsung galaxy phones get a samsung galaxy s8 free.

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tweet over the weekend. it reads, people's lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation. some are true and some are false. some are old and some are new. there is no recovery for someone falsely accused. life and career are gone. is there no such thing any longer as due process? alice stewart and tara, good to have you. are we all missing something on due process? >> this is a copout. we all believe in tra court of law. the american people deserve to have people that are trustworthy, competent and that don't beat their wives. and you don't have to worry about pictures of black eyes and stories of on domestic abuse coming from people handling sensitive information inside the

white house who can't qualify for a security clearance because of how mere allegations were. i think any time there is a fault to the process instead of listening to accusers. do false accusations happen? yes, they do. but it is very rare. domestic abuse is a big problem. america hasn't had a serious conversation since ray rice, when that horrible video came out when he knocked his fiancee out on an elevator. this shows that you never know who it is. this is the suffering and silence kind of domestic abuse that so many women have gone through and why me too is so important. it emphasizes women need to be heard. what the president did and how he handled this. not his sur gates who i have no patience for who come out and try to clean up his mess.

i'm not surprised because he is incapable and he's done this before. it's unsurprising yet still disappointing. >> let's show that. there is a clear track record of of who the president decides to get behind, who doesn't and why. let's put up. so roy moore. we all know that dance. we were there when the president was staying away from them. he ultimately embraced him. bill o'reilly, he would positive things in the face of significant allegations. roger ailes, same thing. core kwr hra core kwr hray lewandowski, same. bill clinton, he went after. good reason. he he went of him. now we get a case that is in real-time here as president and how he handled it. al franken. remember the picture that got him in all that trouble with the democrats. this is an spiral different story whether that was the right move by the democrats. but this is the picture on the right where the president was

disgusted by this obvious picture of assault and groping. horrible evidence. the picture on the left is the first wife of rob porter. this, the president unmoved. alice, how is this anything other than having a blind eye toward reality with the president and just playing favorites? >> it is nothing other than that, chris. he decides whoepts to suppo he support and who he doesn't. and he always supports the men. when we have cases like this, he typically tries to downplay the allegations. he will defend the men and denigrate the women. off times he will choose to push aside men who have been accused of that and stand behind a republican. domestic violence is and sexual harassment is nonpartisan, nonrace, nongender, n.

for the president to say mere allegations of this sort are damaging to the people that are falsely accused or facing mere allegations know they're damaging to the victims. they're damaging to the women and the men who are suffering silently because they are victims of abusers. and that is something he needs to embrace. we'll give him the benefit of the doubt. he didn't know until it hit the newspaper. that was four and a half days ago. 108 hours he has known about this. not one word, not one tweet, not one letter has he said in sympathy to these women. that is just atrocious. if he doesn't take time to learn over the next 24 to 48 hours that he needs to show compassion for these victims, it's a sad state. it's a really sad state of affairs. >> even if he did that now, it is reminiscent to charlottesville. it would be in authentic.

when he speaks off the cuff, that's how he really feels. we can't give him a cookie because someone writes a speech for him. same with charlottesville. there's good people on both sides. that's after he read a statement and they had to clean it up again. for kellyanne conway or anyone else to say the president feels domestic abuse is unacceptable, you know what, b.s. if he was that upset as his spokespeople are, then he would have said so when he had the opportunity on friday and he would have tweeted it on out to reinforce it on saturday. and that's not what he did. that's because if he were to show sympathy or compassion or acknowledge he female victims he would have to acknowledge his own transgressions in this area. and he absolutely will not do that because, again, that is not in his character to ever knit fault. but, b, he is taught to double

down. he probably thinks he's innocent, very paranoid. those were just false allegations against him. how come these other accusers are to be believed but his aren't to be believed. that is at the crux of this, unfortunately. this is who the american people decided to vote for. we knew who donald trump was for a long time. but "access hollywood" tape showed us who he is. >> it doesn't mean you accept his behavior as a standard. and there may be a political overlay. >> in "devil's bargain" he said the anti patriarchy movement is going to undo 10,000 years of recorded history. you watch. the time has come. women are gonna take charge of society. and they couldn't juxta pose a better villain than trump. he is the patriarch. really donald trump is going to be in the man who takes the fall for all of this? i find that surprising. >> i think that's a little bit

too much. but i think the reality is that women across the country are looking at this and they are really disappointed. they're looking at someone that they thought would transition from "access hollywood" trump to a president trump that would set a tone on situations like this. he can't deny the numbers. unfortunately, when we're talking about domestic violence, one in four women and one in seven men are victims of physical violence from their partners. that is an astounding number. and many don't come forward. 25% of women in the country are suffering in silence. so far the president has done nothing to acknowledge them. instead, as we heard from the piece written by jenny willoughby. >> worth reading. >> certainly is. >> her point is that people like her that have the strength and courage to come forward, they need to be listened to. so far they don't feel he's listening. >> she said in that piece, this is a societal issue.

and the tone has just been set at the white house. >> we are working on a documentary on this issue. we have been for months. it will astound. let me say something the men who are out there taking the president's back on this and forwarding the arguments, you're embarrassing yourself. you're embarrassing your families. put something approximate before your politics. this is a joke. tara, al us, thank you very much. so the winter games, big. off to a big start. the whole geo-political angle. see the lady on on your screen? wow did she set history. a figure skater has done something no other on american woman has done in an olympic competition. a live report from south korea next.

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when my vehicle i wwas hit by an ied.r in iraq

i looked down and i knew i was out of the fight. but playing for team usa has been a second chance to represent my country. i get to show my children and the world that, yeah, i might have been knocked down, but i'm up, and i'm honored to be able to represent the flag. comcast is grateful to all who have served our country, and we're proud to bring the 2018 olympic and paralympic winter games home to everyone. been watching the olympics?

it's a good one. team usa picking up its first two gold medals. the u.s. dominating the snowboard competition. however, this one figure skater did something no american woman has ever done on olympic ice. coy wire with one of those dream assignments. he's there in south korea with the "bleacher report". and you're doing great, my brother. >> reporter: it's a dream. i'm pinching myself but i can't feel it. it's cold here, chris. feels-like temperature, negative 5. the wind, 45-mile-per-hour gusts will slap you in the face. events being postponed. that didn't stop one american from conquering the elements and the competition. team usa dominating the snowboarding events in pyeongchang. jamie anderson winning her second consecutive gold medal in the slopestyle competition. >> it definitely was a struggle out there today for everyone. and i'm just happy i was able to

put one down. >> reporter: 17-year-old first-time olympian chloe kim commanding the halfpipe round, placing eight points above the next highest qualifier after the first two runs of the day. kim's performance coming after fellow 17-year-old won team usa's first gold medal in the slopestyle, red gerard. gerard is the youngest american man since 1928 to become a winter olympic champion. >> the first olympics, and i made it onto the podium. that's all i could ask for. that's awesome. >> reporter: the american figure skating team also shining in pyongya pyongya pyeongchang, taking home the bronze from skaters left off the team in sochi, including adam rippon who garnered headlines by refusing a meeting with vice president pence.

mirai nagasu, the first to land a triple axel in olympic competition. in men's luge, a major upsit. two-time defending gold medalist felix loch of on germany failing to even place. american chris mazdzer win won silver. norway leading the way with eight in total. then canada with six. germany and netherlands with five. the united states in fifth. the u.s. has the largest delegation ever in the winter olympics, 242 to be exact. >> really exciting start. there is other news. >> there is very important news. coy, you put a little information out on the old social media over the weekend about a big development for your family.

congratulations. >> wife clare, beautiful. made one bad decision in her life. standing right next to me. they are expecting a baby girl. the name is picked. wrenn. the baby comes in april. coy wire, this is going to be the best moment of your life. >> reporter: i tell you what, i'm freezing my butt over here. you guys are keeping me warm. our colleagues through atlanta threw a surprise baby shower for clare while i was aware, warming my heart while i'm halfway around the world missing both of my babies. >> great to watch your smile as that was brought up in the picture, you are beaming. >> get some sleep now. >> yeah. that advice always works out, as we both know so well. >> i know. >> a critical debate about to begin on the senate floor today. can congress strike a deal on immigration to protect dreamers? that's next.

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should they be willing to talk about the changes to the family

reunification or chain migration from the other side. should they talk about how far will republicans go in talking about a pathway to citizenship for the people that would be covered under the daca program. the people brought to this country as children. there are so many different ways to put this together. let's assume you can come to an agreement in the senate. it is possible. it's happened before. putting it in front of the house is another issue entirely. and the question for the house, i think is the president going to get behind what comes out of the senate. thus far he has not shown himself to be so willing to take the deals that are proffered on immigration. >> we will watch for that. we are doing a little rapid fire. we are going to talk about infrastructure. $1.25 trillion plans. where do we go with this? so many questions surrounding these numbers. >> there's a question of how are

you going to pay for this? can you get republican support in the house to spend a trill. how hard is the president going to sell it. is his political cover to do something he wouldn't do under president obama good enough to get them to open the purse strings for something they have been hesitant to do. how do you ensure all of this money flows into projects that will actually come to fruition? that's another sticking point in in from struck sure spending. you appropriate money and then it ends up in places not in roads and bridges. it will play into the immigration debate because it's all about jobs. a lot of this involves, especially as we enter republican primary season. democrats do. but for republicans, things like this, the president's political cover will be very important for them. but a renin tppublican infrastr

plan. >> history matters. this is something obama administration was calling for. the need is sorely apparent. this is not a politically saleable thing. the conservative deficit hawks, specifically in the house. order matters. people are pushing president trump to do this right out of the box as president. he decided against it. now you have the tax plan. you have raising the spending caps in a way that i can't believe the republican party will get on board with. now you're asking to swallow infrastructure. that may be, no pun intended, a bridge too far. >> the republican party or at least the political structure of the republican party, has moved away from caring. will the democrats pick that up? that is potentially a shift you might see on some fronts. some republicans will not let this go. when trump is in the position he's in, how much sway are they really going to have to shift

things around? i would say that will be less. and you're talking about a line the republican party had when there was a democratic president. that is not the case anymore. they get to have their spending prioritized and that's what we're seeing. >> and how much cooperating can they seem to be doing with president trump? their base cannot stand trump. if there's too much hugging going on, there is a potential backlash they have to worry about. >> that is something we will definitely be watching play out. and i want your take on the democratic memo. the president decided he is not going to release. adam schiff about to meet with the fbi about these redactions. as we look at this, there is the broader point of looking at the investigation by the house versus looking at the investigation by the senate. a lot of people, as we look at this political posturing with the memos, there's awe question of whether the investigation itself, even when it's all said and done, how relevant will that be? >> it's really unclear. nothing that has been produced

yet has materially changed the politics surrounding all of this. on either side, have you ever had a clear smoking gun piece of evidence, shaking the public opinion whether or not it wants to be shaked. in other words, if you think president trump is being railroaded they haven't seen anything that would force them to change their mind. the same for democrats who think he is guilty of collusion. there is a lot of smoke but we haven't seen anything so definitive that you are confronted with changing your mind. that's why competing memos has contributed to the mud and confusion out there. the senate intel committee is the one i watch. mark warner, top democrat, is somebody that i watch. he's been much more careful that his counterpart in the house with how he characterizes what has been going on. >> all right. david, karoun, thank you very much. ahead, we have a cnn exclusive. the leader of isis is said to be

injured and on the run. the international effort to track down the world's most wanted terrorist, next. yup. (butch barks at man) butch is like an old soul that just hates my guts. (laughs) (vo) you can never have too many faithful companions. that's why i got a subaru crosstrek. love is out there. find it in a subaru crosstrek.

♪

(buzzer) ♪ olly. the most wanted terrorist in the world had to surrender up to five months while he recovered. we have these exclusive details. nick? >> reporter: it appears this air strike occurred in or around the so-called capital of the former caliphate, rack kafplt under the time they were under severe pressure. finding the capital raqqa backed

by forces. it is unclear whether baghdadi was the target or collateral damage. but the u.s. citing refugees and isis detainees that he was in fact, injured by an air strike and subsequently had to step back from the front line running of the group four to five months. he reemerged with an audio message which appeared to give enough evidence he was clearly still alive. around that time in may, russia claims it had in fact, injured or killed buildy. there haven't been that many strikes from russia around raqqa. but in a window where they think he may be, it could be the iraqi-syrian border. >> nick paton walsh.

few people know as few as you. near the end and the end are often very, very different stories. be well. thank you for the reporting. a question for you this morning. is the u.s. ready to talk to north korea? vice president pence and other top u.s. officials opening the door to potentially negotiations with kim jong-un. what are the conditions? what's the likelihood? we have the reporter who broke the story next. the story next. your sleep number setting. does your bed do that? right now, save 50% on the ultimate limited edition bed. ends soon. visit sleepnumber.com fora store near you.

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>> secretary of state rex tillerson said it will be up to north korea to engage in talks with the u.s. those words coming after the "washington post" reveals vice president mike peps saided trump administration is now willing to hold talks with north korea. cnn's will ripley is live in south korea now with more. will? >> reporter: hi, erica. we have heard about the maximum pressure strategy by the u.s. now we are hearing about the engagement strategy who said if north korea is ready to talk, the united states is ready to talk to. i spoke to a senior diplomatic source close to north korea who said they're pretty skeptical about that.

they heard mixed messaging before, acrimonious exchanges between the president and kim jong-un, only to hear calls for engagement and diplomacy. they are calling the visit a missed opportunity. he chose to meet with north korean defectors instead of attending events where delegates could have been present and there could have been a diplomatic opening. the vice president chose to stay seated and he didn't clap when the unified olympic team didn't come up. they said the vice president took the low road instead of acting like the big brother they are supposed to be here in south korea. but secretary of state rex tillerson speaking overnight in cairo said it is too soon to know whether this might be a diplomatic opening. >> as we've said for some time, it's really up to the north koreans to decide whether they're ready to engage with us in a sincere way, a meaningful

way. they know what has to be on the table for conversations. >> it was pretty clear to a lot of observers that north korean leader kim jong-un since his sister here on a diplomatic mission to try to drive a wedge between washington and seoul. but they are saying there is no wedge. they are in lock step with soerbg oh, on the best policy moving forward. >> will, important information. thank you very much. joining us is josh rogan, and gordan chang author of "nuclear showdown." north korea takes on the world. josh, what can you tell us? >> while it's true for five days, vice president pence was sending a tough message to the north koreans and trying to stunt their charm offensive at the olympics, behind the scenes,

there was something else going on. as vice president pence told me aboard air force two on the way home in two substantive meetings with the south korean president, they came to an agreement by which the united states could support continued engagement with the north koreans. first by the south koreans and potentially directly with the united states down the line. the agreement is this. south koreans promised that no pressure would come off them just for talking. they can talk, but the pressures keep going up and up. based auon that, he felt forced continued engagement with north korea. that is a small but important diplomatic opening. it doesn't got us to negotiations or peace, but it does provide a small window of on opportunity and behind the scenes diplomacy. >> gordon, do you buy it? is there an ernest move by north

korea to change its way with a charm offensive? i don't buy it at all. i thought it was silly how people were pointing out his sister as some type of new vehicle. this is a murderous, oppressive reswraoepl. she is a main official for it. what is this really about? >> you're absolutely right. what the north koreans want is to get relief from sanctions. not only u.s. sanctions but u.n. as well. and vice president pence, in his first days in south korea, was talking about more sanctions on the north. more pressure. so the north koreans, they are obviously hurting. we are seeing reports that, for instance, officials are not getting rations out of their special distribution channel. the soldier who defected in the middle of november, he had uncooked kernels of corn. >> and a tape word the length of my arm. >> and the parasites as well. essentially what they want is

moon jae-in, who wants to get in step anyway, they want the discussions so south korea will shovel a lot of cash into the north. and pence and the rest of the american team are doing their best to prevent them from doing that. >> that's the infliction point. josh, let me bring you back in for a second. where is your reporting on that? this is a little bit of a rub. they are very close to south korea. they have been their ally in this, obviously. but there is such huge economic enticements to reopening corridors with the north. there is the u.s. in terms of negotiating that tension? >> well, i think that is exactly the balance that the trump administration is trying to strike. so on the one hand you have north korea, evil, brute regime trying to split the alliance. and you have a south korean president who wants to make progress. what the trump administration has to do is to keep a hard line on sanctions, even increase sanctions and still keep the south koreans in our camp. and this is what they came up with. maximum pressure and engagement

at the same time. will it work? i don't know. will the north koreans go for it? we'll have to wait and see. but it is how we are keeping the alliance together and pushing back against the north korean charm offensive. the next stop is to go to pyongyang. that will be an interesting development all by itself. and there will be new sanctions. the north koreans might shoot a missile. a lot of things could go wrong. but we did make a little bit of progress. and the trump administration did, to their credit, in order to keep the alliance strong, they had to find a way to be cool going forward and president moon gave a way to do that. that's what happened behind the scenes. >> gordon chang, are you in favor of talks? >> absolutely but at the right time. when they have no choice but to disarm. what the administration decides to do is to talk before that point in order to make sure that moon jae-in would not defect to

north korea. because there have been two inter korean sphupl mitts before. a lot of money has been paid under the table. it may have been as much as a half billion dollars. >> who gave the money? >> the south koreans under the table gave $500 million to the north koreans. there is a lot of money there. so what pence has been trying to do is to say, he yeah, okay to moon. you can go to pyongyang but don't pay them any cash. and keep up the maximum pressure. and, by the way, make sure we continue with the u.s./south korea joint military drills, which we have postponed at your request for the olympics. so there is a lot of things we have on our agenda to do what josh was talking about. that is to keep the alliance strong. >> gordan chang, appreciate the insight. josh rogin.

thank you. thanks to our international viewers, cnn "newsroom" is next. for our u.s. viewers, "new day" continues. >> not to show any concern or empathy for the victims, that is a problem. >> he said very strongly that he's innocent. we absolutely wish him well. >> people should look at to how this was handled. one week ago he was a top aide. today he is out of the white house. >> i think the president thinks he's doing a great job as well. >> we thought kelly was the guy who can manage your place. you cannot make a bigger mess than you're cleaning up. >> the president doesn't want you to see these facts because it completely undermines his claim of vindication. >> we will be releasing the memo. we asked them to clean it up. >> there are additional sources and methods revealed in the democratic memo. >> i urge my colleagues to read the the memo so they can know what donald trump is trying to hide. >> this is "new day" with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. >> good morning. welcome to your "new day". alisyn is on