weapons program. he's very concerned they could be just months away from being able to put a warhead on a missile that some day could reach the united states. >> thank you. >> that's it for me. thanks for watching. erin burnett outfront starts right now. president trump supports victims of domestic violence above all so why can't he say it. the white house passing blame for why 30 administration officials have not been approved for full security clearance. should these staffers have access to highly classified information. steve bannon set to sit down with robert mueller's team. how worried should this president be? outfront, speaking for the president. the white house insisting that

president trump takes domestic violence quote, very seriously and supports the victims. words the president has not said himself. >> the president and the entire administration take domestic violence very seriously and believe all allegations need to be investigated thoroughlily. the president supports victims of domestic violence and believes everyone should be treated fairly and with due process. >> if that is true that the president supports victims of domestic violence above all, why did trump tweet this over the weekend. quote, people 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's no recovery for someone falsely accused. life and career are gone. is there no such thing any longer as due process. porter's second wife responded to that tweet. saying the words mere allegation and falsely accused meant to imply that i am a liar. it was a higher value than our mental, emotional and physical well being. sand rs was questioned about why trump hasn't expressed his concern for women publicly and praised porter's work. >> why haven't we heard the president say what you just said right there that he takes do mostic violence seriously? >> i spoke with the president. those are his words he gave me. >> why hasn't he said that? he had the opportunity. >> it's my job to speak on behalf of the president. i spoke him and he relayed that

message to me and i'm relaying it to you. >> trump has faced cameras at least three times since the porter story broke. he's fired off 30 tweets and with those chances to show his support for the women, the only thing trump has voiced publicly is praise and concern for porter. >> as you probably know, he says he's innocent. i think you have to remember that. he said very strongly yesterday that he's innocent. you'll have to talk to him about that. we wish him well. >> why not? remember this is a president with a long history of siding with the men accused whether it's roy moore or roger ailes or himself. >> he totally denies it. he said it didn't happen. you have to even to him always. >> i can tell you some of the women that are complaining, i know how much he's helped them. >> these vicious claims about me

of inappropriate conduct with women are totally and absolutely false. sgr jeff is out front tonight. >> reporter: just seeing his view in these types of situations. the reality is here that nearly a week after this story was first breaking, the white house said still not yet handled all the questions about it. you almost wonder talking to aide, as i have all day, they are not clear on the time frame.

there whole matter has divided and open up the divisions they thought had gone away. it's shown the discipline in the west wing even under john kelly is not what he hoped it would be. you almost wonder can this go away without the president speaking about it again. he'll be questioned on it tomorrow. we'll see if he answers that and says that. so far, his press secretary, his other aides have gone so much parts farther than he has. >> you would think those would be easy words to under. margaret, you were at the white house today. why won't the president himself utter those words? >> i think a lot of americans are asking that question

tonight. it's impossible to get inside the president's mind. all question do is look another what he's saying and try to make some assessments about that. he understands by now if he didn't earlier today that tweeting this himself or saying it on camera would be the most direct way to get that message out. is this a base messaging effort. is this an effort to try to stop putting himself in the center of it. does he not really feel that way? all we have is what he has or hasn't said. if there's any modern american president who understands messaging in the modern immediamedia world is this president. >> not a president shy about expressing his views. >> i want to remind everyone what the president has said about the 15 women who have accused him of sexual assault and harassment. have a listen. >> these vicious claims about me

of inappropriate conduct with women are totally and absolutely false. these claims are all fabricated. they're pure fiction and out right lies. these events never, ever happened. >> you heard earlier we played the sound of trump responding opini opinion. >> there was evidence supporting women in all these cases. trump did not voice that support publicly. can you explain that? >> there's no explanation for it. as you've outlined there's a pattern by this president and this white house in situations whether we're talking about domestic violence, we're talking about sexual harassment or sexual inappropriate activity. this white house continues to down play that kind of activity for people that he wants to down play with it, defend the men and

denigrate the women. it took nearly a week to get something in defense of these women and that's uncalled for. i'm glad that sarah came out and said he takes these allegations seriously and domestic violence is something they take seriously but it shouldn't take a week. his knee jerk instant reaction should have been in defense of these women and standing up for domestic violence. how much more example do we need? just this week you had two ohio police officers killed responding to domestic violence. one in four women are victims of domestic violence. one in seven men. not to mention the countless children growing up in these homes. if you cannot say the words, act appropriately. come on, mr. president, we owe these people and victims much more than this. >> sarah was asked whether the president's twitter response was tone deaf. that is his tweet over the

weekend talking about due process, et cetera. have a listen to what sarah sanders said today. >> supporting due process sfr any allegation is not tone deaf. i think it's allowing things to be investigated and a mere allegation not being the determining factor. >> sarah sanders there implying these allegations were not investigated when we know they were because the fbi investigated them as part of the background clearance process and found them credible enough to delay giving them or refuse to give him a permanent security clearance and remind folks at home these are two ex-wives and ex-girlfriend telling similar stories. you have photos of one of those ex-wives and i'm sure you remember here it is with a black eye she said he gave her. there was a temporary restraining order from the other ex-wife. legal action here and the trouble getting the security

clearance. >> at this point we shouldn't expect leadership from donald trump on this issue. i don't know whether he feels compromised himself. whether he's so defensive he doesn't want to open the door to more criticism. i don't know what he thinks about this issue at all. he's made the decision not to show leadership. i want to know where congress is. where are the republicans in congress who are saying my, god, we're going to lose every woman's vote in this country and many men's votes on this issue. this is outrageous. where is ethical leadership? where is that? i'm not hearing that. donald trump is awol on this issue. it's not enough to hear from sarah sanders. he should say it. where are the republican leaders who are saying mr. president, you're letting down the american people. the me too movement matters.

there's enough of pattern with regards to mr. porter that she should have left far earlier. this is about american women and domestic violence and our need to respond to it. >> why aren't republican fathers in congress or brothers and wives may face similar risk. why aren't they speaking up in the absence of a public condemnation of this by the president? >> that's a good question. i talked to many of them to get a pulse of the feeling. many of them say they do take domestic violence seriously and think it would have been appropriate for the president to initially come out and speak on this and many of them have said that they think the response has been a communications failure.

>> it's more than a kplplun kmo communications failure. >> it's a character issue they can't understand the significance of this. for them to defend a pretty boy with a pedigree because he's someone the president likes uncall ed for. they say they would have handled it much differently. we haven't handled this well to date. >> margaret, one of the issues beyond the lack of a presidential statement is when the white house knew about this. it seems for the more we learned that they knew about it longer than we realized or the chief of staff john kelly has been willing to say publicly. what have we been learning in the last day about this and even

with don mcgann as well. it appeared the white house counsel knew months before. >> we still don't have a complete picture of this time line. i think it's important to ask why that is. is it because they know more and not authorized to say it or because they themselves also don't know. john kelly's own time line or account as we understand it, doesn't 100% add up. this idea that the sort of near instantaneous forced removal of porter doesn't completely match the timeline we have. don't forget john kelly didn't arrive until the summer. we still don't have a full and official picture of what the fbi knew, when they knew it, how it got to the white house, in which order. i do think we will get more

clarity on that in the days to come one way or another. it is important to understand whether this was a failure of information being passed up the chain or whether information was passed up the chain. until we have a bit more firm clarity on those questions, i think it's difficult to know precisely who's to blame in what degree. >> if it's established that this was known for some time and it appears there's a lot of evidence there. you can have staff of chief of staff kelly contradicting his public statements here. have you seen a white house with credible allegations of horrendous behavior. i don't want to say handled it worse because it's not a communications thing but allowed something like this to go on. >> well, i've seen study white houses that have allowed very bad things to happen for a while. the difference is this has happened under a microscope. if this were a normal white

house, the chief of staff would be gone. general kelly would be on his way out. this is a white house for very few competent people. it may be the reason many want kelly around. he may be trying to prevent the president from doing something stupid in north korea. i don't know that's the case. you need a team to contain him in foreign policy. i don't know what role kelly is playing. he is a complete mess. he undermine the office of the president. he didn't protect the president and by the way in this instance that would mean getting rid of porter fast. >> tim, margaret, thanks very much. don't blame us. the white house says the fbi is responsible for dozens of white house staffers without full security clearance. why is trump passing the buck when national security could be

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the white house directing plam at the white house staffers working without full security clearances. some are oerptsing under interim clearances. among them the president senior add voi sor and son-in-law jared distu kushn kushner. sarah sanders don't blame us.

>> i think it's up to those same law enforcements and intelligent agencies to determine if changes need to be made to their process. >> the white house says it's the fbi's fault. >> they say that a lot. that's the new scapegoat. in a couple of the cases it's the fault of john kelly for not going and figuring out why can't my staff secretary get clearance. why can't jared kushner get clearance? he's had to update his disclosure forms. had to add new financial disclosures as well as foreign enta entanglement disclosures. it's for the white house to say

what's the hold up or does this person need help because they should have a clearance. rob porter did not deserve a clearance. we know that know. we don't know about the rest of the 30 to 40. >> i want to read the fbi statement responding to the white house. this is a couple of days ago. it says after the fbi has completed a background information, it provides the information to the agency authority, in this case the white house, who determines whether to grant or defny the security clearance. the process doesn't work that it's all on us. we do the background check and you make the decision on the clearance. how can the white house claim otherwise? >> sure. i'll tell you this. first of all, as a disclaimer, i've never been through this process so i don't flow it first hand. the fbi and the white house, for that matter, no one has been through this process in the way we're going through it now. we have the first citizen president of the united states. somebody who came outside of government. he was neither a politician nor

a general when elected. he was an entrepreneur. we have a white house staff which is very much the same. we haven't had this kind of a crop of candidates in a long time. if do you look at the obama white house, many were retreads from the clinton white house. if you look at the bush 43 white house, many retreads from the bush 41 white house. we have a much more complicated scenario. i think far better for the country. my favorite book in grade school was the outsiders. i said this during 2016. the race in 2016 was largely the washington establishment against the greasers. we on team trump were the greasers. they're trying to get security clearance. it's difficult. it's a process that the fbi and the establishment are not used to. we will get clearance. >> joan, your response. >> steve, are we supposed to lower the bar for security clearance to let in the outsiders or the greasers. okay. it's a different administration.

there's less experience. i will grant you that, but still the jobs are the same. the responsibility of the president is the same. he's supposed to protect us. he's supposed to protect national security so he doesn't get to say i'm a greaser and my team, my gang, they're just not up to snuff. he's got to have people who are fwoo good enough or get security clearance. he or his staff should be raising hell with the fbi and saying these gals, guys need clearance. we have folks languishing in the interim and i don't believe that you would argue that we should lower the bar for these outsiders, would you? >> of course not. joan, you're right. don't lower the bar. i'm saying it's a different proce process. you're having people not coming from traditional role who is have spent the last 25 years in government, which is what we had for decades in washington, d.c. that's a good thing for the country but it's a different thing in terms of the vetting

process. we have people coming from industry. we have entrepreneurs and doers. i think it's one of the reasons that regulation has fallen so fast. taxes have been cut and the economy is soaring. it's a new model. we're smachi insmashing the sys washington. one of those hiccups is they don't know exactly how to deal with people who don't come from their cookie cutter mind set. >> it's much easier to get a security clearance if they had one in the past. 30 to 40 people and we know for a fact rob porter being an example. the reason he didn't get a security clearance is he had credible accusations of beating two of his spouses or jared kushner, we know the fact he didn't disclose many of his business investments was an issue here. that's not he was a greaser. he did not follow the rules of

the process. >> i can't speak to jared because i don't know the specifics there. regarding rob porter, you're 100% right. it was a failure here. even a cursory examination would reveal he is fit to serve the president of the united states. he's gone and i'm glad ihe's gone. we're also on the side of victims and not perpetrators . there was a failure there. i believe whose fault it is should be gone. >> just am concerned about the president's statement about this. i really respect steve for saying that he should have said something different. when he came out and said mere accusations are ending careers. that isn't true. we have two ex-wives and an

ex-fwoexh ex-girlfriend. we have police reports and a court that stepped in with a protective order and we have the fbi and the media. they are not anonanonymous. the notion that he is trying to dismiss all of this evidence is a very bad look for the white house, this president. >> joan, steve, tough issues here. thanks for taking the time with us. next, democrats being told to remove sensitive information from their rebuttal before trump will release it. what's their next move? a surprising admission from some trump supporters. >> you don't want to see mueller fire s fired? >> no. let it run the course. it relieves all your worst symptoms including nasal congestion, which most pills don't. and all from a gentle mist you can barely feel. flonase sensimist. at holiday inn express, we can't guarantee that you'll be able to contain yourself at our breakfast bar. morning, egg white omelet. sup lady bacon!

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welcome back. new tonight the white house is denying it's playing politics with the democratic memo that rebuts republican claims of surveillance abuse by the fbi. legislative affairs director mark short saying the president is ready and willing to release the memo as soon as democrats remove information that the white house claims puts american lives at risk. >> i think the president made the right decision to say if that's the game you're going to play, i'm going to send it back to you. clean it up and we'll be lahapp to release it. >> what are you hearing from democrats on capitol hill? are they willing to work with the white house to remove whatever the white house is concerned with and release the memo? >> reporter: adam schiff has made very clear that he's willing to work with fbi, the justice department to hear the concerns to determine whether or not certain elements of memo need to be redacted.

he seemed willing to redact areas of concern but not willing to redact what he views as political redactions. we don't flow tknow the extent. it's question we still do not have the answer to. adam schiff is having private conversations with the fbi to determine the next steps. we'll know whether or not there's going to be a confrontation between the democrats and the white house about moving forward and whether or not the democrats will try to have the house to vote to override the white house's desire to redact the key elements of this memo. right now those discussions are happening between schiff and the fbi to see if they can work

together and come to some sort of consensus before providing the other side of the argument the nunes memo released the other day. >> that nunes nunmemo came out lot quicker. >> the white house said it's glad to release the memo. as soon as members remove information it may reduce national security. do you trust the white house to put this out there once any necessary redactions have been made? >> there's a level of hypocrisy that's undeniable. the president said he would release the nunes memo over the objections of the department of justice that said it was extraordinarily reckless and the opposition of the fbi that said it had grave concerns. he said he was going to release it even before he read it.

now, of course, they are insisting the fbi and the department of justice re-review this memo. they've already reviewed it once. they have submitted in a letter to don mcgann, the portions highlighted and subseted in red that have to be removed. i think the democratic minority is acting in an abundance of caution and responsibility in making sure there's no compromises in sources and methods of national security and the white house by contrast, let's be blunt has demonstrated a callous disregards and indifference for national security. not the least of them being keeping 30 to 40 people on the staff with access to confidential, classified secret information even though they have only interim security clearance. that was the case with rob porter. >> i want to get to the security clearance issue. still you can sum up the

republican argument as our memo was shorter. the democratic memo was longer and more detailed. the president claimed on twitter the democrats sent a political and long response memo which they knew because of sources and methods and more would have to be heavily redakt cted. they would claim the white house or lack of transparency. i wonder if you think that argument holds water or this was a democratic plan to make it longer or they the process. >> that argument is totally bunk. not exactly a legal term. i think very appropriate here because it is ten pages as opposed to three and a half. it's not like a lengthy detailed thesis. it does refute some of the key claims and in fact, jim, as you know, some of those claims in the nunes memo are refuted by nunes himself who acknowledged the source of this information

was footnoted. it was a political source. this warrant has been renewed three times so it has to be productive. that it was in fact, composed of multiple sources as a 50 to 60 page affidavit. it would be for the fisa court. the nunes memo really fell with a thud like a lead balloon. it's longer. >> a central focus we know of the mueller investigation remains, did the president or has the president obstructed in this investigation. when you look at the president's behavior on the memo, do you believe this adds to a case for obstruction of justice. i know you've already said you

think there's a krecredible cas. how would the president's involvement with the release of this memo add to that case? >> there's a krecredible case o obstruction of justice against donald trump. his refusal to release this memo as well as his blanket release of the nunes memo without having read it or making the decision before he read it is obstruction of justice. it's not alone but does go to corrupt intent which is one of the two essential elements in any charge of obstruction. the other being interference with a lawful investigation. it goes to motive and intent. >> i want to ask you about another cnn story tonight. our top story, cnn confoirming rob porter was one of 30 to 40 officials operating without full security clearances. the white house has called this backlog and blamed it on the

fbi. intelligence officials have told me lot of these things are being held up because of lingering questions in the security process and as the fbi has said it's really up to the white house to issue these clearances once they have a recommends dags from the fbi. you can be involved on this at times. what is your explanation for how thisworks? >> i've asked the inspector general to investigate the security clearance process in the white house. this report by cnn is chilling. it indicates that a vast number of people with access to the nation's most important and consequential may have secrets as rob porter did.

may line a malign and despicable secrets. >> it may extend beyond rob porter? >> that's exactly it. asking for the ig, inspector general investigation, both reported to have embarrassing and potentially very dangerous and damaging conflicts of interest. that's the reason that we ask for this investigation about the sdurt clearan security clearance process. the white house can expedite a background clearance that was not competed on rob porter. it can expedite a security clearance. also not completed and the white house knew in november there could be no security clearance for rob porter and still permitted him access to classified information with the most consequential secrets. >> thanks very much for joining

us tonight. >> thank you. next, trump voters choose the president or the fbi. >> do you have faith in fbi? >> hell no. >> steve bannon was so scared of president trump's wrath over a book dthat he dried not once bu device to get its release delayed. why? dprz it's time for the 'ultimate sleep number event' on the only bed that adjusts on both sides to your ideal comfort your sleep number setting. and snoring? does your bed do that? right now during the ultimate sleep number event, our queen c2 mattress with adjustable comfort on both sides is only $699, save $200.

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a savings up to $300 when you book now, during the celebrity cruises sail beyond event. . the head of the fbi set to testify on capitol hill tomorrow about global threats. one of the biggest threats facing his agency may be from the president himself. for months donald trump attacked the fbi calling it a disgrace and accusing sergeaagents of politicizing investigations. is the damage done? martin savidge is out fronts. >> reporter: iowa helps make presidents. in 2012 obama won sdtate by nearly six points. in 2016, trump won by nine.

i'm with four voters. president trump's approval ratings with his base and these iowans are sky high. >> we wanted a bit of a change from what we had before. >> reporter: those voters trust trump but they do not trust the russia investigation. dha consider the whole thing a political wit -- >> political witch hunt. it's a disgrace. >> reporter: they don't ploobel in the investigation. >> do you have faith in the fbi sdm. >> hell dmno. >> i want do preface by saying it's not the fbi, it's the leadership of the fbi. >> in this situation the people at the top of the food chain have decided they don't like the game. they're going to change it. they're going to play by their rules. >> reporter: they see nothing

wrong with president trump questioning the allegiance of justice department officials even though two-thirds of voters did think that was wrong. >> i think it gives him an idea of where people are coming from. >> where they stand? >> where they stand. exactly. like you said, why wouldn't you want to know. >> do they believe the president had attempted to derail or obstruct the russia investigation? >> no. he said bring it on. >> reporter: they all knew of the nunes memo but are divided on the democrat memo? >> do you want to see that as well? >> yes. full transparency? >> no need to read the democratic memo. sgl i'm ready to move on. >> reporter: i ask if they thought trump should agree to be interviewed. >> is that a good idea? >> he's transparent. he's open. he's not afraid. >> not under a subpoena or not under oath.

>> let it run the course. they're doing the right thing. let it run it course. the truth comes out. >> it's pretty clear from that conversation and from others that i've had with trump voters that many of them believe the russia investigation is nothing more than a political scheme. that was fabricate and now being perpetuated by democrats and others who can't accept the fact that donald trump is president. >> exactly the words the president had say. next, steve bannon's words of warning for the president about women and oprah. president obama's portrait unveiled. some are asking what he's doing at wrigley field. you can train yourself to cook with less oil. introducing new pam spray pump made with extra virgin olive oil. now you can pump instead of pour, plus get the superior non-stick you love.

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now joshua green. i want to start with steve bannon. appearing before two investigations this week. how key do you think he will be to these probes? >> i think it depends on what it is he is going to tell mueller's investigators. certainly a key figure in the trump campaign in the end and the transition of the white house. and we know what he said publicly to the author michael wolf and he believes that donald trump junior went up stairs to inform his father. depending on what bannon has to say to them, that may or may not be a problem for donald trump.

>> your book gets into this personal relationship between bannon and trump. you report that bannon himself considered running for president if trump was not on the ballot for 2020. how seriously did you find that he was thinking about this? >> apparently pretty serious. after bannon left the white house, his goal was to advance this nationalist movement and seemed concerned enough that trump either wouldn't run for re-election. he spoke to people around him about running for president and even thought about starting a third party. called the national union party. you know, better than me there is no love loss between trump and bannon after bannon's dismissal, his comments in

wolff's book. when bannon left the white house, in public he was loyal. but privately, you say the facts are different. >> publicly he said to me and other reporters he presented this as an amicable parting. but i reveal in the book that privately, bannon was upset. initially refused to take trump's phone calls and said to associates at the time, i am sick of playing wet nurse for a 71-year-old man. that illustrates the frustra frustrations that was documented in wolf's book. >> wet nurse to a 71-year-old man, that is explosive. >> pleasant thought. >> you revealed that bannon tried twice to delay the publication of your book.

why did he go after your book? >> i think he perceived correctly that having a book that featured him as a prominent player could be potentially damaging to his relationship with president trump. he once told me if trump doesn't want a costar, he does not want to see me on the cover of your book. trump didn't like it and it cost bannon severely. thanks very much. outfront next, michelle obama is that you in the official portrait. looking for answers. i discovered the true meaning of paperless discounts... and the indescribable rush of saving drivers an average of $620. why does fear feel so good? i fell in love three times -- once with a woman, once with a country, and finally...

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tonight, a tradition lives on. even as the obama's go for something less traditional. here is jeanne moos. >> there they were in the flesh

holding hands. waiting for their national gallery portraits to be unveiled. first hers. and then his. not your average national gallery presidential portrait. >> that's pretty sharp. >> what is with all the greenery? >> in the weeds tweeted one critic. in the weeds commented something else. >> choosing african american artist. all some good see is sean spicer hide anything the bushes. somebody noticed a similarity to beyoncé's pregnancy announcement. he choked up thanking his mom. >> we didn't have much.

but she found a way to get paint. >> amy cheryl painted michelle's portrait using gray tones to down-play skin color so her personality could come to the fore. >> hotness of the woman that i love. >> the first lady reacted to her own image. >> let's start by saying wow. >> but who instead of wow. >> is she an actress? i have no idea. >> a little like michelle obama. >> but i don't think it is her. >> who is this wo many? >> that is a gorgeous picture of michelle obama. >> some who recognized michelle obama. >> god only knows, michelle obama. >> did it the roundabout way. >> i know those arms. >> and you know what they say

about obama's portrait, he has very big hands. >> i am jim sciutto in for erin burnett. ac 360 starts right now. >> good evening, we begin tonight keeping them honest with a simple question, what is worse than a cover up. the answer came today from the white house briefing room. now in case you haven't seen the movie or read about this type of psychological manipulation. its main weapons include lying, contradiction and denial. the white house hasn't been able to put together a consistent explanation about who knew about the