they prepared for this question. they knew it was going to come. for him, it was an actual criticism of the white house. that was new. but i don't think this gets the job done like you said. the president himself needs to. >> if he feels he's being pushed into it, maybe he should consider it would help him. thanks for joining us. see you back here this time tomorrow. hello, i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. here in washington. up first, the trump administration under new scrutiny over the rob porter scandal. the white house faces more questions about the handling of domestic abuse allegations against porter, and the vice president saying he stands by the white house chief of staff john kelly. >> are you 100% confident john kelly has been fully transparent in his departure of rob porter?

>> there are very few americans or american families that have served this nation more honorably or sacrificed more for this country than the family of general john kelly. john kelly's service in uniform, his distinguished service at our department of homeland security where we saw a dramatic reduction of illegal crossings at our southern border, and his distinguished service as chief of staff gives me and the president great confidence in this good man. and i want the american people to know, not just john kelly, but family members in uniform here and gone have served this nation with a love and a patriotism and a passion that should inspire us all. >> on top of this, the house oversight committee is now investigating. here's what congressman trey gowdy, the committee chairman, told our alisyn camerota on cnn's "new day."

>> just so that i'm clear, will the oversight committee be launching an investigation into this? >> we did last night. >> so it's official. >> we are directing inquiries to people we think have access to information we don't have. i'm going to direct questions to the fbi that i expect them to answer. >> this comes a day after the fbi director christopher wray contradicted the white house timeline, explaining what officials knew and when they knew it. let's go to our chief white house correspondent jim acosta over at the white house right now. jim, what more can you tell us about the focus of this house oversight committee's investigation? this is important news. >> i think it's very important news. the chairman of the house oversight committee, trey gowdy, a republican, volunteered on cnn that his committee has launched an investigation into all of this. there are some key points that they're looking at in the context of their investigation, but i just want to make sure we focus pretty closely on what we just heard a few moments ago

from the vice president, mike pence. it was interesting what the vice president said. he said at one point, i think the white house could have handled this better, in reference to the rob porter saga. that's a pretty stunning admission from the vice president. i think earlier when he was skt the olympics, he told nbc's lester holt that while the white house says they could have handled it better, this was the vice president essentially saying, no, i think the white house could have handled this better, and it's in contrast with what the chief of staff john kelly said to "the wall street journal" that everything was done right. so once again, wolf, we have sort of this gang that can't shoot straight. everybody's talking in different directions about this rob porter saga, and the vice president, you know, saying at this event just a few moments ago that the white house could have handled it better is another indication of that. it's an indication that not only does he believe that they could have handled it better, but he's also, i think, perhaps putting a little separation between himself and what's happening over here at the white house in

terms of the vice president. as you were just mentioning, trey gowdy opening up his own investigation into all of this, is just going to prolong the agony for people inside the white house because obviously the committee is going to be asking questions. they're going to be seeking documents, seeking answers. here's a letter on screen to the chief of staff, john kelly, from trey gowdy. i believe we have a tear-out of that letter which focuses on some of the key issues they're looking at. you can see it on screen. this is what they're going to be looking at, policies, practices, and procedures relating to the investigation and issuance of interim security clearances, including interim security clearances for white house personnel, whether the adjudications of porter's interim and final clearance were consistent with the policies, practices, and procedures identified. the date on which any white house employee -- wolf, this is very, very important -- became aware of potential derogatory or disqualifying information on porter from the date of his appointment, february 12th,

2017, to february 12th, 2018, where he was pushed out, or resigned. the security clearance adjudication dates for porter, including both interim and final clearance. those questions go to the heart of the questions we've been asking in the briefing room over the last week or so. this is a textbook example of how a white house should not handle a matter like this. they've given us four or five different answers over a series of briefings in terms of what happened, who did what to who, who punched john, and so on. and just yesterday, the white house was talking about this office of personnel security, that's where the fbi background check went to. we still don't have the answers as to what was done with that information once it got to the office of personnel security. i suspect that'll be one of the key questions at the briefing this afternoon, which not surprisingly has been pushed to 2:30 this afternoon. >> and sara sanders is scheduled to do that briefing. they're not going to send out john kelly, let him answer the questions. lots of questions for him. why not simply send out the

white house chief of staff instead of sending lesser officials? >> wolf, i think that is right on point. he has been sort of ducking in and out of press areas of the white house, so reporters have had the opportunity to shoot some questions at him from time to time. he's not really answered any questions about this. the other point we should make is the president has repeatedly been asked questions about this since friday, when he went ahead and said that porter is maintaining his innocence and did not say anything about porter's alleged victims. so the president is also shied away from these questions. again, it's just a textbook example of how a white house should not handle a matter like this. they keep changing their story and avoiding the questions, wolf. >> all right. jim acosta at the white house. we'll stand by for that briefing later. that's coming up fairly soon. let's talk a little bit more about all of this. i want to bring in our white house correspondent abby phillip, cnn political analyst, david gregory, and our chief

political analyst gloria borger. how safe is kelly right now? >> well, you heard the vice president there. i think last night there was a lot of scurrying around and a lot of activity around the fact that the president had been calling people, one of whom he sort of remotely said, well, if i were thinking about changing chief of staff, would you be interested? he said, no, that was last friday. so there's all this kind of activity about replacements and people in the white house wondering what is going on here, and i think now we're seeing an effort from the vice president and others to say, stop, we're done, it's over, there's not going to be a replacement for general kelly. he is remaining where he is, and i think obviously that comes from the president. >> i think that's the important

point. mike pence, the vice president, may be all the way over there in the olympics, but when he comes out and vouches for kelly in this way, that means they're closing ranks. this is a president who doesn't mind letting someone he's upset with know because they leaked a fact that he's talking to other people about potentially replacing him. maybe that was him firing a shot across. i thought jim said something that's important. abby, you know this covering the white house day in and day out. you have to ask yourself what's worse than chipping away at this story through multiple versions of the story. somebody's got to come out and clean up and say, look, this was a great guy, we loved him, we didn't realize this was going on, we screwed this up, and it was out of an abundance of giving him a fair shake and our belief in him, but we got to focus on these women and this was just horribly done. somebody's got to own that. the president has only made things worse and continues to do that by just staying away from it. >> in a lot of ways what we're seeing from john kelly is something we often see from the president himself, which is you don't back down, you don't admit you did anything wrong.

as recently as earlier this week, he told t"the wall street journal" he thought everything had been handled perfectly. it's a pattern of behavior that's trickling down in the ranks at the white house and also to gloria's point about kelly's future, there have been several times in the last several months where president trump has talked about wanting a change in his top aides. he's been doing it virtually since day one with reince priebus. that's why a lot of people, even within the white house, are just not sure how this is going to shake out. but the fact they're talking publicly about kelly having the confidence of the president is important. there's a reflection in the white house that more upheaval and chaos would be detrimental to what they're trying to do. they had some progress with tax reform. they're moving forward with immigration and with infrastructure. getting rid of a chief of staff would be like upturning the cart at a critical time. >> and a guy who one very

important on negotiations on immigration. >> exactly. but you know, when you hear sara sanders all day yesterday, and we'll hear today, say to the best of my knowledge, as far as i know, you know, these kind of qualifiers, you have to assume that she's not being -- she's not being read in on a lot of this stuff. that this is something that kelly held very closely. he's known for that. and when people are asking for explanations, they may not be getting the whole story from the very top. >> a lot of republicans, you know, think that kelly has got to have -- and this is what they've said to me -- the guts to go into that briefing room and answer reporters' questions from a to z and not leave until all the questions are answered if he wants to stay on the job and have credibility. >> 100%, i agree, but i'm not sure that is what is required for him to stay on the job. i think it's very clear that the

president -- >> his credibility. >> well, right, his credibility. especially given who he comes from, what we've been told over the past six months is, you know, lauding his military experience and of course his sacrifices to the country, which are immense. of course, to be admired but are not relevant here, this is about his credibility as chief of staff doing a very difficult job and who did what, when and what did they know when. you're right, this is a guy who comes from a tradition of accountability. let's see it. >> retired four-star marine corps general. it's not going away. you heard on cnn's "new day" earlier trey gowdy, they want to have hearings. they want to investigate who knew what and when. they want specifics. >> right. there is, in fact, a broken system here. cnn has reported rooecently tha 30 to 40 white house staffers don't have full security clearances. that's a huge problem. the porter scandal is one element of that.

i think republicans need to inoculate themselves from this on several fronts. one, on the national security front about putting someone like porter in a position where he's often dealing with classified information but may not have ever been able to get a full security clearance, and secondly, the idea that the white house is indifferent to domestic violence is incredibly damaging to republicans. i think they recognize that. i think that's why you've heard people leek paul ryan start to come out and say this is, you know, it's not acceptable to us. but the one person you haven't heard that from is the president. that's a problem that the white house doesn't seem particularly eager to resolve. he could have walked from the oval office to the briefing room at any point over the last week, and he hasn't. >> but everything many this story is context. if the president were to come out and say this, then of course we know what occurred during the campaign and these 17 women who were accusing him. then that raises that specter all over again, and donald trump

understands that. i don't think he wants to go there. >> it's also worth noting it's not clear that more information is going to help them here. every time we've learned more about how this has gone down, it's looked worse for them. >> everybody stand by. there's more news unfolding right now. up next, porn star pay you have. the president's lawyer now claiming he paid stormy daniels six figures out of his own pocket. we'll discuss. and u.s. intelligence chiefs unanimously are saying that russia is taking direct aim at this year's midterm elections here in the united states, but the president of the united states is still not convinced. is the u.s. in danger? and just in, the vice president talking about that infamous scene over at the olympics, sitting right near kim jong-un's sister. we'll hear what he just had to say when we come back. guess what i just got? uh! ♪i used to be spellbound hello again. ♪i used to be spellbound hi. ♪i used to be spellbound that's a big phone. ♪in your arms. [screams] ah, my phone.

♪you built the flame ♪that warms my heart, ♪but lying and cheating ♪has torn us apart ♪and i'm moving on.

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as stormy daniels in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. the president and daniels had an alleged affair years before he took office, but the president's personal lawyer has denied the accusation, says he still paid daniels $130,000 out of his own pocket, his own money. our national politics reporter m.j. lee has been working the story for us. m.j., did cohen say why he paid her all that money? >> wolf, first of all, it's really important to keep in mind that both michael cohen and stormy daniels have previously adamantly denied allegations of this affair having taken place back in 2006, and they also really have not engaged questions about the issue of this payment. so it is a big deal that michael cohen is now saying that he did make this payment of $130,000 to stormy daniels in 2016, but what he is emphasizes is he did it on his own, that it was his own money. here's a statement in which he explains who was not involved in making that payment. he says neither the trump

organization nor the trump campaign was a party to the transaction with miss clifford and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly. so he's clearly wanting to emphasize here that the campaign was not involved because some questions have been raised about whether this may have violated some campaign finance rules. but the question you ask, wolf, about why he would have made this payment if there was no affair, well, here's how cohen answers that question. he says, quote, just because something isn't true doesn't mean that it can't cause you harm or damage. i will always protect mr. trump. so what cohen is saying here essentially, wolf, is out of loyalty to his client and friend, trump, he made this payment. he made this decision to spend $130,000 of his own money to have this money be given to stormy daniels. this of course is extremely unusual and not normal behavior coming from a lawyer. >> did he say that in exchange for the money she had to sign a

nondisclosure agreement, she wouldn't talk about this? >> well, this is not something that michael cohen has addressed, and you remember that when stormy daniels has been asked about this, she's kind of danced around the issue, strongly suggesting that she couldn't speak freely because she had signed an nda. and that, of course, raises a whole new set of questions about whether cohen might be violating such an nda, but again, we have a lot of questions that are still unanswered. one of those questions is whether there is an nda and who's violating what at this point. >> all right. thanks very much, m.j. i know you're working the story for us. gloria, you're also working the story. this is a weird twist of developments. >> i would say it is. when your lawyer pays $130,000 in hush money or whatever you want to call it to a porn star, yeah, i think that's a little strange. what was interesting to me about the statement was that he said

very specifically that neither the trump organization nor the trump campaign was a party to the transaction. what he doesn't say is whether donald trump was a party to the transaction or knew about the transaction or approved of the transaction. these are all questions we would like to get an answer to. >> as i've been talking to folks this morning, this is absurd on multiple levels. one, as an ethical matter, if you're a lawyer, you have an obligation to inform your client of any material change in a case like this. you can't do it without your client's knowledge. maybe the use of was not party to this is their way around that. any kind of big change in a case like this, you'd have to chasha with your client. the other part of this -- >> it doesn't say he didn't. >> here's what else is absurd about this. this notion that donald trump has been accused of sexual misconduct at, what, in a dozen cases, and this is number 13. but this is the one you want to pay off because even if it's not true, that could be damaging? but all those other allegations that are out there, those were

not worthy? the last thing is, who runs a law firm where you pay out of pocket? on your client's behalf. so what's the quid pro quo here? maybe donald trump pays cohen and his firm so much money they say, yeah, we'll take care of this because we're going to get a lot down the line. but the notion that he just did this because he's protecting trump is absurd on so many levels. >> i think we also should keep in mind that michael cohen, when this story first emerged, "the wall street journal" reported the payments, he denied the payments were made, which we now know is false. he's admitting to it. so there's a credibility issue on its face with things that he says about what did and did not happen. and i think that's why we should keep some of this stuff, you know, take it with a grain of salt. it's not all -- we cannot take it all at face value because he's proven to be willing to lie about what happened when the truth later comes out. >> he issued this statement because common cause filed a

complaint with the federal election commission, with the justice department that this could be seen as an in-kind contribution, $130,000 to the campaign a month before the election, and that's why he had to release this public state. i quickly want to go to another important development. the vice president now sides with the cia director, the director of national intelligence, the director of the national security agency, the director of the fbi in saying what the president is reluctant to say, that russia did interfere in the presidential election and is still interfering. listen to this. >> there were efforts by russia and likely by other countries to involve or influence american elections, and we take that very seriously. as we speak, that inquiry investigation continues to be ongoing, but it's also forward looking. in my briefings at a variety of our intelligence agencies, we

have discussed plans going forward to ensure that meddling in our elections by russians or other powers around the world will be rebutted and we'll continue to develop the kiennd technologies that ensure and maintain the integrity of our electoral system. >> okay. he may say that, the intelligence chiefs may say that, but the president apparently still doesn't believe it. >> right. and he's not going to change. this is a threat, he believes, to the legitimacy of his election, and he's not going to get off of that. as we've been talking about, he also believes that this is the way countries do business with each other. they spy on us, we spy on them. and there's no big deal. >> the challenge is what will they do going forward. if the vice president is taken at his word, what are they prepared to do? we don't see any evidence of them taking it seriously or taking remedial steps to stop it, and that's something you

ought to be very public about and private about. >> and the president should be leading it. >> this will be a test of whether this can happen without the president, whether mike pence can step in as the number two in command and say, i'm going to be leading the whole of government approach to this. >> but if you don't have credibility with your own intelligence agencies is, who by the way under president obama didn't react in realtime. that's on the obama administration. the question is what does the trump administration do now that we can all recognize what this kind of influence looks like? >> there's been some reporting about whether president trump even wants to hear about the russia investigation. mike pompeo was on the hill yesterday. he talked about this. we know that he believes that this happened. is the government operating without the president in command? are they doing these things to address the russia interference even while he doesn't want to hear about it in his daily briefing or mike pence ends up being the one leading it. it's entirely possible that could happen. even with trump's own, you know, trump-led cia that he now owns

and runs. >> but it doesn't fit into the president's narrative on the russia investigation, which is that the fbi is corrupt and that is a problem for him. so if the fbi is corrupt and other intelligence agencies were corrupt in dealing with the dossier and the russia investigation, then he can't sort of do a back flip -- i've been watching too much olympics -- he can't do that and then say, you know, at the same time that we have to stop russia, we have to stop russia. so it doesn't fit his current narrative right now. >> certainly doesn't believe it, even though everyone else, the former intelligence chiefs, the current intelligence chiefs, the ones he himself named, they were out there very vociferously yesterday saying the russians did it and they're still doing it. i want to press what the vice

president said. he said other nations besides russia. >> maybe china. >> that they interfered in the presidential election. that's what he's talking about specifically. >> i wonder, yeah. >> i want to find out who else he's talking about besides russia. >> after the general kelly briefing. >> maybe they'll explain that as well. all right, guys. thanks very, very much. more breaking news. the conflicting timelines on who knew what has sparked a house investigation now into the handling of rob porter. this as doubts swirl over john kelly's future in the west wing of the white house. plus, it's not the first time a trump-appointed official has been accused of misusing taxpayer dollars for personal travel expenses. we have details on the new scandal closing in on the va secretary, the secretary of veterans affairs. my day starts well before i'm even in the kitchen. i need my blood sugar to stay in control. so i asked about tresiba®. ♪ tresiba® ready ♪ tresiba® is a once-daily, long-acting insulin that lasts even longer than 24 hours. i need to shave my a1c.

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the white house's rob porter scandal has revealed a glaring issue with security clearances. porter didn't have full-time, full security clearances even though he was handling some of the most critical documents for the president. now the congress wants to know why and has launched a formal, full-scale investigation. joining us from capitol hill is republican chris stewart, member of the house intelligence committee. congressman, thanks for joining us. >> of course, wolf. good to be with you. >> another member of your committee, a republican, trey gowdy, said on cnn this morning that his committee is now launching a full investigation into the security clearance issues surrounding rob porter, the former staff secretary at the white house. do you agree that a full congressional investigation is needed? >> yeah, for sure.

there's some questions here we really need to get the answers to. part of it is a personnel type of question, were procedures followed, but more portly there's actual national security implications for this that i think we need to understand as well. >> you believe someone like porter, who had no full security clearance and was accused by his ex-wives of domestic abuse, should have had access to the presidential daily brief, which he delivered to the president, and other top-secret, classified information? >> yeah, you know, this is a bit of a gray area in the sense that it's not uncommon for those who are waiting on a final clearance to be granted some limited access, but it should be limited, and it should be on an interim basis. it shouldn't go on for obviously as long as this one went on for. again, this is a problem that we need to understand. more broadly, wolf, as well, we've got an enormous background. i mean, a years' long backlog in getting people their background and security clearances.

speaking more generally, we've got to get better at that as well. >> what about the president's son-in-law and senior adviser jared kushner? he's also in a similar limbo situation. he has interim clearances, no the full clearances, but according to "the washington post," he has access to the presidential daily brief as well. and i raise the question whether he should because dan coats, the director of national intelligence, testified yesterday before the senate intelligence committee that if you only have interim clearances, you should only have limited access. should someone like jared kushner have apparently full access to the presidential daily brief? >> once again, i think i stated what director wray said as well. that is an interim clearance situation should be limited access. i think that's generally the rule. it should be the rule. i don't know if the white house operates outside of that. they might have some executive authorities that allow them more latitude. i don't know the answer to that. but once again, we should comply

with the rules that exist. there's a reason they exist. and if some of those rules were broken, we should identify that and correct that. >> let me switch gears for a moment while i have you here. you're on the intelligence committee. yesterday we heard the nation's intelligence chiefs, all of them. they reiterated during their testimony that russia did, in fact, meddle in the 2016 presidential election. i want you to listen to this for a moment, congressman. >> there should be no doubt that russia perceived that its past efforts as successful and views the 2018 u.s. midterm elections as a potential target for russian influence operations. >> yes, we have seen russian activity and intentions to have an impact on the next election cycle here. >> no change in my view of the 2017 assessment. i support that. i agree with director pompeo's assessment about the likelihood of the 2018 occurrence as well. >> i participated in that 2017

work. i stood by it then. i stand by it now, and i agree with director pompeo, this is not going to change or stop. >> yes, it is not going to change, nor is it going to stop. >> and moments ago, the vice president mike pence said the same thing basically, reiterating that russia did, in fact, interfere, but the curious question -- and i know we've discussed this before, why does the president still refuse to acknowledge that fact? >> you know, i think there's two issues here. if i could talk about what these gentlemen said and just say i agree, i agree, and i agree. i was in moscow just before the election, came home and said they're going to mess with our election. no question about it. and you look at the success that they've had. there's no question they're going to continue to try in 2018 and 2020 and beyond. i think the president divides these into two different boxes, if you would. one of them is, did russia try to interfere? we all know they did. they were actually successful to varying degrees. the second one, and i think the one he speaks about, is these

accusations of him or some of his campaign aides actually colluding with russians. i think that's the one where he says that didn't happen, that's not true. >> so why doesn't the president say in a state of the union address, he didn't even utter anything about this, or issue a directive and these intelligence chiefs say they got no specific directive from the president to investigate. why doesn't he make this a priority? yes, the russians did it. they're already doing it again. we have midterm elections in november. we have to take some steps to stop them. why don't we hear that from the president? >> i can't speak for the white house, wolf. uh can't speak for the president. but many of us recognize it is a prior priority. that's why we've been investing this going on 15, 16 months now. the house intelligence committee, a few other committees, judiciary, the senate is doing the same thing. the russians were successful in manipulating public opinion and breaking down that foundation of democracy that we know is so important for us to be

successful and that they targeted, and we need to be able to come to the american people and say, this is how we can counter this. this is how we can do better. and i hope that the focus will shift over to that, especially just before the next election. we need to address it before next november comes around. >> congressman chris stewart, thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you, wolf. a cover-up filled with false statements, a doctored e-mail and taxpayer money. details now on the new report regarding the president's secretary of veterans affairs. we have new information. we'll be right back. wallet, so [girl 1] perfect! you can send a digital payment. [man] uhh, i don't have one of those payment apps. [girl 2] perfect! you have a us-based bank account, right? [man] i have wells fargo. [girl 3] perfect! then you should have zelle! [man] perfect. [girls] perfect! [vo] the number one mobile banking app just got better. [man] does your coach use zelle, too? [boy] of course! [vo] another way we're building better every day.

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free tickets to wimbledon, expensive taxpayer funded travel now engulfing another member of the trump cabinet in major controversy. it's the veteran affairs secretary. our senior politics writer is

working this story for us. what's new in this new report about what the secretary of veterans affairs was up to? >> wolf, this is a pretty expansive report. it finds that the chief of staff to va secretary altered an e-mail and made false statements and that then led to the secretary's wife's travel being paid for, for this more than a week long trip to europe last summer. that comes in an ig report today. that cost taxpayers more than $4,000. other findings in that report as well that he improperly accepted tickets to wimbledon that had he purchased, the ig's report said would have costed thousands of dollars. it also says very interesting here that shulkin himself dreked a staffer at the va to access what they're calling, and i'm quoting, a personal travel concierge to him and his wife, setting up all kinds of personal activities that didn't have anything to do with the agency's work. shulkin is being ordered to repay the department for his wife's travel. also, reimburse the business associate who gave these tickets back the money for those

wimbledon tickets as well as to overgo an investigation into the travel packages of the department he leads. >> what is secretary shulkin saying about this? >> release id a statement to this as well as a response to the va ig. he says, a report of this mach is a direct assault on my spouse, my character, and my understand blemished record of service to the veterans affairs administration. your staff's conduct related to this investigation reeks of an agenda. he's not the only cabinet official who's been under fire for travel practices. there have been five other cabinet secretaries under fire. members of congress saying they want to hear more, at least one republican who sits on the veterans affairs committee, says shulkin needs to go. >> all right. good report. thanks very much for that. we're following breaking news on the rob porter abuse scandal that's engulfed the

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the vice president, mike pence, weighs in on the fallout from the rob porter scandal. here is what he said moments ago. >> this administration has no tolerance for domestic violence, nor should any american. as i said, and as the white house has said, i think the

white house could have handled this better. and i still feel that way. that being said, any more counsel i have on this i'll share with the president of the united states. >> crisis isn't likely to end any time soon. we're told the house oversight committee now opening a full-scale investigation into the porter saga on how the white house handled it or mishandled it. joining us now to talk about that and more, democratic senator gene chahine. thank you for joining us. >> nice to be with you. >> what's your reaction to trey gowdy announcing on cnn he was launching a full-scale investigation? >> i think that's helpful. both republicans and democrats in congress should be very concerned about oversight and about whether the people who are handling sensitive and classified information in the white house have the appropriate security clearances. so, i hope that's what they're

going to be looking at. and i hope that we will get answers as to why so many people in this white house have not been cleared by the fbi so that they can handle these sensitive documents. >> should they be able to handle these sensitive documents? specifically, let's say, the president's son-in-law, jared cushner, who has limited security clearance but who has access to the president's daily brief, the most sensitive information out there. >> this is unprecedented, as far as i know, in history, that you would have people who don't have security clearances, who have access to this kind of information. so, i think everybody in the white house who doesn't have proper security should not be handling these documents. and i hope that this administration will make those changes and make sure that only people who have clearance are able to look at the documents.

>> do you have confidence in the white house chief of staff, john kelly? should he stay on the job or should he resign? >> that's for the president to decide. i think it's important to send a message that we understand that having proper security clearances is important for this nation's national security, that we understand that it's very important to send a very strong message that domestic violence is not acceptable and we won't tolerate it for men or women. and i hope that we will continue to see this white house say that. the vice president was very clear what's been missing is the president's being willing to come out and say exactly that, that he does not tolerate domestic violence and understands that when victims come forward that he needs to listen to them. >> let's listen to the debate that's under way on the floor of the senate as we speak right

now. is there going to be legislation, a bill passed that will protect the so-called dreamers, the daca recipients in exchange for a lot more money for border security, including a new wall that the president wants built along the u.s./mexico border? >> well, that's what i've been working for, to make sure that we can allow those dreamers, the young people who were brought to this country through no fault of their own by their parents are able to stay here, that they can go to college, serve in our military, that they can work in productive jobs. i hope we'll be able to make a deal that the majority of 60 votes of democrats and republicans can support. >> will you support $18 billion for that wall? apparently that's what the president wants in the budget, plus billions more for other security elements. >> we've heard from the department of homeland security

that they could use about $2.5 billion in the next year to address security along our border. i support that. i think we need to interdict drugs that are coming in. we have a huge opioid epidemic in new hampshire. i want to make sure that those drugs aren't coming across the border and people aren't coming into the country that are a threat to the country. i think we're not going to set up a slush fund that the administration can take money from at any time over the next ten years. what we need to do is make sure that there is a commitment to border security, that there is oversight for those dollars and that we know how they're going to be spent. >> senator chahine, thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> concerns about the administration is not able to contain the rob porter abuse scandal and, of course, the president's lawyer claiming he

personally paid a porn star to protect then candidate donald trump. we'll have a lot more on that. new information coming in. stay with us. we'll be back.

vice president mike pence spoke earlier this hour, was asked about the infamous scene at the olympics last week when he was sitting very close to kim jong-un's sister. >> i didn't avoid the dictator's sister. but i did ignore her. i didn't believe it was proper for the united states of america to give any countenance or attention to someone in that form that is not only the sister of the dictator but leader of the propaganda effort. this is a family that very recently order ed that their

brother be murdered using chemical weapons, and the world saw that in horror on airport videos reproduced. this is a regime and a family that also ordered that their uncle be executed with artillery fire in front of a crowd of 10,000 people. and she's the leader of the propaganda effort in that government. >> more on north korea coming up later. in the situation room, 5:00 p.m. eastern. meantime the news continues right now. wolf, thank you. i'm brooke baldwin and you're watching cnn. this is not normal. this colossal blowback over rob porter working at