black cast. that drew praise from michelle obama. tweeting because of you young people will finally see superheroes that look like them on the big screen. >> the director is 31 years old. kudos to him. i want to see it. thanks for joining us. not right now. i'm watching "new day." i'm christine romans. >> i'm dave briggs. "new day" starts right now. see you tomorrow. i have i have stared down the barrel of an ar-15 the way you have not. >> he wants to improve national background checks. >> unstable, dangerous people should never have access to a deadly weapon. >> i want to see action. i don't want to see talk. >> did it worry you, here's a depressed 19-year-old with an ar-15. >> never again should a student be silenced by gunshots. >> robert mueller has been

asking about jared kushner's personal business dealings during the presidential transition. >> the potential for conflict of interest is so enormous. >> the president appears to be lashing out at everyone but russia. >> we must defend our democracy. and that is not happening. >> announcer: this is "new day" with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. >> all right. welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. this is your "new day." it is tuesday, february 20th, 6:00 here in new york. here's our starting line. survivors of the florida school massacre are taking their fight to the state's capital. busloads of kids are heading to tallahassee today to demand a change to gun control laws. in washington, dozens of the teens demonstrating. 17 of them. of course, that's the number of lives lost in that shooting, they laid on the ground in silence symbolizing those lives in that attack. it comes as the white house signals that president trump is open to improving the nation's background checks for gun buyers. a new national poll finds that a

majority of you think the president and congress are not doing enough to stop mass shootings. okay. in other news, there are several developments in the russia investigation to tell you about. first, a cnn exclusive. special counsel robert mueller expanding his interest in jared kushner beyond kushner's contacts with russia. mueller now interested in kushner's efforts to get financing for his real estate ventures from foreign investors during the presidential transition. meanwhile, president trump is once again blaming president obama for not preventing russian meddling in the u.s. election. so why, then, has mr. trump still not imposed those sanctions on the kremlin that congress passed nearly unanimously months ago? we have it all covered. let's begin with cnn's rosa flores. she's live in parkland, florida, with our top story. what's the latest there, rosa? >> reporter: alisyn, good morning. student survivors are not taking no for an answer. they are hopping on buses today at 1:00 p.m. they're heading to the state

capital, demanding, insisting that state lawmakers listen to their voices. and they plan to challenge any state lawmaker who thinks, who believes that they might not know more about gun control than a student survivor who came face to face with death. >> my friends and i, my community and i have stared down the barrel of an ar-15 the way you have not. we have seen this weapon of war mow down people we know and love the way you have not. how dare you tell us we don't know what we're talking about. >> reporter: survivors of the high school massacre in florida demanding that lawmakers make changes to america's gun laws after the horror they lived to tell about. >> never again should a student be silenced by gunshot. never again should anyone fear going to school. >> the time for change wasn't now. the time for change was years ago. are you for taking steps to save

us or are you for taking nra blood money? we are not letting the united states be run by that terrorist organization. >> reporter: in washington, d.c., a group of teenagers staged a protest outside the white house. lying on the ground for three minutes to symbolize how long it took the killer to gun down 17 students and teachers last week. >> i want to see action. i don't want to see talk. a 19-year-old who can't purchase an alcoholic beverage should not be allowed to purchase an ar-15, a weapon of war, a weapon of destruction. it's absolutely absurd. >> reporter: a new national poll shows that 77% of americans do not think that congress is doing enough to prevent mass shootings, with 62% saying that president trump could do more. as for how to solve the problem, the majority of americans think that more effective mental health screenings and treatment could have prevented the massacre, while 58% think that stricter gun control laws could have had an impact.

the white house announcing that president trump supports efforts to improve the federal background check system. that after speaking with senator john cornyn friday about the bipartisan bill he's introduced that would strengthen how state and federal government report offenses that could prohibit people from buying a gun. but president trump's only action on guns since taking office undid restrictions aimed at mental illness. and the president's proposed budget would cut millions from existing background check systems. all this as cnn is learning more about the confessed killer. a law enforcement source says he purchased at least ten rifles in the last year. but the buying spree did not set off any red flags with authorities. the killer appearing in court monday for the second time. he kept his head down and said nothing. three more funerals and two visitations are scheduled for today, for the victims of this

senseless act of violence. meanwhile, in the school that you see behind me, the district planning its reopening in phases. first, staff are expected to return on friday with an orientation scheduled for sunday and the goal, an emphasis here on the word "goal," is for students to be back on tuesday. >> oh, my gosh -- >> that will be hard. >> let's bring in cnn political analyst, john avalon, and cnn washington correspondent for politico, ana palmer. so, john avalon, do you think the kids can create the momentum that nothing else has to date? do you think that we may see in washington -- i know they're starting at the state, but you see the kids at the nation's capital, as well, get the leaders out there saying, we need to figure out what we can do to stop the school shootings? >> i think these students are speaking with such moral clarity, in such a pointed manner that it's going to ratchet up the political pressure in a way that we didn't, we couldn't have seen after sandy hook. these kids are being amazing advocates for their own experience and putting the pressure on politicians in a way that's going to be difficult for

them to ignore. that's a positive thing for the country, at least in terms of congressman confronting the fact that we have had 180 districts that have seen a mass shooting. if you have a thing that 77% of americans agree on, 91 in the wake of sandy hook, how long can that be ignored? can these kids force the issue? i think they may be able to. >> so a hundred of them are taking a bus 400 miles today to go and talk to these lawmakers. and heaven help the lawmaker that looks them in the eye and tries to tell them this is tn't about guns. that was the talking point up until parkland. you know, it's not about guns. >> they're still saying it. >> but i do sense something changed that day. and they are saying, how dare you tell us that it's not about guns. >> yeah, i mean, they are a face of this issue in a way that we've never seen before. i definitely agree with you, but i am much more pessimistic, as somebody who spends their time in the halls of congress, talking to members of congress. we have been here before. this is a political wedge issue.

until the gun control movement wins some big races, potentially in the midterms, and there is some real movement saying, if you don't vote with us, you're going to lose your seat. i am very skeptical that washington actually does anything. >> look, ana's got a good point. there's a misconception about the nra that it's their money that changes the game. it's the votes. people come out and vote on this issue for them the way the gun control people and the people who want sensible reform don't. but -- >> but the money helps. >> what? money always helps. there's a lot of money in the game. but it's not just the money. there is some progress here that i didn't see coming. and the florida state legislature, okay? florida is not known for being ahead of the curve when it comes to gun laws. but this is what's being put out by the republican head of the senate there. william saint galvano, goes by bill. raise the age to purchase firearms to 21. waiting period to purchase any type of gun, banning bump

stocks. remember the president saying that after las vegas, never did. create gun-violence restraining orders. now, john, domestic violence, you get hooked with an order of protection, it's supposed to be registered into the gun -- happens sometimes, sometimes it doesn't. this would allow families and others to go to a judge and say, this kid should not have a gun right now and get a delay. >> it could have stopped this one. >> it could have stopped this one. and the cornyn/murphy bill is motivated by the texas shooting. this bill is an example of reasonable gun reform that should be able to get bipartisan support. forget all the fearmongering about the federal government coming to take your guns. there are things reasonable people can do to keep weapons of war from falling into the hands of people that are mentally unstable. >> one thing they did which was very effective, some lawmakers had to tour the school right after the carnage. they saw what the inside of that school looked like. if wayne lapierre of the nra had to tour that school, maybe he

would feel differently, too. again, these kids have seen it with their own eyes. that's why they can speak with the moral clarity that you're talking about. whereas, in your air conditioned office hundreds of miles away or in washington, d.c., you don't have to confront those things. >> yeah. i mean, i think this is going to be the first generation that our teens are going through this, you know, month after month, and this could be kind of that turning point, where you look at republicans in particular, who are going to need to find these kids who are going to be 18, 19, 20-year-old voters in the midterms, in 2020, that you could see this kind of be that galvanizing issue, when if they have to go down in the school and say, wow, this happened here. >> right. and look, it's going to get frustrating for people assuming the energy stays. that's the problem. other things are going to get in the way. even the mueller indictments. they matter. we'll talk about them this morning. things take energy about this. one, you have low fruit. you have something like bump stocks. you have a background check system, which anybody who knows anything about policy or regulation knows is incomplete. so you have that going.

but you have another wild card you have president donald trump has zero time-tested principle when it comes to guns, okay? i know they got the pictures of his sons holding up the -- you know, the animals in africa, that's not a good look. but him saying through the white house or whatever, i'll look at this. that could be a difference for his republicans. >> it could be a difference. and here you've got another case of trump versus trump. you know, before trump ran for president, he was actually a new yorker concerned about guns and the impact on our society when we were having 2,000 murders a year in new york city. and then, of course, he ran for president and got the nra endorsement early. so, yeah, he was apparently canvassi canvassing people at mar-a-lago about what to do about guns. >> no better way to keep in touch with the base than that? >> forget peoria, it's mar-a-lago. that's exactly right. so there may be an opportunity for him to do something unexpected. this is an issue, look, 88% of gun-owning families support universal background checks. this does not need to be as

polarizing or as paralyzed as it seems to be in the hall of congress, but it takes leadership. >> just to challenge your pessimism, because i'm on an optimism roll, here's the bipartisan cornyn/chris murphy bill, okay? so they have already tried the to do something in a bipartisan way. here are the elements of it. insure federal and state authorities comply with the existing law. that seems like a no-brainer. require them to report criminal history records to the background check. yes. who could argue with that? block bonus pay for failing to upload records to background check systems. there has to be some accountability. some punishment if you don't do that. but it would not strengthen background checks themselves. >> so it really makes you follow the law as it is. >> okay. so can this one pass? to me, the question is really carrot and stick. do fly to hathey try to have a . the assault weapon ban, that's

never going to happen. but does that become more real and you have congress 't do tha these things. >> and there's a conversation about mental health that we've had to have for a long time. there are ways to identify people who are at risk for suicide. people who think, that's not what this is. it is. and you will see in the research, rii'm trying to get o of the founders of a program that makes a big difference in the military and states all over, just by asking the right questions to people. there are changes you can have. the gun control people have to be open about talking about something else and the people who are retractable have to be open to talking. >> thank you very much, john and ana. >> this matters and it will not go away. tomorrow night, cnn is hosting a live town hall with students skparand parents from parkland, florida. jake tapper will host it. it's called "stand up: the students of stoneman douglas

demand action now." tomorrow, 9:00 p.m. eastern, please watch. up next, we have a cnn exclusive for you. special counsel robert mueller expanding his interest in jared kushner beyond just contacts with russians. what will mueller is looking at now.

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during the presidential transition period. we have abby phillip live at the white house with more. what do we know? >> reporter: well, good morning. sources tell cnn that this new interest by special counsel robert mueller centers around jared kushner's activities during the presidential transition, when he was also apparently seeking financing for a troubled debt-ridden property in new york city, 666 fifth avenue. now, these meetings include meetings with chinese and qatarry investors, including one chinese meeting that happened about a week after the election. now, both deals apparently fell through, but this new interest indicates that the special counsel is veering beyond kushner's potential interest in meetings with russian investors during that time. and perhaps veering into president trump's red line. listen to what president trump told "the new york times" last year about whether he felt that the special counsel talking about his family's businesses or his businesses would cross he has red line.

listen. >> mueller is looking at your finances and your family's finances, unrelated to russia. is that a red line? >> would that be a breach of what his actual -- >> i would say yes. i would say yes. >> reporter: we also know that the special counsel has not yet requested documents from the kushner companies or interviews with other executives from the kushner businesses. and we have this statement from abbe lowell, the lawyer for jared kushner, in response to the story. he said, another anonymous source with questionable motives now contradicts the facts. in all of pmr. kushner's extensive cooperation with inquiries, there has not been a single question asked or documents sought on the 666 building or kushner company deals nor would there be any reason to question these regular business deals. this russia probe has been advancing. there were some major developments last week with the indictment of 13 russian officials. and president trump has, of course, been tweeting about it

relentlessly over the past weekend, including last night, when he blamed president obama, his predecessor, for failing to do enough to stop russian interference, chris. >> we'll get into all of that, abby, including what he is doing to stop russian interference. thank you very much for that reporting. joining us now, our cnn political analyst, john avalon, and cnn legal analyst, cory cordero. so just on the politics, jared kushner, according to our reporting, tried to secure financing for his real estate ventures from foreign investors, during the presidential transition. talk about drain the swamp. how is that working for the american people? >> look, it's just your typical $1.8 billion mortgage with $1.4 in debt. >> that's what he has. >> and to be fair, that's going to create a lot of pressure. but, yes, during the transition, jared kushner, who has now divested himself of this property, was meeting with ha high-level foreign business leaders, some of which were attracted to china. now, as abbe lowell, kushner's

lawyer says, they've requested no documents. but that float, that anxiety, and meeting with high-level foreign officials connected with governments under the auspices of business, that's a problem. that's knee-deep in the swamp. >> so what do you make of the fact that they haven't asked for documents yet. reviewing finances would be somewhat fundamental to this. what are we missing? >> it could be -- abbe lowell's statement is an invitation in some respects to the special counsel's office. but at this stage, they can still obtain information through other sources. they can obtain information through witness. they can request documents from third parties. that is, other companies that might hold documents about the transaction or about his companies. and you know, in the gates and manafort case, the special counsel's office actually pierced some privilege issues with respect to accountants. so there are other avenues where they can get some of this information. >> john, what does all of this mean for jared kushner's

security clearance? he does not have a full security clearance. we stumbled upon this with the rob porter case, with the domestic violence allegations. so he has an interim security clearance. so, how long can he handle classified information? >> well, the interim -- you know, the utility of the interim clearance expires after a while. allegedly john kelly in the wake of porter is saying, look, we have to roadway assee-assess th. if you're still working at the white house a area later and don't have a security clearance, we have a problem. the fact that he's looking at cubn kushner isn't going to help his case. >> at the end of the day, carrie, you're the expert on this stuff, they may have questions with the process of how this got vetted and how it is ongoing, but if the white house wants him to see things, they're going to be able to make it happen, just through executive privilege, no? >> well, i wouldn't quite put it in the context of executive privilege, but basically the revised rules that john kelly

announced last week included a caveat, which is that if he wants to extend somebody's temporary interim clearance, than he can go ahead and do so. but it really is counter to the way that the regulations are supposed to work. and what's interesting is, there's actually an existing executive order that says that a person cannot be granted a clearance solely based on their title or their affiliation or their rank. so being the president -- by the president just saying, well, this is who i want to be my adviser. or, this is my family member, so i want them to have a security clearance. under the way that things have normally worked, that's not the way it's supposed to happen. >> remember when donald trump really cared about classified information slipping into the wrong hands. >> oh, that was then. this is now. >> honestly, that's the explanation. >> lock her up! >> yeah. though she was sending e-mails to people with security clearances. >> yeah. these are tsunamis of situational ethics.

this is, unfortunately, the new normal in washington. and sane is the new normal, people. >> well, it takes us back to that whole discussion which begins with -- well, what did we know and when did we know with this? and there's no question that the obama administration had what they would call a tough choice. and you can argue, john, they made the wrong choice. their take is this, when we found out and have the information, with one, we didn't know what we know now. >> about possible connections with russia. >> right. but when we knew, we put out notice -- and arguablrguably, td it belatedly and pretty quiet. he said they then went to mitch mcconnell and wanted to do it in a big way, he didn't want to do that. now trump says blame obama. but he has been anything but outfront in dealing with the russian threat. >> you can fault the obama administration for being too passive on this issue. you know, the intelligence agencies put out a report in october, but obama met with mitch mcconnell, you know, and

mcconnell may dispute some details, but the reporting all says that mcconnell said, look, let's not go public with russians trying to interfere with the elections on trump's behalf. and the obama people maybe thought, that may look like we're trying to put our finger on the scale. and they deprived the american people of a crucial bit of information. after the election, he yanked a couple of properties from the russians. the sanctions that we're discussing a lot right now get implemented. allegedly what led to michael flynn getting into trouble. he's back-channelling saying, don't worry about this. but the attempt to deflect the issue doesn't quite fit the circumstance, at all. >> not only that, carrie, the president, president trump is not fully implementing the sanctions that congress passed nearly unanimously. so if he -- how can he blame president obama for not doing enough when those sanctions have not been implemented? >> well, beyond just the

sanctions. this administration has no strategy, no policy that they have articulated the for countering what has been identified as this russian intelligence operation, targeting the u.s. but i would break the criticism in the obama administration into two parts. what did they do before the election and during the transition? from november to january? and before the election, i understand why they were concerned about not politicizing intelligence information, although having worked on transparency issues for a long time, i think that they could have been more forward leaning in terms of the information that they released in the october 2016 statement was just too little, too late. on the other hand, from once he won the election, from november to january, i think they missed an opportunity there. now, maybe they were just so business with figuring out what to do and how to hand things off in a way they didn't expect, but they could have done more during that period. >> fair criticism. carrie, thank you very much. john, as well. mitt romney getting a

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ross" in the black sea is proactive, not reactive. russia reinforced its military forces in the area after it annexed crimea from ukraine in 2014. updating you now on a story we told you about yesterday. an uber's driv eats driver is a of shooting and killing a customer. now that driver has surrendered to atlanta police. 36-year-old robert bivens turning himself in on monday. police say bivens opened fire on robert thornton after an accident on thursday night. he said he was angrily charged at of his food arrived late. the family who took in the florida high school shooter speaking out, trying to come to grips with what he has now confessed with doing. >> how do you guys process this? how do you explain -- >> we can't. we don't know. we're lost. we have no answers. >> if you saw nick right now,

what would you say to him? >> okay. so our interview with kimberly and james sneed and what they say he was like when he lived with them, next. if you have moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis and you're talking to your rheumatologist about a medication, this is humira. this is humira helping to relieve my pain and protect my joints from further irreversible damage. this is humira helping me reach for more. humira has been clinically studied for over 20 years. humira works for many adults. it targets and blocks a specific source of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection.

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the couple who took in the parkland school killer after his adopted mother's death last fall are now speaking out. james and kimberly snead say they did not know that a monster was living under their roof. a spoke with them at jfk airport and here's some of what they had to say. so tell us what nick was like when he lived with you guys. >> he was -- he was very respectful. he was a little quirky, a little socially awkward. >> he was kuwait. >> -- quiet. >> he told us he was depressed. we knew he was depressed. >> when you say he was quirky, give us a sense of what that looked like? >> he was trying to fit in. he didn't know what to say or how to say it or when to say it. he apologized a lot. if we asked him to clean up

after himself or something, he would apologize and say he was sorry. don't have to be sorry, just do it. >> did you know he had these problems at the school? >> i knew he was kicked out of stoneman douglas. i didn't know why. i asked him. he said for fighting. and that was it. when he came in to live with us. and part of it was getting him back in school, i tried to get him back in stoneman douglas. and they basically told me no, so we put him in an adult education center. >> what was he studying -- >> just trying to get his high school diploma. and he was doing well. he was doing really well. he was proud of what he was doing. he told me every day, you know, he took how many quizzes, how many tests, and did good on them. >> there are different reports of him having been violent at time, different reports of him having been rude to teachers, being profane, using bad words. did any of that ever come out? did you see any flashes of that? >> not at all. not at all. >> do you know where he bought the gun? >> no. when i talked to him about coming to the house, i made sure

they were purchased legal. i asked him. and i asked for the paperwork. and he provided everything and it was okay. >> how many did he have? >> i'm not sure. >> he moved into your house, you saw one or more than one? >> there were a few. but he had a couple of pellet guns, too. i don't know which was which. and it really doesn't matter what he had. they were under lock and key. >> does it worry you, here's a depressed 19-year-old with an ar-15? >> no. >> no. >> i mean -- >> to me, the depression was more stemmed from losing his mother, not from all the things they said about him being bullied or things that happened in school and all the other issues that have now come out. i didn't know about any of those issues. i just thought it was about his mother, you know? the day i met him, i told him, you need to find somebody to talk to. we need to find you a professional to speak to. and the ball was rolling on that just days before all this happened. >> tell me about that. you took him to a counselor? >> i did. because i have my own, i have

someone i go and talk to. the last time i had gone, i introduced them. day got his name, they were going to start the insurance process to see what would be covered and he was going to start going. >> ironically, it probably would have been this week. >> right. >> so he was open to it? open to going counseling c? >> he asked me on more than one occasion? >> he recognized he needed help? >> i believe so. >> was he taking any medication? >> not that we know of. >> never saw any pills or any drugs? >> i offered him motrin for a headache, and he said, i don't like taking pills. he took it, eventually. i told him, i'm a nurse, you should do this, it will help your head. and he was thankful later, but he said, i really don't like taking medications. >> so tell me about what happened wednesday morning. >> i didn't talk to him wednesday morning. i talked to my son and he told me that nick told him the night before that his it was valentine's day and he didn't go to school on valentine's day. >> was there anything unusual about wednesday morning? >> just the fact that he was

home. i asked him, didn't go to school? and the same thing, about it being valentine's day. and i say, what about work? and he said, they didn't need me. and i said, what are you going to do? and he said, go fishing. and i had some errands and that's the last time i saw him. >> it came out that he had sent a couple of texts to your son while he was in the uber car on the way to the high school. does it ever cross your mind that he might have been looking for your son? >> every second of the day. >> what do you think those were about? >> i have no idea. i have no idea. i don't know if he was looking for him or trying to protect him or what. i don't know. >> is there any part of you that thinks that your son might have been target of when he was going over there? >> no. because he had every opportunity to hurt us if he wanted to. and he didn't. >> he told him two weeks prior that it was the happiest he'd been in his life, before all of

this. >> the happiest he's ever been in his life? >> yeah. >> so how do we -- how do you guys process this? how do you explain? >> we can't. we don't know. we're lost. we have no answers. >> if you saw nick right now, what would you say to him? >> i don't want to see him right now. i would tell him, i'm disappointed. we're hurt. we're angry. we want to know why. we want to know why. we helped him out, put him on a good path, he seemed to be doing well with it, and did he -- was he faking the whole time or -- we don't know. we have no idea. >> and kimberly, you had a moment, right, where you saw him. you went to the police station. can you tell us about that moment? >> just rage in my heart and mad at him and i just -- when they passed him by, i basically went after him and just said, really, nick, really? and he pulled me back in the room. so that's -- >> and what did he say to you?

i didn't hear -- he heard him apologize. >> he said he was sorry. >> what did you see in that moment when you looked at him? >> he was lost. he was lost. >> what do you want to say to the family? >> there's really nothing i can say to comfort them. we feel for them, our heart aches for them. and hopefully something good will come out of this. we're trying to figure that out. >> what would that be? what kind of -- what would you call for? what's the -- >> i am proud of the students taking up for their own and demanding changes. i think that's very important and maybe somebody will listen. >> how does your son feel about having to go back to school? >> he has mixed emotions. he wants to go back. he wants to see his friends. he's more willing to go than we are willing to let him at this point. >> you're nervous? >> absolutely. >> why? what do you think could happen? >> his friends know him and know he's a good person, but there's people there that may not know him. and we don't want, you know,

anything to happen to him. >> well, all parents are nervous right now, but of course, they in particular, when word gets out that they took in this killer. they took him in around thanksgiving, obviously, trying to do the right thing. offer him a loving family support. he was at loose ends. his mom had died. and you heard them. there's no way to predict, really, that something like this will happen. >> well, look, for them, no. because they don't know what to look for. >> that's right. >> and they are like many parents. this fact pattern is a little different, because you had this kid who was adopted, he loses his mother. these people just take him. >> they did their own due diligence. you heard them say, did you get the guns legally? that was their due diligence. yes, there were a million red flags, but not for them. >> we don't know what they really said, what they really did in terms of what they knew about his gun situation or what they were comfortable with or what they weren't. and there is going to be a

sensitivity to those questions right now. but here's what you know. you get a 19-year-old kid. you can't make him get medical treatment. she's a nurse, and still, don't know if he's on any medication puppet to get him help, but you really can't. that's a big part of this issue, as well. >> we'll continue talking about this throughout the program. here's something that's making headlines of a very different variety. fergie's national anthem rendition. what the singer says about this -- ♪ the bombs bursting in air at holiday inn express, we can't guarantee that you'll be able to contain yourself

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so the usa, that team is the biggest delegation at the olympics, but the country is struggling to keep up in the medal count at the winter olympics. coy wire has more in the bleacher report live from south korea. it is such an event to behold, but the u.s., not pulling its weight. >> reporter: yeah, chris, as you mentioned, more athletes comp e competing in these games than any nation in winter olympics history with 242, but they are

struggling to stack those medals. in the last four winter games, americans have finished either first or second in total medal count but the chances o of th s are looking slim this time. norway dominating with 28 overall. you see down there rounding out the top five, tied with france at 12 medals is team usa. i caught up with team usa silver medalist nick gephardt earlier today and asked him what he feels about what's going on. >> it's kind of a bummer. it's a wake-up call for us. i pride myself on being an american and being really, really good at what i do, big the best in the world. and i hope the other u.s. athletes feel the same and we go in and dominate these next few olympics. >> and back in the states, fergie apologizing for her widely criticized rendition of the national anthem before the nba all-star game.

♪ through, through that night ♪ that our flag >> she put her own unique touch on the song there. her unique touch and told tmz sports it didn't strike the intended tone. she also said, quote, i love this country and honestly tried my best, unquote. alisyn, usa's medal count, the most decorated alpine skier in the world, lindsey vonn, competes in downhill, her best event. >> that is exciting, coy. thank you very much. listen, fergie tried something different. she tried to mix it up. she tried something different. >> she is a very talented performer. i think the bar is forgetting the words. i do too. i think the bar is roseanne barr. anyway, we have a special exclusive for you. special counsel robert mueller now looking into jared kushner's foreign financing efforts for his own company during the

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more on that cnn exclusive. people familiar with special counsel bob mueller's investigation say mueller is digging into jared kushner's attempts to secure financing for his company from foreign investors during the presidential transition. joining us now, former trump campaign adviser, michael k caputo. good to see you, michael. >> good to see you, chris. thanks for the invitation. >> you say you are unimpressed by this news of what mueller may be looking at. why? >> well, first of all, i don't know if the leak is true. we saw this leak about rick gates and paul manafort also. it came from the mueller operation. i think that's completely bogus. but also at the same time, you know, whatever jared kushner was doing during the transition, i think that's something that any

investigator would have, you know, the wherewithal to look at. he was working on behalf of this nation. and if at the time he was continuing to pursue his business interest, it would be of interest to the special counsel. and i think this is much ado about nothing. >> how do you know, if you agree that it is something that would be a legitimate enterprise for the special counsel and we don't know what has been found, we do know that there was a lot of questions and concerns about what kushner was doing, while on government time. so how can you be so sure how it comes out? >> well, i don't know how it's going to come out, obviously, you know, whatever the special counsel is doing will come out in the wash. but at the same time, the idea that the special counsel is looking at what jared kushner and others were doing with their private businesses, while they were on the transition team and then later in the white house, you know, that's something that we all should assume that the special counsel is doing. >> and why does the gates thing rub you as nothing? if gates is cooperating with the

special prosecutor and is going to testify against manafort, then why would you dismiss that as not true? >> first of all, i think both manafort and gates are cooperating with the special counsel, but the idea that rick gates has somehow caved and going to make some state's evidence against manafort, it's all crap. and i think in the end, when this leak is proven to be false, you know, where does everybody get their reputations back? really, if you look, and it has all the markings of a strategic leak by an investigation or by a prosecutor, to try to force someone to do something. that's what this is. and i wish that the people who had written that story up had written it truthfully. >> but how do you know what the truth is? how do you know that gates hasn't made a deal with him? have you spoken to them? >> i've spoken to rick. i've spoken to paul. >> so did gates say this isn't true? i did not cut any deal?

>> i did not ask rick about this. i saw him last week. i just find this completely out of character. but really within the character of the mueller investigation, to leak it. and really within the character of journalists to carry it like stenographers. >> well, first of all, leaks are part of the currency of journalism and the only people that don't like them are the people that the leaks work against. >> and also those who are worried about the rule of law, because they're illegal. >> right. but mueller being a leak machine, or however you characterized, is almost without basis. >> i don't characterize it that way. >> we have learned so little about what is going on in that investigation. uncharacteristically so, i would argue. if anything, this investigation has been an example of integr y integrity, not a sieve. >> i don't characterize director mueller or those around him as leakers. >> you just kind of said that, michael. >> but already leaks coming out. cnn has been the beneficiary of some of them. they're still illegal.

and even though it might be a tactical move to try to push, you know, a target into cooperation, it's still illegal. and it did come from the mueller investigation. the stories directly say that. i think the "l.a. times" story that kocame out of this and the others that came out of this regarding gates and manafort, none of those reporters are going to turn around and say "they're sorry" in the end. this is another leak from an investigation that really must, in my mind, upset director mueller. >> i'm just saying, all leaks are not equal. so we'll have to see where it comes out and you can judge the process at that point. let me ask you something about the russia investigation in general. you know russian culture, russian political culture well. you worked there. you know people. you are not surprised by russian interference. you say that this is something that needed to be pinpointed for decades. so you believe that russia interfered in this election? yes? >> no doubt. i believe that russia interferes in all of the elections of,

let's say, for example, the security counsel from the united nations. we also do things to manipulate elections overseas. i was sent to russia by the clinton administration to get involved in their elections. however, this whole thing, from the internet to research agency that's run by this oligarch named prigozhin, they call him the chef, this stuff had been going on since 2013. it's been in the news in russia for a while. >> so it's really. >> this needs to be shut down. >> it's nefarious. >> it's absolutely real. no question. >> you believe that in that. >> no doubt. >> what i don't understand is why would you echo this false narrative of, you want to know who really bred dissension in the election, it's the democrats and the media, they're the real problem, not russia. why would you endorse such a silly statement as that? >> i don't find that silly. i think a lot of the dissension that's been sewn since the election was entirely the responsibility of the democrats. i think the democrats have fed this bogus russian collusion narrative to the media, the media have gleefully swallowed

it because it's really good for ratings -- >> every one of the investigations is run by republicans, including the special counsel, who's way more of a republican than president trump has ever dreamed of being. >> i get that. and because of the republican involvement and republican leadership of these committees, the democrats have been really successful in this gambit. you know, i salute them as a cynical political operative, but as an american, i weep for my country. but at the same time, you know, when we look at this russia investigation and what's gone on since. and as this thing winds down, as it peters out and we're seeing that happening right now, unfortunately, the media and the democrats have painted this with such certainty that we're going to have our own version of 9/11 truthers out there who never will ever believe that the trump campaign did not collude with russia. >> well, let's i checked, it's not the media that's big into conspiracies these days. so let's see where the investigation winds up and we'll see how people play it. michael caputo, thank you for coming on and giving us your take, as