god. maddy's mother did so yesterday, i thank god for allowing us to be an instrument in this miracle. that's what it means to me, i was an instrument. >> that's very well said, lieutenant. we keep focusing on what's wrong in this situation, what needs to inning cha. it's also important to look at what's done right. we say it all the time, in the worst of human events we seed the best of human reactions very often. you are proof of that, you and your team. so thank you for what you did that day and making sure that we had more survivors and fewer victims. thank you, lee tenant. the best to you going forward. >> thank you, chris, for having me on your show. appreciate it. >> the pleasure is ours. all right. we're following a lot of news this morning. what do you say? let's get after it. >> i really believe i'd run in even if i didn't have a weapon. >> it's ridiculous. >> he was just stating he would have stepped in and hopefully

been able to help. >> the proposal to raise to 21 is common sense. >> i don't think we should be backing away from this issue. >> bump stocks, i don't care if congress does it or not. i'm writing it out myself. >> in his case he deserves credit for this. i hope he'll keep it up. >> the fisa application had an arsenal of evidence on carter page. >> it's just a continuation of the same game the dnc has been playing. >> we can't have our intelligence agencies target one political party against another. >> he can call it political dirt. that doesn't mean the dossier is true or not true. >> this is "new day" with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. >> good morning. welcome to your "new day." it's tuesday, february 27th,al:00 in the east. president trump urging congress to change the gun laws. president trump appears to be backing away from the idea of raising the age limit to buy rifles to 21. the president also says, unlike

the school resource officer, he would have rushed into the school, even if he did not have a gun to stop the carnage. >> this morning president trump is focused on something very different. the president breaking a two-day hiatus on twitter with several posts this morning about the russia investigation, once again calling it a witch hunt. literally his tweet is just those two words. tweets come as his communications director hope hicks will meet privately with the house intel committee. will she invoke executive privilege? can she? let's begin with cnn's abby phillip at the white house. >> reporter: good morning, chris. president trump today has a meeting with a bipartisan group of lawmakers where he'll have an opportunity to hear feedback about gun control measures being considered now. despite the fact that he says he's willing to go up against the nra to push the gun laws, the question remains how far is he willing to go to push congress to act? >> don't worry about the nra.

they're on our side. half of you are so afraid of the nrr. there's nothing to be afraid of. >> reporter: president trump wanting stricter background checks. >> if they're not with you, we have to fight them every once in a while. that's okay. they're doing what they think is right. >> reporter: it comes after his weekend meetings with the leaders of the nra despite his willingness to break with nra positions, sources tell cnn the president appears to be backing away from changing the legal age to purchase a rifle from 18 to 21 after publicly considering the idea. the white house says the president did not discuss the age limit issue with governors. >> when they don't bring it up, that's telling to him. >> we go to war at 18, you vote at 18. >> it's very inconsistent. >> reporter: as congress struggles to find common ground, the president signaling a willingness to take executive action against bump stocks. >> bump stocks, i'm writing that out myself.

i don't care if congress does it or not. i'm writing it out myself. >> reporter: the president doubling down on his criticism of broward county deputies who didn't rush into the school to save lives. >> the way they performed was frankly disgusting. >> reporter: mr. trump even going so far as to suggest he would have acted even if he didn't have a gun. >> i really believe i'd run in even if i didn't have a weapon. i think most of the people in this room would have done that, too, because i know most of you. the way they performed was really a disgrace. >> reporter: the president making the argument again forearming teachers. >> they don't love the students, they don't know the students. the teachers love the students and want to protect those students. >> reporter: washington state's democratic governor rejects that idea. >> educators should educate and should not be foisted upon this responsibility of packing heat in first grade classes. i just suggest we need a little less tweeting, a little more listening. >> reporter: lawmakers floating a few proposals during

congress's first day back in session, including the fix nix people, giving states and federal agencies ability to make more entries into the background check system, a draft proposal to race the purchase age for long guns and an assault weapons ban. >> alisyn and chris, it appears we're well in the middle of a major tweet storm by the president. he is ending about three days of silence on social media after tweeting on saturday night about russia, he's now back on tuesday morning tweeting about russia again. there's no word yet from the president on his twitter feed about the gun issue. he's simply tweeting about witch hunts, as you can see. >> abby, thank you very much. we'll get to that in a moment. we have cnn political director david chalian and reporter and editor at large for cnn politics, chris cillizza. we'll talk about the tweet storm. we have our umbrellas ready. let's talk about what's happening on the hill and in the white house with attempts to

fight gun violence. david, this is going to take leadership, obviously, from the president. congress approaches this obviously from very different sides, so the president is going to have to lead on this if something is going to be done. what do you think is going to happen this week? >> it's not just any president, but because donald trump is a republican president who arrived in office with a ton of support from the nra, he's uniquely positioned to actually try to bring some change here if he wanted to. that's a real sort of leadership opportunity for him. i sound like a broken record, but i don't see much movement on this on capitol hill. i think we sense that president trump is stepping away from some of the things he's floated, not a rush for action. >> the age minimum sounds like he met with the nra this past weekend and has shifted his position -- >> in our brand new poll,

alisyn, banning anyone under the age of 21 from getting firearms, that has majority support among republicans, democrats and independents across the board, more than 70% of americans support it and yet he's backing away from it. >> in the polls, in the polls it has majority support. in this moment of great excitement and enthusiasm about these survivors and how articulate they are and what they promise they are for our future. chris, the reason -- one of the reasons you've got to love alisyn is the optimism. >> one of the many. >> the list is too damn long. >> it's only a three-hour show. >> who's got the time. i'm working on a book. so far, five volumes. chris cillizza, when it comes to the political realities of what will drive people to the polls, we've never seen people vote on it.

tell me i'm wrong. >> no, you're right. that's always the issue, is that lawmakers, when they look at something like this and they think to themselves i know there's a political price to pay, whether that's the nra keeping money from me, whether it's gun owners in my district walking away, i know there's a price to pay for going against broadly speaking gun rights. i'm not sure there's a price to pay for going against, again, broadly speaking, more gun control. the reason for that is the gun control end of this debate has never been politically organized enough or well financed enough to make it politically painful for people who go against their agenda. david is exactly right in citing the polling. the polling, this is not new. yes, it is stronger support for gun control than we've seen in the recent past. lots of these proposals, including back to sandy hook had

majority support even though congress voted it down. the reason is simple. there's a disincentive to cross the nra and not that -- that disincentive is not believed to exist on the other side. that's why you see this thing that seems to not make sense right there. people want stricter gun laws. they approve of it. then why don't we have them? because the people who voted -- this is the perception, the people who vote on this issue, they will vote against you if you vote against gun rights. they won't vote for you if you vote for gun control. >> at every point there's a tipping point. i'm not willing to throw in the towel. it's two weeks later almost. we're still talking about it. sometimes these whoable tragedies have evaporated sooner than that. we have guests, one coming up in a minute, congressman sis linney

who has 120 co-sponsors in the house for the holy grail for banning assault weapons. we talked to congress brian mast, a republican calling for banning assault weapons. we didn't hear that after las veg vegas. now might be the moment. >> alisyn, i agree with you that this moment of conversation and discussion is -- feels different, is different sthan we've seen in the immediate aftermath of other mass shootings like this. to chris's point, whether or not we see that at the ballot box remains to be seen. >> how about -- where is the president on this? he came out of the box strong. we've seen that in the past where he has said, here is what we should do, but he hasn't acted on it. the nra with the governors, he sounded stroll, cillizza, he said you guys shouldn't be so afraid of the nra. it does make you suspicious of why he backed off the age thing.

we know the nra doesn't like the age thing. what's your read on that? >> i don't think he feels terribly strongly about it. i think he spent the last week listening to people. usually, if this issue is like most other issues, the last person he talks to is kind of the thing he says. he does not have a lot of existing beliefs as it relates to guns. to the extent he's voiced any positions, it's been much more in favor of gun control than gun rights. i think his main motive, what drives him is getting wins, getting points on the board, is signing things, turning that document around in the oval office and showing people, hey, look, i signed this. i think he wants to get something done, and i think he's more motivated to do that because he views it as a thing that barack obama couldn't do after sandy hook that donald

trump could do. he's not a big specifics guy on anything. and i think this is -- this included. that's why it's hard to pin him down because he, himself, doesn't know. >> open your umbrellas, low pressure system incoming. tweet storm. are you going to read the latest? >> sure. straight or dramatic readings? >> dramatic. >> let's start with the most recent one. witch hunt. this will not be one of the questions on the trivia game that has the world by storm every night. he's talking about the clinton situation and he's spent about five tweets this morning apparently watching fox news, hearing them talk with different experts -- >> talking about collusion. >> witch hunt. what else -- if he says witch hunt, he ain't talking about salem, massachusetts. he's talking about the russia investigation. we've seen no evidence of collusion, caps. i've seen nothing, the firing of james comey and all the aftermath that suggests the president obstructed justice because he's exercising his

power as president. that's from judge ken starr, he'll be on tomorrow. this is where the president's head is right now. >> i love, first of all, how the president has time to live blog cable television. it's fantastic. it want to point out, in our brand new cnn poll conducted by ssrs out this morning, the president is in a different place than a majority of americans on this. 61% of americans in this poll say it is a legitimate investigation, a minority say that this is all about just strieg to get the president. now, the story of this russia investigation in the polls all along, guys, where you sit politically is how you see this. there is a huge partisan divide here. republicans see it as an illegitimate exercise, and democrats overwhelmingly see it as a valid investigation.

independents side with the democrats on this one which is what gets you to that 61% majority. but the president is well aware of these numbers. when he types witch hunt in all caps on his twitter machine, he does it to make sure he is stoking his supporters and stick with him throughout what he knows is going to be a long process ahead still. >> remember one other quick thing, for all the talk about guns and all these other issues, follow his tweeter feed. that's what he's focused on, what he cares about. that's the closest we get to what's on his mind at any given moment. it is more often than not about russia. >> chris cillizza, david chalian, thank you very much. democratic congressman introducing an assault weapons ban as alisyn was just saying. how far will it go? what will he get in terms of buy-in from the republicans and democrats? we ask that lawmaker next.

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-right away, i could tell his priorities were a little unorthodox. -keep going. stop. a little bit down. stop. back up again. is this adequate sunlight for a komodo dragon? -yeah. -sure, i want that discount on car insurance just for owning a home, but i'm not compromising. -you're taking a shower? -water pressure's crucial, scott! it's like they say -- location, location, koi pond. -they don't say that. . we're starting to hear a groundswell of lawmakers calling for a ban on assault weapons. democrats in the house are proposing a new bill that would restore and build on the assault weapons ban that expired back in 2004. joining us is one of the congressmen behind that bill, democrat david cicilline. congressman, thank you for being here. as we understand it you're sponsoring this with congressman ted deutch. his district is parkland and he

was down there as we were in the aftermath of the shooting. look, the president doesn't support a ban on assault weapons. what are the chances of your bill. >> i introduced a bill with 164 original co-sponsors which is a tremendously strong showing of support. six of the ten deadliest mass shootings in recent history were committed by someone who bought an assault weapon and committed tremendous carnage. this is a real epidemic. we know the assault weapons ban worked because when the ban expired that was previously enacted, mass shootings increased by 133% in frequency. so this is something that is very specific. it can address the issue of mass shootings, eliminate putting more of these dangerous weapons into our communities, and i'm hoping this time will be different. when the first assault weapons ban was enacted it was after a

number of mass shootings and there was momentum building. i think the young people of parkland will help my colleagues find strength to do the right thing. >> 164 co-sponsors as you just reported to. how many republicans? >> those are all democrats. i have been in conversations with a number of republicans. as you reported already, brian mast has expressed publicly -- >> i think that's really relevant. we just had him on and he shares your feelings. so can you do something in a bipartisan way with him? >> i hope so. i've spoken to him, to a number of republican colleagues who are reviewing the bill. i hope they will join us in this effort. there are a number of good bills to help reduce gun violence in our country. i think the assault weapons ban is one of those. >> obviously you need speaker paul ryan's buy-in to even bring this to a vote. so where is he on this?

we haven't heard from him? >> i think, again, this is -- like so often is the case. this is going to require the continued engagement of the american people demanding that congress do something to keep our communities safe and reduce the epidemic of gun violence in this country. we'll continue to see activism around the country. folks demanding their congress do something. again, it's going to be incumbent on the individuals who are here in congress to listen to their constituents, to be sure they're doing something. we've got to keep the pressure on. this won't be easy. all these gun bills are going to be tough to pass because of the power of the gun lobby in this town. but i think it's time for people to stand up and do what's right for their constituents and do all we can to reduce gun violence. there's no one answer to fix it all. we can take a number of steps to significantly reduce gun violence in this country. >> what does that mean for speak

are paul ryan? have you heard from him? >> i think the speaker will ultimately decide if a bill comes to the floor. i don't think the speaker has expressed support for this bill. i'd encourage you to ask him. i think the support of the republican leadership will make a difference. there's no secret, we have not had a lot of support from our republican colleagues on any of these measures. we have dozens of gun safety proposals pending, unable to get a single one brought to the floor for a vote. we have a long record of supporting common sense gun safety legislation and our republican colleagues have a history of rejecting those. i think the continued pressure from the public to demand action will help us in that effort. >> what about what the president said yesterday, don't be afraid of the nra, sometimes you may have to fight them. they're not as powerful as you may think. that was his message to governors. what did you think of that? >> i tell people all the time,

this town is full of powerful lobbying and advocacy groups. the fact of the matter is, it's up to the members of congress to sift through these advocacy groups and arguments and do what's right for the american people. while the gun lobby is very powerful, every member of congress has the power to overcome that with his or her vote. we ought to stand up and do what's right for our constituents and the american people. >> as you know, when many americans who are gun enthusiasts and support gun rights, when they hear about an assault weapons ban, they think you want to take their guns or at least they say that. i don't even really know if they think you're going to confiscate their guns or it's a handy excuse, but they say they worry this is a slippery slope. what's your response? >> i think it is a very convenient argument. that argument is made any time we propose common sense gun safety legislation. the assault weapons ban would prevent the introduction of new

assault weapons into our communities, doesn't confiscate anyone's guns. they've been very clever in that argument, basically reject any common sense gun safety proposal because, understand, this is the first step of taking away your gun. i think it's been a very effective advocacy position and very effective in terms of their membership. the fact of the matter is, a majority of gun owners support an assault weapons ban. 67% of the american people support an assault weapons ban. these guns are designed to kill the greatest number of people over the shortest period of time. it would reduce the leathality and frequency of mass shootings. we have a responsibility to do something about it. the assault weapons ban that was previously enacted worked. we should do it again and listen to the voices of these eloquent young people who are telling the adults, you need to stop talking about this and get something done. >> again, everyone gets to keep their gun. the ban would not apply to any

existing guns that people own, just for new guns. >> right. which is exactly what the ban was when it was previously enacted by congress. the argument that someone is going to come take your gun, just not true. let's reduce the number and eliminate new guns, these very dangerous weapons coming into our communities. this is one step. there are many other things we can do and should do to reduce gun violence in our country. >> congressman cicilline, thank you very much for explaining your proposal to us. >> thanks for having me. back to some of the back and forth in the russia investigation. the democratic rebuttal to the republican memo arguing the justice department and the fbi began tracking the trump campaign aide carter page before the dossier was in their hands and that they did not overstep. what does carter page say about that? guess who is here? carter page, next. join the un-carrier right now, and get four unlimited lines for only thirty-five bucks each.

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. president trump helping out our next segment by ending his twitter hiatus and tweeting pretty much exclusively about his destain for the russia investigation. his most recent tweet, just two words, but it says it all. witch hunt. this comes as a new cnn poll shows a majority of americans do not believe president trump takes the russia investigation seriously enough. let's bring in carter page, a former trump campaign adviser who was the subject of fbi surveillance over his contact with russia. the house intel committee released duelling warrants about surveilling him. >> good to see you, chris. >> you have had counsel at some point, right, when you were going to talk to the fbi? >> on the witch hunt side, yes. >> does counsel ever say to you stop going on tv and talking about this situation, you are

creating a record for investigators? >> i'm not concerned about a record because the more the record comes out as we've seen in recent weeks and months, the better. now that we're starting to learn the truth, it couldn't get any better for me. >> we'll get into that. have you been contacted by the special counsel? >> i don't talk about that because they've been very professional in terms of keeping confidentiality. all i will say, chris, is i've been interrogated over 30 hours in total by both the executive branch and legislative branch. >> any by mueller? you don't have to tell me the substance. y they have allowed people to say, yeah, i talked to him. but have you talked to them at all, will you answer that? >> all i can say is someone leaked that i talked for ten hours to the fbi last march. >> that was before mueller which is why i'm asking. if you have concerns they're going to call you in, you said this, you said this, you said this, we checked it with this,

this and this. >> i have no can concerns. i'm trying to get out as much of the truth as i possibly can that i can remember. so many of these questions, particularly if you've been in over 30 hours of testimony, if somebody is nitpicking, they'll say, if there's a slight nuance between what you said at hour 12 and what you said at hour 27, i'm doing the best i can to the best of my recollection. >> you'll speak to anyone who wants to speak to you? >> i have been, that's true. >> that's true. here you are in the chair once again. you look at a lot of this stuff and say this is just not believable, so far fetched. but let me ask you something about this. isn't it's cally far fetched that if the fbi or whomever you want to put together as con spir sifts, we're going to surveil this guy, carter page, in a

circle by definition, we're going to surveil him but do it through a fisa court. we're going to do it weeks before the election and extend it well past the end of the election and that's how we will hurt trump. doesn't that sound equally far fetched as a caper? >> i think it's a cleanup act a little bit. they went down this path thinking that mrs. clinton was going to win. so now they've got to find something. so the more -- >> but trump and his supporters say, they went after carter page as a way to hurt trump. why you? why would they do that? now we know, there's so many other people they could have targeted with a lot more stuff to talk about that's close to the president than you. that doesn't make sense, does it? >> because if they want to start this russia collusion theory, what better way of doing that than having a photo of someone

actually in moscow in 2016? >> tons more with manafort and he was front and center in the campaign. >> was he ever in russia in 2016? >> i don't know. >> i don't think so. >> in terms of, if you wanted to plant seeds, you're just not the right target. i'm not saying i have no opinion plus or minus on what they have on you. i don't know. what i'm saying is you would not be the first place to start. would you acknowledge that? >> i'm a private figure. i seem quite outspoken now. i'm hoping to go into the woods some day after this is all said and done. i'm just trying to get the truth out to make up for the terrible damage that was done for our democracy. >> in terms of damage for the democra democracy, you don't deny russians interfered in the election, do you? >> all the evidence i've seen so far, chris, indicates that there was much more interference by the u.s. government compared to the russian government. >> wait. you think that the united states

government interfered in this last election more than the russians did? >> if you look at the january 6, 2017 dni report, there are two themes. number one, hacking, number two, government propaganda, fake news. >> troll farms and other types of social media seeding. >> actually, no. that report talks about the two main state-controlled assets, rt and sputnik. >> i'm saying the understandings from the intelligence community and what has come out to us through all the different allegations is russia had a concerted effort to try to mess with people's minds during this election and did it to some great effect. how it affected the election, we don't know. but it was certainly an ernest effort on their behalf. you say no? >> again, looet's look at evidee that we have. no one examined the dnc's server. that was outsourced to some law

firm-hired consultant to look at it, instead of allowing the fbi to have a look. now we understand why i think. >> why? why shine a light on the unknown for purposes of speculation and ignore what is known. they know that russian troll farms that were working with them were trying to disseminate negative information and seed different types of opposition here during the election. >> that's the second theme. i was talking about the hacking. we know i've been hacked. >> understood. but i'm saying why deny russia is trying to mess with our election? why do that? >> look, i have no evidence -- if you compare everything that was written and said by rt and sputnik and compare that to radio-free europe, 45 days before the election, give or take, and two days before the election, putting out this fake story, word we're of the dossier -- >> we'll get to the dossier.

all this stuff on social media that has been shown to be what we call now bots as part of our common vernacular, you know all that is there. you know the proof of it is fairly clear. why ignore it in favor of another political theory? because it makes you look like you're a little sympathetic to the cause. >> i'm sympathetic to facts, chris. it was interesting the indictment a couple weeks ago, they were talking about a couple million dollars here, maybe a couple thousand dollars in some swing states. compare that to radio-free europe sponsored by the federal agency broadcasting board of governors. they had a budget of over $100 million. this is a big operation based in washington. >> it's immaterial to what we're talking about. i'm not saying what you like and don't like. they indicted 13 different people. could have done 55 or 60 based on what they're looking at. why ignore that? it puts you in a bad light?

>> you can't find a republican who is involved with these investigations. even nunes, i bet you, if you asked him specifically, do you think the russians interfered? forget about the trump campaign, forget about collusion. they all say yes, the proof is there. was trump or any of his people involved, then you start getting different opinions, but not on whether or not the russians interfered. >> chairman nunes, you're absolutely right, we have totally different perspectives on things. that's the beauty of democracy. >> no, no. the beauty of democracy is the free ideas -- not on facts. you can have your own opinion, not your own facts. the russians tried to interfere in the election. that's a fact. to fight it raises suspiciouses of motivation. >> all i know is what i personally experienced. >> that's not the basis for opinion. you're too smart for that, carter. the idea of what i know personally, that's not how we look at this. i'll give you that on the memos

and how they affect you and your situation potentially. the dossier -- what do you call it the dodgy dossier, they got it several weeks after they had already been looking into the situation. in the fisa application, you'll say it was just a footnote. but it was disclosed to the court where it came from. the president got it wrong i think, where he said the fbi didn't diskwloes who the clients were. i think he was misreading recent information that christopher steele may not have been told who the clients were when he was doing his work for axios. that's different. the president goss it wrong, not unusual. the court knew where it was coming from. it wasn't part of the only application, and four different judges approved or extended it. what's wrong with that set of criteria in terms of surveilling somebody. what they found, what they didn't find? i don't know. >> chris, district court judges who sit on the fisa court, it

hasn't been fully refield, their ideas as of yet. if you look at how business sir their schedules are, they're just jammed with information. to have them be stuck with trying to figure out something that's hidden in a footnote which, oh, by the way, in the long couple of line paragraph, it took them five footnotes to actually define what they're talking about. it's like reading hieroglyphics. >> that works against your own point. if you want to hide something, you don't put it in. if you are going to put it in, you put it in one footnote, not five. >> it was one sentence in the initial submission and then for the democrats to try to explain what the heck they're talking about, it takes five little footnotes to explain what this all means. >> give me a quick take on what you think the balance of information shows between the nunes memo and the schiff memo about your situation.

>> the beauty of it is, chris, the more information comes out, the better. it's excellent the fact that there's a lot of pressure now to release the whole fiegs is a application and all four of them. it's so ridiculous. the more information we keep getting, the worse it seems. i think both of them support -- are very supportive in a lot of ways. >> once again for the record, you never met with for purposes of collusion, tried to steer the trump campaign towards sympathetic efforts with the russian government or tried to negotiate on behalf of any russian agents anything to help russian politics, like with sanctions, with the trump administration? >> not only is that true, chris. when i spent a couple days in moscow in july 2016, i was trying to do everything possible to stay as low profile and not start any waves so that there's no kind of questions or potential -- i knew -- it seemed like there might be some

possibility that someone would try to pin something on me, right? >> why did you go? >> it was -- i've spoken at universities in moscow going back 15-plus years. >> but if you thought people were going to find it suspicious, if you thought the russians may try to work you, why put yourself in the situation? >> no one in russia has ever tried to work me. >> government sources say in their investigating, the russians did see you as a target of opportunity. >> they say that, and i think they said a lot of things january 6, 2017, that they got wrong as well. >> carter page, you are always welcome to come here and be tested and make your case to the american people. >> thanks, chris. the students in parkland will go back to school tomorrow at stoneman douglas high. how are they feeling as they prepare to go back to that scene? we have two survivors joining us ahead. with public services without starting from scratch. it brings your business up to speed, doing more with systems you have in place.

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time now for the things to know for your new day. sources tell cnn that president trump appears to be backing away from his call last week to increase the age limit for assault weapon purchases to 21.

instead, he's telling the nation's governors to challenge the nra to implement stricter background checks saying, quote, they're on our side. broward county sheriff scott israel claiming his deputies were called to the home of the florida killer 23 times. records obtained by cnn show there were double that number of calls in the last decade. white house communications director hope hicks expected to meet privately with the house intelligence committee. her scheduled appearance last month was posed posed over questions over the scope of her testimony. federal reserve chief jerome powell is expected to say today that inflation and interest rates will continue to rise this year. powell also set to down play concerns about recent market volatility. comcast launching a nearly $31 billion bid for british tv broadcaster sky, challenging an

existing offer by fox. classes resume at stoneman douglas high school tomorrow. are the kids ready? how are they preparing? we'll speak with two of the survivors next. this is the story of green mountain coffee roasters dark magic told in the time it takes to brew your cup. first, we head to vermont. and go to our coffee shop. and meet dave.

hey. why is dark magic so spell-bindingly good, he asks? let me show you. let's go. so we climb. hike. see a bear. woah. reach the top. dave says dark magic is a bold blend of coffee with rich flavors of uganda, sumatra, colombia and other parts of south america. like these mountains, each amazing on their own. but together? magical. all, for a smoother tasting cup of coffee. green mountain coffee roasters packed with goodness. the roasted core wrap.belly fat. 3, 2, 1... not cool.

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discounts on thousands of hotels, cars and things to do. like the bicycle hotel & casino for 30% off. everything you need to go. expedia the students at marjory stoneman douglas high school return to school tomorrow, two weeks after 17 of their classmates and teachers were gunned down. joining us now are two students, dmitry hoff and lorenzo prado. lorenzo, how are you feeling about going back to school tomorrow? >> i'm nervous because i don't know how i'm going to react, walking back to where i was that wednesday. but i'm also glad because it means -- it's like the first step to moving on from the

tragedy that happened. it's going to be part of the long process of healing from this tragedy. >> dmitry, how are you feeling? >> simpilarly to what lore zen sew said. nervous and anxious, but kind of glad we'll all be stog. i think it's important we're together to start the reheheali process. >> did you go back a few days ago for the orientation so you had to go back onto school property? >> i did. i went back to for the orientation on sunday. >> what was that like for both of you? >> for me it was surreal. it really wasn't school. we were going to pick up our belongings, it wasn't the same

atmosphere as being back at school. it was really good to see all our teachers and friends in one place. i guess you could say it reassured me to a certain extend that i was in a safe environment where everyone around me had been through the same experience that i had been through and we all kind of knew the pain and the grief we all were feeling collectively. >> for me it was quite surreal, also, because it's like we or coming back to school, but we're not going to school to go to classes or anything. we're going back just to pick up our stuff and it feels weird because, like, you never expect to do that ever. you ever had to leave your stuff at school and have so many people coming back for them and seeing everyone, all my teachers again was really touching.

i was able to talk to most of my teachers, and seeing them again made me really glad. i was able to talk to my coach and knowing that they're okay and that we're going to get through this together was really up lifting. >> lorenzo, is it true that while you were trying to escape and hide during this massacre when the gunman was there, that you were mistaken for the gunman more some time? >> yeah. what happened was, before i knew that the shooting was occurring, i decided if it was real, i would hide in the booth area in the auditorium. but since i was pacing around and i looked very nervous or

startling i guess, the people in the audience who were far away mistook me for the guy because i had the same clothing description as him, and they couldn't really see my face from afar. i was reported and the s.w.a.t. came into the room i was in and took me down from the booth area because it was like in an elevated position. they brought me down and they put me on the floor. they patted me down, they searched me and they cuffed me and they put me in a corner because i was still like the suspect and the guy hasn't been caught yet. >> oh, my gosh, lorenzo, thank goodness that the s.w.a.t. team kept their cool heads, because obviously if they -- if you had done anything to make them nervous or threaten them, thank

goodness this didn't go worse. >> lorenzo and dimitri, i'll see you tomorrow. i'll be coming down to talk to the kids as they head into the school. we want to make sure you guys are prepared and getting the counseling you need, and we know how difficult tomorrow is going to be for both of you. take care of yourselves and i will see you guys tomorrow. i'll see all of you watching tomorrow as well when i report from parkland, florida. cnn "newsroom" with john berman picks up after this very quick break. whoooo. going somewhere? here's some advice. tripadvisor now searches more... ...than 200 booking sites - to find the hotel you want and save you up to 30%. trust this bird's words. tripadvisor.

hesumatra reserve told in the time it takes to brew your cup. let's go to sumatra. where's sumatra? good question. this is win. and that's win's goat, adi. the coffee here is amazing. because the volcanic soil is amazing. making the coffee erupt with flavor. so we give farmers like win more plants.

to grow more delicious coffee. that erupts with even more flavor. which helps provide for win's family. and adi the goat's family too. because his kids eat a lot. all, for a smoother tasting cup of coffee. green mountain coffee roasters. packed with goodness.

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right away and have that be your toothpaste for the rest of your life. ♪ john berman here. the president claims he would run into a school unarmed to stop a shooter, but this morning he is already walking away from a new gun law that would have made it harder for the killer to get a weapon. also today, new cnn reporting on the growing number of warnings missed, twice as many calls to the sheriff's office as the sheriff actually says. but we begin with big testimony in the russia investigation. one of the president's closest aides in the inner most ring of the inner circle, hope hicks, will appear before congress. who knows if that was the impetus for the president to wake up shouting on the russia probes. look at that, all caps and an exclamation point. let's go to