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president raging allies overseas and his own party. tonight, he's even more isolated as he battles over tariffs, guns and even the actor, alec baldwin. we're following new leads on officials who may be ready to call it quits including the president's top national security and economic adviser. is the president also preparing for the biggest exit yet by his daughter and son-in-law. a bomb cyclone batters the east coast putting 80 million at risk in a life and death whether emergenc emergency. we want to welcome our viewers in the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in the situation room. >>announcer: this is cnn breaking news. >> breaking tonight, the man hired to bring order to the white house is admit to go

mistakes on his watch, but rejecting any suggestion that it should cost him his job. chief of staff john kelly attempting damage control at the close of a crisis-filled week that saw his boss go rogue on the issue of gun control and trade tariffs, but his remarks have only added to the concerns and confusion about what's going on inside the administration. this hour i'll talk with democratic congressman and correspondents and annalists standing by. first let's go to jim acosta. jim, there may be trade war issues brewing now but that's not what john kelly wanted to talk about today. >> that's right. it's been a week of staff wars and possible trade wars. chief of staff john kelly left white house staffers puzzled when he tried to relitigate the mistakes made here at the white house in the rob porter scandal. one official told us the timing was quote odd for kelly to resurrect the controversy and more chaos on the policy side as

trump is doubling down on his call for new tariffs inviting a trade war that officials are acknowledging will cost americans more money to buy the products they need. when president trump stepped away from the white house he left behind an administration that's in utter turmoil. his chief of staff reignited it over rob porter. while kelly said he is not quieting over the controversy, he admitted to reporters that growing statements from the white house praising reporter just z at staff secretary was stepping down were a mistake. he said quote, we didn't cover ourselves in glory in terms of how we handled that. he also tried to clean up the time line. insisting he only learned of the red flags february 6. sources tell cnn a different

story. that they were becoming aware of the allegations last november. kelly attempted to explain that saying quote, the first accusation had to do with a messy divorce but no mention of abuse. porter's second wife blasted that saying that is insulting to anyone suffering in an abusive situation. punching in windows and dragging someone out of a shower is physical. president is also facing growing criticism over the tariffs. moves that are almost certain to spark a trade war. his response, trade wars are good and easy to win. we win big. it's easy. "wall street journal" is not buying it. warning, donald trump made the biggest policy blunder of his presidency. what asked about predictions about economists that consumer costs will go up commerce secretary pulled out a can of soup. i just put a can of campbell's soup today at the seven 11.

it was $1.99 for the can. there's about three cents worth of ten plate steel in the can. if it goes up 25%, that's a tiny fraction of one penny. >> but the president's view have been known for decades like his colorful warning to china on trade in 2011. democrats say this is exactly the kind of chaotic presidency both parties warned about. >> i served under six administrations. i've never seen such chaos, who knows what he'll do on trade tomorrow morning? >> adding to the chaos sources tell cnn h.r. mcmaster to lecou leave the white house. >> if this is chaos i think the american people r glad for it. if they want to call it chaos, fine. >> not to mention the president' ever position on gun control. after indicating he would back self gun measures, the president

met with the nra and tweeted good, great meeting in the oval office tonight with the nra. raising questions about whether the president still supports confiscating guns from the mentally ill without due process as he said earlier in the week. >> he is looking for ways we can improve the mental health system, so that we can take guns away from people that shouldn't have them. >> but the president still made time for 6:00 a.m. to take on actor alec baldwin who recently said he was unhappy playing mr. trump on "saturday night live." >> and he has the nerve to call me a moron. >> alec baldwin who's dying meadmea mediocre career was saved by that. it was agony for those who were forced to watch. there were, however, no tweets from the president on vladimir putin that was boasting to nbc he has no high tech weapons. >> as a matter of fact every

single weapon system discussed today easily surpasses and avoids an anti-missile defense system. >> as for john kelly, he did reveal to reporters his eyes were opened in his words last september by the large number of staffers still working with interim security clearances here at the white house. kelly admit thad was more people than he was comfortable. in other remarkable moment he conceded that the handling of classified material was not up to the standards he had been used to. that is a stunning statement, given the fact that mr. trump slammed hillary clinton over and over, over her handling of classified material during the campaign. there is one other admission from john kelly. he also told reporters that he thought there were too many staffers here at the white house who had top secret clearances. he bumped them down to only secret security clearances. another stunning admission. >> good point. thanks very much. let's talk a little bit about about john kelly's revised time

line on the rob porter scandal and how it clashes. joined by katelyn collins, doing a lot of reporting on this. there are significant discrepancies in his account, right? >> i would say inaccuracies, he sought to give a time line of when he found out about the allegations and the way he handled them. he said on february 6, that tuesday that that first story came out he said they received a press inquiry about rob porter been a emotion abuse allegation. john kelly says he went to him and confronted him about it. that rob porter denied the allegation and john kelly went to capitol hill for a meeting with lawmakers to discuss daca. when he returned from that meeting there was a second allegation of physical abuse which one of his other wives and then he met with rob porter again. that is when he secured his resignation, he says. he is saying he handled the situation within two hours. that is john kelly's account of

what happened that tuesday night. but that next wednesday, when those photos starting servicing with the black eyes and more stories about the allegations, the press secretary sarah sanders came out and said rob porter's resignation was not forced. it was something he decided to do. and they put out a glowing statement on john kelly's behalf praising rob porter. so it raises the question of john kelly was aware of these two serious allegations gejagai him why is he issues a glowing statement on his behalf. time line conflicts with our reporting. they were aware of the allegations made against porter last fall because they knew that he was having trouble getting a security clearance. so we actually knew that. so not only about rob porter remain on the staff, he was actually up for a promotion as well.

so, not only did john -- was he aware of the, i would say the parameters of these allegations, he was considering promoting rob porter wauz he thought he was professional, someone who was kpepts. those things do not add up from what john kelly offered to us today. >> what's your sense why kelly is reigniting this controversy now? >> i think he has the desire to -- rob porter head lines stayed in the news for much longer than any other scandal that rocked the white house. it finally died down. and then john kelly decides to relitigate this with reporters today offering this time line that conflicts with a lot of reporting on what happened. i think john kelly has to dieese to explain himself. it really lowered the morale in the west wing, but certainly did not add up. it raised a lot of questions.

we know he is someone who sees himself as media savvy. maybe he thought it was to his advantage to bring the reporters into his office today and seek to explain himself, how he handled that situation. but it simply doesn't add up. >> thanks very much. good reporting. let's get more on all of this. congressman is joining us. congressman thanks for joining us. >> god to be with you. >> what impact does this level of chaos over at the white house have on the president's ability to govern? >> it's extremely serious. i've been saying for months the chaos, the uncertainty, lies, the variation in policies, is a major national security issue. our friends, our allies, have no idea what to expect from this presidency or the white house and certainly our opponents are always looking 0 for an opportunity to do something to

us. we know that russia is doing more than a little something to us. they are seriously interfering with the upcoming election, and now we have this nuclear issue w wls. >> what do you think of this "new york times" report that president trump has quietly behind the scenes asked his white house chief of staff to oust jared kushner and his daughter and senior adviser from the white house? >> well, perhaps realty television has not worked so well. didn't he used to say he liked to fire people? well, he has a very serious problem. he has men and women in his administration who are using their power position for personal gain. now our definition of corruption, at least as i understand it, is when you have the political power and you use it for your personal gain. there is a serious allegation about kushner, there's also one

perhaps -- an allegation for sure about ivanka, and who knows, the president himself? under the emoluments clause can receive nothing, as in nothing, from any foreign government or foreign power. and there's a lot of questions that have been racised about that. we've got a white house that has danced on the edge of corruption from the very first moment that he took his oath of office. >> the white house chief of staff john kelly now says that when he actually got to the white house, he's a retired four-star general, the handling, in his words, of classified material wasn't up to the standard that is i've been used to. once again, that's a direct quote. he said he had his eyes opened in september when he asked -- i'm quoting now. what's the percentage that they're still -- that are still on interim clearances, and the answer to that was a fair number. i mean it was a lot.

does that concern you? you're in the armed services. there are so many who didn't have -- in have ---full security clearance. >> it's a major problem. you have no idea who they're talking to, although that's part of the concern. you know that in many of these cases, there was the possibility of people being leveraged by their past activities, and i do know, as a member of the armed services committee, we have classified hearings at various levels all of the time. and it is very, very important stuff. there's another element here. that is most -- some of these people have come from an element in which they are in the stock trading business. buying and selling stocks. the information that's available in the president's daily briefing is extraordinarily valuable if you want to play in

the stock market. you can be ahead of everyone or making decisions based on information you know is going to come down. you can pass that on to people. it is a serious problem. beyond all of that, beyond all the personal gain that appears to be part of what is going on here, there is the issue of the most important nation in the world whose leadership is absolute chaos, it's not the wheels coming off. thing is in full stages of absolute collapse here. and this is a very real problem for this nation and frankly, for the rest of the world. >> congressman thanks for joining us. >> thank you. >>. just ahead we'll talk about the implications of the chief of staff's implication that they haven't met the highest standards. we'll also take you into the path of a bomb cyclone that's put millions at risk with fierce winds, rain and flooding. (vo) dogs have evolved,

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of him. i know he's told more than one person, you know, they have to endure all of this. i don't understand why they just don't go back to new york. i think now, because of all the scrutiny on jared, the president doesn't like it. and he doesn't like anything that has to do with russia that looks bad for him, and i think if it were up to the president, they would go back to new york. i don't know whether that's going to happen. and the times is reporting he would like kelly to make it happen. maybe this is one way of doing that. >> john kelly, the chief of staff, also said today that when he got to the white house, i'm quoting him. the handling of classified material wasn't up to the standards i'd been used to. he's a retired four star general. his eyes were opened back when he asked the question what's the percentage still on interim

clearances and the answer to that was a fair number. i mean it was a lot. what does that say to you? >> so what happened? i mean he's a four star general, served america. lost his son. i'm not going to question, but do i have a few questions for the administration. let me make this real simple. on the record the fbi said they closed the file last summer, did they or did they not include nchg information about rob porter and domestic abuse? if somebody in the security office knew, i've got to believe they told the person they report to. that would be somebody in the white house. >> white house counsel don mc -- >> i've got to cut to the chase. this is not exactly classified information. between the time they uncovered it as early as last summer and passed it along to the white house and the time he spoke now, who told who?

he didn't answer the key question. >> laura, during the campaign, then the candidate donald trump repeated through the campaign went after hillary clinton. now the have the chief of staff saying they had major mistakes going on what do you make? >> the irony is so thick and hypocrisy even thicker. if the notion is the accusations against the hillary camp because their mishandling might have been able to lead to somebody getting classified information. you have the fbi saying this person should not be authorized to uncover unclassified material. they see it day in and day out. you see it with everyone else who is part of that fair number. mart of that is undermining the credibility. it's easy to look back wards but in a forward thinking measure

saying it is less of a problem to do it if you don't have people competent enough to access that material. >> amid all this chaos there's more turmoil going on with the president once again doubling down on trade wars saying trade wars are good and easy to win. he wants tariffs on imported steel and ealuminum. "the wall street journal" editorial page calls the announcement the biggest policy blunder of his presidency. coming from them, that's pretty damning. >> from a usual ally. look, i think this is revealing of how much of the president's economic agenda is really built on restoration, trying to restore the economic order of kind of the mid 20th scentury. coal, steel. these are industries that made important contributions, but not

the future of where jobs and growth are coming from. i think we're down about 150,000 people in steel and aluminum combined. obviously many more work in industries that could be hurt. manufacturing industries that could be hurt by the higher prices. not to mention all of the digital industries which is where so much growth is that could be hurt if we end up in a trade war that reduces our ability to export to other countries. this is really about trying to protect and preserve one slice of the economy that has been shrinking really at the expense of the components of the economy that are growing. >> everybody stick around. there's a lot more we need to follow. will the president's national security adviser be the next to go through the involving door at the white house? >> we'll talk about that and the message it's send to go u.s. allies. you wouldn't accept an incomplete job from any one else. why accept it from your allergy pills? flonase relieves your worst symptoms including nasal congestion, which most pills don't. flonase helps block 6 key inflammatory substances.

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we want economic influence in latin america, in africa, we want to counter the americans over decades. we rotate spokesperson, and in this case, national security advisers on average in this case every six and a half months. if you go into this position, my point is that up want to implement complicated policies. what do we do about north korea? what's the nuclear capability, military? what's the cia doing? also have to say who's the secretary of state or defense? these are complicated issues. when you rotate people how do you develop a strategic plan to counter people. you can't. >> what do you think, that when foreign leaders are watching, the turmoil going on right now over at the white house, what are they saying? >> they're saying it's chaos, so many leaders in the u.s. are saying. this has been an enormous experiment from day one. donald trump was as far outside the box. i think i'm putting it mildly,

as any president we've ever elected in terms of ex-peperien and values. i think 14, 15 months later, at the erosion of support that he is facing in the country, i think it is predominantly about the way he has conducted himself as president. it's less about the ideology and agenda, although parts of that have been flash points but it's about these questions about his fitness for the job and the constant churn in the white house is indicative of an environment in which what goes on behind the curtain look is like a more extreme verse of what we're seeing in front of the curtain, constant change and a very mercurial and volatile chief executive. >> explain what's going on at the justice department with this expect the justice department review of the criticizing the former fbi deputy director andrew mccabe for authorizing disclosures to the news media.

>> the inspector general is investigating whether or not the fbi handled the e-mail probe about hillary clinton's use of a private server as something that was done in a partisan way or did not go to the center of the doj. remember mccabe stepped down in january. most people thought it was because he was sick of the ire of donald trump. and the constant attacks on his credibility. questions about who he voted for in the election, turns out he didn't vote in the general election, but voted in republican primary nonetheless. so that's what people thought it was. it turns out that christopher wray was being prudent to say it's probably a good thing for you not to hold current office because you may the person responsible for authorizing others to give information very specific and sensitive information to reporters. namely "the wall street journal." and in doing so, i think you're seeing that mccabe was doing two things, number one going against

policy that says you keep it close to the vest, no need to try to be proactive about what the fbi is doing on an active case. and number 2, that he was trying to protect the credibility of the fbi even before trump tried to attack it. because what he was doing was saying two things. look, i am going to leak a story and leak is probably a word people take issue with but that's what it is when you give it to the press. leaking a story showing they were handling it in an appropriate way. a anti-hillary story. that makes all the difference because the thought is that the fbi was partisan in her favor. which is odd given comey. >> let me pick up that point. because when hillary clinton is looking at this, the disclosures were hurting her campaign, no at the trump campaign. >> right. so she's probably looking at it and saying, oh, great. but what about donald trump? who's been complaining about mccabe and actually mccabe authorized the leaks of a story

that was bad for hillary clinton. so what does donald trump do about not the narrative he pet out there. she got money from the pack and all the rest. it doesn't wok for him anymore. >> go ahead. >> i would say real quick. it relates to what you were asking me about. this unprecedented circumstance of a president attacking members of his own administration in public repeatedly humiliating them. attacking the independence of the law enforcement agencies, all of this, i think is why do we see so much unprecedented levels of turnover. you really don't have to look very far behind the curtain and ask yourself republicans in congress after initially showing kind of more independence from trump have essentially signaled they are giving him a blank check on every front and you kind of wonder if that will come back to bite them in the end because i think the biggest threat they face in this

election is the sense that things are a little bit out of control, too volatile and they are not providing any check restraint or oversight. >> did the fbi -- you once worked there. violate its own protocol by publicly releasing information the hillary clinton investigation was reopened while keeping secret the trump/russia investigation? >> let me confess. i haven't seen him in a few years, he's a friend. great guy. this is a mistake. you cannot leak information about the investigation of a private citizen. i don't care if it's a presidential candidate or you or me. i would encourage you to think about two categories. de leak stuff embarrassing or sensitive or a threat to national security? this is a leak because it's embarrassing. i don't think it's a threat to national security. doesn't matter. you can't do this. >> what if reporters have a story wrong and you're trying to give a fuller picture? >> on the inside, didn't trust

reporters. >> everybody stick around, there's more news we're following including the mystery surrounding the most private public figure in washington, special counsel robert mueller. . that's why there's otezla. otezla is not an injection or a cream. it's a pill that treats psoriasis differently. with otezla, 75% clearer skin is achievable after just 4 months, ... with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. and the otezla prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. don't use if you're allergic to otezla. otezla may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. tell your doctor if these occur. otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts, or if these feelings develop. some people taking otezla reported weight loss. your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. other side effects include upper respiratory tract infection and headache.

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even though mueller makes head lines almost every day, there's still a lot we don't fknow abou him. gloria borger has a closer look. >> special council robert mueller is a mystery man, perhaps the most private pub wlik fig pure in washington. but as the leader of the russia investigation, he's also a political ground zero. >> i think the public trust in this whole thing is gone. >> and in the sights af president who wanted him fired. >> ordered the firing of special counsel robert mueller back down after the white house counsel threatened to conservative. >> putting mueller in the bizarre position are investigating whether the president tried to fire him. but you'll never hear about it from mueller. >> this is someone who has turned down more press conferences and interviews than most people in washington ever get the chance to give. he doesn't really like talking about himself. he doesn't like speaking with the press.

>> at the start, mueller was a bipartisan favorite. >> he would have been on anybody's list of let's say the top five people in the country to have taken on this kind of a responsibility. >> we all need to let mr. mueller do his job. i think es ethe right guy at the right time. >> with a long resume. at 73, he's been involved for decades in some of the justice department's most celebrated cases. mopster john gadi. >> and the pan am 103 bombing in lockerbie scotland in 1988, a case that still remains personal. >> i'll forever forget the visit i made to lockerbie where i saw the small wooden warehouse in which were stored the various effects of the loved ones. a white sneaker, a syracuse sweatshirt, christmas presents and photographs. >> he's been effectively the

same bob mueller in every place he has worked. whether it was the u.s. attorneys office in an francisco in the 1970's or the geor george h. w. bush in the 1980's, the d.c. homicide prosecutor's office in the 1990's or the fbi in the 2000's. he's hard driving, ten nashou. >> not republican or democrat. >> four and a half years of whatever, i didn't hear him say anything political. >> really? ? washington? >> yeah. i know that sounds weird. he might have said that guy's a jerk. i didn't see it as a partisan issue. >> how would you describe his politics? >> not. he's apolitical. he's non partisan. he's a i think it's become quite clear a pretty law and order guy. but he doesn't speak of things

in political terms. >> ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states. >> which is partly why president bush picked him to run the fbi in 2001. >> the fbi must remain independent of politics. and uncompromising in its mission. >> mueller arrived at the fbi just seven days before 9/11. he served most of his term under bush. and when president obama asked him to stay for two more years, it required an act of congress. senate approved 100 to 0. his mco? a buy ty the books guy. >> at the end of the party he would flick the litghting. it's on the invitation, it's 7-9. 9:03. kind of a signal. >> married nfor 50 years to a former teacher, father of daughters, there still wasn't

small talk of family at work. literally buttoned up and buttoned down baecause. >> >>. >> what was the deal with the white shirts when i were at the fbi? he said i understood i was leading the fbi through a wrenching period of change. i wanted to wear the white shirt because i wanted the other fbi agents to be able to know that this was still the agency that they had steigned up to join. >> his dress code as inforgiving as his work ethic. >> he was in the office between 6:00 and 6:00:30 every morning. he was alsz plop his briefcase on the chair, not sit down, or shoot the breeze. immediately, what's happening? what's going on. >> what if you're not a got briefer? >> then you're done. >> you're done.

>> done? >> the boss likes a good briefer. people would wake up at 4:00 in the morning and study before briefing the boss. >> there's not a lot of back and forth. >> would you assume that he is managing the special counsel investigation the same way? >> oh, heck, yes. i wouldn't assume. it's no the like a professional choice. that's his dna. what's going on today? i don't want to hear a lot of noise, i want to hear what the facts are. let's talk about it. next, let's move on. never saw insecurity or nervousness. >> ever? >> never. >> the pressure on mueller now as special counsel is intense, but he has seen worse. >> this is a man that in his early 20's fought in vietnam. i don't think there's anything that's going to give him any type of fear he faced as a yong man. >> he grew up in the wealthy suburbs and attended an elite

boarding school. a classmate of john kerry. then to princeton. but the combat death of a classmate in vietnam inspired him to join the marines. >> he was wounded in some bat, shot through the leg, received a bronze star with valor. purple heart and was right back in the fight a couple of weeks later. >> consider myself fortunate to have lived through the war and there were many men such as david who did not. in some sense you feel like you've been given a second lease on life and want to make the most of it to contribute in some way. >> after graduating university of virginia law school he soon found his way to the department of justice and remained there for most of the next four decades. >> my colleagues here at the department of justice. >> with two short breaks to give private practice a try. >> bob mueller has been notoriously inhappy every time he has tried to be in private

practice. he just can't defend guilty people. he'll meet with a client, they'll explain the problem, and he'll say, well, sounds like you should go to jail then. >> so he'll tell his client. >> sounds like you're guilty. bob mueller is someone who sees the world in very black and white terms. >> by 2004, mueller was running the fbi when his phone rang. it was james comey, then deputy attorney general. it was the first time mueller and comey would find them sls in a very controversial legal drama. >> i was upset and angry. >> comey was worried the bush administration was determined to keep a warrantless eavesdropping program that mueller, comey and their boss, attorney general john ashcroft, thought was illegal. but ashcroft was in the hospital recovering from surgery, leaving comey in charge. >> i was concerned that given how ill i knew the attorney general was, that there might be

an effort to ask him to overrule me when he was in no condition to do that. called director mueller with whom i've been discussing this particular matter, and who had been a great help to me over that week and told him what was happening. he said he'll meet >> they hads to literally race officials to his bedside. >> director mueller instructed them not to allow me to be removed from the room, under any circumstances. >> in the end, he backed comey and mueller. >> he knew mueller had this incredible nonpartisan reputation in washington, while he might be able to be personally blamed for having political motives and thinking politics. no one was going attach that label to bob mueller. >> reporter: that was then. now, trump views their relationship with sus spinx.

>> very, very good friends with comey, which is worrisome. >> reporter: they deny it. it's part of the landscape as he investigated the president. >> in congress, we say politics infects and invades everything. >> reporter: it has. news of text messages of trump led mueller to remove a member of his team. >> i think they are devastating. they are beyond showing political preferences. it, very much, impacts people's perception of fairness. >> reporter: then the president declassified a document challenging the fbi's behavior. >> i think it's a disgrace, what's going on in this country, i think it's a disgrace. >> reporter: the intended message to mueller was clear, your investigation is contaminated. mueller remains silent, instead, letting his work speak for itself. >> he is the best hope to

produce a product that my fellow citizens can have confidence in. it will not help congress, let me assure you that. it is not going to come from a bunch of politicians. i hope it can come from a former marine, head of the fbi and a former attorney. i'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and wait on the product he produces. >> gloria is back with us. excellent piece, very informative. of all the people the president tweets about, bob mueller is not one of them. >> that's right. i think his legal team made it very clear to the president, this is one person you don't want to antagonize. al also, this is one person that lots of republicans and democrats agree has had a distinguished career in public service, trying to do his job and seems to be no reason to get on his wrong side. the president has clearly

criticized the fbi. he's going after the fbi. mueller is very devoted to the fbi. the president has also said at points, he feels vindicated. his attorneys don't believe that helps him very much in the eyes of the special counsel. they have really, really said to him, just don't do it. so far, at least. the president actually seems to be listening. >> excellent piece. thank you very much for doing that. more breaking news coming up. 80 million people in the past of a monster storm. we are going get a live update on what the national weather service is calling a matter of life and death. get an extra day by the pool get to spend more time together get more from your spring break getaway with exclusive hilton offers. book yours, only at hilton.com liberty mutual saved us almost $800 when we switched our auto and home insurance. liberty did what? yeah, they saved us a ton, which gave us a little wiggle room in our budget.

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together, we're building a better california. breaking weather news tonight, a powerful and dangerous nor'easter is threatening millions of americans and cause zing travel havoc. brynn gingras is joining us at the massachusetts coast south of boston. we are following this, calling it a life and death situation. what are you seeing? what are you hearing? >> reporter: yeah,itis dangerous right now, wolf, i can tell you that. until an hour ago, we had power. now, you can see it's a blackout behind me. we have seen transformers blowing as power outages are going out. they are widespread around the south shore of massachusetts. you can see this harbor.

the water is at low tide. it's not only the power that is a major concern, it's the flooding they are going to experience into the evening when high tide comes at 11:00 tonight. it's supposed to be historic because of the full moon. that is going to add to flooding that we have seen throughout the day across this area of massachusetts. so, certainly this storm is not over, yet. it is going to continue until tomorrow. all the warnings don't end until sunday. wolf? >> how are people dealing with this? >> reporter: there were mandatory evacuations in this particular area, the south shore and low lying coastal areas. again, officials are worried they would not heed the warnings. most people have evacuated, but, again, as the tides go in and out, residents should not go back to their homes. that's the concern for officials. it's dark out. if anybody went to their homes, they could be in serious danger

when it comes high tide tonight. >> the weather service calling this a life and death situation. we'll stay on top of this. brynn gingras, thanks for that report, be careful over there. that's it for me. thanks for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in the "situation room." erin burnett "outfront" starts right now. >> breaking news. john kelly revives the porter scandal and says he won't resign over it. white house staffers say he's not telling the truth. trump says a trade war is a good thing. his own cabinet and party say he's totally wrong. one of trump's sole defenders is outfront. the president takes on alec baldwin or is it alex? let's go outfront. good evening, i'm erin burnett. tonight, john kelly. just can't get it right. the president's chief of staff, tonight, with an explanati