hello, i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. in washington, 8:00 p.m. in damascus. wherever you're watching from around the world, thank you very much for joining us. the president and the porn star. why the president is upset with his press secretary over her explanation for the payoff. this as accusations now surface. the president's team is threatening stormy daniels to stay quiet. plus a new policy. more confusion. white house staff scrambling to come up with something for the president to sign on tariffs. but there are new concerns about his plan. and the president reportedly asking at least two witnesses about their interview with the special counsel robert mueller.

does this cross a legal line? all that coming up, but let's start with the confusion, the controversy over at the white house right now with a storm cloud hanging over the west wing in the rollout of the president's promised tariffs plan. the president is apparently very upset with his press secretary, sarah sanders, over her response to the stormy daniels story, the $130,000 in hush money to the porn star. but today the president tried to get his white house back on track while meeting with his cabinet. >> this is gary cohn's last meeting in the cabinet and of the cabinet, and he's been terrific. he may be a globalist but i still like him. he is seriously a globalist, there's no question. but you know what, in his own way, he's a nationalist because he loves our country. where is gary? you love our country. he's going to go out and make another couple hundred million and then he's going to maybe

come back. he might come back, right? we'll be here. >> absolutely. >> we'll be here another seven years, hopefully. that's a long time, but i have a feeling you'll be back. >> let's go to our chief white house correspondent jim acosta. jim, there is no white house press briefing today so we won't hear directly from sarah sanders at least from the podium there, but what more are you learning about how the president has been reacting to her comments on the stormy daniels scandal? >> reporter: well, there certainly is something to report on that, but just to get back to the tariff issue very quickly, wolf, we do think the president will be signing some sort of proclamation later on this afternoon to put these tariffs into action. we are told by sources that is likely to happen later on this afternoon. but as you heard the president say during that press availability that there will probably be some carve-outs here, some kpeexemptions for certain countries, so we're looking to see the finer details of that this afternoon. in the meantime, wolf, yes,

you're right, i did talk to a source that said the president is quite unhappy with the press secretary sarah sanders and her handling of stormy daniels and those questions today, specifically about the acknowledgment that the president was involved in arbitration with stormy daniels and that she claimed the president won that arbitration. that is obviously a claim that stormy daniels' attorney is push back on. according to this source close to the white house, the feeling is that -- the feeling by the president is that sarah sanders injected steroids into the story line. i will tell you, wolf, that since we've reported that, and this is no surprise, officials here at the white house have been pushing back on that and saying the president thinks sarah sanders did a wonderful job yesterday. >> we're also hearing, jim, about a warning on the russia investigation for president trump from his white house chief of staff john kelly. tell us what you've learned on that front.

>> reporter: that's right, wolf. some of this is in response to the "new york times" story that said the president was attempting to speak to people who have been speaking with the mueller team, people like the former chief of staff reince priebus and also talking to aides about whether don mcgahn should essentially change and alter what he has been talking about. i talked to a white house official just a short while ago who revealed, and i think this is very interesting, that officials inside the west wing, top officials inside the west wing, including the chief of staff john kelly have warned the president to be very careful about talking to witnesses in the russia investigation, that that could put him in a legally precarious situation, and that it also just makes people uncomfortable to have the president talking to people about this russia investigation. and there's one in particular quote i want to read to you, and this is from a white house official. it's pretty clear that kelly -- and this is the chief of staff john kelly -- admonishes him constantly about this and he's

not the only one. this according to a white house official. this was outlined in the "new york times" story and we're hearing this from a white house official. to have the president engaging in conversations like this is obviously something his lawyers would not advise him to do. the spokesperson said there is probably nothing wrong with the president having a conversation with reince priebus and generally saying, how did it go, i hope they didn't beat up on you too much, but there seems to be a concern if the president goes too far and wants to talk about the finer details they're talking about the mueller's team. >> for now stormy daniels is keeping her story to herself. her attorney says it's because of ongoing threats from the other side. listen. >> these threats continued until only a few hours ago when mr. rosen, lawrence rosen, the attorney who now purports to represent mr. cohen and the entity ec, llc sent e-mail

correspondence to me threatening that if ms. daniels continues to talk, she may be subjected to significant additional damages. >> let's bring in legal analyst laura coates who is carefully studying all this. what is the biggest question from stormy daniels' side? >> first of all, if you hear somebody say there's been threats or intimidation to silence a witness, you think about things like witness tampering and acting on duress. one of the questions you have to ask is, has michael cohen specifically threatened her? is it something physical? has he done something verbal? or in the contract are you using that as a means of arbitration to silence you as he did back in 2017. if that's all it is, that's not illegal in a legal context. why did you wait a year to

question the validity of a contract? there is either an offer, acceptance and consideration. how that plays out here would be, i'm going to offer you some money to not talk about the alleged sexual encounter with then-private citizen donald trump. okay, i accept your offer. what are you going to give me for it? here's the consideration. i'm going to give you $130,000. put it in the account, it's been cashed, and we both operate as if this is a valid contract. she was aware back in october of 2016, 11 days before the election, that wolf, it wasn't signed by david denison or the purported aka donald trump. so why did you wait a year and a half, act as if it was valid and accept the funds now? the next question would be, is there any evidence that donald trump or the campaign aide intended to silence you? why is that important? because we're talking about campaign finance laws. remember, it's illegal to make a campaign contribution or expenditure that you haven't

disclosed if it's intended to aid the campaign. they said in their complaint, wolf, that it's very clear he knew about it and they were trying to help the campaign. if that's the case, you have a campaign finance issue. what do you actually have to prove that? >> the agreement she originally made, if she violates it, there is a $1 million penalty she has to pay? >> yeah, it could be per instance of disclosure or it could be treated that it's going to nullify the agreement and here's your one-time fine. but there's a big question in that. it seems to me people are treating her as being quite opportu opportunes opportunestic. i plan to gain millions by disclosing my story to tabloids, perhaps to films, book deals. that may be what she's undergone here if it turns out it's a one-time fee, one-time penalty. >> that you arnk you, laura coa

that analysis. at the heart of this debate is if the president knew his attorney paid $130,000 to the porn star. sarah sanders was pressed on this by cnn's jeff zeleny. >> did the president approve of the payment made in october 2016 by his long-time lawyer and adviser michael cohen? >> the president has addressed these directly and made very well clear that none of these allegations are true. this case has already been won in arbitration and anything beyond that, i would refer to you the president's outside counsel. >> you said there is arbitration that's already been won? by whom and when? >> by the president's personal attorneys, and for details on that, i would refer you to them. >> but you're aware of them, so what more can you share with us? >> i can share that the arbitration was won in the president's favor, and i would refer you to the president's outside counsel on any details beyond that. >> all right, let's bring in our panel. political reporter for the "washington post" blog, the fix,

andrea phillips is with us. stead herndon and a.b. stoddard. her answers seem to continue this whole story because she was basically confirming, in one way or another, that the president was aware of what was going on. >> right, which he's not too pleased about, according to the reporting. it really was, until yesterday, something the spokesman for the president were just shutting down. nothing to see here, he's denied this, we've told you our feelings about this in the past. she said yesterday morning before the briefing. he's denied the allegations. this was a way to keep it out of the conversation. what she did yesterday intentionally or mistakenly did light a fire. she should have stuck up for the president and said, this has been arbitrated and he won, as if he prevailed and was successful. of course, giving way for stormy

daniels' lawyer to say, that's ridiculous, like he won the popular vote, and make it a much bigger story than it needed to be. >> because the suggestion is that when she said, yes, he won that arbitration agreement, that he was involved in it, he knew all about it, he knew about the $130,000 payoff and the disclosure agreement she signed. >> this is a different playbook than the white house has usually done when it comes to these numerous sexual harrassment or sexu sexual encounters by the president. they tend to shake them off, oh, these are baseless allegations. we saw vice president pence call the stormy daniels story baseless. yesterday they gave an air of legitimacy around them, and even though they're saying the president won in arbitration, it does raise additional questions of what he knew, what he was involved in, and it gives the

white house official behind that a way to shape the conversation. >> because the affair allegedly goes back to 2006, but the payment to keep her quiet, that occurred only a couple weeks before the november 2016 election. and that's raising all the concerns right now. >> yeah, this may be a case where, if stormy daniels is somehow able to prove there was an affair, where the cover-up is worse than the crime, to use a law enforcement metaphor. republicans right now in congress -- let me use an example -- wore for the best if it turns out the president was involved in some kind of affair and he helped his lawyer cover that up, that also allows democrats an open angle in this

election year to argue that republicans are hypocrites. they're able to point to an event a few decades ago where republicans were allegedly lying about an affair. >> the other story we're following is apparently the white house chief of staff john kelly telling the president, don't ask these witnesses who go before robert mueller and his investigators how it went, what they asked. that would be totally inappropriate. you've seen these reports. >> in jim acosta's reporting, he made the point just catching up with reince priebus briefly and saying, were they nice to you is fine. this is after the fact. but this idea that perhaps he was coaching don mcgahn to change or alter his story about the prospect of the president firing robert mueller or even jeff sessions. that could really put him in

serious legal jeopardy. >> the "new york times" suggesting that the president w was. robert mueller and mcgahn said that's a bad idea. the whole issue of lying comes to the fore right now. >> we've seen this in numerous times with the president. he's often his own worse enemy. when we had situations back to the travel ban when he contributed himself later. that comes. trying to insulate him from his o own. these people may be going to the house committee or. the idea that he would go above and beyond those warnings to then talk to his lawyer and tell him to maybe massage or change

his statement? that hope hicks was saying about the president. and he basically was asked to lie about the president, which mcgahn obviously did not do. wha what's the next step? >> the next step would be if robert mueller can get the president to sit down and talk. reporters have gone on tv and said publicly, or his advisers, are very nervous about that idea. if you have a president who, as you pointed out, shades the truth and really struggles with when to be up front about something and when to give a misleading statement, and really doesn't seem to understand the consequences of the latter, he's sitting down with lawyers that we know have peace together, you know, in key moments hour by hour at some point. who was there, who was e mailing so and so, who was on the call

with so and so. i'm referencing his decision to fire the fbi director, his decision to relay a misleading statement about the tower meeting with a russian lawyer. you have a president who is misleading with the truth, and then lawyers who are very, very capable piecing together every little thing. that's got to be, i think, the next big struggle for the president. >> a major decision on his part. that's coming up, there's no doubt, amber. new details emerging right now in that secret meeting in the seychelles where the trump administration and the kremlin were reportedly trying to set up some sort of back-channel. senator jack reid. we're only standing by live. right now south korean officials are on their way here to washington to the white house with a message from kim jong-un, a direct message to president

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president trump's former campaign chairman is in court right now. paul manafort is being arraigned outside washington, d.c. in alexandria, virginia. looking at live pictures right now on charges stemming from the russia investigation. manafort is accused of bank fraud and tax evasion charges in ukraine. in addition to the charges filed against manafort in washington, d.c. federal court. he has pleaded guinot guilty to those charges. did president trump lie about a secret meeting? erik prince may have misled lawmakers in his testimony before the panel. prince was drilled about a meeting with the seychelles and whether it was used to set up a

back-channel operation between trump and the russians. prince denied that but may not necessarily have been forthcoming about who was involved in the meeting. let's go to our senior congressional correspondent manu raju who is joining us right now. manu, what more have you learned? >> reporter: when prince came before this committee in late november, he was asked extensively about that meeting in the seychelles islands, asked about whether or not this was a back-channel effort in the discussion between the trump administration and the kremlin, something he denied furiously over several hours. he told the committee that he had two separate meetings there, one with united air emirates officials as well as one with a russian banker who uae officials insist the he meet with. he said there was no talk of policy, no talk of a back-channel or the like. one thing he did not disclose, wolf, was there was one other person who attended those meetings. that's george nader, a lebanese

american businessman tied to this discourse. nader was in one of those meetings. when asked who else participated, he did not respond. if this was part of an effort to set up a back-channel, perhaps erik prince was lying to this committee. that's what adam schiff said moments ago. >> it would be my hope we could have mr. nader, special counsel permitting, come before our committee at the appropriate time and that we also have erik prince come back before the intelligence committee so we can determine which account is accurate. >> do you think erik prince lied about the seychelles meeting? >> i don't know what he said was accurate or not. if those reports are accurate, there is clearly a significant discrepancy between that version and what we heard in erik

prince's testimony. >> reporter: and wolf, schiff also called for prince to return to this committee, provide more records, answer more questions, and that's something the republicans are not committing to yet. mo mike conaway, the reporter leading this investigation, and there is talk about if corwin lewandowski is finished today, it's a question whether this investigation will wind down. schiff also called for nader cooperating with special counsel's investigation, but schiff wants to talk to him as well before this committee, wolf. >> still plenty of unanswered questions. manu, thank you very much. manu raju up on capitol hill. senator jack reid of rhode island is joining us. he's a member of the senate intelligence committee, the armed services committee. senator, thank you so much for joining us. >> thanks, wolf. >> let's start with questions about that meeting in the

seychelles islands. during that transition, whether there was an effort to set up back-channel communications with russia. what is the significance, from your perspective, of that? >> first of all, it's been confirmed by all of our intelligence agencies that there was active engagement by the russians in our election in 2016. the question is, was there a direct relationship or a prominent relationship with the trump campaign and the russians? and this meeting sort of sticks out because it's in the transition period, and it's a dialogue between someone who was involved with the campaign, the trump campaign, and a russian, and again now. . this all sort of seems to be leading to the question of -- which mr. mueller is considering, was there any involvement directly with the russians in the campaign by the trump top operation? >> as you heard, the black water

founder erik prince denies that was the purpose of the meeting. but why would the incoming trump administration need some sort of back-channel communication during the transition before the inauguration? >> i don't think they would have necessarily needed it. and again, this might not be starting a back-channel but continuing a channel that already had been started. there are appropriate ways in which you transition. a president-elect can conduct relationships, but the norm typically is you don't really engage particularly through unofficial sources until you're sworn in. that's my general sense of the way the procedure should work. >> let's get to another sensitive issue. a white house official says john kelly, the white house chief of staff, has warned the president about talking to witnesses in the russia investigation.

this follows a "new york times" report that president trump asked two witnesses about their conversations with robert mueller's team. does that cross a line? >> well, it does get very, very close to a line because it's not just trying to find out information, as they would say in the army, it might be undue command influence. sending the message not just to those that may have been questioned but those that would be questioned in the future that what they say would be commented upon or they be queried by the president. that's not a good practice. i think john kelly's advice is sound advice. >> the white house senior adviser to the president's son-in-law jared kushner, he's been in mexico city, he met with the president of mexico. despite having a security clearance downgraded from top secret to secret on an interim basis, an outgoing career diplomat with 30 years experience in the region was not on the trip. the outgoing u.s. ambassador to mexico was not in that meeting.

there was some confusion at the same time about cannotexactly we president is going to do about tariffs involving mexico and canada. where is secretary of state rex tillerson in all of this right now? on these sensitive issues, he seems to be m ir.i.a. >> it's not just the secretary, it's the entire state department. this is not just accidental. there are so many vacancies with diplomats. i was in jordan a few weeks ago. there is no ambassador in jordan. in fact, mr. kushner showed up there, apparently went to see king abdullah without any real sp support from the embassy. this ad hoc diplomacy is not good and it seems to be consistent. we don't have an ambassador in somalia. i was visiting there. that's where we have troops in contact. we don't have an ambassador in libya, we don't have an

ambassador in turkey. this is not just one issue. this is a department that i think has been deliberately undercut and that will not help us. we can't conduct the business of diplomacy in the united states on a one-off basis, ad hoc meetings by people that frankly may be well-intentioned but unknown in the area. >> you're a former u.s. army ranger, you know a lot about classified information. can a special u.s. envoy like jared kushner really go into meetings with a leader like the president of mexico or king abdullah of jordan or go to china, deal with the israeli-palestinian peace process without top secret information? >> i think it's difficult. first of all, he can't be briefed at a level that will allow him to make a very good judgment about what people are telling him. when he's sitting down with a foreign leader, he has to be

able to have the whole context, he has to know more, hopefully, than the individual knows so that he can make a real judgment. his contribution can be focused. so without this, he can have a conversation, but it does not have the effect of someone who is fully briefed and fully vetted to know everything we know about the situation. >> finally, senator, the white house press secretary sarah sanders says president trump won an arbitration in a lawsuit filed by the porn star stormy daniels. that was the first time the white house has admitted the president was involved in any way with daniels. what do you make of that and the $130,000 payment to stormy daniels to stay silent only a few weeks before the november 2016 presidential election? >> well, it raises a host of issues, but the one i think which is not of exclusive concern but serious concern is

the campaign finance laws. was this in some way a in-kind contribution? was it in some way connected to the campaign? that has to be evaluated and examined and either confirmed or refuted. but there are just a host of legal issues that have been raised by this disclosure. >> do you agree with some of your democratic colleagues that maybe the fbi, the justice department, or even the special counsel should look at all this? >> i think someone should. immediately the federal -- particularly -- i think there's already been a complaint filed. but someone has to look into this. it has to be done promptly and also not only to find the truth but to clear this issue off the table so it's not causing further disruption in the white house, which is certainly under a stormy path at the moment. >> it certainly is. senator, thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you.

>> senator jack reed of rhode island. they're headed to the white house to deliver a message from kim jong-un to president trump. and an absurd rush as the president scrambles on his tariff plan. is it? when you switch to liberty mutual, you could save $782 on auto and home insurance. and still get great coverage for you and your family. call for a free quote today. you could save $782 when liberty stands with you. liberty mutual insurance. you've tried moisturizer but there's one... that blows them all out of the water. hydro boost water gel from neutrogena®. with hyaluronic acid it goes beneath the surface to plump skin cells from within and lock in hydration

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delivered to president trump, but it is directly from kim jong-un from those meetings in pyongyang at the headquarters of the workers party of korea. some are thinking it might be basically laying out the north koreans' position. they want north koreans out of south korea. there is speculation in seoul that perhaps kim jong-un would send his sister to these talks. but all is speculation right now until that message is delivered to president trump. and the united states, how will they respond? will this lead to talks or will it be a non-starter? we'll just have to wait and see. >> you've been to pyongyang several times. to what degree have sanctions affected the regime of kim jong-un, and is that the reason why some believe he's suddenly interested in diplomacy, direct talks not only with south koreans but maybe even with the united states? >> reporter: my sources close to north korea say the sanctions are really start to go biing to. they describe it as when there

used to be 100 trucks going back and forth from south korea to north korea, and now there's just 10 trucks. it will really hurt if north korea can't get some of those sanctions lifted and get some credibility to all of this. so yes, they're giving the sanctions credit to this dialogue. half of those sanctions have been imposed roughly during the trump administration, and it really is hurting kim jong-un's -- maybe not his nuclear program but other status in the country. >> will ripley reporting from seoul for us. will, thank you very much. we'll be anxious to find out what's in this message from the north koreans to president trump. we'll work on that throughout the day. just a short time from now, by the way, the president will sign some controversial new tariffs which he calls very fair, but america's strongest allies are deeply concerned

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side effects can lead to dehydration, which may cause kidney problems. change the course of your treatment. ask your doctor about victoza®. the white house has added that the president will sign the steel and aluminum tariffs around two and a half hours from now. they said the cabinet will let it go with some fine tuning possible. >> sticking with 10 and 25 initially, i'll have the right to go up and down depending on the country, and i'll have the right to drop out countries or

add countries. we just want fairness. because we have not been treated fairly by other countries. >> joining us now from new york is david stock. he was the budget director under president reagan. thanks for being with us. >> happy to be with you. >> i know you've been working on these issues for decades. what does it say that the administration has had such a rocky rollout of these tariffs? >> it's typical. the steel industry are the crybabies of the beltway lobby farm. they gang tackle every new president that comes in with their tale of woe. in this case they've got the biggest sucker yet. and this whole thing is a giant mistake. i was involved way back in 1982 when i negotiated for the reagan administration, and 18% quota on foreign steel, and they all pledged on their honor after five years they would be competitive, they wouldn't need the protection anymore, and here

we are, you know, 30 years later and one device they've had in protection after another, and it's still the same old story. now, we have a huge trade problem in this country. an 800 billion trade deficit is not anything to ignore. we have had a trade deficit for 43 years running, and if you want to know the truth, it adds up to 19 trillion of trade deficits over the last four decades. but steel is the least of our problem. the steel trade deficit is about 20 billion, which is 2%, and the argument that we need this for national defense is actually ludicrous. we produce 82 million tons of steel last year. canada, mexico or brazil which i don't think will declare war on us or put an embargo, and d.o.d.

says at most they need 3 million tons a year. so this is a figure leaf for rank protectionism that's focused on the wrong industry because there's so much excess capacity for steel in the world that there will never be a shortage, and we're just barking up the wrong tree. the problem isn't bad trade deals, the problem is bad money at the fed and in the central banks of the countries that have been suppressing their exchange rates. that's the problem. >> so when you say the steel lobby is very effective here in washington and they're dealing with the biggest sucker, who is the biggest sucker? >> well, the one in the oval office. that's the one i'm talking about. i mean, somehow he thinks that a 17th century version of mercantilist trade policy is going to make america grow again. that isn't remotely correct, and

he should be focusing on the real problem. we have ten countries that we have a massive trade deficit with, almost 90% of the 800 billion is 10 countries. sh kn everybody knows who they are. it's mexico, china, south korea, vietnam and a couple others. they ought to focus on why do we have a big deficit there when the other half of our trade accounts -- we have 4 trillion a year of import and exports -- half of it, 2 trillion is balanced with 150 countries in the world where we basically buy a trillion and sell a trillion. so we need to focus on what's wrong with the exchange rates, what's wrong with corporate america that constantly uses all of its cash flow for stock buybacks, mna deals, lbos, leverage recaps. they're not investing in

competitive ability for us to compete in the world market. in fact, business cap x in real net terms today is 30% lower than it was in the year 2000. that's where the problem is, and this tax cut did nothing for it. it's a giant mistake that's going to drive up interest rates and cause, you know, huge wi windfalls to wall street to the 1% and 10% that own the stock. but it's not going to really address the problem. >> we'll see exactly what the president signs later today, 3:30 p.m. eastern, when he makes this announcement on tariffs. david stockman, thanks so much for joining us. >> happy to be with you. a warning for the white house chief of staff john kelly to his boss, don't talk to robert mueller's witnesses about their testimony. this as reports surface that the president is doing just that. more information coming up.

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in syria, force rs east of the euphrates river, buildup where pro regime troops initiated an attack on searialian democratic forces last month and turned the u.s. air strikes, killing pro regime fighters. first of all, what are you learning about the situation as it's unfolding? >> wolf, officials are telling me this buildup is something of concern. it's something that's been noticed. this regime force has started to

bring in reinforcements, getting larger very close to where u.s. operation forces are and that u.s. forces have contacted their russian counterparts meant to avoid any potential miscalculations, any potential clashes between the various groups in the area. they're watching this closely. the regime has attempted to seize territory in the area before leading to that devastating counterattack. some 100 fighters, including russian military contractors we're told. tensions very high right now. u.s. communicating with russian count counterparts to try to avoid a repeat of what happened last month. but this all comes as the u.s. fight against isis has been complicated by a number of factors, u.s. local allies, syrian democratic forces have left the area to join their fellow kurdish militias in another part of syria, complicating the situation. u.s. forces keeping a close eye on what these regime troops are doing so close to their positions. >> any indications over there

that the u.s. military is gearing up for some sort of tom wrahawk cruise missile strike? >> nothing concrete on that front. of course, the u.s. has said that -- has pointed to what it's done in the past, those april strikes where they launched 58 tomahawk missiles against syrian regime forces saying they've done that in the past and closely monitoring syria's military activity, looking for evidence of any potential syrian chemical weapons use. but no indications as of yet that any kind of military option is being closely explored at this time. >> ryan brown be, over at the pentagon, thank you very much. we'll check back with you. i suspect it will get tense very, very quickly, given the unrest and slaughter going on in syria. we'll stay on top of this story for our viewers here in the united states and around the world. other news as the president gets ready to sign new tariffs

into action, sources tell us he's fuming over his press secretary sarah sanders and her explanation of the payout to the porn star stormy daniels. we'll get all the days news and continue our coverage after this. (vo) all right is in the water... all right is in the air. all right says i do, all right says i dare. all right is how you feel... because all right flows here. only in jamaica. the home of all right.

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that grow with your business. at&t, not so much. we give you 75 mbps for $59.95. that's more speed than at&t's comparable bundle, for less. call today. today the proof may be in the public schedule. the white house is hailing a 3:30 signing event on these tariffs. behind the scenes, late last night the policy was far from finalized, event scrapped and then today the president tweeted out this event happening in an hour and a half and moments ago he