>> i haven't talked to him about that specifically. >> reporter: as the questions get cuffer about russia, about the president's personal life, and about these rapid fire changes at the white house, sanders is effectively saying don't ask me. erin. >> certainly a shift. thank you tom foreman. thanks to awful you, have a good weekend. we will see you monday. "ac 360" starts now. good evening, i'm quoting here. no immediate personnel changes at this time. despite all the reporting from multiple sources close to the president that's what white house keefe of chief of staff john kelly told staffers this morning. you are right, he is the same john kelly whose job itself has been in jeopardy. and he was talking in part about mr mcmaster whose job may already be done, and in addition, four cabinet secretaries were in the presidential dog house. four, at least. and yes, sources close to the president who are familiar with

his thinking had been warning all week a shakeup could be coming. reports are the president is enjoying the process, which is probably more than mcmasters or sessions or shulkin or carson could safe. it's unlikely rex tillerson enjoyed it much. he have fired this week. of the after reporting the president called fake news. tweeting quote the media speculated that i fired rex tillerson or that he would be leaving soon. fake news. we work well together and america is highly respected again. that tweet was around 15 weeks ago. and yes, there really is a tweet for everything. the sheer number of high-profile departure is stunning. steve bannon, reince priebus be koch comey, flynn, porter, porter look eye like, the mooch, only mohsin, hope hicks, the list goes on and on. and the president is said to be enjoying this latest installment of will he or won't he, perhaps

even stretching it out. today the turmoil dominated the white house briefing. >> what is the president's reaction to all these stories. >> has the president or the chief of staff made any assurances about what's to come. >> has the president spoken directly to mcmatter, shulkin or sessions to tell them their jobs are safe? >> why is it felt there is still a need for change in the cabinet or among his circle of advisors. >> is it the president himself creating this aura of chaos or turmoil or potential upheaval in the west wing and frankly across the administration. >> sarah sanders answered with the variation of no immediate personnel changes. she didn't answer the question why there was a need for changes at all. and she answered jeff zeleny's chaos question.

the president had a campaign. >> we are going to get the best people. >> we are going to get the best people in the world. we don't want people who are b level c level d level. we have to use our best. we are going to use our smartest and our best. we are not using hacks anymore. it is a chess mass but i have the best people lined up. you need people that are truly kanl. we have to get the best people. >> to jeff zeleny's question, why aren't they all still there, there is the private jet abuser who was fired and the alleged spousal abuser fired. and after all what national security adviser hasn't lied about russians and turned state's evidence. just a few days ago, the president said that is not a problem. >> believe me, everybody wants

to work in the white house. they all want a piece of that oval office. they want a piece of the west wing. yeah, there will be people -- i'm in the going to be specific, but there will be people that change. they always change. sometimes they want to go out and do something else. but they all want to be in the white house. so many people want the come in. i have a choice of anybody. i could take any position in the white house, and i will have a choice of the ten top people having to do with that position. everybody wants to be there. >> like omarosa. keeping his honest, even barring any new shakeup the turnover in this administration it's without modern precedent. according to a new study from the bookings institution 43% of the president's staffers quit, switched jobs or been fired. that's double any modern presidency. the number could be growing and the job is hard enough without the drama of who is in or who is

out. we have guests, including david gergen. mr. secretary, does it surprise you at all here we are yet again having yet another conversation about yet more chaos in the white house? >> you know, nothing surprises me anymore unfortunately. because you know it appears that this president likes to operate by chaos, and likes to keep staff constantly concerned about whether or not they are going to have a job. i'm not quite sewer i understand that. i think stability is a much better course for the white house to take because you are dealing with an unstable world check check. if you have an unstable staff, it make it that much tougher to deal with that kind of world. >> david, there is an old, i think it is a bore thee parker quote, those born to the storm find the calm very boring. i mean you worked in the nixon white house. can you just explain what effect

instability has on the functions of the executive branch? >> you just reminded me anderson of a friend who went to see president trump and asked him how well are you navigating the storm? and the president turned to him and said, i am the storm. >> that really true? >> that's what a friend told me. >> wow. >> i was like, whoa. single source, but nonetheless. so, listen, i think leon is absolutely right. if there is calm at the center, steadiness at the officer, there is calmness throughout the whole team. but when there is instability at the center and the president is the storm, that raitt radiates as well. and causes enormous anxiety. people are not focused on getting the job done in the same way. morale goes down of it's very tough. so when john kelly the chief of staff reportedly gathered the staff in his office this will morning, we have no immediate personnel changes at this time, immediate, and at this time.

underscore those and what they may mean. i mean, why is that reassuring? secretary panetta, in terms of any possible staff changes if the president is trying to hire advisors who are closely aligned with his world view, i mean that is his prerogative, isn't that what most presidents do, surround themselves with people who support their agenda? >> not necessarily. i always thought that the strongest presidents are willing to have people who come in who may not represent the same viewpoint. i think it's important for presidents not to be surrounded by a bunch of yes men. if you have people that only will say yes to the president, then i don't think the president is going to be well served. i think what the president should get, because most of these issues are tough to deal with, he needs to have different viewpoints. he needs to have different opinions about just exactly how to approach niethese issues. and he ought to be strong enough

to be able to listen to those kinds of views whether he agrees or disagrees with them. that's the way presidents should operate. that's obviously the way this president doesn't like to operate. >> you know, david, there is this notion now that the president is more confident, that he now feels he understands the job of being president more than he did, than when he first started and that he is starting to rely more on his own instincts. if that's true i would imagine we just expect the chaos to continue. >> oh, i think that's right. he is acting like the people that worked for him early whier were just training wheels and he is now up and running himself and he enjoys iter mo. reportedly by his aides he is happier now than he was when he was surrounded by people who challenged him had. i think leon's point is right. i would reinforce it by saying look it's particularcally important to have dissenting voices when you are departing from long standing transitions in policy. somebody ought to be there to help to understand the history behind it, why it was done, whether it's been successful or

not, before you make sort of off the cuff kind of decisions with them and do this or that without with regard of all the wisdom that might be stored up in people who worked in more traditional ways. >> the "wall street journal" reporting that the president and secretary kelly settled on a truce in their word. when you were president clinton's chief of staff did you ever need to have a truce? >> i never had that experience. very frankly, if there is a truce or something that basically says yeah you can stick around for a while anyway, it undercuts your position. i'm not quite sure i understand how john kelly is able to make it from day to day when he's got -- he's got his head under a guillotine. and the same thing is true for hmmm r. mcmaster. you really need to have a relationship of trust between the chief of staff and the

president. they ought to be able to trust each other. and they ought to be able to deal with each other. and if that falls apart, very frankly, it means that that relationship is not going to work. >> david, just the fact the president told advisors yesterday that kelly was quote, 100% safe. it does feel sometimes like we are witnessing the white house version of survivor waiting for the next person to get voted off the island. >> absolutely, anderson. that's why i think -- to paraphase mac beth if it were done to be done, it's best done quickly. if he is going to clean house he ought to do it quickly and reform and tell everybody from now ott you are safe, this is our team for the next year. that would let things settle down. to have this -- this is what tillerson has gone through, and what mcmaster is going through, lots of leaks coming out of the oval office. >> is it possible he is drawing it out to inflict maximum pain or indecision or get, you know,

juice the news cycle in some way. ? >> anderson trying to do psychoanalysis on him is beyond me. i don't know. but clearly it's in his dna. he likes the drama. he likes the reality show quality of it. and it's -- i'm not sure anybody is telling him, mr. president it's doing so much damage to your standing, your standing in the world. >> david gergen, secretary panetta, thank you. >> good to be with you. a lot more ahead, the next breaking news in the stormy daniels story. the president's legal team filed a new motion. we have gotten it and we are looking it over. we will tell you what it says. also the word from stormy daniels attorney that six other women who have come forward with similar stories about the president what that could mean. and searching for the answers in the wreckage of the bridge collapse that now claimed six lives. the very latest on "anderson cooper 360."

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i want to stress that we have not vetted these stories to any great degree. however, the initial consultations, initial information that we are receiving indicates there are some striking similarities between their stories and that of my client, miss clifford. >> can you say if any of these women have non-disclosure agreements? >> yes. >> they do? >> at least two of them. >> so with that now out there, we should bring in our own legal advice, mark geragos as well as laura coats. first of all this filing by michael cohen, what does it mean? why the president's team would want to move the case? >> there is usually two reasons. one you either don't like the cait state court judge, which it could be in this case. or you want to get it out of the state court and into federal court, which is a common move by usually corporations or

large-scale defendants. they feel like they get better justice for them in federal court. the irony here is that trump obviously is the person who appoints federal judges and he does not have any sway over state court judges. the interesting twist to this is the state court judge could do very little to enforce anything against the executive branch. so it may be a case of be careful what you wish for because now the federal judge, which is called an article three judge will have the authority to order things against donald trump as an executive in the executive branch whereas the state court judge would have had a lot more trouble enforcing any order she would have made. >> does the move by michael cohen make sense to you? do you think the request will be gran granted. >> essentially, in order to get

to federal court you have got to show people are from different states. diversity. also the amount they are going to be seeking is worth a federal court judge's time. that's $75,000. we know based on the filingings on behalf of stormy daniels that $10,000 seems on the the base. and you are talking about $1 million per breach of that claim, we are above that particular amount in controversy. but it also makes sense because ironically they also moved last week to try to get it out of state court to a different judge who was not considered to be a front-runner for a federal judgeship on behalf of donald trump. but it makes sense because they are going to have the benefit of a judge who does not have the same docket as a state court judge has. will probably have more time. and also federal courts are notorious on deciding things on what's called the leadings the papers, without having to have all the hearings, if which is

clear-cut case they can decide it without having to be in a lot of hearings. >> we have heard from the attorney. i think he is flying right now. we will try to get him in the next hour. is this something he would agree to or would there be a reason why he would want to keep it in the state court? >> i think michael will probably -- once you remove it, the defendant has a right to remove it. then it's up to the plaintiff or the opposite side, i should say, to come in and contest that. my guess -- my inclination would be is that he would probably contest it. but he's going to wait and see who he draws in the central district. in fact we may already know that i'll take a look when you go to the next break. when i say draw, know who the federal judge is. a lot of times that's how the decision is made. >> whether an attorney has experience with that particular judge or the reputation of that judge and what kind of a ruling they think they may get. >> correct. there is certain -- unfortunately one of the things

in the law is that all judges don't decide things based truly on the law. there seems to be idiosin accuracies with a lot of judges, certain judges lean to the defense, certain judges lean twoors towards compelling orb administration. there is a lot of factors that go into whether or not you would contest this. a lot of that would be a determination based on who the judge is. >> he has said there are six additional women that have come forward. he said he hasn't fully vetted what their stories are. he says he believes have ndas. is it possible they could all use the same legal argument to get out of them or would that all sort of ride on how similar the contracts were to the one stormy daniels signed. >> what he is trying to do is get the claim of stormy daniels to the court of public opinion.

that can work if you are following the news but not essentially to a judge. the judge is looking at number one, can stormy daniels, not the other six women who haven't been fully vetted and two of which may or may not have similar non-disclosure agreements, is there anything that allows stormy daniels to speak. what it seems they are trying to do here is listen, if there is an overall theme where the court is never going to try to enforce a contract that is against public policy that includes whether or not there is a contract to do hushing of broken federal law, which would be campaign finance in this issue. if there is an overall theme where that is the evident and you have additional proof of an mo that says we have got more than one person they have tried to silence. they all exceed the threshold of the $2700 mark for campaign finance and they are not disclosed, well they are trying the build all of that as a way of saying if a court doesn't buy the non-signature item as to why

it's voided. if the court doesn't buy what michael cohen is saying. then it may be public policy by virtue of the strength in numbers. it is an uphill battle. that's why the judge is so important. and why raising it to the federal courtace raises the stakes of this litigation. >> obviously, if six other people come forward they have to be vetted carefully. as you know as somebody who gets a lot of publicititiey with cli anybody can come forward with any claim. >> come the my office and see how many inquiries i get on an average day. half of whom are 5150, which is a danger to themselves or others. anybody can claim anything, and you do have to vet it. the problem is i don't think you are going to get to the point in federal court where any federal judge at least in the central district is going to start to

let you make this into a dog and pony show. and remember, most judges have an inclination to take something if there is an arbitration or an agreement for arbitration to compel arbitration. the reason for that is it's one less thing on their docket. especially here in this district where the junes are overworked. >> i just got a statement from stormy daniels's attorney. i want to read it. he says this is simply more of the same bullying tactics from the president and mr. cohen. they are now attempting to remove this case. it will ultimately be decided in arbitration behind close doors. they will on this effort at every turn. he went on to say the sitting president is -- we are not going

away, we will not be intimidated by these threats, laura. >> it is not bullying if you are able to avail yourself to the courts. what it comes down to, symptomy daniels entered into a contract that was not favorable to her. they have tried a number of ways to say it's void or voidable and don't want it to be enforced. a lot of ways to go about that. if it is a valid contract a court is not going to second-guess her own decision to enter into that contract. what you are seeing here is frankly a litigant who is saying i have every right avail myself of arbitration because that was agreed to in the court. that was what was agreed to in the contract. and i don't need a court to second-guess this because it is not for a court to figure out if either had the benefit of the bargain. all it takes is a meeting of the minds. to suggest it's bullying to engage in civil litigation is more of a hyperbole than anything else. but his point is taken because

it's all betting on the those of the court of public opinion in many ways to say why is the president of the united states so averse to this particular person speaking? what is he trying to hide? that innuendo is powerful persuasion this the court of public opinion. but i doubt it actually persuades the court to say whether or not this was a good contract or one that you just don't like anymore. >> well, stormy daniels -- >> also -- >> mark, go ahead. >> i was just going to say there is also one other added thing. and this may be of some interest to you. there may be a thought that they have got a federal court now and that the federal court may be more at least open to the idea of enforcing or trying to prohibit 60 minutes from airing the interview. >> do you think the federal court -- >> that's something to consider as sfwheel do you think the federal court might try to stop 60 minutes from airing that interview? >> i think that they may request the federal considerate to do it. i don't think the federal court

would ever do it. but i think their calculation is if they go to federal court they have got a better shot at that to borrow laura's thing on the paperwork but they would have to come head long into proper restraint. my point is if they are going to make a move that way they are better off doing it in federal court than with a judge in state court. >> mark, just from a publicity standpoint wouldn't the president of the united states, and his attorney attempting to stop stormy daniels from speaking on 60 minutes -- would that not just garner more attention for the interview, which is scheduled for not this sunday but the following sunday? >> well, this is a president who knows a lot about ratings. it certainly would increase the ratings number one. but all of this effort for stormy daniels, the cynic in me believes there has to be some documentary evidence that they are deathly afraid of getting

out. i don't know whether that's texts, a selfie, whether it's video, what it is. or a story that comports with some other story that's already out there. there's some reason behind why they are expending so much effort on this. because, frankly, they would have been better off just letting this thing go by the wayside and dealing with it and letting her -- kind of sweeping it under the rug. all they have done is create traction to this case. >> i should point out i conducted the interview with stormy daniels that will be on 60 minutes on march 25th. thank you very much. this story and the potential of more like it raises obvious questions about how it's affecting the first lady seen here with the president at an event with ireland's prime minister. she hasn't spoken about stormy daniels and has stayed out of the public eye since the news broke. ranee kay now takes a look. >> do you think the president is watching right now? i like to imagine him -- >> i don't want to imagine him.

>> reporter: stormy daniels may be speaking out but melania trump is not. despite the porn star's claims she had an affair with donald trump, the first lady remained silent on the matter. in fact, soon after the story broke, melania trump canceled a previously announced trip to davos switzerland with her husband, quietly visited the holocaust museum in dc and made an unexplained solo trip to m a mar-a-la mar-a-lago. instead of the vulgar headlines and talk of hush money mrs. trump remained focused on her duties as first lady and at least at times keeping her distance from the president. the stormy cloud hung over the president's state of the union address with the first lady arriving separately from the president. a break with long standing tradition. that was january 30th. and the first couple hadn't been seen together at an official

public event since new year's eve. wooks later in mid february news of another alleged affair from 2006 with a former playboy playmate. trump denied it but as the couple broke heading to mar-a-lago the first lady took her own motorcade to andrews air force base. that same month mrs. trump appeared briefly with the president after the shooting in parkland, florida. and she also went alone on a day trip to ohio though she skipped his speech instead taking a motorcade to cincinnati children's hospital. the couple met up again on board the flight home. reports that stormy daniels received a payoff reportedly blind sided the first lady which may explain her low profile. still this was hardly the first time she is had to deal with her husband being accused of cheating or inappropriate behavior. >> imi'm automatically attracted

to beautiful women. i just start kissing them. >> reporter: she was quick to dismiss that whole saga as mere boy talk. >> he was lead on like egg on from the host to say dirty and bad stuff. >> reporter: she defended her husband again when multiple women came forward accusing him of kissing and groping them. mr. trump has denied it all. >> i believe my husband. i believe my husband. did i ever check the background of these women? they don't have any facts. >> reporter: facts may be just what melania trump is waiting for before she breaks her silence again. randi kaye, cnn, new york. coming up, cormier fbi director -- deputy director andrew mccabe has already stepped down, is officially eligible for retirement benefits in a couple of days. the trick is, he could be getting fired before then.

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the day after tomorrow, the former deputy director of the fbi becomes eligible for retirement benefits after more than two decades of service,

that is if he doesn't get fired first. the trump administration to fire andrew mccabe hours before his official retirement, in which case he could lose retirement benefits and health coverage. yesterday sarah sanders called him a bad actor in how he handled investigations regarding hillary clinton. joining me now. >> josh, you served as mccabe's special assistant. you say you are a fan of his. what do you make of this. >> if you are an fbi agent tonight you are trying to hold in your head two competing views. both of which are probably true. on the one hand there is the issue of candor. in the fbi candor is key, if you ever violate that throughout your career you are no longer of use of the organization.

what they are focused on is if you can hold field agents to one standard and the highest ranking agent to a lower standard. that's one thing. on the secondhand they are looking at the idea of politics and thinking the longer this goes, here we are at the 11th hour, literally the 11th hour, one day before he is eligible to retire, why wasn't this decision made earlier? why wait so long? if you recall he was basically pushed out at the end of january. what's going on here? where is the information? what's the information flow? when is the decision going to be made. >> general flynn and petreus were able to keep their pensions even in the wake of what people consider more serious offenses. what does that say to you? >> there have been case where is fbi officials have been fired in the past. i think the fbi's rules are that that can revoke their pension. what stand out to me is we don't

actually know what the accusations are. the office of inspector general's report hasn't been made public. while we are reading different reports that andy mccabe is potentially accused of not having appropriate candor during the course of an investigation there is no allegation out there that's of a more serious nature. for example, there is other senior executives, that they were involved in some kind of criminal violation or something, then that would trigger them being fired and losing their pension. the other problem in addition to the investigation is the time line. and that gets to josh's point as to the politics of all of this, which is that the president has tweeted about andy mccabe last december specifically about this issue. but dating back to last july. and so i think there is real questions depending on if they really go through with this firing. there is real questions about when the internal investigation started, what the time line of

the office of inspector general time line was and whether or not there was inappropriate political nunes on it. >> josh -- >> actually -- >> go ahead. >> i was going to add on to what carry was saying, which was spot on. that we don't know what the underlying issue here. it's been reported he was not truthful to investigators when they were asking him about a media leak. what i hope is that if a decision is made by the attorney to fire mr. mccabe -- i have written a piece for cnn opinion which indicated if he did lack candor this is a fireable offense and i'm supportive of that, but i hope the information comes out quickly. this isn't something that the attorney general can sit on. i don't want to hear from him now or in two weeks he should come out immediately and say what the underlying violation w was. this isn't that he politicized

the hillary clinton investigation. this isn't that. i think that would be a disservice. i think we need answers from the attorney immediately. >> josh, in terms of pensions, we had a former attorney of the trump white house on the other made to who said look he's a federal employee, there are systems in place that he can appeal to in order to actually get his pension, that it's very unlikely even if he was fired instead of retiring that he would lose his pension. do you know that to be the case? >> i don't know that to be the case but that adds to the puzzling nature of this. because even as of yesterday it was reported that mccabe was over at the department of justice trying to plead his case. we don't know, is this part of normal process for anyone in this situation, was he allowed to go through that process. if the department of justice or fbi used his retirement calendar in this investigation that's inappropriate. i think if they rushed this

process through because they had it in mind that tomorrow the clock runs out i think more answers should be demanded. >> as we mentioned sarah sanders said that the former deputy director is a bad actor, her words. when asked if russia is friend or foe she wouldn't give a straight answer. we know that the president never criticized vladimir putin but now we are learning that russia not only meldsed in the election it targeted the power grid and water supply. we have more on that next.

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as you know, members of the u.s. intelligence committee concluded that russia meddled in the presidential election. that you know by now. there are new accusations by the united states government that russia also targeted other institutions, power grids to nuclear plants and the water supply. the threats to the country are all coming to light without much comment at all from the president or the podium. look at what sarah sanders said just yesterday. >> is putin is friend or a foe of the united states. >> i think that's something that russia is going to have to make that determination. they are going to have to decide whether or not they want to be a good abilitior or a bad actor. i think you can see from the actions we have taken up until this point we are going to be tough on russia until they decide to change their behavior. >> joining me now, chairman of the human rights foundation, former world chess champion, and the author of winter is coming by putin why vladimir putin and

the enemies of the free world must be stopped. when you hear sarah spds not say whether russia is a friend or a foe what message does that send. >> i recommend she checks her political vocabulary or stop watching fox news. >> the answer is clear. >> it insults my intelligence. the current occupant of the oval office, by the way, as the previous one, they deny the fact that for many years putin is at war with the united states. it is a hybrid war, putin is a kgb guy, he knows he cannot afford direct confrontation with the united states but he is good at clandestine operations. he has succeeded in creating chaos and dividing this country. >> it's been called an information war. and yet these new reports on russia rgt at thatting nuclear power plants, grids, even the

water supply, that should come as no surprise. >> dictators never ask why, it's always why not. so in 2006, putin killed kgb i'm sure under direct putin command ordered killed a former agent in london using poison. nothing happened. for putin, another attack recently was a demonstration of the weaknesses of the western government, the democratic governments. >> and also a demonstration of his reach? >> exactly. two things. one is he sends a message to russian elite in russia basically saying look i'm so powerful they are afraid, they do nothing. but second one, he is spend sending message abroad, with all you russians considering cooperation with mueller investigation, you are not save. crippo, and his daughter. and another russian immigrant in london was murdered. and now police is investigating

the killing by strangulation. >> do you think the kremlin actually fears repercussions from the u.s. >> fears is the wrong word because so far putin saw very little. it's always too little, too late. >> i mean there were sanctions passed that the white house didn't enact. >> but they were too weak, and putin as every dictator reaching a certain point he cannot go back. even if he has a weak hand using the poker analogy he will keep raising the stakes, even though he is bluffing. that's the only way to demonstrate he is invincible. even if he is weak, he knows from history that he will be dealt with by his own cronies. >> you speak out, you travel, do you worry about your own safety? >> would it help? today we had just on broadway in one of the theaters we had a conference called putin con.

>> like comicon, but putin com. >> yes, so you could see video. and we had 20 speakers from six countries. the author of the book, collusion, some of the russian experts. one sent a message from moscow. >> it's all approximate vladimir putin. >> his past, his present skpk revealing all aspects of his rule, his killings, wars, rise to power, and of course cyber attacks and hybrid wars. of course we have a lot of security. thanks to n.y.p.d. for extra studio. we had 500 people listening to such a provocative material about putin's crimes. that could be a potential target. and we refuse to act date any russian press that somehow is connected to kremlin because we don't believe it's press. it's more of a pop began de machine. coming back to your question about myself. what can i do? i live in new york. i can tell that you for many

years people kept asking me why when i had to leave russia i chose new york not london. they are not asking anymore. >> right. >> and i just do whatever i can to be cautious. but then also understand that's the -- it's might not be enough. >> >> why you chose new york? >> new york was the most natural place where i believed it was most difficult for putin and his cronies to reach. >> it's interesting, you know, during the campaign, then candidate trump said, talking about radical islam, that in order to defeat an enemy you have to name it. and was critical of president obama for not using the term radical islam. it is a valid point. yet, president trump hasn't said anything negative about vladimir putin. >> maidsing. nothing. he can blame anybody. his tweet spares no one. >> he can talk about jeff sessions. >> exactly. from his own party. what a surprise. it is a mystery that he never i

think inned vladimir putin. i think yesterday on the cnn website there was a statement from the senior official from the state department blaming putin by name but anonymously. what kind of world if the senior official from the state department refuses to give his name criticizing vladimir putin. >> and vladimir putin hears that. >> he looks at trump, if nothing comes from the oval office he doesn't care about the rest. for him it's me and trump and the rest is irrelevant. and i think he is maybe somewhat right because trump did everything in his power to soften the blow and protract the agony of the sanks and making sure that the people mentioned there under sanctions or entities, it's small fish. i wouldn't say her redundant but it's too little too late and almost an insult for the congress that demanded more comprehensive sachks. >> i appreciate you being on.

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contributed to it. additionally florida's department of transportation said that a lead bridge engineer left a voicemail on tuesday warning of cracking along the span. sadly that voicemail was not discovered until just today. more now from cnn's kaley har tun.

>> reporter: there are no survivors left in the wreckage though at least eight cars and an unknown number of bodies remain buried underneath the rubble. >> we'll continue to remain on scene. we'll continue to work in order to get all of these victims removed. >> reporter: officialed detailed the difficult task ahead. >> we need to bring other equipment, so that's going to be here on the scene, to start to remove these pieces, trying to make the pieces smaller and more controllable. once we break that large piece apart, then we'll be able to start pulling it off. so it's going to be very tedious. >> reporter: recovery workers are using heavy machinery to move sections of concrete so they can reach the victims. most victims have not yet been named but "the miami herald" has confirmed one florida international university student, alexa duran, was among the six people who died. just days before the collapse, the newly erected bridge was celebrated as a safe alternative for pedestrians. months earlier, a university student was killed while trying to cross the highway. how and why this supposedly safe alternative caused such a deadly

collapse is under investigation. >> we want to get to the bottom of -- the bottom line of what occurred so that we can bring closure to the families, bring closure to the investigation, and so that it doesn't happen again. >> reporter: little is known about what construction was happening at the moment of collapse. just after visiting the site, florida senator marco rubio tweeted, the cables that suspended the miami bridge had loosened. they were being tightened when it collapsed, but officials can't say that for sure. >> we have not confirmed that there was a stress test. we've heard that just as you have, and that will be confirmed. >> reporter: meanwhile, questions swirl around louis berger, one of the firms the university used to subject a secondary review of the build. florida transportation released in its official findings that the firm was not pre-qualified for the service. lewisburger released a statement saying it was not involved in the construction of the bridge. >> all of our contractors are fully certified and we believe that the team in question was

fully certified. fiu does not work with contractors who are not fully certified. we're a state institution. we follow state policies and procedures. >> reporter: anderson, nearby kendall regional medical center received ten patients yesterday following the bridge collapse. they tell us two were in critical condition. the rest in stable. we know of at least one person who has already been discharged from the hospital, but here at the site of the bridge collapse, the priority continues to be recovering the remains beneath that bridge and the most dignified and respectful manner possible. up next, are there more white house departures on the way? the latest from washington in a moment. stopping for more pills right now. only aleve has the strength to stop tough pain for up to 12 hours with just one pill. tylenol can't do that.

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♪ right now get the new samsung galaxy s9 for half off. ♪ ♪ get ready for the wild life with one a day men's. a complete multivitamin with key nutrients, plus b vitamins for heart health. your one a day is showing. welcome to the second hour of 360. a very busy second hour. on the table, call it a cliff-hanger. call it chaos. call it west winging it. whatever you call it, the question is are there more white house departures on the way. also tonight, is it business as usual or giving him the business? the senior fbi official and presidential boogeyman just two days from retirement unless he gets fired first. an all-new development in the stormy daniels case including a