unprecedented, but they say that is due to the threat. >> interesting. well, we know you'll be poking around on that, renee marsh. thank you so much for that report. and thank you for joining me at this hour. wolf starts right now. hello, i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. here in washington. wherever you're watching from around the world, thank you so much for joining us. despite saying he wouldn't telegraph military moves, the president is stunning officials by saying the u.s. will be leaving syria very soon. now white house officials are scrambling trying to figure out what he meant. vladimir putin launches satan 2. russia test ag new intercontinental ballistic missile. an explosive moment of the investigation, the biggest moment yet. robert mueller, the special

counsel, is looking into possible collusion between the trump campaign and russia. all of that coming up. let's start with lots of confusion at the white house right now while the president is vacationing down in florida. president trump is spending easter weekend at his mar-a-lago resort in palm beach. once again today he was seen at the trump international golf club not very far away. it's his 104th day at one of his golf properties since taking office. our chief white house correspondent jim acosta is joining us from west palm beach right now. jim, the president at his golf course, but it's a comment from a speech in ohio yesterday that has caused some significant confusion back among his top aides. what's going on? >> reporter: that's right, wolf. a senior administration official told me earlier this morning that the president's comments in ohio yesterday that we'll be getting, the u.s. will be getting out of syria very soon is essentially just perplexing people inside the administration, inside the white

house, state department at pentagon, because that's obviously not the strategy for taking over isis at this point. the president seems to have made those comments without telling staffers exactly what he meant. i talked to one senior administration official earlier this morning who said we're still trying to figure out what the president meant when he said that yesterday. but just to give the viewer a sense of what the president said, here's what he told people in ohio yesterday about the battle against isis and the possibility of pulling u.s. troops out of syria. here's what he had to say. >> we're knocking the hell out of isis. we'll be coming out of syria very soon. let the other people take care of it now. very soon. very soon, we're coming out. we're going to have 100% of the caliphate, as they call it. sometimes referred to as land. we're taking it all back quickly, quickly. but we're going to be coming out of there real soon. >> reporter: and so that is the comment there that is confusing a lot of staffers inside the administration at this point, wolf. a couple things we should point

out. one is we talked to another senior administration official who told us in recent days that a sudden and drastic withdrawal from syria would potentially create a vacuum not unlike what we saw in iraq when the u.s. pulled u.s. forces out of iraq following the iraq war. that is obviously a situation that helped create the -- i guess foundation of isis. those islamic state forces really grew out of the war in iraq. they're worried about a similar thing happening in syria just as they're wiping isis out of their strongholds in syria. the other thing we should point out, wolf, this confusing comment from the president comes at a critical time for the national security team at the white house. john bolton, as we know, is coming in as the national security adviser, and there are people sort of wondering and bracing for the impact of john bolton really coming on board there and putting his own people

in place. the expectation is, according to one senior administration official i talked to earlier today, is that basically john bolton will have his own team, new people will be coming in and some of the current people who are there on staff will be moving out. and so all of that creating some confusion about what is actually going to happen with syria, this very important fight against isis that the president campaigned on quite a bit in the 2016 election, wolf. >> he certainly did. there were about 2,000 u.s. troops, jim, in syria right now, maybe another 5 to 10,000 in iraq. about 15,000 troops in afghanistan. are you getting any indication the president wants to pull all of them out fairly soon? he never liked these wars this the middle east to begin with. >> no, he doesn't. and he seems to want to have it both ways. you'll recall during the campaign he went after george w. bush time and time again over essentially how he was handling the iraq war, essentially accused george w. bush of pulling the country into a quagmire and spend ag ling a lo

money that shouldn't have been spent. it was one of those campaign comments from the president that he just went back to time and time again at various rallies. surprised a lot of republicans that he would go after george w. bush in that way, but he did it time and again. at the same time, the president saying he wants to, as he likes to put it from time to time, knock the hell out of isis. to do that you need troops on the ground, you need a significant commitment from the u.s. military, and as you said, 2,000 u.s. military troops in syria at this point, the pentagon just disclosed that to reporters last december trying to shed light on what u.s. commitments are around the world said at that time there are 2,000 u.s. forces in syria. the question, wolf, is whether or not the president can make good on that comment yesterday to pull the u.s. out of syria soon, while at the same time making sure that isis does not reformulate itself in syria and cause problems for the united states and other countries in that area down the road, wolf. >> jim acosta reporting for us

in west palm beach. jim, thank you very much. for the first time we're also now learning just how robert mueller is using information from a former trump campaign deputy to tie paul manafort directly to the russia intelligence agency. we're talking about the deputy rick gates. he was a business partner with manafort's firm before being brought onto the campaign, eventually sefvering all ties with the white house in march of last year. he pleaded guilty of lying to the fbi last month. sara, walk us through how mule ser trying to connect the dots here. >> wolf, when gates pleaded guilty, i think robert mueller was thinking about how he could pull him in. sources are telling my colleague that when rick gates was speaking to the special

counsel's prosecutors, they made it clear, we don't need you to flip on manafort, we don't need your cooperation in this case, but what we need your cooperation for is our broader mission, which is connecting russian collusion with members of the trump campaign. when you look back at the campaign, rick gates wasn't necessarily particularly close to president trump. he wasn't necessarily in all of these top meetings, but he was, of course, close to paul manafort who was the campaign chairman at the time. and sources are telling me that rick gates made it his business to get to know what was going on in trump tower. and he was there at some critical moments. remember the summer of 2016. this is when there was this trump tower meeting between paul manafort and a number of other folks on the campaign as well as a number of russian operatives. we know this is something special counsel robert mueller is interested in and this could be the type of meeting rick gates has information about. in addition to what sources have told us about rick gates and his meeting with the special prosecutors, we also got some new filings from robert mueller in a separate case.

these filings are particularly interesting because they tie rick gates to a man who is not identified in the court filings but our sources identify him as constantine colimnik. the reason this person is so interesting is because he is a russian intelligence operative. according to prosecutors with the special counsel, they say rick gates was in contact with this man throughout the campaign and knew about his russian intelligence ties. columnik is also someone who worked with paul manafort in the past. the special counsel is interested in these interactions. he said these contacts are pertinent to the investigation and wants to find out more about them. and of course the big question is what, if anything, does this mean for president trump? we have seen him out there time and time again calling this investigation a witch hunt, and part of his argument is that nothing he has seen from investigators so far ties anyone on his campaign to russian officials. obviously the latest information we're getting takes some steam out of that argument. >> it certainly does. rick gates pleading guilty, fully cooperating now with manafort. that's a source of concern

clearly to some around the president of the united states. thanks so much, sara, for that report. several times during the russia investigation president trump has clam ored for a secon special prosecutor, this one to look into hillary clinton and the bias in the state department. jeff sessions has now refused that second special counsel request, at least so far. he put a special prosecutor on the case but in a different role. his name is john huber and he's the top federal prosecutor in utah, but his inclusion in the process isn't sitting well, at least with some republicans. >> in this instance he's asking a person within the organization to investigate the organization. we want special counsel that's independent, that has full ability to pursue these issues to wherever they go. >> specifically, john huber will review the fbi's russia investigation and whether agents abused their powers by seizu

surveiling a former trump adviser. he'll also review investigation into hillary clinton's ties to a russian nuclear energy company. we have a congressman here. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> what do you think of the review that's now been ordered by the attorney general jeff sessions, his refusal to name a second special counsel but is in cooperation to go ahead with this special prosecutor, john huber, to look into all this. >> it's really lockstep with what chairman muniz was doing, creating special investigations on different matters, is the only way to describe it. let's put this into context. since the republicans shut the investigation down on the house side, we have news about gates and manafort meeting with someone tied to russian intelligence. we've had the facebook cambridge issues.

we had the issues of the white house possibly offering pardons to people as the special prosecutor closed in on them. all of this while we've closed down the investigation. so we stopped the investigation as to what the russians have done, and we're continuing the investigation into our own government. >> we're also now learning, as you know, that the special counsel robert mueller has been using former trump campaign deputy rick gates to chase the entire russia collusion angle with the trump campaign. not necessarily focusing so much on paul manafort. what do you think of that? >> i think it makes perfect sense. i think it's easy to forget there are several people out there cooperating, including general flynn. i think the only way you're going to find out exactly what took place is if people who were involved in the process speak out. so i think mr. mueller has done this brilliantly. he's worked from the periphery

and moved to the middle, getting people ina vulnerabletogive information we have to know. in the meantime, republicans sit on their hands. >> was rick gates the interest of possible collusion? >> it was an area of great interest as all the prosecutors are. we've asked mr. wiley to come and testify about cambridge analytica's role in the trump campaign and what he might know. we're going to go forward with or without the republicans and make the request foof the cooperating witnesses, see if they'll come and talk to the house democrats and give more information. but honestly, to answer your question, these are people of great interest as they are with mr. mueller's investigation. >> you mentioned it, but let me ask you about the reports that president trump's former attorney general john dowd had talked about the president using pardons potentially, at least

floated the idea of using these pardons to influence the investigation. he talked about both former campaign chairman paul manafort and former national security adviser michael flynn. what's your reaction? >> you know, it's hard to imagine he's having these communications, if indeed he is, unless it's to attempt to influence their decisions as to whether to cooperate with the investigation. i understand that the pardon power is fairly absolute of the president of the united states. it is inconceivable to me that the founding fathers created the pardon power to allow the president of the united states to escape the possibility of prosecution. >> well, we don't know if the president was specifically involved with john dowd if john dowd did, in fact, float this idea. we don't know what the role, if any, of the president was, right? >> no, but clearly the attorney is doing this on behalf of the president of the united states.

again, fair questions, all questions that we should be continuing to investigate. look, we started the investigation on four prongs. one of them was not obstruction of justice, but obstruction of justice as a possibility is intertwined with the other four. what did the russians do? who helped them do this in attacking our democratic prot process? so i think it's equally valuable to find out exactly after the fact, was there obstruction of justice, because it helps us find out what the russians did and how to prevent it in the future. >> they're looking at obstruction of justice, they're looking at possible collusion, they're looking at money laundering, and perjury clearly is atop the agenda as well. congressman, quickly, thanks so much for joining us. >> any time. go, ramblers. >> okay, thank you. president trump stunning his own administration by saying the u.s. will soon leave syria. very serious consequences. that's coming up. plus, in a provocative move,

russian president vladimir putin launching a new intercontinental ballistic missile called satan 2. and a democratic congresswoman under fire for keeping a chief of staff accused of abuse and threats as her aide. all of that coming up. has this unique combination of probiotics. it helps replenish good bacteria. get four-in-one symptom defense.

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today russia escalating tensions with satan 2, the name of their new intercontinental ballistic missile. vladimir putin said the missile could hit any point in the world. let's talk to former cia operative bob baer. how worried should we be? >> i think very worried. it's got multiple warheads. it can beat definitely patriot and probably thaad as well.

they've adapted their technology over the past 17 years. >> why do you think russia is releasing this information at this particular point? >> the russians are very disappointed with donald trump. they think we're heading back into a cold war. they got something they didn't expect. they look at the united states as hostile. they're still upset about the ukraine, about crimea. you know, skplt reand the rest . putin looks at us as the main enemy and is taking appropriate steps. >> how do you look at the president saying yesterday that the u.s. would be pulling out of syria very soon. we have about 200 troops in syria, many of them special praifs praif operatives. >> he's shooting from the hip. he doesn't know what to do about russia. mcmaster has not offered him a resolution, so he said let's get

up and leave. the problem is you don't do this without preparation. secondly, if you get skpup and leave, you're opening up that whole kurdish area to the russia iranians and it becomes an iranian satellite. >> i was very surprised to hear him say they were pulling the military out of syria very soon, given during the campaign he was very critical of president obama saying they were going to pull out troops on such and such a date. listen to what he used to say. >> one of the things i think you've noticed about me is militarily i don't like to say where i'm going and what i'm doing. >> i don't like to telegraph what i'm doing and what i'm thinking. i'm not like other administrations where they say, we're going to do this in four weeks. it doesn't work out that way. >> i don't want to be one of those guys who says, here's what we're going to do. i don't have to do that. >> yesterday he specifically

said 2,000 u.s. troops will be pulled out very soon. >> we know he's inconsistent. the problem is we've got allies in syria. they didn't know anything about this. there was no plans worked out with the administration, and then we've got the kurds who are our main allies on the ground doing most of the fighting, and this came as a total surprise to them, demoralizes them, and what is u.s. policy? the last time we left quickly an arab country was iraq and it fell apart in an awful civil war which is still going on today. >> he was critical of president obama for spelling out when the u.s. would pull out of various locations because he said, and he made a good point, that gives them the opportunity to weigh it all out. once the u.s. leaves, they can step up their effort. now the president just said u.s. troops will be out of syria very soon. it was a surprise to people in the pentagon. >> a victory for iran. >> he was making huge success in

iran, syria, hezbollah. they've had a huge influence. thanks very much, bob baer. he was chief of staff on kapt positive capitol hill accused of making threats against staff members. but a democratic congresswoman kept him on stathe staff, anywa. the president spending the first day without one of his most loyal and trusted aides, hope hicks. how his staff feels he could potentially unravel without her. mike: i've tried lots of things for my joint pain. now? watch me. ( ♪ ) joni: think i'd give up showing these guys how it's done? please. real people with active psoriatic arthritis are changing the way they fight it. they're moving forward with cosentyx. it's a different kind of targeted biologic.

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for her but wrote a nondisclosure and went on to write a letter of recommendation. walk us through the details, the accusations, what exactly unfolded. >> there is a lot we're just learning about something that took place two years ago, wolf. the congresswoman is apologizing now that the story is out and acknowledging that she should have handled this better. this was someone who was once very powerful in her office, her former chief of staff tony baker, and these are some very serious allegations, allegations that in 2016 he physically assaulted and threatened a female staffer in her office, someone he was once in a relationship with. so much so that this staffer had to get a restraining order against him. the congresswoman in a statement says, quote, i am sorry that i failed to protect her and provide her with a safe and respectful work environment that every employee deserves. to the survivor and anyone else on my team who was hurt by my failure to see what was going on in my office, i am so sorry.

and when we're talking about the failures that the congresswoman references there, the timeline here is so important. this is something that allegedly happened two years ago, and the congresswoman knew about two years ago. she said she first learned about this in the spring of 2016. she launched an internal investigation, she says, and demanded that baker receive counseling. but he ultimately stayed on her staff for three additional months after that. she entered into a nondisclosure agreement with him. upon his exit, she paid him severance and even wrote a letter of reference or recommendation for him for his next job. and for that, wolf, the nrct today is calling for the congresswoman's resignation. they say it is a disturbing cover-up. >> it's a very significant and disturbing development, indeed. stick around. i want to bring in cnn legal analyst former federal prosecutor laura coates and boston globe reporter herndon stead. what do you think? this is a serious, serious

allegation, serious problem, and especially the way it all unfolded. >> the timeline is very important. we see from the congresswoman there was ample knowledge and understanding of the accusations by the staffer, and these are very bad-looking details, entering into that nondisclosure agreement, writing that letter of recommendation, and that adds to the #metoo movement that this congresswoman hasn't been supportive about in terms of victims in unsafe work environments. it raises into question the sincerity of those statements, but we've seen that on both sides. we've seen it's been very easy to talk about people from afar, but when those allegations come close to home, both republicans and democrats have had trouble following through on their words. >> i assume there are legal ramifications on this as well. >> you have the method of glass houses meeting stones. she is one person who was very

vocal of having representative conyers step down based on allegations as well. but what this is about is nondisclosure agreements. the congresswoman said i did not feel right having to do that, it felt wrong to me. she felt like she had unclean hands from that moment on. but for congress to wrestle with is why is there a pattern and practice of this behavior, and why there are protections in place to protect the secrecy on behalf of congress but not the people who are alleged to be victims. and one of the stories that comes out continuously is the notion that once you have signed that nondisclosure agreement, as we see what's happening with the white house right now, once you sign that, a lot of your rights you would normally have as your employer, to have that employee relationship not tarnished with misconduct, it goes away. that's what congress has to reckoncile if we're going to believe there is sincerity in the #metoo movement. >> we just got word from tony

baker, the man accused of abuse by the coworker. let me read the statement and we'll continue to discuss. in 2016, elizabeth was the only person who stopped to ask me how i was doing and urged me to get help beyond just becoming sober. i immediately sought comprehensive help which has been invaluable in my life of recovery. i have a lot of respect for anna and i agree that stories like hers need to be told. that's the first official statement, right? >> it is the first official statement, and i think certainly there are more questions for him going forward about this letter of recommendation, about his path forward, but certainly a lot of questions no doubt will be on the congresswoman herself. as you said, this whole theory about why she signed this nondisclosure agreement. she says that she felt pressure to do so. oheck, which oversees, they give advice to them on what to do but not necessarily feeling

pressured. why did she go ahead and sign in nondisclosure agreement? a lot of questions for the congresswoman of uncertainty when they get back to capitol hill. this is the president's first day without hope hicks, one of his most trusted loyal advisers. she ended her job yesterday. what's it going to go like? what are you hearing from your sources without her? >> the unique thing about hope hicks is she is one of those people who has been there since the beginning and predates trump the politician, but it has been there since trump the businessman. a real calming effect, folks say, on the president. the question becomes going forward, will the absence of those people, the people who were personal helps for the president, hope hicks, the former bodyguard who previously left. the people who knew him as a person, the absence of those

people, hope hicks reacted to that. there is certainly a lot of uncertainty about the president going forward. will we see him retreat more to himself, will we see him lash out to others? people around him don't really know. let's buckle up and see. >> the shrinking circle of the president is coming at a time when robert mueller seems to be accelerating his push in the russia collusion. >> all the people we're talking about have either been interviewed by mueller or they've been interviewed by the house and senate intel communities, talking about these issues. that bodes very poorly for donald trump who always will be wondering what's being discussed, whether this implicates him in some way and how close the inner circle of the mueller team is going to be. i think you have on the horizon is paranoia, perhaps justifiably so, what does it mean for this

investigation for people to no longer be tethered to the white house. we have to wait and see, but that shrinking circle is much more important for that legal team than perhaps the fact that hope is literally gone from the white house. >> that's a good point. laura, thanks very much. thanks to both of you as well. we're following a parkland survivor rejecting a fox news host's apology for mocking him. i'll speak live with florida congressman fred deutsche about attacks on these students. plus, one of the president's cabinet secretaries facing heat once again, this time involving trips to disneyland and the rose bowl. much more after this. which gave us a little wiggle room in our budget. i wish our insurance did that. then we could get a real babysitter instead of your brother. hey, welcome back. this guy, right? (laughs) yes. ellen. that's my robe.

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fox news host laura ingram says she's sorry for sending a tweet mocking the parkland school survivor david hogg. here's the tweet she's apologizing for. david hogg, accepted by four colleges and whines about it. has a 4.2g pa, totally predictable gifren accebifen ac rates. laura ingram says she's sorry. here's what he had to say. >> she's only apologizing when her ad supporters pulled out. she's just trying to support her show by apologizing. >> parkland high school is in his district and you might remember he participated in the town hall following the shooting there. congressman, what's your reaction to this exchange that's

played out between fox news host laura ingram and david hogg? >> well, i think like most people, wolf, i was appalled. here's what we knew about the message from these students. we knew that it was real, we knew that it was borne out of this horrific incident they all experienced and shared, and we knew they had the power of social media at their fingertips. what we didn't expect was they would be so effective. because they're high school students, they're used to dealing with bullies. and whether it's laura ingram or my colleague steve king or the nra or anyone else who has refused to treat seriously the issue that they're addressing, which the majority of americans want us to address, that is, pass meaningful gun safety legislation. instead of doing that, they're engaged in name-calling and mocking, and in this case, trying to belittle my constituent. it hasn't worked. the company has rightfully

walked away from her show because they were disgusted by this as well. >> the students have become victims but also very effective advocates by taking on this role. they're delivering some tough rhetoric. are they, as a result, opening themselves up to this kind of criticism? >> are they opening themselves up to those who want to criticize the policies that they espouse, the common sense gun safety measures? sure. and i can tell you they would be more than happy to engage in a debate about why it is that the speaker of the house refuses to allow universal background checks, something that has supported over 900,000 american people by coming to the floor. that's not what laura ingram was doing when he launched this personal attack, it's not what stephen king was doing when he denounced their heritage. what they've shown, what they've

modelled is the importance of staying with the message and trying to engage the entire community, people who support them and people who don't. i talked to some of these students earlier today. all they wanted was the opportunity to help express to anyone whether they're on their side yet or not, why what they're asking for makes so much sense and can help save lives. >> let's not forget these are high school students who have gone through such a horrendous, horrendous situation, a massacre at their school. let's talk a little bit about what the former u.s. supreme court justice john paul stephens wrote in an op-ed in the "new york times" writing, in part, that perhaps the second amendment ought to be repealed. certainly the president noted that he accused democrats of wanting to get rid of the second amendment. do you think justice stephens did damage to the overall gun control debate by suggesting something that's certainly not likely to go anywhere? >> well, first of all, wolf, as

someone who has been the champion for the 20th amendment to the constitution to overturn citizens united and get money out of our politics, which would have a dramatic impact on the nra, i know how hard it is to bend the constitution. justice stephens wrote a provocative piece, but what it does is give us focus on what justice scalia said, perhaps the most conservative justice in my lifetime. he acknowledged that the second amendment right is not unlimited. that's the powerful statement coming from a supreme court justice that's relevant right now. that's what i hope the president takes a look at because all that shows is that everything these students are advocating for, everything we want to do in common sense gun safety is absolutely consistent with a rational reading of the second amendment, even the way it is right now. >> but the notion of actually repealing the second amendment, getting two-thirds of the house and the senate and the states to go ahead and do so, you agree

that's highly, highly unlikely. >> i don't want to go down a path of repealing the second amendment. i want to go down the path that's before us because the overwhelming majority of people in this country think we need universal background checks, acknowledge that weapons of war don't belong in our communities and see no purpose for high-capacity magazines. those are widely supported at a time when there is so much bitter partisanship, wolf. these are issues that enjoy broad support among democrats and republicans alike. that's what's not being done, and every time we try to shift the subject to something else, whether it's the kind of personal attacks that we've been talking about here, it prevents us from focusing on what should be an easy decision to move forward in a way that can help save lives in our country right now. >> and those personal attacks on those high school kids are awful indeed. let me ask you this question. cnn was allowed to see photocopies of what are

described as fan mail that the parkland shooter has been receiving. the letters are coming in from all over the u.s., even europe. there are cards and letters from young girls and grown men. what do you make of this? >> wolf, i don't know. i saw a story. i couldn't bring myself to read the story just yet. i don't have anything to say about anyone who in any way saw -- sees in that brutal killer who gunned down 17 individuals in marjorie stoneham douglas in my district anything that's worthy of praise. you described it as fan mail. it's disgusting to think that that kind of correspondence has been delivered and i haven't really looked at it beyond that. >> you're absolutely right, it is totally, totally disgusting. congressman, thanks so much for joining us. >> my pleasure, wolf. thank you for having me.

just in, gloria allred dropping one of the president's accusers, a former "apprentice" contestant as a client. this in the middle of a very significant lawsuit. we'll discuss that. also, flying first class going on family trips and bowl games with government security. another trump cabinet member under close scrutiny for his pricey spending habits. we'll have a full report. a trip back to the dthe doctor's office, mean just for a shot. but why go back there, when you can stay home, with neulasta onpro?

strong chemo can put you at risk of serious infection, which could lead to hospitalizations. in a key study, neulasta reduced the risk of infection from 17% to 1%, a 94% decrease. applied the day of chemo, neulasta onpro is designed to deliver neulasta the next day, so you can stay home. neulasta is for certain cancer patients receiving strong chemotherapy. do not take neulasta if you're allergic to neulasta or neupogen (filgrastim). ruptured spleen, sometimes fatal as well as serious lung problems, allergic reactions, kidney injuries, and capillary leak syndrome have occurred. report abdominal or shoulder tip pain, trouble breathing or allergic reactions to your doctor right away. in patients with sickle cell disorders, serious, sometimes fatal crises can occur. the most common side effect is bone and muscle ache. so why go back there? if you'd rather be home, ask your doctor about neulasta onpro.

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new questions today about scott pruitt, family vacation to t disneyland and trip to the rose

bowl. already under close scrutiny for his pricey detail. which senator, first of all, brought all this to light? >> democratic senator shelden whitehouse. what he's saying is essentially he wants the epa's inspector general to fold this into their existing probe into scott pruitt's travel as well as his security detail. in a nutshell, this letter says that he has reviewed documents brought to him by an unnamed source that suggests that pruitt is using taxpayer funded security during his nonbusiness travels. so, family trips to disneyland, the rose bowl and back home to oklahoma. the senator is essentially saying this raises new, fresh questions about exactly how much this round-the-clock security is costing. and he wants the watchdog, the epa inspector general to take a closer look at this. he also points out that he

reviewed schedules and he sees that pruitt used between two and three dozen different security agents during a six-week period and also says that he frequently requested per diem lodging expenses in excess of what the government allows. >> so there's an investigation, presumab presumably, going to be taking place at the epa? >> epa oig is looking into travel and security detail. these new details that the senator is laying out in this letter, he's not quite sure that they're looking at that specifically. he is pushing for them to specifically investigate that as well. >> has he face ned serious security threats? >> the epa, that is their argument. they say, look, yes, this is an unprecedented amount of security for an epa administrator but they say that is because he has faced an unprecedented amount of threats against his life. so, that is the reasoning for why they say it's necessary, even when he's not on business.

>> facing serious life threats, that's a serious problem. >> it certainly is. and i think what the senator is saying that he wants to really kind of pin down is, he lays out that out in his letter saying, look, if there truly is a security threat i understand the need for security. the question he seems to be asking is, is this in excess? not whether he should have security but does he need this 24/7 going with him on vacation to the tune of millions of dollars a year? i think he's questioning, is this too excessive? >> rene, thank you for thatup date. rene marsh reporting. gloria allred splitting from one of trump's aaccusers and now summer zervos says it's her own decision to split. just in, arnold schwarzenegger is said to be in stable condition after undergoing heart

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we're just getting news in to cnn that actor and former california governor, arnold schwarzenegger has undergone emergency heart surgery and is now in stable condition. i want to get straight to cnn's stephanie elam in los angeles. stephanie, seems to be some confusion over whether the procedure resulted in schwarzenegger's having to undergo this emergency open heart surgery due to complications. what can you tell us? >> here is what we can clarify, coming from his spokesperson. we understand that this was planned for last night here in l.a. at cedar sinai hospital, planned to row place a valve that had been put in the former governor's chest in 1997. that device needed to be replaced, all due to a c

congenital heart defect he h he was looking to use a less invasive catheter valve replacement. in these situations open heart surgery team is always put in place. they did end up using that team to help out this procedure, but he is resting and is in stable condition at this point, we understand, wolf. >> thank you very much, stephanie elam, reporting from los angeles. that's it for me. to all of our viewers here in the united states and around the world, i want to wish everyone a happy easter and happy passover. meantime, the news continues right now. wolf, we'll take it. hi, everyone. i'm brooke baldwin. you're watching cnn. we begin this hour with the president shocking his own advisers making that unexpected military announcement about the strategy? seara. not talking to the pentagon, state department but to a crowd in a speech near cleveland, ohio. >> we're knocking the hell out