welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king. thank you for sharing another very busy news day with us. donald trump, jr.'s account of that infamous trump tower meeting is now public. yes, he wanted dirt on hillary clinton. no, he didn't tell his father, and maybe the president was involved in a damage control phone call from air force one. north korea shifts to defiance, canceling talks with south korea and warning it might back out of the planned trump-kim summit. and the embattled epa administrator on the hotseat on capitol hill. scott pruitt says it's not worth

all the fuss. >> i share your concerns about some of these decisions. i want to recollect ftify those forward. but some of the criticism is unfounded and i think exaggerated and it feeds this division we've seen around very important issues affecting the environment. >> back to that a bit later. we begin with new documents and questions about that june 201 trump tower meeting with russians. transcripts released include testimony from the president's son, donald trump, jr. he arranged that meeting and concedes yes, he took it because he was promised dirt on hillary clinton. trump, jr. said he's certain he did not tell his father about that meeting before hand. he was a lot less certain about other questions, including his father's role on damage control on air force one. you likely remember the "i love it" e-mail from trump, junior when promised damaging information about candidate

clinton. i don't know and i don't recall are springlkled throughout the intervi interview. shimon, what jumps out from you? and let's start at the beginning with donald trump, jr., deciding yes, i will take this meeting. >> reporter: it's clear from the questioning that we read through in these transcripts and we've all been reporting is that this meeting was intended to sort of drum up dirt on hillary clinton. you had a russian lawyer who was promising essentially dirt on hillary clinton, and then it went into something else about the magnitsky act and sanctions. the committee questioned donald trump, jr., about what he saw the purpose of this meeting was about. let me read to you from the transcript what he had to say, what is it that specifically you were interested in getting out of the meeting? he says, i was interested in listening to information.

and then the question was, information on hillary clinton? and donald trump, jr., answers yes. information on hillary clinton that came potentially from the russian government, he's asked. again, he said i had no way of assessing where it came from, but i was willing to listen. and now, john, this part is important, because all along there have been questions concern thing lawy-- concernings lawyer, whether or not she was there on behalf of the russian government. recent information has circulated that indicates she was perhaps there for the russian government. she admitted she was an informant for the russian government. this obviously has been seen by some intelligence officials as sort of maybe they were testing the campaign to see if they would be willing to accept some kind of information from the russians. but again, in the end what has cause sod many d so many of the for the trump administration and the mueller investigation, what

they're looking at, is how the trump administration responded to media reports once they surfaced about these meetings, these misleading statements that were issued. obviously those are the things that the special counsel has been looking at. >> shimon, appreciate the reporting there. here with me in the studio, dis my panel. there are essentially, as you go through these documents, when you see these documents, you see a lot of things redacted. this is my favorite page right here. some of it has to be done for privacy reasons. the special counsel has all of this. so two sets of questions essentially. one, why did you take this meeting, should you have taken this meeting? were you up to something nefarious or just bad judgment? and number two, what did you do about it? the idea when you listen to what shimon just put out there, they didn't -- we learned about this

in "the new york times," but has anyone seen anything in these documents that call into question their basic explanation, these guys promised dirt on hillary clinton. >> i think that's just the basic facts or what we've known for six, eight, ten months is underscored by the actual documents of what we see. we don't know everything yet. and there's a lot of reasons to believe that the special counsel has more. and knows more about things that fill in the blanks in between. and in some ways, this is like everything else in washington. what you take away from it fe depends on your political perspective. i guess the hope for those of us who are interested in the actual truth is that the special counsel will be able to fill in those blanks where we don't know. >> absolutely. for those of us who have been following every twist and turn, it's interesting to read the

transcripts of the stories being told from the perspective of those involved, some of them, not all of them. but smoking gun to use rob goldstone's words, probably not. there are a couple of interesting things that shimon pointed out that robert mueller clearly does know the answer to, but we don't. like the fact that don, junior did have an 11-minute phone call after he hung up, you know, learning about this -- the promise of this meeting, had an 11-minute phone call with a blocked caller. we don't know who that is. the caller knows who that is. there's suspicion it's his father. and he denies it. >> if you get a phone call from a white house official, it's blocked. but anyone can block a call. according to documents, 25 minutes after the first call ended, you made an outgoing call

to that same number. but a call lasted four minutes in the transcripts from a blocked number. with whom did you have a call? i have no idea. now, people -- busy people do forget some of their phone calls. but the yi have no idea part, he's absolutely certain he didn't tell his father. did your father, the candidate, know you were meeting russians in trump to youer? -- trump tower? he's certain the answer is no. some of this is probably not fair to donald trump, jr., because busy people do forget things, but there's a lot of, i don't know, i don't recall in here. >> in idea that somehow he couldn't tell his dad about this meeting that he's very interested in, and he sits down and he says, right off the bat, you know, i understand you have

information for me. he wants to get to whatever the purpose of this meeting is, which is information on hillary clinton. also some disputes about kushner's timing, how long was he at the meeting? there was some sense he came in late and left early, but there's also some indication he was there through the whole thing and asking the woman to essentially get to the purpose of the meeting, which was dirt on hillary clinton. and she was talking about something else. so again, we don't know everything. you held up that black page there. we don't know what's behind it. mueller presumably does. >> here's another blacked out page. but there's a couple of things. to this point, there are several things in here that support team trump's view of this. paul manafort, notes from him at one point, the woman is talking about where is the dirt on hillary clinton? she talks about hedge fund payments to democratic campaigns. he said that's not interesting. to your point about donald trump, jr. not telling his

father. he says a lot of times we didn't take things to my father, even deals involving the trump businesses. then there are the questions, why were you nervous about this if it was no big deal? "the washington post" since reported that your father was involved in drafting your july 8th statement, is that correct? trump, jr., i don't know, i never spoke to my father about it. to the best of your knowledge, did the president provide any edits to the statement or other input? he may have commented through hope hicks. this is that infamous air force one phone call. did you ask him to provide any assistance with the statement? no. she asked if i wanted to speak to him, and i chose not to because i didn't want to bring him into something he didn't have anything to do with. is that democrats who say, that's somebody who knew he did something wrong, who didn't want to get the united states'

fingerprints on it. robert mueller will have to answer that question. >> i think you have two parts to the story that we're trying to unravel. you have the initial meeting, and then you have this statement, which some people call a coverup, and he is not being very clear about the president's engagement. one person who is not in these papers is jared kushner. so we are assuming that mueller has gotten more information from him, and others about exactly how -- >> the thing that's interesting about the air force one issue is that donald trump's legal team has been arguing all along that even if he didn't -- even if he was involved, it's not a crime to lie to the press. it's about a press release. the question is, if robert mueller thinks there was more to it, because that leads to where we are right now, whether they're going to demand an interview with the president of the united states, where only he can answer that question. >> we're going to take a quick break. the president of the united states is meeting at this moment

with the president of uzbekistan at the white house. and also to discuss coming up, north korea lashes out after months of playing nice in the nuclear sandbox. or to carry on a legacy? its show of strength... or its sign of intelligence? in crossing harsh terrain... or breaking new ground? this is the mercedes-benz suv family. greatness comes in many forms. lease the glc300 for just $449 a month at your local mercedes-benz dealer. mercedes-benz. the best or nothing. allow you to take advantage of growth opportunities... with a level of protection in down markets. so you can be less concerned about your retirement savings. talk with your advisor about shield annuities from brighthouse financial- established by metlife.

going straight to the white house. the president of the united states meeting with the president of uzbekistan. let's listen. >> thank you very much. thank you very much, everybody. thank you. [ multiple speakers ] >> can the korean summit be salvaged? >> we have to see. we haven't seen anything, we

haven't heard anything. we will see what happens. [ overlapping speakers ] >> today's meeting is for uzbeks all around the world, as well. >> we ale see what happens. we'll see. time will tell. [ multiple speakers ] >> thank you very much, everybody. thank you. >> uh, yeah. i would say not your most polite behavior by the white house press pool there. very hard to hear in the scrum there. but it is hard to get the president's attention, and that's what reporters were trying to do to ask him about north korea, today canceling reports with south korea and it's possible north korea will now pull out of the planned trump-kim summit.

the president saying, we'll see what happens, time will tell. not wanting to answer questioning whether he takes this seriously. north korea objecting to long-planned u.s.-south korean military exercises that the north koreans have been told about for months, and the president and his team repeatedly recently been saying it's a good thing that north korea has not objected to those exercises. that was a demonstration to their good will. so the president being very careful today. the administration behind the scenes trying to figure out is this a negotiating ploy, is north korea looking for leverage or some other assurances, or kim jong-un and the generals around him starting to think, do we want to do this? >> the president there being very disciplined. imagine if you're kim jong-un, you want to have some sort of reaction from this president. that's what we've seen so far, what it's on twitter or anywhere else on cable news. here he is being very disciplined, essentially saying we don't know, we've got to see.

so that's a good sign. i think if you're kim jong-un, you're studying this president closely and you have sensed in some ways something -- desperation might be the wrong way, but here he is, seeming to get space on his desk for a nobel peace prize, suggesting that there's going to be some great outcome and they're going to denuclearize and he's going to be the greatest thing ever. so with that, you see them trying to have some leverage here. basically seeing that this is a president who sometimes flip-flops on any number of issues, zte being one of them. so you see them playing the president to see what they get. >> their statement was interesting. it was the deputy foreign minister saying if this is about unilateral nuclear disarmament, we're not interested. that is what it's about. that doesn't mean you get sanctions lifted down the road and food aid and things like that, and you might get an assurance from the united states, we will keep troops in south korea but will not attack

you. but the central premise from the u.s. side, and mike pompeo explained in to kim jong-un, that we're only coming to the table if you're coming with the idea of full nuclear disarmament. >> sarah huckabee sanders this morning saying that they are still going into it with that frame. they are also still, we know, preparing for this. there's a lot of elaborate preparations going into this, a lot of details, they are working through all of those. so certainly there is thinking this may be part of the elaborate brinksmanship going on both sides. >> we know so little about the north korean regime. secretary pompeo has met with him twice. that's a gold mine of information. are the generals around kim jong-un getting nervous? is that where this is coming from? are the generals saying you're going to go to the table and negotiate away the nuclear arsenal that is our credibility, that's how they see it.

>> i think you're right we don't have a lot of information, but you would have to be ahistorical not to have watched the last couple of decades. it wasn't kim jong-un, but his father. the negotiations, the deal making, then lying about whether or not you're following those deals and going back on those deals. and so, you know, it would be amazing if this white house didn't anticipate and didn't expect that some of this, you know -- >> he said this morning they expect -- >> to that point, in "the new york times" this morning, this puts it perfectly to your point about history, it's probably them acting like north koreans, after being pussycats since january. trump saying he would walk out of the summit if he didn't like the deal, this is their turn. >> they're testing to see what the president will do, your point was a good one, which struck me about the moment we just saw with the president in the oval office, is how

disciplined he was. you know, i'm sure the instinct and every fiber of his being was probably to start talking about rocket man again, but he didn't. which i think is very noteworthy about how -- obviously how much the president wants it. i mean, who doesn't, "it" meaning finding a deal. but also he's listening. >> listening to kim jong-un and also -- >> listening to his advisers. >> and also being well aware of the skepticism, the legitimate, understandable skepticism about the political spectrum, the president saying sorry, these exercises are going forward. conservatives are worried is the president going to blink and commit to reducing u.s. troop levels or reducing the visibility. >> there have been these reports that he was sort of looking at that, and putting it on the table. and then we saw him sort of blink with china. so if you're north korea, you're

looking at that. really interesting to see the north koreans talking about john bolton's statement about libya. they were paying attention. the idea that the libyan model that ended in the death of moammar gadhafi is the same model they're hooking for, for north korea. >> you saw sanders shifting away from that. she said we're following the donald trump model. he's the master negotiator. so she didn't lean into that. >> here is john bolton back in april, talking about what are you going to do in north korea? look what we did in the bush administration back in the mid 2000s. >> i think that's right. i think we're looking at the libyan model of 2003-2004. i think it would be a manifestation of the strategic decision to give up nuclear weapons. doesn't have to be the same as libya, but something concrete and tangible. maybe that kim jong-un has some ideas and we should hear him

out. >> so the critics of john bolton who say he's just a chest thumping regime guy, if you're kim jong-un, gadhafi gave up his weapons, gave up his power, and soon that have, gave up his life. >> and libya, never mind that, is hardly a success story. but that's a whole different question about american power and maybe not going as far as it should. but the idea that, again, john bolton, who going into this, in a vacuum, i can't imagine him want thing in the first place. he has said he was a contributor on fox news not that long ago, that the notion of talking to the north koreans is dicey. the fact that he brought up libya, he's a smart guy. maybe he was trying to send a message to the north koreans. >> look, one of the big questions with trump has always

been, does he do more than one note? and on north korea, he's done the rocket man stuff, now he's been for the last self-weeks, a more diplomatic note. and so can he continue to be a little more nuanced? >> i think now you watch can the south koreans get the talks back on track? up next, moderate republicans lead a new charge to protect the so-called dreamers, daca recipients. but the house speaker says no, not now. with tripadvisor, finding your perfect hotel at the lowest price... is as easy as dates, deals, done! simply enter your destination and dates... and see all the hotels for your stay! tripadvisor searches over 200 booking sites... to show you the lowest prices... so you can get the best deal on the right hotel for you. dates, deals, done! tripadvisor. visit tripadvisor.com

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procedure to go around the leadership and force a floor vote. this morning, ryan told the moderates, cut it out. here's his public explanation. >> obviously, we do not agree with this, it's a big mistake. they disunify our majority. that's why we met with the president to address the issues that the concerns the members have, but doing it in a way where we have a process that presents a way that won't get vetoed. we're working on an alternative. >> forgive me, mr. speaker, but there's no evidence that there are a, conservative sign on, b, a white house sign on that anything can be done in this election year. that's punting. that's saying this would be a distraction this election year.

but these moderates are saying, i'm going to lose my seat unless i can prove i'm trying to do something. >> that's the key. that is really the nutshell of paul ryan and other republican leaders' conflict here. it's an internal conflict, because you have a lot of conservatives who are -- will go crazy on the floor of the house if this is brought up, because they don't want to have anything to do with anything that looks, smells, sounds like amnesty. and that's what they call it. whether the people came here as children with their parents or not, that's what they call it. on the flip side, the majority of the house of representatives, whether republicans keep it or lose it, will be fought in swing districts. some of them in california, where this is a big issue. and elsewhere, where the -- these voters are trying to make it a single issue, you know, single issue test on these candidates. and so it is a very big pickle

for the speaker. and look, the reason why this hasn't happened is because generally the house is running a very tight ship, whether it's a democrat or republican, this is remarkable that they are this close getting around this. >> there are enough house republicans who would like to vote on this legislation. however, however, they would only do that if they think that the bright bart breitbarts and going to be in an app and not notice them. so this is laura ingram. >> leave it to a small, liberal band of republicans to try to splinter the party just before the midterm elections. these representatives should be ashamed of themselves at this

point. they're demoralizing the base of the gop and weaken unity before the midterm elections. >> look, part of the issue is that you heard paul ryan trying to make the argument that the president won't sign something like this, won't sign a daca bill that helps these dreamers. the problem is, the president has been all over the map on this. yes, there have been times that he seemed to be an impediment to that, but also expressions that he wants to do something to help these folks. so the uncertainty of where the president is on this, and you could imagine a situation where if this discharged petition succeeded, something happened or came up for a vote on the house, where is this president going to be, would he go conservative, side with the moderates? >> it's unclear, and we knew, and the reporting last week that the president berated his own

homeland security because the border wall isn't being built fast enough. ann coulter tweeting, the conservative base is suspicious of even the president. you know, we laugh about this, but it is a message to certain people in the republican party, we're watching you and we can be disruptive. another issue, tougher enforcement along the border. including, including, if necessary, separating families, because some people are taken into custody. the administration exploring using military bases to house some of the children if this happens. and those moderates won't like this, and we can see from this testimony, the homeland security democrats don't like it. >> your agency will be separating children from their parents. >> no, we'll be prosecuting parents who have broken the law, just as we do every day in the united states of america. we do not have a policy to separate children from their

parents. our policy is, if you break the law, we will prosecute you. you have an option to go to a port of entry and not illegally cross into our country. >> she's right, that the people who cross are crossing illegally into our country. but it's also saying we prosecute parents all the time in the united states who break the law. yes, parents have spouses and families, so if you get arrested in maryland or wisconsin or nebraska and a parent goes to jail, presumably there's a support structure. when you come across the border it legally, she's right, it's an illegal act, but -- >> this is what you hear from this white house, it's about building the wall, yelling at his dhs secretary, because the flow of immigrants across the border has ticked up after it had ticked down. so it is this hardline, hawkish on immigration.

you hear from jeff sessions, the idea that they are going to separate children from their parents as a deterrent, and reports they're looking at these military bases to house them. so that is what this white house thinks is going to keep the base engaged, keep them coming to the polls in november. keep them on the republican side. so this daca piece at this point is inconvenient and at odds with where the president is with the folks around him. >> it's not just what we are hearing from them right now. the issues you're hearing from them on immigration are these hardline issues, are the wall, are law enforcement. we just have not -- the president has offered a lot of different opinions on daca. >> the other thing i find a little rich is conservatives, in the republican party, rail against the leadership saying you defy your leadership when they don't do something that supports a conservative cause, and now the conservatives are saying how dare you defy the leadership of your party, because there's something you

believe in. >> all right. immigration unlikely to happen before the election. next up, president trump outpacing his predecessors on another key issue, one that's very important to that same conservative base. y mutual saves almost $800 when we switched our auto and home insurance. with liberty, we could afford a real babysitter instead of your brother. hey! oh, that's my robe. 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.

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welcome back. when the president was on capitol hill yesterday meeting with senators, one thing he asked for, more confirmation of judicial picks. the president is making a lot of progress, and it's an area where his conservative base is very happy with the president. so far, 38 judges have been confirmed, not including neil gorsuch on the supreme court. so you could make that 39. but 21 court of appeals judges,

approved, confirmed under the trump presidency. 17 u.s. district court judges confirmed during the trump presidency. this is the court of appeals. the president running ahead of the five presidents who served before him. he likes to say look at me, i'm 21, obama, bush, clinton, h.w. bush, reagan, donald trump leading the pack there. not so much when you get to the district court judges, the lower level of the federal courts, where you can see yes, he's running ahead of where president obama was at this point. this is a reflection of the polarization in washington over the judge issue. but w. bush, clinton, reagan, well out here. part of the president's message is, give me more, get it done before the election just in case the democrats win the senate. that's sparking debate between the top republican and the top democrat. >> that means that 1/8th of the circuit judges in america have been appointed by donald trump

and confirmed by this republican senate. so we think we're making dramatic progress on that front. >> they can't have it both ways. they can't brag that they put in more judges than anybody else, and then say they're being obstructed. so they ought to figure out where they're at. >> a big debate on capitol hill, and regardless of what you think of the president, this is a legitimate feather in his cap in the sense that the conservative base is happy with this. and they have not at the pace the president would like, but they have met a lot of these confirmations, and he wants more before we get to november. >> and it's a lasting, you know, victory, not something as we've seen over the last couple of years, a lot of what president obama did using executive orders, taking actions that regulatory actions that are easily or at least somewhat easily overturned. these are judges that are going to be in place for 10, 20, 30 or longer years and it has a real

imprint. >> i just want to point out the court vacancies. if you look at the vacancies right here, you know, there are 122. look at those vacancies right there. the court of appeals, about even. but a high much leveller of district judgeships there. which is why you've had the senate majority leadership under pressure. senator mcconnell saying we'll stay until december if we have to. >> another thing with the judges too, we've looked at diversity among those judges. another lasting impact, not just that they're lifetime appointments, but also when we took a look at this in november, it was -- trump was nominating white men sort of higher rates we had seen in the past 30 years. so that's another way that we're seeing him reshape the

judiciary. >> look, there was a lot of head scratching about evangelicals and otherwise socially conservative republicans backing a guy who had been married three times and done a bunch of stuff that they would just turn the other way on in general, but a big reason is this. is because they understand the power and the importance of the courts on issues that they care about. and that is why even though we're all talking about a lot of things that are very important, behind the scenes the white house is working very hard. >> this is where a lot of their business is done now. before we go, the president brought this up in the meeting yesterday. he talked about other stuff, but before the meeting yesterday, i want you to listen here. so many of john mccain's colleagues said it's an outrage that aide at the white house said those disparaging things about senator mccain. the president is going to be up here, the white house should apologize. >> should the white house

apologize to john mccain for the statement made last week? >> i believe so. >> it wasn't the president making the statement, but i'm sure if he asked her to apologize she would. >> i think the administration should apologize. >> i'm not going to talk any more about it out of respect for the family. >> he wasn't really sitting with us. he came in, gave a presentation and left. >> honestly, we ran out of time. >> i'm sorry, they're a co-equal branch of government. the president was talking about his agenda. give me a break. are they so afraid? if it's important to you, interrupt the president and say you're on our turf, you need to do something about it. >> you would expect somebody like lindsey graham, who is best friends with john mccain, to bring it up, that it would be

nice if the white house apologized to our brethren. once they get the president in their presence, they act like something that rhymes with chicken. >> there's an old foghorn, leg horn skit about the difference between a chicken and a chicken hawk. coming up, another tough reality check in this year's primaries. it's absolute confidence in 30,000 precision parts. or it isn't. it's inspected by mercedes-benz factory-trained technicians. or it isn't. it's backed by an unlimited mileage warranty, or it isn't. for those who never settle, it's either mercedes-benz certified pre-owned, or it isn't. the mercedes-benz certified pre-owned sales event. now through may 31st.

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pennsylvania. that race will test whether the climate that carried president trump to his 2016 pennsylvania avenue win is still as strong. democrats are betting the answer is no. barletta faces senator bob casey, once a very cautious operator who is now a fierce trump critic. anti-trump sentiment in the vote rich suburbs is one reason casey feels a lot more comfortable being a lot more partisan. and those suburbs are the stage for the other pennsylvania test. democrats believe they can pick up four or more seats in the house just from pennsylvania this year. and female candidates won big in the house primaries where democrats see the best odds. and we can show this on the screen here. several women nominated in these districts in the pennsylvania primaries. pennsylvania at the moment has 18 seats in the house, not a man -- not a woman, excuse me, all men in the pennsylvania delegation. so the first woman to be elected from the house.

they think plus four, maybe plus five, just from pennsylvania alone. if you need 24, 23, to take back the house, that's a nice way to start the basket. >> yeah, it is. and one of the things we've also seen is that these people who are emerging from the democratic side are sort of bernie sanders' democrats. they're progressives that are embracing the decriminalization of marijuana and medicare for all. so that's one of the things that, in some ways, is spooking some democrats who really want to have more moderate cl clintonnian, obama style. >> democrats thought they might have a chance. we'll see what happens. but to that point, this is the weekly standard's take. the president's numbers are up, the so-called generic ballot has gotten tighter. the weekly standard writing this, if the economy continues to improve, republicans keep ashoeing irresponsible zell lots

and democrats keep pushing left, republicans might still avoid the debacle they have prepared for themselves over the last two years. ouch. >> but it hasn't happened as much as we would have thought, given the success of bernie sanders' surprise success he had in 2016, and the expectation that a lot of these bernie sanders candidates would win these primaries. some have, but not as many as one would have thought. >> and to the pennsylvania senate race, when you see this, bob casey was very cautious when he came. now because of the suburbs, he see what's happening in the philadelphia suburbs. barletta is trumpen shi on issue the wall and immigration. this is going to be a great laboratory, is this climate still there in a state that has vote-rich moderate suburbs and a conservative central part of the

state. this to me is 2016 all over again. >> and these blue cities. you saw the first thing we heard from the president this morning was tweeting about lou barletta. so i expect he'll be there a lot. i think he takes a ton of pride that he won pennsylvania. so he's really going to invest in that state, as well. >> i don't think democrats -- i think they would be a mistake if democrats feel that they can just sort of skate along, that donald trump, this chaos we talk about in the white house and this anti-trump feeling and sentiment, means that all of that deep support that was for trump in these places is going to evaporate. i don't know that it will. >> we'll take a quick break. when we come back, breaking news out of the senate intelligence committee. stay with us.

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late breaking news out of the senate intelligence committee today. the leaders issues a statement that puts that panel at odds with what the house republicans said after their investigation of russian meddling. let's get out to manu.

>> reporter: the big headline is the disagreement that the senate intelligence committee has with the house intelligence committee. they both investigated what happened in 2016. the intelligence community concluded that there was a cyber campaign orchestrated by vladamir putin to help president trump become president trump. now, the house intelligence committee republicans said they disputed the analytical trade craft behind that assessment, saying there was no real way to verify that putin was trying to help trump become president. the senate chairman just put out a statement, saying "we see no reason to dispute the conclusions of that january 2017 assessment," much different than what the house republicans have been saying. john, i've been talking to

republicans on this committee, including senator john corn b, who told me that assessment from 2017 was well done. so you're seeing a difference in the approach here. expect a report about what they concluded about how that assessment came together in a matter of days, john. >> manu, appreciate that. let's bring into the room, this is a big deal. the president of the united states is not going to like this, a republican chairman who helped him win his election, agreeing that the intelligence community got it right when they say russia meddled with the intent of helping trump. >> but they didn't say russia succeeded. and that russia gets the credit or the blame. the other person who said under oath that the intelligence assessment was right is the woman who is probably going to be the president's new cia director, gina haspel. so if he's going to be upset

with the senate republicans, he'll be upset with his own new cia director. >> you saw him after the house intelligence committee took the opposite view. you saw the president tweet that out multiple times. i think we should start the clock going to the tweet on this, because he's not going to like this one very much. >> he's not going to be pleased. he was very happy with the house report. he's also continuing to insist there was no collusion, and i would think -- >> that's right, no collusion, no collusion, times 100 on twitter, witch hunt. that's what he is going to do going forward. we're coming up on the anniversary, i guess it's tomorrow and when we'll see in terms of what they do to undermine -- >> no question they'll continue to undermine mueller, rudy giuliani said so publicly. but it is significant again, we're in a midterm year, the senate intelligence committee

saying yes, russia meddled. and yes, they accept the intelligence community assessment that meddling was designed to hurt clinton and help trump. thanks for joining us on "inside politics" today. see you back here tomorrow. our coverage continues with "wolf" starting right now. have a great day. hello, i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. here in washington. 8:00 p.m. in yemen. 2:00 a.m. thursday in pyongyang. wherever you're watching from around the world, thank you very much for joining us. is the nuclear summit on the verge of collapse? after months of cooperation, north korea threatening to cancel its meeting with president trump over american demands. plus, breaking today. senate investigators releasing testimony from some of the key players inside that trump tower meeting, including the president's son. what donald trump, jr. admits and what he says about his father's involvement. all that coming up. up