from her driveway. that drive is something that is a new routine that she does every day, erin. >> wow, it's just incredible to see, as this develops. thank you so much, stephanie. and we now have a live camera on the volcano. cnn does. so you can watch it at any time, and as long as you want, on cnn.com. thanks for joining us. anderson's next. good evening. for days now, the president of the united states has been making unsupported claims about the possibility of a spy in his campaign. it's not hard to see why he was doing this, but tonight there's even more evidence about his thinking. the associated press has new reporting. they write, quote, trump told one ally this week that he wanted to brand the informant a spy, believing the more nefarious term would resonate more in the media and with the public. well, today, if anything, the volume rose and so did the president early this morning, tweeting at 6:54 a.m., look how things have turned around on the criminal deep state. they go after phony collusion with russia, a made-up scam, and they end up getting caught in a major spy scandal, the likes of

which this country may never have seen before. what goes around comes around. one tweet many claim, and taking them in order, the president claims there's a deep state and it's criminal. he says any notion that the campaign worked with the russians is phony, even though that's precisely what the russia special counsel is still trying to determine. and finally, the president says that having perpetrated such a scam, the criminal deep state is now caught in a major spy scandal. not long after saying all of that, the president was asked to back just a portion of it up. >> what proof do you have that the campaign was spied on? >> all you have to do is look at the basics and you'll see. it looks like a very serious event. but we'll find out. when they look at the documents, i think people are going to see a lot of bad things happen. i hope it's not so. b because, if it has, there's never been anything like it in the history of our country. >> now, keeping 'em honest, did you hear any evidence from the president of the united states there? no? okay. so, how about here?

listen. >> who's orchestrating this spying? who do you think was responsible for it? >> well, i don't want to get into it yet, but i will tell you that after we look at -- >> president obama? >> after we look at the proof -- would he know? i would certainly hope not. but i think it's going to be pretty obvious after a while. >> so, strike two. no evidence actually offered. just a serious of escalating insinuations that the fbi sending a confidential source to talk to three trump campaign figures, two ofp pre-existing russia connections somehow amounts to a deep state attempt to plant a spy or spice in his campaign and to do so to take him down. and again, the president is not alone in making these claims or calling it spying. he's called on his usual cast of cable tv anchors, lawmakers, and white house employees to help amplify the claim. and before you watch this, we should note, as we did just last night, just because they say it does not make it so. >> major developments again tonight on the deep state, spying on the trump campaign. >> possibly paid informants to

spy on the trump campaign. >> may indicate that the obama administration did, in fact, spy on the trump campaign. >> the spying they did on the trump campaign. >> i'm shocked to hear that they put a spy in the campaign. >> spy inside the trump campaign back to the fbi. >> fbi spies. or maybe two spies. >> it looks as if there could have been a second spy. >> these spy revelations. >> spiy ies in this campaign. >> that there was a spy inside. >> to spy on the republican candidate for president. >> if there's a spy, they got nothing from it. >> if they ran a spy ring, that is an absolute red line. >> spygate. >> spygate. if, in fact, this occurred, could be one of the biggest scandals in history. >> and keeping 'em honest, that is the sound of a red herring taken to sea. hogan gidley, the last person you heard from there, raises a good point. if, in fact, this occurred. isn't it funny of the three campaign figures this confidential source reached out to, the campaign itself said that two were peripheral at best, coffee boys, they often called two of them. funny, too, that as far as we know, this fbi source did not

seek access to any inside campaign documents, nor did a word of it come out during the campaign. voters never knew there was an investigation going on at all. however, in the subsequent months, one trump campaign figure after another would be revealed to have had -- to have lied about or concealed prior contact with russians. the president's national security adviser would be forced out and leader plead guilty to lying about contact with russians. again, the bottom line is this, saying you were spied on by the deep state, even saying it over and over does not make it so. today, the president said he was doing the country a favor by calling attention to this made-up problem and firing fbi director james comey. today, comey fired back, tweeting, "facts matter. the fbi's use of confidential human sources, the actual term, is tightly regulated and essential to protecting the country. attacks on the fbi and lying about its work will do lasting damage to our countries. how will republicans explain this to their grandchildren?" and tomorrow, we'll see some of the fruits of this campaign to rebrand the russia probe and in effect turn the tables on the

investigators themselves. house intelligence chairman devin nunes and oversight chairman trey gowdy will meet with senior justice department, fbi, and senior intelligence officials about the lawmaker's request who the president is calling a spy. no democrats, of course, were invited. we're just learning that a bipartisan meeting will take place, though. when, you might ask? that would be after memorial day, presumably giving everyone time to keep the noise machine cranking for as long as possible. president trump also tweeted today about former director of national intelligence, james clapper, citing a fox news. quote, @"fox & friends," new bombshell in the obama spying scandal scandal. did others spy on trump campaign. even clapper, world's dumbest former intelligence head, who has the problem of lying a lot, used the word spy when describing illegal activities. the president alleges that clapper let the truth slip out and talked about it with reporters. >> i hope it's not so, because if it is, there's never been

anything like it in the history of our country. i hope -- i mean, if you look at clapper, he sort of admitted that they had spies in the campaign yesterday, inadvertently. but i hope it's not true, but it looks like it is. >> so, keeping 'em honest, here is what director clapper really said speaking on "the view". >> so, i ask you, was the fbi spying on trump's campaign? >> no, i -- no, they were not. they were spying on -- a term i don't particularly like -- but on what the russians were doing. trying to understand, were the russians infiltrating, trying to gain access, trying to gain leverage and influence, which is what they do. >> more now with james clapper, whose new book is titled "fact and fears: hard truths from a life in intelligence." you just heard what the president said about your comments. do you think, to quote the president, that you sort of admitted that they had spies in the campaign? >> no, in fact, just the opposite. i was trying to delineate, i

think i said it, a spy, particularly in this context, is a term that i don't like and it really doesn't apply. and again, the focus here was not to spy on a campaign, per se, but rather were the russians trying to penetrate to gain influence to seek leverage? and that was the purpose of engaging this informant. which is a very light touch and a very benign thing to do. >> so just -- you said you don't like the term "spying." is that just in relation to what's happening in this case? or is that sort of a term you don't like more broadly? and i'm wondering what the difference between a spy and a confidential informant is? >> to be honest, i've never particularly liked the use of the term. it just has a connotation that i don't like, particularly. i never liked being called the head spy or that sort of thing. but that's just, you know, a personal proclivity, i guess. >> what -- i mean, what do you

think the difference is from what the president is saying has happened, which is a spy who infiltrated the campaign, in other tweets, he's suggested perhaps it was to benefit the other candidate, the clinton campaign, or the obama administration. what's the difference between that and what you believe this confidential informant was doing? >> well, a spy in the traditional sense, i'll go ahead and use the term, is one who misrepresents his identity, and is in a position where he attempted to recruit someone. to divulge classified information and this is -- none of the tradecraft characteristics of a classical spoil, again, to use a term i don't particularly care for. >> what do you think the president is trying to accomplish by using the term "spy" over and over and over again? >> well, i think it's a part of the larger narrative here. this gets back to the deep state

business and there's a deep state that is bent on undermining him or turning -- even turning him out of office. and he's being victimized, and i think, ultimately, the objective here, conventional wisdom, is to undermine the investigation led by former director mueller. >> the president also tweeted about you this morning. in part, he wrote, "even clapper, world's dumbest former intelligence head who has the problem of lying a lot used the word spy when describing the illegal activities." i'm just wondering what, if any, response you would have to that? >> no, not really. i mean, it's, uh, certainly not the first such tweet that has been directed at me. i think it's regrettable that the president chooses to reach out and malign private citizens,

you know, exercise their first amendment rights. and just because they don't agree with him. and this is more of that. >> what do you think it says about, i mean, the state of where we are as a country and frankly the office of the presidency that a sitting president of the united states personally attacking former cabinet official, you know, as it pertains to you personally, someone that's given more than five decades of service to this country? >> well, it's not -- it's not something i particularly appreciate. but that's, i think the country's gotten used to the fact that that's just the way he operates. >> in your book, you say it's critical for those working in the intelligence committee to remain loyal to the key tenants of intelligence work and serve truth to power, even if the power doesn't listen to the truth. are you concerned about the community's ability to do that, given the circumstances? >> i do worry about it, and i would also say that this place is an additional burden on the senior leaders in the

intelligence community. my successor, dan coats, now gina haspel as director of cia and other senior leaders, and director wray of the fbi, it falls on them to provide the top cover, so those great men and women across the intelligence community and the fbi can continue to do the important and sometimes dangerous work they do to keep this nation safe and secure. >> director clapper, i appreciate your time. thank you. >> thanks, anderson. >> let's get more perspective now from our panel. cnn political analyst, carl bernstein and julie hirschfield davis, also white house correspondent for the "new york times." with us as well, former fbi supervisory special agent, josh campbell. carl, you heard director clapper saying the ap now reporting that the president is intentionally using the term "spy" to kind of create this nefarious narrative of what he claims is going on. it sounds basically just like a classic misinformation campaign. do you think the president is -- i mean, is this just par for the course? is this just the normal stuff?

or is this an escalation? >> oh, it's a continuation that the president has used the term spygate, to obviously invoke the ghosts of watergate here. and what he is doing is creating a fictional narrative to escape the rule of law and legitimate investigation himself, a legitimate investigation that has been authorized by his own justice department, that his former campaign associate, christie, yesterday, praised mueller, the director of that investigation, special counsel, and he's using this as a means of covering up whatever is at the bottom of this investigation and what the special counsel is trying to get at. >> point-blank, that's what it's about. >> of course it is. and it doesn't mean that the cover-up is necessarily about criminal activities by the president of the united states, though it might be. but what it means is that he is effectively and very effectively, because he's

succeeding at this, burying the truth. the american system worked during watergate. it worked because the press, the politicians, the people were interested in the truth and the rule of law, the supremacy of the administration of justice in a fair manner in this country. we're not seeing this here. we're seeing the president being enabled by the republican party in washington, which is not putting the truth or the common national interest above partisan interests, but rather is trying to bury this investigation. the president is engaged in a cover-up to bury legitimate investigation. and he's being enabled by those who the 19 republican par-- in party with great success. >> the bipartisan gang of eight, the members of congress cleared for access to the highest levels of intelligence, the fact that they won't be briefed on this information until after memorial day, that obviously gives the president's supporters, devin nunes, trey gowdy in this case, time to, i mean, basically, you know, give their own narrative

or even weaponize this information to serve their narrative. >> absolutely. and this is the sort of thing that in the past, even as congress has become a lot more partisan in the last several years, the intelligence committee generally has remained pretty bipartisan. and on high-level, national security matters, you do see them having bipartisan briefings. so it's fairly striking that this is not going to be that. particularly since the whole pretext for this briefing is ostensibly to determine whether there was political motivation for the special counsel investigation. and in fact, the only people being briefed are republicans and people from the administration. so, it is something that, you know, they have agreed, i guess, ultimately to brief both parties. but it's clear that the goal of this briefing is not just to glean information, but to give republicans a chance to figure out how to use that information, or if it's possible to use that information, to sort of further the narrative that carl was just talking about, and the narrative that the president is pushing

without any substantiation at this point. >> josh, is there any good explanation or, i mean, reasonable explanation, why both parties shouldn't see this information at the same time? >> well, there is no good reason. and if you look at what the intelligence community has historically done with respect to their oversight committees, it has been bipartisan. as julie mentioned, this is what we expect of this relationship between those entrusted with our nation's secrets and, you know, engaged in some of the most sensitive operations that our government undertakes. and those who are responsible for overseeing them. i think what we see is this continuation of politics. and it's been a narrative. and you have people that are enabling the white house to peddle these conspiracy theories. and one thing really interesting, anderson, is i listened to the intro, where you played the different clips of people, with their sound bites and they have their talking points as far as the conspiracy, it made me think about carl bernstein's book on nixon and watergate, and there's a fascinating part at the very end where he talks about ron zigler, who was the press secretary at the time, who was leading the

effort to, you know, campaign against the press and destroy enemies. but at the end, when ehe was asked if he would apologize to "the washington post," he said he would. and there's a very telling line that said, we all have our jobs to do. and those people who are helping and enabling the president to peddle conspiracy theories and maybe doing their job, but history is not going to look kindly upon anyone who worked to destroy our national institutions. >> i want to get more on that from carl. we'll continue the conversation after a quick break. and a top republican has just weighed in on all of this. his message to the president may surprise you. later, you'll hear from a man who survived a close encounter with something that we didn't even know existed a few days ago, a lava bomb. we'll talk to him, ahead. today, 97% of employers agree that skills like teamwork, attention to detail, and customer service are critical to business success. like the ones we teach here, every day. your society was led by a woman,

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i should clean this up. i'll get the dustpan. behind the golf clubs. get to know geico. and see how easy homeowners and renters insurance can be. we're talking about a concerted ef-effort by president trump and others that maybe george orwell would recognize. he's amping up for what all intents and purposes is a deception campaign, branding a confidential fbi source who reportedly contacted three figures in this campaign to assess any russian efforts regarding the election as a deep state spy. directed a to the campaign. the associated press reporting that he chose "spy" deliberately because it suggested something nefarious was going on. in fact, there's no evidence there was or that this asset was anything other than the kind of individual used all the time in counterintelligence investigations. late today in "the situation room," outgoing senator jeff flake was asked what he was thought about these attacks by the president and tomorrow's meeting. >> well, i think that that is completely unfair and it's not good to sully our institutions

like that without proof. and having a briefing that includes only republicans is no way to have transparency. if you're going to have transparency, then involve both parties. so i hope that the president reconsiders if there's a meeting or a briefing just with republicans in there, it will do nothing to shed any light, if light needs to be shed on this topic. but i've seen no evidence that there is spying on the trump campaign. it's just simply the fbi following leads on, was russia involved or not? and i think it was appropriate, from what i've seen. >> back now with the panel. carl, with all due respect to senator flake, he's leaving and he's been one of the few republicans who have actually spoken out about this. josh campbell, before the break, was talking about ron zigler in the wake of watergate. what do you see in terms of comparison? >> watergate was about a criminal president of the united states and the triumph of the american system in holding that

criminal president accountable in establishing that the president is not above the rule of law in the administration of justice. and in this instance, we are watching a president of the united states attempt to bury the rule of law and the proper administration of justice with the help and enabling of a political party, his political party, whereas in watergate, what happened in this triumph of the system in which the press, the politicians, the people, the politicians of both parties came together and said, we cannot have a cover-up. we cannot have a president of the united states who lies and covers up and the heros of watergate were republicans. because they said, the truth is more important than a political party or an ideology. this is not about the behavior of the republican party. it is about the behavior of the president of the united states and the people around him. the amazing thing that we're

seeing here is that mueller, by every indication, by listening to the likes, in fact, of chris christie, praising mueller and his independence and sense of fairness, if there is no "there" there, if this is about undermining the system of democratic elections in our cup by a foreign power, if, indeed, there was no, quote, collusion, then let the investigation go forward and mueller will say in his report, there was no collusion. but we are not seeing that. we're seeing an attempt by the president to bury that investigation, to bury the investigators. the lies from president trump are unlike anything we have ever seen from a modern president of the united states. and it goes on day after day. this is not me sitting up here saying, it's my opinion the president lies. it's demonstrable. it's repatorial, it's demonstrate ed and cataloged.

>> time after time after time. >> and that -- what's so astoniaston i astonishing is that a party of the president would go along with these lies and not say, mr. president, you can plead your case, but you cannot lie day after day to the american people and invent a false narrative that all of us understand is a false narrative and that's what's going on here. >> between now and whenever mueller concludes his investigation, is it basically a waiting game for any mainstream republicans that are left, trying to dodge the sideshows coming out of the oval office and chairman nunes' office? >> i think so. listen, there are those on capitol hill, republicans, who have decided that they are siding squarely with the president, no matter what happens on this. and we've seen that in the last several months. there are also those who, i think, are trying to sort of stay out of it and stay on the sidelines. and this is an election year and they don't want to find themselves on the wrong side of this. and while politics should not have a place in a debate like

this, this is a serious issue of whether a foreign power tried to intervene in our election and whether a presidential campaign may have worked with them, there is some politics here in the way that, i think republicans have approached this. they don't want to alienate constituents and say things about the president that they are not sure are the case. and i think they are waiting to see what mueller finds. and for that matter, democrats are waiting to see what mueller finds and whether they are going to try to press forward with really escalating this in the wake of whether it's a report or indictment or whatever it might be that mueller comes out with. i do think we're going to find out a lot more in the next couple of months about where this goes next, obviously. >> josh, you left the fbi, you worked with director comey. what do you think is happening behind the scenes at the fbi right now? are they running around trying to reassure human intelligence sources and assets or -- what exact does this have? >> i would expect not just in the fbi but the entire intelligence community, any

agency that's responsible for running informantsinformants, f gathering information from humans around the world is no doubt going to find this more challenging. and i have to say, this use of the word "spy," and we talked about that earlier with director clapper, as far as this sort of sinister, conjuring up these motives that may lead to some ill intent, obviously, it's part of a campaign. they're trying to denigrate, destroy these institutions for short-term political gain and that's one way to do it. when, in fact, a spy is a confidential human informant in this case. someone who is willingly providing information to the government in order to protect the nation and midgtigate a counterintelligence threat. so the challenges will continue. this will cascade far beyond the present time. i know that they're in survival mode and trying to do whatever they can to bulldoze these norms in order to stay in power and keep their jobs, as we've said, but the lasting damage is going to be so, so, you know terrible, i think, for our institutions of justice. >> i want to thank everybody. coming up, we have more breaking news. president trump's son-in-law jared kushner is questioned a second time by robert mueller's

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breaking news tonight. jared kushner's attorney, abbe lowell, tells cnn his client had a second interview with robert mueller's team last month, an interview that lasted seven hours. >> back in the fall, they were interested in understanding some of the issues about general flynn and he answered all of their questions then. and in april, we basically followed their lead and the topics were what were the appropriate topics. you know that they're being thorough and looking at the campaign. and by campaign, the issue that

they're investigating is whether there was something called collusion, whatever that means to people. they're looking to see whether there was some undue influence put on by outside countries, particularly russia. and they've been looking at some of the post-inauguration issues, primarily the firing of james comey. >> joining me now is cnn's gloria borger with more on that and about jared kushner. so, gloria, you hear abbe lowell describe to wolf what jared kushner was asked about. how significant is a second interview with the special counsel's team, especially one that lasted seven hours? >> right. i think it's very significant. you know, his first interview, when he did it back in november, was just about general flynn. and that was about 90 minutes to two hours. and so now we have this long, seven-hour interview. because, don't forget, jared kushner is kind of at the nexus of everything that mueller is investigating. you know, during the campaign, jared had a very large role. he dealt with cambridge analytica, which is also being

investigated. his contacts with the russians doing the campaign are important to mueller. jared was the one who said, i'm going to be the back channel to russia and had all of those meetings with russians. some of which he did not report on his sf-86 form, if you'll recall. and he was also in new jersey the weekend the president decided, infamously now, to fire james comey. and jared allies say, look, he had nothing to do with it, he just approved of it, but lots of other people have told us that, in fact, he drove the decision. >> the news that kushner's full security clearance has been reinstated, i'm wondering if that tells us anything about the mueller investigation or if they're not related at all. >> well, abbe lowell is clearly trying to make the link, saying, look, they would haven't given him this security clearance if there were lots of red flags that were being raised by the intelligence community, but the truth is, we really don't know. we don't know if mueller is

communicating with the intelligence community about what he's looking into or not. i think it is logical, as abbe lowell says, to kind of assume that, you know, if there were these large red flags, that perhaps he wouldn't have gotten the clearance. but the truth of the matter is that we just don't know, because mueller is keeping everything to himself. >> gloria borger, thanks. >> sure. well, coming up, back to our breaking news from the top of the hour. the white house now says some democrats will get a classified briefing on the russia investigation. however, they're going to have to wait until several days after tomorrow's meeting with only republicans. we'll also have a detailed look at one of those republicans, california congressman devin nunes, chairman of the house intelligence committee, a key ally of the president. at&t provides edge-to-edge intelligence, covering virtually every part of your manufacturing business. & so this won't happen. because you've made sure this sensor and this machine are integrated. & she can talk to him, & yes... atta, boy. some people assign genders to machines.

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there's breaking news tonight from the white house, as we reported at the top of the program, some democrats will, in fact, be invited for a classified briefing on the russia investigation, but only after a previously planned session at the white house tomorrow, where only republicans are being asked to attend. one democratic lawmaker, joaquin castro, told the house intelligence chairman devin nunes that the democrats wanted to attend tomorrow's meeting, nunes said, quote, i'm not going to play that game. i'll talk to him in a moment. but first, a look at the word nunes used today, games. nunes knows them well. he's been playing them on behalf of this white house for some time, including this latest misinformation campaign. here's randi kaye. >> reporter: the house intelligence committee working to investigate alleged ties between russia and donald trump's campaign started out as a bipartisan effort. devin nunes on one side and adam schiff on the other.

>> the chairman and i are doing everything that we can to keep this investigation bipartisan and nonpartisan. >> reporter: but the notion the two sides could work together was torpedoed in march of 2017, when nunes made his now-infamous so-called midnight run. that's when nunes disappeared for a night, then turned up breathlessly to report he had just briefed the white house on some new information he had learned about surveillance during the campaign. but it turned out to be a scam. it was the white house who had actually given nunes the information in the first place. the whole episode led nunes to step aside from the splenlintele committee's russia investigation. since his midnight run, nunes has earned a reputation as trump's go-to in congress, dutifully throwing up hurdles or distractions in the investigation into russia's role in trump's election. >> the president needs to know that these intelligence reports are out there. and i have a duty to tell him that. >> reporter: he's also become a

voice for the president. >> i always like to say, whatever the left accuses you of doing, they're doing themselves. >> reporter: in february this year, nunes released a controversial memo alleging conspiracy against trump involving surveillance under false pretenses. >> political dirt was used by the fbi, and they knew it was political dirt, to open a counterintelligence investigation into the other campaign. >> reporter: that claim was never established. but nunes has never been cut short my a lack of evidence. long before he entered politics, when he was just 22 and a recent college graduate, he reportedly became convinced his school was secretly planning to close its campus farm. farming was his family's business. turns out, according to the "new york times," the school was trying to sell one small farm in order to buy a larger one, but nunes won the hearts of voters and he won a seat on the school's board of trustees. >> let each candidate stand -- >> reporter: two years later, he ran for congress and lost. then in 2002, he ran again and

won. and he's been serving ever since. the precise reason congressman nunes turned into such an operator for this white house remains unclear. but as the mueller investigation reaches a crescendo, it's nearly certain, so, too, will the efforts of devin nunes. in his latest ploy, nunes is now demanding he be given the documents related to the confidential fbi source who spoke with trump campaign aides in 2016 about russia's interference in the election. he's refusing to meet with the doj until he gets that information. >> if any of that is true, if they ran a spy ring or an informant ring and they were paying people within the trump campaign, if any of that is true, that is an absolute red line. >> reporter: randi kaye, cnn, new york. >> again, the breaking news, the white house has decided to invite democrats to a classified meeting of the russian investigation, but only after the memorial day recess. i'm joined now by a member of the house intelligence

committee, democratic congressman, joaquin castro of texas. i mentioned in the introto randi's piece, your conversation with devin nunes. can you explain a little bit more what you said to him and what he said to you? >> yeah, it was a very brief exchange, because he basically walked off. but this morning, i was presented with the fact that sarah sanders mentioned that democrats had not asked to be part of the meeting. so i said first that it's standard protocol wherever there's something revealed about the investigation that you would have republicans and democrats there, and also, i'm sure, that adam schiff, our ranking member, had already asked, which he has. but just to be clear, so that somebody asked face-to-face. i said that i would ask devin nunes today and i did that. when i asked him or told him that democrats should be part of the meeting, he said that he wasn't going to play that game and then walked off. >> do you know what he meant by "game"? i mean, what game is he talking about playing? >> i don't know. i don't know if he thinks this is just politics back and forth

or a media circus, i don't know. i can't answer that question for him. but remember, he's the person who right away did that midnight run and took all of this information to president trump. and anderson, this whole thing has turned into a racket. it's basically, i believe, a way for the president to receive information about what the doj has, what the fbi has, to handicap his legal liability and figure out, for example, how much he's going to cooperate with robert mueller, whether hays going to go in front of robert mueller, you know, who on his team may have legal liability. and it keeps happening over and over. >> for people at home who may not follow the ins and outs of washington meetings like this, i just don't understand the logic of twhi democrawhy democrats wo allowed into tomorrow's meeting, why it would only be republicans? >> that's exactly right. and the findings of the investigation so far have fallen pretty much along partisan lines, unfortunately. but i didn't think that the

meetings themselves and the flow of information would also become partisan. and i'm glad to hear tonight that eventually the gang of eight, which include our ranking member and senator warner in the senate will be part of the folks that receive information, but it shouldn't take a big blow-up like this for something that's supposed to be standard to occur. >> well, i mean, i also don't understand. if the white house, you know within if this -- for those who don't know this, this is a meeting that chief of staff general kelly is going to have, the head of the fbi, chris wray will be there, coates and others from the doj, and nunes and trey gowdy, but, i mean, if there's going to be a bipartisan meeting after the memorial day recess, i don't understand -- are you satisfied that -- i mean, i don't understand why they couldn't just have democrats there tomorrow? >> well, i agree. i mean, basically, if you're dwoi going to have a meeting of the gang of eight after the memorial day weekend or after the recess, then what's tomorrow's meeting? tomorrow's meeting seems to be a trump legal defense team huddle,

so they can figure out what's out there. and then assess it. i don't understand the need for two meetings. >> which is -- i mean, it doesn't -- it's a pretty strong claim to make that the president is using this to basically benefit his legal defense or his legal strategy. i mean, that's basically saying, he's not operating with the best interests of the country at heart, but, you know, at his own -- to try to help his own legal position. >> oh, well, i think the facts have borne that out from that first midnight run. there's basically been information that's been shared and president trump, i think, is using people in the legislative branch, including devin nunes, to do his dirty work. >> congressman castro, i appreciate your time. thank you very much. >> thank you. stay tuned at the top of the hour when house minority leader nancy pelosi takes questions in a cnn town hall hosted by chris cuomo. also just ahead, some incredible pictures and incredible danger in hawaii.

i'll speak with a man who's lucky to be alive after being hit directly by a lava bomb. his story, next. bring all your apps to life on a cloud that runs on premises. ♪ ♪ the ibm cloud. the cloud for smarter business. the ibm cloud. at t-mobile, we're committed to keeping military families connected. then momma ninja asked her littlest baby ninja, did you finish your dinner? so in honor of military appreciation month... active duty and veterans get half off select samsung galaxy phones.

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there's no end in sight for the ordeal that's been going for three weeks straight in hawaii after the eruption of the kilauea volcano. fissures have cracked the earth, lava is exploding and then there are the lava bombs. one such projectile about the size of a small bowling ball or a sbooccer ball hit darryl clinn as he was trying to protect homes from catching fire. the lava bomb that hit him snapped bones in his leg, he's lucky to be alive. darryl clinton is in the hospital now. i spoke to him by phone. >> let me ask you, because you've been watching over these homes for days. >> yeah. >> you were used to these lava bombs coming in. our reporter was there, you know, and heard them coming in. >> yeah, scott was there, yeah. >> did you -- the lava bomb that hit you, did you see it coming?

>> no. it was really peculiar. typically, they shoot out of these vents. they make a hideous noise and then an explosion occurs. and then they fly out of these vents, almost straight vertical into the sky. and then they arc where they la depends on the tragic he cannery. >> so you can follow the trajectory and you have a little bit of time normally. >> yeah. this one, i was in the house and the bombs had waned to being almost nonexistent. i got a phone call so i wasn't being as attentive as i should have been. i was walking out of the house and on to the lanai, or deck. and about maybe the second time

i went to the lanai, i was looking at the phone. i looked down and it was in a millisecond, i saw the soccer ball size lava bomb hit my leg. >> did you know it right away? you actually saw it? >> i saw it. and it hit and it set me on fire and it basically snapped my leg in half. right above the ankle. so my foot and my ankle were hanging by basically the back of my flesh, maybe my achilles' was still there. all the other stuff was severed. i had to hold my shoe. i hit the ground to escape the fire. i had to hold my shoe up and my leg up vertical and just keep my bottom part of my leg attached to the top. >> this is a dumb question but

in that moment, oftentimes, some people talk about adrenaline and they almost don't feel what's happening. were you in agony right away? >> yeah. i was in horrible pain. and it looked so hideous. the worst thing i've ever seen happen to me in my life. >> so you got loaded into a car. i mean, how are you doing now? what are the doctors telling you? >> well, the first night, they cleaned out as much rock as they could. they brought me in the second night. took more rocks out. i thought at the very minimum i would lose a foot. i thought i would die. i didn't even think i'd have a foot. >> it's incredible. as you said, it's amazing you're alive and we're so glad. and i know all the people whose homes you were looking after are really grateful for what you did and i appreciate talking to you,

thank you. >> thanks. thank you for calling me. >> we wish you the best. incredible of coming up, breaking news about the upcoming summit between president trump and kim jong-un. the president wants a few things on happen before that meeting. we danced in a german dance group. i wore lederhosen.man. when i first got on ancestry i was really surprised that i wasn't finding all of these germans in my tree.

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a month before the 2016 presidential election. "that i will faithfully execute." "there was no knowledge of any payments from the president and he's denied all these allegations." "the office of president of the united states." "the raid late today of president trump's personal lawyer and friend michael cohen fbi agents took a host of documents, including some related to cohen's one-hundred-and-thirty-thousand- dollar payment to porn star stormy daniels" "and will to the best of my ability." "giuliani has just dropped something of a bombshell on that one-hundred-and-thirty-thousand dollar payment." "funneled it through a law firm and the president re-paid it." "oh, i didn't know that he did." "oh, i didn't know that he did." "yep." "preserve, protect and defend." "he'll get his facts straight." "the constitution" we're not changing any stories "of the united states." "people lie." "so help me god." woooodang. woooo!!! dang. ha hah!!! we hide hotel names, so you can find four star hotels

at two star prices. ♪h-o-t-w-i-r-e hotwire.com♪ a senior naek official has taken issue with statements pence made on fox news. the official also said that north korea won't beg the united states for dialogue and says we can make the u.s. taste an

appalling tragedy it has neither experienced nor imagined up until now. meanwhile the trump administration wants a few things to happen before the summit with kim jong-un. according to a senior administration official that includes high level talks and assurance from the north korean dictator that he is committed to giving up his nuclear program. so the gromts a senior north korean official about the vice president, this is another in a recent flurry that is coming out of north korea lately. >> that's right. and this all came from the comments made by john bolton talking about the libya model. he remembers the libya model of nonproliferation and giving up weapons of mass destruct was very successful. what they took from it was the libyan leader, moammar gadhafi, met his demise at the hands of u.s. and nato officials. what they're ignoring is that the president also said in recent days that they were

talking about giving up weapons. but if kim jong-un doesn't come to an agreement, he could end up like gadhafi. clearly they don't want to go after the president. >> what are you learning about the high level talks? traditionally that's what happens before a summit. there's weeks and months of talks, if not years. >> exactly. white house that's the will travel to singapore this weekend. they'll meet with the north korean delegation, primarily about logistics. but on top of that, substantive negotiations need to take place between mike pompeo or other top u.s. that's the of as you said, we end to forget these summits usually happen from the bottom up. negotiators meet for months and then the leaders show up and sign on the dotted line. when i think kim canceled to promise talks, the president realized they don't have great comfort about what his intentions are. the north koreans have been focused on the date and location

but that's the said they need more clarity on what kim is ready to put on the table. if he is ready to denuclearize, it shouldn't be that difficult to have an agenda. if he hasn't, the summit could be a bust. they want to know their odds before the president goes ahead, whether they have a chance at success. >> denuclearization means something different for north korea than it may mean for the united states. >> they're looking at, the north koreans want the whole peninsula. that includes south korea. the north koreans handled over those detailed arrangements is key. now they're looking for concrete signs this is real. an agreement before the experts can visit the missile sites, allowing the dismanning of the nuclear test site which they've promised in the presence of international reportes including cnn. i think they want a sign from

kim that this is serious. >> there is a lot more to come on the north korea story. we'll continue to follow it in the days ahead. that summit was set for and still is set. still is set. right now let's hand it over. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com all right. live from washington, d.c., this is cnn's town hall with the democratic leader of the house, nancy pelosi. i'm chris cuomo. thank you for being here with us once again. so timing is everything tonight. you are less than six months until the november mid-term elections. you want to be speaker again. i assume. we'll have that discussion tonight. most importantly though