>> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. >> here we go, you're watching cnn. i'm brooke baldwin. thanks for being with me. got a lot to talk about, including the breaking news of the hour, this explosive report 18 months in the making, the inspector general at the justice department has determined former fbi director james comey was not biased in his handling of the hillary clinton e-mail investigation but that he did, in fact, deviate from department norms. just a reminder here, a lot of democrats, including hillary clinton herself, blame her election loss on comey's decision, remember, to reopen

the investigation just a couple of days before the election. and a lot of republicans felt comey gave clinton a pass when he stood there and chose not to charge her. also revealed in this 500-page report, more of these anti-trump text messages between this fbi official and former fbi attorney. the most damaging, quote, we'll stop from becoming president. evan perez, what are your biggest takeaways? >> i think the most important point that the inspector general makes is really addressing the criticism that has been coming from the president, from a lot of republicans in congress, which was that this investigation was done in a politically biased manner, that she should have been charged, hillary clinton should have been charged and she wasn't because there was interference, political interference in the way this investigation was done and the inspector general found that that is not so. at least there's no evidence of that. and you just pointed to the key quote in there where they said

they have found no evidence that the conclusions of the prosecutors. i but you also pointed out these key text messages by a couple of people who were fbi employees, and i think it's going to be the thing that the president and other people are going to focus on because it does open up and i think the inspector general even says this in his report, he says that these text messages and a lot of other actions really does raise this specter of political interference and political bias, even if it didn't affect the outcome of the investigation. and you can put it back up, the text message from pete strzok, one of the top people in the counterintelligence division, who was helping to oversee this investigation and he's e-mailing or text messaging with lease page, a lawyer at the fbi. they were in a relationship. and she said "trump's never

going to become president, right? right?" and strong respond "no. no, he won't. we'll stop it." at the time that he sends this text message, he's now overseeing the russia interference investigation. the inspector general does ask the question whether or not this was something that may have affected some of the things that he did in the conduct of his work. again, the russia investigation is still ongoing. pete strzok was for a brief period part of the mueller investigation. he was kicked off the investigation after the discovery of some of these text messages, but it does raise the problem for the fbi and for everyone involved, really, the question of whether or not there's some and you can already hear it from his allies in congress. i expect sarah sanders will address that in her press conference. we've also heard from attorney general jeff sessions because he is obviously still in control of

the justice department and the fbi and really, you know, the reason why james comey is no longer the director of the fbi is because people at the justice department had lost faith in him and he says, quote, the inspector general's report reveals a number of significant errors by senior leadership of the department of justice and the fbi during the previous administration. accordingly this report must be seen as an opportunity for the fbi long considered the world's premiere investigative agency and all of us at the department to learn from past mistakes. make no mistake there is a lot here that criticizes not only james comey but other officials, top officials at the fbi, as well as loretta lynch, people at the justice department at the time, for some of the things that they did, which cast a clo

cl clou and yet we're still living with those actions. >> 17, 18 months later. >> in the last hour or so, "the new york times" had published on an opinion piece from james comey himself. what's his message? >> his message is he supports the inspector general of the investigation. he said that's one reason why he asked for it but he says he disagrees with some of the findings and i think we have part of the op-ed there from james comey. he basically says that he disagrees with some of the findings of the inspector general pu he supports what the ine inekt i think comey knows and we saw this in his book tour, you saw that he acknowledges that there were things he did that could have been done differently. but, you know, comey is not going to really back down from.

>> we are getting -- thank you, evan perez. you know so much about this having gone through all these pages of this massive report here. we'll let you go straight to cape because we're getting all answered of reaction. let go our manu you're hearing democrats and republicans taking out different things from this report saying it furthers their argument. on the democratic side they acknowledge significant missteps by james comey that occurred during the 2016 election, but they're saying this actually was to the benefit of then candidate trump. this is what jared nadler and elijah comings, two senior democrat in the white house

said. they the i don't know why the president is focusing on these text messages saying it may actually tunt the regss pro and he said the report shows a destructive amount of animus displayed by top officials by the fbi, it costs a pall on this investigation, it cass into question any other investigation he was a part of, including the role in the investigation of what russia did in 2016. so you're hearing a number of republicans that i have spoken to aing this johnson, a homemade

security chair american. and there was po sprch john said there's nothing in this exchange that will change my view that the investigation was mishandled and attempt to exonerate her. that is what republicansor when kp she was breaking down along party lines. >> jamie beginningel, special kors, pb all right. so there's a lot to go through.

there's more to learn as time goes on. all of this thinking, we're go and first your initial takeaway. i can't believe that donald trump hasn't tweeted about this flchl. >> the fbi text. it is so blunt. we're going to stop it. this speaks to everything that donald trump has been saying all along and even though the report says no political bias, i think it is fair to say that it is likely that the president is going to spin this. eventually and to jakey's point, it's a 500-plus page report,

seven words are i think the takeaway, something like "no, no, we'll do something to stop it." i think what will get lost in that is the broader context, which are the things that the i.g. said james comey did wrong in this, he didn't consult directly enough with loretta lynch, the attorney general. he went public with the fact that there wasn't any prosecution related to hillary clinton. he went public again with the fact that the investigation had been reopened days before the election. all of those things likely helped donald trump. you can argue how much or how little, but none of those things were detrimental to donald trump's campaign. the things that james comey did that he was sort of in this report said he shouldn't have done, those o mop because it it will be proof there he already

hit on the back and forth on that relationship. if he hasn't tweeted yet, it coming. >> laura coats, your initial thoughts on this thing. >> i thought this was a 500 pages worth of deputy and loretta lynch deserves also om plame for cutting the meeting short on the red carpet with bill clinton. for so many months the fbi and those around us that are supportive of them have said that agents have been able to compartmentalize their private, political views from their professional direct irs. the reason the foye by not

prioritizing the anthony weiner happen dopp emthe ability of the agents in that sliver of the investigative team and there's a very, very wide breadth of agents availability. ultimately you are seeing a tale here of a quest to try to it's a nurse with the again fit then wapd in the e-mail probe. >> when is going out on a limb.

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including that small business optimism has hit its highest level in more than 30 years. as you know, national economic council director and assistant to the president larry kudlow was discharged from the hospital and is recovering at home. the president has spoken with larry. he's in good spirits. we look forward to having him back here at the white house soon. tonight at nationals park, republicans and democrats in congress will put aside their political differences to play america's game. after last year's horrible shooting at the gop practice where capitol police abilicted heroically in the line of fire to save lives. we were happy to see those injured return to the field, including steve scalise. we will proudly be cheering them on. i've heard the republican team looks pretty good in practice and that they're headed for a victory. and finally, we celebrate flag

day, the founding of our brave u.s. army and last but not least, we would like to wish the president a very, very happy birthday. and if i do say so, i don't think he looks a day over 35. with that i'll take your questions. a little sucking is probably never bad. kevin? >> if you would please comment on the recently released i.g. report, your impressions of what you've read so far and have you had a chance of the new york attorney general report suing the trump foundation? >> director wray will be holding a press conference later this afternoon. we'd encourage you to tune in for specific questions. as to your other question, the president has tweeted about this, specifically earlier

today. the foundation raised $18 million while giving $19 million to charity while virtually having zero expenses. the previous a.g. forced to retire in disgrace made his stated mission to advance his own political gain and has started battling the white house is the most important job she's ever done. that sounds outrageously biased and certainly problematic and very concerning. cecilia. >> in the state of the union the president has really harsh words for north korea. he said no regime has oppressed its own citizens more than north korea. why is he now downplaying north korea's horrific atrpr atrociti? >> the president has raised the abuses on a number of occasions and he raised them at the summit

earlier this week. but the purpose of the summit was the denuclearization and peace on the peninsula. >> on fox news they said a lot of other people have done some really bad things. how is that not downplaying the atrocities? >> that's a factual statement. people have done some bad things. the president hasn't ignored bad things done by the north korean regime. he brought it up at the summit and the purpose of the summit was to focus on denuclearization and that was what the president was trying to do. >> thank you -- and there was a report that -- >> that's a lot of questions. one at a time. first, question, there is a trade meeting today in terms of any announcements, i'll keep you posted when we have something to

announce. >> the or part of my question is there has been a report that 800 to 900 chinese products will be on that tariffs list. it seems like quite a high number, even though i guess the highest number is 1,300. if that number is higher than it really is, could you tell us now? >> well, since i'm not making any nuns whether or not we will, we'll certainly keep you mosted. but beyond that i can't give in to any details. david? >> thank you, sir. two questions if you don't mind. the president said earlier this week he did speak with kim jong un about human rights abuses. can you tell us what area they talked about, was it the torture, public executions, lack of freedom and religion and the press, what did they actually talk about? >> again, they covered a number of different topics, a couple

that you listed. i'm not going to get into all of the details of their private conversation. the public has already stated he did bring up human right issues of the north korean edge eem. >> and he said his soon to be ex-called the president last week. can you tell us what they talked about? >> i'm not today, tomorrow or at any point ever going to comment on rudy giuliani's love life. i will be glad to leave that to you and the reporter that spoke with him and i'm not aware of a call and don't have any information on that. jim. >> sarah, can you tell us why

the president saluted -- >> it's a common courtesy. >> a second question completely unrelated on these children being separated from their families as they come across the border. the attorney general earlier today said that somehow there's a justification for this in the bible. where does it say in the bible that it's moral to take children away from their mothers? >> i'm not aware of the attorney general's comments or what he would be referencing. i can say that it is very biblical to enforce the law. that is actually repeated a number of times throughout the bible. hold on, jim, if you'd let me finish. i'm not going to comment on the attorney's specific comments. >> you said it's in the bible -- >> that's not what i said. i know it's hard for you to understand even short sentences, i guess and please don't take my word out of context.

the separation of an illegally family are the product of the same loopholes the democrats refuse to close. >> it's a policy to take children away from their parents. can you imagine the horror these children must be going to, suddenly they're pulled away from their parents? why is government doing this? >> because it's the law. >> it doesn't have to be. you guys doesn't have to do that. >> it doesn't have to be the law. the president has called on democrats in congress to fix those loopholes. the democrats have failed to come to the table, failed to help this president close these loopholes and fix this problem. we don't want this to be a problem. the president has tried to address it a number of occasions, we've laid out a proposal and democrats simply refuse to do their job. >> sorry, jim, i've given you enough time. >> first of all, there is no law that requires families be separated at the border.

this was the administration's choice to move from civil to criminally prosecutor people and separate families. if it continues to not have much of a deterrent effect, will you continue the policies sp. >> the laws have been offer the bkd and fix our immigration problem until democrats are willing to actually fix this problem, it's going to continue. but we would like to see it fixed. >> does the president take responsibility for his policy change from -- >> it's not a policy change to enforce the law. that's been this administration's policy since the day we got here. >>. >> it has been our administration's policies -- >> they're separate people to if

it was something a wasn't high on the priority list in the previous situation swrap we would like to fix these loopholes and if democrats want to get theerious about it pb. >> jill -- >> come on, sarah, you're a parent. they have less than you do. seriously. seriously. >> i'm trying to settle down but i'm not going to have you talk out of turn. >> these people have nothing. nothing. >> i know you want to get more tv time. >> it's not about that. you're a parent of young children. don't you have any empathy of

what they go through? >> does the president believe everybody there spa sflv i'm not aware of any comment like that. i know it been reported but i'm not going to common second part. >> hold that the -- >> we'll have specific details later. we're working with the department of defun. >> this report reaffirms the suspicions he had about comey.

director wrai is going to hold a press conference later today. i would encourage you to tune in for that. >> reporter: the tebs message exchange highlighted in the report between lisa page and peter strok, ultimately the fbi agent said "we'll stop it" and he was referring to candidate trump becoming president. did the president have any reaction to this information when you spoke with him after he's briefed today? >> certainly again cause as great deal of concern and i think ittin points out the political bias that the president's been talking about that has been repeatedly mentioned from this administration that we found to be a huge problem and we're glad they're looking into it. kristen. >> reporter: thank you. did the president or anyone else use funds from the trump foundation be from again, i'm not aware of itton.

>> i'm sorry, i didn't hear the last part of your question. >> the president trump tweeted several months ago, he doesn't think michael jackson is going to tweet. do he still ask and in tom tillus detail about ep had kwpand he almost let -- what or stam uz to are. >> certainly we have some areas of concern and some of these i don't have any personnel pointments at this point.

>> congressman marks mark sanford blamed the president's tweet as the final straw in his defeat, making hip the second republican house member to go down in defeat. this is the first time in 48 years a sitting president has opposed a member of congress of his own party. does the president intend to speak out for primary challenges to other critics of him within the congress? and if so, who? >> i don't have any announcements on any candidates that the president or may not endures. first, on the two immigration pills that the house is considering, do the the the presidential already applaud.

snmt sn snmt. >> we played out what we want to see and if this gets to a permanent solution, we would support it. >> republicans control both houses of congress. despite the president's repeated preference for mitch mcconnell to get rid of the legislative filibuster so they could pass something without democratic votes, they have not done that. so don't republicans face some responsibility for the immigration -- >> if a handful of democrats wanted to solve this problem we shall could quickly get it done but they don't. they've refused to come to the table and actually be part of a solution instead of playing political games and attacking the president. >> reporter: the president mentioned miles about a filibuster. that's not a barrier. >> the president wants to work with them, we've laid out a

proposal to do that. >> reporter: [ inaudible ]. >> look, the president wants to fix it. we have laid out a number of different plans that would close the loopholes. we would be ready and willing to get it done. what does the red he was wants to see all of the different components that we laid out several months ago addressed, then we would support it. >> of shf.

>> i don't have any announcements on that. >> okay whether theretoor does this is thele the matter for all time? >> certainly this creates a great deal of concern. we're going to tune in to director wrai's comments this afternoon. but certainly there are a lot of things in this report that not on worry those of us in the administration but shouldand injected that into a department that shouldn't have any of that. >> does the president believe peter s it rozk should still have a job at the fbi? i haven't specifically answered him that question but i hi pmt

rod shaw and what's the -- >> i don't know if there's a need to replace them. as i stated last night, i think cbs got a little ahead of the their -- they put out a story about me in terms of even talking to me. i can tell you i show up here every day, i love my job, i'm glad to work for the president and each nd every day i'll pray for clarity and discernment. i love that part of my job and i'm going to continue to do it every day. >> so a lot there but you know where i'd like to start? with the children. i want to start with the children at the border. you have seen these stories where these young babies, the kids, are being taken forcibly

from their parents who are crossing the u.s./mexico border. you saw jim acosta flat out asking sarah sanders how taking the children from their parents is moral. and he's quoting -- if you hadn't seen what sessions said, here it was and here's the exchange with jim and sarah. >> i thought i'd take a little bit die pregs about separation of families. many many of the criticisms raised in recent days, not fair, not logical. first, illegal entry into the united states is a crime. it should be, the persons who violate the law of our nation are subject to prosecution. if you violate the law, you

subject yourself to prosecution. i would cite you to the apostle paul and his clear and wise companion romans 13 to obey the laws of the government because god has ordained the government for his purposes. orderly and lawful processes are good in themselves. consistent, fair application of law is in itself a good and moral thing. and that protects the weak. it protects the lawful. >> on these children who are being separated from their families as they come across the border, the attorney general earlier today said that somehow there's a justification for this in the bible. where does it say in the bible that it moral to take children prrp from their mothers? >> i'm not i can say that it is

very biblical to enforce the law. that is actually repeated a number of times throughout the bible. however -- hold on, jim, if you'll let me finish. again, i'm not going to comment on the attorney's specific comments i haven't seen. >> you just said it's in the miebl. and please don't take my words out of context. but the separation of illegal alien families is the product of the same legal loopholes that democrats refused to close and these laws are the same as mr. >> it's a policy -- when they come across the border, they're with their parents and suddenly they're pulled away from their parents . >> you're right. it doesn't have to be the law.

the president has called on congress to fix those loopholes. the democrat has failed to come to the table. we don't want this to be a problem. a number of occasions, we've laid out a proposal. and simply and she says it the democrats who are to blame and what could fix this. >> brook, i wish i could answer your questions. i don't understood snochl you know, listen. this is a trump sfcht that was

not the practice during the obama administration. obviously there probably were situations with they did detain families from time to time. when they came cross the boarder. but this is a new imtation of a traps of a boo. essentially. in and trying to push the democrats what he sees is a standoff between both but make no mistake this is a couple administration and the question

was picked up by a cbs worther right in the i did not really hear an plane of nch oo. you should not pull children away from their parents no matter what the situation is. >> it's a huge, huge story. i wanted to make sure we were talking about it like we have been. and to my guests, you were saying it's all about exercising discrimination. before we get to your point, just to the two of you, on what sarah huckabee sanders was saying, this has been a law on the books but there has been a policy change recently. >> there's a word and you said

it, chris kregs. we're reporting on this now because it wasn't happening before and in abe they decided there was going to be a zero poll can bit everybody coming across every adult. so if you are criminally inone, it not as though this never happened before. it did. that's the policy. that while the adult is being adjudicated, the child is put in protection. it just didn't happen at nearly this rate because they're essentially saying prosecutors you do not have discussion. therefore what you're seeing is an increase in the rate. i would also point out, i'm reading a story from may 7th on

"new dhs policies could separate parties crossing the border illegally. it not as tho it and they're saying they want the democrats to fix this, when this was the attorney general going for a zero tolerance. it makes no sense. >> i do think it's interesting, the difference. >> i think as somebody who worked at the department of justice for eight years, it got to be dispiriting for eight years, it's got to be dispirit women says and why are they not

up in arms? >> absolutely. i was there about foufr urn pr the immigration cases we did was with somebody had been convicted in the united states of an al gra vated felony, then deport z, then tried to come back in. those are a completely different and much, much narrower smpt this was the policy under george bush. >> here's the thing -- it's not as though we didn't know what we were getting when donald trump ran for president. he talked about building a wall, he talked about toughening the borders, he talked about and attorney general all do prsh and

the reason he's -- jeff sessions has believed for a very long time we need much stronger immigration laws and we need to absolutely 100% enforce the ones that we do have. we stays in tover things like this and that's why you see it. this is not something we should not sharon, i appreciate this conversation but let me pivot to what we were all talking about before this report from the a.g.'s office. when sarah huckabee sanders was asked about what the i.g. found, she said it aaffirms concerns of

bias at the fbi. but the i.g. report made it clear that some of those text messages may have been biased but comey was not. >> this a very -- i haven't finished reading all 500 pages. this is a very careful report, a very contextual report and i think it shows that many gentle agencies do not work. the president is will the president of the united states, will members of congress of both carts andand parched it's contacts because it does not reinvorz a physical of a deep state, does not are who have

controverted policy, and acted improperlyly. it shows that hillary clinton was wreck less in had. mch -- it reaffirms that maybe the investigation and the prosecutors reached the insensitive positions, mr. strzok, miss page, were absolutely outrageous. there in struck has sad that it means he didn't want to see trump become pred but that has

nothing to do with the conduct of the investigation. the fact is the fbi investigation from what the inspector general says was carried out faithfully and mistakes from the top down as well these record prejudicial statements by two members of the leadership. i want to go back to the report about the eye quinn fmt i'm handling it response pli prng frn greg brower, former fbi official under james comey. what do you make of the report, though, faulting your snachlt

y you. it appears that the d.o.j. did a very thorough, professional jobs. its findings are not all that surprising. the they did found he did detroit from sfrchl who watched him deliver himf spbt that are a matter of debate now. secondly, the report found that despite his deviation from d.o.j. policy, jim comey and the fbi was not. >> i don't think that surprises us, most of us who knowsfwlcht

i'm hoping that the work is infished. snl and i know that director wray at the fbi is going to do a press conference later today in which i suspect he will fully embrace the recommendations made by the oig and that should be the end of this matter. >> well, we're still waiting for a tweet from the president on this specifically and how maybe he takes this and relates it to concerns he has over a mueller investigation, which is entirely separate in its legitimacy. can you understand to carl's point about those text messages between miss page and mr. strzok, can you understand their keshs about our law enforcement agencies in this country after seeing exchange? >> yes, absolutely. i can remember like it was yesterday where i was and what i was doing when i learned of these text messages.

i tell you it was like a punch in the gut to the entire fbi. as carl mentioned, it's just to this day outrageous. -to-say the least. but i would say that the oig report, i haven't read the whole thing, it appears to have concluded that this sort of outrageous unprofessional conduct was limited to those two individuals. it was not -- emblematic of the entire agency. >> exactly. i think -- i know that the fbi ranks -- agent ranks, staff rnk ranks, the institution generally and doj never really saw the sort of improper political bias by those exhibited in those texts as something that was -- had infected the bureau generally or doj generally.

that doesn't seem to have been the case and it's not something the oig found. >> carl, back over to you. i want you to make your points but first finish my sentence right now. james comey's legacy is -- what? >> james comey's legacy what it has been. he was in a difficult predicament and he chose the wrong way to extricate himself from that predicament but i'd like to ask the question because we were told you republican where you were when you learned of this and what the other justice department officials and fbi officials said to each other when i know they learned of it. and what that response was internally.

i was with my family and friends watching the parade in virginia and i learned of it when the "new york times" reported it the deputy director learned of it early but i was not pref sri to that until it was reported by the times and that's how i learned of it. >> but how was it discussed internally? i'm interest ed as a reporter t what you said to each other. >> it was unbelievable first of all that to relatively senior -- depending on how you describe senior but two very smart otherwise apparently dedicated fbi employees could be engaging in such conduct so it was shock ing and beyond that it was -- it created a situation as in

obvious now that made it very, very difficult for us in dealing from capitol hill that the investigation -- whether you agree with the conclusions that the investigative team made or not that the investigation was not done in a way that it was infected by political bias. those text messages for obvious reasons made it very, very difficu difficult. >> we're going to hear from chris wray in the next two hours so stay tuned for that. but appreciate you and carl, thank you guys so much. the other headline out of that white house press briefing, the white house defending the president standing there when he was in singapore and saluting a north korean general calling it a common courtesy. retired lieutenant colonel rick francona is with me now.

colonel? there you are. so it was common courtesy? what say you? >> it is a common courtesy. i think the president was in a real awkward position there when he stuck out his hand and the korean general saluted him so technically the president was returning a salute. not to return a salute would have been insulting and i think the president was trying to not cause any friction. we're trying to convince a rogue dictator to give up the one thing he believes would keep him in power so i think the president was erring on the side of trying to not cause a diplomatic incident. >> okay, that's more or less in line with what i heard from a soldier friend of mine this morning when i put it to him. so i'm clear, as the u.s. commander in chief with the general from a nation who's done all kinds of thing you're saying

he didn't break protocol? >> i don't think it was breaking it or adhering to it. it just happened. i'm not willing to -- i don't think the president was willing to cause a diplomatic incident over this. remember we're still at war with north korea so the whole singapore sum bit was bizarre so this was another incident in a bizarre string of incidents. >> colonel, thank you very much. colonel francona on that. coming up next here, new york's attorney general suing the president and his children alleging their charity illegally used money for campaign purposes. that came up in the briefing. let's explain that next.

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russia. cnn's amanda davies is in moscow with more. hey, amanda. >> brooke, the u.s. men's national team might not be here, but that doesn't mean americans aren't interested in the biggest sporting event in the world. fans from the states have bought more tickets than any other country outside of russia to the world cup to get a taste of what's to come in 2026 after that historic vote on wednesday to award the tournament to the usa, mexico, and canada for eight years time. there are 32 teams from across the globe who will be battling it out over the next four and a half weeks. i was lucky enough to be there as it kicked off today with the host russia surprising a lot of people including myself to put in a massive 5-0 winning opening game against saudi arabia. expectations had been lower than low for the home fans.

nothing like pulling it out of the bag when it matters. that got the 2018 up and running, brooke. >> amanda, thank you so much. i'm brooke baldwin. thanks for being with me here. "the lead" with jake tapper starts right now. thanks, brooke. the report comes out that says james comey screwed up. but did the fbi ultimately help donald trump? "the lead" starts now. it's out, the long-awaited report on the fbi's handling of the hillary clinton e-mail case blames now fired fbi director james comey, does it let president trump off the hook for firing him? north korea basking in the propaganda. state media proudly showing president trump returning a salute from a north korean general as the president restorally defends one of the most oppress i leaders in the world. plus, suing the trumps, president trump unloading as the new york attorney general sues him and his grown children and

tries to dismantl