procedurally. >> he can't promise. >> he's got to fight without inflating expectations. liberals think he can stop this and he can't, then he's going to have hell to pay through little fault of his own. >> thanks for joining us. fascinating months ahead. stay with us. jim sciutto is in for wolf today, and he starts right now. have a great day. hello. i'm jim sciutto in today for wolf blitzer. 1:00 p.m. here in washington, 8:00 p.m. in moscow, 12:00 a.m. wednesday morning in thailand. wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks so much for joining us. a new threat, a new stand-off with u.s. allies. the president warning nato to pay more or else. is the world's greatest military alliance now at risk? plus, the president says that all is well with north korea, that the u.s. would be at war right now if it weren't for his own efforts with kim jong-un. this despite u.s. intelligence saying otherwise. and a new report suggests that one of the russians charged in the mueller investigation was

more closely aligned with the president's former campaign chairman than previously known. details on that ahead. but first, the whole world is waiting to see what happens next with those 12 boys and their soccer coach who are still stuck deep in a cave in northern thailand. they've been trapped for ten days now. british divers discovering them all, thankfully, alive. >> how many of you? 13? brilliant. >> they are almost still three miles inside a cave that is now flooded because it is the monsoon season. the fear is the cave may stay flooded for months, and there will be no way to get the boys out, except through a very long and dangerous dive. >> if they can -- if they can package them in sort of a streamlined way and then propel them through the narrow baits, you know, tow them through, push

and pull them through under water, it's a big ask for divers doing that. it's a big ask psychologically for the children. but one has to ask one's self, what are the other options? >> you could only imagine their fear. jonathan miller is with us now from thailand. we've heard estimates really across the board from days to hours in terms of when they can be safely rescued. is there any more clarity on the timing? >> reporter: well, not a lot of clarity, jim. other than the fact that there is a renewed sense of urgency to get them out because there are more heavy rains forecast for tomorrow. they've had a little bit of reprieve over the past two or three days. they've managed to pump out 120 million liters of water. that's quite a bit. the levels have stabilized and gone down a bit inside the cave. however, there will be a lot more rain. this is the beginning of the rainy season. if they don't get them out soon, they're going to be stuck in there for possibly as long as four months.

they can raise them on to a sort of platform inside one of these chambers. they could stay there and be fed and looked after, but what a miserable thing to contemplate. the other options are to try to get them out through these very narrow passageways, these winding tunnels that go this way and that and up and down with very angular slabs of rock. they would need to really try to shave those off, the corners, to be able to get these kids out using oxygen equipment. that's a big ask, as that guy just said. another possibility, i guess, is going in through the top. they've been looking for fissures and shafts that could go down into the roof of the caves. that's been done before. if you remember back to those chile miners and how they were rescued back in 2010, it's an option. i'm not sure the degree to which that's being explored right now. the divers are in there in vast numbers. at one point today, 47 of them, trying to work out if they can extract them quickly through

those channels. >> so relieved that they're alive, but still a lot of work to do. jonathan miller there in thailand for us. thanks very much. ahead of the nato summit next week, president trump is setting the tone, issuing a strong warning to america's closest allies. in a series of letters, mr. trump demands nato partners increase their defense spending or face a shift in u.s. military priorities in europe. the letter to german chancellor angela merkel was particularly critical. in it, the president complained the chancellor is hurting the alliance by underspending on defense. he claims that germany is setting a bad example for other countries. to discuss this now, i'm joined by micah allen. he served as a director on president george w. bush's national security council. cnn national security analyst, also serving on the national security council under both presidents bush and obama. and cnn senior political correspondent michelle kosinski. michael, u.s. presidents, both democrats and republican, in the past have complained to nato

allies about not reaching this target of 2% of your gdp on defense spending. what is different now for a u.s. president to in effect threaten that we're going to pull our troops out of your country? we're going to take away our commitment from the alliance. >> what's different now is president trump has set the perception that he doesn't support the nato alliance. so it's seen as unduly rocking the boat. he's sent the impression that he's more interested in a better relationship with vladimir putin than he is with the maintenance of the, as you said, the greatest alliance in the history of the world. so what i'm worried about today and other people are worried about today is we're heading towards a nato summit that's going to go very, very poorly and a meeting with putin that's going to go terrifically. so that's something for us to worry about. that's the wrong strategic message, even if trump is absolutely right on the substance that germany should

pay their fair share. and he is right about that. >> kelly, as this happens, do nato allies worry that president trump would not fulfill nato obligations in the event of a threat to nato's security? russia has invaded one sovereign european country, ukraine. if they were to, say, invade estonia, a nato partner, is there genuine concern that the u.s. will not follow through? >> i think there's genuine concern. i think the seeds of doubt have been placed by president trump. i think michael is correct that context matters going into this summit. on the heels of the g7, where he trashed our democratic allies, after the north korea summit where he embraced kim jong-un. looking ahead to putin, where he wants to have a friendly relationship. i think a lot of nato allies are asking themselves where is the united states? where is this headed? are they turning away from democratic values and democratic interests? i think that's an open question. that seed of doubt has been pla planted. >> michelle, you cover the state department. you talk to a lot of folks in the state department.

is anyone in the trump orbit pushing back against the president, rattling the saber in effect with his own allies? >> absolutely. we hear that within the state department. we know there are those in the administration who don't necessarily feel like this is the way to go about it. but remember what we heard during the campaign. trump said nato is obsolete at one point. at one point, he floated the idea of if countries don't pay their fair share, then nato should not defend them. that was seen as outrageous on many fronts. and i know from talking to senior european diplomats that there has been a real fear that going into this summit, not only the optics of getting along great with putin and calling out deliverables while speaking harshly of allies, there's been a fear that at this summit, trump is again going to float the idea of if you don't pay, then defense should not be assured. the assured collective defense is the whole point of nato.

so when you read these letters and you see the language that is used, you get real pushback from allies. one just told me on the german letter that the president doesn't seem to care about the relationships or the real difficulties and the time it takes to raise the levels of spending that he just wants to get that deliverable. >> it's all transactional. it's interesting how it fit the pattern right before the north korea summit, right. you had a horrible g7 summit in canada where allies were at loggerheads. then a kind of love fest in singapore. you might have the same dynamic here. >> at the g7, let's trash u.s. allies for this, that, and that, but then let's unpunish russia. wouldn't that be a good idea? and this is why u.s. allies are so rankled and worried about what comes next. >> well, since we're talking about russia, i want to bring in cnn senior international correspondent fred pleitgen. he's in moscow. i know you were speaking to russian officials this morning. is russia welcoming the

president's words in the last few days? a lot of the things the president has said on crimea are right in line with kremlin talking points. >> reporter: yeah, they certainly are. it was interesting because earlier this morning, jim, we were speaking to the spokesman for the kremlin. we asked him about president trump's apparent idea to start off the summit with a one-on-one meeting with himself and vladimir putin, which has raised some concerns in washington. they say they're absolutely up for that. they say they think it's a good idea. they say vladimir putin would will be up for it. vladimir putin would like all this to take place in a context that is comfortable for his counterpart. obviously meaning president trump. but at the same time, right now what you also have here in town is a congressional delegation that also wants to talk about a lot of the big issues right now between russia and the united states. one of the biggest, of course, being russia's meddling in the 2016 election. it was quite interesting to see because we spoke to senator kennedy who's part of that delegation. he said they had some pretty

strong meetings with the russians and some pretty strong words for the russians. here's what he had to say. >> our discussions have been brutally frank, no holds barred, as candid as i have ever been. speaking only for me, i asked our friends in russia not to interfere in our election this year. >> reporter: now, the russians, of course, for their part are saying, look, as far as meddling is concerned, they say they had nothing to do with it. they also say that if the president wants to talk about that at the summit, he'll get exactly that answer. it was interesting to see because the head of the russian delegation, the counterparts, he said he believes relationships can be mended. certainly it seems as though right now the russians believe that the white house is on a track that the kremlin seems to like a lot, jim. >> pretty remarkable to see a u.s. senator asking a russian --

a hostile nation not to interfere. fred pleitgen, thanks very much. well, from russia to the nuclear negotiations, today in a tweet president trump took credit for avoiding an armed conflict with kim jong-un saying, quote, many good conversations with north korea. in the meantime, no rocket launches or nuclear testing in eight months. he went on to say, if not for me, we would now be at war with north korea. one more exclamation point. recent information seems to indicate kim jong-un is not committed to denuclearization at all. an analysis of satellite imagery by researchers, this first picture from april, the second one from june, appears to show that north korea is finalizing the expansion of a key ballistic missile manufacturing site. some of that was going on as kim and trump were meeting in singapore. back with my panel right now. if i could start, kelly and michael, with you. republican administration, democratic administration. there seems to be a pattern where this president will get his briefings from the

intelligence agency and ignore that. do you ever see that happen in your bush/obama administrations? >> no, i can't think of an example, but look, the president here, let's give him a little bit of space. he is trying to do something different on north korea. what we don't want to see it willful blindness when it comes to what the intelligence is saying. it's okay for pompeo, the secretary of state, to go back soon and try and get a road map, try and get these people to submit a full account of what their nuclear programs are. but what we don't want to see is just blindness going forward, that everything is great. because remember what the president said. he didn't want to repeat the mistakes of the past. so what we need to see is some serious hard diplomacy coming out of this. it's great that we're not on the brink of war. but at the same time, we just can't give them a pass.

>> isn't the mistake on both the clinton, bush, and obama administrations is you make agreements with them and they cheat? forget trust. >> don't trust. we've seen this movie before. i agree with michael, it's important to give him some space. i think secretary pompeo's trip will be instrumental in terms of deciding whether the north koreans have made a strategic decision to denuclearize. i still don't think we know the answer to that question. i think the singapore summit left that pretty much unanswered for most folks. it's clear that the north koreans are proceeding with their program at pace. so pompeo's trip is even more critical now. i'm a little cynical. i actually think that president trump and even to some degree secretary pompeo are perfectly willing to ride this horse as long as possible to serve the success narrative on north korea through the midterms and the end of the year at least. i think that this -- the president clearly feels that's working for him politically. he's driving the success narrative. so i think pompeo is going to

urgently point to some sort of progress. >> remember, this went from the goal of they need to show some historic action before we have a summit to, oh, well, the summit is the deliverable. there's the accomplishment. >> secretary pompeo, he's not a neophyte to washington, a long-serving member of congress. he led the cia until very recently. is he more skeptical of north korea's motivations here than the president? >> i would say yes. i would say he presents himself as that. when the president says something that is vague or nobody understands what he means or what is the goal here, pompeo goes out and explains it point by point and tries to make some sense around it and build up some boundaries around it. to some extent. but i think we're repeatedly seeing these tweets where the president wants to -- he's using the talking points of the rival to say we have some accomplishments here, and how destructive is that in your

negotiations? it's like, where's your leverage if you're seeing things from the point of view of the person that you're trying to negotiate with. >> don't forget the political calendar. that's a good point. michael, kelly, michelle, thanks very much. she's one of the people on the president's supreme court short list. i'll speak live with one of amy barrett's friends and colleagues as president trump grows more intrigued by the idea of picking a female nominee for the supreme court. plus, one of the russians charged in the mueller investigation was reportedly closer to paul manafort, the president's former campaign chairman, than previously thought. we'll have the details just ahead. and how many political lives does scott pruitt have? new scandals surface involving the epa chief, and a mother confronts him inside a restaurant. >> we deserve to have somebody at epa who actually does protect our environment, somebody who believes in climate change and takes it seriously. so i would urge you to resign before your scandals push you out.

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president trump tweeted today about his ongoing search for a supreme court justice to replace the retiring justice anthony kennedy. i interviewed four very impressive people yesterday, he wrote. on monday, i will be announcing my decision for justice of the united states supreme court, exclamation point. one of those four was amy kony barrett. she's a former clerk for the late supreme court justice antonin scalia. barrett is now a judge object seventh circuit court of appeals in chicago. she was confirmed just last october by a relatively close vote in the senate, 55-43. she's already been through a senate vetting. jo joining me now is jennifer mason, associate professor of law at notre dame. judge barrett is a former notre dame law professor. you've known her for a number of years. just for folks at home who don't follow the vagaries, would you

say that she's kind of a scalia model, very conservative, or more in that, you know, kennedy was often a swing vote on many of these key decisions? who would you say she's closer to in her judicial style? >> i would say that judge barrett is her own person. she's just a really remarkable talent in every way. she's consistently excellent. she's an outstanding scholar and judge. she's a great colleague. she's a wonderful mother and wife. she's a great friend. and so i would just put her in her own category of just a really extraordinary person. >> i believe that, and i know you know her well personally and have worked with her. on the key issue, which is really going to be the key issue here, is what are her judicial beliefs? where does she stand on the spectrum? can you give us insight into that? is she a true guard in the wool conservative, or is there more wiggle room there? is she less easy to define?

>> i think that judge barrett really takes her oath to uphold the constitution and the laws very seriously. i would hesitate to put her in any particular camp. i just know she's a very thoughtful, fair-minded, intelligent person who will do her very best to apply the constitution and the laws of the united states, which would be her oath as a supreme court justice if the president chooses her. >> okay. i want to read a quote from judge barrett regarding what's going to be a key issue in this next court, the roe v. wade decision that legalized abortion in 1973. she wrote and said about the precedent the following. i tend to agree with those who say a justice's duty is to the constitution, and that is thus more legitimate for her to enforce her best understanding of the constitution rather than a precedent she thinks is clearly in conflict with it. in that statement there, does that signal that on the roe v. wade decision she might put that as being one of those precedents

that would be or could be in conflict with the constitution in her view? >> i would think that when judge barrett said that, she was trying to draw a line between the concept of a prudential doctrine that courts use to decide when to adhere to precedent and when not to, and contrasting that with her view of when a judge's understanding of the constitution would trump adherence to press decedent. i have no idea how she would rule on any particular issue, but i am confident that she would do her very best to apply the constitution and the laws in a fair-minded, thoughtful way that is respectful of the parties, respectful of precedent, and respectful of the constitution. >> president trump has told colleagues, according to my white house colleagues, that he's happy with the idea of putting what he described as a true conservative woman on the bench. there was some who noted that

those who know sandra day o'connor might bristle a that the idea. would you agree the court still lacks a true or lacks having a true conservative woman? that the next nominee would fit that bill? >> i'm so fortunate to have worked for justice o'connor, who was active in republican politics and served as a state court judge before she ascended to the supreme court. my sense is that any justice on the supreme court, take some time to figure out what their judicial philosophy is and how that works on an institution with nine members. so justice o'connor found her own path, and i'm confident that judge barrett, if she were nominated and confirmed, would also find her own path. >> jennifer mason mcaward, thanks for much for taking the time. >> thank you. coming up next, an elusive

ally of paul manafort's believed to have close ties with russian intelligence reportedly had a much bigger role in the manafort company than previously believed. we're going to have the details. plus, president trump is escalating his attacks on congresswoman maxine waters in an effort to cut down democrats ahead of the midterms. is his strategy of targeting her working? 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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intelligence. joining me to discuss this intelligence, joseph moreno and sarah murray. how much more closely was kilimnik working with him? >> we always know he helped to run this office based out of ukraine. what this associated press story says is this isn't just a guy who was an assistant. it isn't just a guy who was a fixer. this is someone who was heavily involved, according to the ap, in developing this pro-russia strategy and helping to execute it. this is one of the things that's gotten paul manafort in hot water, the fact that he did not disclose this lobbying work that he was doing for foreign governments, according to prosecutors. that's how they've been able to bring a number of the charges that he's facing against him. it's also worth noting the special counsel has also brought charges now against kilimnik, saying he and paul manafort are still essentially working together or were earlier this year to try to obstruct justice when it comes to this case. >> joseph, legally, you're an

american. you haven't declared this work with a foreign government. you're working with someone closely here who's a russian and has ties to russian intelligence. to be clear, we should note that a lot of russian businessmen have tied to the government while not being full-time, paid employees of the kremlin. from a legal perspective for manafort, how concerning is this? >> it's concerning on a number of levels, both legal and political. so as pointed out, this relationship goes back a lot longer than we had originally anticipated. and it involves a lot more russia work than we had known previously. mr. kilimnik's name is not new to us. it's been floating around for a while. the fact this relationship with mr. manafort goes back so far has specifically to do plo-russia strategic work, and the relationship continued throughout mr. manafort's tenure at the trump campaign. it's a lot harder of a relationship than we had known

previously. >> the headline is you have paul manafort working a russian to push a pro-russian agenda for money, right? he's getting paid to do it. >> well, yeah. but i think one of the concerns from prosecutors and what the mueller team has raised in a number of filings is that paul manafort continued to be in touch with kilimnik, who like you point out, prosecutors say has ties to russian intelligence. during a presidential campaign. so one of the big knocks for paul manafort and for his team has been to say, look, why is mueller going after us? none of the charges you're bringing against us had anything to do with collusion, anything to do with what paul manafort was up to during the presidential campaign. mueller's team has said wait and see. give us some time. we're still exploring these various ties. we're still exploring whether there's a potential that paul manafort could have been involved in some kind of collusion and whether, frankly, kilimnik could be a part of that. >> okay. other news today, federal judge ordered trump's former national security adviser michael flynn

to appear at a hearing in court. apparently he's a little frustrated with the pace of things, kind of saying get on with it. if you're going to sentence the guy, he's already pled guilty to lying to federal prosecutors, sentence him. why would the special counsel be delaying on that step? >> that's most likely what it exactly represents, that he's cooperating. we don't know what that cooperation entails. we can guess based on michael flynn's role during the campaign and during the transition. we don't know exactly what he's saying, but most likely that's the delay because the special counsel wants to know exactly everything michael flynn knows before he commits to a sentencing re sentencing recommendation before the judge. >> that makes sense. >> the other part is prosecutors might not want the judge to know what they're learning from michael flynn, what the relevance he has to this investigation is. i think that is certainly one of the frustrations we've seen of political opponents to the

mueller probe, but also some of these judges. they're kind of saying, you know, look, you're asking us to delay these sentences. you're asking us to continue to give you this runway, but you're not really telling us what the relevance is here. that's been a huge sort of play from political opponents to say we don't have any idea what mueller is up to, this has been going on for a year, and we don't have any indication of collusion. >> joseph, i would imagine you would have a reasonable argument as a special counsel to say i want to signal to other potential targets here in the investigation what this guy is telling me about what they're up to, and one of those people involved is the president. i would imagine he wouldn't want to reveal what michael flynn is saying about the president. >> certainly. mueller's team has done an outstanding job of not leaking. most of what we know is leaks, perhaps from the hill, perhaps from other sources, or what we learn from court filings. most likely, the most relevant information we're going to find out at this sentencing hearing is what perhaps michael flynn is cooperating about.

we can surmise right now, but those court filings may give some indication. that's another reason as to perhaps why it's being delayed as much as possible. >> next week. we'll be following. thanks very much. if the stock market tanked, would the president surrender in his trade wars with global powers? his commerce secretary's surprising answer next. plus, epa director scott pruitt in the hot seat again over new allegations, once again, of misconduct. and a secret calendar. the details just ahead. ♪

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defense or else. even hinting that he may withdraw troops from europe. i want to bring in gene spurling, adviser to both presidents clinton and obama. thank you for joining us today. >> thank you. >> to be clear, presidents, democrat and republican, including bush and obama, complained that u.s. allies were not paying their fair share of nato costs. what's different about the way trump is going about this? >> well, listen, you know, his recent complaint is about whether people are putting forward the 2% of gdp they're supposed to. what was the context they did that in? it was the wales summit in 2014 in reaction to russia invading ukraine. so for trump to kind of say we're not all doing enough when at every moment he does, in fact, look like he's a puppet of trump, doing their bidding,

trying to break up the allies, trying to weaken those who want to contain the aggressive behavior of russia, it just doesn't make sense. i, of course, am open to any rational discussion about how the u.s. could spend less or more efficiently on defense, but this just ends up looking like he's doing putin's bidding. it's very hard to interpret it any other way. >> and the kremlin, in fact, welcomed the president's comments on both attacking nato and seeming to give them a free pass on crimea. if i could turn now to the other battle with u.s. ally, this being the tariff battle, canada retaliated just this week with billions of dollars in its own trade sanctions against the u.s. while trump continues to say be patient because it takes time to change a global trade system. here is what commerce secretary wilbur ross added to that message for the president. have a listen. >> there's no bright line level

of the stock market that's going to change policy. the president is trying to fix long-term problems that should have been dealt with long time ago. >> it sounds like the president's commerce secretary there and long-time friend is saying that even if this trade war tanks the stock market, policy stays the same. >> okay. so now i'm going to surprise you. you know, there are instincts in their trade policy i support. i'm on the board of a steel company. i believe in strong u.s. steel industry. i believe on us getting very tough on china. and i don't believe you should make long-term public policy based on the fluctuations of the stock market. however, doing what we're seeing is a president who's trying to achieve this in a way that is erratic, reckless, and ends up leading to retaliation that is just putting us in a weaker position. let me give you an example.

a smart, tough strategy would be to unify all of our allies against china on tech transfer. unify them against china on reducing their excess capacity for steel. instead of us coming to the table with the strength of everybody behind us, we're picking fights with canada. we look like a joke when we suggest there's a national security risk with our best friend canada. so now we have retaliation from canada of all places. we have the rest of the world looking at us and just seeing an erratic type of situation, and really what trump is doing is saying to other leaders, i'm going to put you in a situation where unless you're willing to be humiliated, you're going to have to retaliate. now you're going to see people unnecessarily being hurt, not because they're bearing a little pain for a smart, coherent, tough trade strategy, but

they're innocent victims, like soybean farmers who could get hurt terribly if china retaliates. and if it was retaliation for something that was well planned, conceived, brought all our allies together, maybe you say tough it out, we're going to win in the end. this just looks like a president who can't shoot straight. now you're starting to see the ricochets and the retaliation hurting a lot of innocent farmers. >> has anyone ever won a trade war? >> well, i think you're right, you can win being tough. you can win taking a tough position. if the united states says to china, seriously, you do half of the steel production in the world, you've got more excess capacity than a country like united states has capacity. you've been promising to bring that down. we're going to all unify against you. that is a smart, tough policy. you're bringing the world with you, against china, on

technology transfers, on excess capacity. >> to your earlier point, it's not just against china. the president is fighting these kind of individual skirmishes with everybody on this. what's happening is they're now reacting in kind with reciprocity. we put tariffs on 300 billion bucks, they put tariffs on 300 billion bucks. you're an economist. has that kind of basically game of chicken ever worked when it comes to trade policy? >> you know, this kind of reckless trade war does not work. it's just as you say. when you put somebody in a situation where they're going to be humiliated unless they retaliate, they're going to retaliate. what you're seeing is canada, who should be our close friend we're working with, actually, you know, putting $12 billion of tariffs on us. so you're putting people in situations where they have no choice. then what does trump do? he ups it. what are they going to do? they up it. that is the kind of tit-for-tat trade war that never works, that

only hurts innocent workers and will end up hurting the people of the united states. and i am more concerned about that than i am about the fluctuations of the market. you know, there was an analysis i think in "the wall street journal" suggesting that a typical soybean farmer could lose over 80% of their income. again, if this was for a noble cause, maybe they suck it up for a little while. but just because the president is engaged in a kind of erratic, egotistical kind of macho tit-for-tat, that's not a good reason to have innocent, hard-working americans losing their jobs and their livelihoods. >> gene sperling, thanks for cleaning it up. >> thanks so much. well, another week, another scandal involving scott pruitt. this time about a secret calendar to hide any controversial meetings. so when would enough be enough for the embattled director of the epa? and cnn has uncovered evidence that puerto rican

officials tried to deny an epidemic stemming from a water-borne illness in the wake of hurricane maria. details on that story are next.

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add to the list, and it is along one. another controversy surfacing for scott pruitt. this time a whistleblower is calling him out about an alleged secret calendar he kept. joining me with the details, chr chris a liz sa. what was he trying to hide here?

>> we don't know, but the truth of the matter is these are public records and remember, he is paid by taxpayers. so let's go to what we're talking about here. this is a whistleblower who says pruitt kept a calendar, one public, one secret. there were things left off that included controversial meetings we'll go through. more than two dozen omitted events, meetings, et cetera. remember, these are meetings not on the public calendar, but the secret one. cardinal george pell, he was charged with sexual offenses. if he met with them, takes public right to know. kellyanne conway. and then the ceo of a major coal company. so if you head the epa, being the ceo of a major coal company, you would want to know if the head of the epa met with someone like that. and monday, scott pruitt was having lunch and was confronted

by someone, let's play a little bit of that audio. >> i just wanted to urge you to resign because you are doing harm. this is my son. he loves animals -- >> so he did not resign obviously. but the truth of the matter is this latest secret calendar is just the latest. i won't read all these, but the truth of the matter is this is a massive number of things. and these are not little things. over and over again using his office to help himself and other people. it is a repeated pattern. again, this just keeps going. back to you. >> it is a long list. thanks. oprah revealing why she will not consider a 2020 presidential run. details are next.

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hiding a deadly outbreak, cnn has obtained new evidence that there was an outbreak of deadly bacteria that spread through the floodwaters in puerto rico after hurricane maria, but that the government denied was happening. i want to bring in leyla santiago, help us understand this. there was a deadly outbreak but the government didn't want that news to get out? >> reporter: let's go over what we found. cnn has identified 26 cases of deaths in the months after hurricane maria, and as you min mentioned, it is from a bacteria illness that spreads through soil and water. and so it is not uncommon to have that with the flooding. that said, it is rare for it to be so deadly. so let's put it into context. 26 cases we have found through that database that we have been searching through. but in the previous year, that

is more than twice what we saw the previous year. and when we spoke to medical experts, they told us that should be enough to call it an outbreak, those 26 cases should have been called an outbreak and yet the government of puerto rico is refusing to do so. and the official hurricane maria death toll only has four of these cases listed on that death toll. now, we have been digging through this database, that list of 26 cases, after we sued and one and a judge ordered them to release this to us. but last year our investigation revealed that the death toll could benign times what the government was reporting after we spoke to funeral directors. a harvard study also is quii ing questioning it saying it could be 70 times more than what the government is reporting right now. because remember the government

still reporting that the official hurricane that rea death toll is 64. for the government stance, they say they have commission an independent review from george washington university and they are waiting for those results until they make any changes to the death toll. >> and of course if you are hiding the truth, the question is are the people in need getting help. leyla santiagsantiago, thanks v much. that is it for me. the news continues right now. jim, thank you so much. i'm brooke baldwin. let's start with the 12 young boys found starving, dehydrated but alive along with their coach. this is the incredible moment. we'll play it for you. where the scuba divers emerged to see them stand management darkness wearing just