again, scott pruitt is gone. i wouldn't place a bet if you're waiting for big policy changes. thanks f thanks for joining us today. hope to see you back here sunday morning 8:00 a.m. eastern. jim sciutto is in for wolf. he starts right now. hello. i'm jim sciutto in today requester wolf blitzer. 1:00 p.m. here in new york. wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks so much for joining us. deadline day for the trump administration on reuniting families separated at the border. the first of three deadlines defined by court order demanding the federal government reunite parents and children separated there, but the trump administration won't say exactly how many children they've separated. all they will say is that the number is under 3,000. our sunlen serfaty is in washington covering this story. do we have any more details about not only how many children are still separated but how many

have been reunited since this court order was made law? >> we don't, jim. there was a conference call yesterday with the hhs secretary, and simply either don't know or are not telling us how many kids have been reunified. this that call, they specifically said they know of zero new reunifications that have happened since the last time we had this metric nine days ago. so certainly incomplete numbers at best and certainly at worst, signs of not a lot of progress as they work towards this goal to reunify kids with their parents. today we're talking a lot about these deadlines that are looming for the administration today. they do believe they're in compliance with that first deadline, the deadline today being they will have had to make contact between parents and kids by the telephone. but for the next two deadlines you just referenced, by tuesday, the deadline for kids under 5 to be reunified, and we know that's

a hundred kids, and the next deadline that, larger deadline, july 26th, all parents and children need to be reunified. it does not look like they're going to hit that deadline at all. we know that there's a hearing in san diego to update the progress. going into that, we know that they are going to seek an extension likely for those last two deadlines. they will likely lay out the challenges they've had in reunifying kids with their parents, the fact they say this dna testing, as they are indeed using, is taking a lot of time. notable, though, of course those are challenges of their own making, given that this is all coming from the zero tolerance policy. but it's certainly interesting, jim. as this scramble to make these reunifications and the scrutiny on them over their immigration policy was an interesting moment just a short time ago we saw vice president mike pence travel to the i.c.e. headquarters here in washington, d.c., with secretary nielsen at his side.

it certainly comes at a time when that agency is facing a lot of scrutiny from many members of congress, many democrats, some calling for the abolishment of the agency. we saw a political message coming from the vice president. here's what he had to say. >> the hashtag abolish i.c.e. has now taken its place on the internet. the sad fact is, though, it isn't just the expression of the radical left that's been speaking out against i.c.e. lately. the truth is that opposition of i.c.e. has moved to the center of the democratic party itself. just when you thought the democrats couldn't move farther to the left, leading members of the democratic party, including candidates for higher office, are actually openly advocating the abolition of i.c.e., an agency that protects the american people and our communities every single day.

senator elizabeth warren, senator kirsten gillebrand. >> so certainly interesting there, jim, that he's calling out a few of these democrats and very few who have actually called for i.c.e. to be abolished, trying to move that to more the commonplace in the democratic party. there have been many democrats who have called for changes for i.c.e. but only a few who have called for the abolishment of the agency. >> you might read into that a desire to turn the page from the family separation issue to the i.c.e. issue. sunlen, thanks very much. well, president trump is sharpening his attacks on a number of fronts. just listen to his barrage on several democrats but also republicans. >> let's say i'm debating pocahontas, right. i promise you i'll do this. you know those little kits they sell on television? learn your heritage. we'll take that little kit, but we have to do it gently because

we're in the #metoo generation. we have to be very gentle. and we will very gently take that kit and we will slowly toss it, hoping it doesn't hit her and injure her arm. and even though we got a little surprise vote that evening -- you all remember that evening. somebody came in with a thumbs down after campaigning for years that he was going to repeal and replace. thousand points of light. i've never figured that out. it was put out by a republican, wasn't it? democrats want anarchy. they really do. and they don't know who they're playing with, folks. i said it the other day. yes, she is a low iq individual, maxine waters. i said it the other day. honestly, she's somewhere in the mid-60s. >> well, listen, what a long

list. joining me now, dana bash. also, senior white house correspondent for bloomberg, margaret. dana, certainly a lot to unpack there. i got to tell you, watching those comments again, the way the president dismissed the #metoo movement, even some of the physical motions he was making there, what do you make of those off-the-cuff comments? does that work politically for this president? >> sure, it works politically for this president, until it doesn't. but i think what i make of those comments is those were vintage donald trump, jim. the way that he has dealt with allegations in his own life, 34r5r particularly since he began running for president and since he's become president, is to do just that, deflect and defend and ignore and almost project on others. it is classic, classic trump. he kind of disparages a

movement, which i think it's kind of the modern day or the 2018 version of the 2016 line that we're so politically correct. it's the same kind of thing. it doesn't make it right. it doesn't make it, you know, palatable for a lot of the independent voters, swing voters. female voters who are going to really make or break some of the elections this november, particularly in the suburbs. but this is trump. >> isn't it more than unpalatable? isn't it outright offensive to dismiss a movement with substance to it? we've seen a number of member accused of this, and the president himself accused of this, in the midst of ongoing litigation related to this kind of treatment of women if you think of the case with storm y daniels and other women who have accused him. >> no question. you can come up with as many adjectives as you want. you certainly would and should run the spectrum and the gamut.

but i guess my point is that it is important to call him out on it. it is important to say what we're saying. but it is not a surprise he would do this. >> no, fair point. margaret, of course there were a lot of targets last night. two of them were republicans. run wi one of them a favorite republican punching bag, john mccain, calling out his vote on the obamacare reveal. but also going after george h.w. bush on the thousand points of life. a man in his mid-90s now, a former president, facing his own health issues, serious health issues. i wonder, what's the constituency for attacks on members of his own party? >> this seems like sore of core base messaging. the trump base, which is not the same as establishment republicans, not the same as george h.w. bush's party, or literally anyone in the bush family or like a 50-mile radius around the bush family is who

the messaging is for. the president seems to be signaling that he believes that this base messaging will enthuse. turnout will perhaps keep moderate or bubble republicans at bay. it's sort of a veiled warning for folks like murkowski or collins who have big votes coming up. if george h.w. bush and john mccain are not off limits, nobody is off limits. the test is going to come down to november. right now the president feels like this kind of message, number one, he's shifted from governing to campaigning. he loves to campaign. he's back in it with both feet. number two, he thinks this will be effective. it's quite a gamble. the h.w. comments made a lot of republicans in congress uncomfortable. >> i'm sure uncomfortable, but dana, not a lot of public expression of that discomfort. republicans particularly with the midterms just four months away now, they made a calculation, have they not, that going after this president can be politically dangerous for

them. >> sure, it can be politically dangerous and has been politically dangerous. look at mark sanford in south carolina. it was fatal for him, politically fatal for him. having said that, you're right that i think in part it's because this is july 4th week. congress isn't around. if you look at twitter, there have been a lot of comments expressing outrage from former bush staffers, from people who have -- you negotiatiknow, peop worked as ambassadors to elsewhere in bush white houses and beyond the bush white houses. >> heck of a lot easier when you don't have your lek troelectora fortunes in danger. this is happening after the white house announced yesterday the hiring of the former fox executive bill shine, now deputy chief of staff for communications. he of course resigned from fox last year after being accused of covering up several sexual harassment scandals there.

margaret, you cover the white house very closely. did you in last night's speech by the president see some influence from bill shine's messaging now that he's got a communications role? >> it's a great question. i think we're all really homing in on this because the question is was the president completely acting on his own, letting bill shine know he's going to keep doing things his way, or was bill shine encouraging these things? on some level, we watched this play out with john kelly about a year ago when he came in as chief of staff. everyone was looking to read the tea leaves on every action of trump's, whether that was authorized by john kelly or a reaction against john kelly. i think we'll certainly begin to see bill shine's influence. >> also remember the trump white house, trump himself, and what you see on fox are so symbiotic. who knows which came first, the chicken or the egg. but i do think that this was vintage trump again. if you met somebody from mars and that person said, what's

donald trump like? you would put them in the audience at that rally last night because that was across the board donald trump. >> shockingly so. >> no question. he's his own dmcommunications director, right? >> bingo. >> thank you very much. well, the president's trade war against china has officially begun with china now retaliating. now prices of more than 1300 products will rise here in the u.s. plus, a tragic development in the urgent rescue attempt of those trapped boys in a cave in thailand. a diver helping out with the rescue, he's died. now the commander says that time for those young soccer players is running out. and also, even though russia has attacked the u.s. many times and continues to, the president once again praised russia's president vladimir putin. and there's growing concern about what the president might promise russia at their one-on-one meeting. ♪ ♪ ♪ raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens ♪

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welcome back. the june jobs report is out today, and again, more encouraging signs for the u.s. economy. unemployment ticked up very slightly from the first time in nearly a year to 4% from 3.8% in may. employers crucially added another 213,000 new jobs. cnn money chief business correspondent christine romans crunches the numbers. >> jim, another strong report. a 213,000 net new jobs created in the month, and april and may were revised higher. the past three months, a strong spring and summer for hiring. employers need workers, and they're hiring when they can find them. the unemployment rate ticked up to 4% t went up a little bit, but the reason why is pretty interesting. about 600,000 people came off the sidelines and started looking for work. these are people who were not officially counted in unemployment statistics. now they're coming back into the labor market. that's why the jobs number rose.

where are the jobs? business and information services, jim. manufacturing, almost 300,000 jobs created in the past year. that's a bit of a renaissance there. and health care. consistently we see health care as a job creator in this country. you know, jim, when you look at these numbers, there are more jobs available than there are people looking for them. i suspect you'll see more people coming off the sidelines to try to get those jobs, and you'll see companies hungry for workers, but they're not paying more. you saw wages rise just 2.7%. that's been a real riddle, jim. >> christine romans, thanks very much. well, the biggest trade war in economic history, that's what china says the u.s. is launching now with the imposition of some $34 billion in new tariffs on chinese goods. china quickly fired back with an equal amount of new tariffs on american goods. they include suvs, meat, agricultural products. but this may be just the beginning. president trump says another $500 billion in tariffs could be on the horizon, half a trillion dollars.

joining me now is the former commerce secretary in the obama administration. he was also u.s. ambassador to china. from washington is cnn's senior economics analyst, steven moore, former economic adviser to trump. ambassador, if i could begin with you. you have a lot of experience directly with china. china's unfairness on trade, right? making it difficult for american companies. do you think it's fair for the trump administration to go after china with these tariffs? >> well, obviously we have legitimate concerns about the trade and economic policies of china, long-standing complaints by businesses and the united states government. not just the united states government but many other businesses and governments from around the world. i don't think that tariffs are an effective way to get at these underlying issues. it also sends a very mixed message. the president at times is talking about the trade deficit. well, is it the trade deficit or is it the forced transfer of american technology? trade secrets that we're really

concerned about. ultimately in having tariffs, we're going to have a tit-for-tat and it's going to be the consumers of both countries that suffer. >> steve, i know that your position has been it's justified to go after china because of their misbehavior, unfairness, et cetera. not a smart idea to go after close u.s. allies europe, canada. i wonder, do you think trump is missing an opportunity here to build a coalition, as it were, between u.s. allies and others against china's trade practices here? >> well, he may be missing that opportunity. you know, history teaches us you don't want to fight a three or four-front war at the same time. if china is the adversary here, and i think china is the adversary, although i'd have to admit i'm a little intimidated because the ambassador knows a lot more about china than i do. but i don't think they've been playing by the rules. i think they've been cheating and stealing. i think trump believes -- like you said when you started the segment, china is saying this is

the biggest trade war ever. i think donald trump would say, waited, we've been in a trade war for 15 years with china, and they're winning and we're losing. so something has to stop here. if it's not going to be tariffs, i wonder what the ambassador thinks we could do that would force them to buy more american products, stop stealing our intellectual property, and things like that because i think most americans think that this is an untenable situation and the status quo can't go on. ultimately what donald trump would like to see is china reduce their tariffs so we have freer trade between the two countries. >> fair question from stephen moore. you make a fair point that at the end of the day, you and i are going to be paying for tariffs. there's a lot of chinese-made stuff here. those prices go up, we're going to pay for whether it's clothing, electronics, et cetera. what's the best way to pressure china? >> one of the ways that we can do it is kby requiring a level playing field. for u.s. companies and foreign companies to operate in china, oftentimes you have to have a chinese partner, whereas chinese

companies operating in america don't have to have a partner. for instance, amazon. if they want to offer or microsoft want to offer cloud computing services in china, they're forced by the government to have a partner. whereas alibaba and the other tech giants of china don't have to have a partner in the united states. many sectors of the chinese economy are off limits to any type of foreign participation, whether american companies or french or german companies. i believe all the foreign countries should band together and say, china, in you're not going to allow our countries to operate freely in your country, we should put restrictions on your companies in ours. >> you must admit the trouble with trade wars is that you fire a shot at them, they're going to fire a shot back. eventually both sides are paying. sadly, that means you and i are paying. we may be paying more for a whole host of things. why not just band together and say, you know what, here's the deal, if you're going to make us play by those rules, we're going

to make you play by the same rules here? >> i like that idea. i think we found some common ground here. maybe we should take it to donald trump. >> that's a problem. that can't happen. >> no, i think you're exactly right. the only thing i would question is whether that's going to work with china. they're becoming more powerful. they're becoming a first world economy. they're challenging the united states for supremacy. this has been going on for a long time. you know, i would just wonder why this didn't happen under the obama administration. these abuses didn't just start in 2017. they've been going on for ten years. >> true. or the bush administration. >> well, that's true. why haven't we done this? >> it's a fair question. we're all paying for it. ambassador, you spent a lot of time in china. it seems that part of the president's calculation here is that he will win in this game of chicken, right. we're going to impose -- in effect, they need us more than we need them. we'll impose and eventually they'll back down. do you have any indication when you go to china from chinese businessmen and leaders they're

going to back down? >> just as president trump is trying to appeal to his base and has to stand and look firm, the chinese leader, xi jinping, also has his constituents that he has to worry about. there's a great sentiment of national pride in china right now, that they're not going to be pushed around by the united states or any other country. of course, you know, they've been reasserting themselves. the 2008 olympics, putting a man in space, going to the moon. all these things. so they're really trying to reclaim their place in history. they're not going to back down. obviously the president goes through with an additional possibly $500 billion of tariffs on chinese goods, that's virtually everything that comes into america from china. that's going to raise the price of all the components that american companies pay as they manufacture. it's going to force them to raise their prices as they sell their products. great american-made stuff around the world, they're going to have to be competing against those french companies, german companies, and even chinese

companies as they sell their products around the world. >> stephen, before i let you go, what's your response to that concern? >> i think china is more dependent on us than we' are of them. there's no question both sides are going to lose here if this continues to escalate. but i would submit that, you know, china's economy, which has been amazing for the last 20 years, it can't grow if it doesn't have access to american markets. by the way, you're right. $500 billion, that's about the amount that china's -- that would basically be a tariff on everything they sell us. i hope it doesn't come to that. >> all right. stephen moore, thanks very much. imagine that, we had some agreement here on trade issues. thanks very much, ambassador locke. i'd like you to stay for a moment to talk about something else. the news of course today is that u.s. secretary of state mike pompeo has now arrived in north korea once again, further discussions on nuclear negotiations, a follow-up on last month's summit between president donald trump and kim jong-un in singapore. secretary pompeo says, quote, on this trip i'm seeking to fill in

some details on those commitments and continue the momentum towards implementation of what the two leaders promised each other and the world. back with ambassador locke. a subtle fill in some details because god knows the details were lacking in that statement that came out of singapore. how big is the challenge there now? north korea really hasn't given up anything at this point. >> well, there's a huge challenge facing the united states. obviously we want to build on the momentum of singapore in which we saw the rhetoric being lowered and that's good. it's better to talk about peace than it is to talk about war. but it's going to be really difficult because the secretary knows with his days in the cia and the congress that the north koreans have always never kept their promises, have always failed to come through on their promises. and north korea is not about to completely disarm unless they know that the united states is not going to invade or take military action against them or

that they want to know that the united states will ease up on all the sanctions. they're really afraid that if they go down the road of what moammar gadhafi did that, the west and the united states will later turn against north korea, and what do they have to protect them? so they see their nuclear arsenal as an ace card, as a negotiating element, a chip of strength. they're going to be reluctant to give it up. >> who has the upper hand in these negotiations based on what you've seen? >> we've seen reports that north korea's continuing to perfect their technology. they're not dismantling things. and i think they're trying to really build up their arsenal as much as possible. they don't need to do more testing. they have that capability now. so the question is, who's going to prevail in these negotiations? the united states is saying we're not going to give up on sanctions or take our foot off the pedal until you completely

disarm. north korea is not going to do that. so it's going to be very difficult to have this kind of staged denuclearization match by some sort of economic relief to north korea. >> ambassador locke, thanks very much. good to talk to you. time running out for that thai soccer team and their coach trapped in a cave as conditions deteriorate there. rescuers are forced to consider risky options to get everyone out alive. a live report from thailand is just ahead. plus, a mother and daughter separated at the border reunited after nearly two months apart. that was the moment right there. the emotional reunion you'll see only here on cnn. i'm a four-year-old ring bearer and now for the rings...

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northern thailand. a thai official tells cnn that they are unlikely to come out in the next 24 hours and that right now the situation is critical. oxygen levels in the chamber are dropping to dangerous levels. monsoon rains are expected by the weekend, if not sooner. that means more water in those flooded caves. the rescue effort punctuated by the loss of a former thai navy diver who ran out of air himself after returning from delivering oxygen tanks to the boys and their coach. jonathan, what's causing the latest delay in rescue efforts? >> reporter: it's hard to say, jim. you know, there are conflicting signals coming out. on one hand, you get the commander of the thai navy s.e.a.l.s saying we cannot afford to wait until conditions are just perfect and right for the boys to come out. time is limited, he said today. the governor of the northern

province here in thailand has just this last few minutes said that the boys wouldn't be coming out in the next 24 hours and that, you know, unless there was really, really heavy rain. that seems to be the crunch factor. if the monsoon rains do come down, and when they do, it's torrential. as you say, those chambers will flood. then they'll be left with no option. it is actually beginning to rain here now. but i think we probably won't see really heavy rain until later on in the weekend. now, diving out is currently the best option that they have because nobody's found one of these sink holes from up above. you know, staying down below with depleted oxygen, that's not an option. they have to come out. >> i'll tell you, we're showing video here as we talk to you that really gives the first impression i've seen of how dangerous the conditions are. it's not just water. it's rushing water in the caves. i suppose we got a reminder that an experienced thai navy diver died in those conditions.

of course, if you're talking about a bunch of kids who don't know how to dive, the dangers for them are much greater. >> reporter: yes, that's right. the man who died was a very experienced former navy s.e.a.l. diver himself. he was a mile underground when at about 2:00 in the morning local time he seems to have had some problem with his oxygen supply. he wasn't -- it wasn't possible to resuscitate him. it just serves to underscore the enormity of the dangers facing the boys coming out. you know, the other problem that the boys have is that although they've been remarkably stoic in this two-week ordeal, nothing really will prepare them for the dangers of coming out through these jagged passageways, through often completely submerged chambers. they've been fitted with these full-face oxygen masks, but if they start to panic, you know, they could start to cough and choke and hyperventilate. that's really, really dangerous. so you know, it's an enormously dangerous thing to see them

coming out, albeit with the assistance of these thai navy s.e.a.l.s. >> goodness. well, we're praying for their safety. jonathan miller there are if us. thanks very much. up next, president trump mocking the #metoo movement. former president h.w. bush, senator john mccain. but in the same breath praises russian president vladimir putin. we'll have the details. plus, why michael cohen says he's certain he's been dismissed by trump and does not expect a pardon. i love you, basement guest bathroom.

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let's just make a few things clear. russia has and is currently carrying out cyberattacks on the u.s. and just this week republican lawmakers still pay a

cozy visit to moscow on america's independence day, no less. their russia counterparts, by the way, lied to them. once again, denying meddling in the election. on top of this, a bipartisan senate committee agreed this week with the intelligence community that, yes, russia did attack, did interfere in the u.s. election to benefit donald trump. despite all this, president trump is praising the man at the top, vladimir putin. >> they're going, president trump. you know, putin is kgb, this and that. putin's fine. he's fine. we're all fine. >> all fine, the president says. well, the white house says the issue of russian meddling will at least be on the table, even though you may remember that just last week president trump publicly expressed doubt that russia was behind the interference in the election despite republicans and democrats briefed on the intelligence and the intelligence agencies, including agencies headed by people that

he appointed, all saying the opposite. joining me now is steve hall, cnn national security analyst and former cia chief of operations in russia. knows a thing or two about russia, how it operates and how it's operating today. i just want to ask for the sake of folks at home, and it can be difficult because there's so much coming at them on russia and other things, why is it important that an american president while a foreign power is attacking the u.s. by cyber means and seeking to undermine the u.s. by other means, why does it matter the u.s. president is expressing doubts as it's happening? >> there's so much i just don't understand in terms of what this president and what this administration is trying to do. that's certainly one of them. if you take trump at his word and he says let's make america great again, it is america first, if you follow that out, then you would be arguing against him meeting with putin, having a summit with putin because it benefits russia, and russia is definitely an

antagonistic power, disinterested in the united states. as a matter of fact, interested in undermining the united states and other western countries. as you pointed out, they've attacked our elections. they have murdered people overseas. they are currently, you know, supporting a war in eastern ukraine. i mean, it's no advantage. i have to ask, what is the advantage to the united states besides being able to walk away and say, yeah, we had a fine meeting? i don't see that as putting america first. >> is vladimir putin cheering president trump's comments about him and undermining of nato and denials about russian interference? does putin welcome that? >> yeah, absolutely. i think that all works very much into putin's favor. putin's overarching goals here are to divide the west, to divide and distract the united states, and thereby, you know, avoiding any sort of democratic reforms inside of russia or other countries that operate as

autocracies like russia does. so you know, you've got the president of the united states on his way to a meeting with putin, which he probably shouldn't be having if he wants to put america first, but on the way he's going to stop and talk to the allies and give them a good finger wagging about how they need to pay more. the derogatory statements he's made about nato coupled with the positive statements he's said about putin, i mean, it really works into putin's favor. you have to ask, why is that happening? why is he taking that approach? i don't get it. >> the president and his supporters claim that president trump has been tougher on russia than anyone, and of course specifically president obama they will say. do you see evidence of that? >> there have been things that this administration has done in terms of sanctions and expelling diplomats, that sort of thing. that goes in the plus column. but those are things that i think putin is willing to sort of ride out. the fact he's able to meet with the president of the united states shows putin that he can,

you know, be a great power and that perhaps, just perhaps, he's getting a pass on some of the most abhorrent things that he has done recently in the international community, like take over countries that border him and all those other things that we were talking about. so you know, you can make an argument that we do need to be in contact with russia on certain topics, for example maybe counterterrorism, although that's fraught with difficulties. or even, you know, nuclear treaties that are coming due. but you don't have to have a summit. you don't have to give him that win. you can have experts in your governments talk about that stuff. we don't need to be engaging russia right now, i think it the bottom line. we need to be containing them. that's not happening. >> there was a group of gop senators in russia this week, and their comments were interesting and caught some attention. there was the phrasing that they asked russia not to interfere in upcoming u.s. elections, asked. does that show power in your view, and strength, to be asking at this point?

>> i've heard shelby's congressional delegation called the kremlin caucus on twitter recently. that's really, unfortunately, not that far off. no, it's not at all a strong approach. first of all, the folks they met with, a lot of them russian parliamentarian parliamentarians, gives this impression that our senators go talk to their senators. it's a rubber stamp. putin controls that place. nobody serves without his permission. this idea that we're engaging with this autocratic government along these lines doesn't advantage the united states. i believe it disadvantages us at the expense of american interests and furthers russian interests. >> steven hall, knows a thing or two about russia. former cia chief there. thanks very much. >> my pleasure, jim. coming up, michael cohen is hiring a top clinton attorney and telling friends he does not think trump will pardon him. the details on that and why the

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>> president trump's former personal attorney and fixer is not so certain he will get any bailout from the president from his current legal jeopardy. michael cohen's friends tell cnn that the president would grant him a pardon if he needed one. this comes adds cohen hires a new lawyer who, listen up, once worked as a special counsel for president bill clinton. joining me now cnn legal analyst laura coates. so, cohen, based on these comments at least to friends,

does not believe the president will bail him out here. >> well, that shouldn't be so surprising given the fact that the president has not really revealed his hand as to what he thinks about the charges against mielk cohen. he talked about it initially, jim. talking about the death of the attorney-client privilege. it was hyperbole, and talking about the idea of the fbi and the deep state as an overall part of the witch hunt campaign strategic. he hasn't actually talked about him in glowing terms of salvation. it should come as no surprise as to comes to help mielk cohen. that should shock no one. it seems to shock mielk cohen. >> do you believe -- reminding the president of the relationship, et cetera. >> i think he certainly is trying to have those smoke signals be apparent. remember, jim, he does have a vested interest in having the protection of somebody who has the pardoning power, and, of

course, new york state is very, very unique in that although normally you have only the federal pardoning power of the president of the united states, new york is a state where if you have state level charges, you can either choose between the state or the federal, and you cannot have both of them for the pardon. he could actually have it all resolved if the president were to pardon him on the federal charges, if there are ever any federal charges. we have millions much pages of documents that said, included highly sensitive material about people involved mielk cohen. that i ma mean the president of the united states, and we already know he is not the president's attorney, so it wouldn't be privileged information. >> so, lo and behold, mielk cohen c --

>> you have a combination of the court of public opinion and abroad. you have to have somebody who has the savvy to both have the criminal court appearances and also the court of public opinion. he is looking for somebody who is going to be a bulldog, and he might have just found one. >> laura coats, thanks very much. >> thanks, jim. emotional scene, truly emotional scene, at boston's logan airport where a guatemalan mother and daughter have been separated at the u.s. border nearly two months ago. only cnn was there to capture this moment.

>> that poor it is girl. the mother there filed an asylum claim and was released on bond on june 19th. she had to wait more than two weeks before seeing her daughter, but had a present waiting for her as the girl turned 8. she had her birthday while she was in one of the shelters. still ahead, a stunning new report is suggesting that the e.p.a. intentionally blocked a cancer study from becoming public. plus, president trump is taking swipes at former president gorgeo george h.w. bush.

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$34.90 more per month. call or go on line today. >> i'm brook baldwin. we begin this hour with a looming court-ordered deadline to reunite all the families who were torn apart by the government's zero tolerance policy. trump administration is now telling a judge that it's facing challenges and may need more time to get immigrant children returned to their parents. today officials have to make sure all separated parents are connected with their kids by phone. by tuesday the government is supposed to reunite parents with their kids if they're under the age of 5, and then by july 26 the judge says all children should be back with their parents. of