only about 55% white, 45% communities of color. her bet is that she can galvanize that with an effective campaign and a compelling candidacy. >> great race to watch. appreciate the cover sorry. everybody get your "time" and read that story. thanks for joining us today on "inside politics." see you back here tomorrow. don't go anywhere, more breaking news. wolf starts right now. hello. i'm wolf blitzer in washington. wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. we begin with breaking news involving the russia investigation and president trump's twitter account. "the new york times" now reporting that the special counsel robert mueller is scrutinizing the president's tweets. according to the report, mueller is focusing in on tweets and negative statements about the attorney general jeff sessions and former fbi director james comey. he wants to talk to the president asht those tweets. let's bring in our cnn legal

analyst ross garber and cnn chief national security correspondent jim sciutto. this sounds like a pretty big deal. we know mueller is looking into obstruction of justice. if the president's tweets or public statements bolster that, it could be a problem. >> no question. if you look at those questions, they ask, for instance, what was the purpose of your july 17 criticism of mr. sessions? what was the purpose of your september and october statements, including tweets regarding an investigation of mr. comey? so what's happening here is the special counsel is looking at these tweets, which as you said, these are public statements by a u.s. president. and how they interact with private interactions with the

individuals involved. for instance, james comey. he has a conversation with him, asks him questions about the investigation, et cetera, makes public comments as well. do those public comments and those private meetings, whatever pressure was perceived to have been placed by the president on comey or sessions in those private meetings, whether that adds up to an attempt to either obstruct the investigation or perhaps tamper with witnesses. if you are publicly attacking people involved in this investigation, that could under some circumstances provide evidence of that. i should say the president's lawyers have said that all these questions that are under scrutiny here, including the president's firing of james comey, were very much within the president's power. he is the president. he can do that. that's in effect the president's lawyer's defense. >> you make a very important point. "the new york times" says specifically that mueller is examining whether the actions, the tweets specifically, add up

to attempts to obstruct the investigation by both intimidating witnesses and pressuring senior law enforcement officials to tamp down the inquiry. those are specific suspicions. >> sure. so the statute wants to know whether there's an actual intent to intimidate witnesses. what mueller has to do is essentially get together evidence that climbs into mr. trump's head at the time and proves he had these conversations, made these tweets in order to affect the mueller investigation. what's interesting is that usually when these things happen, they happen behind the scenes. we've heard things about secret tapes with cohen, et cetera. this is a president who doesn't seem like he's accountable to anyone. he's done things that are unprecedented. and it looks like now it's coming back to hurt him potentially. >> what's your take, ross? >> for sure. they're working on building a timeline. the other reason i think mueller would want to talk to the president is there are other people who have access to that twitter account.

one of the questions will be, did the president tweet these things himself? did somebody else tweet them? what was the interaction there? that is going to be one of the key points. >> there's another story breaking right now. i want to discuss that. it's in "the wall street journal." this is certainly going to irritate the president as well. he gets deeply irritated by all these russia mueller probes. he calls it a witch hunt a hoax. alan weisselberg has been subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury in the trial of michael cohen, who's being criminally investigated by the southern district of new york. >> well, it should be -- we should note that he's apparently a witness in the investigation. he's not been accused of any wrongdoing. >> he's being subpoenaed to testify as a witness, not as he himself as someone who's under investigation.

>> but it's certainly a window into trump's personal business, as the story notes and we've often said on the air. weisselberg is often described as the most senior person in the organization other than trump himself. so very involved in the business as a witness, would be able to describe business practices, which are now -- and we should note that the president's long-time personal lawyer and fixer is under criminal investigation for his business practices. so that is something that comes very close to the president. again, the president is not personally accused of any crimes here, but certainly in this environment, it is uncomfortably close to the president from a legal standpoint. >> in "the wall street journal" story, kim, weisselberg is accurately described as the executive vice president chief financial officer of the trump organization. once again, he's described as the most senior person in that trump organization who is not a trump. >> two lines of inquiry here. one is obstruction of justice, which we just discussed. the other is following the

various money trails involved here. what i think is interesting is at the same time we heard yesterday that some members of the house republican caucus have introduced articles of impeachment against rod rosenstein that, oh, the criminal justice system is somehow broken, here we have a situation with multiple parts. the way this investigation is going for mr. trump, it's going to be very hard for himself or h his allies in congress to shut it down. >> in "the wall street journal" report, mr. weisselberg is described as not only having financial matters with the trump organization but is also linked to payments, according to the wall street journal, made to two women who alleged they had actu sexual encounter with mr. trump. in that audiotape that mike come hen recorded of a conversation had he just before the election with donald trump, the name weisselberg comes up. let me play that clip. listen to this.

>> i need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend david, you know. i'm going to do that right away. i've spoken to alan weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up with funding. all the stuff. here you never know. i'm all over that. i spoke to alan about it. >> alan weisselberg, the chief financial officer of the trump organization david, by the way, is david pecker, we believe, who's in charge of the parent company of the national enquirer who paid karen mcdougal $150,000 to keep her story secret about her allegation that she had an affair, a sexual affair for nearly a year with the president. >> wolf, here's one of the big

problems. what we're seeing is prosecutors sort of pulling on threads. it's turning out not surprisingly to be a big problem for the president. you know what, it would be a big problem for lots of people in this kind of situation. what started off as a russia probe has now expanded and expanded and expanded. now we're talking about the cfo of the trump organization actually being put in front of a grand jury. as you know, in front of a grand jury, you don't have a lawyer with you. they can ask very wide-ranging questions. so i think if you're the president, if you're somebody in that organization, it's very, very troubling. >> michael cohen knows a lot about for 12 years what was going on with donald trump's business dealings. alan weisselberg i suspect knows a lot more. this is going to make the president very, very unhappy to hear that weisselberg is now being called as a witness to testify before the grand jury. there's a lot more legal developments unfolding right now. i want all of you to stick around. we're getting new details in the case involving the president's former fixer, michael cohen. a new report now says the feds

have more than 100 audiotapes involving president trump and others. we're now learning what was the last straw before cohen's team leaked that tape. plus, fireworks erupt when the secretary of state refuses to reveal any details of the president's conversation for two hours and ten minutes with vladimir putin in helsinki. the question is, why? we'll discuss. hi, i'm joan lunden with a place for mom, the nation's largest senior-living referral service.

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convinced him to turn on donald trump and release the recording? and how many more tapes does cohen have? kim, according to "the washington post," the government seized at least 100, maybe many, many more, recordings of various conversations that cohen had on the phone, discussing matters that potentially could relate to donald trump, among other issues. >> yeah, what's interesting about an audiotape is they don't die, they don't lie, and they don't misremember. if mr. cohen flips and gets in a room with prosecutors to give context and background on these conversations, i think that could be very powerful evidence if it were ever to go before some kind of jury. in addition, it sounds like mr. cohen is simultaneously doing a pr campaign to the american public to suggest he's a loyalist to the rule of law and he is the guy he says he is. he was just a regular guy. he worked for trump. and trump turned his back on him. >> how worried should donald

trump, the president of the united states, be about all of this? >> i think any time you potentially have your lawyer, your confidant turning on you, you should be very, very concerned. it's unclear whether cohen is actually doing a public relations tour or he's still playing to one person. i tend to think it's the latter. i still think he's probably engaged in sort of a very high-stakes, high-tension dance with the president. right now his problem is, one of his big problems, is he doesn't have a team. he's out there alone. he's not on team government that we know of yet. he's not on team trump. he's very vulnerable. lanny davis isn't going to be there with him in prison, if that's what winds up happening. >> lanny davis is his lawyer right now. >> i think he's looking for a team. >> he has some other lawyers as well. he has not been criminally charged with anything, michael cohen. he's under criminal investigation. they raided his home, his hotel

room, safe deposit box. they took these 100 phone recordings, among other things. as far as we know, he hasn't been charged with anything. as far as cooperating, since he hasn't been charged with anything, would he be cooperating with the u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york? >> they might have potential charges they could sit down with him and say, listen, this is what could happen, and he could do what is known as a proffer. they'll have an exchange, a conversation about what information heck give in exchange for some kind of leniency from the government. surely we know from what's been made public that he's vulnerable on a number of fronts, bank fraud, issues relating to his former taxicab service, as well as these payments made. in addition to his contacts with the russians and prior to or during the campaign. there's a lot of intersections here that puts him really in the center of this story. he really has the keys to the trump kingdom in a lot of ways. i think mr. trump has got to be concerned. >> the fact he authorized lanny

davis to release that audiotape of a conversation he had that he secretly recorded with donald trump, just before the presidential election, sounds to me that's a declaration of war and there's no opportunity for michael cohen now and donald trump to work together. >> i think you'd be surprised. it was certainly a declaration of a battle. we've seen the president and others, including kim jong-un, you know, sort of get into it together and then the president decides to sort of back off ping what's happening right now is michael cohen is sort of firing shots and seeing what that gets him. it seems unlikely that at this point he's cooperating. i doubt prosecutors would be very happy about the release of that tape and all the talking he's doing. i think right now he's probably just looking for a team. >> but his goal would be to get, what, a pardon from the president of the united states? >> there are lots of things the president could do.

certainly, you know, an end game is the pardon. only the president can pardon him. in cooperation with prosecutors, usually you have to plead guilty to crimes and potentially do time in prison. they'd ask for leniency. only the president could pardon him. in addition to a pardon, though, the president or the organization, the trump organization, could, if appropriate, pay his legal fees, which have got to be mounting and will probably get even higher. i think that's another thing. >> apparently there's some question as to whether they follow through. that's tricky because i think there's a question as to whether constitutionally the president could prospectively pardon all possible crimes. >> even before charges. >> right. so we don't know what's on the table, if anything. maybe that's why we don't know. if he's charged by new york state, that's not going to affect the pardon power. the pardon power, we talk about it a lot. the president's exercised it. i think it's tricky. in addition to the fact he couldn't pardon him for obstruction of justice. >> but the criminal

investigation in new york is being done by the u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york, who's a federal. it wouldn't be new york state charges. all right, guys. thank you very, very much more on the breaking news. the special counsel robert mueller now looking at the president's tweets for evidence, possible evidence of obstruction of justice. we have new details. also, the house speaker paul ryan breaking with members of his own party as some republicans now push to impeach the deputy attorney general of the united states rod rosenstein. you're going to hear what just happened. you always pay your insurance on time.

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call or go online today. two pieces of news coming from capitol hill this hour. one, the house deciding not to vote on an effort to impeach the deputy attorney general of the united states, rod rosenstein. this means the issue has been tabled, at least until september when the house of representatives is back in session. but perhaps even further, here's what the house speaker paul ryan just said. >> it is appropriate that we conduct oversight of the executive branch and that we get full compliance with the executive branch on what are very legitimate document requests. do i support impeachment of rod rosenstein? no, i do not. >> speaking of house speakers, the other news we're following right now, congressman jim jordan says he will run to replace the retiring paul ryan as speaker of the house. jordan is a staunch trump ally.

he supported the impeachment articles proposed against rod rosenstein. he's also been accused recently of ignoring episodes of sexual assault while working as a wrestling coach at ohio state university many years ago. let's get reaction to all of this. joining us now, republican congressman tom reed of new york. thanks so much for joining us. >> great to be with you, wolf. >> so let me debt your quick reaction to jim jordan a colleague of yours, announcing he's going to run for speaker of the house. does he have your vote? >> well, you know, i have just put out a proposal with 24 other republican and 24 democratic members that want to reform the rules of the house. we're open to any candidate for speaker that wants to embrace those rule reforms to get the constituti institution working for the american people. i haven't had a chance to talk to jim about his position on it, but that's what i'm looking at in regards to who i will vote for as speaker of the house. >> but knowing his position on so many issues and his background, do you think he's someone who's qualified to be the speaker if the republicans maintain the majority in the

house of representatives? >> well, you know, i have a lot of respect for jim jordan as a colleague here in the house of represe representative, but at times i've disagreed with his tactics, his strategies as part of that group they call the freedom caucus. but given my commitment to change the institution of the house to get it working again, break this gridlock is what we're calling it, break the gridlock of the house of representatives, i'm open to any candidate who's willing to support those rule reforms to get the house working again for the american people. so i'm open to sitting with him and having a conversation. >> what about those articles of impeachment against the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein? do you support them? >> i do not. i believe going down this path, as the speaker indicated, as others i think share the same sentiment with me. we need to get to the bottom of what is going on with the investigation. we need to conduct our oversight over the administration and the department of justice, but impeachment is something that i do not see in this case, nor do

i believe is in the interest of the american people to bring forward on the floor of the house. let's focus on solving and getting this investigation to a conclusion and answer the questions it brings. >> all right. i know you had a chance to meet with the president's top economic adviser, larry kudlow, earlier this morning. did you talk about the federal deficit? because it's absolutely ballooning right now under president trump and the republican leadership in the house and the senate. take a look at this. the congressional budget office, nonpartisan, as you know, now expects it to hit $1 trillion by next year. how do you explain that to voters who sent republicans to washington to shrink that deficit, come up with some sort of balanced budget? >> this is why i disagreed with our leadership on the recent spending bill, where i voted against it. i think we did the right thing in tax reform to grow the economy. we're seeing economic growth, job creation in america we haven't seen in decades. that is a key component of the

solution to the problem of the national debt. but wolf, what we need to do is get the spending under control. this is a spending-driven problem. to my colleagues on our side of the aisle, let's roll up our sleeves and work across the aisle to spend the causing problem causing this deficit crisis in our time. >> do you support borrowing $12 billion from china to help u.s. agricultural -- to help american farmers deal with the tariffs issued that the president has himself put forward that has hurt american farmers? >> well, i appreciate the offer of assistance. bringing this disruptive trade policy to the table is something i support the administration on because for too long have we let this trade imbalance take hold and these unfair trade practices keep us from a fair and level playing field. i'm supportive of the administration's actions and recognizing that in the short-term, there are going to be consequences to that disruption. at the end of the day, this policy will bring long-term growth to our farmers, long-term stability. that's a better position to be

in than the short-term hiccups we may see. >> so you support that $12 billion expenditure? >> i do. i believe that's an appropriate response given the disruption that we're seeing, but i do believe we need to negotiate these issues out and get that trade situation stabilized. we're going to see long-term growth for our farmers and others. >> specifically on this issue, i therefore conclude, congressman, you disagree with the house speaker paul ryan, who says he hates all these tariffs, they're simply taxes on the american public as the cost of goods and services in the country are going to go up as a result of these trade wars. >> the tariffs are part of a bigger picture. we have to take on disruptive models that are going to get the trade relationships with china, with the eu, with mexico and canada, for example, to a place where it's fair and balanced, that we have reciprocal trade, where we're able to compete in a fair way on the world market. that is where we need to go. so i see the tariffs as a tool in a tool box that's disruptive, hasn't been used before, but now

is sending the message to our partners, come to the table, let's negotiate this, and hold countries accountable to the rule of law of trade. >> all right. congressman tom reed of new york, thanks so much for joining us. >> thanks so much, wolf. >> all right. a big development in the investigation into the president's long-time fixer, former lawyer michael cohen. we're now getting word that the man in charge of the trump organization's finances has been subpoenaed by the u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york. plus, the former fox executive bill shine on the rise over at the white house amid reports of the shrinking role of the white house chief of staff john kelly. we're getting new details on the west wing dynamic.

the white house chief of staff general john kelly was supposed to bring order to a chaotic west wing, but kelly has been marginalized as he nears his one-year anniversary on the job. he no longer enjoys the respect he once did, according to multiple sources. kelly's stature has diminished, though the influence of other staffers in the west wing is clearly rising. let's bring in our senior white house correspondent jeff zeleny and cnn political analyst april ryan. give us a sense, jeff, of kelly's role right now because we certainly don't see him all that often or hear from him often. >> he's still on the job at 363 days. that's pretty remarkable in this white house. almost a year. on saturday, he hits that one-year mark. but so much has changed in his role. he came in, in a very chaotic

west wing. he brought discipline in. he did for a time, no question. he was trying to control who was seeing the president, who was talking to the president. bit by bit, month by month, that has slipped away. we have a news story on cnn.com this afternoon that our team has been reporting for several days, hitting this one-year anniversary. it shows his sweeping authority that he had has really slipped into a shadow-like role. there's a new emergence of someone who's just arrived, bill shine, the former fox news executive, who's really at the president's side most of the time. he's playing a leading role in this, not replacing john kelly, but certainly a fresh face. john kelly has run into some headwinds, particularly from ivanka trump and jared kushner. they've been at odds for a while. the question is how long will he stay in his role. all of our reporting is indicating not incredibly long, but perhaps up until the fall elections. but that decision is left to the

president, and he has not yet made it. he's not yet told john kelly what that position is. but all the talk of is he going to be fired, that's out the window now. one official told me if that was going to happen, it would have happened already. right now the president looking for a replacement but not in an urgent need to do so. >> what are you hearing, april? >> my republican sources are telling me that folks in the white house have told john kelly it's time for him to go. john kelly says i'm not leaving, the president is going to have to make me go. leading up into this one-year anniversary saturday. in my new book that's coming out in september, i talk about how john kelly agonized about going over to the white house from homeland security and how he went to his son's grave site at arlington national cemetery and stood there with the former homeland security head, jeh johnson. jeh johnson wanted him to take the position as chief of staff. well, first as homeland security head, but then he moved over to chief of staff. he agonized about this position.

what's crazy about this is that john kelly did bring a sense of decorum, a sense of peace and civility and statesmanship for a moment. and now the president doesn't seem to like that. it all depends on who the president feels is leading him in the path that he wants to go. kelly was too much of a military force. he was regimented. the president is not someone who's regimented. he cannot handle this. >> i want to get your opinion on something. kaitlin collins was a pool reporter at an event in the oval office. abc, nbc, cbs, fox, and cnn. she was representing all of the networks. at the end of the event, very politely, she did what all political reporters do, ask a

question or two. that's the president's right, he can answer or not answer. this particular time, he decided not to answer. although, you saw he was irritated by the nature of the question, sensitive subjects involving michael cohen, for example. that was that. she was then called in by bill shine, the deputy white house chief of staff, the former fox news executive, and sarah sanders, the press secretary, and told she was not allowed to go to an open event in the rose garden later that afternoon, that the president had just organized with the european commission president. that's really unheard of. i spent seven years as a white house correspondent. if you're an accredited white house correspondent, you're allowed to go to an open event like that. >> and this was not out of the ordinary at all, except the banning of her from that event. she was asking questions, news of the day questions. of course the president decided not to answer. he often decides to answer. some of the aides, the shouting you often hear, the shouting is from the aides saying, thank you, thank you, trying to move

reporters out. the president is often interested in answering the questions. yesterday he was not. but clearly the topic of michael cohen was something that set him off, so they tried to ban her from this. i asked the same questions of the president at the rose garden event. he didn't answer either. the thought of banning someone has backfired on this white house. >> a credentialed media person. >> bill shine, the deputy chief of staff, former fox news executive, he was asked about this earlier today. watch this. >> did you ask her if we ever used the word ban? i've seen it on lower thirds. >> what word did you say, bill? >> what word would you use? >> when you ask her if we ever use the word ban, i will answer that question. >> what's the word you would use? >> if you ask her -- focus now. you ask her if we ever used the word ban. >> why don't you tell us what

you said. >> have a great day. >> so that's a silly answer. he's saying, did you use the word ban? prohibit, prevent, order her not to be allowed. >> is she allowed in? no. >> she was told she could not attend. whether or not the use of the word ban is irrelevant. >> they play these word games to try to insult our intelligence. the bottom line, kaitlin is not allowed in. i'm trying not to be angry about this because i've been on this job for 21 years. wolf, we were together at the white house during the clinton years. what you do is when you bring the press into an open availability and the president is there, we are allowed to lob questions at the president. you don't just have us come just to see. sometimes we lob questions. and you cannot at this moment in history in time think that we're not going to ask. you don't have to answer. do not think we're not going to ask a question. what's curious to me is, one, bill shine was in that room

standing. a picture was posted on twitter how bill shine was standing there in a very intimidating manner in the door. that's one thing right there. intimidation. there's always some kind of retaliation. this is over the top. i'm thinking about this, because this is strategic what they did. kaitlin was in that room, the last press briefing, asking strategic and good questions that needed to be answered. >> very politely. didn't interrupt the president. >> right. but i'm talking about in the briefing room. then they didn't bother her there. then cnn had that exclusive with those cohen trump tapes. they were angry. they were angry. now this. there is retaliation. this administration doesn't look good. this president was sworn in, taking the oath of office to support the constitution. in the very first amendment is freedom of the press. he is violating his oath. this is just -- this is not good. >> kaitlin conducted herself extremely professionally. she went on and covered the news as we will without fear or

favor. >> it's one thing to interrupt and heckle. she didn't do any of that. she waited until the president completed all of his statements. it was over with. it's been going on for years and years, reporters then have an opportunity. >> donald trump likes to talk. >> very often he answers those questions. this time he decided not to. >> also, mrs. trump is watching cnn. that all plays into this. it's the truth. >> i'm still waiting, might be a long time, for bill shine, sarah sanders, to call up kaitlin and formally apologize. very disgusting. all right. one conservative out with a new provocative argument. he says, quote, without russia trump would not have won. take a look. he's standing by live. we'll discuss his take, his reasons when we come back. when i received the diagnoses,

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could president trump have won the election without the help of russia? a new provocative piece from a well-known conservative says most likely, no, he couldn't have. max boot points to trump's incredibly slim margin of victory in three key battleground states, the three states that essentially won trump the white house, gave him enough electoral votes to capture the white house. now compare that to russia's enormous social media campaign on sites like twitter and facebook, reaching more than 125 million people in all. could that campaign have swayed just enough votes to make a difference? max boot is behind this new piece raising these points. he's joining us right now. so explain your argument that these three states basically went for trump with the help of russia. >> well, thank you for putting

the graphic up, wolf, emphasizing how close that election was. fewer than 80,000 votes in three states. a lot of things certainly contributed to the outcome. i'm not saying russia was the only thing that contributed to trump's victory, but it was a significant factor. you have to look at how extensive the russian campaign was. it wasn't just the social media hitting 126 million people on facebook alone. it was also the hacking of voter rolls. the most significant part was stealing democratic e-mails and releasing them through wikileaks. one statistic for you, wolf. in the last month of the campaign, donald trump mentioned wikileaks 164 times, more than five times a day. he said, boy, i love wikileaks. he said, wikileaks has really done a job on her, hasn't it? that's what he was saying at the time. he was making use of these wikileaks revelations, which fed into his own campaign narrative and knocked hillary clinton off

and now trump will have you believe that had no affect on the outcome. >> you had the president said there's no proof of collusion. >> you certainly can't prove it. at the moment that's up to robert mueller. there is a lot of evidence of collusion and there's been more developed in the last few months because of the work of robert mueller. >> give us an example. >> in his recent indictment of the 12 military officers who hacked into the democratic e-mails we know that they began hacking hillary clinton's e-mails the very day that donald trump invited them to do so. he said, russia, if you're listening. that indictment also revealed that the russians stole data analytics from the democratic party in september of 2016. a few weeks later, the trump campaign based on what they said was a new data driven strategy reorganized. that leads to suspicions the

russians fed the analytics to the trump campaign. and even in the carter page surveillance warrant that was just released recently, there was further evidence in there about how the russians were conspiring with carter page when he was a clinton foreign policy adviser. so there is copious evidence of collusion. >> and, as you point out, the three states, wisconsin, michigan, and pennsylvania when he won by about 80,000, we showed the numbers on the screen. thanks so much for that analysis. >> thanks, wolf. >> max boot. the investigation of the president's fixer, michael cohen, we're now getting word the man in charge of the trump organization's finances for many, many years has been subpoenaed as a witness to testify before a grand jury. also, the breaking news, robert mueller looking at the president's tweets for obstruction of justice. new information coming in. liberty mutual saved us almost $800

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is congresswoman paul. congresswoman, thanks for joining us. what's your reaction to another missed deadline? >> it's absolutely outrageous. the government has continued to try to expand the pool of parents they say is ineligible. last week when we had a closed door briefing we heard there were 180 parents deported. today it's 463 plus almost over 1,000 parents they deem ineligible. the stories are troubling, wolf. they are coming out saying these families did not even get consent forms to sign. we don't believe these parents have given up their children, that they knew what they were doing. the court is stepping in and saying you can't deport people. it may be too late. we have so many deported. on top of that the court is saying you must continue to reunify the families. i went to the border.

i just came back. i led a trip with the women's working group on immigration i co-chair. six other members of congress as well as lucille and i and kids are in cages. if you're over 10, you're separated from your parents. we also heard from children who told us that the government agents had told this 8-year-old girl that she had been abandoned by her mother and she would never see her mother again at least until she was 18 years old. can you imagine as a parent what that means and as a child? it was outrageous. i think these people are victims of state-sponsored, government-sponsored violence and i'm ashamed of our government. >> the government acknowledges they didn't even know where some of the parents are. the kids are here. they're young kids. some have been deported. their kids remain in the united states. how is all this possible?

>> it is so unbelievable. when we talked to hhs and to dhs and to i.c.e., a couple things. one, they had no plan in place. they planned to do this and thought they could get away with it without anybody paying attention. number two, they have no plan to reunite the families right now. by the way, this is being done at' n enormous taxpayer expense. the government has to pay to reunite the families. number three, the fact they are not immediately trying to do something to say we are sorry to these families i frankly think every one of these people should be given victim visas because they are the victim of state-sponsored kidnapping and child abuse. that's what the pediatrics association says. the trauma we've done to these kids is crazy. it's beyond politics. it's about right and wrong. kids in cages and separating families is just wrong no matter

what side of the aisle you're on. >> just hard to believe this is still going on, they haven't figured it out yet, that it's still happening here in the united states. congresswoman, thank you for joining us. >> thank you, wolf. i'll be back at 5:00 p.m. eastern in "the situation room." the news continues right now. all right, wolf, thank you so much for joining me. i'm brooke baldwin. two massive stories breaking right now. number one the special counsel, robert mueller, is now interested in reviewing the president's twitter feed as he contemplates whether president trump obstructed justice. this is coming out in "the new york times." first this explosive report from "the wall street journal." here's what they have. a major financial player in trump's private life has just been subpoenaed in another investigation. this is a man by the name of allen