there's not going to be more searching. >> that's right. until somebody stumbles upon this plane, they're not going to find it. >> will, thank you so much. it's great to see you. and thank you all so much for joining me today. "inside politics" with dana bash starts right now. thank you for joining us on "inside politics." i'm dana bash. john king is off. president trump and his attorney rudy giuliani are stepping up th their attacks on robert mueller and the president's former fixer michael cohen. the timing and strategy behind it or curious. plus, republican leaders thought they were on the same page as the president in avoiding another government shutdown, and then the president undercut that with, you guessed it, a tweet. and 85-year-old supreme court justice ruth bader ginsburg

thinks she's fit enough to go at least five more years on the bench. >> can i recommend a great workout song? i think you might enjoy this one. this -- ♪ everybody dance now >> i would never, ever exercise to that noise. >> she'll stick with the planking. here we are waiting for the president and the italian prime minister. they're going to meet in the oval office. we're going to bring that to you live when it happens. we begin this hour with president trump's unprecedented attack on special counsel robert mueller. i know you're probably thinking, wait a minute, the president goes after mueller all the time in attempt to discredit the russia investigation, but this time was different. it was the most specific and personal so far. he called out mueller by name three times on twitter. he called the probe an illegal scam and demanded that mueller release his conflicts of

interest. now, it's worth noting here that the president sent those tweets about the conflict of interest from the trump national golf course in new jersey. we'll set that aside for a minute. but let's get back to the president's attorney rudy giuliani who says the president has nothing to explain here. >> you put out something like that, you have every right to say, okay, you explain it, mueller. stand up and be a man. >> wait a minute, this doesn't make sense. how can the president make this claim and not support it? >> he doesn't have to. >> why is it up to robert mueller to have to support the president's tweet? >> because he has the conflict, not the president. >> what's the conflict? >> i can't tell you. i'm not sure i know exactly what the conflict is. i have a good idea. it's one that would have kept me out of the investigation. >> okay. let's go straight to cnn's jeff zeleny live from the white house. jeff, i'm not going to ask you to try to unpack that confusion there about the conflict or lack thereof and so forth, but what are you hearing there from your

sources about why now, why the president has gone after robert mueller with such an unfettered, unfiltered -- in such a way that he has? >> reporter: dana, that's a great question. the only thing that's changed in all of this, and the president has been largely silent about specifically naming robert mueller for several months as he goes off on everything else, it is timing. look at what is happening this week. paul manafort, the former campaign chairman of the trump campaign, is facing trial tomorrow. it's beginning tomorrow. of course, that is robert mueller's first trial in the special counsel's case here. there's no question the president increasingly consumed by the special counsel and clearly wants to point out, you know, he's discredited, he shouldn't be a fair actor in this investigation. so we heard rudy giuliani on "new day" this morning saying the same thing, throwing out a strawman, if you will, saying the onus is on bob mueller to

essentially come clean and explain some type of relationship with the president. the reality here is the department of justice has ruled that there is no conflict of interest here. this is going forward. dana, i think timing is the best explanation here for why the president increasingly consumed with bob mueller, trying to discredit this case which seems to be moving closer to a conclusion. we don't know when that will happen, of course, but a lot of time on the golf course this weekend in new jersey, a lot of time at his retreat. bob mueller was not with him but seemed to be very much in his head, dana. >> he sure is. jeff, thank you so much for that reporting. here with me at the table to share their reporting and insights, julie hirschfeld davis with "the new york times" and our own manu raju. thank you so much, one and all. i want to give one potential -- another potential answer to why the freakout factor from the president and his attorneys have gone up a few notches.

that is the fact that robert mueller has the latest in the back and forth negotiation of whether the president will do an interview of any sort, has had the latest counteroffer from team trump for ten days with no response. i spoke to giuliani just before coming on about that. here's what he said to me, if we can put it up on the screen about that ten-day lag. he says, that sort of bothers me. he owes us a response. so there's a lot of unknown. that's the understatement of the year, but particularly with this issue of the interview. there's a lot of unknown about why he's taking so long, is mueller just going to write a report without an interview? is he preparing a subpoena for the president? what do you think? you think that's part of the freakout factor, as i called it? >> yeah, i think that's a really good point. it feels like a lot of things going on right now. i think trump has been tweeting with more frequency about

mueller lately. seems like every ten days or so, this whips back up. you have the manafort trial, as jeff mentioned. i also think he probably doesn't distinguish too much between what mueller is doing and what prosecutors in new york are looking into with cohen. you have that sort of implied threat from cohen over the trump tower meetings. and all this stuff is together. also at a time when we know his team wants him to focus on what mueller is doing as far as election hacking. we know that trump's team wanted him to try to own this issue, to focus on what we have now, over two dozen russian nationals and companies that have been targeted by mueller. it seems like some real work is being done there to sort of unwind what happened during the 2016 elections, but it's hard to -- for this administration to focus on that or do anything

about it when you have trump on twitter every week, every two weeks discrediting the man and the team that's doing that exact work. >> and he's clearly trying to work it from the white house. on that note about the increase, one of our producers here sent out this great tweet that caught my eye about the number of times on twitter president trump has called the investigation a witch hunt. it was just a few each month. then it has spiked. look what we did. we took the tweet he did. i think we have it. we turned it into a bar graph for your viewing pleasure at home so it's easier to see. you're welcome. how much of an increase there was and has been over the past couple months. also, that coincides with him getting a new legal team, changing strategy, and so forth. >> i think there's two things here. one of them is this ten-day lag, what this represents to the president and his legal team is a fear factor. what is he actually doing with this offer that he's got from

the president's team? what other information might he have that he's getting ready to try to question the president about and that the white house and mueller's team are going back and forth over? the second is a messaging point where the president is very determined to sort of paint this all in a partisan light. this isn't about facts. this isn't about interviews. this isn't about two dozen russian nationals having been indicted and charged in an actual conspiracy. this is about a political witch hunt against him. it's an effort against him. he's trying to get the public to share his outrage essentially about what is going on here. in the interim, before they actually have a legal fight over whether or not he's going to talk to the special counsel. >> there's another piece on timing here that's also important, which is that traditionally in washington, you do not -- the justice department does not come out with this kind of a big report in the months leading up to an election. so there's this unofficial labor day deadline. now, we don't know. we're in a time of new rules, new political rules, all sorts

of new washington rules. so we don't know if mueller will abide by that traditional thinking. but people who know him say he is a traditionalist. he wants to do this by the book. that means, you know, labor day is creeping ever closer. we have about a month. the president's team is certainly aware of that, you know, traditional deadline. so they sense that the clock is ticking down to -- could be ticking down to something. >> and i was told this morning that it is what we have talked about so many times around this table and elsewhere, and that is the president, even as he says and is forced to say last week that russia meddled in america's election, that the minute -- he believes the minute he gives an inch on that, then the conversation shifts to the legitimacy of his presidency. he would rather have the public fight and the dialogue about meddling rather than the legitimacy of his presidency. so that's what a trump source said to me just this morning. manu, i want to ask you about something else rudy giuliani

said on cnn with alisyn camerota this morning. the whole collusion was the reason for the mueller probe. here's what he said. >> you're saying that paul manafort did not have any power in the campaign? >> i didn't say that. i said he had a discreet, important area. what i'm saying is he was never involved in intimate business relationships with donald trump. four months. you're not going to be colluding about russians, which i don't even know if that's a crime, colluding about russians. you start analyzing the crime. the hacking is the crime. >> okay. first of all, colluding -- i'm not a lawyer, but i guess i play one on tv. colluding is not a crime, but the idea of collusion leads to criminal activity like conspiracy. >> yeah, conspiracy to violate election laws is absolutely a crime. the word collusion, there's no specific statute that says that's a crime if you're simply colluding, but the action and

intent of colluding can lead to all sorts of things, conspireing to defraud the united states, false statements presumably if one of the witnesses said something that wasn't true. so there's a legal side about this, but there's also the political side. look at the explanations that the trump team has given about collusion since 2016 and contacts with russians. hope hicks initially said there was no contact whatsoever between anyone in the campaign and russians. then it was, oh, well, no one actually colluded. now it's well, collusion is not a crime. so what does it mean? maybe it means that they understand what bob mueller is looking into, they are feeling pressure from the mueller team, and the president may be moving the goalposts a little bit. clearly there's a lot more that the trump team appears to be concerned about. >> also, just embedded in that statement that rudy giuliani just made was a little bit of wiggle room on the notion that maybe collusion is something that could be entertained. i'm guessing that the president

heard that and went, what? did you see my big sharpie letters? there was no collusion. >> he also tried to make clear that trump was not at that don junior trump tower meeting with the russians. it was more of a narrow denial than they've done in the past. i wonder if it has anything to do with the report from last week about the fact that trump may have known about this. >> and giuliani has said to me they've been getting a lot of additional inquiries from reporters about various meetings that may or may not have happened. anyway, we have a lot more to talk about on this subject. everybody stand by. up next, the president's lawyer, rudy giuliani, we've been talking about him. he's working overtime defending his client. it's already been an exhausting day. >> remember when you said you would stay all day to talk about this? >> okay. i'll stay one more time. but you've got to get me some coffee. when i found out i had age-related macular degeneration, amd, i wanted to fight back. my doctor and i came up with a plan.

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trump's lawyer rudy giuliani is using today to describe the president's former lawyer michael cohen, a man he once called honorable. giuliani says everything changed after the revelation that cohen secretly taped president trump while he was a client. in a lengthy interview this morning with our alisyn camerota here on cnn, giuliani also said that tape of cohen talking about trump, about hush money, was doctored and he said the claim that trump authorized the trump tower meeting with russians is wrong. the rest of his argument was that cohen, under such scrutiny by the feds that they raided his home, office, and hotel room earlier this year, has nothing to lose and everything to gain at this point by hitting the president. >> what's in it for michael cohen to say that the president knew about that meeting? why is he lying about that? >> you've got to be kidding me. >> how does that help? >> he's the big fish. you don't give up -- what is cohen going to do? a couple taxicab drivers to get him out of jail?

>> okay. so let's talk about that. you're a big fish. >> i'm a huge fish. yeah, i mean, he's obviously very concerned about what michael cohen may be saying, may be willing to tell the special counsel, what he may be willing to say to the southern district of new york where cohen is under a lot of pressure, facing a criminal investigation, and the president does not know where this is going. it is also interesting that, you know, the reports of whether or not the president himself knew about that trump tower meeting in advance. if it is the case, then it could open up other people within the trump orbit to significant legal pressure, including donald trump jr., who testified before the senate judiciary committee of not -- of saying his father did not know in advance about this meeting and according to our reports from last week, cohen is ready to say that donald trump jr. did tell his father about that meeting. so michael cohen presents a significant threat to the president if he does go forward with any of these reports.

that's probably one reason why giuliani is saying what he's saying. >> because you brought up your reporting, i want to skip to the whole question about whether or not michael cohen is required to or should go back to congress. lindsey graham, republican of south carolina, says he should because he testified, as you said, answered questions, rather, for hours and hours and hours. democrats are saying, well, we tried and we couldn't. watch this. >> michael cohen has already appeared before congress talking about a lot of things, and this idea that he told trump about the russian meeting before it happened is, to us, very much new news. so mr. cohen, if you got something new to say, you need to come to congress and say it under oath. >> but at each time when we asked them, okay, make don junior answer, the republicans would say, we're here under a voluntary interview scheme. that's a voluntary scheme they set up because they didn't want to subpoena them and bring them in. so they protected them at every

single stop. and since they ended their investigation, we've learned about cambridge analytica. we've learned about roger stone's extensive contacts. we're learning more about michael cohen. >> as we discuss what we just heard, i want to tell our viewers we're looking at the president at the white house waiting for the italian prime minister, who looks like he just drove up. he's going to greet the prime minister. they're going to go in for a meeting in the oval office. we'll hear from them hopefully then and more formally later this afternoon. i don't think we can hear anything. somebody's try to ask a question. hang on. okay. so as we're watching that, let's discuss the whole question about michael cohen and whether or not they tried to ask the questions about trump tower on capitol hill. >> frankly, i think rudy

giuliani and lanny davis, michael cohen's lawyer, are trying to confuse the american public about what is going on. and they have a really good political reason to do that. of course, this whole investigation could end up being a political process if it goes to impeachment. so they're doing exactly politically what makes sense. but i think that congress has a responsibility to have these guys come up, have them testify in an open way, where the public can hear, like was done in watergate, so the american people can actually cut through some of the spin and hear what's happening. and i wonder if there will be an increasing amount of pressure on congress to do just that. because it's really hard for anyone, certainly for voters with midterms coming up, to understand what exactly is going on here and what is true and what isn't. >> that's a great point. i'm guessing that ship sailed a while ago. >> real quick, chuck grassley would not say this morning whether or not michael cohen should come before his committee. >> that's interesting. before we go to break, though, i want to talk about the human drama here. we're talking understandably about the legal aspects, the

political aspects, but this guy, michael cohen, was the person who famously infamously said he would take a bullet for the president. now he's turning them metaphorically on the president. listen to what rudy giuliani said. we don't hear a lot of allusions to history or literature, but we did this morning. >> he turned out to have a close friend betray him like brutus put the last knife into cesar. >> take me into the president's sort of emotional and mental state on the notion of this guy who was so loyal to him that he did his dirty work, frankly, and now he's in a public spat with him and a legal spat. >> i mean, there are few things that infuriate donald trump more than somebody who he believes is supposed to protect him who does not have his back. you heard him for weeks and weeks say, you know, michael

cohen's a good guy, he's going to do the right thing. he was outraged when the prosecutors broke into his office and said this was beyond the pail. now that he realized he actually -- he knows he has the information. he's known that for a long time, that he has whatever he might need to possibly potentially damage the president in a very profound way. now that he realizes he's willing to do that and that michael cohen feels he has a big enough legal problem that he's entertaining that possibility, he is just -- he couldn't be more infuriated with him. i think this is part of the larger public relations effort that giuliani is trying to paint him in the eyes of the public as a desperate person who's willing to lie to bring down the president. >> the public and the prosecutors. those are two key things. he admitted it this morning. everybody stand by. coming up, what a difference a few days makes, especially when it comes to negotiating with the president of the united states. >> so you're not worried about a government shutdown. >> well, that's not going to happen. duncan just protected his family with a $500,000 life insurance policy.

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we let you keep an eye on your business from anywhere. the others? nope! get internet on our gig-speed network and add voice and tv for $34.90 more per month. call or go online today. a gop congressional candidate told me recently he lives in fear that his campaign will be one presidential tweet away from chaos at any moment. well, that just happened with the republican leadership's entire government funding strategy for the fall. republican lawmakers are still scratching their heads after the president threatened another government shutdown, something

gop leaders thought they had all agreed they would take off the table ahead of the midterm elections. listen. >> i'm told based on people who were briefed on the meeting the president was amenable to the suggestion, agreed he would be patient on things like wall funding and agreed he didn't want to step on the cabinet nomination. now everything can change based on a tweet, based on how the president feels. things are kind of on a good path at the moment. >> oh, he was so right to be skeptical and use every kind of condition in that sentence as possible. someone maybe should have knocked on wood. 20 minutes later, the president tweeted. here's what he said. i would be willing to shut down government if the democrats do not give us the votes for border security, which includes the wall. you can sum up the republican sentiment this way. one senior gop aide tells cnn the president was just, quote, letting off some steam at our expense, per kwususual.

talk about expenses. phil mattingly joins me live from the hill. i have to say, phil, i'm starting to think maybe the president was trolling you. >> reporter: yeah, i mean, look, to say that on live television and then 20 minutes later have the president try and undercut the entire point and all of your reporting, it hurt a little bit, to be completely honest with you. but as you noted, the evergreen caveat of there could be a tweet. >> so smart. >> reporter: the issue, dana, is that this is kind of one of the under the radar success stories, one that's in large part driven by the president. you remember when he signed, grudgingly, that $1.3 trillion omnibus in march. he made clear he was never going to do that again. and as such, that has been a driving force behind bipartisan negotiations, particularly in the senate. senator richard shelby, senator pat leahy to actually reach agreement on spending bills, something that hasn't happened on the hill for years. you know as well as anybody, careening from shutdown crisis to shutdown crisis, continuing resolution to continuing

resolution. they are on pace by the end of this week, the senate will have pass the seven appropriations bills. the house has already moved through committee all 12 of theirs. the basic idea is get as many done as possible and then have a very small continuing resolution to deal with before the end of october and get it off the plate before the election. here's the issue. i think this has always been the case. it's really twofold. one, the president's insistence on wall funding. two, i'm told nick mulvaney wants to cut spending, something that because there's a bipartisan deal isn't really on the table right now. the latter will be dealt with later. the former, as i noted in that clip, was that they had a meeting, speaker paul ryan and mitch mcconnell with the president, where the president made clear to them, i'm told by multiple people, he would wait for the wall fight until after the election. that's basically the plan. the bottom line, dana, is this. there will be a shutdown fight. leaders just want it to be in december, not in september. now, as i noted, aides are saying they think he's just trying to blow off steam, they think the fight will still happen in december. but the idea this is still up in

the air and still really at the mercy of 280 characters means that even though this is moving well right now, anything could happen. >> i still think he was trolling you, but we'll see. i guess trolling you is maybe less consequential than shutting the government down. so we'll see. thank you so much for that report, phil. and phil made a really important point about the under the radar success story on capitol hill with the congress actually doing their job. i pause at success because is it really success? if you do your homework, are you told that you're successful? are you told you're just doing your homework and that's your job? the job of the congress is to fund the government. they're supposed to pass 12 appropriations bills and send each of them separately to the president's desk every single fiscal year. but the norm has been they couldn't get their act together for various reasons, and they've been sending these giant

spending bills and wednesday up in this shutdown. they have been working in a bipartisan way. i think congress never gets credit for things, understandably, and the times they do things, they should get credit. having said that, we are now at the beginning of a five-week recess for the house of represe representatives. senate is still there because they have nominations they're going to work on. check out this calendar we're working with here because of the house all going home to campaign and work at home. you really only have 11 legislative days. they come back on the 4th, the end of the fiscal year is the 30th. so this is a real deadline, even though it seems very far away. >> i think the deadline is real. i'm not so sure the shutdown is real. we know trump is kind of capable of anything here. he wanted to blow up the budget earlier this year against basically the wishes of everyone in his administration. they talked him out of that. so i think the threat is real, but i sort of think that the reality is closer to what mitch

mcconnell is saying. this discussion just happened a couple days ago. congress, as you point out, is gone for a while here. the president is wound up about a number of things. he likes to create a lot of news. there's -- i think he even understands the political risks that this would cause. and our latest reporting at "the wall street journal" put a phil mattingly caveat in there, it's only the latest reporting, i haven't talked to anyone. >> put your phone down, mr. president. >> but our reporting at "the wall street journal" is that trump and mcconnell have become quite close since the tax legislation. the relationship was frayed after the health care bill. it's become tighter after the tax legislation to the point where trump actually checked in with mcconnell during the west virginia primary to see how he could help before he tweeted, which is kind of astonishing for the era we're in now. given all those facts, i think -- i mean, we at "the wall

street journal," we sort of are spitballi spitballing questions ahead of trump's news conference this afternoon. a threat of the shutdown, i was arguing, should be pushed down the list. it's the third topic we're talking about here today for a reason. it just doesn't seem like -- it seems like even this president understands what he's doing here. >> it could also blow up his supreme court nomination fight. a prolonged shutdown could undercut any effort they have to keep the house, the senate. it looks like trump is the one who's responsible for this. so i'm very skeptical. if trump wants to dig in, he's probably going to get rolled by mitch mcconnell and paul ryan. he'll have to accept a short-term increase. >> when we say blowing off steam, for him that's don't forget about my border wall, fund my border wall. >> and he does think the border wall and immigration are good politics for him.

the president said he wants the midterms to be fought over immigration. his assessment that many republicans on the campaign trail and in congress do not agree with. there's a little bit of a political dispute over how much immigration should play in the midterms, but it does feel like a shutdown is certainly not inevitable. >> okay. i agree with all of you, but that doesn't mean we can't put up a fun fact. the last time there was a shutdown, it was in 2013 over health care. you know what happened in that midterm election? afterwards in 2014, there actually was a net gain on the gop side of nine seats in the senate and 13 in the house. to be fair, there was a democrat in the white house. but it was republicans who led the shutdown. okay. up next. >> you sound like steve bannon there. >> no comment. up next, 85 years young, supreme court justice ruth bader ginsburg reveals her retirement plans or lack thereof. nts: ordinary versus overachiever.

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topping our political radar today, georgia congressman john lewis has been released from the hospital with a clean bill of health. the 68-year-old civil rights icon became ill on a flight saturday night to atlanta. the long-time congressman was severely beaten as a young man while leading a march for voting rights in salma, alabama, in 1965, and he was awarded the presidential medal of freedom in 2011. one of the republicans hoping to be the next governor of florida is showing his love for president trump and his sense of humor in a new ad released today. congressman ron desantis faces a

run off in the florida primary next month. in the ad, desantis and his family remind voters that he has the president's support and that the feeling is mutual. >> he reads stories. >> then mr. trump said, you're fired. i love that part. >> people say ron's all trump, but he is so much more. >> big league, so good. >> and talk about the retirement of another supreme court justice is just that, talk. at least if it's ruth bader ginsburg. she says she's in no rush to hang up her robe. in fact, she says she hopes to stay on the bench for another five years at least. she's 85 and remarkably fit. we can't get enough of this video of her planking. it's from cnn films' documentary about her life. >> i've heard she does 20 push-ups three times a week or something. i mean, we can't even get off the floor. we can't even get down to the

floor. >> that's true. >> and after sitting on the fence, senator rand paul says he'll support the man hoping to fill justice anthony kennedy's seat on the supreme court. the kentucky republican tweeted after meeting judge kavanaugh and reviewing his record, i've decided to support his nomination. no one will ever completely agree with the nominee unless, of course, you are the nominee. each nominee, however, must be judged on the totality of their views, character, and opinions. meanwhile, an undecided red state democrat meets brett kavanaugh today. senator joe manchin says he's hearing from hundreds of west virginians concerned about the nomination. manchin says he'll examine kavanaugh's opinion on health care as a new round of ads target the senator. >> joe manchin isn't being straight with west virginians, saying his vote on kavanaugh is about health care, a dishonest talking point he got from liberal chuck schumer. tell joe manchin you won't be

fooled by his tricks and you won't forget how he votes on kavanaugh. >> back around the table. manu, this is the first democrat to meet with kavanaugh so far. he's in a real pickle. >> he is. >> manchin. >> he is. if he votes for kavanaugh, he's going to infuriate the democratic base. i know it's a conservative state, but he does need to get those liberal voters out to the polls and look at the primary that he just went through in west virginia. he did not get a lot of support from those same core democratic voters. so he's in a bind because he's getting hit from the right and left. this is going to be a difficult vote. >> and the way he's setting it up is talking pretty extensively about kavanaugh's writings and views on obamacare, which is, you know, somebody said it was risky. i think it's actually kind of clever because that is an issue that is universally a big one among people who voted for trump and manchin and even those who didn't. >> that is an issue that activates the core democrats he

needs to have on his siede, but he also steers clear of talking about abortion rights, gay rights, all of the social sort of cultural hot-button issues that could alienate the republicans and swing voters he would need to win that race. so that's clearly where he's going to have his focus in order to potentially limit his liability if he does decide to vote for kavanaugh. >> a lot of pressure on him and the other red state democrats. never mind those two moderate republican women. okay. up next, we're going to go to california and have some information and updates on those raging wildfires burning across parts of northern california and one family's heartbreaking story. that's ahead.

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it's a coming. the fire is coming in the back door. come on, grandpa. i'm right down the road. he said, come and get us. emily said, i love you, grandpa. and junior says, i love you. come and get us. come and get us. i said, i'm on my way. my wife was the greatest woman in the world and my grandkids were excellent. >> a heartbreaking story from 76-year-old man, rather, that you just heard describing a final phone call with his loved ones. he lost his wife and two grandchildren in that massive wild fire burning through parts of northern california. at least six people have died. several more are missing. i want to get straight to cnn's dan simon who is joining me live now from reading. dan, i can't even imagine having to conduct that interview. it sounded like he just understandably wanted to talk. >> reporter: well, it is one of

the most difficult interviews i have ever conducted, dana. this is a man who is broken after losing the most important people in his life, his wife was taking care of their great grandchildren. they had raised them since birth. they're talking about james who they call junior and emily and on thursday night 7:00 p.m. ed decides he's going to leave the house really to run a quicker land. then about 15 minutes later he gets a frantic phone call that the flames were quickly approaching his house. i'll let ed pick up the story from here. >> i raised them and took care of them, taught them everything they know, me and grandma. i left and went to town. my wife called me and said, we can see the fire way over there, you need to come and get me. i'm on my way. i throwed down everything. i got up on the hill and there was two or three or four lanes of traffic wouldn't let me down in there. we've been there for days in the same situation but we didn't

know the fire was coming down in there. they told us the fire was going south. >> well, as you can imagine, he is feeling a tremendous amount of guilt over what happened but, dana, he also points out nobody ever told him that he should evacuate. that goes to show you how fast this fire spread. let me explain where we are, dana. this is redding. this is lake redding estates. much of the neighborhood looks much like this. we're talking about 700 homes, more than 700 homes that have burned to the ground. fire crews are now beginning to make some progress. this fire is 20% contained. that doesn't sound like a lot but 24 hours ago it was 5% contained. we now understand that the fire is burning away from populated areas. dana? >> i mean, there just aren't any words. as we see at the bottom of our screen there are still seven missing as this is continuing to

burn. dan simon, thank you very much for that report and we'll be right back. sy for you to get your windshield fixed. with safelite, you can see exactly when we'll be there. saving you time for what you love most. >> kids: whoa! >> kids vo: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace ♪ the world is full of different hair. that's why pantene, the world's #1 conditioner brand, has conditioners for every hair type. from air-light foam for fine hair, to nourishing 3 minute miracle for thick and curly. and the moisture-infusing gold series collection. giving more women great hair days - every day. pantene. world's number one... conditioner brand.

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a.j jmpj. sulsgberger. the president responded with a series of tweets saying, quote, he won't allow our great country to be sold out by the antitrump haters in the dying new hampshi hampshire-newspaper industry. your publisher is one of my heroes. it isn't the fake news. that's bad. that's really bad. but the enemy of the people is dangerous. >> well, absolutely. i mean, this was -- let's not forget, it was supposed to be an off the record meeting that the president chose to divulge and gives the lies of the made up sources and conversations that never happened. this is an example of one of these things that was supposed to be a discussion between the publisher and the president.

be that as they may, they did talk about fake news. the president said some foreign countries have banned fake news and a.j.sulzberger pointed out those are autocratic countries and he came to the meeting intending to sulzberger pointed those are autocratic countries and he came to the meeting intending to raise the point that this is giving rise to raise of threats to journalists and we've had to get protection 24/7. the president was surprised we didn't have it. this was an opportunity for the president to air some of his grievances. a.g. sulzberger shared what it was on the journalism industry and journalists and the country more prodly. >> he didn't learn anything from it, the president, because this

weekend he tweeted criticizing reporters for covering the inner workings of government. >> that is what reporters are supposed to do in any society, particularly when you're not in an autocratic society where you have the shoe on your head saying you can't report on anything. thank you to the "new york times" for doing that. thank you for watching. and joining us on "inside politics." "wolf" starts right now. hello, i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. here in washington. thanks so much for joining us. very soon president trump takes the microphone, takes questions from the news media. he's appearing with italy's visiting prime minister at the white house. it will be the first time the reporters will have a chance to question the president since the rash of tweets since the tweet there is no collusion. the