ireless network backup. everyone else, no way. we let calls from any of your devices come from your business number. them, not so much. 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. welcome to "inside politics." i'm dana bash. john king is off today. president trump launches his most aggressive attack against the russia probe telling his attorney general to end the investigation, quote, right now, and has us asking, what is going on that has the president so agitated. one thing missing from his morning tweet storm, any outrage

or really any mention at all about facebook taking down a network of pages and accounts believed to be linked to russia. and this is all coming from a commander in chief in full entertainer mode on the campaign trail. >> it's a lot easier to act presidential than to do what i do. anybody can act presidential. you are tremendous people. and i will leave now because i'm boring you to death. thank you. >> we begin with yet another escalation from the president to end the special counsel's russia investigation for what appears to be the first time president trump tweeted a direct demand to his attorney general saying, quote, attorney general jeff sessions should stop this rigged witchhunt right now before it continues to stain our country

any further. we should note that sessions has recused himself from all things russia and the tweet, which came mid-twitter rant about the investigation more broadly sure seems to be a tell that despite his aides saying they're not worried about the trial under way of former trump campaign chairman paul manafort, the president is, in fact, very worried about something. now manafort is on trial for bank fraud and tax evasion, and on tuesday, we got our first glimpse at manafort's defense strategy. namely, to blame his former deputy, another former trump aide, rick gates and ukrainian oligarchs for whom he worked. gates had his hand in the cookie jar, attacking him as the star witness and an embezzler. the prosecution is working to highlight manafort's extravagant lifestyle saying he had a cash spigot while working for his ukrainian golden goose.

they say he's a liar and orchestrated these crimes. two officials tell cnn that president trump is keeping a close eye on the proceedings and asking for frequent trial updates from his team. i'm going to get straight to shimon prokupecz joining me now. let's get to these tweets from the president and the significance of them. what are you hearing from your sources at the justice department. are they taking these as a demand or just saying this is the president blowing off steam? >> well, dana, certainly significant. this is an aggressive move. aggressive words from the president here. so far the department of justice has not responded in any way to these tweets, to essentially the president demanding that this investigation -- that sessions end this investigation. it's a longstanding practice, as we know, that the president does not interfere in investigations by the department of justice. does not comment on them or offer suggestions and clearly by this morning's tweets, that is not anything that the president

follows. certainly has not followed and when you think about why there is this obstruction of justice investigation by the special counsel, what started it off, what set it off was words, was what he did to the fbi director. the former fbi director james comey. and i sort of wanted to point out sort of what he told the then-fbi director comey about the flynn investigation and what he's tweeting today. if you look at what he tweets today, he's telling the attorney general essentially, you should end this investigation. when he met with comey, he told comey, i hope you can see your way clear to legislate this go and letting flynn go. certainly those words perhaps one could interpret as a little softer than the words today from the president. but if you see it, the thing that set off -- part of what set off the obstruction investigation and the words by the president today certainly significant and it goes into the obstruction investigation.

it's something that i think the president and his lawyers know, the special counsel will be looking at. >> so interesting. i'm really glad that you pointed out the similarity and language there, particularly since there are reports that the special counsel is looking at whether tweets can be used as obstruction of justice. let's look at the trial. what's happening in the manafort trial as we speak, shimon? >> today's really been -- so two witnesses so far that have testified. one of them, i think, the important witness here, the fbi agent who entered manafort's home. they did a search warrant at his home in alexandria, virginia. they're talking about some of the documents that they found. and this really goes to the meat of the prosecution's case. these are documents about his loans, bank records, things they found with his name on it. wire transfers. goes to the meat, to the heart of the case and the evidence that the fbi has gathered and now the prosecution is using in the case. significant there also today from the fbi agent is that he's

describing how they entered manafort's home. they came to the home around 6:00 a.m. they knocked on the door three times announcing they were there. when no one answered the door, they entered. they had a key and went in. there was some questions about the fbi's tactics here back when this happened. people close to manafort were saying the fbi was very aggressive and how they went into the home. clearly today, the fbi disputing that account saying they did everything right. they knocked on the door. no one answered and then they went in. >> so interesting. shimon, thank you for your excellent reporting. here with me at the table to share their reporting, cnn's phil mattingly, molly ball, shan wu who represented rick gates briefly after he was indicted and cnn's kaitlan collins. hi, everybody. oh, my goodness. let me start with something that was tweeted by the president shortly before we came on the air. and it kind of brings all of these questions of the morning together. and i will read it.

looking back on history, who was treated worse? alfons capone, legendary -- okay. hold that for a second. legendary mob boss, killer and public enemy number one or paul manafort, political operative and reagan/dole darling now serving solitary confinement, although convicted of nothing. where is the russian collusion? now putting aside that we've all taken tours of alcatraz and it wasn't exactly nice digs. what do we make of this? i'm putting this to you first,icatelyn. >> the last thing they wanted was for the from the compare him to al capone. >> alfons capone. >> his full name. >> but we're seeing this. the white house has been saying they don't know what the president's reaction to the paul manafort trial is. they haven't spoken with him about it. but we heard from the president for the first time this morning only on day two of this trial is expected to go on for two or three weeks. what exactly his feelings are as he's watching all of this play

out on cable news. and this is also coming as the president and white house are trying to downplay paul manafort's role in the campaign. that's been their strategy for months, and we've really seen them ramp it up, including from kellyanne conway and rudy giuliani. so inside and outside of the white house. and even from the president himself saying that he was only there for a short period of time. paul manafort was there for a very crucial period of time, including the trump tower meeting. >> they can say they don't care and aren't paying attention, but every tweet that the president sent this morning completely undercuts that argument in a big way. >> what do you think it means? >> well, it's surprising he's so worried about it because actually -- >> do you think there's something there? that he's worried for a reason that we just don't know about? >> that could be. i think it's just the pressure of the trial commencing getting to him. frankly, i thought the first day went pretty well for the defense actually. break-neck pace. incredible they got through the jury selection, opening and got

to a witness. it was just amazing. but ellis interrupted the prosecution during their opening. >> the judge? >> yes. that's very disconcerning for the prosecution. i'm sure manafort's team liked that. nothing wrong or illegal about having a lot of money. i think they put that in the win column. >> okay. so you might be right. were you going to say something about what you think this could be about? >> i thought the president's tweets about manafort this morning were very striking because they were sort of a reversal from this distancing act. rather than say whatever he did, he might have been terrible, but it had nothing to do with me. he's expressing sympathy for manafort. he's saying manafort is being treated unfairly. he's saying that, you know, manafort had these glorious credentials working for reagan and dole. one of the things discussed in the trial was the activities of manafort a manafort's, the money making that they're talking about was

2010 to 2014. that's well after he would have worked for ronald reagan or bob dole. to answer the president's question about why didn't anybody bring this up? >> that's another question the president was tweeting about. why didn't anybody tell me. that's the gist of one of his tweets. why didn't anybody tell me about the bad stuff that manafort allegedly did. >> really? just pick up the phone and call somebody or ask him or ask anybody. what happened to hiring only the best people? >> i think it wasn't a secret the circles with which and in this operated in in washington, d.c. if you look through disclosures to the extent he made them and sometimes that turned out be a problem legally, it turns out, he wasn't representing necessarily fortune 500 companies. but in lobbying or influence pedling that operate in the darker areas of d.c. some of his partners, if you talk to anybody who covered k street or covered paul manafort or roger stone coming up, any of those guys, there was an understanding of the place that they were operating here that

could potentially lead him into trouble. i'll note as a random aside, solitary confinement. he's meeting with republican senators on justice reform. if he has a huge problem with solitary confinement it can be discussed at 2:45. >> white collar criminals. i don't think that's the topic. >> they're downplaying the role he had. the president stayed in touch with paul manafort for months after he left the campaign. he left in august and then they stayed in touch for months after that. the president has often done this with people who left the white house or his campaign. also with rick gates, his deputy who is testifying against him. he left as well shortly thereafter paul manafort. but he and the president stayed in touch and he served on one of his inauguration committees. it's not like the president completely cut off access when all of these questions started coming up which is why paul manafort left. they stayed in touch for months after. >> the president's -- the whole gist of what he's saying this morning and in a very aggressive way and what he said in the past, particularly when he's

saying that sessions, who technically has nothing to do with this because he recused himself, should end this because the collusion, the whole question of this is a witch hunt. let's go back to what the deputy attorney general who actually appointed mueller actually said the investigation should be about. certainly collusion was part of it, but the core, the core of it was the following. to ensure a full and thorough investigation of the russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. why, mr. president, would you not want the mueller investigation to find out the answer to that, particularly as it is happening, according to his own government and according to facebook as we speak. >> that's exactly right. and i think one other aspect of that tweet that he sent about being in the dark is he could be trying to now set up his defense generally that the bad fbi, the

bad justice department, didn't really tell me about what was going on so don't try to blame me for anything. he's kind of like talking as usual about both sides of his mouth here saying he was kept in the dark. saying this is an unfair thing and yet being told the same type of thing is reoccurring right now. the one interesting thing about this in terms of the timeline is the manafort and gates indictments were first out of the box, we're now seeing a pattern with mueller of handing off some of these investigations to the southern district of new york. it's not inconceivable that had this come later down the pike, it was compartmentalized to being just tax issues that maybe wouldn't have stayed with the special counsel. first out of the box and now in the trial now. >> i know there's a lot you can't say because you did represent rick gates briefly. but knowing what you know if you're the white house and the president, do you have a reason to be concerned watching this trial? >> looking at what's happened in the trial, not yet. but i think it may be just dawning upon the president that,

oh, my gosh, they really are taking manafort to trial. he knows what dangers manafort may have and once this trial commences, the pressure is much, much greater on manafort and there are deals cut during trials. people have plead guilty midtrial. >> is this a signal to manafort that a pardon could be coming? just stick with me? >> i defer -- >> nobody wants to get into the head of the president on that one. >> you shouldn't. but he hasn't ruled it out yet. he's been asked time and time again. he's been quite snappish in his responses about potential pardons for them or pointed out they haven't been charged with anything. but he has not ruled out the idea of that. so it's still there. but i do think over the next few days as this trial is playing out, even though it has nothing to do with russia, russia is looming large over this. the more the president sees it as we saw from his twitter feed, it reminds him of jeff sessions

recusing himself which is the number one thing that's infuriated him when jeff sessions recused himself and flew down to palm beach and the president ripped him a new one over it because he was so frustrated about it. >> we're trying to dissect and get into the president's brain but we should not forget about the fact that it is so unheard of and inappropriate for a president of the united states to be saying in any medium, twitter or anywhere else, that even investigation that was going on and was ordered by his own deputy attorney general should end. >> one real quick thing about that. can you imagine if what he tweeted was discovered by reporters in a memo that had been sent in? we're known to 280 characters and now he operates and certainly that's a way that got him elected and it's a central tenet of who he is. can you imagine if that would have been found in a memo uncovered somehow? >> very different. good point. up next -- enemies posing as friends to disrupt the november

election. facebook reveals a bunch of fake accounts that stirred up real political activism. and this is not about 2016, folks. this is happening right now. pto7 tech support. yep, thanks guys. i think he might need some support. yes start them off right. with the school supplies they need at low prices all summer long. save $200 on this dell laptop at office depot officemax. gimme two minutes. eligible for medicare. save $200 on this dell laptop and i'll tell you some important things to know about medicare. first, it doesn't pay for everything. say this pizza... [mmm pizza...] is your part b medical expenses. this much - about 80 percent... medicare will pay for. what's left... this slice here... well...

that's on you. and that's where an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company comes in. this type of plan helps pay some of what medicare doesn't. and these are the only plans to carry the aarp endorsement. that's because they meet their high standards of quality and service. wanna learn more? it's easy. call unitedhealthcare insurance company now and ask... for this free decision guide. inside you'll find the range of aarp medicare supplement plans and their rates. apply any time, too. oh. speaking of time... about a little over half way and there's more to tell. like, how... with this type of plan, you'll have the freedom to choose any doctor who accepts medicare patients. great for staying with the one you know... or finding... somebody new, like a specialist. there are no networks and no referrals needed. none. and when you travel, your plan will go with you-

anywhere in the country. so, if you're in another state visiting the grandkids, stay awhile... enjoy... and know that you'll still be able to see any doctor who accepts medicare patients. so call unitedhealthcare today. they are committed to being there for you. tick, tick, tick, time for a wrap up. a medicare supplement plan helps pay some of what medicare doesn't. you know, the pizza slice. it allows you to choose any doctor, who accepts medicare patients... and these are the only plans of their kind endorsed by aarp. whew! call unitedhealthcare today and ask for this free decision guide.

welcome back. fewer than 100 days until the midterm elections and russia's social media disinformation campaign appears to be quite active. facebook says they've taken down a wide ranging network of suspected russian linked accounts. more than 30 pages of profiles across facebook and instagram with more than 290,000 followers. those accounts organized at least 30 events since 2017 and spent nearly $11,000 on 150 paid advertisements. now there's a senate hear going on on this topic. foreign influence in u.s. elections in social media. intelligence committee leaders in both parties are expressing deep concern. >> this isn't about who won or

who lost. this is about national security. this is about corporate responsibility. and this is about the deliberate and multifaceted manipulation of the american people by agents of a foreign hostile government. >> for just pennies on the dollar they can wreak havoc in our society and in our elections. and i'm concerned that even after 18 months of study, we are still only scratching the surface when it comes to russia's interfere warfare. >> tarini with buzzfeed joins us around the table. i want to show our viewers some of what we're talking about that was on facebook. some examples, at least what we've seen, these are actually targeting left wing progressive activists. no unite, right to march. one of the demonstrations that was pushed and organized by these bots. abolish i.c.e.

example push to liberals. that's according to a source. and i want you all to listen to what a -- an activist told cnn, told our drew griffin about what it was like to be contacted by these -- what we suspect are russian bots or russian activists. take a listen. >> i was contacted through facebook by a woman named mary smith who wanted me to look into permits for having a rally in union square. we contacted the police department and asked about permitting. and ultimately decided to do the rally without permits. and we talked about sound and the use of amplified sound. i needed something. so they sent me a megaphone in the mail. >> we are going to talk more about this facebook situation in a minute. but i want to go straight to joe johns at the courthouse in alexandria, virginia, with some breaking news on the paul

manafort trial. joe johns? >> reporter: hi, dana. look, what we've just heard from the federal prosecutors and it's not clear whether this is a strategy or whether it's a bluff or exactly what it is, but one of the prosecutors, speaking apparently in front of the jury now, has suggested that it's possible rick gates, who is a deputy of the man who is on trial, might not testify. that would create an extraordinary situation because as you know, paul manafort here on trial for financial crimes. they spent the morning entering into evidence and producing to the jury reames of documents, receipts of all kinds of papers in which money passed between manafort and various parties in an attempt to show that manafort

essentially cashed in on the millions and millions of dollars he received to buy houses to repair homes and so on. and at the center of the defense strategy is that his deputy, rick gates, effective ly did wht he did. so the prosecution raising the possibility that rick gates might not testify at this stage sounds fairly extraordinary, especially because during the opening statements, we were certainly given the impression that rick gates was a key part of this case. gates, of course, has already agreed to cooperate with the prosecution in the case of paul manafort. and apparently willing to do so. also, i have to point out that the prosecutor who initially said it's possible. rick gates may not testify later

said he didn't mean to suggest that rick gates would not. so you have a little bit of double speak there occurring in the court. fascinating development and we don't know what it means. >> okay. joe johns, thank you. let's bring in shimon prokupecz who can help us explain what it may or may not mean. rick gates, long time right-hand man to paul manafort, both in business and in the trump campaign, i should say, was and has been somebody who the prosecution was relying on, frankly, to take down manafort and to convict him. if he does not testify, what does that say about the prosecution's case? >> that means they believe in their case and their case is likely much stronger than we think and that they don't need rick gates to make their case. i think what happened in this case, and this is where the quite honestly.nd of screwed up- when they went with their opening statement and try to pin everything on rick gates. they were the ones that

introduced rick gates into this trial. not the prosecutors. prosecutors don't ever promise something to a jury and not deliver it. it's just a mistake, and you'd never do it. if the prosecution said we were going to call rick gates and this is what he's going to tell you, then that would be a problem for the prosecution because the defense can argue, while the prosecutors come in and told you rick gates would testify, he didn't. what are they hiding? in this case, that didn't happen. was the defense team that introduced rick gates into this. and also, dana, i want to point out, while rick gates, he may be on this witness list that the prosecution had filed with the court, the prosecutors are not bound by anything that they file in terms of a witness list. that is just done as a way to make sure no one on their jury knows who these witnesses are. so, really, i think it's a development in the sense that if we don't hear from rick gates in this, it doesn't mean anything for the prosecution. it's really what does this is a about the defense and where does the defense go. keep in mind, last point, the

defense can always call him as a witness if they choose so. >> that is such an important point, shimon, because you would assume if you're representing paul manafort you want rick gates on the stand because you want to chip away his credibility and knock down everything he has said about the prosecution and clearly the prosecution, because we've seen a lot of it, they have so much in the way of paper and evidence that they are showing the jury. so, okay. thank you. you really did explain that, as always. we have a lot of breaking news this hour. up next we'll give you a bit more. former president barack obama wading into the 2018 midterms. stay with us. still a chance here. it's willingham, edge of the box, willingham shoots... goooooooaaaaaaaallllllll! that...was...magic. willingham tucks it in and puts the championship to bed. sweet dreams, nighty night. as long as soccer players celebrate with a slide, you can count on geico saving folks money.

fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. pressure, what pressure? the players on the... pressure, what pressure? sometimes a day at the ballpark is more than just a day at the ballpark. stadium pa : all military members stand and be recognized.

sometimes fans cheer for those who wear a different uniform. no matter where or when you served, t-mobile stands ready to serve you. that's why we're providing half off family lines to all military. behr presents: ordinary versus overachiever. behr premium plus, "behr" through it all with a top-rated paint at a great price. find it exclusively at the home depot.

i'm a small business, but i have... big dreams... and big plans. so how do i make the efforts of 8 employees... feel like 50? how can i share new plans virtually? how can i download an e-file? virtual tours? zip-file? really big files? in seconds, not minutes... just like that. like everything... the answer is simple. i'll do what i've always done... dream more, dream faster, and above all... now, i'll dream gig. now more businesses, in more places, can afford to dream gig. comcast, building america's largest gig-speed network.

a book that you're ready to share with the world? get published now, call for your free publisher kit today! president obama has just announced some midterm endorsements. the former president's office says he's backing 81 candidates across the country. obama tweeted today, i'm proud to endorse such a wide and impressive array of democratic candidates, leaders as diverse patriotic and big-hearted as the america they're running to represent. i'm confident that together they'll strengthen this country we love by restoring opportunity, repairing our alliances and standing in the world and upholding our fundamental commitment to justice, fairness, responsibility and the rule of law. but first, they need our votes. now let's talk about that a little bit and specifically

about this list and the import of it. let's talk about who he has on the list. then we'll talk about who he doesn't have on the list and what that means. what do you guys think? >> if you count the -- there's two things that i'm struck by. a little more than -- fewer than -- more than 20 house candidates. brings them right up to the edge of the 23 they need to retake the house. so his involvement in those races, races where republicans are holding plus three or four or five dems seats matters and is important. those are places he can go and have a real impact. the other thing, and this aligns with the criticism of his time in office is the number of down ballot candidates he's getting behind. the big criticism of the obama administration and dnc is he let the democratic party under the federal side of things wither away. >> 1,000 democratic seats -- >> with the redistricting effort, plus these endorsements they are firmly refocused on that and recognizing how

important that's going to be, particularly when redistricting comes up the next couple of years. >> as we were coming back from break reading the list, you were looking at california. and gavin newsom, so on and so forth, there's a big name missing from this list. >> senator dianne feinstein up for re-election and who was -- >> against a fellow democrat. >> so what struck me about this list having just skimmed it is in almost all of these cases, these are states that have already held their primaries. he's not wading into divisive intraparty democratic fights for the most part. not trying to put a thumb on the scale of the progressives versus the establishment or any of the other democratic divisions. these are people who have already made it through primaries and giving them a seal of approval. the other thing he's not doing is making a lot of endorsements in deep red states where his association with obama might hurt a candidate trying to win in sort of uphill territory for a democrat. so these are mostly safe plays

but in the case of feinstein where her challenger has actually been endorsed by the california democratic party and what has become an ideological fight between democrats, she would presumably be quite helped by his endorsement, and he is not giving it. >> very, very interesting. and then there's the whole issue of the fact he's getting involved. people have been asking, can you be more aggressive, get more involved? this is his first step. let's look at the republican side, though. president trump is going to close this week with a third campaign rally. this time a saturday stump for an ohio house candidate, troy balderson. he's got a coveted trump tweet endorsement. the rally comes before august 7th, a special election there. a source tells cnn the president has big plans to be on the road much, much more as midterms ramp up. arguing he wants to take matters into his own hands before november. but the commander in chief has some really noticeable surrogates joining his rallies. his own kids.

>> i have great children. and a couple of them, plus, are here tonight. eric trump who has been fantastic. he loves his political stuff. eric's wife lara who is great. i think she single-handedly won the state of north carolina for trump. we have somebody that nobody ever heard from. ivanka. >> eric trump tweeted a picture from last night's florida rally you saw there with his wife lara who does work on trump's re-election campaign. his sister ivanka is a white house adviser. you know, this could be incredibly helpful to the president in places that, just like obama on the democratic side in red states in swing areas where the president is,

you know, kind of the worst person to come in to help a republican because they're trying to get independent and democratic votes. maybe the kids aren't as toxic? >> that's definitely right. we saw this in 2016 when ivanka trump went to places like pennsylvania. the suburban areas to campaign for her father. so we've seen her come -- do a lot of interviews to talk about workforce training which is the least toxic of topics to get into. in our interviews she's really not tried to talk about russia at all. we've seen don junior wade into the more controversial topics, but he's someone who the base loves. so, you know, we're seeing someone like ivanka good with the moderate voters perhaps and someone like don junior who really gets the base riled up. >> a fascinating character to me is lara trump, eric trump's wife, who does get into it. and is, as the president said, she single handedly helped me win north carolina. he may not be that wrong. listen to what she says on the

campaign trail, how she says it. >> i get very upset when i hear all this nonsense about russian collusion. they're trying to tell you that your vote didn't count, folks. let me tell you something. your vote counted then. it's going to count in the midterms come november, and it sure as hell is counting in 2020 when we re-elect donald j. trump. >> she's on the trail all the time. she is, has an actual role in the 2020 campaign. she's a senior adviser. secret weapon? >> it's like a mixture of ivanka and don junior. the woman who can canappeal to women voters and the donald trump rhetoric coming out there saying your vote did matter. trying to tell you it didn't matter, but i think the white house and president trump is

increasingly worried about losing the house which a lot of people in washington do believe the democrats will take back. they know if they, do the democrats want nothing more than to torment president trump and his agenda which is likely why we're seeing the surrogates go out on the trail. >> i'm also told the president is very worried about losing the house. what it means for his agenda. it's not just that agenda. whoever has control of the house has oversight responsibilities. and we know from both parties how that looks. okay. everybody stand by. we'll take a quick break. we'll be right back. there's also a lot to know. the most important thing? medicare doesn't pay for everything. yep...you're on the hook for the rest. so consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. a plan like this helps pay some of what medicare doesn't. so you could end up paying less. and these are the only plans of their kind

endorsed by aarp. selected for meeting their high standards of quality and service. call unitedhealthcare insurance company now to request this free decision guide, and learn more. like, medicare supplement plan, give you the freedom to go with any doctor who accepts medicare patients. it's nice to have a choice. and your coverage goes with you, anywhere you travel in the country. we have grandkids out of state. they love our long visits. not sure about their parents, though. call unitedhealthcare and ask for your free decision guide today.

a rock 'n' roll hour here on "inside politics." we reported about the president's tweet storm this morning. seeming to demand that the attorney general end the special counsel's russia probe. i just spoke to the president's attorney, rudy giuliani, who told me the following. he said the president was expressing his opinion on his favorite medium, twitter, for asserting his first amendment rights. giuliani also told me the president said that he should -- didn't say it was a demand. no presidential order is going to go down and he was simply expressing his opinion. that just in from rudy giuliani trying to clean up what the president did this morning on twitter that got everybody understandably concerned on capitol hill and in the justice department about what the president might be doing and

whether he's going to do something and not just talk about it. >> he says it's just the president's opinions but the president is saying jeff sessions should end the investigation. should is taken as a directive if your boss tells you, you should do something it can often be taken as a directive. he's saying it's just his opinion but in the past, sean spicer said she's tweets are official white house statements. this is what the president is saying. a lot of people are agreeing his most explicit directive to jeff sessions to end this. >> this is the most blatant direction for jeff sessions who can't end the investigation because he's recused from overseeing it. >> giuliani is trying to clarify, trying to clean up what the president said in whatever moment he was in. for whatever reason that he sent that tweet. we still don't really know why he went further than he did before. but you're right. this isn't you expressing your opinion or you or anybody else in the world. this is the president of the

united states who has actual authority over things like this. now never mind the attorney general doesn't have authority since they recused himself but it's not the same. >> it's definitely not the same. this is the president of the united states. and we're probably going to see sarah sanders having to again try to fig are out how to play this. this is a statement that's really hard to walk back. it's rich that they're trying to point out a distinction between his tweets and official orders because as they've said in the past, the tweets speak for themselves. this tweet really does speak for itself. >> n also the president has privately tried to convince sessions multiple times to take back over this investigation and reverse his recusal. he's not just saying this on twitter. he's directed jeff sessions in person to take back control of the russia investigation. so this isn't some random tweet. this is a longstanding pattern from him. >> phil, regardless of the clarification we just got from rudy giuliani of what the

president really meant which is just using twitter to express his thoughts and his opinions, this is a real situation and there has been a heavy flirtation on capitol hill with making the mueller investigation the law of the land by statute. passing legislation. it hasn't happened. the senate majority leader has been reluctant and resistant to doing that. will this situation change that? >> no. no, look, it won't. a couple reasons here. first and foremost, and this goes for the speaker. they, and you know this as well as anybody, dana. their theory of the case is the way to get through to the president in the most effective way to get the president to align with your thinking is to do it behind the scenes and by phone. not publicly. not out passing legislation. certainly legislation the president could veto. they think that would exacerbate the situation. two, the house is gone for the next five weeks. you make a good point. rank and file members in the house and senate from both

parties have written legislation like this. i don't see any prospects of it coming any time soon. that's how things are viewed at the leadership level. just let this stuff go. he's just blowing off steam. he won't actually do anything. and my understanding is people at the white house tell people on the hill, don't worry about it. he's not serious. >> which is effectively what giuliani said to me. he's just blowing off steam. and the sort of backdrop of this is, if he went beyond blowing off steam and actually made a directive to fire robert mueller, you better believe the house would have to come back in session and it would be a saturday night massacre modern day. all right, everybody. taking a breath. up next, more on what the senate intel chairman said about russian interference right now to november's election. nding ne. you're smart, you already knew that. but it's also great for finding the perfect used car. you'll see what a fair price is and you can connect with a truecar certified dealer.

now you're even smarter. this is truecar.

welcome back. we touched on russia's social media disinformation campaign earlier in the program before having to turn to several breaking news stories. i want to go back to that briefly before we end this show. i want you to listen to a sound bite from republican senator richard burr about election interference and the goal that interference has. >> that campaign is still active today. they didn't do it because they have political leanings to the right or to the left but because they -- or because they care about our elections but rather because a weak america is good for russia. some feel that we as a society are sitting in a burning room calmly drinking a cup of coffee telling ourselves this is fine. that's not fine. and that's not the case. >> that is such an important

comment from a republican saying it's not about politics. it's about trying to sow chaos and division in this country, in society. it's really important. >> this is the latest in a litany of comments from within the administration itself trying to say publicly in as many ways as they can that this is a serious threat, it's a real threat, it's an ongoing threat and it's a threat that needs leadership from the president and that is not something that he has rushed to provide. yet another instance on top of multiple people in the administration. the calls coming from inside the house and they continue to wait for someone to pick up the phone. >> on leadership, we can run the sound bite from the president at his big rally where he talked about everything on facebook except that he didn't talk about facebook. he didn't talk about this at all about russian interference when we are currently in an election year, which is stunning. >> it is. but also the president has kind

of, as we know, mixed up the whole collusion and russian meddling. two very separate things. he thinks talking about any sort of meddling is an admission of collusion. he tries to avoid that topic altogether. >> except that it's happening and he is the president and we're heading into an election. a lot more to talk about on that. thank you for watching. we're waiting for a white house briefing to start any minute. wolf will bring you that when it starts and picks up our coverage right after a break. ♪ come fly with me, let's fly, let's fly away. ♪ ♪ come fly with me, let's fly, let's fly away. ♪

i'm a fighter. always have been. 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. it includes preservision. only preservision areds 2 has the exact nutrient formula recommended by the national eye institute to help reduce the risk of progression of moderate to advanced amd. that's why i fight. because it's my vision. preservision. also, in a great-tasting chewable. just for a shot. with neulasta onpro patients get their dayr back to be with family, or just to sleep in. strong chemo can put you at risk of serious infection.

in a key study neulasta reduced the risk of infection from 17% to 1%, a 94% decrease. neulasta onpro is designed to deliver neulasta the day after chemo and is used by most patients today. neulasta is for certain cancer patients receiving strong chemotherapy. do not take neulasta if you're allergic to it or neupogen (filgrastim). an incomplete dose could increase infection risk. ruptured spleen, sometimes fatal as well as serious lung problems allergic reactions, kidney injuries and capillary leak syndrome have occurred. report abdominal or shoulder tip pain, trouble breathing or allergic reactions to your doctor right away. in patients with sickle cell disorders, serious, sometimes fatal crises can occur. the most common side effect is bone and muscle ache. ask your doctor about neulasta onpro. pay no more than $25 per dose with copay card.

with the right steps, hasn't left my side. 80% of recurrent ischemic strokes could be prevented. a bayer aspirin regimen is one step to help prevent another stroke. so, i'm doing all i can to stay in his life. be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen.

gathered here are the world's finest insurance experts. rodney -- mastermind of discounts like safe driver, paperless. the list goes on. how about a discount for long lists? gold. mara, you save our customers hundreds for switching

almost effortlessly. it's a gift. and jamie. -present. -together we are unstoppable. so, what are we gonna do? ♪ insurance. that's kind of what we do here. this is cnn breaking news. >> hello. i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. in washington. wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. we're following breaking news. only minutes away from the white house press briefing. it comes as president trump makes his most direct move yet, at least publicly, to end the russia investigation. the president saying in an official statement, quote, this is a terrible situation and the attorney general jeff sessions should stop this rigged witch hunt right now before it continues to stain our country any further. the presidential statement on twitter comes just days