and game all you want, with confidence you can get coverage where you need it most. that's xfi advantage. make your xfi even better. upgrade today. call, click or visit a store. breaking news tonight his advisers privately admit he's handling questions on this poorly. even as they do the president of the united states might just be proving their point. he's just thanked a top lawmaker for making it easier than it would otherwise be for him to break the law if he wants. easier to do what he said just two days ago he's open to doing, colluding with foreign governments to win reelection and never mind the fbi. john berman here in for anderson. these two items on collusion

questions and private doubts inside the west wing broke at the end of the day after what some were calling a walkback. a cleanup of a gaffe. what if this so-called gaffe was no gaffe at all. what if the president said to abc george stephanopoulos days ago was, i know this sounds crazy, the truth. tonight's tweet is fresh evidence of that. quoting now "thank you senator majority leader mitch mcconnell for understanding the democrats' game of not playing it straight on the ridiculous witch hunt hoax in the senate," that's the president thanking the senate majority leader for blocking legislation that would have required reporting of any offers of campaign help from foreign agents to the fbi. senate republicans killed it yesterday afternoon. it was done and done quietly, all things considered. meaning the president didn't need to say a thing, let alone just as the whole story was dying down. but he did. and the fact that he did is pretty telling. it suggests that this morning's so-called walkback, which you will cena moment, might not

count for so much and what the president really truly believes is what he originally said. >> your campaign this time foreigners, if russia, if china, if someone else offers information on an opponent should they accept it or call the fbi? >> i think maybe you do both. i think you might want to listen. there's nothing wrong with listening. if somebody called from a country, norway, we have information on your opponent, oh, i think i'd want to hear it. >> you want that kind of interference in our elections? >> it's not an interference. we have information. i think i'd take it. >> that's the president of the united states telling abc news and the world that it's now open season on u.s. election, that he's fully open for business. oh, and he went on to add that the fbi doesn't necessarily have to know about it. all of it prompted the chair of the federal election commission to issue a public rebuke of the president. it reads in part let me make something 100% clear to the

american public and anyone running for public office it is illegal for any person to solicit, accept or receive anything of value in connection with a u.s. election. this is not a novel concept. so that's where we left it last night and this morning the president went on "fox & friends" and this is what became known as the walkback, the cleanup. listen carefully. >> you have to look at it because if you don't look at it you're not going to know if it's bad. how are you going to know if it's bad? but of course you give it to the fbi, or report it to the attorney general, or somebody like that. but of course you do that. >> of course you give it to the fbi, he said, or the attorney general, or somebody like that. but you have to look at it, he says. how else would you know if it's bad? unclear if he means bad for the country, bad for public confidence in the democratic process or merely bad for his opponent. but hey, you've got to take that

rolex from the guy in the bar. how else can you find out if it's stolen? that in a nutshell is the president's argument, don't call the cops before inspecting the goods. some walkback may be though a still listening walkback, and some cleanup, but let's just say for a minute that the president for whatever reasons did, in fact, intend to somehow temper his position. you still have to ask yourself, given the latest tweet, given what you just heard, given his original remarks, which rings truer, the so-called cleanup or the so-called gaffe? and we do have some new reporting right now on how all of this is unfolding inside the white house. cnn's jim acosta joins us with what his sources are telling him. what are you learning about the fallout surrounding the abc news interview? >> reporter: john, sources telling me and abby philip, my colleague, that essentially people inside the white house and outside the white house close to the president feel that mr. trump mishandled these

questions coming from abc about whether or not he would accept foreign dirt on a political opponent in the upcoming 2020 campaign. one source told me earlier today that these clips coming from abc have been "tough to watch." and they essentially feel at this point the president did try to clean this up but there has been some lasting damage that they're not exactly sure how much damage was done but there was some lasting damage from what the president said he clearly invited foreign governments to turn over damaging information on political opponents in that interview. as you were just playing a few moments ago he sort of cleared it up but left a lot of collusion confusion because in the course of that interview on "fox & friends" he seemed to be saying well maybe i would turn it over to the fbi but i might want to have a look at it first. that's not exactly the same thing as going straight to the fbi. >> no, not at all. i understand, jim, some of the president's advisers are taking issue with how sarah sanders handled all of this, correct? >> reporter: that's right. there was some grumbling going

on inside the white house among some of the president's political advisers as to whether or not the outgoing white house press secretary simply granted too much access to the president during the course of this interview and put him in a position where he made these kinds of comments. now, of course it was the president's decision to do the interview and also make those remarks so you can't blame too much of this on sarah sanders but there was some finger pointing going on inside the white house and among the president's political advisers and it just goes to show you, john, that there was concern as to what the president said. otherwise they wouldn't be pointing fingers at one another. >> so the people you're talking to jim, do they think these comments will hurt him with supporters at all? >> reporter: when the president makes these sorts of remarks it's kind of incredible how much teflon coating he has when it comes to this issue of interference in our elections. the sources that we've been talking to over the last 24 hours have told us essentially they feel, though, that this is

just an issue for democrats and people in the media, not necessarily something that's going to dent his support among his supporters. and i think one true sign of that came earlier today john when the senate majority leader was thanked by the president on twitter for mitch mcconnell's comments to fox news that essentially the public needs to move on on all of this. one example when it comes to the issue of foreign interference it seems the leadership of the republican party has had this president's back no matter what he says. >> we've heard from many nonpartisan people in the national security committee they're concerned about the comments as well. jim acosta, thank you very much. joining us now, someone with a sense of how -- maggie haberman. they're concerned, they think it didn't go well. what are you hearing? >> there's a couple things going on. one is there is certainly concern about the specific

remarks about, you know, i'd take it, which is his language about foreign interference and to be clear we weren't talking about -- which he's describing as opposition research and we should be very clear that's not what that is, that's not what opposition research is. we've talked about this here before. but it's worth noting and this doesn't have to be russia. it could be almost any country. they're concerned about the fact that he gave a series of interviews in the last two weeks, two on his foreign trip, his state visit to the uk and then to normandy. and this interview, very long interview, with george stephanopoulos where he said all manner of things that a number of his aides thought were regrettable, a number of his advisers thought were regrettable, talked about the vietnam war very dismissively getting ready to attend d-day commemorations, gave this interview with george stephanopoulos. they don't think it will necessarily dent his support but they also know his base has to grow. he can't contract if he's going into 2020.

and anything that could shave off even a little bit of support is worrisome. >> the part about being concerned with the george stephanopoulos interview confuses me because it wasn't a trick question. >> no. >> it's one of the major questions out there, would you listen to outreach from foreign countries offering dirt on political opponents? you know, robert mueller basically presented that question to the world at the end of his one public statement. >> that question was also asked of the president's son-in-law jared kushner about a meeting that jared kushner attended with the president's son and the then campaign chairman paul manafort with the kremlin lawyer. jared kushner was i don't know i'm not going to get into hypotheticals. it's the second time we've seen that. it does suggest there has not been a whole lot learned in terms of going forward. i also think that you can't -- it is not excuse making to be clear but i think you have to remember that for this president acknowledging that there was -- he wouldn't do it again would be admitting that someone made a mistake last time which i think he is always loathe to do. but in refusing to do so he's

hurting himself. >> why then, what some are calling a walkback today, even though he did still say he would listen and then determine to hand it over. >> there's still the reality of the situation and there are enough people who know this had to be dealt with. >> one other political reality he did create, which to give democrats an opportunity to propose this legislation, which would make it illegal, not to tell the fbi. if you get this foreign outreach from foreign adversaries offering dirt on political opponents. that is something the democrats, i imagine, could run with. >> democrats could absolutely run with that in the house. they know it's not going anywhere in the senate. it could certainly lay bare for people what the issue is and what they're talking about and the stakes here and this is, among democrats there is some quiet and not so quiet grumbling that there is more they could be doing on the voting front to just try to, you know, highlight areas where they think the president has problems. >> i want to ask you something which you've done a lot of work on in the last week which you had a terrific report, which said that there were concerns within the trump campaign that

their internal polling had shown the president trailing joe biden in key swing states. many of them. the president then denied it, called it fake news among other things, i'm sure. and then today abc news didn't just mash it, they were handed the very polling from the trump campaign. >> i don't know if they were handed it from the trump campaign. the trump campaign confirmed numbers they had were real. to your point we reported and politico and cnn also reported that the president was behind biden in a number of states, in a 17-state poll. what the campaign then said once approached with these numbers by abc was these were just one set of numbers, it was the worst case scenario. but once again you have the president of the united states saying this is fake news, this is not real, and that term has come to mean stories he doesn't like. >> right. he didn't like your story and then he lied about it. >> right. >> afterwards. >> look, this is always the

question, is i don't know how much of the information he knew. i don't know exactly what he was shown. that's not the point. that's why he should be more careful with what he says and not just tweet that everything is fake because it strikes a cord. >> although smrt some of the reporting that's been out there included the fact that he wanted justify -- he wanted it spun a different a different way. >> he wanted aides to say the reporting by us and politico wasn't true and then he denied that he wanted them to deny it. the whole thing is chain reaction to himself. >> once again reporting by maggie haberman of the "new york times" proves to be correction. >> thanks, john. next more breaking news, this item involving the president's taxes and who can see them, we will tell you which influential legal voice has now just weighed in and how much credence that opinion which favors president trump might carry. and later elizabeth warren who likes to tell voters i've got a plan for that if she becomes president. the question tonight do all

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the justice department has just weighed in on president trump's tax returns, namely whether the treasury department can keep them away from the house ways and means committee and perhaps the public despite a law that seems to strongly suggest explicitly suggest otherwise. cnn's laura jarrett has late reporting on this. she joins us now. laura, what is the justice department's legal argument here? >> the claim made tonight is that the text of the tax code may be clear but what matters is the intent of the democratic congressman who served the subpoena for the tax returns, richard neal. because he wants to make the taxes public that's not a legitimate legislative purpose so treasury secretary steve my knew shin has a duty not to turn them over. >> it's about the democrats'

motives. >> exactly. and doj called chairman neal's proposals auditing of presidential candidates, he calls that pretextual, the justice department does, pointing to a bunch of statements from other democrats who said they need trump's tax return for a variety of reasons, like looking at financial health, which has nothing to do with enforcing finance tax laws. >> we knew the justice department was going to weigh in and we were going to see it. what's the next step for democrats here? >> the justice department also doesn't have the last word here. this isn't a legally binding opinion it's just their argument and so chairman neal so far hasn't made any moves to get his subpoenas enforced in course but that's where all of this is headed in all reality and so today's opinion from the justice department just shows how aggressive of a stance this administration probably plans to take to keep those tax returns under wraps, john. >> no filing yet, this isn't in

a courtroom waiting to be heard at this point? >> no, this is just a 33-page missive from the department that shows what they will say in court down the line. >> laura jarrett, thanks for being with us tonight. joining us now, two cnn legal analysts, shane wu and carrie cordero. shane, does the justice department have a valid argument hre that there's no legislative purpose and it carries the risk of abuse? >> they do not. that was not a legal opinion, john, it was just, as laura said, an argument. i mean, when i worked at the department my understanding was the department defended our laws. here they seem inclined to either abandon them or find a way around them. this is just sully they're saying that they're questioning the motives. they're not in the business of questioning motive. they're in the business of doing legal analysis. there's no legal analysis in these 33 pages. >> as laura pointed out the doj says chairman neal proclaimed publicly several times he was committed to making the

president's tax returns available to the public which they say proves this is partisan and not for legislative reasons. do chairman neal's prior statements have -- undercut his argument here? >> i think it's possible for two things to be true. it's possible for him to have a legitimate legislative purpose and i think that he does. he's demonstrated that. there's all sorts of different potential legislation that we could think of that congress could pass with respect to a president needing to make their tax returns public, or the enforcement of the irs audit against the president. so i think he's demonstrated a legitimate purpose. there also is something to the argument that the justice department has which is that he also has made statements and other democrats have made statements about making the returns public so it's possible for both things to be true. what's clear in the legal opinion from the justice department is that they are not challenging the text of the statute at all. >> the text of the statute which

says shall furnish, shane, you know, the treasury department shall furnish these tax returns and the statute says nothing about motive, it doesn't come up at all which in fact the justice department agrees with today in its legal argument. >> that's right. carrie is right, they don't challenge the legal basis because there's nothing to challenge. there's really nothing to interpret about it. i mean, it says shall, as you pointed out, john, and the justice department's just coming up with an argument for thou shall not follow that law. >> carrie, what about the potential for abuse, though? or what about the idea that this law might not be a good one anymore if this administration, or, you know, or if this congress wants to get the president's tax returns, wants to stop another congress from going after a different president's tax returns in the future? >> yeah, i mean there's something to that although the president could have handled this so he is the first president, at least in our modern history, who has not

released his tax returns. that has raised all of these questions. and so congress is attempting to use a law that has been passed that was enacted into law, having been signed by a prior president. so they're using the law to obtain them. he could make this whole thing go away by releasing his returns and so there is a legitimate reason for them to be able to pursue it. it also raises the question, i think, as to whether the president is abusing his authority by having the justice department sort of under his authority make arguments that protect him personally. >> so talk to me about that. i think that's really interesting. what does that say about the bill barr justice department? >> well, it shows, first of all, that not just bill barr, but that the entire instrument of the justice department, including the office of legal counsel, which issues the definitive legal opinions for the department and advises the rest of the executive branch, is

being asked and is fulfilling arguments that potentially benefit the president personally. i think -- i mean, they are going to make the argument that they are defending the executive in this case. but given the fact that some of the returns pertain to returns before he was president, that's where i see some question about it. >> so, shan, what happens next? when does this get to a courtroom? >> it can get to a courtroom if they go -- if they being congress try to go the route of contempt. that would be a mechanism by which to get to the courtroom and at this point that's really the more proper place for it to be. i mean, the department can make those arguments if it wants for a fact finder judge to discern. but the language is so boot strapping. they say that, quote -- it's not exactly a quote, i'm remembering it, that it's not -- can't possibly be constitutional for congress to have an invalid purpose. that's a completely conclusory statement. if you want to challenge the law

as being unconstitutional, collage it, be up front about it. but of course they can't do that. >> thanks for being with us tonight. we found out that sarah sanders will be exiting. we have one of her predecessors with a lot to say about the legacy she will leave behind, not a glowing assessment. joe lockhart is next. -we bought a house in a neighborhood with a lot of other young couples. then we noticed something...strange. oh, could you, uh, make me a burger? -poof -- you're a burger. [ laughter ]

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simple, easy, awesome. go to xfinity.com/moving to get started. back to breaking news at the top of the hour, president trump's abc news interview this week which was even panned among some inside the white house, as we mentioned white house officials have privately expressed frustration with how the president answered the questions. and a source close to the white house says some political advisers were not impressed by how sarah sanders handled the interview prior to the announcement of her departure yesterday so the question tonight, what's going to happen after she leaves?

according to "the new york times" the president is said to be eager to install a woman. could the exit of sanders mean the return of the white house press briefing, internal debate over whether to revive it, according to the times, as the president heads into the thick of the election season. we're on day 95 since the last briefing. my next guest didn't shy away from facing reporters when he held the position, even when things weren't going well. he wrote a critical op-ed of sanders, saying she's failed on almost every aspect of her job. joe lockhart, great to see you. strange seeing you at night. i usually wake up with you. >> let's move on. >> the idea that the white house is frustrated with sarah sanders, how she handled the abc news interview, does that ring true? >> i have to think and it's just a hunch that the last two weeks might have accelerated her departure. i think if you bookend the

europe trip the sitting down with laura ingram in the american -- knowing the president has no impulse control and will go off on nancy pelosi and any opponent in the worst of all settings, a sacred place, bookend that with giving george stephanopoulos a very tough interviewer, a guy not likely to be wowed or in awe of the white house and the trappings because he worked there for four years, those were bad decisions. i assume they were sarah's. maybe they weren't. but the buck stops in the press secretary's office and the president was put in a bad situation despite, you know, doing it to himself he shouldn't have been there. >> is it sarah's fault that -- george is a great guy and a great interviewer but those were obvious questions. that was an obvious question. is it sarah's fault that george asked the question everyone in america wanted to know the answer to. >> sarah's job is like a lawyer,

never put somebody out unless you know what they're going to say. you work through it. if the answers are not going to work for the president to help promote his agenda and defend against something you don't put him out. there seemed to be some malpractice there to open the doors and say come on in, ask anything, the president's ready. >> all right, your op-ed about sarah sanders where you say she failed at almost every aspect of her job, you spare nothing in this, why? >> well, i mean, the press secretary job has multiple facets to it. the part that i think she did do well was she defended the president. you should defend the president. but you've got to defend him by telling the truth and she failed there. i think the mueller report story about the smearing james comey and talking to fbi -- she talked to fbi rank and file and said he was a bad guy, that was instructive that under oath she told the truth but beforehand and then when she was back in her office talking to reporters

she doubled back to the lie. so it means that unless -- you know, this is a person who unless they're faced with jail time is not going to tell the truth, that's -- you're in the wrong job if you're there. the second thing is, the big part of your job is to keep the public informed and the going 95 days without doing a briefing sends the message that the public doesn't have a right to know. the third is, you're there as the advocate for the press. and, you know, one of the things that sarah sanders did is she normalized this idea that it's okay to view the press as the enemy of the people. never once did she stand up and say well the president's being hyperbolic there. we don't think that here at the white house. she basically echoed it. so in almost every aspect of the job i think she failed. >> if truth is not a priority for this white house is it worth restoring the press briefing? >> well, you know, that's -- i don't know that i can answer that question. i don't think anyone should take

the job if truth isn't the first order and the second order and the third order of business. let the president just tweet, if lying is acceptable let him be his own press secretary but if someone's going to go into that job and doing the daily press briefing is a huge opportunity for the administration and it's one lost here because you get to drive the narrative and you drive it in a way that's much more disciplined than the president's early morning tweets. yes, everybody chases that but there's no strategy behind that. >> it's also a necessity on days when there's conflict with iran and other sorts of things. do you believe there's been lasting damage done to the job of press secretary? >> i'm afraid there has. you know, i'm afraid that whoever's president next, whether it's a democrat or republican may look at this and say well we don't have to do this, you know, the risk is too high, we can just do it through talking directly to our supporters on social media and all that does is further divide the country when you only feel

like you have to talk to your people. the thing about the press briefing is it's wide open. anyone who wants to watch it can watch it. that's how people used to speak to the whole nation rather than, you know, through fox news or through, you know, a liberal website or progressive website. i'm afraid that people will take the wrong lesson from this and it really is -- you know, it sounds self-important but it really is a blow to democracy when you cut the press out of the system. >> joe lockhart, great to have you with us tonight. >> thanks, john. >> appreciate it. next, president trump's best known catch phrase you're fired, see why you don't catch him using it with one of his most outspoken staff members kellyanne conway, does the white house consider her above the law? if you have moderate to severe psoriasis

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the office of special counsel's report on what it called kellyanne conway's numerous violations of the hatch act could not have been more clear. she used her government job to

preach partisan politics and that failure to fire her for that would "send a message to all federal employees that they need not abide by the hatch act," the response from the president during a phone interview on fox could not have been more clear. conway he said did nothing wrong, nothing but exercise her first amendment rights. >> i got briefed on it yesterday. it looks to me like they're trying to take away her right of free speech and that's just not fair. it sounds to me like a free speech thing. >> you're not going to fire her? >> no, i'm not going to fire her. i think she's a terrific person. they have tried to take away her speech and i think you're entitled to free speech in this country. >> here with me now former white house communications director for president obama and a cnn political commentator jen zake, and walter shaub. the idea that kellyanne conway

was just exercising her first amendment rights, does that hold any water? >> no, it's just utter silliness. the hatch act has been upheld by the supreme court and repeatedly by lower courts. this is a well established restriction and keep in mind she's entitled to speak freely on her own time off of government property but the whole point of the hatch act is to keep her from misusing her government position to advocate for a candidate or against a candidate in an election. >> the law specifically, just to be clear on this, walter, distinguishes between when she's working as, in this case, a senior counselor to the president or when she's off on her own, correct? >> right, that's absolutely right. >> so, jen, i want to play instances where kellyanne conway again using her official job violated the hatch act. listen. >> doug jones in alabama, folks don't be fooled, he'll be a vote against tax cuts. he's weak on crime, weak on borders.

he's strong on raising your taxes. he's terrible for property owners. i've yet to see presidential timber, i just see a bunch of presidential woodchips, amy klobuchar, change the "a" to "o" and get oh, my. elizabeth warren spent decades appropriating somebody else's heritage and ethnicity. >> she's been lying about it. kirsten gillibrand this weekend in her 50s the first time she's ever eaten fried chicken and waited for the cameras to roll. this is just silly stuff. held to account for the -- >> some of those included statements on the white house lawn. >> uh-huh. >> repeated instances, jen, of these hatch act violations. >> that's right. and it's pretty shocking to watch. i mean, when i was in the white house in 2016 our lawyers were so strict we called them the hatch act police behind their backs. now they may know if they're watchers. the fact is this law has been around for decades and the reason as walter touched on is

so that you're not influencing electoral politics from the white house and most white houses abide by it and watching kelly ann conway, i mean, she is not just using -- playing into politics, she's kind of attacking and obviously engaging in efforts to go after president trump's opponents and that's exactly what you're not supposed to do. and that's why this law is in place. >> walter, what happens now? because kellyanne conway isn't going to jail. she's not losing her job. is she allowed to just keep on making comments like this. >> she wasn't allowed to do what she did and she did it anyway. she will probably continue and she probably won't be fired. i think one good thing that's come out of this is it truly exposes the level of lawlessness in this administration. you've got career federal employees who in this administration have been fired for hatch act violations, one of them was even barred from working for the government for another five years. but it seems that in the trump

administration the higher the level the official the less the rule of law applies to them. so at least now we have clarity that the trump administration is not even paying lip service to the idea that they care about the rule of law, and i think it shows a particular disdain for laws that lack an effective enforcement mechanism. >> but, jen, what message does this send to other white house employees? what message does it send to future white house employees? >> well, it sends a message that you're above the law. if you're in the white house. and certainly that comes from the current president and hopefully that's not what the message future presidents send but i think one of the points walter made is really important. i worked in an agency as well during my time in government and the vast majority of federal employees don't even have posters of candidates they support, whether they're democrats or republicans. they give no indication of that because it's not appropriate and that's not how you conduct yourself in federal service because you're serving the american people. there's only a handful, a very small number of even white house

employees that can engage in political activity. this is sending the message that doesn't matter anymore and we don't have to abide by that and that kind of goes into this divisive theme we've seen from this white house that you only are governing a small population of the people in this country, that's to your political advantage and not the whole country. and that's a huge problem, obviously. >> walter shaub, jen psaki, thank you for being with us. polling in the single digits, trailing far behind the pack and now elizabeth warren has caught up to bernie sanders. mj lee talked to senator warren today. even if you try to eat w, you might fall short in key nutrients. get more by adding one a day. it's the #1 multivitamin uniquely designed for men and women. one serving, once a day. one a day. and done. you don't always use your smartphone for directions... are we there yet? hey guys, up there. ...or to laugh out loud. ♪ but when it matters most,

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the lineup for the two nights of democratic debates was announced earlier today. when senator elizabeth warren steps onto the stage during round one on june 26th she will be the only top five polling

candidate that night. a few months ago national polls had her far back trailing the other progressive favorite senator bernie sanders by double digits. in the last week state polls in nevada and iowa have her ahead or even with sanders. to understand the turnaround, watch her on the campaign trail. we find national political correspondent mj lee who talked to the senator today. >> dream big! dream big! >> reporter: nearly 100 town hall meetings, thousands of selfies, and a whole lot of plans, elizabeth warren is riding high into the summer on fresh momentum and energy. poll after poll shows warren climbing within striking distance of senator bernie sanders for second place nationally. neck and neck in iowa and ahead of sanders in nevada. >> this isn't about polls. it's way too early to be talking about that but it's about ideas. it's about talking with people about what's broken in our country.

>> reporter: historically crowded democratic contest for president warren has bid big on day one on policy. >> i've got a plan for that. >> reporter: she's released more than 20 plans this year. breaking up big tech -- >> they collect information on every buyer and seller that >> what it means to talk about student loan debt cancellation. universal child care and real investment in early learning for zero to 5. >> her heavy strategy is clearly resinating with some democratic voters. >> i'm excited that she knows what she is doing and has experience and a specific plan for how to change the world. >> he is able to articulate many of the issues that are facing us and more importantly she seems to have a workable plan to address these issues. >> warren also committed to a grass roots campaign. she is refusing to hold high dollar fund-raisers during the primaries.

>> i'm not smooching up to my millionaires hoping they will fund super pacts on my behalf. >> trying to win over supporters. one at a time. >> this is elizabeth warren. warren has been a leading voice among the 2020 field and impeachment proceedings against president trump. after the release of special counsels reports. >> this is not about politics. this is about principle. >> warren faces stiff competition from former vice president joe biden that has consistently lead in the polls. >> how do you appeal to moderate voters that might be more inclined to support a joe biden at this point. >> the way i see it, it's talking about where things have gone wrong. how long before donald trump came along, we had a government that was working better and better for those at the top. now the trump administration, the most corrupt in living memory, but the problem is a long time big problem and the

way we fight back is we tackle that corruption head on. >> mj lee cnn manchester new hampshire. >> and mj lee joins me now from manchester, new hampshire. where warren was campaigning today. the senator didn't bite on your question on joe biden but the fact of the matter is is that she and the former vice president feuded for years, correct? >> that's right. they butted heads when it comes to policy at least. for decades now. dating back to when he was a senator at delaware and elizabeth warren was a bankruptcy law expert. they crashed on capitol hill on that very issue. we learned today that joe biden and elizabeth warren are not going to be on the same debate stage for the first democratic set of debates instead she is going to be on stage with corey booker and amy klobachar and that is not a clash we're going

to see at least in the first democratic debate. i did ask her if she had started doing debate prep. she says she has not yet. >> time to get started. thanks so much. she lives in the people's house but people still know very little about our notoriously private first lady melania trump. that's going to change in just minutes. you'll hear from aids in her close inner circle and get a rare look inside the east wing. that's in just a moment.

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citi. welcome what's next moments away from a fascinating new special report. how much do you really know about melania trump. we often see more than we hear from her. she is one of the most private first ladies we ever had. so a white house reporter was able to get access that very few had thus far in the east wing to help give us a better understanding of mrs. trump, what she is like and what she does. here's a quick peek of tonight's upcoming documentary, woman of mystery, melania trump. >> this is the chief of staff office. and in advance in operations. back here is calligraphy. very very busy. especially during state dinners. >> in constant touch with the first lady. >> working in the east wing

being so small. we are tight knit. we have to be. we're close. >> melania's east wing has 12 staff members. far fewer than her predecessors. >> it puts you at a tremendous disadvantage and sends a message about how much you're willing to do. >> there's a lot in this special. you'll see it at top of the hour. i want to bring in kate bennett to walk us through what else we can expect. >> obviously the first lady is in the spotlight but is still so elusive and is a woman of mystery. what's the biggest misconception. >> there's two camps. there people that believe she is miserable and trapped in the white house and those that feel like she is a very traditional stoic grace under pressure first lady. i think the truth is somewhere in between. i don't think she's trapped or miserable and unhappy.

i do think it's a role she never saw herself being in. that alone -- there's no job description. it's what you make of it and for someone like melania trump that values her privacy and always has, this is a complicated experience and i think she doesn't want to go out of her comfort zone. >> so you were able, and this is terrific to get access, full access to the east wing where the first family lives. what was that like? >> we were in the offices where mostly the first lady goes to work every day. >> she oversees her staff and we got to pick in to where there are the different components that put the east wing together and for this administration a part of the white house apparatus that no one has gotten a chance to see, like the president melania trump is not a big fan of the media so meeting the people that see her and work

with her every day brings a big component to this first lady. >> we look forward to the special. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> we want you to have a wonderful weekend. happy father's day to me. the premiere of woman of mystery, melania trump starts right now. the following is a cnn special report. >> ladies and gentlemen, the first lady of the united states, mrs. melania trump. >> she's the most unusual first lady in modern history. >> she is very reclusive. melania trump is never be holden to the ways of broadcasting everything that you're thinking and doing. >> there's persistent rumors that mrs. trump does not live in this white house. >> she is forging her