that's it for this week's show. i'm paul gigot. hope to see you next week. [♪] julie: i'm julie banderas. welcome to "america's news headquarters." kelly: i'm kelly wright. bombshell allegations from president obama that the obama administration had his phone lines wiretapped during the presidential campaign. the white house promising more details on this soon. julie: a the vice president response to news that he used a private email for government business while he was governor.

we begin with a fox news alert. president trump hearting a quiet saturday with a series of tweets about former president obama. that he tapped the phone trump tower before the u.s. election. it would take an order from a judge who found probable cause. all of this erupting as big questions swirl about attorney general jeff sessions. and moscow's alleged interference in the election on trump's behalf. lauren is covering the latest on the attorney general, but let's begin with kristen fisher in palm beach, florida. reporter: we are waiting for an official response from the white house.

but over the last hour, the white house director social media posted a link on his twitter account to the breitbart story that seemed to set off this series of shocking tweets from president obama early this morning. he said how low has president obama gone to tap my phones. bad or sick guy. adam schiff said if there is something bad or sick going on, it's the willingness of the nation's chief executive to make the most outlandish claims without providing a sil -- a sca of evidence. form president barack obama respond in a statement from his spokesman it reads neither

president obama nor any white house official ordered surveillance on any u.s. citizen. they say it's false. but that statement does not mention the f.b.i. or the department of justice. it leaves them some wiggle room. and it's something a former top aide to former president barack obama steamed highlight in a tweet. he said i would be careful about obama saying there was no wiretapping. the statement just said neither he north white house ordered it. if the f.b.i. or the department of justice was able to obtain a warrant to wiretap trump tower it would have been due do concerns members of the trump campaign might have broken the law in their communications with russia. trump is accusing former president barack obama of wire tachg the very building where

his campaign was headquarters. fit turns out to be true, it would be the biggest political scandal since watergate. a lot of breaking news here in west palm beach. julie: kristen, thank you so much. kelly: attorney general jeff sessions will answer questions about his contact with the russian ambassador, but it won't be in a public hearing. sessions will submit written answer to democratic lawmakers monday. lauren blanchard is live with more details. will this satisfy the critics? reporter: i would not count on it. now that the democrats have been denied the request top question sessions and will only get written answers, they are continuing to call for sessions to step down. >> the way i grew up, when you

tell something that's not true, you don't say you are a perjurer, you say you lied. reporter: chuck grassley asked for sessions to explain his statements during his confirmation hearings for attorney general. democrats say it doesn't solve the problem. kelly: democrats are vowing a fight with all of this. but are republicans sticking by the president and his attorney general? >> we know allegations of too cozy a relationship with russia and misinformation have brought down one of the president's cabinet members. with democrats calling for session's resignation, republicans are trying to save face saying democrats are just playing politics. >> when it comes to serious investigations about russian involvement in our elections to federal law enforcement

investigation, these are not things that should be debated while they are ongoing in the public. reporter: republicans say what sessions did in meeting with russian ambassador isn't illegal, nor did he perjure himself in the hearings. julie: so for more on this let's bring in our panel, dennis kucinich, and adam goodman, a republican campaign strategist and edward r. murrow fellow at topps university. dennis, let me start with your reaction to these you are morning tweets at 6:35 this morning where he come pairs this to mccarthyism. watergate. you just heard graham compared

this to being worse than watergate if these facts are true that's former president obama could be responsible pore wire tampg at trump tower. do you believe it? >> whether it occurred or not, don't know, and who could have don't, we don't know. i think all americans have concerns about whether we have an expectation of privacy anymore. we are supposed to by virtue of the fourth amendment. yet these leaks are coming from all directions, the intel agencies apparently have this tendency to leak to try to sway public opinion in america. that doesn't seem right. julie: an accusation of wiretapping which is being accused against the former president. it's a serious accusation and one that this white house wouldn't want to disclose unless they had 100% certainty and

proof that they could back up the accusations. do you believe they have have the proof? until now we haven't seen it. >> certainly we have seen or heard reports from the media suggesting that not once, but several times a request was made for an investigation of a wiretap situation at trump tower. by think what's interesting about the parallel stories of what we'll call russia gate and this recent revelation, it's an example of liberal media bias where there is no doubt without any reservation about the one. but there is complete suspicion about the other. i believe that if this allegation were true about the wiretapping and it happened in october apparently of 2016, and had it been authorized in part by the justice department. headed bid loretta lynch. -- head by loretta lynch.

we remember loretta lynch for her meeting on the tarmac with form president bill clinton and f.b.i. comey three days later said there was nothing there on the investigation into hillary clinton. i think all these raise questions. all these are worthy of investigation. one last thing about jeff sessions. he's an american patriot. he's a debt and deficit hawk, military hawk, and he's the last person who will square away in terms of going easy with relations with russia. and i believe his recusal was a good step in generating trust not tomorrow for himself but for this administration. julie: he's a man to stand by his rules. the elected men and women who have met with prution officials

including charles schumer, a picture that ended up on the drudge report, then president trump tweeted of him and vladimir putin this week. i think it's the timing of this. the week was starting out well for the administration after the joint session speech. >> what you are saving is certainly true it's a question of timing. but we need to go over something again. there is no evidence of russian interference in the u.s. election? and it's not illegal top speak to russia. and the third thing is with respect to the attorney general, the constitution of the united states protects members of congress, article one, section 8, from being questioned relating to any discussions they have during their conduct of office. theoretically the attorney general could claim that as a privilege without having to recuse himself.

but the fact that he did recuse himself indicates he's trying to cooperate with those who have expressed concern. julie: it does say a lot. he did recuse himself. he didn't have to. he's not going to resign most likely. i want to read one of president trump's tweets. here is one i wanted to ask you to respond to. is it legal for a sitting president to be wiretapping a race turned down by earlier. a new low. i'll bet a good lawyer could make a good case of the of the fact president obama was tapping my phones before the election. how low has president obama gone in wiretapping before an election. these are strong words coming from our president. there have been questions about the election process.

and whether president obama's campaign at the time had any connections with the russians. but this certainly does not bode well for the democratic party that they could have been potentially meddling in the presidential election. is that a possibility the former obama administration should be worried about? >> i think everyone should be worried. first of all, all the tweets you just referenced. let's say that payment news of the day. donald trump has a wonderful ability to command attention and did that here. but there is a bigger point he's trying to make. he's trying to move the country forward on all sorts of major league fronts. getting answers to immigration and building up the military. he's trying to get us away from the kind of conversation that bogged us down in 2016. politics payment excuse for inaction.

it became the reason why congress has been so hard pressed to get anything done. whether thesal graightss true or not. it raises a fundamental point. we are spending so much time in this country focused on who is up and who's down and the gotcha game, and not enough time on moving the nation forward. that's what the president is intending to do. julie: there are also alternative truths and facts you can throw into that. it hasn't bent most truthful the last month. there have been a lot of statements taken back or changed. the stories have changed. and you want transparency in washington. we would be having the same conversation if president trump was still in office. thanks for your fair and balanced segment. thank you both. kelly: pro-trump rallies being

held across the country today. supporters showing their pride in cities from denver to atlanta to counter demonstrations against him. reporter: their entire purpose is to let the president know despite the protests since the election. the people who voted for him are behind him 100%. there are rallies from maine to minnesota to hawaii. some like one in minneapolis have only drawn a few dozen people. others like one here in new york city outside trump tower had several hundred people decked out in americana with signs and chants of u.s.a. in washington, d.c., 100 support percent net near the washington monument then hard over to the white house. there were crowds outside the

southern wait house in palm beach, florida. they wanted to let the president know he has their support. organizers say this is a response to the string of protests across the country. some of those same protesters have organized anti-trump protests today. police in those areas are on high alert and hoping to avoid conflicts between the two groups. we'll be watching and will keep you updated. julie: after slamming hillary clinton's use of email, vice president mike pence is on the defensive over his private account while governor. turning over boxes of messages today. we'll be speaking with a republican member of the house oversight committee about what's next if anything. a disturbing turn in iraq's

attempt to liberate mosul. chemical weapons. the white house is running a lean operation with many jobs yet unfilled. so how does this affect its ability to govern. ♪ that's life. you diet. you exercise. and if you still need help lowering your blood sugar... ...this is jardiance. along with diet and exercise... jardiance lowers blood sugar and a1c in adults with type 2 diabetes. jardiance is also the only type 2 diabetes treatment with heart- proven to reduce the risk of cardiovascular death in adults with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. jardiance can cause serious side effects, including dehydration. this may cause you to feel dizzy, faint, or lightheaded, or weak upon standing.

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[♪] kelly: vice president mike pence turning over 13 boxes of emails to the indiana statehouse yesterday amid reports he used a private email account to conduct business while governor of indiana. here is how the governor respond. >> there is no comparison whatsoever between hillary clinton's practice of having a private server, mishandling classified information, destroying emails when they were requested by the congress and officials. i'm confident our email practices were in full compliance with all of indiana's laws. kelly: joining me, congressman farenholt from texas.

>> in indiana it's against the law to do certain types of campaign material on government computer. so he had to have a private email account. so just the premise that he had one, it was necessary in his job. kelly: that's a good point. if he's conducting a campaign, he can't do it from the statehouse or the governor's mansion because that would violate the law. during the 2016 campaign he criticized hillary clinton of her use of a private email account. he accused her of exposing confidential and classified information to hackers. does this smack of hypocrisy in any way?

>> i don't think it does. as governor indiana, he didn't have any federally classified information. hillary clinton's server was in her basement, was insecure. when the emails were requested she took a program to it called bleach by thcalledbleachbit to d the server. kelly: it looks like he's being very open and having or giving permission to his access. the indy star newspaper which reported the story. nearly 30 emails show the vice president while serving as governor exchanged emails on how the state should respond to terror attacks globally and those involved in cyber security say the emails raise particular concerns about hackers being

able to hack into mr. pence's private emails. does that raise red flags in this particular situation? >> if he was on aol with that account they are agrels which about security. but there is evidence his email account may have been breached. but i get those every couple weeks. the other thing about aol, they probably have backups and will respond to a subpoena from the government to turn over what they have. but hillary clinton took bleachbit to her server and we couldn't get it. the f.b.i. said that's wrong, there was classified material on there. i think you are comparing apples and oranges in this case. kelly: you know the political climate in washington is very partisan.

do you think democrats are going to step up an attack on vice president pence because of these emails that he had on a private account and public account while serving as governor indiana? does it have anything to do with his current role in moving forward with his role governing the united states as vice president? >> there is a concerted effort from democrats and bureaucrats and perhaps even folks in the intelligence community and contractors to derail the trump administration. there are people out there that don't want the swamp drained. and these a swamp monsters will stop at nothing to protect their jobs and that's not good for america. kelly: the vice president is renowned for being a man of character. he turned over the emails and he will continue to turn over more. thanks for sharing your insights into this. julie: disturbing news from

iraq. 12 people including children are now being treated for chemical weapons exposure. if the united nations warning the use of chemical weapons if confirmed would be a war crime and a serious violation of international law. john huddy joins me next. reporter: disturbing indeed yet again. this isn't the first time isis has been accused of using chemical weapons. and let's take a look. some of that video is very disturbing from earlier today from the whose images of the dozen people including children that were hospitalized from this latest after he tack earlier in the week in eastern mosul. they had conditions consistent

with expose our to chemical weapons. thousands of civilians have escaped from western months pull as iraq's military continues its offensive there. iraqi troops liberated eastern mosul in january. when they were clearing that area going house to house. they did find isis chemical weapons labs and an arsenal of chemical weapons, mortars fan rockets with chlorine gas and mustard gas. attack in eastern mosul was a mortar attack, a mortar landing crashing through a roof, burning her hand and her daughter's legs. we heard a lot of stories about that. there is some good news in this. doctors save those people that were hospitalized in this attack are expected to recover from their wounds. that said, however, there

remains concern among iraqi it in commanders and officials that as isis continues to lose ground in mosul and right now in western months you will that militants will become increasingly more desperate and use any and all possible means to attack not only iraqi troops, but to hurt, to maim, and to kill innocent men, women, and children. julie? julie: it goes to show what we are you have against on this war on terror. kelly: president trump accusing his predecessor of tachg his --f catching his phone at trump tower. is that even possible? and does it set a precedent in the political the world? and president trump running his and president trump running his administration with a smaller staff. are,

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john is a columnists and joins us now to weigh some insights. let me pick your brain. what is your reaction to the tweet coming out this morning, and the firestorm it has caused in the media and political circles? >> at 645 a.m., your president should be doing something else at that hour. there are some i give themselves to tweeting and some that don't. the subject like this is worthy of a presidential news conference or commission. the truth is, the obama fbi did get a warrant an authorization

from the foreign intelligence court last october to put surveillance devices in the trump tower. they were investigating possible links between banks in russia and people working inside trump tower. it turned it turned out they didn't find anything. that's a stretch to say that president obama ordered that. his administration was of all. you present trump also say that say that he needs to provide us more details. right now a lot of people say he just made it up, we'll he did it for their some basis for but no contacts. >> kelly: even the speaker of the house, paul ryan has talked about that very investigation that was going on. he wanted to say no evidence was found but they are looking at russia has been the type of country that would try to interfere metal with our politics. >> and also financial institutions with money laundering and other things.

russian officials would be sanctions of because of their activities with their banks. >> kelly: this crosses along the partisan divide and will probably. people people on both sides of the aisle. we find ourselves in this particular situation with a president who is moving forward had a great week last week until everything happened about attorney general, jeff jeff sessions was recused himself from investigating russia. with this narrative now in the streets, how does the president go forth? if he's right it says a lot, it's unprecedented if he's right. >> if there's something there he should demand the answers. if it's true that some people improperly were investigating a presidential candidate at his headquarters a month before his election we ought to know everything about that. the problem is it's murky now. it's about trump meetings with russia and another side saying it's about wiretaps of a trump campaign.

nobody can figure it out. we have to stop the politics. we have to have someone independently look at this, otherwise -- you just had a report on obama care, how are we going to have a debate on that when we have distractions like this when nobody knows what the substances. >> kelly: let me move on to a second topic. that's what's going on at the white house. as you know, the white house is understaffed, but that's understaffed, but that's okay with the president. right now the administration has only one fifth of the staff and the personnel office that president clinton had while in office. that's fear people to handle hiring decisions while the smaller staff fits in with what president trump's vision of doing more with less. the government's massive and he needs personnel to make it work. >> it there's an old saying, penny wise is a pound foolish. if you you only have 18 people d bill clinton has over 100, it's going to take a lot longer for those names to get through the pipeline and get to the senate.

that's why something like 96% of the positions in government subject to senate confirmation are unfilled. they. they have not even been named. if the president is going to get a hold of this bureaucracy that is fighting against him, he needs his own bureaucracy in place to do it. it's one thing to save money, there is places you do not want to save money and that is when you are filling your administration with your people. >> kelly: as i'm reading this report they face fierce opposition and are talking about draining the swamp. there are 20,002,000 political vacancies within the trump administration right now. how do you move forward with a small staff that is lean and mean, but perhaps not big enough or large enough to deal with the matters at hand? >> if those positions are not filled they are held on an interim basis by people who worked in the obama administration. they are going to follow the orders of the new political people at the top. i talked to a to a cabinet

official who says i am here home alone. i have one lawyer working for me. i have one political aide, and everybody else is either career civil servant or work for the obama administration. >> kelly: got a lot to do. >> it's not your administration until you fill it with your people. >> kelly: thank you for sharing with us. >> julie: president trump may be wavering on a russian reset. he reports it says he may put business between the u.s. and moscow on the back burner. as more controversy twirls over his his relationship with russia. plus what investigators say was behind this deadly blast.

>> officials are given a north korean ambassador 48 hours to leave the country. the expulsion is coming after the diplomat criticize the murder investigation of north korean leader half-brother.

earlier this week they demanded an apology from north korea. when it became clear that would not happen, malaysia decided to expel the ambassador. >> julie: question surfacing over the allegations that president obama wiretapped to trump tower in new york and it was a full week of media stories involving trump administration in russia. do these allegations have the potential to overshadow these headlines? joining me as mark, executive director of the foundation for defense of democracy. thank you for talking to us. the presidents wiretap allegations have become the biggest story today. a huge story for us. the big story of the week and one that we should not forget about and continue to cover is attorney general jeff sessions recusing himself of the investigation into russian ties. now that session says he's going to submit written answers to questions in the russian con

tact. how much is this controversy making it to develop and implement an effective russia policy? >> with making it very difficult for the trump administration and for the u.s. political system to focus on the bigger question which is a significant threat that u.s. represents global interest. i think the trump administration was starting to move forward on a policy that must be making vladimir putin very concerned. the modernization of unleashing of the u.s. energy resources and putting iran on notice. they're moving forward with broad strokes but they will be very distracted by these allegations. >> do you think that will put some of the left accusations of the trump white house being in the back pocket of putin when this is a sign of president trump pushing back to russia if he was going to be doing russia any favors this would not be one of them?

>> a very skeptical that in washington's very polarized political atmosphere that anything is going to be put to rest. we will move away from this story to a broader story. that is every u.s. president since the end of the cold war has tried to diminish tension with russia has reached out to the russians and tried to have some kind of reset. most of those have failed especially when putin became the leader. the trump administration wanted to try the same thing but in terms of the broad stroke of their policy as i mentioned and i think putin would be very concerned right now that the u.s. is going to be moving for a much more robust posture. >> do you think trump was optimistic heading into the white house with his dealings with putin. he was going to try to be diplomatic with putin during the obama administration the they establish russia was a major power player in the middle

east. it's just not that administration. every administration since the end of the cold war has tried to find some kind of way to lessen the tensions with russia. with iran i mean it testfired a russian-made air defense system that's a slap in the face to get another presidential administration. how should the trump administration handle the involvement with iran and russia? >> i think the trump administration is not and should not be naïve about putin who has become the major power player in the middle east in a vacuum that president obama left. with the iranians on the march with a deeply flawed nuclear deal that will give them a path to nuclear weapons. the dominant player today in syria and increasingly the iranians in iraq the trump administration needs an aggressive and robust posture to the russians and iranians.

you seen signs of this i think the political events are massive distraction. the enemy is not within. it's a broad. we need we need to focus on the real enemy. >> the biggest enemy of all is isis. coming from the trump administration they now want to shelve the terror plants and how they're going to defeat isis and work with moscow to do it. what does that say to that were pulling back a bit to work with russia to defeat the one thing that we want to defeat the most ever not going to lean on russia to do so? >> it was never clear to me that russia was really a partner in the war against isis. the fact of the matter is with russia and iran today at our in this picture and warfare in the middle east and globally. they're doing everything they can to create a situation where there greatest recruitment gift

for isis. i was not always a big fan about this relationship with russia. the trump administration wanted to explore it but it's can be difficult for them to explore given the events in washington. >> thank you very much. >> kelly: authorities given new details about a shocking murder case involving two gang members in the u.s. illegally. the latest on this investigation is up next t to the places you really want to go. with the united mileageplus explorer card, you'll get a free checked bag, 2 united club passes... priority boarding... and 50,000 bonus miles. everything you need for an unforgettable vacation. the united mileageplus explorer card. imagine where it will take you. or is it your allergy pills? holding you back break through your allergies. introducing flonase sensimist. more complete allergy relief in a gentle mist

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>> kelly: two gang members in the u.s. illegally are now charged with kidnapping three teenagers and murdering one. investigators say they belong to a violent game and they held the girls in a houston apartment for weeks before killing one for disrespecting their satanic shrine. will is live with our west coast. for more details. this is a disturbing story. >> is very disturbing. the details coming out of texas send the gang members executed one teenage girl and brutally assaulted two others. in court they were smiling and waving at the camera's. they say that miguel and diego both in that gang members from el salvador can at the three teenage girls

and fed them drugs and alcohol and raped them for weeks. the l.a. times reported when one girl knocked over satanic shrine, a gang member did not want to material offering for an apology but a soul instead. one of the girl's body was found in the side of the row. she. she had been shot in the head and chest. the gang members have been charged with aggravated kidnapping and murder. many of them are in the country illegally and they are a brutally violent gang. they come at the same time of the debate over border security and president trump's push push to get rid of the bad guys. >> we must support the victims of crime. i have ordered the department of homeland security to create an office to serve american victims. the office office is called voice. victims of immigration crime

engagement. we are current providing a voice to those who have been ignored by the media and silenced by special interest. >> has also been adamant about building the border wall to keep criminals out. >> thank you well. >> president trump sending a tweet this morning after honored swear shoemaker announced she is leaving the reality tv show, the new celebrity apprentice. the president tweeted today, arnold swarts and eggers that voluntarily leaving the apprentice, he was apprentice, he was fired by his bad ratings, not by me. set into great show. the former governor did respond saying you should think about hiring a new joke writer at fact checker. that's coming after a long drawn drawn out feud between schwarzenegger and trump who remains on the show as an executive producer.

>> julie: i guess a lot of people wondered why president trump made fun of schwarzenegger and his ratings, considering his name is still considered an executive producer on the show. schwarzenegger comes out says the reason it has gone down is because trump's name is on the show. it's. it's a he said he said as to who's to blame. >> kelly: nothing to say except right now, schwarzenegger, your terminated. america's news headquarters is up next. >> julie: will see in a couple of hours. have a great afternoon. >> kelly: have a great one. god bless you.

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>> we will continue our coverage this afternoon. former president obama refuting claims by president trump that he ordered a wire tap in the weeks hadn't up to the election. the obama white house never ordered surveillance on any u.s. citizens. i am eric and this is a brand-new hour of americans news headquarters and i marcel. were making allegations in an early morning tweets storm they face of growing scrutiny