functional plywood hover craft for the science fair. driving through eight hours with debaters in the back through a snowstorm, these are any favorite memories. i love you girls impossibly. to my extended family here, across colorado, when we gather, it's dozens of us. we hold different political and religious views but we're united in love. to my parents and grandparents. they're no longer with us, but there's no question on whose shoulders i stand. my mom was one of the first women graduated at the university of colorado law school. as the first female assistant district attorney in denver, she

helped the program to pursue dead-beat dads. her idea of day care sometimes meant i got the spend the day wandering the halls or tagging along with police officers. she said the head lines were fleeting, courage glasses. my dad taught me success in life has little to do with success. kindness he showed me is a great virtue. he showed me too that there's few places closer to god than walking in the wilderness awaiting a trout stream. even if is a long drive home with the family dog after he encountered a skunk. to my grandparents. as a boy, i could ride my bike to their homes. they were a huge influence. my mom's father, poor in irish. the nuns made sure he got an education and he became a doctor. even after he passed away, i

heard stories for years from grateful patients who recalled him kneeling by their bedsides so they might pray together. hi wife, my grandmother, grew up in a nebraska farm. with seven children, she never stopped moving and never stop loving. my dad's father made his way through college working on denver's trolly cars. he practiced law through the great depression. he taught law was to help people with problems, not the other way around. his family came from a family of pioneers. she loved to fish. she taught me to you to high a fly. i want to thank my friends. so many only whom are here. liberals and conservatives and independents from every kind of background and belief. many hundreds have written this committee on my behalf.

i'm truly touched by their support. they have been there for me always. not least when we recently lost my uncle jack, a hero of mine. a life-long episcopal priest. he gave the benediction when i took the oath as a judge 11 years ago. i was confess, i was hoping he might offer a similar prayer soon. as it is, i know he was smiling. i want to thank my fellow judges across the country. judging is sometimes a lonely and hard job. i have seen how these men and women work. how hard they work. with courage and collegiality, independence and integrity. their work that helps make real the constitution and laws of united states for all of us.

i want to thank byron white, my mentor. he modeled judicial courage. he followed the law wherever it took him without fear or favor to anyone. war hero, rhodes kol -- scholar of his day. in my childhood, my idol was byron white. i had the fortune to clerk for justice kennedy. he shows me that justices can disagree without being disagreeable. everybody that comes to court deserves respect. a case isn't just a number or a name, but a life's story. a human being with equal dignity to my own. justice scalia was a mentor, too. he reminded us that words matter. that the judge's job is to follow the words that are in the

law, not replace them with those that aren't. his colleagues cherished his humor. we didn't agree on everything. the justice fished with an enthusiasm of a new yorker. he thought the hardiest slapped the line on the water, the more the fish would love it. finally, there's justice son. he wrote so clearly that everyone could understand his decisions. he never hid behind legal jargon. while he was an advocate for his clients, he reminded us, when you're a judge, you defend one client. the law. by their example they talk me about the law and judiciary. how hard our forbearers have worked to win these things. how easy they are to lose. how each generation must take

their turn carrying t ing thingr watch it fall. we hear judges describes as politicians in robes, seeking to enforce their own politics wearing than carrying out the law. if i thought that were trying, i would hang it up. i saw judges and jurors while human and imperfect striving hard every day to fairly decide the cases i put to them. as a judge now for more than a decade, i watch my colleagues spend long days worrying over cases. sometimes the answers we reach aren't the ones we prefer. sometimes the answers follow us home at night and keep us up. the answers we reach are always the ones we believe the law requires. for all its imperfections, i believe the rule of law in this nation is a wonder and it's no

winds ee eer -- no wonder it's heavy of the world. we do disagree as judges but it's not about politics. it's the law's demands. an example. the first case i wrote the court affirmed my judgment with thomases sotomayor and justice scalia in dissent. that's a line-up many might think of unusual. it's the sort of thing that happens quietly day in and day out in the united states supreme court and in the courts across this country. i wonder if people realize that justices thomas and sotomayor agree about 60% of the time. or that justices scalia and breyer agree more often than that? all in a very toughest cases in

our entire legal system. here's another example. about my record. over the last decade, i participated in 2,700 appeals. often the cases are hard. 5% of all federal lawsuits make their way to decision theres the court of appeals. i've served with judges appointed by president obama all the way back to president johnson. in the tenth circuit, we hear cases from six different states covering two time zones and 20% of the continental united states. but in the west, we listen to one another. respectfully. we tolerate, we cherish different points of view. we seek consensus whenever we can. my law clerks tell me that 97% of those 2,700 cases i've decided were decided unanimously. and that i've been the majority

99% of the time. that's my record. that's how we to things in the west. obvious, i make my share of mistakes, too. as my daughters never tire of reminding me, putting on a robe doesn't make me any smarter. i'll never forget the first day on the job. i tripped on the hem of my robe. about everything went flying. but troublesome as the robe can be, the remember does mean something to me. not just that i can hide the coffee stains on my shirt. putting on a robe reminds us judges that it's time to lose our egos and open our minds. its serves too as a reminder of what we're supposed to occupy in a democracy. in other countries, judges wear scarlet, silk. here judges, we buy our own plain black robes.

as senators snow, i can attest the standard choir outfit at the local uniform store is a pretty good deal. ours is the judiciary of honest, black polyester. when i put on the robe, i'm remindunder our constitution for this body, the people's representatives to make new laws for the executive to ensure those laws are faithfully executed and for neutral and independent judges to apply the law in the people's disputes. if judges were secret legislators declaring what the law is but not what they would like it to be, the idea of the government by the people and for the people would be at risk. those who came before the court would live in fear. never sure what the law requires of them except for the judges' will. as alexander hamilton said, liberty has nothing to fire from

those that apply the law but liberty has everything to fear if judges try to legislate, too. >> my decades on the bench, i've tried to treat all that come before me fairly and with respect and afford equal right to poor and rich. i've decided cases for native americans seeking to protect tribal lands, for class actions for like one that ensured victims of a large nuclear waste problem produced by corporations in colorado. i've ruled for disabled students, for prisoners, for the accused, for workers alleging civil rights violations and for undocumented immigrants. sometimes too i ruled against such persons. my decisions have never recollected a judgment about the people before me. only a judgment about the law and the facts at issue in each particular case. a good judge can promise no more

than that and a good judge can guarantee no less. for a judge that likes every outcome he reaches is probably a bad judge. mr. chairman, as a student many years ago, i found myself walking through the old burial ground in boston. it's where paul revere, john hancock and many of our founders are buried. there i came across the tombstone of a lawyer and judge who today is largely forgotten as we're all destined to be soon enough. his name was encry sumner. on his description, as a lawyer, he's faithful and able. as a judge, patient, impartial and decisive. in private life, he was

affectionate and mild. in public life, he was dignified and firm. put aty feuds were allayed by his condition duct. columny was silenced and ran corr softened by the amenity of his manners. mr. chairman, those words stick with me. i keep them on my desk. they serve for me as a daily reminder of the law's integrity, that a useful life can be led in its service with the hard work it takes and an encouragement to good habits when i fail and when i falter. at the end of it all, i can ask for nothing more than to be described as he was. if confirmed, i pledge to you that i will do everything in my power to be that man. >> thank you, judge. i have just a few words to say

to read, but before i do that -- >> neil gorsuch. trump's supreme court nominee speaking before the senate judiciary committee live during the first of four scheduled days of confirmation hearings. i'm shepard smith in new york. good afternoon. democrats attacked the federal appeals court judge's record and accused him of siding with the interests of corporations over working class americans. republicans defended judge gorsuch and accused democrats of politicizing the confirmation process. president trump's old rival, senator lindsey graham praised judge gorsuch as a legal scholar. >> no one could have chosen better neil gorsuch to represent conservative on the supreme court. so donald trump deserves to be congratulated for listening to a lot of people and coming up with

i think the best choice available. >> but democrats accused judge gorsuch of failing to sympathize with american workers. the judiciary committee's ranking mine, dianne feinstein spoke about a case involving a truck driver who fired him after he abandoned his truck in the freezing cold. >> it was so cold, the driver was having trouble breathing. his employer directed him to wait for a repair man or else drive both the truck and the trailer. when no one came, the driver unhitched the trailer to search for assistance. because driving with frozen brakes on fully loaded trailer would have been too dangerous. >> shepard: the tenth circuit court of appeals decided with the driver. judge gorsuch wrote the court's

discentsing opinion. he wrote ", it might be fair to ask whether his decision was a wise or kind one, but it's notice our job to answer questions like that. our only task is to decide whether the decision was an illegal one." judiciary committee members on both sides spoke about the need for judge gorsuch to remain insurance of the president. you may remember president trump has slammed the judicial system over the original travel ban and the revised version that the white house claimed would comply with the courts. a federal judge in hawaii blocked the new version of the ban last week. this all comes more than a year after the death of judge antonin scalia that left an empty seat on the supreme court and left the supreme court split 4-4 between conservative and liberal blocks. justice scalia was a self-proclaimed textualist.

he was an appointee of ronald reagan and widely praised from conservatives. after scalia's death, president obama nominated judge garland to full that side but republicans wouldn't hold a hearing for judge garland. during the campaign, donald trump vowed to appoint judges in the mold of justice scalia. after nomination, president trump said he was delivering on that promise. mike emanuel, what do the democrats have to say about judge gorsuch about today's hear something. >> we talk about how judge gorsuch was confirmed with the unanimous vote to serve on the tenth circuit court of appeals. democrats mentioned several times that judge garland was

nominated by president obama. the stakes are higher this time around. >> supreme court is different. security is -- supreme court is the ultimate sort of justice in this country. >> sandra: . >> as much as you encountsered difficulty ten years ago, we now have a record and we're here to judge that record. >> a lot of mentions of judge garland and indications that democrats will perhaps ask some tougher questions because judge garland never got consideration last year when he was nominated by president obama. some republicans said did take it out or judge gorsuch. >> shepard: that's the democrat's side. what did republicans say in defense of judge gorsuch? >> republicans are saying that judge gorsuch is not donald trump; the president. he's not mitch mcconnell who did

not consider judge garland and should not be based on the brutal politics of our side. >> the nominee is not president trump, it's not judge gatrlands. one of the most capable people that we could have going to the supreme court. i hope this nomination hearing focuses on the one person before us. >> judge gorsuch's opening statement you heard an effort to humanize himself. he talked about his family, his wife and his view of the judiciary being independent of political views. >> shepard: mike emanuel, thank you. the big news of the day is this. the fbi is investigating whether president trump and his campaign were coordinating with the russians. that's be testimony of the director of the fbi himself. details of the congressional hearing next.

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>> shepard: the russians worked to help donald trump become president and hurt the chances of hillary clinton. now the feds are investigating whether the trump campaign was coordinating with russians in their efforts. that's the testimony of the head of the fbi before a committee of the united states congress. further, there is no evidence at all that president obama wiretapped trump tower as. trump had alleged. even in the face of the white house is not budging. they're not backing down from the president's unfounded and apparently untrue accusation that president obama committed a felony. >> with respect to the president's tweets about a edge willed wiretapping directs at him by the prior administration, i have no information that

supports those tweets and we have looked comfortably inside the fbi. the department of justice has asked me to share with you that the answer is the same for the department of justice and all of its components. the department has no information that supports those tweets. >> from the fbi, no information. from the department of justice, no information. the white house is standing firm even though there's a lack of information. sean spicer said despite his comments, the president is not retracting his claim and there's still more hearings to be had, as he put it. director comey confirmed the fbi is investigating russian efforts to interfere with last year's presidential election and whether any members of the trump team coordinated with the russian government in their efforts. before the hearing even started, president trump tweeted that the russian connection was "fake news." more from the president coming up. the top democrat from the

intelligence committee, adam schiff, lays out the evidence. the reason for this congressional hearing. the background. for the fbi investigation of the russians and team trump. all of it based on public information. it's 8 1/2 minutes long. we're playing it unedited with videos and photos overlaid for you. this is the important background that led america to this day. >> the months of judge and august 2016 appear to have been pivotal. it was at this time this russians began using the information they had stolen to help donald trump and harm hillary clinton. so the question is, why? what was happening in july-august of last year and were u.s. persons involved? here's some of the matters drawn from public sources alone, since that is all we can discuss in this setting that concern us and we believe should concern all americans. in early july, carter paige,

someone donald trump used as a security advisor travelled to moscow. while there, he gave a speech critical of the united states and other western countries for what he believes is a hypocritical effort to fight corruption. according to christopher steele, a former british intelligence officer who is reportedly held in high regard by u.s. intelligence, russian sources that paige had a secret meeting with the ceo of a russian gas giant. he is said to be a former kgb agent of putin's. he's offer ed fees on a 19% of share of the country. and a sale of shares takes place with unknown brokers and fees. also according to steele's

russian sources, the campaign is offered documents damaging to hillary clinton which the russians would publish through an outlet that gives them deny ability through wikileaks. the hacked documents would be in exchange for a trump administration policy that deemphasizes russian's invasion of ukraine and focuses on criticizing nato countries of a fair share. policies of which even as recently as the president's meeting last week with angela merkel have now come to pass. in the middle of july, paul manafort, the trump campaign manager and long on a pay role of ukrainian interests attends the republican party convention. carter paige back from moscow, also attends the convention. according to steele, it was manafort who chose paige to serve as a go-between for the trump campaign and russian interests.

ambassador kislyak would later be expelled as a pie attends the convention and meets with paige and j.d. gorden. it was j.d. gorden that approved the trip to moscow. jeff sessions would deny meeting with russian officials during his senate confirmation hearing. just prior to the convention, the republican party platform is changed, removing a section that supporting the provision of lethal defensive weapons to the ukraine. an action contrary to russian interests. manafort categorically denies in altering the platform. the republican party delegate that offered the language in support of providing defensive weapons to ukraine states it was removed at the insistence of the trump campaign. later j.d. gordon admits the

provision of the at the time it was being debated and prior to the time of it being removed. in later in july and after the convention, the first stolen e-mails detrimental to hillary clinton appear on wikileaks. a hacker who goes did the monicker goosifer 2 claims responsibility for hacking the dnc and giving the documents to wiki leads. the evidence was reviewed and conclude with high certainty it was the work of apt 28 and apt 29, who are known to be russian intelligence services. the u.s. intelligence community confirms the documents were stolen by russian intelligence and goosifer was a front. also in late july, candidate trump praises wikileaks, says he loves them and openly tells the russians to hack the e-mails and

be richly reward eed by the pre. and on october 28th, roger stone boasts in a speech that he communicated with assange and more documents would be coming including an october surprise. in the middle of august, he communicates with a russian cut-out, goosifer 2 and offers links to russian intelligence. in august, stone does something remarkable when he predicts that john podesta's e-mails will be published. trust me, he said it was be podesta's time in the barrel, #crookedhillary. in the weeks that follow, stone shows remarkable impressions. i have total confidence that wikileaks and my hero, julian assange will educate the american people soon. #lockherup. pay load coming, he preducks. two days later, it does. wikileaks releases their first

patch of podesta e-mails. the release of john podesta's e-mails would continue on a daily basis up until the election. on election day, donald trump wins. donald trump appoints one of his high profile surrogates michael flynn to be his national security advisor. michael flynn has been paid by the kremlin's propaganda outfit rt in the past. in december, michael flynn has a secret conversation with am bat -- ambassador kislyak. michael flynn lies about the conversation. the vice president assures the country that no such conversation ever happened. the president is informed that flynn has lied and pence misled the country. the president does nothing. two weeks later, the press reveals that flynn has lied and the president is forced to fire

flynn. the president praises the man with the lie and castigates the lie. is it possible that this was a coincidence? is it a coincidence that jeff sessions failed to tell the senate about his meetings with the russian ambassador at the convention and more private meeting in his office and at a time when the u.s. election was was under attack by the russians? is it coincidence that mike flynn would lie about a conversation with ambassador kislyak. is it a coincidence gas cold sold shares after sources were told that steele was offered a fee of that so i? is it a co incident that russia

had stolen documents hurtful to secretary clinton to utilize policies that would come to class? is it that podesta would be a victim of a heck and did so even before mr. podesta was aware that his private e-mails were exposed? is it possible that all of these events and reports are completely unrelated? nothing more than an entirely unhappy coincidence? yes. it is possible. it is also possible, maybe more than possible, that they are not coincidental, not disconnected and not unrelated. the russians used the same techniques to corrupt u.s. persons that they i'm employed in europe and elsewhere. we simply don't flow. not yet. we owe it to the country to find

out. >> shepard: the democrat, adam schiff at the beginning of the hearing. heading into that, congressman schiff said not only was there circumstantial evidence of collusion between the trump campaign and russia but as he saw it, direct evidence of deception. now the white house is responding. >> investigating it and having proof of it are two different things. look at the acting obama c.i.a. director who said there's smoke but no fire. senator tom cotton. not that i'm seeing, not that i'm aware of. look at collector clapper. i have no evidence of collusion. there's a point at which you continue to search for something that everybody has been briefed hasn't seen or found. i think it's fine to look into it. at the end of the day, they'll come to the same conclusion that everybody else has had. you can continue to look for something, but continuing to look for something that doesn't exist doesn't matter. >> press secretary spicer saying the president is happy that the feds are investigating. but after today's hearing,

nothing has changed. catherine herridge is live on capitol hill. today's hearing is wrapped up. what are we hearing from republican members? >> shep, one of the things we learned today is there's really been two tracks to this investigation into russian interference. we had the intelligence community report last fall and then we had this on going fbi counter intelligence probe. this is one of the most highly sensitive and classified cases that the fbi can conduct. republicans during the hearing went back to the comments of former obama administration officials and worked in the intelligence community and saw no evidence of collusion. that seemed to fall flat given the fbi case is an ongoing matter. and then they pointed to the fact that there had never been evidence that the voter tallies had been affected by the russians in the swing states. >> director comey, do you have

any evidence at the fbi that any votes were changed in the states that i mentioned to admiral rogers? >> no. >> this committee sends a letter about ten days ago to the heads of the intelligence agencies asking them to reveal who on the clinton campaign and the trump campaign were unmasked in the course of any surveillance of foreign targets? that's identifying an american citizen. today the republican chairman of the committee pushed the fbi director to investigate if any democrats crossed the line. >> if this committee or in i -- anyone else comes to you about the hillary clinton campaign or their associates, or someone from the clinton foundation, will you add that to your investigation? they have ties to russian intelligence services, russian agents. would that be something of interest to you? >> people bring us information about what they think is

improper and unlawful of any kind, we will evaluate it. >> but there was really no discussion about the clinton associates beyond that one exchange with the republican chairman. but based on just the texture of the hearing today, shep, it does sound like there's multiple cases here that the fbi is looking at and that the allegations against mike flynn may be a separate and indication unto itself. >> catherine, there was testimony about the leak of the former national security advisor michael flynn's name. >> what we learned in the hearing today is that it's just a very small group of individuals at the nsa that have the authority to unmask or identify american citizens whose communications are picked up in the process of surveilling foreign targets. that is called incidental

collection. >> there's 20 individuals including myself who i have delegated this authority to approve unmasked requests. >> what we also learned in the course of the hearing today is that beyond those 20 people at the nsa, there's really a small group of people, what i would call the inner circle from the past administration who have the ability to access this information once an american citizen had been identified or unmasked. based on the line of questioning today, some republicans believe that's the source of the leaks. >> would national security advisor susan rice have access to a name? >> yes. any other national security advisor would as a course of their business. >> yes. >> would ben rhodes have access to an unmasked u.s. citizen's name? >> i don't know the answer to

that. >> the fbi director took the step of publicly confirming an ongoing counter intelligence investigation. he was pressed mull time times and would not confirm there's an active criminal investigation into the leaking of flynn's name or other transcripts that were intercepted by the intelligence community, shep. >> shepard: catherine, thank you. this is devin nunes live on capitol hill. let's listen. >> apologize to who? >> to the american people or about -- >> until we get to the bottom of whether or not surveillance activities were used, we don't know the answer to that. >> you spoke to comey in private a number of times be closed secure sessions. were there things that were revealed today that amplified in some way what you heard in closed session? >> yeah, two things that this is

a bit of a big net to cast. a big umbrella for lack of a better term to put out with i think very little justification at this point. >> little justification for what? >> where you want -- you want even said -- you had accusations of several members of the president's cabineting somehow tied to the russians, which we have no evidence of that and i doubt that evidence exists. partial attacks on the secretary of state. this is getting far-fetched here. this needs to be cleared up quickly. >> this investigation was going on since july. yet during the election, comey revealed one investigation into hillary clinton. should he have acknowledged that donald trump also is under -- >> there was a question about the gang of eight and whether or not you saw that we may have to change gang of eight procedures.

that's what that is referring to. >> so you weren't aware of this last year, that president trump himself -- >> no, i was not. i do think i should have been. at least the gang of eight. >> when did you learn about it? >> i won't give you an exact date. recently. >> you see any reasons to subpoena at this point? >> not yet. let's see if they get the information to us by the end of the week. >> unmasking information? >> yes. >> we've heard many times from director comey that they can't comment on this. many people are waiting -- are you pleased -- >> no, i'm not. this is why this investigation has to go quickly. it's problematic moving forward, that you can't even say whether or not people in the white or the administration are under some type of investigation. that's very problematic.

>> director comey said it's possible the russians could work to cut influence elections. is that something -- >> well, the russians have always tried to influence our elections. they will continue to as long as vladimir putin decides to change his ways, which i doubt that he will do, or he's out of office. >> you think it's proper for an independent counsel to be called on to look into this now that the investigation has been publicly acknowledged? >> i would have no evidence. where are they going to look at? what is an independent counselor going to look at? >> take over the investigation that comey -- >> take over his investigation? take it away from the fbi? i don't know. i'd have to think about that. as long as they continue to -- the fbi is an independent organization. they should be suited to do this. if i sense any problems with the investigation, then i would recommend that. i don't see that as of now. >> you yourself said there were issues that yo were upset and

disappointed that -- why wouldn't an independent -- >> i don't think an independent counsel will do any less than what director comey said today. like i said, there's this -- until this gets cleared up, you will continue to have these questions. i just don't have evidence of people within the white house or the administration that have any ties to russian intelligence services of any kind. that even hanging out there is bad for the democracy, bad for america. clearly it helps our adversaries, especially the russians. >> what was director comey -- >> i don't know. i'd like to flow that answer. >> when you say recently, the last couple weeks you learned. >> yeah. >> he said it was due to the sensitivity of the investigation. do you accept that? >> no, i don't. no. i think there's no reason -- and look. maybe -- i don't think there's

any written rules on what the congress should be informed of. perhaps we're going to have to look into what those rules should be moving forward. had we known about this in july, clearly we wouldn't be in this position today. >> you need to hear from him in closed session later this week or -- >> not this week. we will continue to hear from him. >> how are you leaving feeling today? >> just like when i walked in. we're trying to get facts. >> you seem to suggest that they may -- the fbi may be withholding some evidence. >> no, i don't think they're withholding evidence. as relates to people in the white house? >> yeah. you said would you turn over evidence, whatever ed you have. >> if they have it, i'd like to see it. i don't think it exists? anything else? i have to get going. >> how long had you known about the investigation before they went to vote last year?

>> we won't know that until we got to the bottom. let them conduct the investigation. when that sees sunlight, it will be very helpful to everyone including you guys. >> shepard: congressman devin nunes. he's the chairman of the committee. we asked him a question now. >> i don't care about the patriots or not. i think that metaphor is not accurate. i don't think just because you don't like a team and you root against that team every team that means that you like that team. essentially of -- >> shepard: he's talking about a football metaphor. the last question asked of congressman nunes was should this american people have known about this investigation prior to the election. congressman nunes, a republican chairman of this committee said let's wait and let them finish. president trump took to twitter,

"james clapper and others stated there's no evidence." i should say "there's no evidence that potus colluded with russia. this story is fake news and everybody knows it." "the democrats made up and pushed the story for running a terrible campaign. big advantage in electoral college and lost." another one. "the real story that congress and everybody should be looking into is leaked information. must now find the leaker." we can parse that. it's not worth our time. as we just reported, comey said he was looking into the russian claims of interference. >> i have been authorized by the department of justice to confirm that the fbi as part of our counter intelligence mission is investigating the russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.

that includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the trump campaign and the russian government. >> couldn't be clearer. that was the first time the director comey publicly confirmed the depth of this investigation. it leads us to the white house, which is where john roberts is. sean spicer just spoke about the president's tweets. could you go back through that for us? >> yeah, shep, despite hearing from devin nunes, the chairman of the committee said there's no evidence of any surveillance against trump tower with the caveat saying it didn't happen. hearing from the ranking members saying there's no evidence that it happened. the former director of national intelligence saying it didn't happen. the white house have their feet dug in. this is the first one of these hearings that we've had. let's wait until the end of the process to determine if there was any wiretapping or surveillance of trump tower instead of jumping to the conclusion at the beginning. that stands in stark

contradiction about what they said about collusion. how many times do you need to hear it from the very same people that said there's no evidence of wiretapping, that there's no evidence of collusion before you finally buy it. sean spicer said in the briefing, there's other things that people are not asking enough questions about, including why did the dnc not let the fbi come many and take a look at it? here's spicer from earlier. >> that's an interesting aspect of all of this that's not being covered. number 1, from everything that has been publicly available, on several occasions the dnc was asked to allow their servers to be looked at. why wouldn't the dnc on multiple occasions rebuff the fbi? why were they not wanting -- if they were so concerned about hacks and leaking? >> so basically what the white house is doing, trying to throw up a number of flags or balls in the air, if you, to get the idea

that the president treated out a couple weeks ago that the president was being woir -- wiretapped. >> >> shepard: the white house appears to be trying to change the subject away. >> when you don't like the news, you change the subject. this is on the official potus tweeter feed. you put the two things together and what you have here, shep, a series of dots that the white house is trying to connect through inference and implication that maybe it was the obama administration who unmasked flint. this is what spicer said about that earlier in the briefing. listen. >> director comey told the house intelligence community that

certain appointees in the obama administration had access to the names of unmasked citizens like senior white house officials, senior department justice officials and senior intelligence fences. before president obama left office, michael flynn was unmasked and illegally his identity was leaked to media outlets. >> clearly unmasking somebody who is caught up in incidental surveillance is a very serious thing. but there does seem to be a real attempt by the white house to put the focus on things that it wants to talk about take them away from things that other people want to talk about. >> shepard: it's interesting also, john, to see the white house defending a man the white house fired and lied to the vice president about. the web is a fascinating things to gaze at. >> absolutely. you pick and choose your arguments and the way you want to make them. that's what they're doing. >> shepard: john roberts.

thanks. a major airline no longer allowing electronics on the airline to and from the united states. the airline claims it's from american officials. what's with that? next. i'm claudine and i quit smoking with chantix. smoking's a monkey on my back. it was, it was always controlling your time, your actions, your money. it had me. it had me. i would not be a non-smoker today if it wasn't for chantix. along with support, chantix (varenicline) is proven to help people quit smoking. chantix reduced my urge to smoke some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. some reported seizures or sleepwalking with chantix. if you have any of these, stop chantix and call your doctor right away. tell your doctor about any history of mental health problems, which could get worse or of seizures. don't take chantix if you've had a serious allergic or skin reaction to it. if you have these, stop chantix and call your doctor right away as some can be life-threatening. tell your doctor if you have heart

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>> shepard: there's breaking news. we just got word that royal

jordanian airlines have banned passengers from carrying on electronics to and from the united states. the move is in response to the instructions from american officials. jennifer griffin is at the pentagon. what is this? >> u.s. officials are not commenting. the news came from a cryptic tweets. saying that laptops, cameras and electronic games can be carried in a checked baggage only. based on conversations with well-placed sources, these tweets warnings are legit and based on an intel threat. the warning goes into place tomorrow march 21 from new york, chicago, montreal and detroit. officials won't comment at this time. there's been two tweets including one from saudi arabia that says that u.s. security

officials have called for a ban on electronic devices being allowed on board flights coming from 13 countries for the next 96 hours, including jordan. this does not have to do with the so-called travel ban. here's the rest of the tweet from royal jordanian. >> cell phones are permitted, shep. >> shepard: thanks. should news break out, we'll break in. "your world" with neil cavuto is coming up after this commercial breaks on america's choice for information on cable.

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>> neil: all right. welcome, everybody. glad to be back. i want to thank my colleagues and friends for filling in so ably in my absence, which is why i did hurry back. want to update you on a couple things here. in a half an hour, we'll be talking to ben carson in his first formal extended tv interview as the head of housing and urban development. we're learning that his budget stands to be cut by 13.2%. $6 billion. how does secretary carson feel about that? we'll ask him. ben carson coming up later this hour. headlining things this hour, as we kick