the pope in rome. >> you know iran will be watching closely. >> they will. >> that's gonna do it for us. thank you very much for joining us. you have a great weekend. >> you, too. america's news hq starts now. >> president trump set to make his firstover seas trip as commander in chief. hello everybody and welcome. i'm jenna lee. we have a live look at joint base andrews near the nation's capitol where just moments from now air force one is set to take off. the president will make stops in saudi arabia, israel, as well as the vatican in a symbolic mission to reunite three of the most prominent religions followed by some in belgium and italy. it is a very very long trip. nine days in all. we have benjamin hall in the saudi capital of the president's first stop. we begin at the white house. a gathering political storm in the russian investigation. >> reporter: no question about that, jenna. very interesting. you would expect the president

to have all of his focus on where he'll be, which is abroad. but clearly his team back here another the white house will continue to be engaged there a number of major story lines including the search for a replacement for his ousted fbi director. abroad the president will be talking about economic and security cooperation. but back here the search continues for someone to replace jim comey. comey did not have the confidence of the president in particular after what happened with the hillary clinton server situation. and so now there are people out there saying, listen, in you're gonna replace the guy, did you lean on him? did you get him to maybe not pursue the investigation in a proper way? the president obviously says that never happened. comey says that never happened. so does the deputy ag rod rosenstein. let me show you part of what he said in a closed briefing today. i want to emphasize my unshakeable commitment to keeping the integrity of every

criminal investigation. there will never be any wrongdoing in the united states department of justice. there you have a trifecta. three people saying never happened. there is a man set to be under consideration to replace comey. that is former connecticut senator joe lieberman. no decision will be made on the job today, but the president said this yesterday about the firing of comey being the right move. >> director comey was very unpopular with most people. i actually thought when i made that decision and i also got a very very strong recommendation, as you know, from the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein. when i made that decision, i actually thought that it would be a bipartisan decision. >> reporter: this is the education of a president. bipartisan decisions on paper don't always turn out that way especially here in the belt way, jenna. a lesson the president knows all too well now. >> jenna: thank you very much.

back to the white house. we understand the president is still there before he's heading of course to get on air force one. the president overseas trip will begin in saudi arabia where the president will focus on combatting terrorism alongside one of america's most critical allies. the kingdom is pulling out all the stops to welcome mr. trump. it is a complicated relationship. benjamin hall continues our coverage. ben? >> reporter: yeah. good evening, jenna. you only have to look at the city of the saudi capital to see how significant this visit is going to be. they have rolled out all the stops. there are u.s. flags up and down the avenues. there are images of donald trump alongside the king. they are rolling out the red carpet for him. they are saying to us how honored they are that he has picked saudi arabia to be his first foreign country to visit. he's not only going to meet with the king and the crown prince, but he's giving a speech on islam to leaders of 50 countries

around the world. that is going to be a key point that we are going to watch closely. we spoke to the foreign minister. he spoke about the optimism they felt about the u.s./saudi relationship going forward. here's what he told us. >> president trump is a man with vision. he's a man who has courage. he's a man who does the right thing. >> reporter: you're absolutely right. this relationship has been strong. under the obama presidency relations hit the low point. he cancelled arms deals at the end of 2016. those are things which president trump is looking at changing. they are similar to work on. we have the counter terrorism issues. saudi arabia plays a major role in the anti-isis coalition. second largest partners in syria. of course president trump is going to sign significant deals when he's here. we're hearing over $100 billion will be signed in those deals. we also heard jared kushner

reached out to the ceo of lockheed asking him to reduce a war head so it could become available for the saudis. real key issues in the next couple days. >> jenna: joining us now on set, the author of super power. three choices for america's role in the world. >> lots of choice. >> jenna: let's talk ab this trip. what defines success? >> if he can avoid being distracted by the problems at home. the trip's been set up to be successful. almost every president goes to canada or mexico as their first stop, u.s. ally. president has difficulties with the leaders of both of those states, nafta, immigration, the wall. trudeau has a different lean politically than trump. but a saudi king and the israeli pm are the two allies that individually most wanted to see the back of president obama. they're delighted trump won.

they're delighted trump is going to their countries. they're ready to make this a big deal. all the pomp and circumstance. they'll treat him very well personally. saudis have no choice. and netanyahu really likes him. has a personal rapport with the whole family, as well as jared. that will go quite well, as long as he can avoid saying things off script and getting sucked back into the drama that's swirling around him in washington. >> jenna: as far as what you see as successful for america and the american people, beyond this perhaps being a successful personal trip for donald trump with the red carpet rolled out, how do you see that going? how do you think this will have actual impact on our foreign policy? >> look. it is true that trump is very uninterested in having a more balanced middle east foreign policy towards iran and towards the traditional arab monarchies and israel. he opposed the iran deal. he hasn't ripped it up. the saudis and israelis didn't really want him to rip it up.

ultimately that was going to under mine the american position more than -- and the iranians were just going to end up developing oil. so i do think the fact that trump can go in and say we're gonna work with you more closely with you on security. we don't care about human rights abuses in saudi arabia. all the sorts of things that make it easier for the saudis to do business with the u.s. i think that relationship -- of course, he did just bomb some syrians, supporting the syrian regime in the last 48 hours the russians today extremely aggravated about it. the saudis couldn't be happier, the fact that the u.s. is doing more to show they're willing to be on the saudi side. >> jenna: do you think the timing has anything to do with this trip? >> sure. they understood that if they were going to have a window of opportunity to whack someone that the saudis would be happy with seeing whacked, this would be a good time to do it.

>> jenna: saudi arabia being the first big stop. the speech has a lot of focus. there's focus on the language that president trump has used now and in the past regarding radical islamic terrorism. what are the risks or the opportunities in this speech? >> look, i think that there are more opportunities than risks in the sense that the saudis are completely safe audience for this. the king, the deputy crown prince, they want trump to succeed. it's not like they're going to be demonstrating against trump in a country like saudi arabia. won't be allowed. so he's going there talking about radical islamic terrorism and the saudi arabians are saying we are on your side. there are two issues. first, god forbid terrorists attack while he is in islamic world. that would cause a lot of outcry, right? second point is, to what extent do we see the saudis over time

having bigger problems with the united states because of anti-islamic policies? their children go to school in the united states. they're getting less welcome. the tsa shakedowns. these things make the average saudi prince feel a little more personally nervous about who trump is and what he represents. the idea of a president like trump going into the islamic back yard and lecturing to them on islam feels a little bit as it would to us if the saudi king came to the u.s. and lectured us about separation of church and state. it's not a natural thing to be done. it will play well to trump's base. there's no question. i'd be surprised if we're talking about the speech in a month's time. >> jenna: really? you don't think so? >> i don't think so. ultimately, it's a speech -- to the ebb tent that trump does well with speeches, it's when he doesn't go off script. as a consequence he looks presidential, like he did in the joint address to congress. but two weeks later we weren't talking about it. there's a bigger opportunity for

him to be off script and cause trouble than there is for him to hit a home run with a speech. >> jenna: of course a lot of these relationships have multiple sides. if you look back on american foreign policy, spoke about donald trump looking presidential including the things we're looking at at the screen as he's departing to get to joint base andrews and to go on this baying trip. i think it's important to note the presence of his wife. his wife has not been a partner, necessarily, in the traditional sense, as their son has been attending school in new york city. we know some of that will change. now we're seeing air jed and ivanka jump as well. jared's role being under scored. we expect an announcement of $100 billion arms deal to saudi arabia. this is one of the large est numbers we've seen. injure jared kushner was an integral part of negotiating

that deal, asking lockheed martin to drop their price so the saudis would be able to afford some of these items. we will get hopefully more specifics of the deal, what it means, why we're making it now. ian, i'm sure you have some thoughts on that. that deal being announced as we see the president traveling to saudi arabia. >> whenever you see the headline numbers, whether it's the chinese going to a country saying we're doing infrastructure, saudis and americans working on a deal. you got to dig into it. lot of the $110 billion is already stuff that was agreed to under the obama administration. it was pushed back. let's see how how much of that turns out to get implicated as to just opposed to getting announced. the deal is always modalities. i have no doubt that the saudis are going to be spending more of american military equipment and, by the way, less on thaf from other countries like china, the french over the course of the next year. and in part because trump is making his trip and reaching

out. >> jenna: getting back to your point, you do see opportunity in this trip? >> of course i do. i really do. keep in mind if you look at what trump has done that's been successful, it was the joint speech, joint house and senate. and then it was the meeting with president xi. after setting up i have got big problems with this guy, this country. he shows up, acts in a very balanced way. he shows respect. he get respect. this is a set of easier meetings than china. >> jenna: that's very interesting. valuable context. >> the problem is that, can he stay on script and also the timing has gotten bad with everything happening in washington. >> jenna: we didn't get to that. we have to run to commercial. it's important to mention that we will be covering that quite a bit on our show. how do those things interplay with each other. thank you very much. we're awaiting the president. you saw him depart from the

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>> jenna: you're looking at the president who just arrived at joint base andrews where he's going to get on air force one and embark on his first major overseas trip that will last more than a week and visit a handful of very important countries to us as americans. saudi arabia, israel, italy. also belgium is in the itinerary. takes him through major cities and major meetings with world leaders.

accompanying him is his wife, as well as his daughter and her husband, jared kushner. larry sabido, a familiar face on fox news, had this to say about the first trip. he said there has never been a president taking his first presidential trip be e being dogged by a scandal like this. that started with the firing of james comey. now we have the appointment of a special counsel that will be doing this investigation. the question for the white house and one question we'll be asking on the show is whrorpb the president can turn the page, focus more on international affairs, focus more on some relationships as the president waves and enters wear force one. according to sources to operate air force one will cost about $200,000 per hour. the president will be on that plane that has a 4,000 square

foot oval office to continue working as he goes about this work trip. again, the itinerary rich and diverse. h.r. mcmaster told us, this trip in the beginning part is to really make it symbolic gesture about uniting the world's three largest religions. the president has been very outspoken about religion, particularly radical islam. he will be speaking about radical is lamb in saudi arabia where he will be making his first trip there. standing by with us, vice president of foreign and defense policy studies at the american enterprise institute. i thought it was very interesting what you wrote. you said what's important about the president's trip is not only his itinerary but the opportunities that are available because of what's happening in the region, specifically the middle east. what did you mean by that? >> i think we really turned a corner in the region. the region has always been focused on things like the arab/israeli conflict, what to

do about that. what we are looking at now is an opportunity where the arab world, the sunni arab world is focused on countering iran. they're focused on putting into law things that preoccupied them behind them. focused on modernization. focused on economic change. it could be and i want to under score that, could be transfo transformative. >> jenna: you say there are potential traps. what are they and how does he avoid them? >> it's always a game between what you say and what you do. that's the case in every foreign capital. so if what we're doing is just gonna do business through arms sales. you announced the president has made clear we're doing a $110 billion arms sale with saudi arabia. an arms sale is not a relationship. what we need to see is that these countries move forward. not with gimmicks. not with arm sales or arms

purchase. not with rhetoric. but actually with deeds. stopping supporting islamic extremism, countering iran and iraq. getting rid of al-assad. trying to find an exit strategy for yemen. all these things are potential traps where if they don't do them, we'll be stuck in the same game all over in the middle east. >> jenna: the interest is one focus. second part of the trip will be a visit to europe. there are certain lawmakers in europe that have been expressing concern about donald trump in the fact of what he has experienced over the last week here at home as we watch the stairways being moved away from the 747. we'll watch it take off. i'm going to read from the computer, this is a quote from a member of the european parliament and dutch member saying it's disturbing talking about what's happening here in the united states. the vacuum may encourage people all over the world to seize the moment of an absent united states. what she was saying is there's a distraction at home and that creates an opportunity for those that are not on our side. how do you think these two

stories interplay? the major trip abroad for the president, but also some turmoil here at home? >> look, everything is up to donald trump. that's the way it always has been. there's strong agreement in washington that a lot of problems the president is confronting are problems of his own making. if he goes overseas and he is focused on the issues. if he is focused on turning the page in the middle east. if he is focused on uniting nato and fighting against terrorism then all that criticism will be set aside. the big difference between europe and the middle east is thaoeuz are a bunch of democratic countries. they're not just speaking to the united states. they're speaking to their own populations. they want to get re-elected and donald trump just isn't that popular rover there. that's part of their game. >> jenna: not only what we're experiencing but the perspective, the vantage point from overseas. i just want to go through the itinerary. saudi arabia being the first point of contact for the president.

then you have him visiting israel and the west bank. from there we go on to vatican city and to rome. seusly, italy. also have belgium as well. that's part of the trip that's going to be the european world leaders. if you could put a list of priorities, and this is a long trip, what would you put at the top of the list of priorities? >> i think the fight against isis and al qaeda is absolutely at the top of the list. but it's not just the conflict. it's not just how do we kill the most bad guys in the fastest possible time and reduce the threat to the united stit's how agreement about a system going forward so that we don't have to keep going back to the middle east fighting new wars every two years. we've got to be focused on stablization. that's why the europe part of the trip is so important as well. >> jenna: interesting. why is that a theme, civilization, as you see it? >> because, look, this is a cooperative effort. this isn't just something for

the united states to do. this is something for the united states to do with its ail lies. not just our sunni arab allies in fighting iran andis slammic extremism like al qaeda and isis and the brotherhood. it's also about gathering our allies in europe who threat some ways more than we do and who need to be persuaded that they have to act in the middle east in places like libya, syria. they need to stand with us. while they are with us in places like afghanistan and iraq, the truth is that donald trump is right. they could be doing more. >> jenna: what would that look like? >> that's a very good question. i think it could look like a lot of things. the president has complained that these countries don't pay enough for their own defense budgets. that's part of it. they could be investing more in their own capabilities. yes, they need to invest to stand more to stand up to the threat of russia in their own territories but they could be investing more so they can stand with us in reconstruction, in stablization. what's gonna happen when we get

isis out of mosul? what's gonna happen when we get isis out of their capital in raqa? nature abhors a vacuum. we need to work with all of our allies to ensure that we're spending money, that we're giving advice and that we're building institutions. this isn't a job for the united states alone. >> jenna: that's very interesting. as you say that, it reminds me what h.r. mcmaster said. america first does not mean america alone. that's one of the reasons we're really examining some of these partnerships. as we watch air force one about to embark on this long journey. i'm speaking a little bit about what's happened this week as well, danielle. not only domestic politics but speaking about what happened in syria. there was a big announcement just about 24 hours ago where the united states bombed pro assad forces. this was for a particular reason as it was explained to us, a protection of force. we were making a very clear statement against the pro assad forces that would not get out of

an air tpha that there was a certain threat. as we're watching air force one, we're finishing up the pentagon briefing on isis. i'm curious again the timing of that. one of the things you read quite a bit about is what's happening in syria. that being one of the big big items for president obama. you say there might be an tune here for the american president now. what is it? >> look, the opportunity is to bring together our arab allies. let the iranians and russians know we're not gonna tolerate an assad regime in the future. we need to empower forces on the ground who aren't islamic extremists to start to begin to take territory. to push back on, to push back on isis and affiliated groups. push back on al qaeda. but to ensure that hezbollah and other terrorist groups and the russians aren't going to take substantial ground. all that means is potential conflict. they need to know that we are

standing resolutely against certain conflicts. when they understand that, they will come to the table. >> jenna: this will be work. we're happy for the opportunity. danielle great to have you expertise. thank you very much. we look forward to having you back. >> thank you. >> jenna: we continue to watch joint base andrews. one of the things we'll be talking a great deal about is saudi arabia. the president will seek, as we expect, greater support from muslim leaders in the fight against isis and terrorism as danielle was just talking about that. defense secretary james matt is and joseph dunford were directing that at the pentagon. these things are happening in parallel universe right now. that's not by accident. our national security correspondent jennifer griffin is live at the pentagon and was listening in on that. jennifer? >> reporter: well, in fact, jenna, i was inside that press conference. two points ahead of the president's visit overseas.

it's very clear that this sreus i was designed for two reasons. to re-establish the relationship with saudi arabia which, of course, frayed at the end of the obama administration when the obama administration focused so much on the iranian nuclear talks. that threatened the saudis. the saudis are rolling out the red carpet for president trump because they are happy that the u.s. is now once again paying attention to their needs. the president will also be trying to raise among nato allies, they're going to need more forces for afghanistan. it is clear they are going to try to get commitments from those other countries so there won't have to be as many u.s. forces sent to afghanistan. before the press conference at the pentagon began which, by the way, is only the second press conference defense secretary mattis has had in the briefing room since january 20th. i asked whether there were iranians targeted and killed by u.s. warplanes when that u.s. air strike was called in yesterday inside syria near the

u.s. training base near the jordanian border. he surprised reporters by saying that there may have been iranians on the ground killed later during the press conference, defense secretary mattis said these were iranian directed shia militias. the purpose of press conference was to outline the president's directive to accelerate the destruction of isis. on that front, defense secretary mattis and chairman of the joint receives and the state department special envoy made a few key points. the new strategy involved surrounding isis inside syria and iraq and killing all of the foreign fighters so that they could not leave syria or iraq. the suggestion was this would no longer be a game of whack-a-mole. >> first, he delegated authority to the right level to aggressively and in a timely manner move against enemy vulnerabilities. secondly, he directed a tactical shift from shoving isis outof these locations in an attrition fight to surrounding the enemy

in their strong holds so we could annihilate isis. the purpose is to prevent the return home of escaped foreign fighters. i want to emphasize here, there's been no change to our rules of engagement. >> reporter: hrefs asked whether the decision to arm the syrian ku kurds, a suggestion that was handed off to the obama administration then delayed because mike flynn opposed it. he said thaf not true. mattis and general dunford said the delay in arming the kurds did not delay efforts to retake raqa. that it took time to surround raqa and now they are ready to arm the syrian kurds, even though that decision may anger the turks who mike flynn is being investigated for having received $500,000 in speaking fees from. >> jenna: wow. that is a lot of news. really key news ab iranians

targeted, not directly targeting iranians per se, but pro assad forces that they believe to be iranians on the ground in syria. also the strategy of not allowing isis fighters to flee syria, to go into europe, where they have ease of travel to all over the world, including the united states. but to kill the enemy where they sit as of right now. these are key strategic points that we should really focus on as we watch the president depart for saudi arabia. the first part of his trip is going to be about fighting isis, about fighting radical islamic terrorism. what sort of strategy will he bring to the table? what will that include? how will our priorities be mapped out now that the president is the leader of the free world? i'm curious as we watch the president head off, nine day journey. it's going to be long. i'm curious about the feeling inside the pentagon.

is the feeling one of optimism, one of nervousness because of the weight of this trip? how would you describe that to our viewers? >> reporter: i would say there's a very strong sense of optimism and confidence because some of the metrics that have come in in terms of the fight against isis are very positive. now remember, the special envoy and general dunford are both obama holdovers so they have seen this fight since 2014 take place. and they were able to present some incredible metrics in terms of the amount of territory that's been taken back from isis. 55,000kilometers, they say. and also in that sense 2014. that's not since january of this year. but they also say, and this was very important. defense secretary mattis said since it used to be that there were 1500 foreign fighters arriving in syria to fight for the so-called califit every month. that number is down to 100 a month. they are really tightening the

-- they are trapping those foreign fighters inside syria. they are encircling them. the president has taken the decision now to arm the kurdish forces which are the most effective fighting forces on the ground in syria even though that might anger turkey. and now they are beginning, they have encircled raqa, and they are ready to move on the isis capital. they will be destroying the so called califit in the coming weeks and months. >> jenna: very interesting news. very interesting timeline. the president saying this is a priority of his. now we're getting an update. jennifer, thank you very much. as we get more news from the pentagon, we'll bring that to you. the president is on his way to saudi arabia. deputy attorney general rod rosenstein held more briefings on the firing of former fbi director james comey. he's done now. the week is over.

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[customer] have you ever walkedp into the paint store feeling like you should really know more than you know? satin versus semi-gloss, and...i don't know! [team member] yes...i know the feeling. [customer] that's how i feel right now about all the financing options for this project i'm doing. i feel like i should know more than i know. [team member] don't sweat it. we have this new tool--my credit options guide-- that gives you a customized comparison like this, which helps you discover which credit options might be right for you. [customer] oh, this is better. they should make one for paint. [team member] want to get started? [customer] sure. >> jenna: new concerns about president trump's overseas trip. first few months have been dogged by multiple controversies which may or may not impact see negotiation. rich edson is live at the state tkep with more. >> reporter: good afternoon, jenna. this is a trip, eight days,

several stops, an aggressive schedule on which the president will discuss some of the most politically sensitive issues in the world. rex tillerson will accompany president trump for much of this trip. we asked the secretary whether these domestic issues, problems on going here in the united states will affect any parts of this trip. >> i think the people in the rest of the world do not have the time to pay gdz to what's happening domestically here. they're more concerned about what they see happening in the relationship with their country and what we are bringing to address these very serious challenges that are affecting all of us. >> reporter: the secretary also said that this trip is about the president conveying the united states role as a conveyor, as a facilitator to try to solve the world's challenges that exist in many parts of the world. he also says that leaders in the middle east and asia have had their concerns neglect and outright dismissed by the previous administration.

on top of that there's also the issue of what happened last week in the oval office when president trump shared classified information from the russian foreign minister. the suggestion that might be damaging or other countries might not want to share information with the united states, the national security adviser h.r. mcmaster said the president sharing of that information was wholly appropriate. jenna, back to you. >> jenna: rich, thank you very much. we'll be talking about something different now. rod rosenstein spending a second day on capitol hill standing by his controversial memo that the white house used to justify firing james comey. rosenstein saying he knew about president trump's decision before he wrote it. lawmakers say not enough new information was revealed. >> i don't believe in witches. the director's job is to go where the facts lead. it's suspicious when a lawyer doesn't write memos for the record. >> he has no evidence that he

asked comey anything. >> jenna: it's nice to have you with us, congressman. >> great to be with you. >> jenna: a simple question. what did you think? what did you think of this briefing? >> i think it was a briefing in which he came. he repeated what he told to the state yesterday. he wrote the memo. he didn't go in demanding a lot of depth about that. it was the repeating of the decision that the president, that he felt like he was going to fire comey. he wrote that decision. he also did something el. i think he gave, at least for me, he gave assurances director mueller is going to have full control to take over this investigation and go where it may lead. even he said that he was willing to be in all parts so that there's no confusion, that there's one control over the russian investigation. and that should give assurances to the folks on capitol hill and the people in the country. >> jenna: congressman i want to

direct our viewers to what we're quoting at the bottom of the screen. the deputy attorney general said to you all today. we're quoting it. i just want to quote a little more from what we learned about what he said. he said, i thought the july 5th press conference was profoundly wrong, speaking about comey. an unfair boast of the department of justice and secretary clinton. it userped the role of the attorney general, the deputy attorney general and the entire department of justice. he went on to say that he's not going to have a political pressure. that he's going to -- as long as he is where he is in his position, that there will be no political pressure on him. do you believe that? >> i do. otherwise they're calling him a liar. he honestly said, i want to do my job. we can come back across the ieve people are willing to do the job they say they're going to do. comey's comments reflect a lot of the comments. i believe the acting attorney

general, i believe him when he says it will be without political pressure. i believe they're looking for the results and to let the facts lead where they may. >> jenna: let me ask you, you were able to see him in person and get a feeling of what it was like inside the room. i'm curious if you can describe this to our viewers. where did you start the week and how do you feel about it now on friday having played out the last five days of this controversy swirling by the justice department, the fbi and the trump administration? >> i think a lot of the controversy swirling has been generated by many times there are real issues that are being addressed, special counsel being administered. the acting attorney general has come to explain what he has. secretary mueller will have a chance to research and go into the depths. i think there are a lot of folks who do not like this administration. they want to keep that controversy stirred up because they want to take away from what

we're doing here on capitol hill. passing health care reform. rolling back regulations from the obama era. looking forward it ispresident travels overseas where he will be an ambassador for our country. those are the kind of things that we can focus on. there's been a lot of black noise in the background. what we need to do is focus on the future and let the ic do his job. >> jenna: i know viewers are concerned about tax reform. thank you very much for the time today. thank you very much. >> thank you. appreciate it. >> jenna: it will be a busy week for the president, on his first official overseas trip. what does the president need to accomplish? our panel will debate that next. mom? dad? hi! i had a very minor fender bender tonight in an unreasonably narrow fast food drive thru lane. but what a powerful life lesson. and don't worry i have everything handled. i already spoke to our allstate agent, and i know that we have accident forgiveness.

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on the president's trip. plus, we will talk to fox news sunday anchor chris wallace. that's coming up on shepard smith reporting. >> who ever is picked to move but the entire thing has been a witch hunt. there's no collusion between certainly myself and my campaign, but i can only speak for myself and the russians, zero. >> jenna: that was president trump yesterday. just moments ago you watched with us as the president boarded for his first overseas trip since taking office. joining me a staff writer for the federalist and former consultant to the obama campaign. great to have you both. as we take a deep breath at the end of the week. take another breath as we get ready for another big trip. marjorie, i'm curious about this. we know. if you've been paying attention, you know how the president feels about the investigation into the russia meddling, yet do you have to ask the question over and over and over again in different

ways? are we going to see that for the next nine days or do you think that the administration will really be able to turn the page and talk about other things? >> well, i mean, certainly this travel will give him something else to talk about. he has a very diverse set of trips and visits that he will be making and with some big presence like the vatican. it will be interesting to see how that plays out. i do think this will follow him. this is a center piece of what's happening back at home. by the day there have been new allegations, new twists, new pieces to this story. i think that on his part, him coming out swinging at the fbi, at those who are putting these investigation together wasn't helpful. we did see him back down from that. he will be looking for anything else to talk about, but will it follow him? absolutely. >> jenna: brie, what do you think about it? >> donald trump has a point where he says there's an unelected force of state that has made it their job to run down leaks to say he is working

in collusion and working with long time lawmakers. most americans it's very clear that they didn't care or pay much attention to the president's dismissal of james comey. and most americans didn't think russia's meddling in our election to whatever extent that was changed the outcome of the election. what those two things tell us say that most americans think donald trump is a legitimate president and they see a lot of the narrative and vast conspiracy that the media and the force of state is spinning out. >> jenna: to marjorie's point, do you think there are still questions that he needs to answer about this and address over the next week? or do you think there are no more questions and he can effectively move on? >> i think there's definitely more questions. i think appointing a special prosecutor will answer a lot of those questions. continuing these investigations will do that as well. i don't think the president necessarily needs to go around speaking about it or acting so reactive. i think that he can let the

justice department handle this one. i think we don't need to politicize it further. >> jenna: it's a real interesting point. you have to look at the events altogether. it's not just that the president is living on this trip. there's also the special counsel that's been appointed by the justice department. it's hard to say. you don't really know what's coming next. does the combination of the two things provide a little bit of light for the investigation to operate now? >> i think absolutely having some physical space an distance from the entire thing will be helpful. the other thing, when you look at this as a conspiracy, you could politicize this. but the twist in this plot has had more to do with what's coming out of his own administration. leaks from the white house. the fact that he's got republicans saying that's actually not factually correct, this is not a witch hunt, this is a process of justice and we've got a bipartisan supportive lead taking the realm of the fbi, heading these investigations. lot of support on both sides of

the aisle. i find that comforting. the best thing the president could do is just say, all right, then let's let justice do its job. let the process happen. not be perceived as an obstructionist by pushing back. that's the best thing that could happen. >> i was noticing twitter was down over the last hour. so maybe -- it had nothing to do with the president. it was just technology. interesting to note that this is the president's first trip away to a place that doesn't have his name on the property. i just thought that was an interesting fact for viewers to consider about comfort levels and how you're able to operate in places that you're not familiar with. great to have you both. we appreciate it. we have some breaking news. this is also a big story. disgraced former congressman anthony weiner brought down by his now infamous sexting scandal. exclusive news on him and his wife after the break. what's that? p3 planters nuts, jerky and seeds. i like a variety in my protein.

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>> jenna: anthony weiner pleading guilty to sexting with a minor in court today. we're just learning his estranged wife filing for divorce. this according to "the new york post." the former congressman, once a rising star in the democratic party, today telling a judge he has a sickness, but no excuse. laura ingall live outside the courthouse with more. laura? >> reporter: hey, jenna. well, indeed, we have been trying to confirm the reports that his wife filed for divorce today. but the reports are now multiple that she filed for divorce in manhattan supreme court and in the filing, it is reportedly uncontested, meaning she is not expecting to have a fight over custody of their one child or over any assets. now, back to what happened here earlier today in court. it was an emotional day.

part of the plea deal that anthony weiner accepted in the case was to publicly admit to what he had done in court. that's what he did. disgraced former congressman read a prepared statement out loud confessing to his crime in detail, which brought him a single charge of transferring obscene materials to a minor. weiner was brought to tears in just five words into his statement in which he admitted to engaging in obscene communications with a 15-year-old girl, sharing explicit images and asking her to engage in sexually explicit conduct which he knew he said was morally wrong and unlawful. he continued through his tears reading, this fall i came to grips for the first time with the depths of my sickness. i had hit bottom. i entered intensive treatment, found the courage to take a moral inventory of my defects and began a program of mental health treatment that i continue to follow every day. now the investigation into his online communications with this teenager is obviously what sparked the announcement of

former fbi director james comey made last fall just before the presidential election, that the bureau was looking into more e-mails from candidate hillary clinton, from her private server to her aide, uma adibine. those e-mails ended up on weiner's lap top. they include travel restrictions for weiner. he can only stay in new york. he had to forefit his i phone. he will continue with his mental health treatment and will have to register as a sex offender. he was ordered not to ever contact the teenager in this case ever again. he left court today with no comment. jenna? >> jenna: interesting comment. the case and the investigation to anthony weiner having implications to hillary clinton, james comey and everything we're still experiencing regarding the investigation by the fbi. laura, thank you very much for that news. we'll be right back. every tv doctor knows scrubbing is serious business. they also know you need to get your annual check-up. now with one touch using the mycigna app

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quintuplet tiger-cats. they're being bottle fed. i'm jenna here. here's jon scott in for shep. >> it's 3:00 on the east coast. 10:00 p.m. in saudi arabia. president trump says he will protect american interests. fox news has confirmed his son-in-law asked an american company to give the saudis a better deal. a friend of james comey revealing how the former fbi director tried to avoid hugging the president. lawmakers get another briefing about the firing of comey. also, carlos danger crying in court. anthony wiener pleads guilty to sexting with an underage girl. he's about to be single, too. all that ahead this hour.