asking for that's not built in the fy18 budget. >> you're correct. >> but it will be higher than 4 billion, right? >> i would love to do it for less but that would be unrealistic. >> you don't have a ball park. >> yes. >> is that going to hamper the appropriation if you want a three to six month time frame to initiate what you're doing? >> we've already begun to engage starting today with the appropriations leadership in both senate and the house. and i will tell you that this is something that congress has been asking for. i believe they will support this. of course, this has to be a dialogue between us. they have to make sure that we're making the decision at the benefit of the taxpayers as well as veterans and active service members. but i do believe we will have the leadership and the partnership to get us there. >> one last thing. if this is an off the shelf system, this is not a low bid process. you are not putting this out to

bid. you have selected the vendor. >> we have not agreed upon any pricing, but i can assure you that before we were to sign off on a contract, we are going to make sure that this is the best value for taxpayers. >> you were asked a couple questions around this. what kind of fight do you expect in congress by not having a competitive bid. there will be some push back, right? >> this wouldn't be washington if there wasn't pushback. i do not expect any major fights on this. one thing i feel extremely proud about the way congress acted when it comes to veteranses issues is the bipartisan support when it's the right thing to do for this country's veterans. i do expect that to essentially carry through on this. that does not mean that it is not appropriate tpo ask hard questions, to make sure the due diligence is there. to make sure, as we said, this

is a risky process. we've considered people who have different options. but in the end, i do believe this is something that we will see strong bipartisan support for. >> another version of one of my colleagues questions. ehr has been promised before. why is it going to happen if it was promised during the previous administration, why is it going to happen now? you say bipartisan support. we haven't seen evidence of that in washington. so what makes you sure of it at this time? >> i have not seen the department of veteran affairs come out with this type of decision before. so i think that this is new. we now know what is in the best interest of veterans and we're moving ahead with an accelerated process so that we can get this done. and i do believe that this is exactly what congress has asked us to do. i can koupb four times when they've asked dod and va to get in the same room. i can count four times when va and dod left doing separate things. so this one's going to be

different. the department of defense, department of veteran affairs are together in lock step on this. and the president is behind this. we need congress to support it. i believe that support will be there. >> [ inaudible ] >> suicide prevention, yes. >> in that concept, do you need to sit down with the dod and encourage the people to go on record ab their mental problems and issues while they are still on active duty so you would know in a way after they are enlisted in service. >> we are doing that. we are in discussion to the secretary of desense. we know what we're doing is not enough and we have to look at the issues that start in the department of defense and make sure that we're addressing them. the transition time and that gap when you leave active service to

when you enter as a civilian and get health care. that's an area we have to pay particular concern about. that's why this dhr will be helpful. we have to look all the way back into the process just as you're suggesting, so we are doing that. yes. yes, sir. >> you mentioned commissions recommendation. what's been the opposition, the main reason -- >> i think one of the things that we're doing differently in this administration is that we're essentially eliminating some of the silos and turf battles. frankly, i think that if you put the veteran and the service member first, you would come to the conclusion that we've come to today. but nobody likes to give up power and control over their system. in the department of veteran affairs, we are very very proud of our history of being the first major system to develop

electronic record. this was done over 30 years ago by brave clinicians who went on their own and developed this. i do not want to under estimate how difficult that will be for people in the department of affairs. change is not easy. when you've had that for 30 years, change will be really hard. as i have said previously, i wish the department of defense had joined us years and years ago so we could be working together. that isn't the situation i faced as secretary. it's time we move forward and come together. take one more question. >> office of american innovation at the white house. you mentioned that. can you speak about that role, particularly jared kushner leading that. >> yeah yeah. when i became secretary and the

office was stood up, they indicated a strong interest in helping the department of veteran affairs, which i welcome. when we sat down, talk about the pain points. what do you need to do to make a kwan tupl leap where you are? i identified the electronic record. and what we talked about is best practices about how industries make kwan tupl changes. how you go out and solicit information from leaders in the field to make sure that you get the right stake holders and opinions. and so they were advisory in this process. this decision though was fully my decision to make. and there was no influence ever put on this. they were very helpful in helping us keep and move the process along and facilitating discussions with the department of defense as well. thank you very much, everyone. >> thank you very much, mr. secretary.

as the vice president noted this morning, the american people elected a builder to be the 45th president of the united states. a builder who has a vision to modernize the entire federal government. secretary shulkin just spoke ab how that vision is being carried out at the va. the president launched a great new era in aviation starting with the modernization of our air traffic control system. today everything uses gps technology. but washington has been unable to upgrade the air traffic control system from ground base radio and radar systems despite 14 years of attempts by the faa. this delay has left us stuck with a system that just can't keep up with an industry that has grown since it was designed. our current air traffic control system cost our economy as much as $25 billion a year in delays, inefficiency and unreliability. this is a problem that nearly everyone agrees needs to be

solved. joining the president today were representatives from the air traffic controllers union, passenger advocates, leaders of airline and cargo companies and every former coo of the faa. though aren't people that typically agree on much of anything. even where all of these people behind reform, it was still stuck in the washington political machine. president trump was elected to unstick these kind of commonsense efforts and will be continuing to work with congress on getting these principles turned into legislation and getting that legislation to the president's desk. to accompany the president's announcement, the department of transportation today launched a new microsite. smarter skies.gov which will be updated with fact sheets, q&a and other information. infrastructure is only one of the items on the president's agenda. the health care team is engaging with congress daily on the american health care act which we hope to see the senate take up soon. new stories of sky rocketing

premiums and fleeing providers are coming almost every day. just last friday blue cross blue shield in nebraska announced they are canceling their obamacare catastrophic plans and the only remaining plans -- which were the only plans they currently sell on the exchange. that leaves the entire state with only one choice for choice and that insurer raised rates by 51% last year and is threatening to pull out of iowa completely. with our health care system breaking down around us, this administration is committed to finding a solution. this afternoon vice president mike pence, secretary of hhs services dr. tom price, administrator of the small business administration linda mcmahon and administrator of the centers for medicare and medicade services are holding a listening session with female small business owners to talk ab how we will repeal and replace obamacare with a plan that benefits all americans. tomorrow the president will

welcome representatives and senators to the white house to talk more about what's next on the legislative agenda, including repealing and replacing obamacare and crafting a revolutionary tax reform proposal that will provide relief to hard working taxpayers. on wednesday, infrastructure week continues with the president's visit to cincinnati, ohio, where he will speak about his wide ranging vision for rebuilding our country with a special focus on repairing our 12,000 mile inland water way system which carries $230 billion in commerce annually, while our locks and dams crumble because the federal government can't fund the critical repairs they need. the president will present his sustainable solution to this problem in ohio wednesday. i know because all of you are deeply concerned about the births of each of my children, i wanted to carry on with tradition and announce my son george will be 2 thursday so happy early birthday to george. and with that i'll take your questions. john roberts. >> as you know also on wednesday

the president hits ohio, james comey is scheduled to testify before the senate intelligence committee. this question is to whether or not the white house will allow him to testify -- thursday. did i say wednesday? sorry. on thursday. >> if only they had that same politeness when correcting us, huh? >> scheduled to testify on thursday. and there is a question as to whether or not you will invoke executive privilege or if you will allow him to testify. >> sure. the president's power to assert executive privilege is very well established. however, in order to facilitate a swift and thorough examination of the facts sought by the senate intelligence committee, president trump will not assert executive privilege regarding james comey's scheduled testimony. >> i have a follow-up on that question. on the president's tweets regarding the travel ban. kelly anne conway's husband.ed

out such tweets are not helpful when it comes to soliciting ability to make an effective argument before the supreme court. is the president concerned that he may be tainting the waters, the legal system, by issuing such tweets? >> not at all. the president is very focused on exactly what that order spells out and that's protecting americans, protecting national security, and he has every constitutional authority to do that, through that executive order. he maintains that. that position hasn't changed in the slightest. >> thank you. why is the president picking a fight with the mayor of london right after his city was hit by a terrorist attack? >> i don't see the president is picking a fight with the mayor of london at all. again, the president's point, something he said, frankly, back -- gosh, been almost two years now when the president talked about how we have to be more committed to national security. one of the reasons we have the

travel ban here through that executive order is a focus on national security. that was the.he was trying to make. >> but the president saying the mayor said there was no reason to be alarmed by the terrorist attack. that is not what the mayor said. the mayor, in fact, said the threat level remains severe, chances of another attack are highly likely. he was saying don't be alarmed by the armed police presence on the street. the president directly misrepresented what the mayor of london said. >> i don't think that's actually true. i think the media wants to spin it that way. i think the president -- >> do you think that's what he was saying? >> the point is there is a reason to be alarmed. we have constant attacks going on not just there, but across the globe, and we have to start putting national security and global security at an all-time high. president trump has been very clear that's his priority and he's not backing away from that.

>> what was the president's reaction to sever ties with qatar. >> the president is continuing to have conversations with all of those countries. we want to continue to deescalate that. at this point we're continuing to work with each of those partners. >> did the president get word this was going to happen when hef in saudi arabia a couple weeks ago? >> i'm not aware of that. the state department would be best to answer that question. jim? >> yeah. you just mentioned the word ban. the president tweeting earlier today said people, lawyers and courts can call it whatever they want. i am calling it what it is and need. a travel ban. early on in the administration when you were trying to justify and this white house was trying to justify the executive order on extreme vetting and these travel restrictions, the white house was adamant that these were travel restrictions and it was not a travel ban. sean spicer from that podium said it was not a travel ban.

is it a travel ban? >> i don't think the president cares what you call it. whether you call it a ban. whether you call it a restriction. he cares that we call it national security and that we take steps to protect the people of this country. it's real simple. everybody wants to get into the labels and semantics of it, but the bottom line is he's trying to protect the citizens of this country. the danger is extremely clear. the law is very clear. and the need for this executive is very clear. and the president's priority in protecting the people is very clear. full stop. >> i'll ask you a follow-up on what john was asking with respect to the mayor of there a are going to ask the question, was the president attacking the mayor of london because he's muslim? >> not at all. i think to suggest something like that is utterly ridiculous. matthew? >> given the importance -- >> sorry. >> that's okay. i'll go to him and we'll come back. >> due to the importance of twitter in the president's communication strategy, can you

tell us if the tweets are being vetted by a lawyer or any other aide? and if not, why not? or if so, when did that start? >> not that i'm aware of. i think social media for the president is extremely important. it gives him the ability to speak directly to the people without the bias of the media filtering communication. he has over 100 plus million contacts through social media and all those platforms. i think it's a very important tool for him to utilize. matthew? >> i have a question about those executive order comments the president made this morning. he said that he wishes that his justice department had stuck with the original executive order. doj of course part of the executive branch. if he wanted to stick with the original, why didn't he order the department of justice to stick with that? why did he even sign the revised one? >> in the purpose they were trying to meet the demands of the 9th circuit. but again, the president's been very clear. he wants to go as far and strong

as possible under the constitution to protect the people in this country. that's what he felt the first executive order did. the expect one was another version of that. but let's be clear ab what this is. these are six countries that were identified not just by this administration, but by the obama administration and congress that are dangerous, unstable, volatile an frankly, they're not capable or willing to even vet people coming in or out. that's what this is about. everybody wants to make it something different than national security issue. that's exactly what it is. that's why the president is so focused on pushing it forward in the strongest form possible. >> is if he believed the first one was safer and constitutional, then why did he sign the second one if now he's coming out today saying we never should have done the second one? >> he was looking to match the demands laid out by the 9th circuit and for the purpose of exceed againsy to start looking at the best way possible to move that process forward.

>> as it is currently written, given whatever you called it, does the president support the travel ban as it is currently written? >> absolutely. he supports steps moving in the direction of all levels and forms possible. he wants the strongest executive order out there. he wanted it to move as quickly as possible. that was the reason for that. >> the original intent was to review immigration policies of those coming into the united states. that was january 21st, 22nd. it has been nearly five months since then. what progress has the administration made looking and vetting and doing some of that while this travel ban is working through the court system? >> extreme vetting is taking place. that's something that is extremely important that was laid out in the memo. i think one other thing -- i'm sorry? >> what has the administration been working on when it comes to extreme veting? >> if you want to get into details, i would refer you to

the department of justice. one of the things i can tell you is that there are over 300 people under investigation that are part of this process under investigation for terrorist related activity. in our system. that's a large part of the vetting process that the president has stepped up. >> you mentioned the president's tweets are -- essentially a way to get around the filter of the bias media when it comes to the tweets, that he sees an important way to get his message out. another top adviser said the media was obsessed with the president's tweets. which is it? president's tweets matter or are they just something the media gets upset about? >> i think they matter in the sense that it gives him a communications tool that isn't filtered through media bias. but at the same time, i do think that the media obsesses over every period, dot, as john was a perfect example earlier. he made a mistake. his colleague politely krebged him. if somebody from our administration had done the

same, all hell would have broken loose and it would be it's just total chaos here at the white house. i think it's just the obsession over every detail of the president's tweets. they come directly from the president's twitter account. no. jim? >> on the whole travel ban thing. he said he would ask the department of justice to act. has he done that? >> he has. he has asked for an expedited process. i can say that. >> secondly, on the u.s. ambassador to the uk, can you say why we don't have one yet? is there a reason for the delay? >> i'm not aware of that. i veal to check and get back on that. >> following up on that last question, in addition to seeking the expedited process, the president said so we can seek a much tougher version. is a third version of the travel

ban in the works? >> not that i'm aware of. i know again -- >> what do you take of that presidential stphaeuplt >> that the president will continue taking aggressive steps every day to protect the people in this country. >> ask doj to contemplate a tougher version. >> i think he's asked the entire administration to look for ways we can defeat isis and to protect the american people. if that's part of that process, it could be. but i don't know specifically if that's part of it. >> from your vantage point then, based on the questions jonathan and jim asked, why is the origin of this confusion or misunderstanding about what the president said about the mayor of london? is it the mayor of london's fault? >> i'm sorry. i'm not following. >> the mayor of london and many there feel that the president, not only took the comments mayor of london made out of context, but compounded an emotionally difficult experience for londoners. who is to blame for that? are they misinterpreting the president or did the president make a mistake?

>> look, the president's been extremely clear that we stand in complete solidarity with the united kingdom and protecting that relationship and that partnership, and we're fully committed to doing everything we can to help them in this process and we condemn any acts similar to that. april? >> how is the president not contradicting this administration when he tweets out travel ban in caps. and talking about extreme vetting. how does he not contradict himself when he's trying to get this thing to go through the supreme court. >> look, again, i don't know how many times i have to answer this question today, but i'll try to do it one more time. i think that the president isn't concerned with what you call it. he's concerned with national security and protecting people in this country. whether you call it a travel ban -- >> he goes from one extreme to the next and then back to the first. >> you're talking about being

politically correct. he's concerned with protecting the american people. that's the bottom line here. he's going to take whatever steps he can to move that agenda forward. >> going from travel ban to extreme vetting back to travel ban on twitter. >> i don't think he thinks any step he takes towards moving the ball forward in protecting the american people and implementing the executive order is ever going to be a mistake. >> where is sean? >> he's here today. >> why didn't he come out? >> this is part of my job as well. did you ever ask any of the other deputy press secretaries where they were? >> is he in a new position now? >> i think he is taking on a little bit of extra duty at this point. it's probably upgraded at this.given where you don't have a communications director here.

there are a lot of demands on his schedule. given the fact that there is not a communications director. this is part of my job as well. when i'm needed, i'll step in. >> one of the things in washington suggested that in fact in brussels the president was given a draft that his speech to the nato partners suggested that he would invoke or at least respect the article iv commitments. senior administration official told us that the president himself did not take the article iv reference out of the speech. who did? >> i'm not aware of that. thanks, guys. >> you can stay longer. >> the white house press briefing wrapping up with sarah huckabee sanders addressing healthcare. this 2:00 eastern hour just started off with acrimony inside

that white house press briefing. i don't know if you just saw that back and forth between one of the white house pret corps and sarah huckabee sanders. it came down to, where is sean spicer? this comes with a major announcement today by the veterans affairs secretary david shulkin. that happened earlier in the news conference. the department will begin a massive overhaul of its electronic health records in an effort to improve services for our veterans. also amid big news with president trump who says he will not invoke executive privilege as a way to block james comey from testifying to congress later this week. joining me now for more on this chris stirewalt. i like to say stire is on fire. there was a lot of heat in that room. what stood out to you? first we have the announcement on the veteran affairs and accountability there and that was a big portion of this.

and then sarah huckabee sanders stood up and it got dicey. >> doesn't it sort of encapsulate the dualness of the trump administration. on one hand you have substannive change that could revolutionize the way it works but as the secretary says, there's risk involved here. whenever you undertake anything dramatic, there's risk involved. this is big doing. verse two in the alternate universe this might be a big story. just like the president's moves on infrastructure. instead the story is what was packed into that tight little session huckabee sanders did at the end which is, why is the president tweet controlling the mayor of london? why is he attacking his own justice department? what's up with the white house intrigue? where's sean? have you chained him to a radiator somewhere? is he coming out? what's going on? so you have this dual nature in this one moment.

>> as a journalist i look at this. clearly watching that e srol faa into what you just said. that was not an sarah sanders. that was on the reporters in the room. the questions were legitimately going to be like what the nation has said it cared about. veterans langishing, some dying with wait times. that now being addressed by the new secretary of veteran affairs. he said the va will adopt the same health records as the department of defense, putting them on an even playing field. that's big news. also the president is going to meet with lawmakers to talk about obamacare repeal and replace tomorrow at the white house. these are areas as a journalist i would press on. that's what the american people say they want to talk about. yet we got into a back and forth, welsh did he tweet too much? is it he's tweeting too much or not enough? >> well, yes but -- they did ask substantive questions of the secretary. there was a full discussion that

took place there. >> with the secretary. >> right. presumably he knows more about it than the deputy white house spokeswoman. presumably that's the right place to put those questions. >> fair. >> as far as the other stuff, having a debate over whether or not to take the president's tweets literally or seriously. i thought it was well encapsulated in the sense of you tell us that his tweets are important, but other times you tell us to ignore his tweets. i would submit when the white house tells us to ignore his tweets, it's when tweets that aren't helpful to his overall agenda. >> one of the other things that came up, john roberts asked the first question with sarah up there. he said, will the president then be using his executive privilege to keep james comey from testifying later this week? she said the president will not assert executive privilege over james comey testifying before senators in congress. what are your thoughts about that?

>> welsh not only is it probably smart in the sense that so doing would only add to the speculation and the fight and would look bad. but all trump sounded ab their discussions. he probably already popped the seal on experting executive privilege. he's already described some of their communications. it would be hard for him to invoke privilege later. but remember, what happens wednesday and thursday with a couple days of testimony about this stuff. this is all the sound and the fury. this signifies nothing. this will be used endlessly by partisans on both sides. the real deal is what's going on behind the scenes with the mueller investigation. politic teugss are trying to spin different revelations. but the truth is that former fbi director mueller has the ball now, and that's the investigation that's gonna make the difference. >> real quickly, the travel ban came up. sanders was asked whether or not, is it a travel ban, what is it? he said he doesn't care, meaning the president, what you call it.

just call it protecting national security. we've just cut video of just a little bit of that section of that back and forth about where is sean spicer. let's watch that and i want to get your thoughts. >> where's sean? >> he's here today. >> why didn't he come out? >> this is part of my job as well. did you ever ask any of the other deputy press secretaries? >> we asked them all. >> is he in a new position now? >> i think he is taking on a little bit of extra duty at this point. >> is there a change now? >> it's probably an upgrade at this point given that we don't have a communications director here. i'm here today, april. there are a lot of demands on his schedule, particularly given the fact that there is not a communications director. this is part of my job as well. when i'm needed, i'll step in. >> awkward. are you taking the other guy's job? >> is sean okay. tap on the pipe, sean, if you

can hear us. whether she starts doing this on a more regular basis or whatever, this is a thankless brutal job. for this president it's the worst i have ever seen. it may be better for them to platoon through people so the scar tissue can be spread out more evenly on the staff. >> you spin words like no one else i know. pictures inside my head. chris stirewalt, thank you for breaking it down. thank you. >> you bet. >> fox news alert now. police named two soft three suspects who police say drove across the london bridge, jumped out of a white van and started killing people. isis has claimed responsibility for the evil. among the wounded now, 36 remain hospitalized. we're told half of them are in critical condition. british police say they have collected a, quote, huge amount of evidence from the attackers'

van. david lee miller is in london. david lee, what more can you tell us about the attackers? >> reporter: harris, it is indeed significant that authorities are publicly naming two of the three attackers. they are described as pakistani born citizen 27-year-old karom butt and rasheed rawani. both lived in barking, only about eight miles from where saturday night's murder spree took place. authorities say one of the attackers, butt, was known to them as well as the uk's domestic spy agency. he even appeared as recently as last year in a tv documentary on british jihadi. the other attacker claimed to be from morocco as well as from libya. there's not a great deal more information about him. authorities now say harris they are working on establishing the identity of the third attacker.

they have also asked people who may know the other two men to come forward. any information would be helpful as this investigation continues. harris? >> i know that the mirror which is there in the uk is reporting and we stan substantiate this but you would imagine if there's a video, it shouldn't be that hard. the mirror is reporting that one of the identified attackers according to police, one of them is in a documentary called a jihadist next door. that's in the papers locally where you are, the mirror. are you seeing that? if not, we'll move on to the next question. >> yes, i have actually seen clips of the documentary. there is a man who looks very much like theator named butt. he was someone who had a reasonably high profile when you look at these other three men. another thing to note here. there are also published reports

today, harris, that say we talked about one of the perpetrators according to a published report. this appeared in a couple different papers. that one individual apparently tried to recruit children to join isis and police were warned about one of the other perpetrators by someone who told authorities that he was looking at extremist material on the internet. so there's more information out there, but it is slowly, slowly coming forward. harris? >> david lee miller, thank you very much. we're going to now get more on this. let's bring in retired four star general jack keen a fox news military analyst. we've been talking in the last couple of days as the story has unfolded, general. one of the things you've made me aware of is when it comes to the death toll of where we are with the islamic state. they are claiming responsibility but they will have to work the scene to see if that's true. we are looking at war like

numbers of casualties and deaths. what is the significance of that? >> well, radical isl pha more fed into a global jihad. the number of countries involved has tripled in the last five, six years. so has the death toll. when you go back to 2004, 2005, 2006, the number of people killed by radical is lambists, not just isis, was somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,000 to 5,000. by the time 2016 rolled around, it's up almost to 30,000. that is a war-like number. and that's part of the issue here because we have still far too many national leaders who don't take this serious. isis is at war with their countries, their nation state, civilization as we know it. they want to change this world order. we are not making the kind of commitment that needs to be made. president trump has. he's the first american leader

in some time that has gone to the middle east and organized an effort against this. al sisi from egypt has, king abdullah in jordan is committed. i believe many other nations in the middle east an africa because of trump's leadership will be. but paris, just about all of the leaders in europe are not. maybe teresa may is moving in that direction. her rhetoric certainly has changed. we'll see if her policies and actions change also. >> there's something else going on for her. there's an election on thursday. because of the terror attacks over the weekend, there was a loose agreement that apparently didn't hold very long about campaigning and stopping that while they mourn the dead and the injured and support those who are injured an hospitalized. but the politics continue on. there were questions about whether that rhetoric is, in fact, coming, as some are calling it from teresa may and not really policy or action. we saw tony blair battle this.

this has been going on for many, many years. i have heard you describe it. it's like an open door policy without a whole lot of vetting going on. that's certainly a huge conversation that's happening in this country. are you at all concerned that isis is moving into so many country, that they are doing what they said they'd do. maybe it's a terror set. but is there concern al qaeda and some of these others joined forces with the group that seems to recruit like no one else? >> isis has been extraordinary. they came into syria which is their safe haven. they still have it this day. in 2012 several hundred iraqi fighters. by 2014, about 18, 19 months later, they grew to 30,000. largely using the internet to bring people in. that 30,000 came from all over the world. they trained them there. they prepared their operations there and conducted an invasion

into iraq. now what they use is a virtual calipate to stay in communication with their followers and to motivate them an inspire them. less directive but more motivation to conduct attacks. and these organizations are growing. we're not having the kind of success we should be having about diminishing these organizations. >> general keen, thank you very much for your information on this. i see the passion in you, too, sir. we'll bring you back when we can. >> good talking to you, harris. as always. >> we just heard from the white house press briefing president trump will not invoke executive privilege as a way to block james comey from testifying to congress. let's bring in chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge. reporter: over the weekend it was told the president was given -- we just heard he is deciding against executive privilege in a

way to block comey's testimony. >> the president's power to expert executive privilege is very well established. however, in order to have a swift and thorough examination of the facts sought by the senate intelligence committee, president trump will not assert executive privilege regarding james comey's testimony. reporter: a senior republican on the senate intelligence committee where comey will be testifying thursday said he's not sure what to expect from the fired director when he speaks publicly for the first time, but his meetings with president trump and memos where comey documented his conversation ab the russia probe. >> what comey says and how he says it i think will be important. i haven frankly understood much of what comey has done since about a year ago. his decisions have been i think highly questionable. we'll see why he was prepared for that meeting the way he was, saying he had a round of murder board kind of questions before he went to see the president. reporter: the senior democrat on

that senate panel says he wants to ask comey, as well as other top intelligence officials who will be testifying in advance of thursday whether there's any hard evidence of coordination between the russian and trump aides. >> there is a lot of smoke. we have no smoking gun but there is a lot of smoke. one of the questions we will have not only for director comey on thursday, but on wednesday for director of national intelligence coats and nsa, nsa director roger. reporter: in an interview on nbc news, the russian president putin said he knows nothing about contacts between his ambassador to washington and members of the trump team. harris? >> catherine, thank you very much. all right. so you just heard catherine saying and she showed us a little bit from senator warner that there is no evidence, there's no smoking gun. let's bring in the president of hookstra global strategies and

former chairman of the house intelligence committee. good to see you. so if there's no evidence, where do you start? you used to be the chairman of the house senate committee. how do you prepare for that? >> well, i think where you start on this, harris, is you have the special counsel, the justice department saying what evidence do we have of russian involvement in the elections of 2016. then you say how did they try to penetrate perhaps into the trump campaign? how did they penetrate into the hillary clinton network. everybody knew hillary clinton was going to win, so you would think they'd want to establish connections with the winner through that process. and then is there any evidence they changed votes? as senator warner said, there's no evidence of collusion that either one of the campaigns. what you do, you try to find out exactly what the russians did. >> do you feel like we didn't

get that information when comey went before congress in early may? >> no i think they got that information. comey described some of the things that the russians did. he and other witnesses said there was no collusion. or no evidence of collusion. there are some that just do not want to give up on that effort. i don't think there's any new evidence that's been involved over the last, you know, 60 days or 30 days that would lead one to a different conclusion. >> that brings me to my question now. so you have two hearings thursday. you have one in private, one in public. the democrats don't want to let this go. this is an opportunity for james comey to do something that he's been criticized for, and that is to step out into the spotlight again. what is this really about? if there's no new information that you can see? it's not like he'll take the memos out of his jacket and say, the president was trying to get me to stop the investigation. that would make him look, welsh

pretty bad. >> i think that's right. comey has said there was no influence on him to try to stop or direct the investigations. there's a lot of people here. everyone wants to know what the president said in private to comey and these types of things. if there had been something nefarious there, you would have thought he would have acted on it when it occurred rather than a few weeks after he got fired. i'm not sure we're going to see anything explosive on thursday. i rather doubt it. >> they're calling this the hottest ticket in town. we have so many things to concentrate on, obamacare and the like. good to see you. thank you very much for your time. the white house is making a big push to focus on health care as i was just saying. in the briefing today the senate is back in session in less than 30 minutes. so where do we stand on it? we'll talk about it next. stay close.

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>> did you know that in less than 30 minutes the senate returns to work. where do they stand on health care? that's the issue americans say they care so much about. jessica tarlov is senior director for buckle.com. mercedes sclapp is a former spokes person for george w. bush. mercedes, repeal, replace. this is signature now for president trump. he said he'd get this done. >> well, welcome to the senate, which is a very slow moving vehicle to pass legislation. you're dealing with a lot of very opinionated senators who want to make sure they have their voices heard. actually what you're hearing in the senate is the fact that, are they gonna move towards what they call a targeted market stablization bill? something that would focus on regulatory relief for the insurers? or are they moving toward the comprehensive health care reform bill which is the goal of majority leader mitch mcconnell

and the republicans in the senate. this is what they're doing right now. right now, harris, they are drafting up the paperwork around the comprehensive bill, circulating it to the senators to get their feed back. so it sounds to me like it will be a much longer process than what we had anticipated in the past. >> the american people might be okay with that if in the end of all of this they get something better. how sincere, jessica, are democrats when they say, hey, if you don't repeal it, we'll work with you on repair. >> i think they're being completely sincere. i don't want us to get side tracked too much with donald trump's tweets. that's bad for the democratic party. we need a deliverable to win in 2018. it can't just be, look, donald trump messed up, put us back in control of the house, maybe the senate. we have to give them something. so we need to work with them on tax reform. we need to work with them on health care. that infrastructure plan could be exciting as well.

i don't think we can stand up there and say, did you see how bad donald trump is on twitter? 'cause that's not a reason to elect you. i agree with what mercedes said. the most important thing for republicans to come to grips with is, a, the medicade cuts and what's going to happen with preexisting conditions. taking it down to the state level isn't enough. >> because of breaking news covering the white house press briefing we're a little compressed in time. you mentioned infrastructure. the president goes to ohio and kentucky to talk about pushing for that $1 trillion overall on america's roads and bridges. i just want to get that news nugget in there. we'll bring you back when we have more time. >> thank you. >> president trump said americans deserve a modern aviation system. he made a big announcement today. what it could mean for all of us who fly. by the time you head to the bank and wait to get approved for a

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>> extreme weather. a tornado formed in front of a man's eyes and he caught it on camera. safe distance. it happened in north central mexico. you can see the tail of the funnel cloud forming and whipping around. no injuries to report or damage as a result of this. and we do have a twister tale part duex. this guy in canada couldn't be bothered with taking the picture. he had some grass to mow there. the wife snapped a shot of her husband working on his honey do list. she told him to come inside but he told her no. fortunately he's okay. president trump said he wants to bring the nation into a great new era of american aviation. he made an announcement at the white house. we covered it here on fox. unveiling plans to overhaul the

nation's air traffic control system. trace gallagher is live with more. trace? >> reporter: harris, the president wants most of the air traffic control operations that currently fall under the umbrella of the faa to be put into what the white house calls nongovernmental agency run mostly by representatives of the big airline. it would still be a qasi government agency because the faa would still have some oversight. it would be funded by federal airline fees, and if it fails or needs more money, yep, the taxpayers would be on the hook kind of like amtrak. the move is primarily met as a way to speed up the implementation of next gen the process of replacing ground based radar with an air traffic control system that uses satellites. right now there are roughly 7,000 flights above the united states at any given time. next gen would allow planes to fly closer together and fly more direct routes, meaning the airlines could put more planes in the air, they could save on

fuel and speed up arrivals and departures. during the announcement, the president said the air traffic control system was stuck painfully in the past. watch. >> after billions and billions of tax dollars spent and the many years of delay, we are still stuck with an ancient, broken, antiquated, horrible system that doesn't work. other than that, it's quite good. >> reporter: just guess, but the president doesn't like the system. the new plan gives too much control over to the big airlines, some calling it the creation of an airline controlled corporate monopoly. we should note the air traffic control union mostly support privatizing atc. elaine chao will begin selling the plan to congress. >> we saw her to his left

shoulder the whole time he was speaking today. great to see you. we're coming right back. it's the phillips' lady!

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>> i don't know if you new this, but as the london terror attacks were unfolding, there was a bomb scare in italy triggering a stampede that left 1,500 people hurt. it happened in turin, italy during the soccer championships. most of the victims have been treated for minor injuries now. three people are reported to be in serious condition, including a little boy that was crushed after tripping as he was trying to run. the panic was triggered by fireworks. all right. some heart-stopping moments. take a look closely to the right side of your screen. a northern illinois man did whatever he could to save his driver. the car going down the wrong lane. he jumped in. turns out the driver was having a seizure. yes, people, this is what we call a hero.

he jumped into the passenger's side window. let's see it again. he was managing to stop the car so the man having a seizure would survive. that will do it for my. i'm harris. here's shep. >> shepard: it's noon on the west coast, 3:00 at the white house where president trump is blasting his own justice department saying the lawyers there should have fought for his original travel ban. even though two of his own staffers have avoided calling it a travel ban. the president says that's exactly what it is. could that mean trouble in the courts? also, the white house saying once and for all whether president trump plans to try to stop the fired fbi director james comey from testifying this week in congress. plus, attackers killed seven people in london. the islamic state has claimed responsibility. investigators say they're still trying to unravel the plot. today word of n