well, for the third day, the president did not take questions and the white house did not provide evidence for his claim that president obama tapped his phones during the presidential campaign. over the weekend mr. trump described this as a fact. the fbi director has asked the justice department to deny mr. trump's claim. white house officials have struggled for days to justify the charge, which appears to have no basis. margaret brennan has the latest. >> obamacare is collapsing. >> reporter: president trump criticized his predecessor's signature achievement today but did not repeat the unsubstantiated claim that

president obama wiretapped his phones during the 2016 campaign. >> it's not that he's walking anything back or regretting it. >> reporter: white house spokesman sean spicer said president trump stands by the allegations he made saturday when he wrote on twitter that mr. obama is a "bad or sick guy." spicer said a taxpayer-funded congressional investigation should now look into the claim. >> i think the smartest, the most deliberative way to address the situation is to ask the house and the senate intelligence committees who are already in the process of looking into this. >> i have not seen that evidence. >> reporter: republican devin nunes, chair of the house intelligence committee, said he would explore the allegations but suggested that the president might have misspoken. >> as you all know, the president is a neophyte to politics. he's been doing this a little over a year, and i think a lot of the things that he says you guys sometimes take literally. >> reporter: and senate intelligence committee chair

richard burr, a republican, said his committee has not found anything to investigate. >> we don't have anything that would send us in that direction but that's not to say we might not find something. >> reporter: now nunes did announce the first hearing on russian interference in the election will take place on march 20th. scott, also today, we heard president trump's nominee to be deputy attorney general rod rosenstein testify he has not any reason to believe there has been any wiretapping. >> margaret brennan at the white house. president trump pressed his attack on his predecessor today with this tweet, which we can confirm is erroneous, "122 vicious prisoners released by the obama administration from gitmo," that's guantanamo bay, "have returned to the battlefield. just another terrible decision." well, the truth is the office of the director of national

intelligence says that nine of those prisoners were released by president obama. 113 by president george w. bush. today china warned the u.s. of an arms race in the pacific after the pentagon delivered parts of a new missile defense system to south korea. earlier this week north korea launched missiles in what it called a rehearsal for an attack on u.s. military bases. david martin is learning more about that test. >> reporter: the missiles lifted off simultaneously, so close together an infrared satellite looking down from space initially identified those rocket plumes as coming from a single missile. the four flew toward japan in a barrage intended to overwhelm anti-missile defense systems. north korea said the launch was conducted by a unit whose mission it is to attack u.s. bases in japan. had the missiles been launched

from the east coast, they could have reached japan. patriot anti-missile batteries already stationed in japan and south korea should have been able to shoot them down if necessary. and the u.s. is now beefing up those defenses by adding a high-altitude system known as thad, which began arriving in korea monday night, although it will be months before it becomes operational. the missiles launched on monday date back to the 1990s. north korea is developing more modern missiles like this one tested last month. and u.s. intelligence has detected signs it may be preparing to test it again. a u.n. report obtained by cbs news concluded north korea has demonstrated major technological progress within a short period of time. among other things, significantly increasing the range of its missiles. north korea is expected to launch several more missiles in the coming weeks to show its anger over u.s. military exercises going on in south korea.

the north korea news agency accused president trump of creating a nuclear confrontational hysteria. secretary of state tillerson will travel to japan, south korea, and china next week. us officals say china is the one country with the ability to rein in north korea, but so far, scott, that has not happened. >> david martin, thank you. still ahead, someone stole her identity and turned her into a fake blogger. are your allergies holding you back or is it your allergy pills? break through your allergies. introducing flonase sensimist. more complete allergy relief in a gentle mist you may not even notice. using unique mistpro technology, new flonase sensimist delivers a gentle mist to help block six key inflammatory substances that cause your symptoms. most allergy pills only block one. and six is greater than one. break through your allergies.

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in our continuing effort to separate fact from fiction, we turn to the story of a woman who had her identity hijacked. she was turned into a fake blogger, and that caused very real trouble. here's carter evans. >> that is the most recent one. that's the miss world crown. >> reporter: meet laura hunter, photographer, beauty queen, and as for politics -- >> i would lean a bit more to the liberal side. >> reporter: so it might seem laura hunter was living a secret double life, far-right blogger, anti-muslim, anti-immigrant, and very pro trump. this looks like you. >> it's a picture of me. that's my name. >> reporter: are these your beliefs? >> no. it's bigoted. it's racist. i'm not those things. >> reporter: you wouldn't write anything like that? >> no, never. >> reporter: but fake laura

hunter has since august attracted nearly a million followers on facebook through a site called the conservative daily post. >> i started googling my name, and wow. >> reporter: fake laura even had a madeup bio, living with her dog in eastern tennessee, but real laura is a professional photographer in seattle. she's filed a $50,000 lawsuit against those behind the site whose business address is a post office box. have you heard anything from them? >> no, nothing at all. >> reporter: underneather did we after we reached out. but since filing laura's picture has become an avatar, and something bizarre happened, fake laura's fans got angry at the real laura. >> they think i'm the fake. >> they think you're impersonating someone else. >> yeah. they think, she's a wonderful woman. how dare you? you're trying to ride her coattails. >> reporter: fake news sites can generate thousands in ad revenue but operates in the shadows. laura isn't sure she'll receive

damages. she just wants to restore her damaged reputation. >> it's very simple -- if you can't confirm something, don't post it. >> reporter: carter evans, cbs news, seattle. coming up next, a freight train slams into a casino bus. looking for balance in your digestive system? try align probiotic. for a non-stop, sweet treat goodness, hold on to your tiara kind of day. get 24/7 digestive support, with align. the #1 doctor recommended probiotic brand. now in kids chewables.

there was a deadly collision today in biloxi, mississippi. a freight train hit a charter bus that got stuck on the tracks. four people on the bus were killed. 35 others were taken to hospitals. the bus was packed with senior citizens from texas on a casino trip. and we'll be right back. where do babies come from?,,,,,

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finally tonight a restoration is under way at the virginia estate of america's third president. workers are restoring not only a building, but also sally heming's rightful place in our history. here's chip reid. >> reporter: monticello is a popular tourist destination, but only in recent years have tour guides been allowed to give the whole story. >> we believe jefferson fathered sally hemings' children. >> reporter: sally hemings was one of jefferson's slaves.

it's widely accepted by historians they had six children, and some of their names are found with their mothers in jefferson's meticulous expense records, but for decades their relationship was rarely mentioned here out of fear it would taint jefferson's reputation. that started to change in the 1990s. and now a transformation is in the works. gardener hallock is monticello's director of restoration. >> she lived right here? >> we believe she lived right here. >> reporter: hemings room was once a public rest room. now it's being restored so visitors can see how she lived. >> you can imagine sally building fires here and her children and sally huddled around here in the wintertime staying warm at this very hearth. >> his entire life depended upon slavery. >> niya bates is historian of african american life at monticello. she said hemings room is part of a major project that will

accurately portray daily life here. including stories of some of the 600 slaves jefferson owned over the course of his life. what exactly are you trying the change about the narrative of sally hemmings? >> understanding sally hemings as a woman, as a mother, as an aunt, as a sister and as an ancestor. >> that makes me the great, great, great, great, great, great grandson of thomas jefferson and sally hemings. >> reporter: shannon lanier is one of those descendants. >> it's about time monticello is restoring the history of sally hemings, for so many years that whole story was swept under the rug. >> reporter: a story that will now be front and center at the home of thomas jefferson and sally hemings. chip reid, cbs news, monticello. >> and that's the "overnight news" for this wednesday. for some of you the news continues. for others check back with us a little later for the morning news and be sure not to miss "cbs this morning." from the broadcast center in new york city, i'm scott pelley.

-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com this is the "cbs overnight news." hi, everyone. welcome to the "overnight news." i'm der demarco morgan. wikileaks released another trove of secret documents from the cia. they detail how u.s. intelligence has managed to hack into cell phones, home computers, and even smart tvs, turning them into tools to spy on their owners. jeff pegues has the story. >> reporter: wikileaks claims the stolen data came from a former u.s. government hacker or contractor, code named vault 7. the disclosures reveal cyber espionage tools that can take over internet connected or smart tvs and report audio. the documents also cite the ability to hack iphone or google android smartphones.

those hacks allow the cia to then monitor the communications of terrorist groups like isis, which have been using encrypted apps to communicate. critics have wondered why apps haven't been disabled. but the documents suggest analysts have the ability to exploit them. earlier this year u.s. intelligence officials accused wikileaks of being a propaganda arm of the russian government after it released damaging democratic party e-mails stolen through russian cyber attacks. when the e-mails were published during the presidential campaign, candidate donald trump praised the organization. >> wikileaks. i love wikileaks. >> reporter: but the latest disclosures now threaten u.s. intelligence capabilities. wikileaks says it has more information than that revealed by nsa leaker edward snowden, former cia acting director michael morrell. >> how would you compare this to snowden? >> this is cia's edward snowden. >> that big? >> this is huge. in terms of what it will tell

the adversaries, and we'll have to essentially start over in building tools to get information from our adversaries, just like we did with snowden. while republicans continue to bicker over how to repeal and replace the affordable care act, the white house is ready to cut a deal with planned parenthood. the president says he's ready to fund the group if it stops providing abortions. anna werner has the story. >> reporter: planned parenthood clinics like this one in washington, d.c. provide reproductive health care services for women like norah franco. >> it does make me very angry when i hear about politicians sort of looking to defund an organization that does so much good for so many women. >> reporter: 1 in 5 women in the use have visited a planned parenthood clinic. >> a rot of people go to planned parenthood for just one reason. >> the flu shot. >> controlling asthma. >> reporter: the vast majority of health services, 97%, range

from preventing unplanned pregnancies to std testing. planned parenthood does get $500 million from the federal government for clinics nationwide, most of which comes from medicaid reimbursement, but none of that money goes for abortions. yet the republican's plan to overhaul the affordable care act would stop any patient with coverage from medicaid or another provider from using planned parenthood. the organization says cutting off 1.5 million primarily poor or minority women from their planned parenthood health services and taking a huge bite out of the non-profit's funding. planned parenthood executive dawn lagin. >> it's really defunding women from being able to use their medicaid insurance to come to planned parenthood for care. >> reporter: donald trump acknowledged planned parenthood's services during the presidential campaign but said when it came to federal subsidies -- >> i would defund it because i'm pro-life, but millions of women are helped by planned parenthood.

china accused the trump administration of starting a nuclear arms race in asia. the pentagon is rushing a new anti-missile system to south korea after the north's latest missile launches. david martin reports. >> reporter: the missiles lifted off simultaneously. so close together an infrared satellite identified the rocket blums as coming from a single missile. the four flew toward japan in a barrage intended to overwhelm anti-missile defense systems. north korea said the launch was conducted by a unit whose mission it is to attack u.s. bases in japan. had the missiles been launched from the east coast, they could have reached japan. patriot anti-missile batteries already stationed in japan and south korea should have been able to shoot them down if necessary. and the u.s. is now beefing up those defenses by adding a high-altitude system known as thad, which began arriving in korea monday night, although it

will be months before it becomes operational. the missiles launched on monday date back to the 1990s. north korea is developing more modern missiles like this one tested last month. and u.s. intelligence has detected signs it may be preparing to test it again. a u.n. report obtained by cbs news concluded north korea has demonstrated major technological progress within a short period of time. among other things, significantly increasing the range of its missiles. north korea is expected to launch several more missiles in the coming weeks to show its anger over u.s. military exercises going on in south korea. the north korea news agency accused president trump of creating a nuclear confrontational hysteria. secretary of state tillerson will travel to japan, south korea, and china next week. two of the richest men in the world are in a race to space.

they both want to put you on the moon. chip reid has the story from the washington, d.c. convention center. >> reporter: more than 14,000 space engineers, entrepreneurs and enthusiasts are gathering here to discuss the future of space and they'll be watching a fierce competition. not between two nations but between two billionaires. in less than a year, space company blue origin has successfully launched and landed its rocket, the new shepherd, five times. but now the company appears to be shifting its focus to a familiar target, the moon. blue origin is reportedly circulating a seven-page white pain tore nasa and the trump administration, outlining its plan to develop a new spacecraft to help it establish human settlements on the moon. >> what it really wants to do is to land this lunar to bring cargo, supplies, equipment, science experiments. >> reporter: the target suspect

just earth's nearest neighbor, he's also aiming at elon musk and spacex. to make its shipments, blue origin could use its newest rocket, the new glenn, named after john glenn. it will be capable of directly spe competing with spacex's falcon rockets. spacex has already successfully launched 29 falcon 9 rockets and also has its eyes on the moon. on a conference call last week, musk announced plans for two private citizens to ride in a lieu munar capsule as early nex year. >> reporter: bazos says he wants to do that and more. >> our vision is millions of people living and working in space. >> reporter: the two have enjoyed a friendly rivalry for years, but now those who follow their careers closely say their high-stakes competition could lead to high-tech innovation.

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france is bracing for a possible political upheaval that could be bigger than the trump election and the brexit vote ahead. marie le pen is now ahead in the polls and it's wide open field. and the top two vote getter also have a runoff in may. most polls show her losing the runoff, but anything can happen. and 58% see le pen's national front as a threat to democracy. anderson cooper has her story for "60 minutes." >> the polls say you can't win. >> translator: yes. they also said that brexit wasn't going to happen. that donald trump wasn't going to be elected. wasn't even going to be his party's nominee. well, they're saying that less and less now. they are much more cautious, much more cautious now.

>> reporter: the nationalist policies marie le pen embraces are gaining supporters throughout france and around the world. she's hostile to free trade, rejects open borders, and says globalization, promoted for decades by france's political elites, is destroying her country. so how do you explain what is happening? did leaders go too far? >> translator: yes, yes, of course they've dwogone too far. globalization has become an idealology with no restraints. now nations are forces themselves back into the debate. nations with borders we control. the people that we listen to with real economies, not wall street economies. but rather factories and farmers. and this goes against unregulated globalization, a wild, savage globalization.

>> savage globalization? >> yes, savage, of course. wild globalization has benefited some. but it's been a catastrophe for most. >> reporter: a catastrophe, she says, which has ravaged the french economy, as jobs have faded away and immigrants have flooded in. many of them muslim imgrants from north africa, who le pen who says are draining resources and transforming the culture. current immigration is changing the character of france, it's changing the spirit of the country. >> translator: it's because of this massive immigration and more in some places. france's image has undeny bli changed. there are a number of neighborhoods where you are no longer living a french life. that's undeniable. >> reporter: france is still a country of fine bordeaux, bag ets and bucolic churches. but immigrants now make up 12% of the population and they brought with them new beliefs

and customs. k couscous, kabobs, and an outfit called the berkini that has become the latest flashpoint in a culture war. we were surprised how far marie le pen was willing to go to enforce assimilation. >> translator: france isn't berkinis on the beach. france is brigitte bardot. that's france. >> should muslim people be allowed to wear head skarves? >> no, i'm opposed to wearing head scarves in public places. that's not france. there's something i just don't understand. the people who come to france, why would they want to change france, to live in france the same way they lived back home? >> reporter: it's not just head scarves. le pen says she would ban y yamicas in public. would a sikh person be allowed

to wear a turban this >> no, not in public. we don't really hear much from them or about them, which is good news. >> reporter: her views go to the heart of a debate that's been raging in the country for decades, over what it means to be french and who is responsible for the failure of some immigrants to become fully integrated into french society. >> translator: massive immigration brings with it cultures that are sometimes in contradiction with our values. >> there are many people in france who view your party as anti-islamic, anti-muslim. >> translator: i'm not waging a religious war. it's clear that in france, everyone has the right to practice their religion, to worship as they choose. my war is against islamic fundamentalism. >> reporter: le pen blames fundamentalism, but also immigration for the terror attacks in france that have killed 200 people in the last two years, though half of the

attackers were actually born in the country. she wants to shut down the mosque that she says encouraged fundamentalism, tighten borders, reduce legal immigration, and expel all illegal immigrants. you're talking about deporting them? >> translator: expulsion. it's the law. it's french law. >> there's a lot of fear about you becoming president. >> translator: i think a lot of people are trying to scare them. but in reality, they have nothing to fear. people who behave need not worry. foreigners in france who hold a job, who respect our laws, our codes, have absolutely nothing to worry about. >> reporter: many people are worried, though, because the le pen name carries a lot of baggage in france. her father is a political provocateur who co-founded the national front in the early '70s.

the party became a haven for racists and antisemites. courts have repeatedly found him guilty of questioning the holocaust. he is a despised figure. one night when marie was 8, a that is save bomb was detonated just outside the family apartment. incredibly, no one was killed. she took us back to her old neighborhood and the site of the attack. >> reporter: the bui >> translator: the building was torn apart. >> were you inside at the time? >> translator: yes, we were sleeping and the bomb went off at 4:00 in the morning. it's really strange. i've not been back for 40 years, never. >> reporter: her father's bigotry cast a long shadow. at school, le pen says teachers who resented his politics took it out on her. she had to develop a thick skin at an early age. >> translator: it was my first

entry into politics. >> you're prepared for anything? >> translator: i think so, yes. >> reporter: jean marie le pen ran for president five times, but was never anything more than an opposition figure. when marie took over the national front party in 2011, she began rebanding it, banishing party members who made anti-semitic remarks. it was a process that came to be known as the de-demonization of the national front. two years ago, in a move worthy of shakespeare, she kicked her own part y yy father out of the party he founded. do you have any contact with him? >> translator: no, i don't have any contact with him. we broke up. broke up politically. it was a very clear decision on my part to have a political break. which he turned into a family breakup. a personal breakup. that was his choice.

>> reporter: le pen is now a practiced politician. [ speaking foreign language ] as a member of the european parliament, she spent years polishing her persona as a straight-talking, working mom, a french everywoman, doing her best to make people forget her party's past. when you go to a marie le pen rally, you don't see her last name or the name of the party very much. >> but she's right. if she wants to succeed, she must cut all links with that past. she is the daughter of jean le pen. >> reporter: nona is considered a leading authority on the national front. she's tainted because of her last name? >> yes. she is a le pen. >> reporter: and in france, that name is still tonightic? >> yes. >> reporter: but she says while her father and anti-semitic rhetoric may be gone, the

nationalist ideology hasn't really changed. >> there's been cosmetic changes. but the very heart of the party, it's the idea that you are going to keep the jobs, social benefits, everything, employment, all with the reserved to the french. french citizens. >> reporter: you can see the full report on our website, cbsnews.com.

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donald trump has promised to make america great again. that may just be a campaign slogan. but one thing's certain, the president has made late night comedy more interesting. vladimir duthiers reports. >> reporter: call it the trump effect in late-night tv. steven colbert has been scouring president trump from this set. the president has also proven to be comedy gold for other hosts and their ratings have also surged. >> big news today out of the kremlin. i'm sorry, i misread that, white house. >> reporter: steven colbert drew 3.6 million nightly viewers during february sweeps, beating the long-time leader nbc's "tonight" show. on texas -- >> sparked a new american fitness craze. walking slowly while lifting a

one-pound weight. >> reporter: samantha bee has nearly doubled her viewership. >> then, middle of the day, hurricane trump happened. again. >> reporter: trevor noah had his best month ever on "the daily show," watched by about 1.5 million people a night in february. >> welcome to this edition of "he did what." >> reporter: ratings have also been climbing for bill maher and john oliver. >> it's been weird that you've been nicer to vladamir putin than meryl streep. >> reporter: steven batallio says audiences are flocking to the hosts with the most pointed things to say. >> the shows that are doing well are the ones that are the most political. >> so they're really on message, and the message is, we have no idea what we're doing. >> they go after the president from the first minute of the show. >> reporter: according to batallio, jimmy fallon, who has not been as critical of the

president, is down 18% in the last year. david letterman often had mr. trump as a guest on his show. >> made in china. >> reporter: in an interview, he said he would have treated trump differently than fallon. "i can only tell you what i would have done in that situation. i would have gone to work on trump." >> obamacare is a disaster, and i actually do have a replacement plan, okay? >> reporter: saturday night live" has been especially hard on the president. >> it's called the affordable care act. >> reporter: calling him to call it unwatchable. but its february 11 show, lampooning mr. trump and his top aides, kellyanne conway and sean spicer -- >> 80% of the people in chicago have been murdered and are now dead. >> reporter: was snl's most watched episode in six years. >> you don't have a chance! >> reporter: now, conservatives will say that these shows have a liberal bias because of their treatment of president trump, and in the past president george

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there's a little slice of heaven in los angeles. and city officials for once are working to preserve it. it's a vintage rail car. the car and its tracks were all but forgotten until they got a cameo in a hollywood blockbus r blockbuster. >> reporter: when they weren't watching emma stone and ryan gosling, fans of "la la land" might have noticed a few quick shots of this. what appears to be a tiny railroad car heading up an incline in downtown los angeles. >> welcome to "la la land." >> reporter: this week the mayor of the real "la la land" reminded the world that this miniature railway is actually one of his city's most historic land marks. >> back then in 1901, for just a penny a ride, sinai and all of

it, the two cars on the world's shortest railway, opened for business. >> reporter: it was called angels flight, and it was designed to shut it will residents of the city's then exclusive neighborhood of bunker hill down to the shopping districts of downtown. by the 1950s, more than 100 million people had ridden the two rail cars. but in the late '60s, the hill top neighborhood was razed to make way for modern skyscrapers and angels flight was disassembled and put in storage. the railway had a brief renaissance starting in 1996, but two accidents, one of them in 2001 that resulted in the death of a tourist, doomed the cars to stand idle, where they haven't carried passengers since 2013. >> but anyone who has seen "la la land" can tell you, dreams do still come true here in los

angeles. we felt again that sense of romance, and i was ready to join them. and soon we will all be able to once again when we reopen angels flight later this year here in los angeles. [ applause ] >> reporter: over the next six months, a group of engineering firms will add new safety features and rehabilitate the 115-year-old land mark, with the goal of reopening it to the public by labor day. and although the track might run for less than 300 feet, its salvation is a historic milestone in a city not known for it s preservation of the past. >> the longest journey to the shortest ride ever. >> reporter: carter evans, los angeles. >> that's the "overnight news" for this wednesday. from the broadcast center in new york city, i'm demarco morgan. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

captioning funded by cbs it's wednesday, march 8th, 2017. this is the "cbs morning news." smarter than you think? the latest wikileaks bombshell. the agencagency's former direct says don't believe you. >> is this the cia listening through my smartphone, my microwave oven and tv. are they doing that? >> no. calling for millions to strike on this international