abby philip. actually, let's go straight to the president walking over to reporters as he was heading over to marine one. let's listen in. >> we're going to new york. we're going to new jersey for work. it's going to be all work. i think you see what's happened. the economy is maybe better than it has ever been. the numbers are coming out the best they have ever had. we just came out with youth numbers. they have been just fantastic. off the chart. we're very happy about that. i think for that reason, i think in november we are going to do extremely well, extremely well. i'd like to see twice, but we're going to see. this took place when i had, as you know, the world's top executives among the world's top executives and the head of pepsi-cola, a great woman who is now retiring. she said -- i asked, what could we do to make it better? she said, two times a year reporting, not quarterly. i thought of it. it made sense to me. you know, we are not thinking far enough out. we have been accused of that

abby philip is outfront live tonight at the white house. abby, what more are you learning about the president's statement tonight on mccain and how it came about after two days? >> reporter: well, after a day of silence, the president as you just played was asked five times today to weigh in on john mccain and refused to do so, but finally after enormous pressure issued that statement, a very brief statement recognizing john mccain's service. ironically something the president himself has called into question. but now just moments ago, jim, the president at the white house is having a dinner with evangelical leaders and made his first comments on john mccain with his own words. he said this. our hearts and prayers are going out to the family of john mccain. we very much appreciate everything senator mccain has done for our country. so for the first time now, jim, we are hearing president trump actually saying it with his own words after issuing a two-sentence tweet over the weekend, then a paper statement this afternoon. finally he's saying

abby philip is out front live at the white house tonight. abby, mcgahn appears to have been just as surprised as the rest of us by this tweet from the president today announcing his departure. we also know they have had a strained relationship. >> reporter: that's right, jim. don mcgahn had been planning, according to our sources, to depart at some point after the kavanaugh nomination was wrapped up, but he certainly was not expecting president trump to make that announcement on twitter this morning. that tweet really caught him by surprise, but also his allies by surprise. you heard from senate republicans really raising some alarm about the impending departure of someone who they saw as an ally. but don mcgahn's relationship with the president hasn't been so good. our sources tell us that for over a year now, they have had a little bit of a strained relationship. don mcgahn came in with this president at the very beginning, helped shepherd him through some thorny issues at the beginning, helped him when he tried to get sessions to not recus

to the white house with abby philip. a direct call to the attorney general to end the russia probe. what do you know? >> reporter: that's right, poppy. this is a significant moment for from the making the subtext of all of his attacks on attorney general jeff sessions crystal clear saying that this is a terrible situation and attorney general jeff sessions should stop this rigged witch hunt right now before it continues to stain our country any further. bob mueller is totally conflicted and his 12 angry democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to the usa. this is a moment where president trump appears to be giving what is as close to a direct order to his attorney general as we've ever heard him say. and doing it while he knows that attorney general jeff sessions has already recused himself from matters related to bob mueller. this is happening on the second day of this manafort trial, the first big case brought by the special counsel against people associated with the trump campaign. i think this one is certainly going to be a topic of discussion. there is going to be

to the white house with abby philip. a direct call to the attorney general to end the russia probe.hat do you know? >> reporter: that's right, poppy. this is a significant moment for from the making the subtext of all of his attacks on attorney general jeff sessions

here with me to share their reporting and insights, michael warren of the weekly standard, cnn's abby philipmuch for being here. i just got a text that cindy mccain is still on capitol hill, and she's about to go with lindsey graham, john mccain's best friend in the senate, to address snavenator mccain's sta. then they're going to go on to the senate floor. cindy mccain is going to visit the desk of her husband, where he spent so much time, participated in so many debates, gave so many impassioned speeches, but is now draped with a black cloth and white flowers. a very, very moving day, to say the least. >> well, in the image you just showed of chuck schumer and mitch mcconnell walking together, i think what has been so nice in this really difficult week for so many people in washington and around the country is to see that those moments are still possible. sometimes it takes something like the death of senator mccain to put them back on the table, but we've just been in such a fractured environment here in washington. i think that is sort of mccain's final wish for washington, that we can g

april, ryan is back with us, also white house correspondent abby philip, as well. good evening to you. this warning of violence if republicans lose in the mid terms which is absurd, this is scare tactics 101. this is fear mongering. >> i think this president has been veering in this direction for some time now. we have to go back to the point of all of this which is that republicans started out thinking they were going into the mid terms with taxes being the major issue for their base, being the thing that they deliver to their voters. it turns out that is not working all that well. what president trump is leading his party towards is a message about immigration, a message about an -- that is what i think he thinks is going to motivate his party. he has to scare some of his supporters to vote which is why he held this event at the white house last night. that event was about impressing upon evangelicals the importance of telling their flock how important this election can be and using all the tools in the arsenal that he can get. fear is a really powerful tool. thi

cnn's abby philip is at the white house. abby, is the white house offering any explanation or -- i don't know -- context maybe for this tweet from the president? it seems pretty clear though. >> reporter: it does seem pretty clear. i think it is pretty significant. so far the white house hasn't had anything to say about this but this is really a moment where president trump is making explicit something that he has implied in many other tweets in the past. he has attack jeff sessions for recusing himself saying that if he had known he would do that, he would have put someone else in the job. that's because he wants sessions to end the mueller probe. he is now saying that in as clear a fashion as we've ever heard from him but it is significant because of the timing and it comes at a time when robert mueller and his team is going to trial, in its second day today, taking paul manafort to trial over some unrelated issues regarding his finances and his business dealings. but the president is clearly reacting to that. we already kn

abby philip is there. what are you hearing from white house aides?w we don't know if and when these others will be stripped. as to the why. >> reporter: the

abby philip is at the white house with more. it is 2018, not 1984. but walk us through what has happened overnight at the white house. i understand the lights were on pretty light. >> that's right, poppy. clearly something is keeping the president up pretty late at night and it's this legal controversy that is encircling him on all fronts. the president clearly agitated about this situation, especially the one with michael cohen, the one that seems to deal with so many of the things the president has said were off limits, his personal life, his business life. but also now this prospect of impeachment that you just heard him talking about. he laid into michael cohen in that interview with fox news and even tried to minimize michael cohen's role in his life. he at one point called cohen a part time employee but on the issue of paul manafort, the other legal issue on the outskirts of this situation, the president remained coy about a key question -- would he be willing to pardon manafort? listen. >> are you considering pardoning paul manafort? >> i have

here with me in studio, cnn's abby philip, lisa lear with the associated press and cnn's sara murray. here it is. the jury -- the prosecution makes its ways it's about lies. what do we make about the significance here. the idea to shimon's point, this isn't really about rick gates. it's about the paper, the financial documents and crimes we detailed to you. prosecution a tad nervous the defense did a good job undermining rick gates? >> they just decided to bloody up the guy they believe to be the prosecution's star witness, rick gates. what we're seeing from prosecuti prosecutor, we're acknowledging you may not like this guy and think he engaged in plenty of unsavory activities but look how his story lines up with everything else we've shown you. the documents that were falsified. the bookkeepers, the accountants that you've heard from. this is a big test for the special counsel. in part because this is just paul manafort's first trial. hes also facing a second trial in another jurisdiction. if they're unable to get a conviction here, that's going to be a huge plblow to them. they're

let's go to abby philip who joins me outside the white house. walk us through what is different between the president's justification for stripping brennan of his clearance and the white house justification. >> reporter: weeks after this issue first came up, the white house has announced the president has stripped brennan of his clearance. they did it by laying out reasons that included that brennan was unstable, essentially. he was using his security clearance and his position of having potentially access to classified information for his own purposes. listen to how sarah sanders explained it yesterday. >> mr. brennan's lying and recent kwon duct charactconduct with access to the nation's most closely held secrets and facilities, the very aim of our adversaries to sow division and chaos. >> reporter: president trump minutes after that talked to "the wall street journal" telling them that he was thinking about the rigged witch hunt. that is a dramatically different explanation for why this is happening. not national security but rather the russi

abby philip is at the white house for us. what are you hearing about this? what is this dispute? >> reporter: it's just a really big mess right now. here is where it starts. omarosa in her book claims there was a conference call during the campaign with her and several other trump aides. katrina pierson and lynn patton in which they discuss an alleged tape of mr. trump using the "n" word during "the apprentice." she made those claims in her book. those individuals part of that allegedly denied it. this morning, omarosa released a portion of what she says is that audio call. take a listen. >> i'm trying to find out at least the context it was used in to help us maybe try to figure out a way to spin it. >> can you think of any time this might have happened? and he said no. >> that's not true. >> he said, how do you think i should handle it. i told him what you said, well, it depends on what scenario you are talking about. he said, why don't you just go ahead and put it to bed. i don't know what -- he said it. he is embarrassed. >> there you can hear an aide saying, he said it, he i

. >>> joining me now to discuss this, cnn white house correspondent abby philip. is it okay the president calls a woman a dog because he is just mean to everyone? >> i think we've seen this president trump white house and from the president's allies in the past. they all seem to say in response to whether the president says something inappropriate or out of line or beyond the pale that the president is allowed to do whatever it takes to defend himself. but there are a lot of people calling into question that approach. first, as jeremy pointed out, sarah sanders just months ago was asking us to increase the civility in politics. the president has repeatedly refused to do that. also in this case, the president has spent so much of his time as president choosing to insult african-americans in one particular particular way -- by insulting their intelligence. that's something the white house has never acknowledged. suring with he insults the intelligence of a lot of people but the majority of them have been black and also the president is clearly not paying attention t