we want to begin with cnn's abby phillip at the white house this morning. abby, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, david. the president has sent his national security and immigration teams scrambling this morning after some sudden pronouncements in public have caused them to try to make them happen in real life on both syria and on this border wall. >> until we can have a wall and proper security, we're going to be guarding our border with the military. that's a big step. >> reporter: president trump officially signing a memorandum to deploy the national guard to the border with mexico calling the situation a point of crisis after fuming about immigration for days. >> it will take time to have the details in place but we are moving quickly. >> reporter: the united states is imperiled by a distract surge of illegal activity on the southern border. >> why is this such an urgent priority right now for the president to sign? >> i think what i would say is the numbers continue to increase. april traditionally is a month in which we see more folks crossing t

it's not clear whether these scandals will be enough to push him out of the cabinet. >> abby phillip at the white house, thank you. >>> joining me now ryan lizza, cnn political analyst, susan page from "usa today" and amber phillips for "the washington post's" the fix blog. as we look at what's happening or not happening with scott pruitt, the fact that the president may be frustrated by the distraction but is fairly happy in terms of action. ryan lizza, is that enough to keep him where he is now? >> no. we know from previous senior officials in the trump administration that ideology alone is not enough for trump. trump is all over the place ideologically. the way to remain in his good graces is twofold. one is his children, if you cross the children you're out in the trump world. two is not to embarrass or up stage the president. he's very sensitive to officials who are on the ever co-s of magazines, have too much time in the press for positive or negative reasons. more so if it's negative reasons, more so if it's things that irritate trump like these ethical issues like spending too

cnn's abby phillip is at the white house with the latest. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, erica. the president moving his government to deal with the issue of what you just mentioned, a recent surge of border crossings in the last month or so. but the details are not quite clear yet. in fact, just a couple moments ago respoke to secretary of homeland security about how many will be going. she said she's been in contact with the governors along the border, california has been add odds with this administration over a number of immigration-related issues. she said her conversations with jerry brown are on going r going. she did want us to the numbers from past administrations. george w. bush and president obama saying they would be kind of in along those lines. push sent about 6,000 national guard troops and 1200 from president obama's administration. meanwhile, president trump this morning weighed in, giving mexico some credit for dealing with the issue of the caravan of illegal immigrants. he wrote the caravan is largely broken up th

let's go to the white house now with correspondent abby phillips. the president is tweeting on this suspected attack and blaming multiple parties. >> that's right, fred. the president has been briefed on this alleged attack, and in harsh terms, it is sharply criticizing russia, iran, vladimir putin by name, but also his predecessor, barack obama. in some of these tweets, the president is calling on assad to open up the area to inspection and also to allow humanitarian aid. he says open area immediately for medical help and verification. another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever. the president also criticizing president obama here in some of these tweets saying they cross the sand in syria ended long ago and assad would be history. just a year ago, in the wake of another chemical weapons attack, the president announced that he would authorize some surgical airstrikes in syria as some form of deterrent against assad doing this again. but clearly, a year later almost to the day, assad has shown that he will defy president trump and the int

. >>> we have cnn national correspondent abby phillips with us and senior diplomatic editor rick lizza with us from the action. abby, what's the latest? >> reporter: the president is giving assad a new nickname, calling him an animal, and the president issuing a new warning that there could be a big price to pay for assad's latest provocation in syria, using chemical weapons against the citizenry. in a series of tweets this morning, president trump issued this warning and also criticized his predecessor, barack obama. he called on assad to open the area immediately for medical help and verification, but then he said that if president obama had crossed the stated red line in the sand, the syrian disaster would have ended long ago. animal assad would have been history. all of this comes at a time when president trump had just said he wanted to pull u.s. troops out of syria, and then his national security team convened with him, briefed him, and they came up with a new approach to syria that said they would eventually look at a path to reducing the u.s. involvement there in response to th

for more, we go to abby phillip at the white house. >> reporter: president trump responding to the chemical attack in syria. this time calling out vladimir putin and russia and iran for enabling assad. he says there will be a big price to pay for the latest provocatio provocation. the president criticized obama. if obama crossed the stated red line in the zappesand, this wou have ended long ago. he said president obama should not have responded at the time. this is what the president's homeland security adviser said about the options available to donald trump now. >> there will be another missile attack? >> i would not take anything off the table. these are horrible photos. >> reporter: the president's national security council is expected to meet on monday about the syrian issue as is the united nations security council. the president is coming into the situation having said he wants to pull the united states out of syria all together. of course, his national security team is not fully formed. he is waiting confirmation for the cia director and secretary of state and his new national secur

abby phillip at the white house awaiting the arrival of the french leader, abby? >> reporter: good morning. this is president trump's turn to treat imanual macron to the pomp and circumstance is received last year for bastille day. this ceremony is one that dates back on the south lawn at least to the kennedy administration it will show off the u.s. military and the beauty of the white house south lawn. the president has already made it clear that he wants a military parade in washington. that not happen today but he get pretty much the closest thing to it, a band, military welcome. you can see all the flags set up there on the stairs. tonight they are going to have the very first state dinner hosted by this white house really shepherded by first lady melania trump who has taken a great deal of time to deal with all of the details of this dinner, and we're going to show you the menu. they'll be having spring lamb with some french and american touches, also featuring some dishes that feature state -- the state's key items, like yellow rice from the carolinas and so

abby phillip, what awe night there, abby. >> reporter: that's right, alisyn. after a night of glitz and glamour last night at the white house, hangover on awe different level. ronny jackson is facing increasing actions when he was serving as white house or doctor. but the white house is digging in and defending him. troubling new allegations against veterans affairs secretary nominee dr. ronny jackson. >> i understand he had a nickname in the white house among some of the white house staff? >> it was the candy man. because he handed out prescription drugs like they were candy. >> reporter: senator john tester describing what whistle-blowers told a panel, they would hand out drugs to help travelers sleep. he allegedly became intoxicated during multiple overseas trips while on duty, including one in 2015 where he banged on the hotel room of a female employee in the middle of the night. one source claiming secret service had to step in out of concern he would wake then president barack obama. lawmakers postponing his confirmation hearing indefinitely as jackson d

cnn abbey phillip at the white house. abby, we know his level and out rage of anger is at a new level. >> reporter: that's right. the president in his tweet this morning really illustrating in two tweets, four exclamation points how furious he is about this newest development in part because michael cohen is more than just the president's lawyer, he's also someone who is so close to the president's businesses, something that he said that if the special counsel came close to it would be his red line and he's also as close to the president as family, but we know the president talked to his white house lawyer ty cobb and john kelly his chief-of-staff yesterday trying to strategyize about what to do but when he ended up talking about this at the top of his dinner meeting with military leaders, that was all him our sources tell us and here's exactly what he had to say about what he thinks this means about the mueller investigation and where it's going. >> the attorney general made a terrible mistake when he did this and when he rec

cnn's abby phillip is live at the white house. abby, you saw the president on twitter this morning claiming something of a victory. >> reporter: that's right, jim. this is a big week for president trump. it's been building up for quite some time now. this morning he praised what you saw in those images last night and this morning, what he is calling progress on the peninsula. here is what he wrote. after a furious year of missile launches and nuclear testing, an historic meeting between north and south korea is taking place. good things are happening, but only time will tell. then he followed up with a second tweeting saying, the korean war to end, the united states and all of its great people should be very proud of what is taking place right now in korea. now, president trump has said very little of detail about, you know, what exactly he wants to see come out of this, but he's been pushing forward to this prospective meeting between him and kim jong-un, something that would be quite historic in nature. a group of reporters just

we're back with john avlon and abby phillip. abby, this is weird because something is amiss. we don't know what. we don't what the allegations are, only that it's been reported that they're looking into raw allegations. so, where does that leave his confirmation? >> reporter: yeah. i mean, i think the key thing here is that it's not just democrats saying there are problems here. republicans are making it clear there are issues with this nomination. but it also shouldn't be too much of a surprise because president trump did not vet ronny jackson before naming him to this position. it was something done virtually on the fly. a lot of his own staffers were kept in the dark. this was not a nomination that went through the ringer like these often are. this is a big deal. the veterans affairs administrator is someone who is in charge of the most troubled agency in the federal government. so there's going to be a lot of scrutiny to begin with, but this is someone who just simply was not vetted and despite being the white house doctor, the requirements for cabinet position are comple

abby phillip, thank you. >>> and obviously a lot to get to this morning.ere to discuss it with us, our contributors. and i want to start with the border. we may get more specifics today which would be helpful. but as we look at this, is this the president pulling at straws in order to check off a campaign promise? >> well, it is always hard to understand what his motivation is. there has been this storyaeen p caravan ever people headed toward the border. maybe that inspired him. is this not unprecedented. president obama did this as well in dichfferent circumstances. but a lot of things with the president, how he talks about daca, how he talks about anything, a lot of it is on t k optics. but also probably that he believe this is is an important enough situation that calls for protection at the border. >> so as we watch that, we are a little tights here, but as we look at the tariffs, is this a case perhaps of off the cuff remarks from the president really coming now back to bite him as we have china saying we're going directly to the wto? >> this may be t

abby phillip joins us live from florida where the president's staying right now. president trump also says he's looking forward to meeting with the dictator. what do we know about that? >> reporter: well, good morning. president trump seems to be pushing toward the meeting pretty aggressively, especially in light of the latest developments. his two tweets last night lauded north korea for their announcement. he called it, as you said, very good news for north korea and the world. big progress. he said he's looking forward to our summit. he added in a second message a note from north korea's kim jong-un as repeateding that they will stop nuclear tests and launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles. he calls that progress being made for all. but there are still, as ivan pointed out, a lot of unanswered questions about this. will this amount to anything substantially, especially for u.s. allies, japan, and south korea, in particular in this last week. president trump spent two days meeting with the japanese prime minister on this very subject, one of the big iss

abby phillips joins us from florida where the president is this morning. od morning and happy easter to you, abby. >> happy easter, victor. good morning. the president in florida has spent the last several days playing golf and doing a little bit of tweeting. it's been a fairly low key weekend for him. in the last week, we have seen him doing a lot more of the things that he wants to do and now "the washington post" is reporting that the president feels emboldened. he is going into his second year as president and a lot of his senior staffers, the people who have been closest to him a long time, are leaving. as a result, he is relying more on himself. here is why this matters. there have been a number of big moves in the last several weeks that have really reflected the president's own instincts. just last week, he announced that he wanted the united states to pull out of syria, you know, catching his defense department off-guard. he announced tariffs that were opposed by a number of his staff members and announced his white house position would be named th

our abby phillip following all of this from the white house. that was an extraordinary stream of consciousness venting we just heard from the president, abby? >> reporter: it really was. it was reminiscent of a trump we saw on the campaign trail calling in to cable television giving an interview on all matter of subjects and throwing some new curveballs in a thorny legal issue that he's involved in. the president talked at length about his personal attorney michael cohen and the relationship that he has with him. take a listen to what he had to say. >> michael is a business man, he's got a business, he also practices law. i would say probably the big thing is his business and they're looking into something having to to with his business. i have nothing to do with his business, i can tell you. >> how much of your legal work was handled by michael cohen? >> as a percentage of my overall legal work, a tiny fraction, but my goal would represent me and represent me on some things. he represents me like with this crazy stormy daniels deal. he represen

cnn's abby phillips is tracking this story for us from the white house. senator tester not going anywhere. probably not a big surprise. abby, this might be a bigger problem for the 2018 midterm elections. you know, just give us some background ons this documents that the president is referring to. >> that's right, ryan, the president has been threatening electoral consequences for jon tester for a few days now. but clearly tester is unfazed by this. and in part because many of the allegations that are out there against ronny jackson are not totally answered by some of the documents being presented by the white house to refute them. now these allegations have come forward not just to jon tester's committee, the va committee and the senate, but also cnn has spoken to multiple sources, current and former colleagues of ronny jackson's who detail series of behaviors they believe were inappropriate. going through these allegation, some of the most serious are ones that john tester detailed in a document he released this week about the allegations against jackson

. >> i want to take you to the white house, where cnn's abby phillip is standing by. what more can you tell us about this prep work? >> well, hi, ana. sources are telling cnn that the president's lawyers are starting to prepare him for the possibility of what a sitdown with robert mueller might look like. essentially, this is the beginning stages of a process. the prep has been relatively brief and short in nature. but essentially, they have been trying to tell the president what mueller might ask about. giving him a list of topics that might come up in a potential interview, but that being said, there has been no decision made about whether or not the president will sit down with mueller at all. and over the last several weeks, the president himself has gone back and forth about whether he would be interested or willing to sit down with mueller. listen to some of what he's been saying over the last several weeks about this. >> mr. president, would you still like to testify to special counsel robert mueller, sir? >> thank you. >> you would? >> i would like to. >> woul

cnn's abby phillips is tracking this story for us from the white house.probably not a big surprise. abby, this might be a bigger problem for the 2018 midterm

cnn's abby phillips joins us from the white house. what are you hearing about the preparation?the first and latest sign we have right now that the president is actually preparing for the possibility or perhaps the likelihood of an interview with special counsel robert mueller. our sources tell us these preparationings are in its infancy and what the president's attorneys are doing is essentially giving him a sense of what the topics are that he might encounter if he were to sit down with mueller. but at the same time, it's still unclear whether or not that interview will happen at all. the negotiations between the president's team and mueller's lawyers are ongoing. and the president himself has publicly wavered back and forth about whether or not he'd be willing to do it. listen to what he said over the last several weeks on this subject of whether he's willing to sit down for an interview. >> mr. president, would you still like to testify to special counsel robert mueller, sir? >> thank you. >> i would like to. >> would you be willing to speak under oath, to give your version?

abby phillip breaks it all down for us now. >> reporter: good morning, erica. that's exactly right. there is an increase in border crossings in the last month, especially as we go into the summer months. but one of the things to understand about that is that in 2016 -- 2017, last year, the first year of the trump administration, there was a really unusual low point of border crossings that has then rebounded to levels that are higher than they have been in the last year. but probably closer to what they have been in the historical several months. and in fact, president trump and his tweet this morning acknowledged that the border crossings are at a 46-year low, almost five decades worth of border crossings and now we're seeing very low levels of that. and he thanked mexico in this tweet for breaking up this caravan that he's been talking about for the last several days that has been bringing immigrants from central america through mexico to the united states. but on the national guard, the administration is saying that they have authorized this to happen, but at the same time, the s

cnn's abby phillip is there for us. abby, the president is blaming animal assad, vladimir putin for this attack as well as his predecessor barack obama and promising there will be, quote, a big price to pay. any indication what that price will be? >> reporter: that's a very good question, ana, one aides at the white house will be discussing today and tomorrow. president trump on twitter this morning really sharply criticized assad and also his allies in russia and iran. and he said this about his predecessor, barack obama, who he has repeatedly said failed to enforce his red line and led to the situation that we are currently in. here's what trump said. "president obama had crossed his stated red line in the sand, the syrian disaster would have ended long ago. animal assad would have been history." now it seems the president trump is now? in a position where he, himself, has drawn a led line, saying there would be a big price to pay for assad as a result of this latest attack. it comes one year almost exactly to the day

let's go to abby phillip traveling with the president. and president trump was quick to praise the announcement. >> reporter: that's right. you can say how optimistic it is about it based on the fact that he sent two tweets last night lauding the announcement from north korea. in one tweet he says, this is very good news for north korea and the woshlgrld, saying he's looking forward to the summit. in a second tweet he reiterated north korea's message about shutting down the test site and stopping missile tests and said progress is being made for all. all of this is pushing toward a meeting that president trump is eager to have with the north korean leader. by the end of may or early june, he's tasked his highest level national security officials to try to get this done, including sending the cia director, mike pompeo, to meet with kim jong-un over easter weekend in a secret meeting. part of the problem for the president from a political perspective, before he can get to the meeting, there has to be some kind of evidence that north korea i

cnn's abby phillip is live in washington. we'll start there. we know how much the president really loves these rallies. but there are some minimum wage par developments in the russia -- some major developments in the russia investigation he'll have to address soon enough at least. >> reporter: that's right. the president is having a little bit of a replay of what he did last year at around this time. the white house correspondents dinner is usually the place where the president will show up and make fun of himself and perhaps the press corps and political scene. he skipped it last year. he's skipping it yet again this year. instead, he's having a campaign rally in michigan. it's something his aides knew he enjoyed in part because of the counter programming that it presented to the dinner, a very washington affair often. and also because the president, as you mentioned, likes to be on the trail road testing some of these lines, perhaps attacking his enemies. these rallies tend to be very much a free-wheeling affair. and the last couple of days,

abby phillip at the white house for us. it's interesting, the president sort of hung dr. jackson out to dry yesterday and overnight unhung him out to dry if that's such a thing? >> reporter: that seems like the way these things go in this white house. president trump saying one thing publicly and privately saying another, but there is no question that these new allegations against ronny jackson have caught the attention of both republicans and democrats in congress who have effectively put his nomination on hold. now jackson a rear admiral in the navy have served both republican and democratic administrations and he's been promoted in his position, but there are some allegations being brought to congress by whistle-blowers who say that in one incident when he was on a foreign trip with former president obama, he was knocking so loudly on a female employee's door that the secret service had to step in because it was so loud it might wake the president and also there are some allegations that on foreign trips, he would hand out sleep aids to staffers and others traveling on

abby phillip. thank you. let's bring in editor at large chris cillizza and julie pace. chris, you remember wilson phillips, right? i went to high school with wendy wilson, she was in our home room class. >> we've got to hold on for one more day, david. >> he's so good. what i heard the president say that i think is significant for the first time is saying, look, there is going to be pain with this. you might be part of my political base, but we're going to feel some pain in the united states, in the marketplace, the rattled financial markets. we may lose some of the gains but it's worth it to really take on china. it's the first time i really heard him in more detail say we're going to do this. >> it's also one of the first times you've heard him actually acknowledge that not every solution comes with no consequence, right? if you were going to make some of these hard choices, and he ran on the idea that politicians prior to him, democrats and republicans, had simply either not negotiated well, not been willing to do the hard thing and he would be willing to do so. now,

our abby phillip is in florida, near mar-a-lago. abby? >> reporter: well, good morning, john.giuliani, one of the president's outside advisers and somewhat of a friend of the president, is joining the legal team after several weeks of turmoil in that area where the president has lost some lawyers, tried to hire other lawyers and not been able to. but giuliani is joining, he says, in a limited capacity in an effort to help bring this investigation to a close much more quickly. he says he's going to try to get whatever mueller needs in terms of documents or information and provide it to him as quickly as possible. now, giuliani is a former u.s. attorney, also former mayor of new york. but he also says he nose rknowst mueller personally. this is as good as they can get as terms of a person to lead the investigation and believes mueller will be fair. that being said, the president doesn't necessarily believe that. he said mueller is conflicted and that the investigation is a witch-hunt. so giuliani joining the team soon or is joining the team. he says he's going to be doing it at

abby phillip for us in florida. thank you very much. >>> let's talk about all of this. joining me is my panel. i want to go back to manu's reporting. this question to republican lawmakers, will you support the president in his re-election bid which he's already announced. the president's already announced by the way. i thought it was early to ask that question but i was really struck by the way these lawmakers answer. watch ron johnson and bock corker who were on "new day" this morning asked the same question. >> it could be a completely different world by 2020. we have a 2018 election first, so listen, i understand the kind of got you question you're engaging here, this is way too early to be talking about it. >> i have no idea who's going to run for president in 2020 and i'm not about to say who i will support for that, so we have no idea who's going to run. whether the president runs again or not i think is very questionable candidly -- >> why wouldn't he? >> i don't know. why would he? >> their answers are just weird. alex, it's very interesting listening to them sp

. >> cnn's abby phillip live for us at the white house. we heard this morning from the secretary of homeland security, was she able to fill in' of the blanks here? >> reporter: so much of this has played out on social media and in public, but the president making pronouncements before his administration had the time to really implement it, kirstjen nielsen spoke to reporters talking about the progress being made on some of these issues but didn't have a lot of answers. listen to what she had to say. >> we'll send as many troops as we need to get the mission done. >> no numbers? >> no numbers. the reason it is a partnership with the governors -- >> mexican officials said they will be unarmed. is that true? >> as you know, in the past, they have had -- in 2006 there were weapons. so it has been done before. the weapons didn't have any -- as you know. we're continuing the negotiation. >> reporter: so not only is this a sensitive international situation that needs to be dealt with mexico, it needs to be negotiated with the states as she just s

>> abby phillip live at the white house. we're wondering now if this is about defending ronny jackson or attacking jon tester ahead of the 2018 midterms. thank you, abby. >>> meanwhile the president is talking about the findings from the house intel committee's reports. house committee rules there's no collusion between the trump campaign and russia, as i've been saying all along. it is all a big hoax by the democrats based on payments and lies. there should have never been a special counsel appointed. witch hunt, one of his favorite terms. a dissenting report, accusing republicans of not conducting a real investigation. same time that was happening, we learned that the russian lawyer, a key player at the june 2016 meeting at trump tower was much more than that. [ speaking foreign language ] >> i want to bring in our political panel now to discuss this. michael zeldin is a senior analyst at the justice department. sean lu, and jeremy herb is a cnn politics reporter. i want to ask you about this russian lawyer. how does her r

we discuss it all with abby phillip of cnn. michael crowy of politico, philip rucker: of the "washileton post." sm sheryl of "the new york times" and -- sheryl gay stolberg of "the new york times" and nancy use receive of "the wall street journal." >> this is "washington week." corporate fundg is provided by -- >> their leadership is instinctive. they understand the challenges of today and research the technologies of tomorrow. some call them veterans. we call them part of our team. >> on a cruise with an cruise lines, you can experience thstoric destinations alon mississippi river. the columbia river and across the united staams. ican cruise lines' fleet of small ships explore amerlaan marks, local cultures and calm waterways. american cruise lines, proud sponsor of "washgton week." >> additional funding is provid by -- newman's own food products to charity and nourishing the common good. koo and patricia yuen for the yuen foundation, committed to bridging cultural oufferences in communities. the ethics and excellence in journ

cnn's abby phillip live with that part of the story. good morning, abby. >> reporter: good morning, david. this white house is battling one scandal after another when it comes to epa tkpheupb strau administrator scott pruitt. >> i think scott has done a fantastic job. i think he's a fantastic person. >> reporter: president trump telling reporters despite a growing list of controversies he thinks pruitt will be fine. cnn learned thursday that multiple senior officials were sidelined or demoted at the agency after raising concerns about pruitt's pricey travel, management of the agency, allegations an epa speaksman disputes. separately, multiple sources tell cnn, after pruitt took over at the epa, he asked his 24/7 chief to use lights and sirens to get through traffic. after tell him no, he was reassigned. and a pay raise of $80,000 for two of his closest aides. he said he was not aware of the raises until this week. >> i did not. my staff did. and i found out yesterday and changed it. >> reporter: and renting a d.c. condo for $50 a night f

let's begin with abby phillip in west palm beach, florida. what's the latest? >> reporter: good morning, alisyn. president trump spent the last two days with japanese prime minister shinzo abe. he's optimistic. he said if the meeting is not going well he may pull out while it is is underway. >> if i think that it's a meeting that is not going to be fruitful, we're not going to go. if the meeting when i'm there is not fruitful, i will respectfully leave the meeting. >> reporter: president trump giving enough insights into his planned meeting with north korean leader kim jong-un. mr. trump promising japanese prime minister shinzo abe he would work for the return of japanese nationals in the 70s and 80s. mr. trump used this news to push for mike pompeo to be confirmed as next secretary of state. but one prominent senator still opposes it. >> i will say this about rand paul, he's never let me down. >> reporter: cnn is learning new details about the confusion with plans to impose sanctions on russia. three senior administration officials tell cnn that president trum

let's begin with abby phillip live in west palm beach, florida. abby, good morning. >> reporter: well, hi, erica. president trump is claiming he's vindicated after the comey memos have been finally released. but while the memos paint a picture of a president who is consumed with this russia investigation, president trump tweeted late last night that there's no collusion and no obstruction of justice. personal memos from fired fbi director james comey obtained by cnn detail conversations comey had with president trump. >> i think what folks will see, if they get to see the memos, is i've been consistent since the very beginning right after my encounters with president trump. >> reporter: comey revealing in his memos, the president said he had serious is reservations about former national security adviser michael flynn. during the infamous dinner with mr. trump at the white house where comey says the president asked for a loyalty pledge. comey writing, the president pointed his fingers at his head and said the guy has serious is judgment issues. come

cnn's abby phillip live at the white house with our top story. hey, abby. >> reporter: good morning, david. we are learning new details about exactly what kind of legal president trump might be in when it comes to special counsel robert mueller. he may not be the subject of a criminal investigation, but it's clear he is not out of the woods just yet. during negotiations last month between special counsel robert muler and lawyers for president trump, the "washington post" reports that mueller said he was looking at the president as a subject of his investigation but does not consider him a criminal target at this point. investigators are compiling a report about the president's actions and on possible obstruction of justice, stressing he needs to interview mr. trump, according to the "post". president trump ramping up tough talks on immigration, surprising pentagon officials by announcing he wants to send the military to guard the southern border. >> until we can have a wall and proper security, we will be guarding the wall with our military. that'

cnn's abby phillip live at the white house with more. what's the reporting, my friend?ning, chris. this has been a week of high stakes for the president on the foreign policy front. he started it by hosting emmanuel mack ropp, the president of france, on monday in his first state dinner, and continuing on with developments in north korea just this morning. the president's international activities have been overshadowed by turbulence on the protective front. ronny jackson, v.a. nominee, really had had a tough time this week and was struggling to get through this confirmation process until he had to withdraw in the wake of allegations about his conduct while as white house physician. and while the president did get his cia nominee, mike pompeo, confirmed yesterday, he also threw a curveball in the way of his own white house staff giving this free wheeling, wild fox news interview on a variety of topics. and in some cases, really making it much more difficult for his legal staff to defend him in several pending legal cases. the president has been saying for quite some time

let's begin with abby phillip live at the white house. what's the latest there, abby? >> reporter: well, good morning, al sip. we are learning new details about why president trump might be so angry about this raid on his personal lawyer's office and at home this week. the warrant that was issued to authorize that raid named president trump the first time we have gotten any indication that a warrant in this russia probe named him by name in this russia probe. cnn has learned that fbi agents that raided the office hotel room in president trump's attorney michael cohen sought communications between the infamous "access hollywood" tape back in 2005. >> i'm automatically attracted to beautiful women. just start kissing them. it's like a magnet. >> reporter: the warrant also references an investigation into bank and wire fraud. the tape was published by the "washington post" on october 7th, one month before the 2016 election. minutes before the tape went public, u.s. intelligence chiefs blamed russia for stealing and disclosing e-mails from the dnc. minutes after the bombsh

abby phillip is live in west palm beach. other diplomatic act is going on right now, abby. >> reporter: that's right. good morning, chris. the intrigue around this potential visit and meeting with kim jong-un only grows by the day. yesterday president trump was going back and forth answering a series on of questions from reporters about what level of talks have been had between his administration and the un regime. later we learned first reported by the "washington post" but cnn has confirmed that mike pompeo, the cia director, did travel to north korea to meet with kim jong-un on a secret meeting easter weekend. it was carried out without officials from the white house or the state department. but it signals one, first of all, the seriousness that the white house is taking for the potential of this meeting. and secondly, mike pompeo is a close adviser of the president. it sends a strong signal to the north korea apps that president trump is deeply engaged in this process. now, there are still some sticking points, particular

we have abby phillip live at the white house with the top story. abby. >> reporter: or good morning, chris. the president's nominee to be the next v.a. secretary is, ronny jackson, has told reporters last night, he plans to stay on and looks forward to talking to them in the coming days. but there are growing questions whether his nomination can sur is sraoeuf these latest controversies. >> this is, as the president said, dr. jackson's decision. we stand behind him 1 u.00%. the "washington post" said he may remove his name from consideration can. the white house was blind-sided by a range of allegations within this two-page memo released by democrats on the senate veterans affairs committee. the memo, which cites 23 of jackson's current and former colleagues claims on at least one occasion dr. jackson could not be reached when needed because he was passed out drunk in his hotel room. at a secret service going-away party, he got drunk and wrecked a government vehicle. it alleges he was abusive to his colleagues and would prescribe medication when oth

abby phillip is live at the white house with our top story. good morning, abby. >> reporter: well, good morning, alisyn. the president's nominee to be the v.a. secretary, dr. ronny jackson, says that he's going to hold on and that he looks forward to talking to reporters in the coming days, but there are growing questions this morning about whether his nomination can survive the latest allegations. >> this is, as the president said, dr. jackson's decision. we stand behind him 100% depending what he decides to do. >> reporter: white house officials insisting that withdrawing his nomination for v.a. secretary lies with dr. ronny jackson. prident trump has wondering aloud whether jack son should step aside "before things get worse." white house aides are preparing for the fact that he could withdraw. he may remove his name from consideration. a source is tells cnn that the white house was blind-sided by a range of allegations within this two-page memo released by democrats on the senate veterans affairs committee. the memo, which cites 23 of jacks

cnn's abby phillips, john williams of the "new york times," john kirby and politico. there is no question these two leaders have a personal bond, a personal friendship. there are lots of handshakes, lots of talking how great they get along, but first talking past each other on policy. president macron has said repeatedly the world must stay together, must work together to maintain the iran nuclear deal. the president used the word insa insane, he used the word ridiculous, and anywhere you look in the mideast, iran is the bad actor. >> wherever there is trouble, yemen, syria, no matter where you have it, iran is behind it, and now unfortunately, russia is getting more and more involved. they're not going to be restarting anything. if they restart it, they'll have problems bigger than ever before. if they restart the nuclear program, they will have bigger problems than they've ever had before. >> john kirby, you dealt with this from a state perspective. if you're the president, you're happy about it. if you're president macron, it's ridiculous and never should have been

let's begin with abby phillip live at the white house. what's the latest there, an be by? >> reporter: good morning, alisyn. president trump continues to seethe about the russia probe. multiple sources tell cnn that president trump is considering firing deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, a move gaining urgency as a way to check the power of certainly counsel robert mueller. many in trump's legal team believed rosenstein crossed a line when he approved the raids on mr. trump's personal attorney michael cohen. they believe he has conflicted interest because he is a potential witness in mueller's probe for writing the memo that justified the firing of james comey. the white house dodging questions about rosenstein's future. >> certainly the president has voiced his frustrations. beyond that, i don't have anything else. >> reporter: another option the president is weighing, firing attorney general jeff sessions. >> mr. attorney general, have you spoken with the president today? >> reporter: not today. roll tide. >> reporter: the cnn and aides have discussed firing mueller

abby phillip live from washington. we know how much the president loves his campaign rallies. they're friendly territory for him, particular ly in michigan s has been in the past. there are -- there's a lot following him. >> reporter: that's right. the president leaving town during a weekend in which a lot of people in washington will be at the white house correspondents dinner. heading to the campaign trail to be in a place where he's likely to be surrounded by some of his most ardent supporters. the president, this is the second year in a row that he's chosen to do that. the incentive following the president -- like previous president who's attended the dinner -- presidents who attended the dinner and told jokes, that sort of thing. he's deciding to go out and hold counter program, a rally in which he essential question put out whatever message he wants. often those rallies end up with a freewheeling atmosphere, talking about all sorts of things. and we can expect that given what he's been talking about on social media the last couple of days that russia will play prominentl

cnn abby phillip is live in west palm beach, florida, with more. what's happening there, abby?reporter: well, good morning, alisyn. james comey's book officially is released today, but this war of words between him and the president has been going on for some days. the president spent the weekend tweeting angrily about comey's book and comey in a series of interviews explains why he believes the president is a liar. but in one of those tweets from president trump, he actually suggested jail time for the former fbi director. here is what james comey said in response to that in a recent npr interview he said -- the president of the united states just tweeted that private citizens should be jailed. and i think the reaction most of us had was, man, it's another one of those things. this is not normal. this is not okay. there's a danger that we become numb to it and we stop noticing the threats to our norms. so comey is ratcheting up the criticism of the president, even as this book tour really is just starting to kick off. meanwhile, the white house has said that james comey has lo

. >> abby phillips there near the president's resort, thank you so much. >>> this morning, the u.s. south korea kicking off massive military drills off the korean peninsula. the so-called war games typically involves tens of thousands of troops and tanks and bombers and even submarines. it's quite the photo op and ordeal. this year, the exercises are taking on a different tone as the u.s. and south korea hope to avoid upsetting the north korean dictator as they negotiate over nuclear weapons. john kirby is joining me now. admiral kirby, look. the drills will be sure this wee year. four to eight weeks long like in previous years and olympics were why they started later but cnn is being told diplomatic developments on the peninsula led to these concessions. is this a positive sign or something that could be detrimental to the military efforts in the pacific? >> i think it's both a positive sign but i don't think at all is detrimental to our military readiness. so it's much more former, not the latter. even at one month, if that is what this ends up being, you still have 23,000 u.s. tr