acosta: this is not about me. because the story is replicated thousands and thousands of times across america at different levels. because that is what makes this nation special -- merit, opportunity, freedom. that is what makes this nation unique and great. that is something we need to protect. >> here, here. [applause] sen. acosta: and that is why , despite all of the noise and as you know, the confirmations have changed despite all of that , noise, these are incredible opportunities. because for a short period of we are empowered to be defenders of that liberty and that is something really, really special. >> indeed, it is. secretary acosta, on behalf of everyone here and everyone watching we want to thank you , for your service to this country that we love and to , think the kids on the project -- from the projects, and the kid who was the son of refugees can make it to this stage, do we love this country are what? -- or what? [applause] >> thank you. sen. acosta: thank you very much. ♪ him >> junta saturday a

secretary of labor, acosta.bodies hard work and determination, the son of cuban refugees, a first generation college graduate earning undergraduate degrees and law degree from harvard university. his impressive resume includes working as a law clerk for justice samuel alito jr. at the u.s. court of appeals, teaching at george washington universities and alia school of law and member of the national relations board, working as a u.s. attorney for the southern district of florida and serving as dean of the florida international university school of law, college of law, excuse me. that breadth of life experiences serves as an excellent foundation for his current job as the united states secretary of labor, where he works to foster, promote and develop the welfare of wage earners, job seekers and retirees of the united states. it's an enormous responsibility and secretary acosta manages about 17,000 workers charged with this tax across our nation. i was very pleased when secretary acosta came to south dakota for the

our colleague jim acosta also report that don mcgahn whout counsel office many here believe he has not provided enough information to other officials here. so we heard sarah sanders say at the briefing, i'm basing this on what i know, information that i know. again, jim, tonight as we enter day number eight, as many questions as there were when we started the day.

you heard from secretary acosta earlier. he chairs a task force i am also serving on that is focused on elevating and increasing the opportunities around apprenticeship. i think this is a really important avenue, and needs to be celebrated and honored. >> [applause] sec. devos: all of those opportunities really need to be respected and encouraged, that students can pursue a wide range of options beyond a four-year college or university. i think we will see more and more as this administration partners with industry and local business to meet the growing needs that they have. 6 million jobs that are going require today that further education beyond high school, but are going unfilled because there is a mismatch in skills. require further education beyond high school,ms. james: let me tell yu something about your secretary of education. one of my favorite descriptions of maggie thatcher is that she velvetron fist in a glove. that is how i see this lady here. >> [applause] ms. james: we know how difficult it is every day in tha

jim acosta from the white house. >> reporter: the white house is again at odds with the fbi, this time over the timeline and scandal involving former staff secretary rob porter. the director of the fbi said his agents completed their investigation into porter's background last july, contradicting what white house officials have said for days, that they only became aware of what happened last week. the white house offered a new explanation saying that the fbi background check went to the white house office of personnel security. asked about the shifting explanations, press secretary sarah sanders said that she's doing the best she can. >> obviously the press team's not going to be as read-in as some other elements at a given moment on a variety of topics. we relay the best and most accurate information that we have, and we get those from those individuals. >> reporter: aides to the president are becoming frustrated with information they're receiving from top officials inside the west wing. one white house official complained white house counsel don mcghan received much of the informatio

acosta thank you.ant that we talk about the regulation in the context of liberty. let's offer freedom to the people to do as they believe it is right unless there is a real reason not to do that. [applause] >> hear, hear. so glad you are in that job. let's talk for a minute about the regulation -- deregulation. to president has asked you look at how to lower the cost of health care. have some -- you innovative ideas. can you share that? sen. acosta: i am very excited about a proposal reported and we ask the public to comment and we comments from all individuals and this is what this proposal is about. , a differentre standard applies to what is called the large group market, the corporations, than to small businesses and sole proprietors. graterusinesses have a -- greater regulatory burden. i ask, why would we put more of a burden on the small business than on the big corporation but that is what congress did. is a problem because there are 11 million americans and their families working for small busi

jim acosta has late details. what do we know about rob porter's resignation and how it came about? >> reporter: essentially, anderson, they were starting to work on this over the last 24 to 48 hours when this daily mail story broke. they knew they had to respond to this, and essentially what they've been saying up until really late today was that, you know, there were some thoughts that rob porter could weather this storm. and, you know, rob porter himself put out a statement saying that much of this is not true. of course he resigned earlier today, and the white house had to deal with this at the daily briefing. but this is the statement from rob porter, talking about these allegations of abuse from two of his ex-wives. these allegations are simply false. i took the photos given to the media nearly 15 years ago and the reality behind them is nowhere close to what is being described. anderson, the photos they are referring to, one of the ex-wives is photographed with a black eye. cnn has obtained that photo as well as other news outlets. it obviously demonstrates there are serious

tonight, jim acosta told, the white house made redact portion of the memo. chairman rogers, i bring this up again to you, we heard from paul ryan and the congressman broadcast that you were on two nights ago. all are saying christopher wray had a chance to see this and nobody raise objections and started making changes to this. the implication was that the fbi had to essentially, christopher wray signed off on this. clearly, that's not the case. >> well, as my understanding when the fbi director was there, hey, this is a lot to take in. i want to take this back. he reads it and sees it and he said hey, it was just himself. the fbi director a few months now. he says i am going to go back and look at it. you need to give them the opportunity to run through that information with his folks and clearly they came to a different conclusion that it was, they admitted important facts to that case. here what i say drives me crazy about this is whole thing anderson. listen, if there are allegations that the fbi perjure themselves, both republican and democrats should b

christine and dave. >> jim acosta at the white house. thank you. joining us here is julian zelizer.rning. >> good morning. >> general kelly is a highly decorated and respected four-star general. at one point was thought to be the adult in the room and disciplined. he has had a bad week by trumpian standards considering the knock on dreamers earlier. now this. two statements that came out yesterday. it was regarding the rob porter of true integrity and honor. cnn's reporting suggests that john kelly knew about the allegations. statement two says i was shocked by the allegations released today against porter. there is no place for domestic violence in our society. how does this happen? >> john kelly, since he took over as chief of staff, is not the other john kelly you discussed. he is an extension of the president. he has been an attack dog for the president. he has often been the justifier in chief for the various things the president does or problems that emerge in the white house like order . >> is there an honest explanation for missing this? >> we don't have all of the facts. it

jim acosta has more on what this scandal means for the white house. >> reporter: president trump finally broke his silence about the resignation about rob porter. hardly a me too moment. >> i found out recently and i was surprised by it. we certainly wish him well. it's obviously a tough time for him. he did a very good job when he was in the white house and we hope he has a wonderful career and hopefully he'll have great career ahead of him. but, it was very sad when we heard about it. >> reporter: the president said nothing about the women who said porter abused them. but he made a point to highlight porter's denials. >> he says he's innocent. i think you have to remember that. he said very strongly yesterday that he's innocent. so, you'll have to talk to him about that. but we absolutely wish him well. did a very good job while he was at the white house. >> reporter: that sounded similar to president's comments about failed senate bid for roy moore. >> he said it didn't happen. >> reporter: the white house is still involved in damage control after the porter scandal broke. chief of st

jim acosta the president had said the memo would be released. is there hope that the attention will go elsewhere? i mean obviously there is a frequent scandal at this white house. now we're dealing with a domestic abuse scandal that no one knew was coming. and that happened this week. but is there hope really this will go away? >> i think there is. and i will tell you that there were people inside the west wing who were really looking at this with a really intense political lens. i had one person say to me this week, well, perhaps there was a lot of things put in the schiff memo that the justice department would of course object to because they were putting forth a memo that of course someone would object to. and when we say we're not going to release this memo, the democrats can say oh, there you go. i think the bottom line in all of this and i know jim sciutto has talked about this a lot, we have sort of crossed a line here in terms of how the house intelligence committee is supposed to be properly used in the united states government. it has

. >> cnn's jim acosta asked sarah sanders to clarify that remark. >> he was stating as a leader, he would have stepped in and help the individuals in the school. coach and other adults. even the students stepped up to protect other students. >> is he trained in firing a weapon? is he trained in using a handgun or firearm? >> i don't think that was the point he was making. he said he would be a leader and would want to take a courageous action. >> critics pointing out five draft deferments? >> bone spur. >>> troubling officials. >> i think this is a circumstance where we need to listen and educators should educate and not hoisted upon this responsibility of packing heat in first grade classes. i understand you have suggested this and we suggest things and sometimes we listen to people about it and maybe they don't look good later. i just suggest we need a little less tweeting here and more listening and let's take that off the table and move forward. >> it is not only democrats who have concerns this morning. we have jeff zeleny at the white house. >> reporter: christine and dave, presiden

we have all of this drama inside the west wing from jim acosta. >> reporter: christine and dave, the white house is dealing with a scandal with the top aide rob porter who resigned from his position after his two ex-wives accused him of abuse. he says the outrageous allegations are false. i took the photos given to the media nearly 15 years ago. despite the allegations, the white house released statements about porter from john kelly and others. the senior white house official told cnn the statements were written in response to the first story in the matter. other reports included one of the ex-wives featuring a black eye. sarah sanders said the president had confidence in porter. >> i can tell you that rob has been an effective in his role as staff secretary. the chief of staff has had full confidence and trust in his abilities. >> reporter: cnn learned one year into the trump administration, porter never obtained a security clearance to work here. it was widely known porter was facing trouble with the clearance and there were allegations from his ex-wives about becauabuse. christin

right now jim acosta, thank you very much.'s bring in our chief national security correspondent jim sciutto and our senior white house correspondent jeff zeleny. the security clearances that he had, they were temporary security clearances, not the full security clearances. even though he'd been there for more than a year and was dealing with some of the most sensitive issues affecting the president. >> i've spoken to a number of former intelligence officials involved in previous administrations, and they say very simply this is unusual, particularly for a position like this, where you are a gatekeeper to the president. as staff secretary you are in effect handling the information flow to the president. so you're going to see an enormous amount of classified material, highly classified material in that role. we now know why it was an interim security clearance, because in the background check the fbi spoke to ex-wives who said he had been guilty of spousal abuse. that is an enormous for obvious reasons red flag during a backgro

the latest now from cnn's jim acosta standing by at the white house. so, jim, explain this. >> well, i think a lot of people want some explaining when when it comes to this decision, anderson. all week long, there was the expectation that the president in the issue of transparency, remember officials were saying we're going to put this memo through the same rigorous vetting process that we put the nunes memo through, and the suggestion all along is that in the issue of transparency that they would go ahead and release this moment, but, of course president trump is the final decider on this. he made this decision and sounds late today to go ahead and make this decision not to declassify this memo from the ranking democrat on the house intelligence committee, adam schiff. ener is a letter that is attached to the statement that came from the white house press office about this. we can put it up on screen. it's from the white house counsel. if we don't have that graphic available, i can just read this key paragraph to you. it essentially says, although the

i have done my own story on cnn, and i can to you whether it is jim acosta, tapper, dana bash, you can on and on and on, none of them have a degree in print journalism. ar down onto be that, they all have -- anderson cooper especially -- they all have alliances with the democratic party, but they do not announce that to us. is in the white house press corps specifically, not what you are doing, sir, is that they should have a degree in french journalism and let the conflict go from that, the white house press corps, with a degree in print journalism, with their own broadcast news is that they get it right, so another words, they police themselves. host: i want to get james a chance to respond to that idea. guest: should they have a degree in journalism? maybe they should not. i do not have a degree in journalism. i just sort of went out and did it and taught myself so i can tell stories. schoolsthat journalism have lost their way, and i think it goes back to water become a my history of reading, it goes back journalists started to pursue power instead of the truth. they view this as a

jim acosta, cnn, the white house. >>> well, again, the main allegation in this metrodomo th they tried to fire carter page. >> how does carter page fit into all this? we asked tom foreman to explain. >> reporter: in the long investigation into possible russian meddling in the u.s. election, carter page has become a flash point, not because this one-time adviser to donald trump had a long relationship with russia or he traveled there during the campaign, that is true. instead, some republicans believe the justice department improperly used a fisa court to wiretap carter page. now, fisa stands for the foreign intelligence surveillance act. this is what is used when investigators want to spy on, e sp sensually somebody on u.s. soil. they go to fisa, present information why they believe this person is suspected agent of the foreign government and the fisa court gives them permission, if it's approved properly to go forward with this. the fisa court did that. they approved an extension three times. analysts say because there was something coming out of this that gave them reason to keep app

and now i can go to northbound 680 at acosta.re's a motorcycle accident and most of the slow traffic is heading south. 6:32 and let's go back to the desk. >>> several female teachers in mill valley are being sexually harassed by male student. >> the teachers say they've been harassed for years and the school district has not protected them. allie rasmus is there at mount tam high school. tell us more about the allegations made by the teachers. >> reporter: one of the teacher who is spoke at a board meeting last week pointed out that teachers and staff members have to go through yearly training to identify and prevent sexual harassment. she suggests that students should have to go through the training as well. she's been a math teacher at the high school for 15 years and she's been subjected to sexual harassment at least a dozen times over the years. she went public with her experience and her statements were published on youtube. the harassment she experienced included unwanted touching, lewd phone calls and derogatory comments.

jim acosta is joining us. when they knew specific information. >> reporter: you don't have a white house official but you do have me. i was told by white house official earlier this evening who said the white house counsel has not shared enough information about what he knows and what he knew at the time about porter's background. wray said earlier today that the background check process was completed in july and at that time that mcgahn knew this information was lurking. now the official did say that perhaps kelly did not dig enough or prod enough in this information. but according to this official that i spoke with earlier this evening, a lot of these questions are going back to mcgahn and asking the question why he never said much about what he knew at that time. >> another example of the white house not able to get their story straight on something. ma do y what do you think is going on here? >> last week they were saying rob porter is a good guy. a man of honor and integrity. and the next day changed that

jim acosta at the white house, thank you very much. he's also the ranking democrat of the armed services committee. thank you for joining us, senator. >> thank you, wolf. >> pretty stunning revelation that mike rogers, head of the national security agency, that he has not received an order from the president of the united states to stop russian cyber threats. what could explain that? >> well, it's very difficult to explain. rogers said very clearly we're being attacked by russia cyber forces. their intent is to disrupt the election. they're much more sophisticated than they were in 2016. they've learned a lot. they're coming in and it's going to get worse before the election. yet he has not been asked to take action. he has the ability to disrupt these activities at the source, and also we know that the white house is not going to vote on sanctions congress passed on a strong, bipartisan basis to hope. it seems to be absolutely paralyzed after an intrusion. >> let me play a little more about your meeting. watch this. >> we're watching

let's go to chief white house correspondent jim acosta. jim, what options does the president have on the democrats' intelligence memo? >> reporter: we should point out our colleague jerry diamond who is reporting this morning, the president is expected to authorize this document, but of course the white house still has four days to make this decision. over the next four days, we're told by our sources that the white house is going to subject this memo to the same scrutiny, the same vetting that was applied to the republican memo last week. now, of course, we should point out just in fairness, the president was telling a lawmaker at the state of the union speech last week that he wanted to release that memo 100% before he even read it and the clear process was completed here at the white house. it's not going through the same process, obviously, when it comes to that democratic memo. we did hear speaker ryan telling manu raju and other sources that as long as this is scrubbed to protect sources and other methods, that that is okay to the le

let's begin with jim acosta. he has the very latest. >> president trump continued his fault on the fbi dapg day by authorizing a partisan republican memo accuses federal investigators of politicizing the russia investigation. as all of washington expected, the president greenlighted the release of the memo portrays mr. trump as the real victim of the russia investigation. the president poured it on from the oval office. >> i think it is terrible. i think it is a disgrace what's going on in this country. i think it is a disgrace. the memo was sent to congress. it was declassified. congress will do whatever they're going to do. but i think it is a disgrace, what's happening if our country. when you look at that, and you see that and so many other things, what's going on, a lot of people should be ashamed of themselves and. worse than that. >> the memo drafted by devin nunes accuses federal investigators what republicans characterize as a politically written dossier. into carter page's interactions with the russians

let's go to jim acosta. jim, this is a significant loss for kushner. >> it is, wolf. the president we should point out ignored questions about his son-in-law jared kushner losing his top secret security clearance at the white house earlier today. the questions are coming in response to a change made here at the white house by chief of staff john kelly that will affect white house staffers who are operating on interim top secret security clearances. as a result, those employees, including kushner, will have their access to sensitive materials limited. earlier this month we first reported that more than 100 white house staffers were working with interim security clearances. last friday the president said he would leave it up to the chief of staff john kelly to clean up that security clearance process in the wake of the rob porter scandal. here's what the president had to say last friday. >> general kelly respects jared a lot and general kelly make l make that call. i won't make that call. i'll let the general make that call. i will let general kelly make that decision a

>> jim acosta said the white house might redact portions. chairman rogers i bring this up to you, we heard from paul ryan, all of whom kept saying christopher wray had a chance to see this. didn't raise objections. nobody raised objections or put a pen and started making changes to this. the implication was that the fbi, christopher wray had sign off on this. and clearly that is not the case. >> well it is my understanding that when the fbi director said -- it was just himself, he has been fbi director a few months now and said i am going it go back and look at it. you need to give him the opportunity to run through that information with his folks. they omitted important facts to the case. and here is what drives me crazy about the whole thing. if there are allegations that the fbi perjured themselves both republicans and democrats should be upset about that. number two, clearly the way the republican majority here is trying to release this without all the facts is also a disservice. this is a classified committee designed to deal with very

jim acosta at the white house. thank you. >>> now that the president is seeing that memo by democrats. what are you hearing? >> reporter: the big question on capitol hill now that the clock is ticking for him to object or allow the releets. another big question is what are the republicans on the house intelligence committee who voted yesterday unanimously to send th this memo to president trump's desk, whether they will allow it to redact key portions of it the. right now a number of republicans are not saying one way or the other what they will do. the republican who is not saying what they will do is paul ryan. the house speaker. he would not say earlier today whether or not president trump should release the memo saying this needs to be skrubld of sources and methods. to be reviewed by the department of justice and the fbi. now, in addition to that, i had a chance to ask paul ryan earlier today about the president's tweet over the weekend that he was totally vindicated by this nunes memo. even as paul ryan himse

the deputy attorney general jim acosta, at the white house, thank you very much. lets head over to capitol hill. the memo release is making a bipartisan divided everyone worst. you have been talking to lawmakers on both sides whart ae you hearing? >> a sharp dediviivide in the h. republicans in the house really are rallying behind for the most part of devin nunes believing that he's taking the right steps and what they believe abuses of the justice department and the fbi and paul ryan has been behind nunes all the way dpie fighting back and the fbi over the last several week to reign nunes in. democrats on the other side reigning some serious and profound concerns of a memo that's misleading and in their view reckless, on the republican side, it is much different. on the republican side in the senate, there is been a more muted response. republicans have either been sharply critical like john mccain earlier today said that it is actually doing putin's bidding and people like susan collins says this is not the way you deal with bipartisan issues within the intellig

two weeks ago, i was proud to welcome ivan acosta, one. estimated 7,000 dreamers from new mexico at my state of the union address. the family immigrated to the united states when she was 12 years old. she learned english through middle school and graduated high school inch new mexico. it was during the challenging years of learning that she was encouraged by her teachers to grow and to learn. she knows the power that educators hold to create positive change in the students' perspectives of themselves. she attended university of new mexico where she earned her ba in secondary education, with a concentration in spanish. it is estimated that somewhere between 500 and 1,000 students at the university of new mexico right now are dreamers like yvonne. these are some of our brightest students. they are our future leaders. and since she graduated from unm four years ago, she is been teaching spanish at public academy for performing arts, a charter school in albuquerque, new mexico. and she told me about what daca has meant for her. daca allowed he

from a canadian that i plough do you know how much i meant more mom when i knew at the law my first acosta thank you but their mother during our fashion walk with them wouldn't take them up if just to these are the young women thanks a lot of us thank you this is the first field before the farm for the times must see feel the more or less. thank me and i needed the measurement image i'm a little i want to mention it i'm not trained on that this i negotiated i know you know members you know and there's even more time to ask if i mean that means that me demanding and it is only says if you know who. it is i'm not going up to the local me as he did tweet something out of me i didn't see if it is wrong for me and him it's going to mess us and i am going to love having that i know you're very sane feet can now feel so relation to see also really see you also lose all your love for you you can be on duty to made him is out of the couldn't remember none of the numbers. while on a applies a skin whitening product serina cheaper path to success by practicing them so much for. taking each step. many

. >> cnn's jim acosta asked sarah sanders to clar phify. >> he said as a leader he would step in and help as a leader to help the people in the school. the coach and other adults. even the students stepped up to help other students. >> is he trained in firing a weapon? is he trained in using a hand gun or fire arm? >> i don't think that was tpoin he was making. he is being a leader and would want to take a courageous action. >> president trump suggestion of arming teachers troubling many officials, including washington state's democratic governor jay inslee. >> i think this is a circumstance where we need to listen. educators should educate and not hoisted upon this responsibility of packing heat in first grade classes. now i understand you have suggested this and we suggest things and sometimes we listen to people about it and they don't look good later. i suggest we have less tweeting here and more listening and take that off the table and move forward. >> overwhelming majority of americans say they want tougher gun control measures in the wake of the stoneman douglas high school.

let's go to our chief white house correspondent jim acosta. jim, the president says he thinks he would have acted differently than some officers whose performance he calls "disgusting." >> that's right, wolf. president trump made this strange claim that he would have tried to rescue the students at the parkland school shooting. the white house tried to clean up those comments but there was not much clarity on what kind of gun control measures the president would support, besides banning bump stocks which weren't even used at parkland. >> thank you very much. >>> president trump insists he would have saved the day. >> i believe i would have run in there even if i didn't have a weapon and i think most of the people in this room would have done that, too. >> reporter: unlike the deputies, the president says, who choked. >> they weren't exactly medal of honor winners, all right? the way they performed was, frankly, disgusting? >> reporter: when the president said he would have run into the school, was he suggesting that he could have saved the day

jim acosta is standing by at the white house. >> reporter: a lot of people want some explaining when it comes to the decision. there was the expectation of transparency. and the suggestion all along is that in the issue of transparency that they would go ahead and release this memo. of course, president trump is the final decider on this and he made this decision it sounds late today to go ahead and make this decision not to declassify this memo from the ranking democrat ranking committee adam schiff. i can read this key paragraph for you it says although the president is inclined to declassify the memorandum, he is unable to do so at this time. and it goes on to say, anderson, however, given the public interest in transparency and circumstances the president instructed the justice department to work with the house intelligence committee and come up with a version that is going to satisfy officials here. earlier today the president met with white house counsel office about all of this. and that is where the decision was made. there is another letter here attach. this is to rod rosens

jim acosta, thank you so much for now, our chief white house correspondent. let's bring in a panel and have a big ole conversation. i have with me journalist and women's rights advocate, anosha hussein, cnn political commentator amanda carpenter is back today, former communications director for senator ted cruz, and chris cillizza. chris cillizza, you're up to bat first, my friend, because we talked a lot friday about those on camera trump remarked where he mentioned those women and their allegations, zilch, nada, none whatsoever. friday night the president goes to bed, wakes up, thinks how can i make this worse and then he tweets. >> yeah. i saw some spin over the weekend, i think from marc short, the legislative affairs director, brooke, who said this -- or it might have been mick mulvaney who said, well, this could have been about steve wynn. the very fact that we're debating that is not a good thing. if the president wants to be clear about who it is, he should say who it is. it read to me like it was about rob porter. yeah, he has this very, i think, som

our chief white house correspondent jim acosta is joining us right now. jim, you have new information on the fallout, and it's pretty significant from all of this. >> that's right, wolf. the white house is finishing this week knocking down reports that chief of staff john kelly is resigning or offered to resign. but we were told by our sources that at some point today the chief of staff had a conversation with the president about stepping down. as you were saying a few moments ago, the president finally did start talking about the resignation of his top aide, rob porter. the president sounded as though hefd defensing porter and not saying much about his alleged victims. president trump finally broke his silence about the resignation of his former staff secretary rob porter, but it was hardly a me too moment. >> i found out about it recently and i was surprised by it but we certainly wish him well. it's obviously a tough time for him. he did a very good job when he was in the white house and we hope he has a wonderful career and hopefully he will have a gr

from the make it in that i plough do you know how much it meant more mom and yet the law might force acosta thank you that would be a mother in our fashion with them wouldn't take them out of the just two days with a long memory thanks a lot of us because it's the first field before the problem for the time that i must see feel the more or less. thank me i mean they did mention me to mr i'm a little i why mention it i'm not really long after this i negotiated i know you know members you know about yours and there is even more time to ask if i mean that means that he did marry me and it is only fair to say this isn't over one hundred to one hundred going up to the local thing as he did tweet something out of me i didn't see a dip it is song it will be on demented m.s.s. and i am going to love having the tour and you guys in fiji now feel so relations for you also please see i also listen you let her do you the young do made to me that i would be that. i never thought of. while on a slice of skin whitening products serina and i cheaper plan for success by practicing them so much for. taking e

jim acosta joins us now. we don't have a timeline from the white house as to who knew what and when. >> no, anderson. the white house is extending the timeline of the scandal because they're not giving straight answers at the briefings. you heard sarah sanders say while they weren't aware of the extent of what rob porter was accused of until last tuesday night, of course, we know for a fact, never mind that the deputy spokesman said they're fully aware in that general area, as well. anderson, we've known for months. we know they knew for months that this was lurking in rob porter's ground. he was having background check problems in the security clearance process. we know that. until the white house acknowledges that, they're going to have trouble answering this question. the other thing that's lengthening this process for the white house, is just the way the president has been going back and forth on all this. i talked to a couple of republican sources. one that used to work for the campaign, who simply said

but even today, tonight our jim acosta got ahold of a memo that kelly wrote to staff inside. and immediately i was hearing well, you know, it was nice he addressed his staff. >> do you want to read it? >> yeah. sure. there is no accountability in there which is very frustrating to people. >> this is the memo to the white house staff that dana is referring to. while we are processing the shocking and troubling allegations made against the former white house staffer, i want you to know that we are all take matters of domestic violence seriously. domestic violence has no place in our society. but they didn't. they knew for a long time. david, go on. what did you want to say? >> yeah. i was going to say that is a pitifully late memo. the fact of the matter is that porter couldn't get clearance in the white house for 13 months. if you're the chief of staff, you're going to get to the bottom of why that is. and what clearly happened here, what clearly happened here is that he is a well -- a highly regarded person in the white house. he's very close to the chief of staff. he's a use

>> jim acosta at the white house, thanks very much. also breaking right now, the white house is sidestepping new questions as to whether president trump will agree to an interview with the special counsel, robert mueller. the president's lawyers clearly have their deep concerns about where a meeting with robert mueller might lead. let's bring in our justice correspondent, jessica schneider. she's following all the new angles in the russia investigation. jessica, apparently there's a lot of pressure on the president just to say "no" to mueller. >> that's right, wolf. the president's lawyers are really concerned here that if he gave an interview, it could really place the president in a precarious position given his self-admitted history of false statements in an unrelated case back in 2007. so his lawyers are now pushing back on a possible sit-down with the special counsel. advising the president an interview would not be wise. and also preparing some legal challenges could it end up playing out in court. tonight, the president's lawyer

jim acosta at the white house. we'll have more on that coming up. >>> more on the senate's bipartisan budget deal. our congressional correspondent phil mattingly is up on capitol hill. phil, there's a lot in the spending plan that democrats and conservatives don't like. >> reporter: yeah, no question about it, wolf. and look, when you talk to the aides of top negotiators, they acknowledge they went into this with their eyes wide open. they knew there would be folks on the far right and on the far left who wanted no part of this. for republicans, it's all about the spending. obviously just on the spending caps alone, $300 billion, more than $80 billion in disaster relief. billions more across the deal. that's significantly problematic for deficit hawks who also have outside conservative amnesty groups that are completely against this. on the democratic side, it's about daca. the defense spending piece that republicans and the president so dearly wanted increased was the key piece of leverage that democrats thought t

our jim acosta is reporting that the president seems to be backing away.itol hill are getting right now. i know you've been skeptical from the beginning that congress would take any action, molly. is this a sign perhaps of the imminent inaction? >> potentially. we haven't seen this president able to exert focus and sustained leadership on the details of policy at any point in his presidency. it's not really his strong suit. so you say concrete proposal. it was something he said, but it isn't something the white house put in writing as a proposal, isn't something the president took to congress and said this is the thing i want you to do and here is how. he's floating a lot of things. to me they're just trial balloons. he's seeing what people like and what they don't. he's hearing what feedback he gets. in this case the feedback from the nra saying we can handle some of the other things you're talking about, even things in the territory of gun control, but we don't like this one. so he is potentially trimming his sails. the bottom line is republicans in cong

let's go to jim acosta for breaking news at the white house.ing to sthok a lot of people. >> reporter: it's going to sthok a lot of people. but probably not everybody here in washington, erin, that's right. looking at this letter that was sent back to the house intelligence committee democrats from don mcgahn white house counsel it says, key sentence here, although the president is inclined to declassify the schiff memo of the memo, because the memorandum contains numerous properly classified and especially sensitive passages, he is unable to do so at this time. however, given the public interest and transparency in these unprecedented circumstances the president has directed justice department personnel be available to give technical assistance to the committee. and so what they are saying here, erin, in all of that washington gobbling gook, the president has decided he is not going to declassify that memo. according to the white house release along with this letter it says something has been sent back to the house intelligence committee that

more on all of it from cnn's jim acosta. >> reporter: anderson, we're hearing from a source familiar with this review process about this nunes memo, this could happen tomorrow. likely to happen tomorrow and it's likely to be released. the source we talked to aller this evening said at this point that it is very likely that there will be redactions made in this memo to sort of respond to these concerns expressed by the fbi. the question now, of course, anderson, do these redactions go far enough to satisfy christopher wray, as you said, the president's hand-picked director of the fbi. we don't know at this point. we're also told by this source that as of this evening, the president has not been made aware of what might be changed inside that memo and what the actual results of this review are over here at the white house. and despite the fact that the source was saying, anderson, this is likely to be released tomorrow, the source was telling us no final decision has been made. that's despite the fact the president was saying 100% at the state of the union that this is going to be rele

but first, cnn's jim acosta was in the briefing room when all the bobbing and weaving was happening. he joins us now. i understand you're getting new reporting about that briefing today. >> reporter: that's right, anderson. i was just talking with a source close to the white house who advises this white house on communications strategy from time to time. this source was telling me that the reason why raj shaw was not giving a full tick-tock or explaining of the timetable in terms of what john kelly and other top white house staffers knew and when they knew it is because it is, quote, too damning and that is an indication, anderson, that i think they knew full well going into this briefing today that they simply could not give, you know, a detailed explanation as to what john kelly knew and when he knew it because it would just simply be too damaging to this white house. now obviously you were just playing these clips a few moments ago. it was apparent in the room. this was raj shaw's first briefing. he was filling in for sarah sanders who was away. you could have thrown anybody into

wait to go to jim acosta with the latest. what have you learned, jim?rter: well, anderson, one of the outstanding questions we had today was why the white house would think it would be a good idea for the chief of staff, john kelly, and others here at the white house, to release statements praising rob porter in light of these allegations, these very serious allegations of abuse. and we got an answer. senior white house official just told me a few moments ago that those initial statements were drafted and written in response to that first daily mail story that detailed some of the allegations, but did not include that photograph of one of rob porter's ex-wives with a black eye. i'm told that when that story emerged, that included the photograph with one of rob porter's ex-wives with a black eye, that that changed everything. but that simply the white house was not responding quickly enough to this fast-moving story, and obviously, the photograph did really change everything for this white house. now, you know, you can take a look at some of the statemen

jim acosta is going to join us right now from the white house. jim, i understand you have new reporting on don mcgahn and john kelly and when they knew specific information. >> that's right. you don't have a white house official, anderson, but you do have me. i was told by white house official earlier this evening who said that don mcgahn simply has not shared enough information about what he knows and what he knew at the time about rob porter's background. keep in mind, the fbi director, christopher wray said earlier today, the background check process, at least in terms of the fbi, was completed in july. and it was at that time this white house official says that don mcgahn knew some of this information that was lurking in rob porter's past. and simply did not share enough of it with top officials, including the chief of staff, john kelly. now, this official did say that perhaps kelly did not dig enough or prod enough for this information, but according to this official that i spoke with earlier this evening, a lot of these questions are going

first to jim acosta. jim, first of all what deen about hope -- what do we know about hope hicks' reason for resigning? >> reporter: as you said, president trump has lost hope as in hope hicks, his communications director here at the white house and longtime trusted aide. she announced earlier today through the white house that she's stepping down over the next several weeks. the president put out a very glowing statement about his longtime and trusted aide here at white house. he said, "hope is outstanding and has done great work for the last three years. she is as smart and thoughtful as they come. a truly great person. i will miss having her by my side. when she approached me about pursuing other opportunities, i totally understood. i am sure we will work together in the future." i'm told by a white house official here that there is "nothing nefarious" about hicks leaving at this time. the official denied that this had anything to do with the rob porter scandal that broke over the last several weeks. an

jim acosta at the white house. we'll stand by for that briefing later. that's coming up fairly soon. let's talk a little bit more about all of this. i want to bring in our white house correspondent abby phillip, cnn political analyst, david gregory, and our chief political analyst gloria borger. how safe is kelly right now? >> well, you heard the vice president there. i think last night there was a lot of scurrying around and a lot of activity around the fact that the president had been calling people, one of whom he sort of remotely said, well, if i were thinking about changing chief of staff, would you be interested? he said, no, that was last friday. so there's all this kind of activity about replacements and people in the white house wondering what is going on here, and i think now we're seeing an effort from the vice president and others to say, stop, we're done, it's over, there's not going to be a replacement for general kelly. he is remaining where he is, and i think obviously that comes from the president. >> i think that's the important point.

jim acosta, thank you very much. we also have a statement from the chairman of the house committee, devin nunes. he said the committee has discussed serious violations of the public trust and the american people have a right to know when officials in crucial institutions are abusing their authority for political purposes. let's bring in our panel. jane harmes is here. commentator mike rogers is with us. he is a former chairman of the house intelligence committee. senior white house chairman pamela brown and our chief legal analyst gloria borger. let's talk about the future of some of these individuals that the president slapped big time by rejecting their personal and public appeals. rod rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, the number two at the department of justice. he's in charge, he oversees it, because jeff sessions recused himself, he's supposedly not involved at all. the president was asked, do you have confidence in rod rosenstein, and he said, you figure that one out, and he had an angry look on his face

we begin at the white house with cnn's jim acosta. jim, explain what sarah sanders said today about what the white house knew and when about rob porter. >> reporter: well, there have been shifting explanations as you know, anderson, for the past week. and today was a new one. we had not heard the words "white house personnel security office" before today, but we heard it in the white house briefing. the white house press secretary sarah sanders was asked about some of these conflicting stories, why the fbi director was up on capitol hill testifying that his agents had completed their investigation last july, when we were told by raj shah, the deputy white house spokesman, and sarah sanders that that process was ongoing. and her explanation was, well, the office of personnel security had this matter and that they were still looking at it and that that process had not been completed. and so anderson, by my count that is the fourth or fifth different explanation officially that we've heard from the white house as to why this information