athena? >> absolutely. saying earlier that he's looking forward to paying his respects to the brave men and women on this memorial day. we should see him any minute during the wreath laying that sort of kicks off this ceremony. later on they'll be an invocation. the national anthem. but he as i mentioned tweeted several hours ago about the importance of remembering the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice in serving, he tweeted thank you. god bless your families. god bless the usa. so i respect his remarks to echo what he tweeted earlier this morning. again there's going to be relatively brief remarks the president speaking after his defense secretary and that will be followed by a benediction, and then the departure. but this, of course, something that happens every single memorial day. the solemn occasion to honor the lives of those who -- the lives lost on behalf of this country. >> again you're looking at live pictures out of arlington national cemetery. to the left of your screen you're seeing

athena, what changes can be expected in the senate's version, any discussions while the president is there this weekend about how involved he will be in helping to shape it? >> reporter: hi, fred. well, it's hard to say exactly what the senate will do to change this bill, but we do know that there are a lot of senate republicans who have expressed concerns about the bill. the bill is facing some of the same challenges it faced in the house where you had conservatives who wanted it to do more to undo obamacare and many other regulations in obamacare, and then moderates concerned that it might be going too far. there are some who have expressed concern that there's not enough help and not enough aid to help lower income people and seniors afford coverage due to the changes in this bill. there are other republicans who have expressed concern about the cuts to medicaid in this bill which, as you know, 31 states expanded medicaid coverage. that expansion would be put on hold and there would be further cuts to medicaid totals more than $800 million over several years. then of course there'

athena. >> hi, fred. that's right.ion to that tweet from the president last hour, we also got a statement from press secretary sean spicer which very much echoes the tweet, only not in 140 characters. he said, "we congratulate president-elect macron and the people of france for their successful presidential election. we look forward to working with the new president and continuing our close cooperation with the french government." so a pretty standard statement of congratulations there, just what you would expect from the president of the united states. but it is interesting to note that even though president trump did not endorse any candidate in this election, he had a lot of nice things to say about marine le pen. they, of course, have a lot in common when it comes to the populism and nationalism that both of them have espoused. last month in an interview with the associated press, the press said several nice things about le pen -- she's the strongest on borders and she's the strongest on what's been going on in fra

>> athena, thank you. james comey refusing to dwell on his dismissal in a farewell letter to his former colleagues at the fbi, comey writing "i have long believed that a president can fire an fbi director for any reason or for no reason at all. i'm not going to spend time on the decision or the way it was executed. i hope you won't either. it is done and i will be fine, although i will miss you and the mission deeply." >> sources inside the white house tell cnn president trump kept his decision to fire comey very close to the vest in the 48 hours before he dropped the bombshell. it did not seek -- he did not seek a wide range of viewpoints and he grew increasingly angry with the fbi director after reaching the conclusion comey was his own man and could not be trusted. a longtime friend who spoke to the president over the weekend described him as white hot and complaining repeatedly about "russia, russia, trump and russia." that friend says the president has regularly expressed frustration that they can't m

cnn's athena jones is live for us at the white house.the white house going on offense today attacking comey to defend his firing. >> reporter: hi, jake. z now hearingÑi from the house that the president had the beenxd losing confidence in fbi andñr even that he had consider letting him go starting ever since the day he was elected. that is the white houseñr argumt today and in a pretty intense briefing that we saw earlier. in the wake of an enormous backlash over his sudden firing of fbi director james comey, president trump is defending himself before reporters. >> why did you fire director comb? why did you fire director comey? >> because he wasn't doing a good job, very simple police. he was not doing a good job. >> reporter: and on twitterÑi promising to replace comey with someone better and predicting that when things calm down, everyone in washington, quote, will be thanking me. >> country over party. >> reporter: but as protesters gathered outside the white house today, critics slammed the move, questioning the administration's ra

cnn's athena jones has more on a very busy week ahead at this white house. >> reporter: good morning,hristine and dave. the fallout over the president's surprise move to fire the fbi director continues with democrats ramping up the pressure to appoint a special prosecutor to handle the russia investigation. one of those democrats, minority leader chuck schumer, who talked about this on "state of the union with jake tapper." watch. >> the silence of my republican colleagues is choosing party over country at a time when we can ill afford it. foreign manipulation of our elections, no matter who did it, is a very, very serious issue. it damages people's faith in our government. so, our republicans should be stepping up to the plate and joining us in asking for a special prosecutor. >> reporter: we've also heard from senator mark warner, who is the virginia democrat who is the ranking member of the senate intelligence committee. that's one of the committees that's carrying out its own russia investigation. senator warner has said that democrats shouldn't stand in the way for a vote of the

chris toon, dave. >> athena, thank you. new details he merging from that private dinner between president trump and the former fbi director. according to "new york times," comey, james comey is telling friends the president demanded a pledge of loyalty from him twice during their people. comey said he declined. he assured the president he would be honest with him. >> that reaffirms the reporting of jake tapper, the president fired comey, in part, over a lack of loyalty. they say the concern took place on january 27ing. >> that one day after former acting attorney general sally >> in my opinion, a very good person. i believe that it would be very unfair to hear from somebody you don't know and fire a general. we ultimately fired, but we fire ed for a different reason. >> you are talking general flynn? >> everything playing into it. but we fired him because he said something to the vice president that was not so. >> two deposit officials who were inside fbi head quart, say comey's office has been cordoned off with yellow crim

athena, thank you. details emerging from the private dinner with president trump and the former fbi director. comey is telling friends mr. trump demanded a pledge of loyalty twice during the meal. comey says he declined, but assured the president he would be honest with him. that reaffirms supporting from jake tapper that the president fired comey over that lack of loyalty. the dinner took place on april 27th. >> that is one day after sally yates diffelivered a strong warg to the white house. let's listen. >> my white house counsel came back to me and did not sound like an emergency of any kind. didn't sound like he was. she did not make it sound that way either in the hearings the other day like it had to be done immediately. this man served for many years. he is a general. he's a -- in my opinion, a very good person. i believe that it would be very unfair to hear from somebody who we don't know and immediately run out and fire a general. we ultimately fire, but fired for a different reason. >> you tal

athena, i know you have to get off the white house lawn. thank you, athena.veryone else, stick with me. when we come back, is the white house story about why comey was fired unraveling? if you have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, isn't it time to let the real you shine through? introducing otezla, apremilast. otezla is not an injection or a cream. it's a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. some people who took otezla saw 75% clearer skin after 4 months. and otezla's prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. don't take otezla if you are allergic to any of its ingredients. otezla may increase the risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts, or if these feelings develop. some people taking otezla reported weight loss. your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. side effects may include diarrhea, nausea, upper respiratory tract infection, and headache. tell your doctor about all the medicines you take, and if you're pregnant or planning to be. ask you

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of the network of what doctors and hospitals on athena net do. by and large, the need to cut costs and hunker down gets new doctors on to the network, new hospitals on to the network, so we think while each individual practice and hospital on the system is going to be under pressure there will be many more hospitals and doctors on our network as a result of the natural pressure on the health care system to get cheaper regardless of what happens with this bill. >> all right. jonathan bush, thank you so much for joining me this morning. and to our audience apologies again, no cursing allowed. we're moments from the market opening going to find out what the market thinks of the strong jobs report and the one key job sector that affects all of us that we're not talking about. we have to take a look it's not just jobs day, it is cinco de mayo. last year president trump was enjoying, quote, the best taco bowl that was made at trump tower grill in honor of cinco de mayo. he noted his love for hispanic communities. that one was harder to swallow than may

i want to bring in white house correspondent athena jones. athena, tell us the latest now in the search for a new fbi director. >> hi, ana. as you mentioned, several candidates have been interviewed. we saw several of them paraded in and out of the fbi headquarters just yesterday. we also know from the white house that the president is going to meet with just the finalists. is that one finalist? two finalists? three finalists? that is yet to be determined. but he is going to read the reports and recommendations from the justice department interviews, the interviews that attorney general sessions is having with these fbi candidates. then he will interview a few of the leading candidates. now you mentioned that this could happen within days. we heard that from the president himself on air force one when he was flying down to deliver that commencement address yesterday at liberty university. but i should say that a white house official said that naming an fbi director before the president departs at the end of the week could be a challenge. it c

good morning, athena. >> reporter: good morning, david. the president is kicking off the week, a week with a lot on the agenda and facing more negative headlines. angela merkel questioning the strength of europe's alliance with the u.s. tensions from the president's first g7 summit following him home. donald trump's tepid support for nato, harsh words on trade and lack of commitment to the paris climate agreement putting him at odds with the allies. angela merkel questioning the alliance with europe. the times when we could rely on others are over. europeans must take our fate into our own hands. president trump rating the trip a great success and tweeting a tease. he will decide on the landmark paris agreement this week. trump again targeting journalists and leakers inside his own white house. accusing the fake news media of fabricating lies coming out of the white house. the latest from his son-in-law jared kushner. during the december meeting, kushner asking sergei kislyak for help setting up a back channel for secret communications. a

let's go to athena jones. athena, this would be another move bit president to roll back the obama agenda. if he goes ahead and pulls out of the climate deal. >> hi, wolf. absolutely. president obama saying the paris deal is the best chance we have to save the planet. this decision would be at odds with that idea. president trump's legislative agenda may be stalled at the moment including his effort to repeal and replace obamacare. but he is determined to take whatever steps he can on his own to fulfill his campaign promises. we saw him do that when he pulled u.s. out of the trans pacific partnership trade deal, the keystone pipeline. leaders, the pope, even his daughter, could have wide ranging consequences for relationships around the world. for president trump, pulling out of the landmark paris climate accord would be another campaign promise kept. and a signal to the nearly 200 countries that joined the accord that they should take his america first mantra seriously. >> we're going to cancel the paris clima

turning right now to athena jones. what are you hearing of staffers? >> hi fred, this is not a good week. you have a lot of white house staffers especially in the communication shop who were caught off guard by this announcement to fire the fbi director. we know that many on the communication team did not learn about it until maybe about an hour before so that's the time they had to put together an argument to explain the president's decision and as we saw, we saw it shifting stores and we had white house aids, telling a story that was later contradicted entirely by the president. one of those white house officials caught up in this is the vice president. vice president mike pence who went to capitol hill and said ser seven times in talking to recorders over and over that the president was relying on the advise of recommendations of the department of justice and we learned that the president, he says fire comey all along. that's why you have staffers feeling dejected and feeling like they are struggling to know how to communicate what the president is

athena jones thanks very, very much. also breaking right now, new information about why president trump decided to fire director comey. and it doesn't agree with the official trump administration story. let's go to our senior white house correspondent jeff zeleny. what are you hearing, jeff? >> if we are getting new information, top new variety of people inside the white house and people close to this white house, the justice department and on capitol hill. we are finding that the president kept this decision extraordinarily closely held, close to the vest, unlike most of the decisions he sort of publicly discusses, like afghanistan decision, like the climate change agreement. this something that was viewed differently. but wolf i'm told by multiple sources that the president has grown increasingly agitated by the fb i director since last wednesday's hearing up on capitol hill. i'm told it was a distraction for the president. even the short term win on health care in the house last thursday was not enough to distract the

athena. >> hi, fred. that's right. it's remarkable to hear the president talk about the backlash to his decision to fire director comey. he sounds both surprised and defiant in talking about it with jeannine pirro on fox late last week. watch. >> i thought that this would be a very popular thing that i did when i terminated comey because all of the democrats couldn't stand him. but because i terminated him, they said, we get some political points, we'll go against trump. so i assumed it would be fairly popular and they jut together and they said -- again, we're talking obstruction -- this is total obstruction. >> there you hear the president saying that he was surprised, but he also sounds defiant. this goes along with one of the tweets, the many tweets the president sent this past week amid the uproar over his firing director comey. he tweeted out a long clip of a bunch of democrats cut together criticizing director comey. so he clearly thought that this would be received differently. but one more note on that, fred.

athena, you now. after all the explanations as to why president trump decided to fire james comey, from spicer, from kellyanne conway, from sarah huckabee-sanders, tonight the white house set it release a timeline to clarify. tell us about it. >> reporter: that's right. there were evolving explanations. the most striking difference was the fact it was a month ago that president trump in a televised interview said he had confidence in director comey. today, we learned from the white house that he has been considering letting comey go since the day he was elected. so they put out this timeline. you see there at the top, he loses confidence over director -- in director comey over several months then you saw that wednesday testimony last week and was very angered by it. we heard that from the reporting of my colleagues as well. and then for the president meets attorney general sessions and deputy attorney general rod rosenstein and they talk about reasons for removing director comey. then you have that me

thanks to athena as well. i want to talk more about this with florida congressman charlie crist, state attorney general who joined the democratic party in 2012 from the state of florida. congressman, i want to get your take on these eight candidates for fbi director. who stands out positively or negatively to you as we put them all up on the screen? >> well, i don't want to pass judgment on any of them at this time. i think what we need to look for are the character traits that you would want in a director for the fbi. i think what you're looking for, number one, is somebody who has great integrity. that has to be the most important trait of whoever is chosen as the next director. i also think that it's obvious they need to have a significant law enforcement background. obviously being an attorney it's important. there could be a former judge or a federal prosecutor at the united states district level, for example. i think that what's really important here is to also understand that with the comey situation, y

thank you, athena jones.more about it with mitt romney's 2012 health care adviser, now president of the foundation for research on equal opportunity. thank you for joining us from seoul, south korea tonight. you have done a detailed analysis of this bill. you say cutting the regulations will eventually help reduce premiums over time but the bill takes away the subsidies based on cost premiums and instead gives people a flat tax credit based on age. you say this is a big flaw. why? >> yeah, i think there's been a lot of focus on the preexisting piece of this. i think the bill is fairly robust in the way it allocates $150 billion over ten years to insure people with preexisting conditions can afford coverage. they are going to do fine. the real flaw with this bill is that it doesn't do enough to help people who are simply poor regard lgs of their health status. those are people who the bill needs to work on. we heard good noises out of the senate, they want to address this problem and the devil will be in the d

athena jones is traveling with president trump and is live for us in branchburg, new jersey, and athena, optics of president trump with all the house republicans in the rose garden yesterday, it's as if the bill had become law, but actually we're very far from there. >> reporter: hi, jake, it was a big win for the white house but only a partial one. with the bill now in the senate white house officials say president trump will be fully engaged in selling it just like he was on the house side, but it's noticeable that the president hasn't yet embraced the trump care label or brand for this legislation, even as he promiseses it will mean fantastic health care. as the senate prepares to take its own stab at a bill to repeal and replace obamacare, president trump is celebrating on twitter and sharing his signature optimism. >> i think we'll get it through. >> the republicans are very united, like seldom before. they are very, very united. you saw that today, and you'll see it again. the senate is looking forward to getting it. >> reporter: but the true prognosis for legislation in the upper

athena jones has more.esident has kept a low profile. >> reporter: a senior offici-- clear he doesn't want to be up front in these back-to-back announcements. now we're learning he wasn't aware of important facts about michael flynn that he should have been aware of as head of the transition team. what's not clear is why this sort of thing keeps happening. >> tonight, the latest bombshell is raising questions about what vice president nike pence and when he knew it. the new york times reporting flynn told president trump's transition team more than two weeks before the inauguration that he was under investigation for secretly working as a paid lobbyist for turkish enters during the campaign. trump said the first time he learned of the involvement was in march when the general registered as a foreign agent. >> let me say hearing that story today was the first i heard of it and i fully support the decision that president trump made to ask for general flynn's resignation. >> the vice president stands by his co

back to you. >> athena jones, thank you. coming up, the ties that bind.ow the president's friendship with media mogul rupert murdoch could end up testing his own justice department. ♪ nvestor in vests, i invest with e*trade, where investors can investigate and invest in vests... or not in vests. this is my retirement. retiring retired tires. and i never get tired of it. are you entirely prepared to retire? plan your never tiring retiring retired tires retirement with e*trade. iwithout writing a single word. this mother's day create a gift from the heart that could only come from the pandora boutique at jared. a world of pandora... including exclusive pieces designed just for jared. ready to be mixed, matched and stacked with help from jared's own pandora expert. the one gift that speaks volumes, you'll both treasure forever. that's why he went to jared. ray's always been different. last year, he said he was going to dig a hole to china. at&t is working with farmers to improve irrigation techniques. remote moisture sensors use a reliable network to tell th

it says it intends to communicate with athena health about a broad range of operational and strategicrs. its drugs tof treat kidney cancer shown promising results in a study and sprint is rising after t-mobile's cfo said at a conference that sprint and t-mobile -- that he cable coalition would be strong in the combination of the two could be strong. there has been a lot of talk about that. i wanted to check on the u.s. dollar on the bloomberg because we talked about how yesterday, we had the sixth straight loss for the bloomberg dollar index. today, we are seeing a small bounce. it looks small in the context of this longer-term decline that we have seen. it is still down 1.7% over the past seven sections. -- seven sessions, but is a bit of a rebound. david: thank you, julie. treasy secretary steve mnuchin testified in a congressiol hearing. in his testimony, he said the administration's goal continues to get growth to 3%. senator catherine cortez masto participated in the hearing in joins us. let me ask you what is on the agenda this afternoon. all senators invited to a closed door me

i mentioned athena appear. this is the battle scene, the battle of trenton. victoryis the figure of this guys in the tree. it will give you a forethought of what is going on in the battle. here's a closer view of the battle. this is the church tower in trenton. gone -- gun.one -- this is munro taking command -- monroe taking compared -- command. if you look closely, there is snow and sleet coming down as there was during the battle. these are the ashes. i tried to make two of them as evil as possible. the next panel shows his service to the state of virginia. as i mentioned before, a depiction of the state capital at that time. no stairs at the front, some side staircases. a symbolic meeting at the minds. overseeing this chaos here. this guy has had enough. i wanted to mention the division of the scenes. i mentioned the trees before. each tree dividing here, but this was during christmas day or the day after, winter and bad weather, no leaves on the trees. it are leaves on the trees in this one at the capital. , we have governor, congressman, senator. he was

athena jones has the very latest on the president. >> after the president made his first trip back to his hometown since taking office, he's waking up this morning at his golf club in new jersey, not too far from here. this is the 14th weekend in a row that the president is visiting a property he owns. and it's 12th weekend that he's visiting a golf course that he owns. all this coming after a pretty big week for the white house. the house securing passage of their bill to repeal and replace obamacare. that bill now moving on to the senate. white house officials say president trump will be fully engaged in selling the bill on the senate side, just as he was on the house side. the legislation faces some similar challenges in the chamber with divisions among conservative and then more moderate republicans. conservatives believe the bill not going far enough. some moderates worry that it goes too far. the white house acknowledging the bill is going to be changed by the senate, but they believe that its main pillars will remain in tact. of course, any changes the senate makes will have to

. >> lets bring in athena jones. tell us of what's happening and what's the mood inside the west wing? >> hi ana, this is not a good week for moral when it comes to white house staffer. particularly, the communication staff. we are talking about a press shop that did not know and kept out of the loop about the president's decision to fire the fbi director until practicely when ultimately contradicted by the president himself. that left people feeling dejected and rattled and that's how one official described that the vice president, one of the official that is went out and spoke to the press and delivered this story line that the president was relying on the advice of the justice department specifically, this recommendation from deputy attorney rod rosenstein. the vice president said that of seven times. he's rattled once again finding himself in a situation where he's sharing in act rate rate -- inaccurate information. >> the president's tweet. it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at the podium with perfect

athena jones is nearby. what more are you learning about this controversy? >> hi anna. we know that members of the trump transition national security team were concern that lieutenant j lo fly lieutenant joe flynn didn't have a full understanding motivation of the russian ambassador. one thing that isn't clear at this moment is whether flynn read that document. one more interesting detail that my colleague jeff zeleny has confirmed, is that according to a former u.s. official the obama white house was troubled about the way trump transition people was handling classified documents. sources say some highly classified document were copied requested removed from a secure room in washlt headquarters. as a result of that obama officials decided that some documents -- trump's transition's team will only be allowed to view at the white house. some interesting news we're learning about flynn, anna. >> also coming to just a couple days before attorney general is able to testify on what she told the house about michael flynn. are you hearing a reaction from the white house from f

athena, thank you so much. the president's rationale for firing james comey coming under more scrutiny today. in his second visit to capitol hill in two days, rod rosenstein told house members today that he knew president trump was going to fire james comey a full day before rosenstein then wrote that memo. remember, this was a letter that he sent to the president to highlight jim comey's behavior and recommend new leadership. so who specifically, then, asked him to write it? rosenstein won't say. house members telling cnn that he was, quote, frustratingly cautious, often deferring answers to newly appointed special counsel robert mueller. so do lawmakers feel that they can put their trust in this special counsel, this independent investigation going forward? listen. >> confidence in the investigation is very limited. it does not reflect on my respect for director mueller but i believe that there are a number of coverups that i question whether or not all of them can be investigated pursing the directions given

i want to bring in athena jones. what are you hearing? >> reporter: this is pretty remarkable, the fact that the president was surprised. he thought he would be applauded for making this move. and if you listen to what he sad judge janine peer ro on fox, he sounded surprised. >> i was surprised because all of the democrats hated jim comey. they didn't like him. they wanted him fired or whatever. and then all of the sudden they come out with these reports. look, i thought that this would be a very popular thing that i did when i terminated comey because all of the democrats couldn't stand him. but because i terminated him, they say ah, we get political points, we'll go against trump. >> reporter: so there you hear the president saying he's surprised at the reaction but also sliming democrats for this reaction. one more exam. is on wednesday within amidst the yup roar other his decision, he tweeted out a link that was a mashup to a bunch of democrats criticizing comey as if to further justify his move. we've been reporting this for a few da

athena jones is nearby. what more are you learning about this controversy? >> hi anna.at members of the trump transition national security team were concern that

our white house correspondent athena jones is in nearby brankburg. what more are you learning about this controversy? >> reporter: we're learning -- and these are details confirmed by my colleague, jeff zeleny. we're learning that there was concern that flynn didn't appreciate or fully understand the motivation of russia's ambassador, sergey kislyak. so the head of trump's transition national security team asked obama white house officials to provide a classified cia profile of kislyak to give to lieutenant general flynn so that he could read about kislyak before having these conversations with him. the head of trump's transition national security team, marshall billingsley is someone who is known to have had a more skeptical view of russia than flynn did. the key point is that while that was provided to michael flynn it's not clear whether or not he read it before having those conversations with kislyak that later led to his downfall because he discussed the issue of sanctions that had been imposed on russia. interesting details to emerge. one more

first in washington, athena jones joining us outside the white house. tell us more about what's happening inside the west wing. >> we been talking about the low morale and in fact this was account a bad week for the white house, but particularly that if your part of the president communications team, if it's your job to speak on behalf of the president and the administration, we saw this week that there were changing story lines. that's because the press shop didn't find out about the president's decision to fire director comey until about an hour before he did it. and so they didn't have a lot of time to put together an explanations for why the president made the decision. the talking points we saw early on put this all on deputy attorney general rod rosenstein saying this was his recommendation. we heard later from the president himself that he was going to fire comey all along regardless of any recommendations. so it's been a tough week for the white house. the president tweeting about this yesterday morning trying to explain the situation that his p

. >> i want to bring in white house correspondent athena jones, what is the president saying about all this blow back? >> reporter: the president is expressing surprise. he thought that his decision to remove director comey would be celebrated and so, in an interview late last week on fox, he expressed both surprise and defiance, slamming democrats for their response. take a listen. >> look, i thought that this would be a very popular thing that i did when i terminated comey, because all of the democrats couldn't stand him. >> so he was surprised, but also sounds defiant, one more example of that defiance, is that amid all the uproar of the firing of comey, he fired off a clip that was a mashup of members of the fbi slamming comey. >> i know the democratic leader of the senate intelligence leader said he would like to have director comey testify at a public hearing. >> i think the chances are good, he was invited to testify this week before a senate panel but has dekleined to do so, i think that he will be ready to speak at some future date. so that is what we'll be waiting, when he do

back to you. >> athena jones, thanks for the reporting.lucas now joining us from birmingham, england, professor of international politics at the university of birmingham and founder and editor of "ea world view" with perspective this day. good to have you with us. the question, is this inside baseball, that flynn was warned about contacts with russia's ambassador but went ahead with it anyway? is this something that will make a difference with americans at this point, or is this simply more of mr. flynn's legal woes? >> well, it's trying to rearrange the chairs before we have some hearings next week, which could be far more significant than just inside baseball. let me explain. it is quite likely that sally yates, the former attorney general, will testify next week in a closed-session hearing that she, too, warned the administration that flynn was susceptible because of his contacts with the russians, including the discussions with the ambassador, sergey kislyak. now, that's not going to look good, so i suspect that many in the trump trans

athena jones is following this story and joins me live. the president so very much rather surprised by the criticism. >> that's right. and it's remarkable to hear the president talking about why he was surprised. let's go ahead and play that clip from that same fox interview he gave to judge s shapiro toward the end of last week. >> i thought this would be a very popular thing that i did when i terminated comey because all of the democrats couldn't stand him, but because i terminated him they said oh, we get some political points, we'll go against trump. i assumed it would be very popular and they got together and said, again, we're talking obstruction. this is total obstruction. >> so there you are the hear expressing his surprise at the way democrats responded to this. and it's interesting this backs up our reporting from earlier in the week that suggests that the reason that the white house was so surprised by the response was that not enough seasoned political hands were involved in making this decision. we know that the president like

as athena jones. >>> with us, robert jones, david hoppy, and maria cardona.he's also a democratic strat zbi strategist. robert, is this the kind of plan that people who wanted to repeal and replace obamacare were looking for? >> well, it is a complicated scenario. it is a win, no doubt, legislatively but it is a really risky win for the obama administration. here's why. >> for the trump administration. >> yeah. sorry about that. what's lost here is even though white working class voters, for example, voted for president trump by a margin of 2-1, a majority of them, 51%, still said that trump did not understand the community problems that they were dealing with. i think this group is going to be hit hardest by these pre-existing conditions clauses, being priced out of the market. i think this is a high-wire act with no net on the part of the trump administration. only 33% of the country really supports, for example, letting states opt out of these pre-existing conditions that the aca guaranteed. more importantly than that, half of republicans in a recent poll

ana. >> athena jones, thank you. joining me senior political analyst and former adviser to four presidents, david gergen. senior congressional correspondent david drucker and new york times editor patrick healy, both cnn political analysts as well. david gergen, your reaction to what we heard from james clapper saying he believes the president of the united states is destroying our institutions. meantime we have president trump saying he thought his decision to fire comey would be popular. >> well, let's start out with clapper. i think it is a very significant statement on his part. he clearly is angry. he is angry at the president because he thinks he was used. the president has been citing him a number of times for saying in earlier testimony he was not aware of any collusion between the russians and the trump associates. clapper said, you know, in the last 48 hours, wait a minute, i didn't say there was no collusion. you keep quoting me as saying there was no collusion. what i said was i don't know one way or the

wolf in. >> athena jones reporting for us, thank you. up on capitol hill, reaction is one of shock and dismay. let's got to our congressional correspondent phil mattingly. what the are you hearing? >> the blowback swift. republicans not real responding yet, but when it comes to democratic lawmakers in both the house and the senate, you get a mix of reaction, wolf. those who are just stunned to those who believe that this is evidence of obstruction. take a listen to an interview i just had with congressman dan kildee of michigan. >> it's -- it's dumbfounding. i mean, just when we think this president has gone as far as he could possibly go, we hear this sort of a report. if it's true, i mean, this is just -- it's bad for the united states of america that this is the kind of thing -- these are the kinds of things that the president would say. the fact that he might think this and actually want to provide some conversation to the russians by denigrating a public servant who i have differences with, but ben grading a clear public official to

athena jones is live at the white house with more. last night finally after the trump team said we're not going to comment, not going to acknowledge that, the president did give a statement to the "new york times." >> hi poppy. that's right he did and part of what the statement says is jared is doing a great job for the country. i have total confidence in him. the president went on to say that kushner is respected by virtually everyone, and he's a good person, working on projects to save the u.s. a lot of money, but this is clearly a story line just the latest in a series of bombshell reports that is raising eyebrows and raising concerns among people certainly outside the white house. you have a former intelligence officials like michael hayden, who was the former director of a national security agency who said this move, this reported move by kushner was off the map, not something he's ever, no other experience he's seen in our history or certainly in his lifetime. meanwhile you have democrats on capitol hill, folks like adam schiff,

the collision happened feet away from athena scott's home. the family share this had photo with us. you can see where the driver's car hit the police suv on the driver's side, deploying the air bags. >> you know something's wrong because of how many cops are there. you see 20 cops lining the street. >> the driver has not been charged in this case. the officers were responding to gunfire in the park where a woman was shot twice in the leg. we're told that woman will survive. >>> philadelphia homicide detectives continue to investigate the death of a 6-week-old baby. the boy went to the hospital with head injuries. parents say they found the baby bleeding from his nose in their house on willows avenue. investigators tell us they won't know the exact cause of death until the autopsy is finished. >>> the ntsb is expected to release a preliminary report in early june on this week's deadly helicopter crash in new castle delaware. mike murphy died in the crash. he was the only one on board when the helicopter went down. mike murphy flew for penn medicine and was our backup pilot in sky for

athena, the transition team was apparently so concerned about flynn and his kaks with russian people that will they reached out to the obama administration for some help. what more can you tell us? >> hi, ana. they had concern that flynn didn't have a full understanding of the russian ambassador's motivation in speaking with him. that is why you had the head of that transteam ask the obama white house to provide the team with a classified cia profile on ambassador kislyak to read ahead of any conversation he was set to have with him. one thing that is not clear is whether flynn read that document. now, i should mention that there has been some pushback to this. my colleagues gloria borger and jim hewitto are reporting former trump transition officials who are throwing cold water on this saying that this is revisionist history and that "i'm sure everybody's telling the fbi that they warned against it." that's an interesting tidbit to keep in mind. this is something that my colleague jeff zeleny was able to confirm. the obama white house was krnd about the trump transition teams handli

i want to go to athena jones at the white house. these are stunning developments. what is the response from the white house tonight to this reporting? >> hi, erin. the white house is not denying this report, which is notable. white house press second sean spicer put out a statement that read in part, by grandstandingant politicizing it, james comey created unnecessary pressure on our ability to engaged and negotiate with russia. now he's referring there to some deals the president hoped to make with russia on syria, ukraine, defeated isis. he closes that statement by saying the threat to national security from these leaks of private and highly classified conversations. so the white house clearly not happy about this. but also not explicitly denying this bombshell report. this is all happening, erin, as you know, the white house team, sean spicer among them, are on a plane heading to their first stop in this high-stakes foreign trip. they're expected top land in saudi arabia early saturday morning, our time. a little before 4:00 a.m. we'll have to see what else brea

athena jones joins us from new jersey what reaction are we hearing around the white house? >> hi, an yachlt tna, the presi tweeted congratulations a few hours ago. he said congratulations to emanuel macron on his win today as the next president of france. i look forward to working with him. so pretty straight forward statement of congratulations. the white house press secretary sean spicer put out a slightly longer statement echoing just what the president said. it's interesting. you mention the fact that the president trump didn't ebb dors any candidate in this race but it's clear that he had more in common with maureen le pen. he's been a vocal supporter of brexit. we know that maureen le pen was interested in a possible frexit. both of them espouse populous and national views. you mentioned that praise of le pen a month ago in that a.p. interview after that attack, that terrorist attack in paris that left a policeman dead. he knew that he vent was going have a big impact on the election. he predicted that the canned dhat is toughest on borders and toughest on radical isl

athena jones is here with the latest on that. the president several hours into his trip to the middle east, have they reacted to any of tonight's braini ingbreaking ne? >> they are still flying. usa mention as you mentioned, this broke as they were flying. we did get a statement from sean spicer and what is notable about that statement is that he doesn't deny "the new york times" report and said he focused on this idea of director -- former director comey having been a showboater, his word was grandstanding. which created unnecessary pressure on the white house's ability to engage and negotiate with russia. he brings up a couple of deals that he says the president was hoping to reach with russia on syria, ukraine, defeating isis. then he ends his statement by saying that the real story is the threat to national security from the leaking of private and highly classified conversations. it's clear in the white house is not happy about this latest headline as they head off on this high stakes trip that they're hoping will be somethin

. >> reporter: the collision happened feet away from athena scott's home. >> the car got hit and two cops laying on the floor. >> reporter: her family shared this foe with us. you can see where the driver hit the police suv on the driver's side. the impact deployed the air bags in the suv. >> you walk out and the first thing you see is 20 cops on the street. >> reporter: the officer responded to a call of a shooting at a park which was six minutes away. we learned someone shot a 23-year-old woman twice in the leg at the park. investigators recovered a weapon but didn't make an arrest and are working to find a motive. the victim will survive. both officers involved in the crash have nonlife threatening injuries. the police will look at the video from that camera on the light post to find out more about this crash. they will try to answer if the police had their sirens on. it does not appear at this time that the driver will face any charges. >>> tonight overcoming tragedy by using their words. a local teacher is helping students channel their emotions through the power of poetry. nbc

. >> athena and gary mere have got a question.uess we were helping you out with part of it, right? >> $135 is waiting to be picked up. >> oh, wow. >> see, that proves my theory. "abc 7 news" rocks. >> thank you, michael. this is wonderful. >> so how do you get in on this? well, go to our website, abc7news.com, where i have a link to the state's website. also, make sure you look at names of your parents, grandparents and other family members as well. the state is holding on to $300 million in life insurance benefits. they should have -- someone should have that money. you may have inherited benefits you don't even know about. >> wow. nothing better than found money. >> absolutely. >> get to checking. thanks, michael. >> all right. got to see this video. a truck driver is dead unfortunately after a gas tanker burst into flames, causing a massive fire ball and explosions in the central valley. this is new video showing panda express employees literally running for their lives. this happened in atwater this morning. a truck delivering