athena jones, we thank you for the report from new jersey. this rally in charlottesville attracted white nationalists from all over the country including former klansman david duke, and he tied these protests directly to the president. listen to this. >> what does today represent to you? the camera's right here. what does today represent to you? >> this represents a turning point for the people of this country. we are determined to take our country back. we're going to fulfill the promises of donald trump. that's what we believed in. that's why we voted for donald trump. because he said he's going to take our country back. and that's what we got to do. >> for his part the president has denounced and disavowed dade duke saying there is no place for this kind of violence in america. i want to bring in our panel now, cnn political analyst tara palmeri, julian, and cnn senior media correspondent bryie brian stelter. brian, i want to start with you. first off, we didn't hear directly from the president himself. we first heard from the first lady,

athena. >> reporter: hi, fred.ell, when it comes to pardoning sheriff joe arpaio, this is something that the president hinted or suggested he would do in an interview, an exclusive interview with fox news earlier this month from his bedminster golf course. at that point he said arpaio had done a lot in the fight against illegal immigration. we heard him on tuesday night hint at that rally in phoenix that sheriff arpaio is going to be just fine but kind of joking with the crowd saying he didn't want to make this announcement that night to sort of avoid controversy. well, now last night we got the official statement from the white house at 8:00 p.m. on this pardoning, this decision to pardon sheriff arpaio. we saw the president tweeting out about it a couple of hours later. in the white house statement they cite the sheriff's more than 50 years of admirable service to our nation. but this move is getting a lot of blowback precisely what you'd expect from folks who are not part of trump's base, many of whom are immigr

i want to check in again with athena jones who is there.know any more about the plan the president is going to lay out in his speech? >> reporter: hi, anderson. we expect the president to talk not just about afghanistan but south asia as a region. we know the u.s. wants to work bet we are neighboring countries like pakistan. the white house wants to see pakistan do more to fight terror networks. we also know they've been developing a way to counter the growing iranian influence in afghanistan. so it's possible we hear something about that. i can tell you that vice president mike president was speak to the afghan president. we're still awaiting a readout of that call. and we know that secretary of state rex tillerson spoke earlier today with the leaders of afghanistan, pakistan, and india. and the state department spokesperson says the topic of those calls was how the united states would like to work with each country to stabilize south asia through a new, integrated regional strategy. so we expect to hear some focus on that. secretary of st

athena, what are you hearing about what the president might say?s there any indication that he's aware of this latest development? >> reporter: it's not clear yet, boris, if they've been monitoringlosely what's been on our air within the last few through the crowd, but we do expect the president to address what's going on in charlottesville when he speaks at about 3:00 for this bill signing that was already scheduled. we certainly expect the journalists there covering that event to ask as many questions as they can of the president. as you mentioned, we did see him put out two tweets about what's happening in charlotte, the most recent one saying charlottesville, sad, exclamation point. we've heard -- we've seen that sentence construction with the president referring to all sorts of other events as sad in the past. certainly there are a lot of folks who want to hear him say more and want him to do more to condemn the white nationalists who organized the demonstration that has resulted in this level of violence. the tweet we saw from him last hour s

athena jones is in bedminster where the president is on a working vacation. typically she doesn't get involved in pollpolitics, but ss the first voice commenting. what does she have to say? >> reporter: well, this is what first lady melania trump tweeted. she said our country encourages freedom of speech, but let's communicate without hate in our hearts. no good comes from violence, #charlottesville. but as you mentioned, i think we cannot stress enough how unusual it is to have the first lady be the first white house official to comment publicly on this. we see violence not just this morning, but also last night and yet we have not heard from the president himself, we have not heard from the vice president. and we also haven't heard from attorney general jeff sessions. those are just some of the high level officials you would expect to heard respond to this sort of violence. traditionally you have seen a president weigh into try to calm tensions, you could say a consoler in chief. we've seen president trump be campaigner in chief holding various rally, we've

athena jones is there for us now. cnn white house correspondent. athena, what are you hearing? >> hi, well it's interesting to see the president take to twitter to offer that support to steve bannon. there's been a lot of questions about what will be the impact of bannan's departure from the white house. and what effect it will have on the west wing operations, bannon was accused of being behind much of the in-fighting at the white house. and he himself has talked openly about some of his enemies in the west wing. people like economic adviser gary cohn and national security adviser hr mcmaster and his deputy, dena powell. we know that he has feuded with the president's son-in-law, jared kushner. so the thinking among the president's supporters or the hope among the president's supporters is that the departure of steve bannon could lead to a more effective, more efficient west wing that is better able to help the president get his agenda through. another big question, though, is what impact it will have as he returns to lead breitbart. we know that even just last night, the same

let's go now to cnn's athena jones live at the white house. what's behind this decision-making? >> reporter: hi, fred. as you mentioned, the president has just departed camp david expected to touch down here in the next 15 or 20 minutes. we've talked the past couple of days about the president saying he wants to visit texas in the words of one senior administration, as soon as possible. one concern being he doesn't want his visit, the footprint of his visit, the security necessary, to hamper any rescue or recovery or rebuilding efforts there on the ground. now we're learning from several sources familiar with the president's plans that he could visit the state as soon as tuesday. the location or locations he is likely to visit haven't yet been set, but we understand they may be leaning towards the city like san antonio. a city less hard hit. they want to avoid the hard-hit areas as i mentioned so they don't get in the way of any sort of rescue and recovery efforts, but the idea of making this visit very early on would be to show that texas has

cnn white house correspondent athena jones joins us with more on this. what are you hearing about current senior adviser stephen miller? >> reporter: hi, fred. that's right. my colleague, kaitlyn collins, confirming in the last hour or so, a report that stephen miller is being considered for an elevated communications role. this role would be in addition to his current role as the senior policy adviser. now, this source adds that chief strategist steve bannon favors restructuring the director of communications role. so it is not clear that miller would necessarily have the communications director title. it is also not clear whether steve bannon has floated this idea with chief of staff john kelly. although the fact that we're talking about it right now would indicate that it is being floated, at least in a public way now. let's remind our viewers who stephen miller is. we saw him just this past week in talk about the white house's support of new limits on legal immigration. you may remember back at the very beginning of the president's term, stephen mill

that's where we find white house correspondent athena jones. >> reporter: good morning. vice president mike pence is pushing back hard on this "new york times" story, as are other white house officials. the vice president taking the unusual step of putting out an official statement on white house letterhead to respond to this story. in the statement, the vice president called the story disgraceful, offensive, categorically false, laughable, and absurd. two pence aides, his spokesperson and his chief of staff, his chief of staff was mentioned in "the new york times" story, also taking to twitter to refute the story calling it fake news. and white house counselor kellyanne conway appearing on abc's "this week" called the story complete fiction. watch -- >> it is absolutely true that the vice president is getting ready for 2020 for re-election as vice president. >> no concern he's setting up a shadow campaign? >> zero concern. that is complete fiction. that is complete fabrication. i know that his advisers who had comments attributed to them pushed back strongly and so did

with athena i'm david murphy channel 6 "action news." moved in about four months ago, but the living room's pretty blank. we did a lot of research online. we just need to have a designer put it all together. mmm hmm. so, it's really nice when clients come in and have... done some of their own research. what do you think about these chairs and that table? working with a bassett designer was really easy. us being young professionals, we're so busy... there's no way we could've designed it ourselves. no. we love it! >> all right, so glad you stayed with us 951 in technically speaking we're getting the first glimpse of a space suit that maybe used by super space x astronauts. take a look. elon musket posted this picture on instagram. he posted the space suit not a mockup. he said it was tested for vacuum pressure. it's hard to balance he esthetis and functions in the design. >>> google is launching a feature to help people dealing with depression. those who have clinical depression will be offered a validated question air to ask about energy

athena jones with more on the president's speech from arlington, virginia. >> reporter: good morning. president trump laid out a new plan for u.s. efforts in afghanistan and south asia, emphasizing the importance of a regional approach to preventing terrorists from gaining a safe haven from which they could threaten america. the president called on pakistan to do more to fight terrorist groups and on india to help in the area of economic assistance for afghanistan. the president also said a core pillar of the new u.s. strategy in afghanistan would be a shift from a time-based approach to one based on conditions on the ground. >> we will not talk about numbers of troops or our plans for further military activities. conditions on the ground, not arbitrary timetables, will guide our strategy from now on. america's enemies must never know our plans or believe they can wait us out. i will not say when we are going to attack, but attack we will. >> reporter: notably, the president did explain the evolution in his thinking from favoring a full withdrawal as a candidate and before that to sup

athena jones. as we've been saying the island getting smaller, support network for the president dwindling by the day. thanks so much. the joining me now cnn politics reporter. and patrick healy. first to you eugene. uf a he been doing reporting on the comments this morning from susan. this comes from the mother of the woman who was killed standing up for what she believed in who flat-out said she will not speak to the president and in her opinion the president was equating her daughter with the white supremacists and neo-nazi that were marching. >> i took away two things from her interview. one she was oefdoffended by the house trying to reach her during and after the funeral. but something that's also very important is many trum surrogates have hade that the president was clear he was very clear in condemning white supremacy in his words, what she heard was the president equating them were the activists her daughter included. i think it's how much the president and white house have not addressed

athena, word on how president trump feels about this report and this statement? >> reporter: hi, fred. well, i've reached out to a couple white house sources to find out more about the president's thinking on all this, but we have seen multiple white house officials pushing back on this story from the "new york times" on twitter and on television. listen to what white house counselor kellyanne kel hi to say about that this morning on abc's "this week." >> it is absolutely true that the vice president is getting ready for 2020 for re-election at vice president. >> no concern he's setting up a shadow campaign? >> zero concern. that is complete fiction. that is complete fabrication, and i know that his advisers who had -- pushed back strongly as well as the vice president and as i am right now unequivocally. vice president pence is a very loyal, very dutiful and also incredibly effective vice president, active vice president, with this president. >> and i think the operative word there is "loyal," or the phrase "very loyal" that we heard from kellyanne conway. offic

athena, first, just backing up on "the washington post" reporting, what more do we know? what did he ask for exactly? >> hi, brooke. according to this new report by "the washington post," the president had a conversation back in the spring with his attorney general jeff sessions. we should note that sheriff arpaio's case got under way in late june. this conversation according to the report took place before that. i should mention that just in the last week or so through cnn's own reporting we learned that this is something the president had been planning, something that he had been preparing to do. now we're getting a sense of just how far back that thinking on the president's part may have gone. here is what an official -- a white house official told "the washington post." they put it in way. we knew the president wanted to do this for some time now and had worked to prepare for whenever the moment may come. so that is what the white house official was telling "the washington post." and, of course, this is a pardon that has gotten a lot of attention. we don't want to get

athena, what's the latest? >> reporter: hi, wolf. well, in just a few hours we expect the president to layout a plan to increase u.s.troopsin afghanistan and also to address how the u.s. can better work with other countries in the region like pakistan. the president's speech comes against a backdrop of weeks of west wing chaos and the controversy over his response to the charlottesville violence. the president has a chance now to turn the page, focus on national security. the question is how effective will this new strategy in afghanistan be in making gains there? and how effectively can the president sell this new strategy to the american people? >>> president trump back at the white house after his working vacation is set to layout his administration's plans for the fight in afghanistan. >> it's a very big decision for me. i took over a mess and we're going to make it a lot less messy. >> reporter: a 16-year conflict, the top general there warned in february, has reached a critical juncture. >> in your overall commander's assessme

athena jones, thank you very much.hile the hurricane was it willing texas, president trump was also issuing a controversial pardon. we'll discuss that next. so we sent that sample i doff to ancestry. i was from ethnically. my ancestry dna results are that i am 26% nigerian. i am just trying to learn as much as i can about my culture. i put the gele on my head and i looked into the mirror and i was trying not to cry. because it's a hat, but it's like the most important hat i've ever owned. discover the story only your dna can tell. order your kit now at ancestrydna.com. >>> a little gulf coast got ready to face hurricane harvey head-on, the white house seemed to go under the radar by carrying out a string of controversial moves last night. the president pardonedarpaio. and sebastien gorka leaves the administration. and a president signs a directive banning transgender military recruits and stopping treatment regimens for current service members. let me turn to ed martin, he used to be share man of the state republican p

>> athena at the white house. thank you. >>> rain and flooding inundating the heart of america's oil industry forcing oil rigs and ten key refineries to shut down. look at the infrastructure if the path of this storm. exxonmobils, baytown refinery, second largest in the country shut down. texas gulf has a third of the oil refineries. this disruption means higher gas prices. u.s. gas future spiking 7% overnight to two-year high. experts say gas prices will raise 5 to 15 cents over the next week. especially in the south. southeast and mid-atlantic u.s. higher gas prices just one of the potential economic costs from harvey. the storm threatening texas's recoverying economy. just falling after spiking last year when oil prices fell and extended oil closures could hurt texas progress. as could the cost to rebuild which estimates put at $40 billion. that includes 200,000 homes hit by the storm. more than $20 billion of real estate in houston alone. one of the most densely populated areas in the u.s. look at the pictures

athena jones, thank you.n analyst wrote an op-ed saying that this natural disaster will be a critical test for the administration, saying that this administration is about to face a challenge from without, an act of god type challenge, and it will be judged on wl it has sufficiently nurtured and emhe powered the bureaucracy to support local and state planning to prepare for the storm and respond once it hits. and she's joining us now. you are the former assistant secretary to the department of homeland security. has this administration passed the test in this initial 24 hour period? >> well, i really want to commend the fema leadership in particular their communications have been very strong. no one in homeland security in the middle of a hurricane which we are still in and certainly we'll see a lot of flooding the next couple days would say so far so good especially that now that we have our first fatality. but in terms of the surge of resources that occurred before the leaning in, fema's me motto is go big,

back to you. >> athena joins, thank you. i spoke earlier to republican jack kingston. >> he condemned the bigotry and hatred and violence. i think people have overread things into that. he's been all over twitter condemning things that have happened, praising the police, terry mcauliffe, both have said they've been in communication all day honk. i think his response has been good he didn't use the word white supremacist. i think it's one of those words where he was not trying to avoid any particular jargon. he condemned the bigotry and hatred and violence which i think covered the whole thing. >> it was your colleagues who are reading too much into this, to use your words. and it was tweeted, we must call evil by its name. these were white supremacist and this is domestic terrorism. why didn't the president say this is domestic terrorism? this has no place in this country. >> well, you know, this thing doesn't end today. it's an ongoing debate and challenge for our country and the president will be using terms like that in t

bringing in our white house correspondent athena jeans fra bridgewater, new jersey, where the president is spending his working vacation. first of all, do we know what the president is doing, a beautiful sunday, up in new jersey? >> reporter: hi, wolf. not so far. no word on what the president is doing. in fact, a small pool of reporters assigned to follow him today isn't even supposed to gather for several more hours. we've asked several times whether he's golfing. no word. it is a beautiful day for golf but we have no word on that. we also haven't heard anything more from the president about this issue, charlottesville, and what happened there, or any other issue at all today. but we did hear from the president's daughter ivanka trump who is, of course, one of his seen dwrer anior advisers w twitter, there should be no place in society for racism, white sue primsy and neo-nazis. we must all come together as americans and be one country united. we also heard a couple hours after that from a white house official, who wouldn't give their name, but putting out a statement that went furthe

athena jones is near the president's resort. athena, what is the president doing tonight and how does the white house explain the president's statements? >> reporter: hi, john. well, the press pool that was assigned to follow the president closely today got a lid, what is called a lid sometime ago. so we have no new information on how he's spending the night other than to say it is at his bedminister golf club. that phrase you heard at the independent of the sound byte you played from the president, on many sides, on many sides, this idea that there are many sides to blame for the violence that took place in charlottesville, that has raised a lot of concern and gotten a lot of criticism. i asked several white house officials what he meant when he said that. this is what the official told me. they said the president was condemning hatred, bigotry and violence from all sources and all sides, there was violence between protesters and counterprotesters today. certainly there was violence between protesters and counterprotesters toda

athena jones, cnn, bridgewater, new jersey. >> and now mark preston joins me. mark, this is problematic at any time, but you now have infighting between the top members of the president's inner circle, talking about national security. you have this happening at a moment in time when the president is talking about possible war with north korea. >> a possible war with north korea, and just opened a rhetorical front against venezuela, talking about sending in troops. there's always infighting in a white house, but it's never this public. this is a bad spot to be. we saw john mccain just say right there that there needs to be some kind of resolution. it seems like he was asking for the ouster of steve bannon from the white house. >> and what does happen here? steve bannonslammed by the president, but he has survived when many others have lost the president's favor. sean spicer, reince priebus among them. does bannon survive now? >> i think he does for the time being. having him on the inside as "the wall street journal" says causes -- is creating all of this chaos.

athena, to you first. let's talk about stephen miller. miller may be headed for a more visible role. what are you hearing? >> hi, ana. that's right. a white house official said he's being considered for the elevated communications role. this role would be in addition to his current role as a senior policy adviser. the source adds that steve bannon the president's chief strategist and ally of miller, they're both part of the so-called nationalist wing of the west wing, steve bannon faves restructuring the director of communications role. so miller might not actually get that title. but just sort of get a more elevated role within the communications department. this source said that it wasn't clear whether steve bannon had floated this idea with the new chief of staff, john kelly, but of course ana, the fact that that we're tauing about it means its -- we're talk about it means it has been talked about publicly. we saw miller spar with jim acosta last week. but you may remember he was instrumental in the planning and the rollout of what was

athena, what's the latest from the white house? >> reporter: hi, john. we haven't heard anything new from the president. but you're right. that phrase "many sides" drew a lot of attention and criticism. i asked several white house officials what the president meant in saying that, who was he referring to. and an official told me the president was condemning hatred, bigotry and violence from all sources and all sides. there was violence between pro efforts and counterprotesters today. now, that last sentence is true. there was a confrontation between the protesters and counterprotesters but i don't think a lot of people that both sides were expressing hatred and bigotry. people have criticized the president's remarks because he is equating those marching in the streets with confederate flags carrying flags with nazi bem blems, some wearing nazi arm bands, some carrying trump campaign signs or signs supporting the president and also the people last night, the group of white nationalists who carried torches to the campus of the university of virginia. he at

let's get to cnn's athena jones in west virginia. athena. >> reporter: hi, chris. that's right. new details and new developments are out tonight that aren't likely to make the president very happy since he has spent months railing against this russia investigation. he did so again tonight, coming out on stage here in huntington, west virginia, swinging in the wake of this latest news. just out today that robert mueller has issued zsubpoenas about the meeting at trump tower. the president spending five minutes blasting this russia story as a total fabrication and a hoax. listen. >> the russia story is a total fabrication. it's just an excuse for the greatest loss in the history of american politics. that's all it is. [ cheers and applause ] it just makes them feel better when they have nothing else to talk about. what the prosecutors should be looking at are hillary clinton's 33,000 deleted e-mails. [ cheers and applause ] most people know there were no russians in our campaign. there never were. we didn't win because of russia. we won because of you. that i can tell you. [ cheer

cnn's athena jones on the road with the president in west virginia. she has more on his reaction. >> reporter: good morning. in the wake of news that special counsel robert mueller has issued a grand jury subpoena related to donald trump jr.'s meeting at trump tower with a russian lawyer, the president came out swinging in huntington, west virginia. a state he won by more than 40 points in november. the president spent five minutes blasting the russia story as a "total fabrication and a hoax," and blasting democrats for what he called their obsession with it. listen. >> are there any russians here tonight, any russians? they can't beat us at the voting booths, so they're trying to cheat you out of the future and the future that you want. they're trying to cheat you out of the leadership you want with a fake story that is demeaning to all of us. >> reporter: president trump's latest tirade signaling he has no plans to stop talking about this ongoing investigation which he has repeatedly termed a witch hunt. >> okay, athena jones, thank you very much. >

athena, no events scheduled. we've heard from the president this morning. >> hi, fred, that's right there are no public events on the president's schedule. and the white house won't say if he's spending this beautiful day on the golf course. we haven't heard from the president for several hours. but during the 7:00 a.m. hour he sent out two tweets. one of them thanking his recently departed chief strategist, steve bannon. i believe you can put it up on the screen. the tweet including a familiar dig against his former rival, hillary clinton. and ending with, thanks, s, as in thanks, steve. he followed that tweet a few minutes later saying important day spent at camp david with our very talented generals and military leaders. many decisions made, including on afghanistan. we know they were there at camp david in part to discussion skus this long-awaited and somewhat delayed strategy on afghanistan. well a pentagon spokesman tells cnn they saw the president's tweet this morning and quote we looked into it. and there

let's get to cnn's athena jones in west virginia. athena? >> reporter: hi, chris. that's right. new details and new developments are out tonight that aren't likely to make the president very happy since he has spent months railing against this russia investigation. he did so again tonight, coming out on stage here in huntington, west virginia, swinging in the wake of this latest news. just out today that robert mueller has issued subpoenas related to don junior's meeting last summer with the russian lawyer at trump tower. the president spending five minutes blasting this russia story as a total fabrication and a hoax. listen. >> the russia story is a total fabrication. it's just an excuse for the greatest loss in the history of american politics. that's all it is. [ cheers and applause ] it just makes them feel better when they have nothing else to talk about. what the prosecutors should be looking at are hillary clinton's 33,000 deleted e-mails. [ cheers and applause ] most people know there were no russians in our campaign. there never were. we didn't win because of russia. we

she's called athena in greece. she was placed on the california state seal in 1849. but minerva represented also california's becoming a state. without ever being a territory. minerva in her ancient roman story spring full grown from the brain of jupiter and she was never a baby and never a young child, just right off the bat, full grown. like california that became the 31st state without ever being a territory. and that we were pretty proud of that in 1849. to put that on the state seal in 1849, not having been a state yet, they were -- that was it. they had decided, we were either going to be a state or an in dependent repuck liblic and tha she is up there. and we are in one of our historic rooms, the first floor was turned into basically a first floor museum. showing people what government was like, the office culture of the turn of the srncentury. so we are in the governor's main office during the 1906 san francisco earthquake names georgia party. they used these office complexes until 1950 until the east wing, the an ex opened up and the governor's office moved

athena, thank you. at the white house, page pate, athena nailed it in setting whole thing up whether it was this initial intervention pretrial or even this pardon. totally legal, totally in the president's constitutional right. that said, how unusual is this. >> i think it's incredibly unusual. we've never seen anything at least that i can recall like this where a president intervenes while a case is pending right before a trial to try to convince apparently the attorney general to have the u.s. attorney back off the case. i've never heard that have happening. there's tradition, there are protocols and policies in place to prevent that type of political interference when we're talking about an indictment and a possible federal criminal trial. it's highly unusual for a president but not necessarily unusual for this president. in fact, i think it shows a pattern of conduct from the white house as far as intervening in otherwise independent law enforcement and prosecutorial decisions. so to that extent, i

back to you. >> athena jones, thank you.ot of people say his lack of condemnation sends a strong message. senior political analyst david g gergen. >> reporter: we do know one thing is clear. the president repeated on many sides. he placed a moral equivalent seu betwe between the neonazis and the people who showed up today to defend racial justice. and in doing that, by putting an equivalence on it, he in fact,e. that was a defense. everybody has to do it. i'm sorry. that we have to be very clear about, the second thing is, yes, there is a first amendment protection for freedom of assembly, freedom of speech. it is not an unfettered right. the courts have been quite clear. you do not have the right to use violence that incites violence, had they are saying make this country back and milwaukee it white dominated country again. that is what we had. primary responsible for the violence rests with those people who are the neonazis and white supreme sifts and other extremists. >> as david gergen adviser to presidents on of both po

now more from the white house reaction and athena jones in bridgewater, new jersey. >> reporter: goodorning. a white house official who asked not to be named put out a statement that did go further than what we heard from the president in his brief remarks to the press about this on saturday. this is what that official statement said. it said, "the president said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry, and hatred, and of course that includes white supremecists, kkk, neo-nazi, and all extremist groups. he called for national unity and bringing all americans together." that, of course, a statement we got on sunday from a white house official. but again, a lot of folks, not just democrats but also republicans, and a growing list of republicans, want to see the president himself explicitly denounce these white nationalist groups. and one reason is that president trump and candidate trump before that has never been shy about repeatedly criticizing a long list of people, whether it's democrats like hillary clinton and barack obama or fellow

athena, any word on how president trump himself has felt about this report? >> no word on the president's own reaction to this. we know the president and vice president speak on a regular basis. today they won't say if the two have talked about this particular story. but it's important to note that multiple officials have been pushing back hard on this piece in the new york times on twitter and on television, listen to what white house counselor kelly ann conway had to say about it this morning on abc's this week. >> it is absolutely true the vice president is getting ready for 2020 for re-election as vice president. >> so no concern -- >> and also 2018 -- zero concern, that is complete fiction, complete fabrication, and i know that his advisers who had comments attributed to them, have pushed back very strongly. and as am i right now, unequivocally, vice president pence is a very loyal, very dutiful and incredibly effective vice president, active vice president with this president. >> i think the operative phrase he heresome very loyal, conway and other offi

athena jones is outside the white house following this breaking news. cnn is still working to confirm these details, but the republicans have already been very critical about this pardon. what impact might this news have? >> reporter: i think this is a remarkable report by "the washington post." as you mentioned, we reached out to several white house officials to get their response to this, to find out more, but it's remarkable to see a president trying to interfere directly in a specific case. this is not something we're used to seeing presidents do. if in fact in the past administration, if you tried to ask president obama about a specific case, he would say he didn't want to comment in order to avoid the appearance of political sizing what should be an impartial justice system meth that's going to be carried out by the justice system. so that is one thing that's unusual. it's also interesting because this appears to be part of a pattern. you'll remember the former fbi director jim comey saying the president early on in his administration had a conver

athena jones, what is the word -- >> reporter: no new reaction from the white house or the president. in the face of on going criticism for his defense of white supremacists, we're seeing a familiar pattern from the president. he's refusing to back down. instead inserting himself deeper into the racially charged debate over confederate memorials and new controversy over his response to the horrific attack in barcelona. president trump spreading fake news while condemning oh, reviving a story on the campaign trail. >> he took 50 bullets and dipped them in pig's blood and shot 49 of those people and for 29 years there wasn't a problem. >> reporter: the problem, historians repeatedly said this never happened. this falsehood coming as president trump's support base continues to crack over his defense of white supremacists. >> a lot of people in that group who were there to innocently protest and legally protest. i don't know if you know, they had a permit. >> reporter: the son of fox ceo rupert murdock, one of president trump's closest informal advisers denouncing the president in a scath

athena jones live in bridgewater, new jersey not far from the president's golf course. any reaction on this from the white house? >> reporter: hi, john. no. still no reaction to her words in that interview and no reaction to whether they did reach out several times to her. i asked about the mitt romney statement. let's talk for a moment about susan row. you can't stress enough how unusual it is to have someone whose child is killed in a tragedy, not want to speak to the president. that is because she believes he doesn't think before he speaks. the problem is a lot of the critics say look, he does think before he speaks and tweets. we esaw that saturday when he blamed many sides and saw it in the unscripted exchanges with reporters on tuesday at trump tower. he says what he means, he means what he says. now, we should believe him. now, you are hearing or seeing a growing list of republican voices calling on the president to speak up, to set the record straight if he truly does agree with those scripted comments on monday where he condemned hate groups by name, neo-nazi,

athena jones at the white house. ryan first, to you what the house is calling a new afghan strategies. >> reporter: the details are still a little bit sparse. some of the broader outlines were made clear. one, no time time. it's bunch a big departure from the obama administration. it was a very strict timetable. some critics said that encouraged the taliban to wait it out. president trump making it clear that there will be no timetables attached to this strategy. another element will be kind of removing some of the restrictions on targeting that have been put during the late period of the obama administration. additional trainers, perhaps, we don't know the number, but we believe that some additional trainers will be sent to afghanistan to help train local afghan troops and all of this kind of also working to put pressure on pakistan, the no timetable element, they think will potentially pressure pakistan, something the military has long sought to curb these al qaeda and taliban safe areas. so these are some of the b

athena jones, first to you. let's talk about stephen miller. a senior white house official saying he might be headed to the more visible role. what are you hearing? >> that's right. it was described as a possibly elevated role in the communications department. this would be in addition to do his current role as senior policy adviser. he is also a big part of the president's speech writing team. this source says that steve bannon the president's chief strategist who is an ally of stephen miller favors restructuring the communication director role. so it's not clear whether miller would get that title but they -- but the idea is to give him an elevated role in the department. i should note though that cnn has spoken with two sources who have said that the new chief of staff john kelly may be favoring his own former homeland security spokesperson for the role of communications director. and i should mention that the source said it wasn't clear if bannon had floated this idea of stephen miller having an elevated role to chief of staff john kelly. o

athena jones as this story for us. >> reporter: that's right. president did respond to the violence in charlottesville earlier today. here is part of what he had to say. >> we condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides. it's been going on for ah long time in our country. not donald trump, not barack obama. it's been going on for a long, long time. it has no place ine america. >> reporter: in one phrase you heard from the president right now there is getting a lot of attention, a lot of criticism. that is what he said the violence, hatred and bigotry on many sides, on many sides. he is equating the neo-nazis, white nationalists who were demonstrating today and last night with the folks who were counterdemonstrating, protesting the racism and the racial epithets they were espousing. i asked what the white officials what he main by several times. what he meant by many sides. >> they said he was coming hatred, bigotry from all sides. there was violence between protester

back to you. >> thanks to athena jones for that.ore now on the president's sons to charlottesville and the criticism surrounding it, democratic strategist dave jacobson joining me from los angeles via skype. thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> just a few moments ago, we heard david gergen saying the fact that the president did not specifically call out and con dep the neonazis from the rally today, that was essentially a defense of the white supremacists. do you see it that way? >> absolutely. i think it's the equivalency of during the primary campaign when david duke, one of the leaders of the kkk had endorsed and embraced donald trump's campaign and donald trump immediately and for almost a full day refused to disavow david duke. i think it's equivalent to that act where several republican leaders during the primary campaign had come out and rebuked the president, donald trump's action then and we actually saw david duke at the rally today. he was on videotape saying essentially, this was the fulfillment of donald t

>> athena jones at the white house, thank you so much. the white house, on his way to texas as early as tuesday. when the president gets to texas these are the stories he's going to hear from people directly about their rescue attempts. losing everything in places like dickinson texas. these are the images you're seeing right now. ed lavandera is reporting from these locations. the water is very high. >> we found a gentleman gracious to bring us out. he drove up from lake jackson today. he's taking us out in the neighborhoods where he's rescued about 10 people here today this is one of those subdivisions off i-45 that has been flooded out by the floodwaters that came in overnight. and this is an area where we've seen boats criss-crossing and the images you're seeing speak for themselves it's devastating. people went to bed last night thinking they were going to be high and dry in one of the areas where they were going to be better off to with stand the intense rain that was coming and the floodwaters that were coming down, you can see how

>> athena, thank you very much. let's get back to barcelona. we have two witnesses of the attack there. juwa and liam. can you both hear me? >> yes. >> yes. >> first, thank you for being with us. we trust that you two are okay and is everybody that you knew, loved ones, anybody affected by this? >> fortunately i'm okay and all my friends and family whom i speak with a few hours ago are okay. >> i'm the same. my friends and family are safe, my friends in the city are safe. >> many are not, liam. we know that. please help us understand what this was like to witness. liam, what did you see? >> i was coming down the road next to la rambla, i was skateboarding and listening to music. i heard banging noises and screams. in front of me, i saw everyone from the bars and restaurants start running, looking absolutely terrified, to which i did the same. we all ran into a theater next to where the van had stopped, and shortly after we realized that, i kind of -- it hit me. it was quite a shock to be that close to what had happened. >> obviously the intenti

near the president's bed minister estate, athena, what more did the president have to say and what more are you hearing following those remarks? >> reporter: ana, i want to make sure our viewers know we have a new tweet from the president put out just a few minutes ago. he said he's offered deepest condolences to the families and fellow officers of the virginia state police who died today. you're all among the best this nation produces. that's a tweet the president put out about 15 minutes ago. notably, does not mention the young woman, the pedestrian killed when the car plowed through the car and does not mention the nearly three dozen other people injured, but does send condolences to the state police. what's notable about that quote from the president you just read, ana, the phrase "on many ie sides" condemning egregious display of bigotry on many sides. that's got a lot of attention and criticism from people who argue the president is drawing a moral equivalent between white nationalists and supremacists and nazis. we see emblems during the protests today and arguing there's a moral

back to you. >> athena jones, thank you. now, condemnation and white supremacy has been a common theme as republican leaders responded to saturday's violence in charlottesville. house speaker paul ryan said white supremacy is a scourge that must be defeated. former presidential candidate jeb bush saying white supremacists and their bigotry do not represent our great country. also, senator marco rubio called saturday's violence a terror attack by white supremacists. also, snalt majority leader mitch mcconnell did not use the term white supremacist, but instead said hate and bigotry do not reflect american values. with us now from los angeles, david ciders, senior reporter for politico, and cnn political commentator john thomas. good to see you both, gentlemen. david, i want to start with you. is trump -- is president trump failing the first crisis of its kind of his presidency? >> i think that's an interesting question. he is getting a lot of criticism, obviously, for failing to call this an act of terror or to call it white

. >> want to bring in cnn white house correspondent athena jones now talking about the agoing fall out from frut's response to charlottesville. what's the white house doing this morning to try to fix some of this? >> hi, christi. we have seen the president tweeting this morning, but when it comes to dealing with the fallout, the only other response to the white house is that they are deciding not to take part in any of the festivities surrounding the kennedy center honors. this is, of course, a yearly gala at the kennedy center honoring artists and performers and entertainers of all sorts. we had seen reports of several of the honorees saying this they planned to skip the pregala reception at the white house in protest of the president. one of the honorees in particular, norman here a tv producer and writer. he created the show all in the family, even before the events in charlottesville last weekend, he said that he was not going to go to that gala. we also heard recently from a could you ban american singer songwriter who said that she was not going to go to the pregala presepgs at t