legal analyst jefferey toobin ad editor at large, chris cillizza. david gregory, where are we in terms of gravity of chrrisis? >> we are in the deep end of the pool. this is a serious situation. for me, i think this is a time of reckoning for republicans in congress. they have to make a decision to what extent they are going to rein the president in and what extent they will investigate what it is he is up to with regard to the russia investigation and why and how he has allowed his self destructive insecure personality to sabotage the presidency. he is showing open contempt and reckless disregard for the institutions of the country. that is at the heart of the dealings with james comey. that has to be dealt with. there is another aspect. somehow, president trump whose vast experience involves real estate and build golf courses and hotels thought he could come to washington and pick a street fight with the fbi of the . he is learning he can't do that. he is learns people write notes and memos and the empire strikes back. >> i think you are on to som

is tom countryman, former state department official fired shortly after the inauguration and chris cillizzawhat's your take on the president's behavior here and his ability to do this in the future? ze h well, clearly he has the ability to declassify information but the way he did it raises concerns. if he asked his team in advance, i'd like to share this information and then there would have been a proper prof coordinating that. he did not do that. he could have chosen to say briefly to the russians, there is some information i'd like to share with you and it will be coming to you soon and then he could have followed a proper procedure. the fact that he chose to do neither illustrates many of the adjectives that have been thrown out there, whether it's reckless, impulsive or childish. i think we still haven't found the adjective that fully describes this president's operating style. >> chris cillizza, i'll give you an opportunity to offer your adjective in a second. let's talk about your piece or the straw that broke the camel's back piece on cnn.com where you talked to one anonymous repub

we really need these allies. >> and chris cillizza, it was jon meacham who commented over the weekend not since preworld war i have we seen a resurgent russia, germany talk about going it alone and more passivist and isolationist united states and we know how that turned out. you're arguing in fact the national security area foreign affairs is where donald trump may have his biggest influence yet. negative influence, positive influence or do we know? >> we don't know. like many things with trump, i think we know he's willing to do and say things other politicians and presidents have not previously been willing to say and do, david. he represents unrt dorthodoxy, uncertainty. when we look at his slogan make america great again there's a tendency to focus on the dmoek policy. the truth of the matter and the ambassador can speak to this, you can always change more in terms of foreign policy than you can in terms of domestic policy as president. you're very circumscribed as a president in terms of domestic policy largely but congress, president trump struggles with the health care bill, f

the bottom line from chris cillizza. first, how has he done? what will it mean back here at home? > i think he's done fine, chris. as long as he stays on script and reads the >> we don't dictate donald trump asking jim comey while he was the fbi director to stop investigating michael flynn, right? we cover those things. we report on those things. we talk about those things. he continues -- the more he talks off the cuff, the more he tweets without approval from anyone else, the more trouble he gets in. what you have seen in this first 125, 130 days thus far of his presidency, this is a guy whose presidency has been detailed by himself, by self-inflected wounds that are a lack of message discipline and a lack of personal discipline in terms of what he spokes to and what he says publically and privately. those are facts beyond dispute. no matter how much you hate me or chris cuomo. no one hates alyson. >> chris cillizza thank you very much. so our news coverage of the bombing in manchester england will continue through the tday. sa on a perfect car, then smash it into a tree. your in

let's talk about that with chris cillizza, cnn editor at large. i mean, right?douzy. >> it's the most dismissal he's been of hillary clinton's candidate skills. >> he stood by her. >> he did. and he endorsed her soon after the democratic primary in june of 2016 but throughout that time and then after the election especially, he repeatedly said that it was a burden for her to run, she wasn't really sure if she wanted to, that he didn't understand why the message wasn't more focused on assembly line worker who is make $65,000 a year. he's offered a lot of implicit criticism. this was a lot more explicit criticism. in that same talk, he did say, look, could i do it? yes. will i? probably not. but he certainly left the door open. look, he'll be 78 years old, brooke, in 2020. but donald trump was the oldest person at 70 ever elected to a first term, you know, 3 1/2 months ago or five months ago. so it's not impossible in this day and age that biden would be entirely ruled out and i think he wants to keep the option open. >> before i let you go, let's have a little fu

we have cnn political reporter and editor chris cillizza. and undersecretary for political affairs nicholas burns and journalist jackie kucinich. ambassador burns. give us contact here. what does it mean when angela merkel says that european countries cannot rely on the u.s. anymore? >> it is a significant statement. she is a cautious politician. not prone to overstatement. this is a big statement of the deficits of president trump and european leadership. you saw them in brussels last week. how to handle russia. the europeans perceive president trump weak on russia. differences on trade. the europeans wanted a free trade agreement that president trump proposed. clear differences on climate change. that is the biggest issue for most europeans in government and out. it is the europeans who want to do something about it. they see the united states not stepping up because president trump is ambivalent. they were shocked. united states has led nato since harry truman and president trump has said nothing about reaffi reaffirming article v. it is

i think even after chris cillizza's great explanation we need more help. am i wrong, or is this the president saying, yeah, you can't really trust everything out of the white house. >> that's exactly, poppy, what the president is saying. and this gets to the fact that he's running the white house like his closely held family business where everybody had to do what he said and basically he was the business. and, so, at any given time when he wanted to act or talk to the media or make a decision, it was all about him and everything resolved around time. >> standby because we have to get to this, the tweet that just came to the president. maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all press releases and hand out written responses for the sake of clarity. >> it assumes that the problem is somehow quantitative, you know, that this is about having too much. this is about telling the truth. the white house spun a lie about why james comey was fired to make it look like it wasn't about russia. it was about clinton and all the democrats hated how comey was with

legal analyst jeffrey toobin and reporter and editor at large chris cillizza.n you look at this situation, a lot of law in the air. you have politics in the air. what do you think the level of crisis is for the white house? >> i think it is grave because i think everything that the white house would like to focus on, they have completely got knocked off optopic because of the president's behavior which undermines democratic institutions for which he is showing contempt or reckless disregard of. the real thing to focus on, we will get the comey memo at some point. comey will be on capitol hill testifying. that is the showdown we will see. comey versus the president. it is a day of reckoning for the republicans to get back on track. how they rein the president in and what it means for the russia investigation so they can get on to whatever may be left of an agenda they want to govern on. that's the name of the game. they are taking incremental steps. there is circling the wagones a. everybody is feeling dizzy by one revelation after another. >> chris cillizza, th

chris cillizza and john kirby. john, from your perfective of messaging at the department of state, what do you make of this, the response from the white house and your understanding of what might have been shared and how important it is? >> i think from a messaging perspective and i think they are trying to treat this as a pr problem, which it is an intelligence problem, no question about it, and they are trying to stuff the answer into a shell that they created by the president getting this out there. i mean, you got h.r. mcmaster, secretary tillerson out there trying to put context on this, a nondenial denial and then you have the president coming out in tweets this morning and saying, hey, it is no big deal. that it is a big deal, you don't have to look further into the fact they put out their s information about it. this is in fact something major. >> all right. so the president just tweeted again. let me read this to you. we'll see if we could get it on the screen. i have been asking director comey and others

let me bring in our cnn politics reporter chris cillizza and april ryan. and, so i still have more questions for you, william. just as far as we played the clip where he talks about -- when it talks about the color of the wallpaper were that these were not honorable people. just one more quickly to you. did he feel that the president wasn't honorable? >> he did. and i specifically said that. comey felt that all the way up to the president that there was a not honorable way of approaching their interactions. one of the questions that i asked him was, if comey felt this was so bad, if this was so egregious, if he was asking you for a loyalty oath, why not quit? why not blow the whistle or go public with all of this? and he said his sense that comey felt he could manage it, that it didn't rise to the level of needing to quit and he used a phrase saying i think comey could throw enough brushback pitches at the president to keep him at bay and manage the relationship. of course, we know several weeks after that last meeting between comey and whitis comey was fi

and if states can find a way out of it, you are going to have states who will do that, chris cillizza, and that is the obvious concern and it negates a core promise of president trump, which is we're going to keep pre-existing conditions. so when you look at this in terms of how it helps the gop, because they're celebrating, what is the plus/minus for them moving forward. >> to your first point chris, a waiver means you can waive it, right? it's right there in the word. so to say it guarantees coverage isn't right. why do they think they need to do this? i think they recognize it is a giant political risk because obamacare is more popular than it's been almost since conception. the kaiser family foundation was a poll monthly since the bill being introduced. 48% approved of it, obamacare, in their most recent poll. the negatives were much higher before because, again, this last hour the challenge of taking something from people that they had, even if they don't love it, taking from them is difficult. so why do you do it in the face of issues about freezing medicaid expansion, in the fa

hey, chris cillizza, the way alan dershowitz, esteemed professor emeritus at harvard puts it is this. >> this the most serious charge ever made against a sitting president. let's not minimize it. comey is in the waste basket of history. everything else is off the table. this is the most serious charge ever made against a sitting president of the united states. let's not underestimate it. >> cillizza, your column, trump's intelligence slip up may be the straw that breaks the camel's back. make the case. >> i talked to a bunch of republican house members as well as republican operatives last night. obviously this was fresh information at that point. a lot of them says, look, we're okay with the strategic and tactical -- his unorthodoxy there, but when he does stuff like this, really bad self-inflicted wounds, it makes our members very, very nervous. now, i will tell you in that same reporting, lots of people told me you will not see republicans abandon donald trump wholesale until you start seeing either special election losses in places like georgia 6 district, montana open seat which

let's discuss eyebrow raising interviews with chris cillizza, a.b. stoddard and cnn political editor and "new york times" editor patrick healey. >> eyebrow raising, head scratching, insert your own adjective here in terms of what president trump's goal is in saying some of these things in these interviews. patrick, let me start with you. let's play it one more time. he talks about the andrew jackson story more tan once. okay. he likes talking about andrew jackson. he talked to celine, gave her this interview. listen. >> had andrew jackson been a little later, you wouldn't have had the civil war. he was a very tough person, but he had a big heart. and he was really angry that -- he saw what was happening with regard to the civil war. he said there's no reason for this. people don't realize, you know, the civil war -- >> yeah. >> think about it, why? people don't ask that question. why was there the civil war? why could that one not have been worked out. >> patrick, what's happening here? >> president trump has such an attachment to andrew jackson. his

i am joined by chris cillizza, jeff zeleny is back with me and alex bernstein.x, first, a big day yesterday, a big vote in the house, a big white house ceremony. what is different today in terms of american's health care? >> not a lot, john. i think a lot of people are understandably anxious about the personal implications of the massive relegislation of the health care system. but i am old enough to remember when they were going to transform the american energy system. >> but politically things are different. >> they are, but you may have the whole bunch of members that walked the plank on this vote and it goes to the senate to face uncertainty. republicans in general are more optimistic today they will get something on health care. i don't know what we know what that something is going to look like. >> let's bring in chris here. he has a column out right now or about to be. >> it is out. i made it. >> when we are in commercial, go look at it. chris, you identify several senators to watch going forward. i want to wind down three of them. give me 20 seconds on e

chris cillizza, thank you for being with us.e now, a really interesting voice on this subject, susan rice, will be speaking at this forum. that is obviously not susan rice right now, but she will be speaking at a progressive conference taking place as we speak in washington. what does president obama's national security adviser have to say about this new moment where information, classified information reportedly shared with the russians? we will hear from her very shortly. with this level of intelligence... it's a supercomputer. with this grade of protection... it's a fortress. and with this standard of luxury... it's an oasis. the 2017 e-class. it's everything you need it to be... and more. lease the e300 for $569 a month at your local mercedes-benz dealer. mercedes-benz. the best or nothing. at crowne plaza we know business travel isn't just business. there's this. 'a bit of this. why not? your hotel should make it easy to do all the things you do. which is what we do. crowne plaza. we're all business, mostly. brtry new flona

chris cillizza to you. you are a republican in the house in the senate and you see this is not going to make it through the senate in this form, you know that, why would you vote yes and risk those ads in the mid-term? >> it depends what your district looks like. if you are in a district that hillary clinton won or donald trump won narrowly, you won't vote yes. they are not in -- bfred upton s not in districts that they need to be worried about re-election. the problems that republicans were having was there were a lot of people that should be questions in they're in pretty safe districts. even if there is a huge blow back they should be able to withstand it politically. but they were noes and that was putting a lot of pressure on people in swing seats because it would be very hard for them to be questions. what the amendment does is give the people who should be questions enough cover to be questions. there is still going to be a lot of noes in this, and i guarantee you, we can go through this list. if don

to discuss this new, very interesting information is cnn politics reporter and editor at large chris cillizza and former chief legal officer at the cia, john rizzo. he is also author of "company man" about his 34 years at the agency. great to see you both. thanks for being here. john, let me ask you, just a gut check, if you will. russian government officials discussing potentially derogatory information about then presidential candidate trump and his top aides. as someone who spent a career dealing in intelligence, do you believe them? >> do i believe the report's accurate? >> no, the russians. do you believe the russians in what they'd be discussing? >> not necessarily. i mean, as jessica reported, this could have been, you know, one of three things -- one it was actually true and they did have derogatory information, two, it was disinformation, they knew it was going to get to u.s. ears, and three, frankly, based on my experience, it could be a couple russian operatives just sort of puffing to each other. you know, i mean, seeing the potential there and sort of blue-skying that, gee, you k

chris cillizza when you heard the dni say, you know, it's not appropriate for me to characterize these discussions, what did that sound like to you? >> that he's not denying it. look, you know, dan coats is someone who's been around a very long time. he was a senator from indiana, left, came back and represented indiana in the senate before being named dni. he knows how this works. if he wanted to, felt comfortable with making a full-scale denial -- no, president trump never asked me to knock down talk of collusion in the wake of the investigation announced by james comey -- he would have done that. that's a setting in which you could do it. he knew, of course, he was going to get that question. this is a way to sort of deflect. it's a way to say not yes but not no, right? this is sort of a middle ground answer that will make some news but not as much news as if senator coats had said, yes, he did ask me to knock that down. >> right. right. guys, we're going to stay on this. we're monitoring a hearing that's about to begin with former nsa director john brennan, as well as waiting for h

joining me, cnn politics reporter, editor at large chris cillizza. chris, great to see you. joe points out, james comey very futed the wiretapping claim, but so we're all on the same wiretapping page again, here's what republicans in congress also concluded about the president's wiretapping claim. listen here. paul ryan. >> the point is, the intelligence committees in their continuing, widening, ongoing investigation of all things russia got to the bottom so far with respect to our intelligence committee that no such wiretapping existed. >> right. why do you think he's not letting up on this? i mean, wasn't this something that the white house very, at least privately to reporters was very excited to get past, these tweets? >> yes. it was a gigantic unforced error by donald trump on a saturday at mar-a-lago. i still remember, i woke up and i looked and i thought, that doesn't seem right. then i woke back up an hour later and there it still was. >> you could go back to sleep after that? i'm impressed. >> yes, i know. well, i've been a political reporter for a long time now. lo

editor at large chris cillizza and a.b. stoddard. a.b. chris, what has happened with the health care plan, we think to get it over the finish line? >> the big thing is they took $8 billion and said we will put this in because it addresses the issue of what do you do because you are not mandating people be covered. that won't cover the cost. it mitigates worries by members. this is smart. if you think you have 213 hard yeses and you have five or six maybe yes or maybe no, call the vote. those people are never going to get off the fence until you say the vote is ones thursday afternoon whenever. i think it is a risk. i think they are taking this risk because they believe the alternative which is letting it fail again with no vote is worse. they promised their base for sevens years. from the second president obama introduced obamacare until now, if they got into hour, they would repeal and replace. to not do so twice in the first 105 days of the trump presidency -- voting on the bill with the expectation the senate will change it. >> they hav

. >> we have chris cillizza, jeffrey tubin and phil mudd. what is the answer? why the 18-day lag and only when the washington post broke the story did mr. trump get rid of michael flynn. >> let me throw one other thing ton time line. donald trump does a press conference in which he talks about the conversation he had with don and says he was just doing his job. not a big deal. when it suggested unless don mcbegan pulled punches and didn't tell the president what sally yates told him, it wasn't just about doing his squlob. it is about not telling the truth about it, about the justice department having concerns that he was blackmail bait given what the russians knew about him. there is just a lot of questions there. we either have to believe that donald trump didn't -- was not told, didn't believe what he was told or thought sally yates was lying or not telling the truth because otherwise there is no obvious solution for why it took so long, why in the wake of it he continued to defend michael flynn publically. he knew what yates told mcdltcg >> we also learned t

. >> finally, eric, i was reading your back and forth with chris cillizza and his questions to you and he was asking you on the three separate occasions, the questions on back and forth between comey and the president and whether or not the president was under investigation. you said that that was close to zero, that comey ever would have promised the president that. why? >> boy, it's hard to imagine that, given as precarious a situation as the fbi was in, they had opened, remember, a counterintelligence investigation last july, we now know, into possible collusion between the trump campaign and russia, that either voluntarily or even under duress comey would have told the president, you are not under an investigation while at the same time we know there are at least a handful of people around the trump campaign who have been under investigation. that would be, you know, against every protocol that is known, although comey's critics have pointed out that he broke protocols in the hillary clinton investigation. almost no chance but the way this story has been going, i don't think we rul

we have david gregory, chris cillizza and julie pace. david gregory, if it's true that rosenstein, you know, look, he's got a complicated picture here because he didn't have to do what they asked him to do. it seems there was an indication they wanted reasons to get rid of comey. he's only been in there two weeks. this is his initial task he was given to do, but that he doesn't want to be seen as the fall guy for this situation. how big a deal is it? >> i think it is a big deal because it gives you insight into a process that lacks credibility. rod rosenstein has a great reputation sara was noting and he's only been on the job a couple of weeks and there is a number of questions here. why was he asked to draw up a memo outlining his grievances against jim comey when the inspector general of the department of justice is already in the middle of just such an investigation and preparing his own report? why repeat that? why have that done at a different level? did rod rosenstein question that? did he question if he was being used here, wheth

. >> let's discuss this with chris cillizza and david axelrod. david axelrod, what if this candidate with an apparent hair trigger wins today? >> they may have to put rubber tiles in the congress because reporters ask irritating questions all the time. that's their job. what's interesting is the context of the confrontation because john forte has been dogged for weeks by this health care bill. he had said one thing publically which was to be questioning and he said privately to a republican that he supported it and he was happy that it passed. this has dogs him. it is one of the reasons why a race that shouldn't be close has been close, so he just snapped when he got asked about that cbo report. so, look, he's been working hard to win a term. who knew it might be in the county jail? >> listen, look, there is a comical nature to this because of how absurd it is, chris. and what i'm seizing on is not the event but the response to the event. john forte has been quiet because he wants to win his race. that's fine and self-serving. he'll deal with the

joining me now chris cillizza, arel lewis, and the former fbi special agent, a cnn contributor and professor of law. >> let's break this into two parts and separate the politics of this for a moment and take a moment to recognize that the president of the united states did threaten james comey saying you better hope that our conversations were not taped. you know, mary ellen, you worked at the fbi for, what, 28 years. how will that message be received within the fbi? >> not well. not well at all. because the agents and all the staff of the fbi would look at that and take it very personally because they all are very supportive of mr. comey still. so that will not set well with them. >> and to you, steve, you know, what line was crossed? there has been all this talk about is the president obstructing justice? did he obstruct justice by firing james comey. did he cross a line by asking james comey to dinner. am i being investigated and now today threatening the fbi director that he fired here. >> there are two different statutes to talk about. thanks to president trump's tweets this morning, we

. >> chris cillizza, do you think she is right, if the election had been on october 27thth she would have been elected? >> probably. the great tragedy for her is that the election was set for a long time on november 8thth? i think david axelrod is right. i don't think there's any question jim comey coming out with that letter. everyone thought this must mean they uncovered something else and turns out they hadn't and jim comey was, as david noted, tried to cover for the fbi looking political, but there were lots of other things that they did not do. they really -- the message was essentially i'm running against this guy, and they thought that that would be enough because they believed donald trump had disqualified himself with nil number of controversial misogynistic, a number of things he had said about women and about other groups. the american public wanted change so badly, look at the exit polls, wanted change so badly they were willing to overlook all those things. the fundamental strategic mistake that the clinton campaign made and why they ultimately wound up losing. >> and wi

joining me right now to discussion is cnn politics editor at large chris cillizza. see you, chris. >> hey, kate. >> so, it seems there is little appetite, as far as we know, and everyone's taken the temperature of republican legislators, little appetite to handle the aggression that congress is handling to a special prosecutor. you see the poll numbers and the american people seem to be in a different place on this. what is the disconnect? >> well, i think there are concerns, frankly, if you're a republican, that if you start an independent investigation, where does it lead? i think the words independent investigator or special counsel all bring to mind to everyone in politics certainly ken starr star and where that led, just sort of all over. you know, it didn't start where it ended. and there's concerns, legitimate concerns in many places of, you know, giving someone that level of freedom and authority. that said, i think you had congress, at least the house, out on recess last week. they'll be back this week. i think you're going to see a lot more ramped-up press

we have cnn politics reporter and ed door at large chris cillizza and david gregory and april ryan. david, you wrote a book. how is your covfete. look, is there anything here that is relevant of the president tweeting at midnight this nonsense? >> no. i don't think there is anything releva relevant. but i think that it's indicative of his frame of mind coming back from his trip. he seems singularly focussed on taking all comers on the russia investigation, on press coverage. he has resumed a place that is really self-destructive in being the one who is uniquely in charge of dealing with criticism or distraction and not realizing how to self-destruct if it is. he's talked to outside counsel about helping him isolate the russia investigation where there is a special counsel as well as congressional committees as there is one who can be in the chief of staff role who can say, mr. president, we need to focus on this and not that. but can't be the one who take on the press. are you going to deny him any of those devices literally to communicate? and i think what he's got to realize at so

reporter and editor chris cillizza. counter terrorismr ambassador t russia, thomas pickering. cillizza, let's talk about our brother getting body slammed by the hot head in montana. you know withhat i hear? silence. what is the gop party? where is the president who made robocalls for this guy? why do they let him stay in? the assault is clear. >> yeah. he has been charged with a misdemeanor assault. this is not just he said versus he said at this point. i don't know, chris. at some level this happened around 7:30 or 8:00 p.m. eastern time last night. all three newspapers in the state that endorsed gianforte have rescinded endorsements. i e-mailed i think everybody did the national congressional committee last night. the arm of the party that runs the campaigns. said did you say anything. they referred to the gianforte statement. the gianforte statements is a classic making things worse, not better. there's audio. there are witnesses. who have no vested interest either way that directly contradict the statement. i don't know what they do. look, here is what i can tell you. if t

. >> let's bring in david gregory and editor chris cillizza and jason johnson. david gregory, an open letter to the deputy attorney general by the new york times editorial board. rod rosenstein is at the center of the move. he is used by the white house as a rationale for why they removed comey. despite the flood of the hillary clinton investigation. they called on him to appoint a special counsel to restore the americans faith in the justice system. how important is rosenstein right now? >> critically important. he has a great reputation. former u.s. attorney in baltimore is seen widely among career prosecutors and law enforcement folks as highly credib credible. the reporting here is critical. the white house is saying he acted on his own. that rosenstein acted on his own to bring up concerns of comey's performan performance. that led to the firing. i don't believe that. i want to hear from rosenstein himself. did he act on his own accord? does he stand behind comey? let's pull back and look at the reporting at cnn and other outlets is telling us. the presiden

you look at our reporter chris cillizza's comment, the headline, "is this the straw that broke the camel'sack?" is this going to be different. i just want to circle back to the breaking story this morning obviously out of the "washington post" and cnn is reporting on all of this. the fact h.r. mcmaster, the national security adviser used the words at no time were intelligence methods discussed. wrote this story, said i think the white house is playing word games. you see it in much more stark terms. you see mcmaster as playing us. >> he is. he knows what he's doing. i think he's lost credibility in the last 24 hours. any sbl person taken intel 101 can figure out what general mcmaster is doing. two elements of intel, what you collect and how you collect it. how you collect it is the most sensitive, potential part of this. that is how you intercept someone's communications, whether you have an informant within isis or al qaeda. what mcmaster said the president debate reveal anything about sources, how anything was collected. excuse me, of course. the question isn't whether he revealed anythi

i want to bring in chris cillizza and gloria borger. where do we start in we'll start with health care. i'll start with chris since he's right here with me. republicans say they are going to vote tomorrow. they can repeal and replace obamacare. what turned this around for the president? >> first of all, important to understand this is sort of repeal and replace. they are not repealing the whole thing but for the most part -- >> it's similar to obamacare, isn't it? >> there's a lot in there that remains with obamacare. they are not gutting this and putting their own bill in. how did donald trump or paul ryan get the vote? you know, when you say here's $8 billion to fund these high-risk pools, which was the concern, had been the concern, $8 billion solved some problems. i think also what they thought was, we're two, three votes one way or the other on this. it's going to be close. the only way that we're going to make a decision is to say there's going to be a vote. because you put it off, put it off, you put it off. >> but, again, $8 bill

. >> chris cillizza, what stood out in your mind in that extraordinary ex change?ell he is wrong on, my view has been proven out and everyone is talking about it. the facts are this. donald trump is on one side saying i was wiretapped by president obama during the 2016 election. okay, on the other side of that ledger are fbi director james comey, james clapper wz president obama who denied it. republican chairman of the house senate, house and senate intelligence committees. paul ryan, speaker of the house. >> mitch mcconnell. >> literally name any politician and republican or democrat and they are likely to pair. he just says things and he con flights opinion with fact. his opinion is that lots of people are talking about it and he has somehow been justified. the facts simply on this do not bear that out. >> you worked not only cnn and fbi, what does it say to you that james comey said there is no evidence to back up the president's assertion against the former president? does it suggest to you that this president doesn't trust his fbi director? >> you have to loo

cnn political reporter chris cillizza and columnist at real clear politics a.b. stoddard. all right, brother gregory. what do you have on covfefe? >> i got nothing. i got we will trace the beginning of the western civilization to the president's use of twitter and fascination with it. to be more serious, clearly he is in the middle of the new round of ranting of press coverage and trying to distract from the investigation over russia. the extent is something that matters. an actual agenda. we cannot lose sight of the fact that the coin of the realm for president trump is accomplishment. he has failed to accomplish key elements of his agenda that had a lot of excitement for conservatives who may not necessarily agree with him and those who supported him who might not have otherwise supported him if it were not for the uniqueness of the 2016 election year. whether it is stalled on health care and questions of the future of tax reform as we get deeper into the summer and facing the fall and election year next year for the mid terms. i think this has to be wearing on him. the

joining us now chris cillizza, april ryan and julie pace. so is this as naked a political play as it appears, that this is just about getting a nominal w and don't worry about what this does to pre-existing conditions, how many poor people it kicks off the rolls. >> yes, more or less. when the affordable care act moved through the house, there was a lot. we didn't read it. it was we'll read it after we vote on it. the reality is, breaking news, it is hard to over haul the nation's health care system. it is complex. things that look easy are harder when you get into it. it touches everyone. politically speaking this isn't like big banks and people don't understand that. this is you go to your health care provider and it costs you more, you can't afford it. i think they are making a calculation between a poor choice and what they believe to be a choice that they cannot take. so the poor choice is let's pass this. we don't have a cbo score. the senate is likely to change it. it may not make the conference committee. if it does, we'll have to vo

. >> chris cillizza said, trump wants to make the case that if jackson had been president the civil war't have happened in order to make the case that he like jackson will be able to avert crisis by dint of his unique background. that the facts don't back up the assertion is besides the point for trump. it's real to him and, therefore, it is a version of the truth." do you agree with that analysis? >> i didn't get the sense when i was interviewing him that he was trying to compare himself to andrew jackson. he was pointing out portraits in the oval office and he talked about jefferson and he talked about jackson. you know, maybe he was. i can't get inside his head. i don't know what he was thinking. but i didn't see any evidence of that during the interview. >> all right. thank you, salena and michael. appreciate it. >>> what this bizarre history lesson reveals about the president. bring 'em on. dawn ultra has 3 times more grease-cleaning power. a drop of dawn and grease is gone. hi, i'm frank. i take movantik for oic, opioid-induced constipation. had a bad back injury, my doctor prescr

cnn senior legal analyst, reporter and editor at large for cnn politics chris cillizza and phillip mud. file this under the category of you can't make it up. quick to the defense of president trump is russia, just like when lavrov mocked questions from the u.s. press core about comey's firing, just like when we had to learn about the meeting between lavrov and kislyak from russian media and now they say trump did nothing wrong with intelligence and we can prove it. what does this mean? >> two things. one, between the potential for a transcript out of this meeting and donald trump floating the idea that he's taping phone calls affirms my belief that everything is being recorded at all times everywhere in the world. >> i think even this show is being recorded. >> this is fine. you can say whatever you want here. but my point, too, is that this is russia being donald trump's worst enemy in some ways, right? if ever there was a time that you didn't necessarily want vladimir putin, who ever republican short of donald trump said this is not a good guy. this is an adversary to the united stat

with me now, chris cillizza, cnn politics reporter and editor at large. o, chris, democrats, and as we see there, angus king, an independent, there are quite a few people that are not happy with this pick, if it is the pick. let's give that a very large caveat, of course. >> right. >> so, what is the bigger strike against lieberman amongst these folks? is it that he has a political background and no federal law enforcement background, or is it the fact that he dropped the "d" for an "i" and endorsed john mccain in 2008? >> and spoke at the republican convention in 2008, kate. i would say 30% they don't want a politician and 70% they don't want joe lieberman. look, joe lieberman in the wake of the september 11th attacks and then the decision to go to war in iraq was by far the most hawkish democrat. it led to him being -- facing a primary challenge, eventually leaving the democratic party to run as an independent and then endorsing john mccain, his running buddy in the senate, for 2008. so, there is not a lot of love lost for joe lieberman within the curren

let's get right to cnn's david chalian, chris cillizza, athena jones, pamela brown. pamela, you're first. first on cnn now, the former fbi director james comey sent a farewell letter. what does it say? >> yeah, he did, he sent this farewell letter today a day after he was fired by president trump which was a shock and really sent shockwaves throughout the bureau and this is what he said in his letter. he said to all, "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. i have said to you before that in times of turbulence, the american people should see the fbi as a rock of competence, honesty and independence. my hope is that you will continue to live our values and the mission that protecting the american people and upholding the constitution. if you do that, you, too, will be sad when you leave and the american people will be safer." so th

. >> threw the whole white house under the bus, as chris cillizza wrote so well on cnn.com.alk about you and your axe files special. you ask california governor enginejerry brown about the sto the week, of the year, the james comey firing. here's part of your conversation. >> i do think that comey's public statements about the e-mails and hillary was a very bad and unprofessional -- and he never even acknowledged it. so i think comey has real serious problems. >> what about the timing of it? >> but that's the other point, that he asked for resources to investigate the russia/trump connection. so, yeah, that smells. no question. >> and where do you think this all goes now? is this going to hang over trump? >> well, it's hanging over washington, that's all they can think about. i would like to see the senate restore some of its earlier luster, thinking of the great giants in the senate in the past, and with truly bipartisan, democrat and republican. let them investigate. i think that maybe you bring the house in, too. but watergate was a lot -- the investigation there was driv

let me read, chris cillizza, the exact statement once again from sean spicer, the white house press secretarycting to this "new york times" report. by grand river standing and braintree split sizing the regulars into russia's actions james comb creed unnecessary pressure on our ability to engage and negotiate with russia. the investigation would have always continued and obviously the termination of comey would not have ended it. once again, the real story is that our national security has been undermined by the leaking of private and highly classified conversations. so what sean spicer of the white house is suggesting, this is a negotiating strategy on the part of the president the way he's speaking to the russians. >> okay. i mean, i'm with david. i can't say it absolutely isn't but seems on the realm of plausibility way over on the implausible end of things. i think the most thing in that statement, wolf, there's no denial of the facts as the "new york times" reported them. one point on this meeting. three things donald trump did in this meeting. one, they let the russian news agency in to

indeed, chris cillizza, in the story in the "new york times," you've seen the denial from the white houseyou've seen the artic article in the "new york times." the main point though is the president of the united states, what he was telling to comey, comey would draft memorandum which are in the file right now so there's a contemporaneous record of what comey says the president told him to end this investigation into the president's former national security adviser. he's a good guy, according to this article. that's what the president said about michael flynn. >> three things. one, comey was concerned enough, as you know, wolf, to take these notes down, concerned enough about trump, concerned enough about what he believed trump was asking him to do. two, in order to believe the white house's argument here you have to believe james comby is lying or that the memos that were red to michael schmidt at the "new york times" were misread in some way out of context, three, if james comey was lying and are h a vendetta against donald trump, he would have released this stuff or leaked it out short

now i have an image of chris cillizza's bathrobe. >> thanks, guys. >>> president trump is giving leaders his personal cell phone number which could be a major securist breach or security risk at the very least. a former cia operative joining me to discuss. >>> an awkward moment at the state department what stumped a state department spokesman. what actually happened here? we have insight and how he reacted about what the question was. breaking news, a man has been arrested inside the trump international hotel in washington with two guns, 90 rounds of ammunition and we're getting word he may have been discussing and may have been plotting of an assassination. we have details coming in from police. that's ahead. as you do. but do they need help making more of their own tears? if you have chronic dry eye caused by reduced tear production due to inflammation, restasis multidose™ can help... with continued use twice a day, every day, one drop at a time. restasis multidose™ helps increase your eyes' natural ability to produce tears, which may be reduced by inflammation due to chronic dry eye.

reporter chris cillizza. associate editor for real clear politics. a.b. stoddard. and analyst patrick healey. cillizza, he made his people look like fools. press secretary and vice president were saying things that are false. the president made it clear this was about russia. his dislike of the investigation. his dislike of the man running it. >> that is a good summary, chris. his press secretary. his vice president. take a pause there. mike pence was the governor of the state. leadership of the house of representatives. this is not the press secretary. he is a staffer at the bottom and really a person who is supposed to represent the party line. to be honest about it. mike pence is the vice president of the united states. on capitol hill two days ago says this is because of rod rosenstein's memo. the president contradicts that in a high profile way. >> chris, let's take a moment and listen to that. this is the second time the vice president has been misled by seemingly by his own white house. first flynn and now the president himself. >> the mendacity montage. >>

also with us cnn political analyst david gregory and cnn politics reporter and editor-at-large chris cillizzasay your last name the right way? i was close. adam, let's talk about the reporting you have, types of sourcing and confidence, what it means? >> we're quoting here two current, two former officials with knowledge of what occurred here. keep in mind that admiral rogers, head of the national security agency, one of the officials at his agency drafted an internal memo documenting rogers conversation with the president. this is among the additional information we have to document that communication. obviously what it means is you get a president trump's state of mind. obviously concerned about testimony, the scope of the investigation looking at potential coordination between the russians and his campaign and he wanted to push back. >> adam, just give us a little bit more of the circumstances around this so we know president trump wanted somebody to, what was the reaction. >> individuals we spoke to rogers and dni, director of national intelligence were both surprised and thought it was i

let me bring in right now chris cillizza for much more on this. chris, what's your take on this?o you think clarke has a job or not? >> i mean, this is -- remember, kate, this is a week in which kim guilfoyle gave an interview to "the san jose mercury news," essentially saying she had been viewing for the press secretary job, which, fyi, is currently filled by sean spicer. so you never know. would it be outside the realm of possibility? no. remember, i heard in your last segment alex burns of the "the new york times" was making the point about michael flynn and donald trump's loyalty. this is another example of that. david clarke is someone who donald trump sort of liked the way he approached things. he liked that he's willing to say controversial things. he likes that liberals hate him. and so, i certainly would not be stunned if it would happen. i also would not be stunned if david clarke put the cart before the horse and maybe in so doing nixed his chances of getting the actual job. >> well, i mean, you say that democrats are going to hate it. well, that is for darn sure. i me

i know chris cillizza's out with some reporting right now from cnn that says he talked to a lot of republicansnd they're -- look, if they don't think it's -- basically, if they don't think it's going to put their re-election in jeopardy, they won't be saying anything. i think it's a very dangerous place for us to be when folks stepping up on the right side of the truth is dependent upon their poll numbers. >> again, this morning we may be in a slightly different place. you know, republicans have not jumped to the white house defense, really, at least not yet today. and kevin madden, h.r. mcmaster, general mcmaster, the national security adviser, he briefs, i think at 1:30 today. how important is that briefing, you know, not just for the white house, but also for republicans who want to find out more information here, and how complicated is it for the general now that the president, if not directly contradicting what the general said last night, coming out with a different explanation of what happened, the president saying, yeah, i shared information? >> well, look, i think the public briefing