good morning, i'm christine romans. >> i'm dave briggs. it's wednesday, march 6th, 4:00 a.m.n the east. for the second time in weeks, the president's preference over protest call. three sources telling cnn president trump pressured aides to grant security clearance for the first daughter and senior aide. >> the president had no involvement pertaining to my clearance and my husband's clearance. >> so, no special treatment? >> no. >> it's not clear what red flags were holding up ivanka's clearance. several sources tell cnn it's possible she was unaware there were any concerns raised during her background check. she might have been unaware of her father's involvement. but it followed the president's top secret clearance for ivanka's husband jared kushner. and it shows the president once again overruling on federal grounds. >> good morning, christine and dave. we have learned that president trump then pressured white house chief of staff don mcgahn to grant his adviser clearance against recommendations. while the president has the legal authority to grant clearances, most inferen

. >> and i'm christine romans. it's 3:00 a.m. in the east. president trump and robert mueller would end up on the same page. the main take aways from the investigation have now been made public in a letter from attorney general bill barr to congress. the top headline, no collusion. >> the attorney general quoted mueller saying the investigation did not establish that members of the trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the russian government in its election interference activities. that means no one will face charges for conspireing with the russians. >> it was a complete and total exoneration. it's a shame that our country had to go through this. to be honest, it's a shame that your president has had to go through this. this was an illegal takedown that failed. and hopefully somebody will be looking at the other side. >> on the obstruction of justice question, the special counsel decided not to render a judgment. here's bar quoting mooueller whe this report does not conclude the president committed a crime. it does not exonerate him.

christine romans. >> i'm dave briggs. we'll also have r. saying he's innocent of the accusations. it's 5:30. we start at the white house. for the second time in two weeks we learned the president overruled security officials on grounds president trump pressured aides to grant a security clearance to first daughter and senior aide ivanka trump. the revelation contradicting ivanka's admission to abc news just three weeks ago. >> the president had no involvement pertaining to my clearance and my husband's clearance. >> so, no special treatment? >> no. >> it's not clear what red flags were holding up her clearance. several sources tell cnn it's possible she was unaware there were concerns raised during her background check. or she may not have known of her father's involvement. but it followed the president's ordering a top secret clearance for her husband jared kushner. cnn pamela brown has more from washington. >> good morning, we have learned that president trump pressured his chief of staff john kelly and white house counsel don mcgahn to g

i'm dave briggs. >> and i'm christine romans.estimony, michael cohen's testimony to congress is over for now. three major revelations emerging. first, sources tell cnn president trump's former lawyer and fixer provided documents to the house intelligence committee, they show edits made to the false statement cohen made before congress in 2017. >> cohen handed over the new documents to help explain his public testimony last week. he told lawmakers one of mr. trump's lawyers had a hand in editing that false statement. these and other revelations could give ammunition to republicans attacking cohen's credibility. manu raju has more. >> reporter: michael cohen delivering a second day of testimony. and the big question democrats had going into the hearing was whether the president's attorneys were involved in editing that false statement that he delivered to congress back in 2017. back then in a classified setting he lied and later acknowledged lying to the committee about the pursuit of the trump tower moscow project. and he also sai

i'm christine romans. >> and i'm dave brigs.e start with startling revelations about the lion air flight in october killing 189 people. bloomberg reported when the same plane discovered trouble the day before, the crew got help from an unexpecting source. it was a pilot traveling in the cockpit. >> a day before the lion air crash, the same plane, that disaster is under renewed scrutiny following last week's ethiopian airlines crash. live in paris, she's got the details. what can you tell us about this? >> reporter: christine what we're learning from our reporting from bloomburg, this same arena was to have crashed in october last year plunging into the sea, taking off with 189 people on board, had the day before, and the third pilot, one that was off duty we're hearing was in the cockpit. and he was he who managed to disable that automatic flight system that when the sensors kept to the fact the plane might be falling, he said he pushed the nose down. this particular pilot, according to its latest recording, christine, was able

. >> and i'm christine romans. 31 past the hour.e begin with house democrats, their investigation or investigations plural of president trump just beginning. the house judiciary committee sending out a stack of far reaching document requests, seeking information from the president's sons, his business associates, political confidants, looking into possible corruption, obstruction, hush money, alleged russian collusion and much more. >> the investigations' wide scope may bolster the republican claim that house democrats are trying to cripple the president's re-election effort. but jerry nadler says its committee is just seeking to uphold its responsibility. >> our goal is to hold the administration accountable for the obstruction of justice, the abuse of power and corruption. we have to find out what is going on and reveal it. >> the president was asked about the investigation. >> are you going to cooperate with mr. nadler? >> i cooperate all the time with everybody. and the beautiful thing, no collusion, it is all a hoax. >> the sco

i'm dave briggs. >> and i'm christine romans.we welcome all of our viewers here in the united states and around the world. the big news here, the takeaway from the spk investigation have been made public in a four pageler from bill barr to congress. the full mueller report not public yet. but the top headline, as the president has been saying from the start, no collusion. >> the attorney general quoted mueller saying the investigation did not establish that members of the trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the russian government in its election interference activities. that means no one will face charges for conspiring with the russians even in that famous trump tower meeting in 2016. >> it was a complete and total exoneration. it is a shame that our country had to go through this. to be honest, it is a shame this your president has had to go through this. this was an illegal takedown that failed. and hopefully somebody is going to be looking at the other side. >> on the obstruction of justice question, the special coun

just to top of the hour, good morning, i'm christine romans. >> i'm dave briggs. good morning.he power ball, i'm playing, you're not. >> won't change my life. >> we're still on capitol hill, though, democrats moving fast in the hist from russia to health care after the president gave the best gift nancy pelosi could ever imagine. leadership was hoping to focus on issues that helps democrats take back the house in midterms and they got their chance, when the justice department said it backed it and calling obamacare unconstitutional. hours later 2020 hopefuls pounced. >> the gop will never stop trying to destroy the affordable health care of american families. >> the idea that people are playing politics yet again with the affordable care act is the height of irresponsibility. >> and back to the old days when people couldn't get health insurance. >> when you start taking health care away from people who have pre-existing conditions, it upsets whole family structures. and look at the 20 million people that are suddenly going to be without health care. >> is anybody thinking what

. >> and i'm christine romans. it's wednesday, march 27th. it's 5:00 a.m. in the east. good morning, get up, there's a lot of news this morning. democrats moving fast to shift from russia to health care, after the president gave them an opening, a big one. leadership was looking to focus on issues that helped democrats take back the house in midterms. they got their chance when the justice setting back calling obamacare calling it constitutional. >> the gop will never stop trying to destroy the affordable health care of america's families. >> the idea that people are playing politics yet again with the affordable care act is the height of irresponsibility. >> this administration and the republican party want do go back to the bad old days, where people couldn't get health insurance if they had a pre-existing condition. >> when you start taking health care away from people who have preexisting conditions it upsets i mean whole family structures. and then look at the 20 million people that are suddenly going to be without health care. is anybody thinking about what that d

>> christine romans, thank you very much. history in 2020 if it elects its first woman or first gay president. if that happens, their spouse would be the nation's first first gentleman. indica kate bennett explains. >> reporter: a crop of diverse presidential candidate, but six have one thing in common. should they win, their husbands would become the first first spouse. hillary clinton had to once consider what former president bill clinton could be called. >> bill has said that some of his friends from scotland suggested first laddie. >> reporter: this time more options for a man to make history. elizabeth warren perhaps unsurprisingly didn't follow the traditional norms when she decided bruce mann, a professor of law at harvard, was the one. she asked him to marry her. >> we have been married a long time. it's always been an adventure. this is another. >> reporter: pete buttigieg of south bend, indiana, is not only the first openly gay presidential candidate, he's also a newlywed. marrying his husband last year. >> i marri

>> christine romans, thanks for crunching the numbers.mp said stupid people hired by other presidents were responsible for the trade policies and he was going to make it all go away and it would be easy. that stupid people were running the government and balancing the budget and getting rid of the budget deficit would be easy. we're two years in. >> i should start by saying tread deficits are not inherently bad. the president has made them bad. they are not inherently bad. the president's argument here is that the short-term pain, and the deficit's going up because of retaliatory tariffs are in the interest of getting the players to the table. china is at the table and will they get a deal is the major question here. i've heard a lot of skepticism that if there is a deal it will be one that resolves the issues that the president sought out to resolve, but he may be on to something in the sense that if he is able to get a reduction in tariffs before he put into place his tariff and then the future might be a better scenario, but i think fo

christine romans is here to break it down.e going to get to in a moment, but the fact that you have the 77% increase here, is it more because of the tax cuts or less revenue coming in or more because of increased spending? >> it's both. big military spending, veteran spending, just the interest on the debt that gets bigger and bigger. there's a lot of spending and the tax cuts to a lesser extent. on the trade front, the president's entire trade policy is predicated on the belief that trade deficits are a failure. the u.s. trade deficit last year was the worst in a decade $621 billion. the overall deficit in goods 891 billion. th the president detests trade deficits. he simplistically sees them as losing money to the trading partners. yet the trade deficit has swelled to way more than $100 billion. that 77% surge in the budget deficit in the first four months of the year. 310 billion. tax revenue down about 1.5% over the past 12 months. larry kudlow down played those numbers. >> we are making an investment in america's future.

. >> and i'm christine romans. >>> breaking news out of alabama, the death toll there now at 23 afteries of tornados ripped across alabama and georgia. at least 12 of the deaths occurred in one area. about sfif miles south of opelika. here is the local fire chief. >> homes are completely gone. family members are still missing. we're searching. we are asking people to stay out of the area. >> the sheriff says the area looks like someone just took a blade and just scraped the ground. >> this howhole area right heres prech pretty much gone. this way over here which was mostly trees looks like tooth picks wrote all through there. this came on so quick and changed so many lives. i mean, it is really sickening to watch. >> the number of deaths in this single tornado outbreak surpassing the toll from all the twisters in the u.s. last year. let's go live to kaylee hartung. she is in opelika. how much warning did people have that this was coming? >> reporter: not a lot. it is stunning to hear that the death toll now up to 23 people. that including children, but it is additionally stunning to h

i'm christine romans. >> i'm dave briggs. it is thursday, march 7.on's capital where after 30 hours over four day, michael cohen's testimony to congress is over. three major revelations emerging. first, sources tell cnn president trump's former lawyer and fixer provided documents to the house intelligence

i'm christine romans. >> welcome back. i'm dave briggs. monday, march 18, it is 4:00 a.m.n the east, 9:00 p.m. in christchurch new zealand. file this under words you never imagined you'd hear defenin def of the president of the united states. >> the president is not a white supremacist. i'm not sure how many times we have to say that. >> that was acting chief of staff mick mulvaney. the white house forced to address the president's response to the shooting friday in new zealand. a terror attack at two mosques that left 50 dead. >> do you think white nationalism is arising threat around the world? >> i don't really. i think that it is a small group of people that have very, very serious problems. >> the president seemingly unconcerned despite the gunman's manifesto filled with anti-immigrant, anti-muslim. the 87 page diatribe claiming he was inspired by trump and white nationali nationalists. it was not the first time the president hesitated to be critical after an attack. >> you also had people that were very fine people on both sides. the world is a violent world. and you

i'm christine romans. >> i'm dave briggs. it is tuesday, march 19.ump of the tropics in brazil at the white house today. that will be an interesting press conference in the 1:00 hour. very similar rhetoric from these two. but we start with the white house as well with the world waiting for the mueller report, but the white house will get the first look and maybe a first edit. whatever part bill barr decides to submit to congress and maybe make public, sources tell us that white house lawyers expect to review it first. >> they will be considering if and when to claim executive privilege. the president does have a legal right to withhold information if revealing it would disrupt the decision making progress, but should he claim that right. pamela brown has more fr

. >> and i'm christine romans. two u.s. members killed while conducting an operation in afghanistan. information still coming in. matthew chance is monitoring this for us live from moscow. matthew, what do we know at this hour? >> reporter: well, we don't know a great deal. there has been a statement issued by the nato military alliance, that is the operation inside afghanistan involving thousands of u.s. personnel helping the afghan military to combat the taliban as they battle them for territory on the ground. that short statement saying two u.s. service members were killed while oconducting an operation. it doesn't give any details about the operation. but it goes on to say that in accordance with u.s. department of defense policy, the names of the service personnel killed in action are being withheld until 24 hours after their next of kin have been notified. so it could be tomorrow before we find out their identities. but it brings to fore u.s. service personnel killed in action this year loalone, more than 2300 u.s. pe

. >> i'm christine romans. it is march 26, 4:00 a.m. and a major reversal trump administration on obamacare. in a monday court filing, the administration said the entire affordable care act, all of it, should be struck down. the justice department says it now agrees with the federal judge in texas who invalidated the aca in a december ruling. at the time the administration said that it would not defend certain obamacare provisions including pre-existing condition protections covering 52 million americans, but it argued the rest of the law could stand. >> the president has repeatedly promised to protect people with pre-existing conditions, but the new stance doubles down on stripping away those and all other protections. the case is currently before a federal appeals court. constant questions about the future of obamacare did not hurt signups too much for 2019, though they were down 300,000 from 2018 to 11.4 million. >>> democrats at a critical juncture this morning. after president trump is effectively cleared by special counsel robert

. >> and i'm christine romans. it is thursday, march 21, 5:00 a.m. in the east.tion from the prime minister of prime minister of new zealand. jacinda ardern is overhauling her country's gun laws. >> new zealand will ban all military style semi automatic weapons. we will also ban all assault rifles. we will ban all high capacity magazines. we will ban all parts with the ability to convert any firearm into a military style semi automatic weapon. >> the prime minister also announcing a buy back program to encourage new zealanders who own automatic weapons to surrender them. let's bring in ivan watson. moving very quickly in new zealand on this matter. >> reporter: christine, all of the victims from last friday's terrorist attacks haven't even all been buried yet, and yet the government has announced this ban, the prime minister saying she is convinced she has the country's support behind this

i'm christine romans. >> i'm dave briggs. 5:31 on the first day of spring.e stunning revelation about the doomed boeing jet that went down off of indonesia last october killing 189 people. bloomberg is reporting when the same lion airplane encountered trouble the day before the disaster, the crew got help from a pilot who happened to be traveling in the cockpit. >> bloomberg reported on the day before the disaster. cnn's melissa bell is live in paris with the details. this is remarkable. another pilot who happened to be off duty, but in the cockpit, thwarting what could have been a disaster the day before on that indonesian plane. >> that's right, this was the flight of the airplane that could have crashed this time from bali to jakarta. we know that the third pilot who wasn't meant to be in the cockpit really saved the day and the lives of passengers. it was he who was able to show the pilots who were in control of the flight that particular day how to disable this software that forces the nose of the plane down. the next day, catastrophically, the pilots w

our chief business correspondent christine romans is here. good morning.nt wanted, but maybe not for the reason he wanted. >> be careful what you wish for. you know, the president had gone on and on almost insulting the fed and the fed chief about higher interest rates last year. the fed said we looked at the data and we think there will be slower growth in the u.s. 2.1% is the growth rate expecting for this year. they are going to pause. they had pencilled in two rate hikes for this year. now they are not going to do that. it doesn't look like any rate hike is pencilled in. people are saying things might be a little less robust than we thought and there are concerns about europe and china. >> lowering their economic growth forecast for the year to 2.1%. why? citing sluggish housing donald trump, reduced business investment. let's just take a walk back in memory lane and let's listen to the president at a cabinet meeting in 2017. here is what he said about growth. >> we're not talking about removing them. we are talking about linking them and for a substan

. >> christine romans, thanks for the breakdown there. this is classic trump.icking on specific companies, telling them to do specific things, and the president says, sorry, this is why i got elected. to some of the workers, that is why he got elected. he speaks to workers in the blue collar states in a way -- at least with the last campaign they felt he was talking to them about the issues without it going over their head. >> and it's effective in some respects. he did the carrier deal right after they moved to indiana. the people i talked to on the ground in cincinnati were thrilled that he was doing something, that he was using the bully pulpit to yell, scream, bang the desk and try and change things. i think that probably more than whether or not there will be tangible effects of what happens in lordstown is what the president is going for here. ohio is a very important state. he considers these his people, and he's making it clear to them that he's there to work for them. the problem is how long does that last when there are no tangible results in the end.

i'm christine romans. >> great to have you back. i'm dave briggs. it is 5:30. st.n the white house. we'll get to that. little tout where tdoubt where president's head is. while allies mourn the attack in new zealand, the president unleashed a twitter barrage. the question is why. he was busy lurching. among grievances, gm, autoworkers union, snl reruns, hillary clinton, rmt, evobert m and fox news and the late john mccain. >> he criticized him for his ties to the controversial russian dossier. also going after mccain for his vote against repealing obamacare. >> and a strong response from mccain's daughter, she tweeted in one will ever love you the way they love my father. i wish i had been given more saturdays with him. make spend your with your family instead of on twitter obsessing over mine. president trump is using the oval office to moonlight as a program director. mr. trump is urging fox news to put jeanine pirro back on the air. sources say the controversial host was suspended for islamophobic remarks doubting the patriotism of congresswoman ilhan omar. >> i

i'm christine romans. >> i'm dave briggs. about seven hours to fill out your brackets.s, decisive action from the prime minister of new zealand less than a week after 50 people were slaughtered in two christchurch mosques. jacinda ardern is overhauling her country's gun laws. >> new zealand will ban all military style semi automatic weapons. we will also ban all assault rifles. we will ban all high capacity magazines. we will ban all parts with the ability to convert any firearm into a military style semi automatic weapon. >> the prime minister also announcing a buy back program to encourage new zealanders who own automatic weapons to surrender them. let's bring in ivan watson. ivan, we've talked all week about the remarkably quick action here. is there any opposition that you can sense to this gun action by the prime minister? >> reporter: we haven't heard it yet. her deputy prime minister used to be against these types of gun control laws and he quickly after last friday's terror attacks came out in support. we talked to an auckland rifle club and they came out in sup

chief business correspondent christine romans joins us with more. >> 17 terrible minutes of live streamingenforcement to alert facebook. it wasn't facebook's own monitors and ai, artificial intelligence. new zealand's prime minister said social media sites must do more to stop content that spreads hate and violence. and what spreads it more than actual live video of the killing of people while they are worshiping. my colleague said it best. if the artificial intelligence system can't identify and take action on a video containing weaponry, repeated gunfire and murder, what can they identify? now facebook said it removed 1.5 million videos of the attack in the first 24 hours. it blocked 1.2 million of them at upload, meaning they wouldn't have -- they were not seen by users. nose those 1. million. but facebook said 300,000 remaining videos were out there. there's a growing question whether on balance social media and facebook in particular is good for society. the air asia ceo quit facebook sick of all these conspiracy theories he always sees. it's a great platform to communicate, strong en

chief business correspondent christine romans is here with retails. >> hi, there, alisyn.okesman for the chinese government sounding upbeat saying we hope the two sides can continue to step up consultations to reach a win-win agreement. contours of a trade deal are emerging here. "the wall street journal" reports china is offering to lower tariffs on american soybeans and autos and washington is considering rolling back tariffs on $200 billion worth of chinese products. on friday, the president asked beijing to end all tariffs on u.s. ag culture exports because trump didn't increase tariffs on march 1st, that famous deadline. now the german reports they are pledging to speed up the timetable and cutting tariffs on imported vehicles. big questions remain. enforceablity. will china live up to its promises and will trump essentially undo all the tariffs and countertariffs of the past eight months but make little headway into changing china's business model. the president has teased a meeting with chinese president xi. the journal reports that could happen around march 27th. >

. >> and i'm christine romans. it's 3:00 a.m. in the east. president trump and robert

our chief business correspondent christine romans joins us with more. >> privacy concerns and casablancave it. this is about using your phone for two factor authentication. the users thought it would be used for security purposes but it can find you on the site. under the privacy settings users can specify who they want to share the phone number or e-mail address with. there is no way to opt out. over the weekend social media outrage. a spokesperson for facebook said the feature is supposed to make it easier to find people you know who aren't friends with you yet on facebook. we appreciate the feedback and we'll take it into account. critics say you shouldn't give up your privacy to attack yourself against hackers. if people choose to use two factor authentication they must add the number to their facebook profile. another security and privacy concern for facebook. last year it removed the ability to remove an e-mail address under similar privacy concerns. facebook confirmed phone numbers may be used to inform ad personalization. >> thank you very much for that. listen to this. a patient

i'm jessica dean in for christine romans g. to have you here. >> thanks. >> happy friday, everybody. i'm dave briggs. it's march 5th, five a.5:00 a.m. paul manafort traded in for a jump suit. the sentence imposed for defr d defrauding banks and the government from failing to pay taxes for consulting in ukraine. >> 47 months the longest sentence stemming from the mueller probe and well short of what was expected even though as the judge noted manafort did not express regret for his crimes. cnn crime and just our justice t hear more. >> reporter: good morning, dave and jessica. paul manafort received 47 months in prison, much lower than prosecutors who asked the judge for 19 to 24 years. the judge calling the sentencing guidelines out of whack. gave manafort a nearly four-year prison term. now, manafort, he spoke briefly telling the judge how prayer and faith have helped him get through this time and asked the judge to be compassionate. he told the judge that the last two years have been the most difficult years for his family an

chief business correspondent christine romans joins us now with more. the list of -- >> it's been a year of "i'm sorry" from pacebook. a full year of i'm sorries. facebook is acknowledging it miss handled sensitive passwords for hundreds of millions of its users. facebook said it didn't properly mask the passwords and stored them in an internal database staff had access to. this primarily affected users to used the light product, a simplified version designed to work on slower internet connections. they were never visible to anyone outside of facebook. no evidence anyone abused the passwords. hundreds of millions of users affected. tens of millions of regular f e facebook users and tens of thousands of instagram users affected. a year of constant issues for facebook. cyber security concerns, a possible fine from the ftc. regulatory scrutiny of the u.s., more in europe and lengthy outage just last week. earlier in the month facebook said it was pivoting to a privacy focused model adding encryption to its various messaging services. but, guys a year of me