we have jill doherty, and david gregory, cnn political analyst. d, this is uncharted territory, best we can tell. the fbi trying to knock down a claim from a sitting president. how do you think president trump may respond to this? >> well, without restraint given the way he's behaved here recently. i think what's quite clear is that president trump thinks that there are forces trying to sabotage his administration. what we don't know is whether he or his advisers have come clean about whatever contact there was that may have been inappropriate with russia in the course of the election at a time when russia was engaged in a major information war against the united states which senator mccain has called an act of war against the united states to undermine the 2016 election. so now you've got jim comey back in the news, back in the thick of things getting very public about saying this was absolutely not true, that the president has leveled a charge against his predecessor of breaking the law, of illegally wiretapping him or his associates based on a b

jason johnson, abby phillip, david gregory.ctive what is the issue with flynn. it's not so much where he was and what he was doing. it's about disclosure right? >> yeah and it's about a pattern of not entirely being forth coming about his activities both during the campaign and the transition. there's a lot of questions about whether he communicated about these things to the campaign. we learned a couple of days agatha he did tell the campaign that he was lobbying for example on behalf of the turkish government during the campaign and despite the sort of plausible deniability from the white house on this michael flynn has been one of the few trump aids to have the most unexplained connections to either russian officials, russian companies and so on and so forth and the white house is having a little bit of a hard time explaining why that didn't become more of a part of a vetting process and the more senior national security positions in our government. he had access to a lot of classified information throughout that process. it

peculiar, david gregory. a peculiar timeline there. the president seemed to know something was coming. chairman nunes went to the white house to get something. then told the president later on about that something. >> the president said that there was illegal spying and he was wiretapped at trump tower and laid it at the feet of president trump. that's criminal activity. he was alleging that no one supported on. there is no substantiation for that. now, you have the intelligence committee chairman making contact with white house officia officia officials reportedly someone in the nsa staff office handing him this intelligence of contact. i bring jeff in right away presumably there is a fisa warrant and names that are swept up into that that were not redacted and revealed. that's what they're claiming for justification of something proper. that is where the timeline fits together. it strikes me as irregular and improper for white house staffers to be engaged in this. the chairman is undermined the investigation. he achieved that point w

david gregory cbo matters. it sounds wonky and insider and this is the reckoning.pensive than obamacare and who wins and who loses. how big a deal. >> it's a big deal for a couple of reasons. one you have a problem in the republican party on two different levels. and it runs counter a dee logically too. you have a lot being done left without insurance and most vulnerable in the population and that leaves them scared politically as well. there's a third impair tif which is they have to get this done. they have to find a way. we're in the middle of a process where there's going to be more negotiation and if it's dead on arrival it's going to have to look different but there's a huge political imperative for republicans to get this done. it's a gateway to other achievements and politically was a major promise. >> let's take a moment to listen to what paul ryan said about this. he's undercutting whatever the ceo is going to come out with even before they scored this and is exactly what the white house asked them last week. how many people would be covered or would not

stoddard and david gregory and philip mudd. e found out the plan delivered by the generals, put u.s. troops near the frontlines and end the limits on the number of u.s. troops stationed in iraq. possible long term presence in iraq. that is different, obviously, than how president trump talked about iraq on the campaign trail as one of our biggest national disasters. >> that is right. there is still a lot of questions that even those bullet points create. the long term presence looks like. a loosening of air strikes. we have seen casualties. the administration wants to get iraq and making iraq the tip of the spear against isis and perhaps creating safe zones in syria. this is complicated stuff. it requires a lot of work with allies. you have been seeing more u.s. allies wanting more information and greater sense of overall world view from president trump. that goes beyond talking bombing and eliminating isis. isis has been degraded to a considerable degree. it has lost a lot of its territory. it is still a potent force. po potent

we have david gregory and david druc kerks r.u have been hearing for a couple of weeks now the new and improved travel ban is imminent. i believe when they originally talked about it it was imminent danger. they needed it to pass immediately because bad guys could be coming in and attempting national security. the white house said they're now postponing it because they wanted to continue to talk about president trump's great address in front of congress. so how does that square. >> exactly. i think it's a major problem especially as they plan to defend the old travel ban and do that and even the existence of a new travel ban with legal problems raised by the previous one makes it very difficult to do that and if they do and delaying it for several days it's already been delayed for several weeks even if the state of the union speech from this week didn't delay it even further they would have had a problem defending the rational that was so urgent it needed to be done under the cover of secrecy without proper approval and also lis

david gregory. cnn political analyst and white house correspondent for the times and cnn political analyst and senior congressional correspondent for the washington examiner david drucker and former federal prosecutor. legislative intent looms large in both rulings. using the president's words against him versus analyzing the language of the executive order. what's going on here? >> it's something that i have never seen before chris. taking a president's words when he was candidate and using it to invalidate a law that is on its face, on the words not discriminatory against muslims it's a very unusual approach. both judges took it. i would be frankly very surprised if this ends up on appeal. this is just not something that court versus done. i can understand why they did it here but i just think that's not how most judges and most courts approach the executive order. there was also the judge in maryland doing the same thing. here's what the federal judge in hawaii wrote. it would conclude this was is

joining us to talk about his trip to the holy land is david gregory, author of "how's your faith." >>ect i'm interested and passionate about. it's a wonderful experience to be a part of. the series premier of "finding jesus" focuses in a central figure, the roman governor upon chess pilot. is there evidence about his life that helps confirm the gospel account. we went to the holy land to explore. >> reporter: on the shore of the mediterranean sea there is an ancient secret as old as the birth of christianity. here in caesarea, the majestic roman port, a fatal determination changed history. the roman governor, mon shows pilot was called on to decide the faith of jesus of nazareth. he would be a harsh judge. >> he was a brutal, we hear about massacres and the bloodshed that was connected to the time that he had the rule of judea. he was not a nice person. >> reporter: we come to the amphitheater with dr. shimon gibson, an archaeologist who spent more than 20 years conducting excavations in the holy land. in 1961 archaeologists discovered proof of pilot's existence. >> you wouldn't think

david gregory, thank you so much for that.f you watch, join us at 9:00 eastern on sunday right here on cnn. thank you so much for being with us this friday morning. have a great weekend. cnn newsroom with john berman picks up right after this. is caringing because covering heals faster. for a bandage that moves with you and stays on all day, cover with a band-aid brand flexible fabric adhesive bandage. sometimes, the only difference between a moment that fades from memory, and a moment that stays with you forever, is where it happens. that's why we're proud to help families like yours, live a lifetime of memories on beautiful, healthy, lawns. live like it's spring. make life better, with a beautiful, healthy, trugreen lawn. with sleep number, there's an adjustment for that. tilt your tormentor and put those snores to sleep. does your bed do that? right now, get free home delivery on select mattresses. only at a sleep number store. what makesheart healthysalad the becalifornia walnuts.r? the best simple veggie dish ever? heart

>> david gregory reporting. thank you. the new season of "finding jesus" begins this sunday night at 9:00 p.m. eastern and pacific only here on cnn. that's it for me. thanks for watching. "erin burnett out front" starts right now. >>> up next, breaking news. did jeff sessions lie to congress? and trump fires back, tweeting pictures of top democrats meeting with russian officials, calling one a hypocrite, the other a liar. is it the democrats on a witch-hunt? and cnn learning the trump administration considering that mothers be separated from their children when they cross the border illegally. let's go "out front." good evening. i'm erin burnett. "out front," breaking news, liar, liar, senate democrats accusing the attorney general jeff sessions of making false statements as the president accuses the two top democrats on the hill of being hypocrites and liars. in a letter released moments ago senate democrats say sessions must return to capitol hill to answer questions publicly and under oath. the democrats on the senate j

david gregory outlined the first. how does he deal with his own party and doing all the spending and not paying for it dollar for dollar. the second one is what jackie mentioned. what we're hearing about how they want to fix health care could make it more expensive and cover fewer people. that's a problem. the third one is going to be with democrats in any compromise on immigration. he did still go last night on this issue and it still doesn't match the facts. he called it lawless chaos. that is not what the immigrant reality is on our criminal justice system here. they commit fewer crimes p per capita than citizens and you have a lot more rapists and killers that are citizens than immigrants. how does that play? >> stipulating that the president at any moment can drop a tweet and get back into a fight with his political opponents and media and stipulating there's a lot of details that weren't answered last night and a lot of promises hard to deliver on the speech was a home run and if you want to get people to follow

you have david drucker and david gregory.e had to take this through with his ever expanding picture of who is involved with the russian contacts. notice they keep adding all the heads are getting smaller because they have to keep adding people that have contact with russia. so david gregory, again, our analysis is always what's the fact? the problem with this particular story coming from the president is he knows the answer to this if he wants to. whether or not they're looking into him that's a phone call away of information. what does that tell us about what is motivating us? >> well, that he is so apparently thin skinned and perhaps unwilling to get to the bottom of whatever interference in the election his associates may have had some role in or if they did not to what extent the russians were trying to manipulate at the election to help him and instead of seeing that as a way to delegitimize him it could be seen more in the context of an attack on america and potential interference in the creation of turbulence as report

cnn's david gregory has a preview. david?lf, the series premiere focuses on a central figure in the death of jesus, the roman governor at the time, pontius pilate. who was he? and is there now evidence about his life that helps to confirm the account about him in the gospels? we went to the holy land to explore. >> reporter: on the shore of the mediterranean sea there is an ancient secret as old as the birth of christianity. here in sathe majestic roman po, a fatal determination changed history. the roman governor based here, pontius pilate, was called on to decide the fate of jesus of nazareth. he would be a harsh judge. >> he was brutal. we hear massacres and bloodsheds that were connected to the time that he had the rule over judea. he was not a nice person. >> reporter: we have come to the amphitheater here with dr. shimon gibson, an archaeologist who has spent more than 20 years conducting excavations in the holy land. here in 1961, archaeologists discovered proof of pilate's existence. >> you wouldn't really sort of thi

i want to talk more about that with our cnn analyst david gregory.tment missed the deadline to provide evidence of a tap. the house leaders say they see zero indication it actually happened, so what is the white house's next move? >> i don't know, wolf, this is a real credibility blow to this white house and this president. but to upping the antiand saying put up or shut-up from one president to a former president is really stunning, from the press secretary to advisors circling the wagons, absent any evidence is really going to hurt america's credibility and this president's credibility. you have lindsey graham, the intention committee chairs of both parties saying there's nothing hear. if this was an overly broad charge then it contradicts, and it's a mess, i don't know where they go from here other than backing down completely. >> how do you explain press secretary sean spicer saying he is extremely confident that the president's assertions will be vindicated. how do you explain that >> they should know. he can present this evidence if he wants to

this crucial episode marks just the beginning. >> our thanks to david gregory. >>> let's talk it over the university of iowa and the author of "the cities that built the bible." thank you for coming on. you were featured as an expert commentator, throughout "finding jesus season 2." >> pamela, the bible essentially portrays pontius pilate with softer gloves than does let's say the roman jewish historian flavius josephus. the reason for that is that the christians wanted to portray jesus and christianity as little more favorable to rome. they wanted rome to look upon christians, you know, not as they had looked upon the jews, who you know, had rebelled against them from 66 to 70 a.d. so what we see is that josephus says that pilate was a brutal administrator. whereas in the bible he's shown as being very reluctant to crucify jesus. >> and you say the relationship, robert, between science and religion can be an uneasy one. how does this series, "finding jesus" explore those connections between hard evidence and faith? >> sure. whether you're religious or not, it's hard to deny that juda

let's bring in david gregory. let's continue this discussion. that is the question.ident looks at these poll numbers, they'll say hey we stick to taxes and jobs and bringing in things that might help wages, we're in good shape here because that's what people expect from us and yet look at everything the president is doing to dump cold water on that. >> yeah. right. he simply can't control himself. that's clear. and nor can anyone else that is around him. for him to veer off into this state of affairs where he is accusing the former president of illegally wiretapping trump tower, him and his associates and you have immediate push back from the fbi director and now the white house says we don't really accept that denial so the president who considers the press and media an enemy of the state is at war with the intelligence community foreign and domestic and is completely distracting himself from what he said he wanted to do which was to help america win. he can't control his own behavior on twitter of all things. that's the big issue. the larger issue beyond the pollin

, cnn political director, david chaleon and laura and stephen moore and cnn political analyst, david gregorydavid, this effort to repeal and replace obamacare, it's going to have a lot of trouble getting through the way it is right now, the house. but the senate potentially looks even more problematic. >> it's a real test for the president in terms of his deal making both within his own party and probably less important with democrats since there's not support there. his ability to coral republicans around this core promise, also a gateway to getting broader tax reform becomes really really important. if he doesn't have enough control over republicans to get it, it's a hard thing. i think this clash that you're seeing is the pragmatist at some level in president trump who doesn't want to take away all of an entitlement already been given with conservative ideology which says we have some real problems with the entitlement aspect of this, the big government aspect. there's a lot of hurdles to get through. >> if he fails, stephen, to get this through krrks this healthcare legislation as it is

. >> david gregory, your thoughts? >> you know, what you have here is a lot of clues that point to something and we're not sure what it was. the idea that there's contact between trump officials and the russian government at a time when russia is up to no good and trying to manipulate the u.s. election. we have no evidence of collusion of anything done wrong in terms of the contact that will still be very piece mill and more mystery and we have solid clues to point to anything that would suggest that any trump official or the trump campaign was absolutely colluded with russia to manipulate tuchlt s. election. >> let's get a frame of reference for timing. timing is indicative with the fbi about how seriously they take something. never tell you that they're closing a case unless it's very politically sensitive but the longer they're looking at something indicates an intensity of purpose and what do we know about looking at this server connection and how long they have been doing this they haven't discarded it. they have

thank you very much david gregory for helping us with all that. that's it for me. i'll be back 5:00 p.m. eastern in the situation room and 9:00 p.m. eastern dana bash and i will be moderating a town hall with secretary tom price, but first waiting for the president to come out and speak in michigan. newsroom with brooke baldwin starts right now. >>> all right. here we go, i'm brooke baldwin you're watching cnn. full disclosure. you are about to see a wild hour of live events, am i right? i'm right. the first comments on the blistering health care bill and revelation about the wiretap claims, also republican senator lindsey graham said to push the fbi to reveal president trump's possible ties to russia. first, let's go to christina alexi on the federal reserve, what do you have? >> as expected the federal reserve did raise interest rates a quarter of one percentage point pretty much in line with what all analysts have been expecting an there's good reason for this, brooke. if you look at economic data across the board what the fed is looking at, its looking at relat

here to discuss now is david gregory, author of "how's your faith"? mine is doing okay.s for asking. talking about words but let's talk about actions. how much damage do you think has been done to the president's agenda with all that happened. >> i start with worrying about the president's credibility or the credibility of the presidency and america's credibility. we have to think about what the needs are of america as with he move forward. secretary of state been in the south talking about north korea and impending crisis there between united states and that regime, so when you're sitting upon the world stage the way america does and you have a president who has tweeted claims that are utterly false and been rebuked for them but stands behind them, credibility suffers, his the presidency's america's. and when you have to engage support around the world, word of the united states matters. if it's been undercut you have to worry about the damage. in terms of agenda, how much political capital is spent on issue like false claims of wiretapping that could be spent on advanc

and cnn political analyst and offer of how is your faith, david gregory. >> it is only funny. true. he wasn't just paul. he did it in a big way he wanted journalists there. >> he is look for this secret room and going for room to room to figure out where the replacement bill is. watch. >> that's not good for our people. you are as upset with your party as i am. >> this was real though about what is going on. and it gets to the truth of the matter. one of two things are true. either they are so worried about this plan getting picked apart before they can sell it or they do not have a finalized working understanding of how to replace the aca. which do you think it is. >> it could be a good thing which is why people hate washington. >> regardless of what the answer is. >> not just democrats complaining about this process. it's kind of a communications break down among the republican ranks on this. i think perhaps bill is not completely ready yet and they understand, the republican leadership understands as soon as it is put out there newt gingrich is on last night on another netw

. >> david gregory, have a great weekend. >> you, too. >>> time for cnn "newsroom" with poppy harlow and john berman. good morning. >> berman doesn't know who beyonce's husband is either. >> i didn't know who her sister was. there was news about solange. i asked michaela at the time, what is a solange? >> this is my every morning. we're going to do it now for two hours. guys, have a great weekend. >> let's get started. >>> good friday morning to you all. i'm poppy harlow. >> i'm john berman. thanks so much for being here. we have a flurry of new information this morning about previously undisclosed contacted between associates of then candidate donald trump and the russians. we'll get to that in just a moment. first, just in, president trump's still unreleased revised travel ban may face a new obstacle even before it is released. >> we haven't gotten any indication. it was supposed to be last week, then this week. this challenge is not one from the courts or even from the man that the president once referred to as the so-called judge who blocked the ban initially. this potential hurd

we have our chief political analyst gloria borger with us, mark preston, and david gregory, author ofr faith?" thanks very much. how significant is the political fallout so far we have seen over the republican health care plan as a result of the congressional budget office report? >> it's very significant, wolf. i don't know how many ways you can divide up the factions. but not only do you have the democrats having new talking points about 24 million uninsured over the next ten years. but you have republican moderates who are upset about the loss of medicaid coverage. you have conservatives who are upset, saying why are we committing political suicide for something that's obamacare lite? you have the ryan wing of the party trying to keep it together. you have a house bill and a senate that is saying we're not going to accept this house bill. and you have donald trump against paul ryan, is this trumpism or is this ryanism? so there isn't any way to say this other than the fact that this bill now cannot survive in its current form, even if it were to get out of the house, it would not b

let's bring in analyst david gregory and reporter abby phillip and julia icahn. the president of the united states weighing in on someone involved in the investigation. seeking immunity. i'm not sure i have seen anything like that. >> there is a lot we have not seen like predonald trump who ss to take this is as a joke and proceeded by members of the white house staff who had no business leaking the information. it raises question of who is in control. the white house chief of staff or national security adviser ors white house counsel. who has control or whether there is open season to investigate the leaking that was going on which is trouble some and the president is so upset about. the fact that the president keeps considering this a joke, although he has fired two people close to him. senior advisers as a result of this, seems hard to reconcile. >> juliette, how do you see this? >> i think the way david put it is exactly right. the more the white house views this as a joke, i think it under mines any narrative to defend them selves. you look at the activity l

retired air force analyst is with us and david gregory and another reporter is with us. you said you'd be watching for things like immigration reform in the president's address, how he is going to pay for the wall along the u.s./mexico border, other sensitive issues. did you get the specifics in that speech you were looking for? >> no. presumably that's what they're going to be talk about, today when he talks about the president having the meeting with all the leaders. those are the details to talk about. no, he didn't talk about obamacare. how do you expand access, expand choice, and lower the cost as he said he would be able to do. this wall, it's $20 billion. he called it the great, great wall in terms of it being built in the next couple of months, but how do you do that if you're going to raise defense spending by 10%. he also talked about defending education and funding vouchers and school choice. how do you pay for that if you're cutting everywhere else. as a lot of democrats have said, the devil is in the details and as of yet, we don't have many. listen, that's

david gregory, and this answer from sean spicer, extreme confidence, where is that coming from. >> i there was some wiretapping. we know there was a transcript of conversations between then national security adviser michael flynn, well, in his role in the transition as incoming nsa director and then obviously he was talking to the russian ambassador. that made it's way to the press and ultimately lead to his firing because he laid to the vice president about it. what they plan to do is muddy the waters. if there's no evidence that president palm balm got a warrant from a court to have then candidate trump to wiretap or he did it illegally. if they can't come up with that and there's no indication that there's any of that, james comey already met with members of congress met meeting with him and i think what the white house staff tends to do is muddy the waters the way hillary clinton used to say, i'm sorry i used a pry mat e-mail the way everyone else does. she had her own private server. they keep talking about reports of wiretapping. she was a candidate for president. she is presid

cnn analyst and author of how is your faith david gregory and cnn analyst and "washington post" report maggie phillip. some reporting, learned house intel committee, devin nunes committee, has now officially strapped all the scheduled meetings they had for this week. the intel committee was going to be interviewing people trying to get to the bottom of what these russian connections were. they can't do that because of all the consternation around devin nunes. it sounds like he is now getting in the way of them doing their job. how long it he last? >> for all the committees you hope there wouldn't be a politicization of investigative committee, this is the one you don't want to happen. a democrat in california, who was on last night on cnn, said she lost all confidence in nunes. very personal thing to say about one of your fellow committee members. can you criticizes somebody for politics, when you get into personalities, shows you how raw this is for democrats and quite frankly nunes who they don't think can lead the committee at this point. >> david, what's your take on how partisan t

. >> so there is a lot there, david gregory. the one line that i keep seeing again and again and is i wasn't aware at all. he wasn't aware at all he was supporting his campaign and a chief campaign advisor jeff sessions met with the russian advisor. >> who met with any russian counter parts or any russian officials in the course of campaign or subsequent to that but they have been spending the first 40 days of the administration and transition saying there is no story here and not just that, the democrats were making it up and intelligence acting like nazi germany in leaking this information about these contacts. now all of a sudden they are worried about where all these meetings about. i'm also surprised that the attorney general didn't see fit when mike flynn was going through all this to say over here, just to let you know, in micah past y capacity, i was a . the notion he's asked these questions in the confirmation hearing about contacts and he doesn't say, he says well, i just answered that in terms of continuing conducts a

. >> thank you so much, david gregory. the new season of "finding jesus" begins sunday night at 9:00 eastern on cnn. thanks for joining us and have a great weekend. "ac 360" starts right now. >>> tonight, new re lagss about previously undisclosed contact between russia and trump associates. recently president trump is back at mar-a-lago tonight, called russia a ruse and when asked if such contact took place during the campaign said, quote, i have nothing to do with russia and, quote, no person i deal with does. that said, the stories keep coming about former aides, the attorney general, his son-in-law, talking the russian ambassadors during or after the campaign, not uncommon or improper. it's the denial, nondisclosure and the rest raising questions and driving a string of investigati investigations. in a moment, carter page, who first denied and now admitted to meeting with moscow's man in washington will clarify what that was about. first latest from jim acosta. >> reporter: when then candidate donald trump delivered a f

david gregory. >> it au just 's so hard to und what the president is thinking and what he's doing.s a all and joke and he's fired two people because of this very investigation, because of the manipulation of -- and the hacking of our election. so he's listening. he's paying attention. the fbi is investigating. and yet they have no control over there at the white house. the chief of staff doesn't. the white house counsel doesn't. the national security adviser doesn't. when you have people who are handing over collected intelligence to the head of the intelligence community in a highly inappropriate way, it just shows you that they're not taking any of this investigation seriously. and yet now they've got somebody in a very high position who has a story to tell and who would like immunity. may not get it. what is the story he's got to tell in maybe she doesn. maybe he doesn't like -- excuse me, to the russian ambassador. communications at a time when there were big sanctions put in place as a result of manipulating the election by the previous administration. >> david, let's not forg

i hear it on good authority from bruce gregory, another huge name in public diplomacy that walter roberts himself wanted ambassador mcfaul to be our speaker. davidill introduce him, so i will leave that part up to him. but i wanted to introduce david, who reported for cnn, abc news and npr. he has been in moscow, warsaw, rome, in washington, former director of "voice of america" and our former walter roberts mutchler from last year. -- lecturer from leicester. -- from last year. a tradition we hope to continue. if you have suggestions for next year's speaker, please let us know. c-span is here. we are also streaming on facebook with. down on comings and goings, ambassador mcfaul will speak for about 40 minutes, then a moderated discussion led by david and about 20 minutes for questions from the audience. we hope you will feel free to --at please make sure your phone is silenced, because otherwise you will be on c-span. [laughter] ado, ambassador mcfaul. thank you so much. [applause] >> my thanks to janet and the global policy mitigations for inviting me to join our distinguished today. i first met michael mcfaul in moscow in the early 1990's whe

hear it on good authority from bruce gregory who is also a huge name in public diplomacy that walter roberts himself wanted ambassador mcfaul to be our speaker. davids going to introduce ambassador mcfaul. i want to introduce david who reported for cnn, abc news and national public radio. he is been in moscow, warsaw, rome and washington. also our former walter roberts lecture from last year. lecturerlast year's moderating a discussion with this year's lecturer. if you have suggestions for next year speaker, let us know. let me tell you what the plan is. as you know, we have c-span here and we also are streaming on facebook live said to cut down on comings and goings, ambassador mcfaul is going to speak for about 40 minutes and followed by that there will be a moderate to russian led by david and we believe about 30 minutes for questions from the audience. we hope that you will feel free to tweet. mcfaul @ gw. when you point your phone, make sure it is on islands because otherwise you will be on the span. without further do, ambassador mcfaul, thank you so much. i don't know if i should have stayed there or come. anyway, my thanks to janet deal and

good authority from bruce gregory is also a huge name in public diplomacy that walter roberts himself wanted ambassador mcfaul to be our speaker. so that's a pretty nice. david will introduce ambassador mcfaul so i will leave that part up to him. i want to introduce david reported for cnn, abc news and national public radio pic he's been in moscow, warsaw, rome and washington. former director of the voice of america and also our former walter roberts lecture for last year. this is another first to have last years lecture or moderating a discussion with years lecture. so a tradition we hope to continue, ambassador mcfaul. if your suggestions for next years speaker please do let us know. >> all right. >> let me tell you what the plan is. as you know we have c-span this year and we also are streaming on facebook live. in order to kind of cut down on comings and goings, ambassador mcfaul is going to speak for about 40 minutes and then followed by that there will be a moderate discussion led by trantwo and the new that we will take about 30 minutes for questions from the audience. we hope that you will feel free to tweet. the hashtag is mcfaul@gw. when you plug y

gregory, who is a huge name and diplomacy -- that is pretty nice. introduceoing to ambassador mcfaul. i will leave that part up to him. david, whontroduce reported for cnn, abc news and national public radio. former director of the voice of america and our former walter roberts lecture or from last year. this is another first to have last year's lecturer moderating with a discussion for this year. a tradition we hope to continue. if you have suggestions for next year's speaker please let us know. let me tell you what the plan is. c-span is here and we also are streaming on facebook live. in order to cut down on comings and goings, the ambassador is going to speak for about 40 minutes and then followed by that there will be a moderated discussion and then we will leave about 30 minutes for questions from the audience. we hope you will feel free to tweet. when you are tweeting, please make sure it is silenced otherwise you will be on c-span. further idea, thank you so much. [applause] >> my thanks to janet steele and the institute for public diplomacy and global communications for inviting me to join our distinguished speaker

good authority from bruce gregory, who's also a huge name in public diplomacy, the walter roberts himself wanted ambassador mcfaul to be our speaker. that's pretty nice. davidnsor is going to introduce ambassador mcfaul. i want to introduce david ensor, ,ho reported for cnn, abc news and national public radio. he's been enough -- moscow, rome ,, and our former roberts lecturer from last year. we have last year's lecture moderating a discussion with this year's lecturer. a tradition we hope to continue, ambassador mcfaul. let me tell you what the plan is. you know, c-span is here, and we also -- we are streaming on facebook live. andut down on cummings goings, ambassador mcfaul is going to speak for about 40 minutes, and then followed by that there will be a moderated discussion led by david ensor, and that we believe about 30 minutes for questions from the and that we believe about 30 minutes for questions from the audience. we hope that you will feel free to tweet, theshtag is #mcfaulatgw. when youare tweeting, pull out your phone to tweet, silent,ake sure it is otherwise he will be on c-span. with no further do, ambassador mcfaul, thank you so much. -- ad