joining me now, eugene scott, cnn politics reporter, and amber phillips, a political reporter with "theashington post" political blog, the fix. thank you both for being here with us. we appreciate it. first of all, eugene, what's your reaction to this latest report in "the washington post"? >> it was shocking. i'm at a loss for words. i think one of the things that i found most interesting when i read the report is that senior trump officials were so concerned about the russian ambassador that they actually went to the obama administration to ask for a cia profile on him perhaps to present to michael flynn. and so there seemed to be a moment where senior trump officials were working with senior obama officials to better understand the russian government's desire to either interfere in the 2016 election or at least to influence people connected to president donald trump. >> but one of the things that may be more alarming in this report as well when you think about it is the fact that, remember, vice president pence, he told the country he had no knowledge of anything that was happening w

. >> all right, let's bring in cnn politics reporter eugene scott. eugene, thanks for being here so early this morning. >> no policemen. >> we appreciate it, a lot of talk about, especially with this montana election. >> sure. >> greg gianforte wins, despite the assault. now, maybe this had more to do with early voting. they say some two-thirds of the vote had already been cast before this assault occurred. but what we're learning after the fact is his supporters, gianforte's supporters seem to endorse what was done to ben jacobs, this reporter from "the guardian." what is the message sent here towards the media and towards civility in our politics? >> i actually was talking yesterday toll some people about the whole incident who are in montana, and my friend said, eugene, you'd be surprised at how much support existed for his actions because of deep distrust and frustration with the media and this appointment with how so many of the issues that they believe they voted for in 2016 have been covered since then. and so, i was, quite frankly, maybe a bit

>> all right, let's bring in cnn politics reporter eugene scott. good morning. you just heard that report from evan about, you know, where this russia investigation is going from here. the president's going to come back from this big european trip -- in fact, we're waiting to see him again in italy this morning. he's going to come back and russia is going to be right on his plate again, isn't it? how important is this kushner development? >> i think it's very important, especially since kushner during the election went on the record and said that he pretty much paid very close attention to microtargeting using social media to get messages to voters that he was hoping would vote for donald trump, and i think the fbi and intelligence agencies want to know to what degree were your data analytics getting negative messages about clinton to these people and positive ones about trump and what role, intentionally and unintentionally, did russia perhaps play into all of this. and i think he's going to have to explain those in details that perhaps he wasn't. but what i'm

. >>> let's talk politics now and bring in cnn political reporter eugene scott. and a lot to get to here this morning, my friend, as we start a brand-new week. >> oh, man! >> good to have you. let me start with an interesting report from someone called axos, the reports of a staff shake-up that could be possible at the white house. that would include reince priebus, steve bannon, sean spicer. who does donald trump blame for the miscommunication, if you will, the rollout of some of these things the past couple of weeks, and who do you think's most likely to be the casualty of that? >> that's pretty interesting. it's not clear who he would blame. it is clear that he perhaps should blame himself. he has admitted that -- >> that ain't happening. so, who does he blame? >> well, his communications team he would expect to keep up with him, but he has admitted himself that it's hard to keep up with him and his stream of consciousness because it moves so quickly. it will be interesting to see what he can do to help them better understand how quickly he is moving and what

. >> so joining us here this morning in new york, eugene scott. good to see you. front page, merkel doubts u.s. is a solid ally. these comments from merkel, who is very are careful with words, is she saying they are alone militarily, economically and, environmentally or all the above? how significant is what merkel said yesterday? >> i do think it's significant. i also think that it's a continuation of what we've seen between her and her relationship with president donald trump. we knee thow that she was very with barack obama. but when we look back at her first meeting with donald trump, if you remember, they didn't even shake hands. there has been some concern about whether or not she can have with this strairadministra what she had in the past. about your i think it's important to say that she said completely. >> what does it say about our standing on the world stage? >> i think the message that donald trump campaigned on, america first, is a message that we're seeing people internationally finally receive and making the decisions that suggest, hey, we have to

and eugene, the one and only eugene scott. >> see you in about 30 minutes. >>> another member of the president's national security team expected to leave the white house. who and why, next. fit me matte + poreless foundation make fit happen! from maybelline new york. beyond matching skin tone... fits skin's texture. blurs pores. controls shine. our most natural look... now, in more shades than ever! maybelline's fit me make it happen maybelline new york. "how to win at business." step one: point decisively with the arm of your glasses. abracadabra. the stage is yours. step two: choose la quinta. the only hotel where you can redeem loyalty points for a free night-instantly and win at business. the more mysterious they sound, the more... powerful you'll think they are. it's time to see what power really looks like. new neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair with accelerated retinol sa. clinically proven to reduce wrinkles in just one week. wrinkles? your time is up! rapid wrinkle repair. and for dark spots. rapid tone repair. neutrogena® see what's possible. this is the schmidt's yard. and,

eugene scott is with us as well as gaby, washington bureau chief for the "new york post". eugene, the white house's refusal to elaborate on the president's tweet on these potential tapes. was this sean spicer in that interview, the white house not wanting to try to defend the indefensible or do they want some ambiguity here about the possibility that visitors to the white house and people who speak with the president are being recorded. >> i think what's very possible is that we've seen sean spicer previously say that there are times when the president tweets and they have not yet had a conversation with him about the content of the tweet or what he meant even if they did know what he was talking about. and i think at left what they are trying to do is get more information about what it is that he himself was actually referencing when he made that tweet. but the fact of the matter is many people are paying attention and that's definitely not a tweet that's probably going to be ignored or go away any time soon. >> one person who hopes that tweet will go away because he's not

let's discuss this with cnn politics eugene scott. heard him say flynn was a very good person and that there was no emergency, that flynn, the suspicion of the agency that flynn could be compromised by the russians. >> the national security adviser. >> was not an emergency. what does this say about the frame of reference of the president of the united states? >> it seems like he is, kuwait frankly, out of touch with the american people. we have calling reports that many people the majority of people, in fact, do think this is a national emergency and something of significant concern. so whether or not he thinks it rises to the level of needing this type of attention, he disagrees with many people. granted, once we control those points for his base, perhaps that's why he doesn't think it's very important. i think what is more telling, few say how he spoke about flynn, it was very personal. it was about his character. this isn't really about your friendship with flynn. this is about his performance as a national security adviser during

but here to discuss what we just heard over the past hour, joining us, cnn politics reporter, eugene scott, jackie cucinich and erol lewis. cnn chief political correspondent dana bash and our legal analyst, laura coates. laura, let me start with you. break it down for us. both sides' arguments. a critical moment as far as the constitutionality of president trump's revised travel ban. in effect, at least temporarily, banning people from six muslim majority countries from coming to the united states. >> yes. you're seeing here the court's battling with the question we've all been battling the last several months. that is this. whether or not the president of the united states, national security interest, in his total prerogative and right to be able to make decisions based on a national security interest, how that balances against an establishment clause type of argument. which essentially says this. listen, you cannot do anything to try to hinder a religion or advance a religion. it appears from his commentary on the campaign trail and statements that he made that really rekindled, as neil

meehan: eugene weaver, patrolman scott basham. david weaver and christopher moles. we thank them for their service. we're indebted for their sacrifice. we honor their memories and our thoughts and prayers are with their families. mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman rom maryland seek recognition? without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. raskin: mr. speaker, thank you very much. president trump is headed to saudi arabia today, which is an authoritarian theocratic state which bans any criticism of the government and executes people or imprisons them for allegedly insulting islam. in just a few weeks -- just a few weeks ago, a saudi man, who is in his early 20's, was sentenced to death for atheism and apostsy. another saudi man a few years ago was sentenced to serve 10 years in prisonen to suffer 1,000 lashes -- prison, to suffer 1,000 lashes and pay a million saudi royals for insulting islam, simply for advocating secular thought in the separation of church and state. there are dozens of saud