hicks to be cautious. the fbi's meetings with hope hic hicks in the early days of the trump administration is what the fbi calls a defensive briefing. according to "the times," it's intended to warn individuals about specific concerns or risks. the news of hope hicks' meetings with the special prosecutor for the last two full days come exactly one week after michael flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi about conversations with the russian ambassador last december. michael flynn famously led the lock her up chant at the republican convention last year, and tonight when the lock her up chant actually broke out again at donald trump's rally, he explained to his audience that hillary clinton was not locked up because the system is rigged. >> look, it's being proven we have a rigged system. it doesn't happen so easy, but this system going to be a lot of changes. this is rigged -- this is rigged system. this is sick system from the inside, and, you know, there's no country like our country. but we have a lot

of course hope hicks has been of extreme interest to the special counsel. of course she's been at president trump's side for all of the campaign. she's been with the trump organization before that. and, of course, now most recently she's been the communications director. we know the special counsel has interest in her because she was on board air force one when that statement was drafted explaining what that meeting about the meeting at trump tower with donald trump jr. and the russians. so, again, the special counsel interviewing hope hicks late this week, either thursday or today, and secondly, "the new york times" also reporting that fbi officials talked to hope hicks earlier this year in what's being described as a defensive briefing. they met with her twice in the situation room at the white house to warn hope hicks about some of the males that she w-- e-mails she was receiving at the beginning of went after president trump took office. they warned her these e-mails that appeared to come from russian officials might not exactly have been who they said

any sense of what kind of ground was covered with hicks?f you -- if you look at hope hicks, she is around the president. she's one of his closest advisers for a long, long time. and so it would make sense that bob mueller would want to spend time talking to her. that story that we wrote back over the summer that revealed that there were these meetings at trump tower with the russian lawyers who promised dirt on hillary clinton. the statement we got from the white house was incomplete and misleading, at best. and i don't know that that's a crime to lie to "the new york times," mislead "the new york times." but if you're bob mueller, you just want to know, how did that happen and what was the intention. you want to fill in the narrative. a lot of these things, hope is an important witness. >> i imagine you want to know why it happened and at whose direction it happened, right? >> yeah, and basically where did that statement come from and why. like i said, it's not a a crime misleading statement or incomplete statement to the "new york times,"

they were trying to get to the president via hope hick.f you'll recall, everyone knows that she served as intermediary between whoever wanted to get to trump and the president himself, or the candidate himself. trump does not have e-mail. she was really in charge of getting this information to him. whether or not she actually told him about these e-mails that she was receiving from these russians really remains to be seen. we don't know that and we don't know what the subject of these e-mails was. but the fact that the russians were trying to get to hope hicks is the first that they were trying to compromise her and get her to say something that would make her keep quiet later on in the effect that, you know, she learned of something that then she is asked about it by mueller and she doesn't want to tell him because she's blackmailable. the second is they were trying to get directly to president trump which would create new. >> what do you read into the fact that the interview spanned two days? how much would she have known about the trans

nothing indicates that hicks did anything improper. the russian operatives were trying to get as close as they could to the president by reaching out to one of his closest confidantes. >> sure. look. hope hicks was somebody in the campaign, in the transcription. and her office is right outside the oval office. she is close to the president. she is a confidante of the president. she is at the center of a lot of meetings. she is somebody who is a trusted adviser. i think that it might also indicate by the way how clumsy they are to be honest. i mean here they were trying to infiltrate through perhaps -- through people like george papadopoulos who has been called by people inside the campaign. and it seems to me that there was this kind of never ending effort to try and get inside. i think sending hope hicks e-mails is kind of a weird way to do it, as if she would respond in kind to these things, but we don't know. and again, as you point out, there's no indication she's done anything wrong, but there is an indication, at least according

now hicks is a prime importance because of her proximity to the president. she started with the trump organization in 2014. she was a key point pooern when donald trump launched his campaign in 2015. the special counsel wants details on the drafting of the initial statement that described donald trump junior's meeting with russians at trump tower while it turns out hope hicks was on board air force board when it was written. and secondly we know hope hicks was warned about russian operatives by u.s. officials twice earlier this year according to t"the new york time times". the fbi agents met with her at the white house for defensive briefing. they knew she had received inter throw duckry emails from russian weeks after the election and wanted to warm hope hicks those emails and people sending those emails weren't who they said they were and may have been part of a russian intelligence operation. so a lot of warnings from fbi. >> also getting enormous glimpse into the scope of this case against paul manafort and rick gates. the information that has been colle

and hope hicks is just another person who has been reached out to.y, of course, that we have no indication that she did anything wrong. and in fact we are told that she went to see don mcbegan white house counsel to report the fbi briefings, not the communications themselves, but the briefings. so she may be have a good legal place to land. but i think, anderson, you can't deny there was an out reach, and in some respects there was a reach back by the campaign to these russians or russian surrogates and it's something that mueller will have to figure out, whether it was illegal and a conspiracy to impact the federal election commission, or not. >> gloria, i think michael point is important, that nothing in this reporting by "the new york times" indicates that hicks did anything improper at all. it is clear these russian operatives were trying to get as close as they could to the president by reaching 0 utah to obviously one of his closest confidants. >> sure. hope hicks was somebody in the campaign, in the transition, and her office is right outside

fbi agents actually warn the hope hicks they were trying to contact her. they attempted to reach out to hope hicks during the transition. so we see here a continuum of efforts between the trump campaign and the russians or if you want to put it most benignly, russians reaching out to trump campaign officials from pre election through the transition. and so you ask what is up about that in a sense, and if you want to look at it in conspiratorial terms, you think that this is maybe just another effort by the russians to try to impact policy, and that is perhaps born out by the fact that at the same time they're e-mailing her, hope hicks, that's when also the national foreign policy team is coordinating with flynn to reach out to the russian ambassador. so those things are going on side by side. reaching out from the trump campaign to the russians and russians reaching back. whether it's criminal, remains to be determined by mueller, but this effort to communicate with the trumps is a long-standing effort that is going to determine whether or not the trump ca

i want to hone in on hope hicks. i read that today -- i saw it got a lot less attention than the invoking of attorney general client privilege and i thought instantly having held that position of white house communications director, having understood that role is -- and you and i both had that job, stephanie cutter had that job, too. having served as a spokesperson, you are the least rogue actor on the white house staff because you speak for someone else. you don't have your own views and everything you convey is on behalf of somebody else. you are the staffer least likely to say anything without not just the chief of staff's approval, not just the white house counsel's approvapproval, not je president's personal lawyer's approval, not just input from political and strategic advisers but the principal's approval. there is zero chance that hope hicks made up that lie aboard air force one and told everyone to release a statement on her own. >> zero chance. that's exactly right. people are focused on hope hicks' age and

reporting hope hicks was interviewed over the past two days by team mueller. hope hicks has a unique role in thissed a mip stragz. a connecticut native, 29 years old. a former ralph lauren model who worked for ivanka's retail line on the web before joining the trump campaign in its formative days. she has been at donald trump's side ever since. she has seen and heard a lot of private conversation. the new york times is also reporting the fbi warned hicks that russian operatives repeatedly tried to contact her. it doesn't point to any wrong doing on hicks' part but says quote the russian outreach efforts show that even after american intelligence agencies accuse moscow of trying to influence the outcome of last year's election, russian opare aatives were undaunted in their efforts to establish contact with mr. trump's advisors. new court filings made public just today show the scope of the mueller investigation. and in plain english, it's enormous. this gives us an idea of the mountains of evidence mueller has gathered so far. mueller's team has collected over

jon, robert muellers team interviewing hicks. this is clearly the president's inner circle. >> reporter: and mueller's team has talked to jared kushner. i expect he will interview him before long and likely donald trump jr. as well. david. >> jon karl on a friday night. thank you. >>> now to roy moore and the alabama senate race. for weeks the white house has been asked whether president trump will travel the campaign for roy moore. the president throwing his support behind moore saying i like a fighter, go get them roy. the president making a appearance not far from where he's been campaigning. right across the border in florida where many voters will see the president on their local news. here's tom llamas tonight. >> mr. president, can you talk about roy moore? >> reporter: tonight the president is heading to florida but alabama is likely on his mind. earlier the president tweeting "vote roy moore" saying "last thing the make america great again agenda needs is a liberal democrat in the senate." but tonight moore's own comment

and they knew how important hope hicks was and is. and it doesn't surprise me at all that they would try to target her for collection or for influence operations. >> can't thank you gentlemen enough for being part of our leadoff team again on another busy friday night in the news business, especially in washington, d.c. jeremy bash, ken dilanian, phil rucker, appreciate it greatly. coming up for us, president trump open the road tonight in florida just over the state line from alabama. he was making a major poush foush get roy moore elect to the senate despite multiple sexual abuse allegations. and one of our next guests is here to say sexual harass sacramento very much an issue come 2018 when "the 11th hour" continues on a friday night. offer our congratulations on your acceptance..." through the tuition assistance program, every day mcdonald's helps more people go to college. it's part of our commitment to being america's best first job. ♪ >>> how many people here are from the great state of alabam ? chaus. >> president trump not in

a lawyer for hicks declined to comment. investigators for robert mueller's office had been interviewing hicks and the white house director for the past two days. a former fbi agent and tourism plot to hack america. i'll start with you about the news of the defensive briefing. one thing we could lose sight of is there a an open question about the trump administration and trump campaign and transition did. we know a bunch. there is more than maybe revealed. it seems beyond a doubt is russians were really, really, really trying a lot of ways to get to these people. >> certainly the russians were trying many ways to get to these people and there is a reason that they were doing activities like going after hope hicks but from multiple directions because it was very successful in doing it over the previous year. she was a key player and as we're finding out in the investigation right now, she was in the room for many different activities. so the russians after going after the main players will always go after the secondary player

and they urged miss hicks to be cautious. that's advice she could certainly use tonight after sitting with bob mueller's team all day. she's been at trump's side from the start. in fact she is one of the first white house aides who got her start working for donald trump in business. >> hope hicks. the legendary hope. come on up here. she's shy. >> a great person. she's done an amazing job. i have a great staff. one of whom is hope hicks. this is hope. this is hope. this is hope. nobody takes more phone calls in a day than hopeful so thank you, hope. >> nobody takes more phone calls. i'm joined by the former federal prosecutor. he knows a thing or two about corruption cases. and howard fineman for the "huffington post." how good a journalist is howard fineman? he is the only nonlawyer we allowed to report and join us on this legal story. i start with our former prosecutor, jennifer rodgers. big deal that the fbi had this in a red level. this is after the election. as we are careful to do no, allegation of wrongdoing. how is th

hope hicks will be a person of great interest. special counsel reportedly has or is going to talk to her. the thing that strikes me about this is the speculation at the time was that the special counsel was interested in what the president was doing with the statement that was released after don, jr., acknowledged that he met with the lawyers. these russian representatives. because the statement that was put out was greatly misleading. the question is was that part of a cover-up of something more nefarious and we now know more details about the meeting and did the president know about what the details of the meeting are and did he instruct either directly or now, i guess, through hope hicks did he instruct his son to release this misleading statement. so i don't know if any of that holds up. you can see where the puzzle pieces are beginning to fit. >> what's interesting is this whole time we have been talking about, why is don, jr., even involved in this, crafting statements and all of that. don, jr., and eric were supposed to sta

he told hope hicks first. he didn't tell his dad. he didn't tell anyone else. he told hope hicks.o once again, all roads lead black to hope hicks perhaps. she is going to be a huge factor and critical in this investigation. >> okay. kate i ka katie, love talking with you. >>> coming up, senator gillibrand making bold statements against sexual misconduct. the response from both sides of the aisle next. ♪ think of your fellow man, ♪ lend him a helping hand, ♪ put a little love in your heart.♪ ♪ you'll see it's getting late, oh please don't hesitate...♪ ♪ put a little love in your heart.♪ ♪ in your heart... ♪ in your heart... ♪ in your heart... ♪ in your heart. (vo) going on now, our subaru share the love event will have donated over one hundred fifteen million dollars to those in need. nice man cave! nacho? [ train whistle blows ] what?! -stop it! -mm-hmm. we've been saving a lot of money ever since we switched to progressive. this bar is legit. and now we get an even bigger discount from bundling home and auto. i can get used to this. it might take a minute. -swing and a miss! -sla

on an air force one trip he discussed it with hope hicks and it didn't come up. but donald trump jr. said he was not directly in communication with his father at that time, but don i can tell you the fact that hope hicks -- he acknowledged hope hicks was involved in this has raised questions, particularly among legal experts who say, look, you cannot raise this, especially at a time that's trying to mislead investigators. that will raise a lot of questions going forward. >> thank you very much. i appreciate it. now i want to bring in david gergen and david axelrod. good evening. what do you think it's like inside the white house now? don junior spent eight hours -- axelrod is chuckling there. testifying. >> talking to some people on trump side they seem relieved tonight. about profit'reing in effect on the day of the inauguration has been challenged. so they feel pretty good. it's a false sense of hope and complacency, i think. i think the attorney-client privilege has been invoked just will collapse on its face. >> we'll talk more about it. i have to ask you, co

hicks was on air force one with the president at the time. junior's story about the meeting changed multiple times. the statement in question which the president took part in crafting read in part, quote, we primarily discussed a program about the adoption of russian children that was active and popular with american families years ago and was since ended by the russian government but it was not a campaign issue at the time and there was no follow-up. that statement was

i'm glad they did this for hope hicks.e do we not know. >> thanks one and all. have a great week. be sure to tune into cnn this sunday morning for "state of the union," i have a great show. adam schiff and alabama senator richard shelby who will talk about the alabama senate race and ambassador to the united nations nikki haley to talk about all things foreign policy. at all starts at 9:00 a.m. and noon eastern. that's it for "the lead." turning you over to wolf blitzer. have a great weekend. i'll see you sunday morning. >>> happening now, breaking news. mountains of evidence. robert mueller's investigators tip their hands, revealing the stunning amount of evidence they've gathered against paul manafort. 400,000 documents seized by using 15 search warrants to collect dozens of electronic devices, including laptops, cell phones and thumb drives. are more charges on the way for president trump's former campaign chairman? >>> speaking for the witness. the fiance of the man who has pleaded guilty in the russia probe opens up a

and hope hicks were essentially conversations between donald trump jr. and his father, because, i mean, hope hicks is, you know, her, his right-hand person. >> yeah, anderson, so, i can't go into what was discussed other than the objection over the privilege, but you know, we do know she was the communications director and if there were conversations between hope hicks and donald trump and she was an intermediary, that's not privileged, either. so i think the best thing to do is take this investigation as serious as it should be and bring these witnesses under a subpoena and we'll get the answers. >> congressman, stay with us. i want to bring in michael zelden and gloria gorger. michael, i mean, you hear the congressman. do you believe there's any legal merit to donald trump jr.'s claim of attorney/client privilege? >> none whatsoever. if there were any type of privilege between him and his lawyer as they spoke to one another, it would probably be waived, because there were third parties present. i don't think there's a colorable claim of attorney/client

a lawyer for hicks declined a comment to "the times."r's office have been interviewing hicks. currently the white house communications director for the past two days. naveed namali, author of "how to catch a russian spy," and malcolm nance, author of "the plot to hack america." there's a real open question about what exactly the trump administration, campaign, transition did. we know a bunch of what they did. more to be revealed. but what seems beyond a doubt is the russians were really, really, really trying to a lot of ways to get to these people. >> well, certainly the russians were trying many ways to get to these people. there's a reason that they were doing activities like going after hope hicks, but from multiple directions because it was very successful in doing it over the previous year. she was a key player and as we're finding out in the mueller investigation right now, she was in the room for many different activities. so the russians, after going after the main players, will always go after the secondary players. and naveed

so why would russian operatives need to reach out to hope hicks?is is what they've been doing for generations. it was just pointed out, this is nothing new. you go back to the beginning of the 19 how 40s when russia was still alive with gjere germany before hitler decideded to invade russia. they spent a lot of time here in the u.s. trying to influence public opinion. trying to keep the u.s. igslationists out of the war. they paid off journalists. they set up trade groups that were independent. they paid off union leaders. they contacted and tried to engage and influence government personnel. they've been doing this all this time. this is what the russian intel service does. they're zoeing discontent and constantly, their game's never changed. it's trying to chip away at the credibility of democracy, of government here in the u.s. anybody who's been involved in a counterintelligence operations and not spent some time working against the russians in my time, this is not a surprise to anybody. not saying the investigation isn't important. do what you

and some are saying if the outreach came to hope hicks,

they will know what hope hicks's testimony is. they will piece this together. then they will figure out who said what when. and mueller and the congressional committees are taking people under oath, so don't forget that. >> one thing absolutely correct is we know mueller knows how to ask questions, which is not the strength of congress. >> all right. stand by for me you guys. really appreciate it. speaking of michael flynn, another major development in the russian investigation, first new revelations from whistleblower who say fired national security adviser michael flynn told a former business colleague that sanctions against russia would be, quote, ripped up as soon as the trump administration was in power. okay, michael, he's communicating this, and then where you have a lot of people saying is he's saying this to a former business colleague, this idea that there could be perhaps some financial enrichment for michael flynn. what do you think about this revelation? >> so this is important in a lot of areas that immplacate criminl laws. first, he lied. he said

hicks was on air force one with the president at the time. if you remember, trump junior's story about the meeting changed multiple times. the statement in question which the president took part in crafting read in part, quote, we primarily discussed a program about the adoption of russian children that was active and popular with american families years ago and was since ended by the russian government but it was not a campaign issue at the time and there was no follow-up. that statement was proven to be false just a day later when apparently knowing "the new york times" was ready to publish the truth about the meeting, trump junior was forced to admit that it was actually about getting russian dirt on hillary clinton. again, that meeting was in june of twepgt 2016. a few days later he acted like it was nothing more than a conspiracy cooked up by the democrats. >> it just goes to show you their exact moral compass. they'll say anything to win this. this is time and time again, lie after lie. he hear his house cat at home once said this is wh

and some are saying if the outreach came to hope hicks, that maybe the well isn't as deep as some hadught. right. because if the well was deeper in terms of the touch points with russia, this would have happened way way before and it wouldn't be hope hicks being reached out later on in the time span here. >> right. so many former intelligence officials and national security experts i've spoken to have pushed back hard against this idea. that just because the russians were trying to cultivate a new source, new asset such as hope hicks that that kind of discounts the idea that the trump campaign as a whole was having contact with the russians. there is it really -- the idea that the russians wanted to communicate with hope hicks, at the heart of that is that they wanted to get to donald trump. now these maybe new russians who entered the picture after trump was inaugurated or ones that were trying to in filtrate the campaign from the beginning of the we don't know. but the basic issue here is that they felt like the trump campaign and the trump transition team was friendly and that they

manafort, hope hicks, roy moore. let's talk about it with associate professor of international relation at the university of london. thanks for being with us. >> thank you. >> yes. we just saw president trump there right across the border from alabama in florida telling everyone to get out in alabama and vote for moore. he went from silence to being his cheerleader. and now the rnc has fallen behind. it looks like roy moore is getting all the support he could want from those in washington. what do you make of it? >> that's right. it's very interesting actually. of course, as you rightly said, he -- the president did wait. he didn't come out as quickly as he might have. he was clearly weighing this up. but he's decided that the thing that matters most is getting that seat in the senate. he saw how narrow the vote was on tax reform, just a few days ago. and i think the president is aware that if he doesn't maintain that seat, any prospect for further progress with respect to his ledge slab agenda will be -- legislative

"the new york times" since reported hope hicks was given at least two defensive briefings, both in the situation room at the white house from senior counter intelligence officers at the fbi, warning hope hicks about how many russians were trying to contact her. has the trump administration took office. quote, american intelligence and law enforcement agencies became alarmed by introductory e-mails hope hicks received from russian government addresses in the weeks after mr. trump's election. after trump took office, senior fbi counter intelligence agent met with hope hicks in the situation room at least twice and gave her the names of the russians that contacted her and said that they were not who they claimed to be. the fbi was concerned the e-mails may have been part of a russian intelligence operation. the meetings with hicks what the fbi calls a defensive briefing went beyond the standard security advice they receive upon taking office. defensive briefings are intended to warning government officials about specific concerns or risks. so after hope hicks had her two big days of inter

to hope hicks? i didn't read about any law degrees between the three of them. >> in terms of your main question, what did we learn? it depends on who you ask. republicans are saying he was fully cooperative. democrats on the other hand are saying he had a big case of amnesia and didn't remember key details about that trump tower meeting and other really important matters. and they're very unsatisfied. the thing you eluded to is when you asked about the conversations with the president, with the father, about the statement that donald trump sr. crafted on his son's behalf, he wouldn't talk about it. he cited attorney/client privilege. that is really suspicious. because this turns out to be the most important question about the trump tower meeting is why did the president craft a misleading statement about it and say it was about russian adoptions when, in fact, it wasn't, because that appears to go to the obstruction of justice question that robert mueller is investigating, stephanie. >> he says he s

after trump took office senior fbi counterintelligence agents met with hope hicks in the white house situation room at least twice. they gave her the names of the russians who had contacted her and said that they were not who they claimed to be. the fbi was concerned that the e-mails to hope hicks may have been part of a russian intelligence operation. the meetings with hicks, what the fbi calls a defensive briefing, went beyond the standard security advice that senior white house officials routinely receive upon taking office. defensive briefings are intended to warn government officials about specific concerns or risks." so after hope hicks had her two big days of interviews, testimony with the mueller investigators thursday and friday, that was the reporting from the "new york times" that followed. now, today nbc news has this scoop. "special counsel robert mueller is trying to piece together what happened inside the white house what happened over a critical 18-day period when administration officials were told michael flynn was susceptible to blackmail by russia. questions over w

hope hicks about attempts of russian operatives to contact her. meanwhile you know the fbi director christopher ray was grilled by republican lawmakers over the agency's fairness in the russian probe. >> there is no finer institution than the fbi, no finer people than the men and women who work there and are its very beating heart. >> fall you should a lot of criticism and scrutiny from critics about the pope's impartiality, kristin fisher live in washington with much more on what we can expect. hi, christian. >> yesterday special counsel mueller filed for evidence against manafort, word document with prosecutors claim is proof that manafort had ghost-written op-ed with colleague who they claim has ties to russian intelligence. they argued it's a clear violation of the gag order but manafort's attorney say that he merely proof-read the op ed an did not violate the judge's order and was exercising his free speech rights to defend himself. also yesterday, we learned that white house communication director hope ricks was interviewed by mueller's team

the report that says hope hicks, one of president trump's top advisers, met with special counsel robert mueller's team this week. >>> new violence after the controversial announcement about the u.s. embassy move. why this happened without any concessions. >>> and we begin with politics and president trump's strongest message yet to the voters of alabama, telling them to get out and vote for roy moore. he did so during a campaign-style rally in florida last night, some 20 miles from the alabama border. >> it's time to get our priorities straight. this guy's screaming we want roy moore. he's right. [ cheers and applause ] just so i can satisfy this gentleman out there, how many people here are from the great state of alabama? [ cheers and applause ] whoa. the future of this country cannot afford to lose a seat in the very, very close united states senate. we can't afford it, folks. we need somebody in that senate seat who will vote for our make america great again agenda. so get out and vote for roy moore. do it, do it. >> meanwhile, democrats ramping up their get out the vote campaign fo

hope hicks disclosed it to don mcgahn and hope hicks met with the special counsel's team yesterday ands part of their ongoing russian probe. >> when it comes to the case against manafort and rick gates, what did you learn? >> we've learned about a whole slew of information that prosecutors have. they have 400,000 documents in their case against gates and manafort. they include financial records and e-mails and prosecutors have even labeled 2,000 of the documents as, quote, hot, meaning that they could be particularly relevant. so also what the government has, they have 36 electronic devices that they seized from paul manafort's home back in july. investigators have also issued 15 search warrants and probably the most interesting thing in these filings is that the government referenced that manafort and gates have actually given deposition testimony in another matter. prosecutors, though, are not saying what they mean. the case moving full steam ahead and we'll see both manafort and gates back in court on monday. >>> wildfires have already forced nearly 200,000 people out of their homes

arthel: russian operatives reportedly tried to contact hope hicks, after the election. major turning point in the battle against isis where a victory has just been declared against the terror army. . . arthel: president trump spending afternoon at mar-a-lago estate in florida before he hops on the plane to start another busy week in washington. president already had a packed weekend, speaking and drawing protests tat opening of civil rights movement in mississippi and campaigning for roy moore, embattled republican running for the alabama senate seat. bill keating is in west palm beach, florida. phil, 60-degrees is not too cold for a few rounds of golf after all? >> no. it actually it's in the 50's right now but south florida woke up to a fridged temperature and president trump is down the street golfing with republican senator lindsey graham of south carolina aside from hitting the ball down the fairway, tax reform legislation as well as fully funding all of the president's priorities and then they'll go back, at least the president will to mar-a-lago, winter white hou

" and you're supposed to go -- [ hick ] [ hick ] [ hick ] i walk over to the plane and they have literallye plane. i was so excited, like so excited. i think i started squealing. so i finally get into the plane, 6 point like 5 gs just to take and i was like, "oh my god!" [ hick ] [ hick ] like trying not to pass out because starbuck does not pass out. nor does she throw up. and we just start to do like these crazy maneuvers that are absolutely insane. i mean like loop-de-loos and like corkscrews and like all this crazy stuff. and then he sees these navy catamarans and he's like, "would you like to say hello to them?" and i was like, "absolutely." so he inverts the plane, goes down to like what i swear to christ was like a hundred feet above them, but it was probably a thousand whatever -- "we're going 4gs upside-down." and i was like, "oh, my god." and i'm hanging there and my head feels like it's going to explode because you can't "hic"" fast enough for this [ bleep ]. and then he flips the plane back over and i was like, "oh, i'm going to throw up. i am totally going to throw up"" and he

plus, the fbi warning one of trump's closest aides, hope hicks, that russian operatives were trying to make contact with her. why do they continue even after russia was accused of election meddling? and protests planned as president trump is set to attend the opening of mississippi's civil rights museum. should trump stay away? let's go "outfront." good evening, everyone. i'm kate bolduan in for erin burnett. tonight, we are following breaking news. all in for roy moore. president trump about to rally thousands of supporters in pen sa cola, florida just across the border from alabama. you're looking at live pictures now of the event. trump is about to take the stage. why florida? good question. to put it in context, this rally is just 15 miles away from the alabama border, which means just about 15 miles away from voters in a hotly contested special election senate race. but the president has as of today, left zero doubt where he stands. tweeting this morning, an attack against the democrat in the race and ending it with quote, vote roy moore. the embattled republican candidate run ng

also how hope hicks steamed wrinkles from the candidate's suit while he was wearing it. what did you find most fascinating? >> we haven't seen the whole book, only the reports from "the washington post" who has an advance ed copy. the thing that's shocking, we see a lot of kiss and tell books, backstabbing books from campaigns that lose. that's not unusual. everybody blames everybody else. what's weird is this is a campaign that won and you're getting backstabbing complaints about each other on the trail. it's very, very clear as we knew all along, this was an ad hoc campaign, made out of people that were not experts, all flying by the seat of their pants. this book seems to emphasize that and emphasize they all had trouble dealing with president trump's intemperate personality. he would go into rages. he would eat bizarre foods, he had strange demands. it's not that unusual. every presidential campaign is like that. what's unusual about this one is it's so random, now we're seeing even of the members of the campaign team point the finger at each other. >> caitlin, is th

said he spoke with white house aide hope hicks when news first broke. tonight, a lot of people in the white house are looking over their shoulders and wondering who said what to whom. one person who is definitely paying close attention to all this is special counsel robert mulers. -- mueller. after refusing to tell the whole story to investigators, donald trump, jr. takes to twitter tonight, like father, like son, slamming democrats and al franken saying nothing like trying to claim the moral high ground weeks after you should have, and when it's clear that it's over. no one is buying it. you can call that an incredible lack of self-awareness. blasting democrats for being late. holding al franken, whose days in the senate may well be numbered, after a number of democrats call on him to resign. glossing over the fact that his own father has never been held to account for the accusations against him. so let's start now. i want to begin with our senior congressional reporter and matthew rosenberg, as well as cnn's national security analyst and a correspond

but wouldn't his father have heard from hope hicks what donald trump jr. told her?is makes her much more central witness here. and she was clearly the conduit between donald trump jr. and the president, particularly upon air force one when they were trying to conduct a statement that proved to be untrue. but you know, the question is if the president were to say gee, i want to claim executive privilege, since it was through this chain, he would not be able to do that because don jr. is not in the white house and so you know, i think this makes her more central, more important and i think the details of these conversations are going to come out either in a grand jury or with mueller. >> i was just going to say the idea that donald trump was not engage nd this messaging strategy is just ridiculous on its face because donald trump is someone who has a candidate and as president, has been incredibly engaged in crafting his own message, engaged in what comes out of this white house. just look at his twitter feed. he's constantly setting his own message. you can make the

"the new york times" is reporting the fbi warned president trump's communication director, hope hicksith her during the transition process. cnn's justice correspondent jessica schneider is here with the latest on that. what do we know about the fbi warning? >> reporter: we know that senior fbi officials cautioned hope hicks about several introductory e-mails that she received after the election, they were from russian government e-mail addresses. so fbi agents met with hope hicks twice at the beginning of this year inside the situation room at the white house and they told her these e-mails were not what they seemed and they may have been part of a russian intelligence operation. that's all according to "the new york times." so, anderson, this was a very specific warning, and it shows that law enforcement was alarmed, that russians were still trying to establish contacts with the trump team even after the election. reportedly hope hicks disclosed the meetings with the fbi to white house counsel don mcgahn and we also know that hope hicks met with the special counsel's team yesterday a

also testified that he spoke to hope hicks. not his father when he was confronted with these reports of the june 2016 meeting. does it matter who he spoke to? >> i think he's trying to distance himself and prove loyalty to his father. that's a worthwhile endeavor, it's not going to satisfy robert mueller because it does not exonerate donald trump, if he was a participant in a discussion that was going to mislead either the public which is okay to do, but ultimately to mislead any investigators in this particular claim. even if it was someone who had more of a tertiary or outside role, if it was still a role, he has not exonerated his father. i'm sure he's satisfied the loyalty test that his father often has invoked. >> he may have sent text messages to a former business colleague about a plan to join russia about an energy project sanctions would be ripped up. his lawyers are denying it, is this going to be about following the money, do you think? >> absolutely. >> you almost have the impression to follow the money, when you do

no one is saying hope hicks did anything wrong here. but what did we learn about the latest developments in her interview with mueller's team? >> well, two separate tracks. we learned the russians approached her to try to get her as possible contact and warned about that. separate track we believe the special counsel is interviewing her and trying to learn more about these meetings possible contacts with russians for the campaign period. as well as trying to get some more insight i this i into some of these meetings at trump tower that are the same thing that trump junior is being asked about. >> all right. danny, there is nothing wrong with receiving emails. what do we think we could learn about what trump's role has been here? >> who among us has not received an unwanted email. i spend most of the day unsubscribing. so the idea that tt russians may have contacted her is so far away from her committing any crime. other thing you have to be conscious of, any of these interviews are not like conversations you and i might have. those are

here we are with poor hope hicks who's going to get roped into this. so i regret for the staff that was on the plane that they're now going to incur all these legal costs and have to go answer all these questions. i don't know if they did anything wrong. the anxiety and all that goes into having to testify in a matter like this, it is significant, especially when you're the white house communications director, like hope is. she's already under a lot of stress. and so it's a bad thing that's occurred. i'm sure some people who are doing their level best to serve their country now are going to get roped into it. >> the other thing is robert mueller is not going to stand for invoking of attorney -- of a nonexistent attorney/client privilege, i would imagine. >> right. you have a fifth amendment privilege, and i'm not saying that he would assert that, but you do have privileges. you can refuse to answer or you can just be in contempt. this happened in several cases where the prosecutor can't get a witness to cooperate, a judge can find you guilty of contemp