it's all about jared kushner. the last 24 hours has been about jared kushner. >> i want to pick up and underscore what max said. we have two halves here. one-half, which we are talking about today is the sudden urgency of jared kushner to speak to the ruxs after the election or before but before the transition to get the secret channel. why did they want to do that? at the same time, this is max's reminder, we have in the past ten days new information. urgently, the russians want to electio election donald trump in 2016 and how much they did for his campaign. these two pieces always have to be seen together. well, i think you said earlier, is there an innocent explanation for why he would do this? maybe he wants to play junior henry kissinger and lost the plot. you have to remember the other piece and it's not consistent with that approach to the story. >> and, david, the -- again, i want to go to the idea, you have worked in the white house. you know what it's like to fill out disclosure forms of various kin kind

jared kushner, better than anyone. so the circle is closing in terms of demands by investigators for answers, and the person they're focused on who can give them those answers, including financial records, who has the financial records of many of the trump organizations' dealings with ethnic russians, neo-russians is jared kushner. so now he is central to what investigators are trying to find out. >> david, how much can somebody like jared kushner say, look, things i have conversations with the president of the united states about are covered, you know, are between the president and i, the president has a right to have, you know, to have counsel that's not revealed? >> well, i think the executive -- he could invoke executive privilege. >> does that stand if you're on the transition? >> executive privilege will not extend back to the transition and to the campaign. you get privilege for the time you're in -- actually in office. but it would be politically very dangerous to invoke executive privilege. it looks -- you loo

whose side is jared kushner on? you want to use russian communication facilities if you really are on the united states' side in the vladimir putin versus the united states challenge that certainly emerged in 2016 with the russians trying to hack our election and other points of friction with russia. whose side are you on becomes the question. and jared kushner saying i want to use your communication facilities certainly is an indication of which side he may be on. >> let me offer two hypothesises here. in one part of the story. a smart hypothesis and a dumb one. as we have learned and talked about earlier, the russians made a much bigger commitment to the donald trump campaign in 2016 as we have learned over the past ten days than we had known even before that. massive organization of facebook ads. now the dumb theory is that the trump/kushner people were so profoundly touched by this they thought they must like us. they must really like us. let's have a wonderful conversation with them and solve all the problems o

whose side is jared kushner on? you want to use russian communication facilities if you really are on the united states' side in the vladimir putin versus the united states challenge that certainly emerged in 2016 with the russians trying to hack our election and other points of friction with russia. whose side are you on becomes the question. and jared kushner saying i want to use your communication facilities certainly is an indication of which side he may be on. >> let me offer two hypotheses here in one part of the story. a smart hypothesis and a dumb one. as we have learned and talked about earlier, the russians made a much bigger commitment to the donald trump campaign in 2016 as we have learned over the past ten days than we had known even before that. massive organization of facebook ads. now the dumb theory is that the trump/kushner people were so profoundly touched by this that they thought they must like us. they must really like us. let's have a wonderful conversation with them and solve all the problems

this is jared kushner going rogue. the only question that remains to me we are so close, to sound dramatic, we were close to the oval office. the question is why are these guys doing this? to protect themselves or to protect trump. i think we now have to ask that question of because there are too many people too close to trump who he is protecting who he is clearly trying to under mine or change the figures in this investigation, comey for example, and i just don't know what their motivation is, is it to protect themselves because of personal dealings or because of something bigger. we have to start asking that question now. we're at the oval office door. we're at the senior advisor to president trump. >> steve hall you're former cia russia expert, with this sort of alleged communication system with the russians through the russian embassy in washington involving a top advisor to the president-elect of the united states would that be unprecedented? >> well, wolf, there's so much about this particular turn that this sto

i think the issue is jared kushner -- it isn't just jared kushner's relationship as a relative to the president, it's his approach to the job. the notion that kushner would be involved in the day-to-day, hand-to-hand combat in the war room based on his previous track record, for instance, being on a skiing vacation during the first round of health care stuff, is laughable. he has set up his own insulated little world with his own public relations person. our reporting on friday, maggie and i, found there was an operational staffer who was in the office across from jared's in the west wing. that person was kicked out so jared's pr person could be placed there. and the other thing about the friday story with the post, white house staffers were totally blindsided. jared kushner, we are told, told the president and a few other people around them the communications staff wasn't read in, ail, and here's the kicker, they were happy not to be involved. i talked to two or three people in the west wing over the past 24 hours, and they say, we feel that the revelations in the original jared stor

this is jared kushner going rogue, right? i think the only question now that remains is that we are so close, not to sound dramatic, but i will be, we were close to the oval office and i think the question is, why are all these guys doing this? are they doing it to protect themselves? or to protect donald trump? i think that we now have to ask that question. because there are too many people, too close to trump who he is projecting, who is trying to undermine, or change the figures, and i just don't know what their motivation is, sit personal dealings or is it something bigger. we are at the oval office door, we are at the senior adviser to the -- to president trump. >> steve hall, you're a former cia russia expert, with this sort of alleged communication system, with the russians, through the russian embassy in washington, involving a top adviser to the president elect of the united states, would that be a. >> the short answer to your question is it would be unprecedented. i don't understand why it is that jared kushner, if

jared, steve bannon.ve got dina powell, gary cohn, some people who were not part of the campaign, who weren't even necessarily republicans until they joined this white house. >> yeah. well, one thing that we know about this white house, stephanie, is that adversity from the outside brings out the chaos on the inside. this news that jared kushner is being looked at by the fbi is the very definition of that type of adversity. as you mentioned, jared kushner was already -- he was already sort of part of this factional sort of environment where steve bannon, reince priebus at various times were in some ways jealous of, resentful of the power that he had and the influence that he had over his father-in-law. we understood, as actually in the days running up -- leading up to this trip, that jared had withdrawn a little bit and was spending a little more time talking, in fact, with don mcgahn, the white house counsel. we don't know precisely why, but certainly this news today, if it's confirmed, which it seems to

here is how the white house explains the nature of jared kushner's meeting with the banker. >> jared he's clear of the role he plays and who he talks to and that's it. >> that maybe true. it does not square what the bank itself have said about the meeting. in ta statemea statement, the e met with kushner not as a representative of the white house but ahead of the kushner's company. >> it is interesting that the russians seemed to contradict what jared kushner said when he said that he was acting between the campaign and foreign government. i am sure that'll be an issue that'll try to clarify. >> what exactly was discussed between kushner and the banker remains a mystery. though jared kushner offered to answer the senate intelligence committee questions about not only this meeting but another meeting he had with russian ambassado ambassado ambassadors kislyak. it was kislyak suggested that kushner meet with the russian banker. >> he did not mention either of these meetings maybe a topic of inquery. there is concerns that the russian bank havs have been und sanctions. when he met with

jared kushner made this proposal. that meeting according to "the washington post" here was also attended by michael flynn. of course flynn went on to become briefly president trump's national security adviser. michael flynn now under investigation, the source of quite a bit of controversy on his own. the post also reporting here that the white house disclosed the fact of that december meeting in march and played down its significance. reading from the article here, people familiar with the matter say the fbi now considers the encounter as well as another meeting kushner had with a russian banker to be of investigative interest. congressman, your reaction to what you're learning so far? >> well, it doesn't surprise me. the fbi, when they do their investigation, things come uncovered, and then they investigate. and, you know, when you see a president who allows the russians, the russian foreign minister, the russian ambassador, and he's telling them in the white house confidential and secret information and then goes on

you've got jared kushner. we're showing all these incredible pictures of how close he was to this president. what value would he be to your investigation if he were to talk to y honestly? >> well, again, chris, i don't want to go into who our witnesses are. >> no. if he were to be a witness, what would he tell you? >> yeah. we just want to know if any witness was communicating with russia, was involved in the interference campaign that they were running, you know, had information about what the campaign's role was, and also, chris, if these are all just coincidences, the president is owed a clearing. so we would want to see that happen too. but if they're not coincidences, we want to make sure that anyone who worked with russia is held accountable. >> that's the only excuse he hasn't used yet. congressman, hold on. jay, let me ask you about -- explain the meetings so far because the congressman said he would like to know, under oath of course, what happened with mr. kushner when he met with the russians. tell

we thought jared was going to lead the war room. if the president's plan is to put guys like gary cohn and h.r. mcmaster front and center they're not going to touch russia, how is that going to help the president? >> we saw that play out in the foreign leg of the trip, they did the final briefing. it was an off camera briefing. they were asked repeatedly about russia and the latest reporting as it relates to jared kushner. they wouldn't answer questions. the mood in the room got very tense frustrations on both sides, so i think your point is absolutely accurate, and if the president is going to be putting top officials out in front of the camera in that sense, they're going to need to either be bracing for questions about the news of the day, that don't necessarily relate to whatever topic they want to be focused on, or things are going to continue to become very heated, stef. >> all right. then, i want to bring my panel in to join this conversation. joan walsh, msnbc political analyst and national affairs correspondent at the natio

jared kushner, senior white house adviser. he is the president's son-in-law, unlike any other presidential family member in u.s. history, he has a vast policy portfolio. we've had, you know, a member of the president's fami in the cabinet before as attorney general. we've had a member of the president's family working on a specific policy, hillary clinton working on health reform for bill clinton. we've had a lot of people do specific things for their family member who is a president. but his policy portfolio is everything from middle east peace to mexico to china to all trade deals to broadband nationwide to the opioid crisis. kind of everything you can name has been described as jared's portfolio. in more ways than one, he is a figure as close to the president and as close to the powers of the presidency as it is possible to be without being donald trump himself. so nbc news reports tonight that jared kushner is now under scrutiny in the fbi's trump-russia probe. this is according to multiple u.s. officials. those officials

just said, jared -- >> you can't walk in and not say anything. >> so, jared, i walked into this room and within 30 seconds i was miked. >> could we please get a microphone for mr. kushner? >> jared, welcome to "cbs this morning." your first interview on "cbs this morning." >> jared, tell us about the walk on the mall last night with your wife. >> beautiful. great company. beautiful scenery. >> keep working this way, jared. follow me. >> good work, major. anybody else in family might want to come down? we could place a call to him. are you up there? >> ivanka, if i thought i wouldn't be handcuffed, i'd like to walk up and say, hello, mr. president rn president, we're downstairs, we're downstairs. >> it is pretty special. >> we were saying, the history in the room, no matter who you are, you cannot feel blase. >> no, that's exactly right. and it doesn't wear off. the experience is really no less intense and exhilarating today as it was three months ago. so there's this history. you find yourself standing at a window and thinking how many presidents and first ladies and families had loo

so what is jared kushner's attorney saying? >> well, anderson, it's just a brief staplejamie gorelick, the attorney for kushner. it says, mr. kushner previously veered to share with congress what he knows about these meetings. he will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry. so that's an indication they may no longer just be talking about congressional investigations, but the special counsel investigation being conducted by robert mueller, fbi and justice department inquiries, as well. we should point out that jared kushner and ivanka were on this foreign trip, we're here in sicily right now, the president will be attending the g-7 summit over the next couple of days. they jumped off of this trip yesterday. they went back after they met with the propoope there in rome. and the white house told us yesterday, you know, that was just part of the schedule. they were scheduled to go back and leave yesterday. bu but, obviously, anderson, this news breaking tonight is going to raise questions about that exp

>> i left my old life so far behind that now i'd say speak, jared, speak. listen, i think that the rob be co costa reporting was interesting. i think if he does speak, it will be in a defensive posture. r0r9ing sugge i i think that you are always more sympathetic when you are a human being. and i had heard that it was so farm difference to have his father sent to jail when it he was 25 that it hardened him that makes these kind of political skirmishes nothing. absolutely nothing to him. so i think he's really interesting. and i think sort of if he would be willing to tell will this whole story about what it was like as a 25-year-old to see his dad sent to prison, i think he could become and interesting and potentially sympathetic figure. is i promise when we come back, after my interview of neighborinikki haley. we'll hear what she has to say about the president's po e's pan nato. think oasture on nato. sture on nato. ag this is the new new york. we are building new airports all across the state. new roads and bridges. new mass transit. new business friendl

jared kus jared kushner under fbi scrutiny. evan perez. tell us why the fbi is interested in jared kushner. >> well, don, the issue is with this investigation is there are multiple tentacles now that go directly to jared kushner. and that includs a closer look at the trump campaign's data analytics operation, and whether or not the russians were able to benefit from it, whether wittingly or unwittingly through the help of someone to be able to target the negative messages against hillary clinton, the positive messages against, for donald trump, and whether or not any of that has to do with jared kushner because he was in charge of this data on asian. seco operation. the second part of this investigation they're now looking at is, of course, michael flynn, fired national security adviser who we know jared kushner was in at least one meeting with michael flynn, with the diplomat from russia, sergey kislyak, the top ambassador here in washington, and then thirdly, his own meetings with russians. these are all things that the fbi is now taking

would approach after a debate would be jared and jared was close to other russian billionaires as well one of his best friends, his wife in fact was jared and ivanka's guest at the inauguration. i'm not blaming every rich russian however you have to understand unlike businessmen in the u.s. every single oligarch in russia has one connection to vladimir putin so his orbit includes a lot of russians all of those russians having a connection of course to the president of the country. >> jeremy bash before i come to you i want to share with all of you a moment that transpired on air at this network during the 8:00 p.m. hour with chris hayes for all those who would like to know how the people in our intelligence and counter intelligence community viewed this story tonight, listen to our own intelligence expert, a veteran of many years in the field malcolm nance. >> some of these contacts are so suspicious that they would have warranted their own counter intelligence investigation. this nation is in a counter intelligence investigation. they are in a spy hunt over at the fbi now we have this

i don't see any big issue here relative to -- relative to jared. with an adversary, somebody who was at that time our own intelligence community had collectively said this is a country that infiltrated our election. did this show good judgment? >> well, this was before the government was in place during the transition period i think, from what i understand. and i think any time you can open lines of communication with anyone, whether they're good friends or not so good friends is a smart thing to do. >> it's important to point out that we still don't know the specific details of the interaction that was allegedly attempted to be set up by jared kushner. reports from come from intelligence officials that learned that ambassador kislyak informed his superiors about the attempt, and the question to do so. and the white house has not yet confirmed or denied it. meanwhile, as you mentioned, they're calling this a working day. the president is working with his advisers and perhaps his legal team as he continues to confront this ocean of controversy relat

." >> jared married to my daughter, ivanka. >> nbc news reports jared kushner, the president's son-in-law and one of his senior advisers has come under fbi scrutiny in the russia investigation. >> i actually think he likes politics more than he likes real estate. >> tonight, what we know about the fbi probe now reaching inside the white house. then -- >> get to the polls and vote for greg. >> election night in trump's america. >> i'm sick and tired of you guys. >> assault charges filed as voting starts. >> gianforte grabbed him by the neck, both hands, slid him to the side, body slammed him, and then got on top of him and started punching. >> will greg gianforte join congress after allegedly committing assault? tonight, my exclusive interview with the reporter who got sent to the hospital for asking about health care. the guardian's ben jacobs when "all in" starts right now. >>> good evening from new york. i'm chris hayes. the fbi's russia investigation now involves one of the closest members of the president's inner circle. nbc news reporting tonight that jared kushner, the president's s

jared kushner, no way. their excuse, however, is going to be for sure, well, he didn't really understand. yeah, well, then why isn't it on your disclosure form, and why in the world did you want a back channel to begin with? >> one thing i will say that's a characteristic of his dad and of donald trump and a lot of real estate people is a huge appetite for risk, which he took by getting behind this campaign and running it, and which his father took by spending $1.8 billion on an office building in manhattan. >> which is now leveraged to the hilt. >> yes, which is in trouble financially. >> yeah. >> chris -- >> i want you to follow up. >> if i can just make one other point. >> please. >> that there is not a hundredth of an inch of separation between donald trump, jared kushner, and mike flynn even after he was fired. so i think it's perfectly reasonable to then figure that donald trump was not the unwitting victim of this meeting that kushner and flynn had with ambassador kislyak. >> lizzie and david, many,

why don't we ask jared kushner?ed kushner is the only official in the white house who never holds a press conference, never gives an interview, whose voice is never heard anywhere on a tape recording. just astonishing that it is taken for granted that of course jared kushner can't answer these questions. sure, he could. >> his lawyer, jeffrey, a former deputy attorney general for bill clinton, and she says he is willing to cooperate to answer questions from the senate intelligence committee once he's called. >> that's fine. for the senate intelligence committee. how about in the meantime? most white house officials don't wait for subpoenas to actually speak to the public. they work for the public. and they answer questions. there are legitimate questions about jared kushner. perhaps legitimate answers he could give. why doesn't he just give them? cnn would be happy to take them. i'm sure all of the other networks would as well. but the yied he idea he is some off limits all public scrutiny is incredible p. >> we wou

but jared had nothing to do with that. a more serious matter was his advice to the president that it would be a political win to fire the fbi director. that turned out to be a miscalculation. so, yes, there are strains, but jared kushner is somebody who has boundless self-confidence. he is not going to go slink away to the office of american innovation. i think -- and not be heard of for months. he is -- i think he's actually less worried about the fbi investigation than he is about whether there are white house officials who are criticizing him and leaking to the press. he doesn't -- he's not the kind of person to take that lying down. he's, as friends would say, tough and his critics would say he is vindictive. >> if that's the case, if jared kushner is more concerned about the leaks within the white house, the factions within the white house, can a white house survive with a steve bannon, reince priebus, steven miller and jared at the same time, or does one team have to go? >> i mean, it's a good question. it's really a

one is the statement that jared's attorney has provided. second is whether or not the back channel -- the dossier that is largely the basis of this was largely discredited in the first place. most of the publications here refused to even publish it in the first place. again, i'm not going to get into confirming stuff. there is an ongoing investigation. >> thank you, sean. i have two questions. first, the president, for the second time in a month, retweeted his desire for the senate to reduce the votes to pass anything to 51 which would effectively scuttle the filibuster for legislation as it has been scuttled for nominations. is this something he discussed with majority leader mcconnell or any of the senate leadership before he tweeted it? >> i think the concerns that he's had with the pace of the senate has been long standing. obviously the use of the filibuster and rules of the senate are ultimately up senator mcconnell. i think the frustration he's had with the pace of se of the legislation and some of the obstructionist tactics that dem

jared kushner has been played roles. and now he is the first person currently inside the trump white house to come under scrutiny. though, he's not believed to be a target of the russia investigation. president trump's son-in-law and most trusted advisor. >> he's very good at politics. >> now a focus of the fbi's investigation into russia's meddling in the 2016 election. officials tell cnn, the burrow is looking into a rang of topics with jared kushner. there is no indication kushner is currently a target of the probe and no allegation of wrongdoing. the trump campaign used to micro target voters in states that were critical to the president's victory. investigators are examining whether russian operatives were able to piggy bag on that effort with help from trump associates to help russia's own alleged operation, to push information online aimed at helping trump and hurting hillary clinton. kushner is also one of four trump associates and the only current white house staffer under scrutiny for having contact with sergei

jared kushner. the fbi investigating contacts with russia. >> and president trump condemning leaks to the media in the group of tweets. can he defend the russian contacts with jared kushner. we have it all covered this morning. we begin with cnn's athena jones who is live in washington. good morning. >> good morning, david. the president is kicking off the week facing more negative headlines. angela merkel questioning the strength of europe's alliance with the u.s. tension from the first g7 summit following him home. trump's tepid support for nato, harsh words on trade and lack of commitment to the paris climate agreement put him at odds with the eu allies. angela merkel questioning his alliance with europe. the times we can rely on others is over. europeans must take our fate in our hands. president trump grading the trip a great success. he will decide on the paris agreement this week. trump targeting leakers in his white house. the latest bombshell leaks with trump's most trusted adviser. son-in-

jared. he says he will be fully cooperative with any information that he has. brian: do you back up the fox news report that says it's the russians that reached tout to jared kushner and not the other way around so the reuters report being wrong and what about today's "new york times" report saying kushner reached tout a banker named gorkav who is on a u.s. back list. >> i cannot comment on any of that because there is no reason to, frankly. we know that there are been many news reports very recently that had the facts wrong. if you go back to a couple weeks ago, you will notice that one paper in particular three times in a row relied upon information that was immediately batted down as false. this entire thing is just a rush to judgment. we have been talking about this for about 8 months. brian: i know. >> yet, have you senator feinstein saying she has not changed her position that there is evidence of collusion. you have senator graham saying as much. you have former cia director mr. brennan in testimony last week refusing to make that leap that conclusion. s

this is jared going rogue. there's no other way to put it at this stage. this is a country that clearly the trump campaign knew was, had infiltrated the campaign or done things to do with the campaign. kislyak, the campaign surely would have known is a known figure with ties to the kgb. jared kushner is having multiple meetings, not just kislyak that are secretive and not disclosed and it was not just russian government but bankers with ties to the kgb. kushner not disclosing any of this in his forms. and then you have a story yesterday that is, you know, at best, you can say kushner was naive but the idea that the russians would open up their own apparatus, intelligence apparatus to a 30 something son-in-law of a president-elect, it so defies sort of any good explain swrags, that the best explanation for kushner at this stage is he's incredibly naive. >> i want to point out the report from reuters this morning as well so we tuned numbers. they are reporting 18 undisclosed calls or emails seven months prior to the election, six of those calls with kislyak,

this is jared going rogue.he idea the russians were going to open up their own apparatus, intelligence apparatus to a 30 something son-in-law of a president-elect is just -- it so defies any sort of good explanation, that the best explanation for kushner at this stage is he is incredibly naive. >> the fbi investigation into president trump's russia ties has been inching closer to the white house as you know. at this point, kushner is not a target of the probe. there are no allegations that he committed any wrongdoing, want to be very clear about that. but the latest report could serve as yet another distraction as the president meets with world leaders at the g7 summit in italy. last hour sat down for a working lunch, pictures from that. before the president heads back to the u.s., he will speak to american soldiers stationed nearby later today. >> cnn international editor nic robertson is in cicely. any reaction to reporting on jared kushner from the post and times? >> reporter: as you know, president trump is

kushner news. >> i know jared. he's a great guy, decent guy. his number one interest really is the nation, so there's a lot of different ways to communicate, back channel, publicly with other countries. i don't see any big issue here relative to -- relative to jared. >> even with somebody that was at the time our own intelligence community had collectively said this was a country that had infiltrated our election, did this show good judgment? >> well, you know, it was before the government was in place during the transition period, i think, from what i understand. i think any time you can open lines of communication with anyone, whether they're good friends or not so good friends, is a smart thing to do. >> had you ever in your lifetime of government service both in the military and outside of it, had you ever used another government's communications facility, the idea of sort of going around american communications? >> well, no, but i didn't have to. i mean, in my previous life we wouldn't do that kind of thing, b

jared kushner is somebody who stays in the background. you can even see that in photos of the oval office. i would be less surprised if his wife had political aspirations. i don't know any of that for sure, but at the moment, i do believe that jared kushner believes and the president believes that his sole purpose is to help his father-in-law have a successful white house tenure. >> jenna: advisor to the president really has an interesting role because we do not elect them. we elect the president so we don't get a choice necessarily in who the advisor is. what do you think every american needs to know about jared kushner? >> jared kushner is not somebody who necessarily shares all of the political views of the president or the base of the president who elected him. he has someone who has much more socially liberal on issues like that, and is sort of more inclined to follow in the footsteps of his own father and his own political family which leaned more democratic before his father-in-law ran for president. i don't think that necessarily

i think jared's father and trump have a lot in common. trump has always been warm toward jared. historically they have a very good relationship and they spend quite a bit of time together. and so i think that makes a difference. >> you also shared on social media that you yourself had a disagreement with jared around president trump's birtherism claims and i guess how "the observer" was covering it. can you tell us about that? >> jared and i were going back and forth about how the paper should cover trump. one of the things that jared said to me whenever i refused to tone down the coverage or make it gratuitously positive was if you spent more time with him, you would really like him. i said, well, jared, it doesn't matter because that wouldn't affect the paper's coverage. i said i have to be honest with you, there are things that your father-in-law has done that i find deeply disturbing. he said like what? i said, well, the birtherism stuff. i thought it was blatantly racist. jared kind of rolled his eyes and said, oh, elizabeth, he doesn't believe that, he's just saying it bec

reince priebus, steve bannon, jared kushner.ow back home, including preee inreince jared kushner and ivanka trump. they're dealing with the issues popping up back home. on the international part of the trip, the end of it, it is gary cohn who stepped up. the g7 summit is all about his environment, where he is a key adviser to the president. you're seeing h.r. mcmaster here for the duration. he's been at almost all the meetings the president has had. >> gary cohn has gone to the g7 meeting for years and years as the president of goldman. when they return, the fact this travel ban issue has come up again, if jeff sessions is going to say, let's bring this thing to the supreme court, is this going to create yet another distraction for the white house that is going to keep them away from getting to the agenda? guys like gary cohn don't want to talk about the travel ban. they want to talk about the agenda. >> they want tax reform, getting through health care. they want things done. this is a distraction. it'll be interesting to see h

why jared kushner might be setting up this back channel. this is all happening against the backdrop of the president being here in sicily. he's wrapping up his meeting at the g7 today. after that we'll hear from the president. he'll visit a naval airbase here and speaking to the troops. they expect this to be a high point of the trip, a way for a foreign crowd to give him a send off before he returns to the united states. but, of course, we'll be looking for more information today about what exactly jared kushner's role was during the transition and now even in the white house and what kind of contact he may have had with russian officials. we are expecting a press briefing with senior administration officials. >> let's bring in cnn political analyst and princetn history professor and legal analyst joey jackson. good morning. julian, let me start with you that response from kushner's attorney he had thousands of calls. he doesn't remember any calls with the russian ambassador. is that plausible >> that's hard to believe. at this point we ke

does jared kushner have a role on that team?ared kushner is of course the president's key senior advisor on just about everything and he reportedly was one of the people who suggested that james comey be fired. so, there's a good chance that kushner is heavily involved in whatever efforts are underway inside the trump administration to push back on the russia probe. and now it appears that special counsel robert mueller is consolidating his role as leader of that investigation which could have an impact on just how the fbi scrutiny of jared kushner will play out. david from is still with me, and joining now is former assistant watergate special prosecutor jill wine banks. jill, i want to start with you on this question of whether or not jared kushner is a targeted person or merely a witness that the fbi would like to talk to in a benign manner. should jared kushner be involvement now in this probe? >> jared kushner should be concerned depending on what he knows and what he's done. and the terminology of whether he's a target, a

trump also in that statement pointed out jared was, quote, a god person. legally the fact that kushner was a private citizen doesn't really matter here. his role in the transition is what the fbi is taking into consideration and was acting on behalf of the incoming benefit benefiting from an interim clearance while all of this is said to be taking place. that's real where the real problem would be if there is is one. wolf. >> diane gallagher reporting for us. president trump visited arlington national cemetery for a some der tribute to america's fallen as the white house digs in against growing questions about contacts with russia. a new controversy stemming from the president's trip abroad. let's go to cnn's phil mattingly. he's joining us from the white house. what's the lateest? >> wolf, there was some sense coming off the nine-day foreign trip the white house would be able to have some momentum going forward and dealing with a number of major issues and decisions, but it's very clear upon landing that the russia investigation isn't going away any time

where's jared? where's ivanka?e will see are either strangers or people whose loyalty he doesn't fully trust. every president goes through that moment, is generally linked in the second term when the president looks around the staff table and says, who are these guys? for donald trump, it could come in the first summer of his presidency. >> the question i asked walter isaacson, you've covered, what, ten presidential elections? >> and walter isaacson was my editor at "time." >> it all goes back to that. how unprecedented is this? have you run out of ways? >> there are no ways to possibly compare this to anything. i keep coming back to dorothy parker's description of warren harding, another scandal-prone president, who said ultimately he's just a slob. >> yeah. >> and there is a quality of slovenliness to this entire administration from donald trump on down. but the difference is in the 1920s, america was not a nuclear power. the president didn't have to worry about what was happening on the korean peninsula. now we'

jared kushner wanted to set up his back channel. do you expect we'll hear more characterization or classification from russian officials? >> well, leave it up to the russians to accuse somebody? the united states of mcc mccarthyism. i wish that it would all go away. every time you think it is over, there is something else coming up, i think it is pretty much discovered the tip of the iceberg of all these investigations are going on. there will be more that's coming whether i want to go to the point, i want to be careful but negligent. that's not good enough for the white house. jack barsky and ron and lynn, thank you, we'll see you after this hour. >> this was during the clinton e-mail investigation. why he said he did it. >> what police say he did at a protrump rally, tim kaine's son now facing charges. >>> a witness said he thought he was breaking up a fistfight. >> again, it happened so fast but it looked like every punch i saw was actually al stab. thirsty skin? give it a drink! l'oreal's hydra genius daily liquid care. our firs

>> we're not going to comment on jared. we're just not going to comment. >> and president trump made no mention of the news reports in his remarks to troops in sicily. that just wrapped up moments ago. here's the president, though, doubling down on comments he made before nato leaders this week. >> to every service member from italy, from a nato country, we want to thank you for your friendship and for partnering with us in the fight to defeat terrorism and protect civilization. other member nations must pay more. the u.s. is currently paying much more than any other nation and that is not fair to the united states or the united states taxpayer. >> and nbc's kelly o'donnell is in italy live for us this hour, been with the president over the last eight or nine days. kelly, we saw the president there speaking to the troops in sicily, calling his overseas trip a home run. but something of note you're very aware of, the president did not hold a press conference or take any questions on this trip for the most part. we know you'v