this hour i'll talk with jeff merkley about the president's rhetoric and gun policy and our correspondents and analysts are standing by. let's go to our chief white house correspondent jim acosta. jim, the president says he thinks he would have acted differently than some officers whose performance he calls "disgusting." >> that's right, wolf. president trump made this strange claim that he would have tried to rescue the students at the parkland school shooting. the white house tried to clean up those comments but there was not much clarity on what kind of gun control measures the president would support, besides banning bump stocks which weren't even used at parkland. >> thank you very much. >>> president trump insists he would have saved the day. >> i believe i would have run in there even if i didn't have a weapon and i think most of the people in this room would have done that, too. >> reporter: unlike the deputies, the president says, who choked. >> they weren't exactly medal of honor winners, all right? the way they performed was, frankly, disgusting? >> reporter: when the president

i want to bring in jeff merkley.ator, it's a pleasure to have you on. >> good to be here. >> the last time we spoke was january 19th, right before the last shutdown. here we are. why is this happening again, senator. >> i'll tell you last time we spoke we pushed for a three-day continuing resolution, the democrats were to keep the government open and keep people negotiating intensely. i predicted then the negotiations wouldn't really get serious until the last couple of days of a continuing resolution. and that's exactly what's happened. here we are at the at last minute a big bill coming out a few hours ago, people trying to go through and understand what's in it. of course the last moment speech and protest by rand paul, to make a very important point i might add. >> senator, how are you going to explain in to your constituents back home. >> well back home in oregon there are a couple of things that people care about that aren't part of this bill. one of the key things is that despite the massive aid to texas and p

. >>> i would like to have senator jeff merkley from the great state of oregon join us now. senator merkley i have lost my ability to speak coherently, but we are happy to have you with us now as we keep an eye on the live shot in the senate and as we head toward what he expect to be a 1:00ome couture vote, that would be a 60-vote threshold vote for the senate to be able to move ahead into the next few stages this process that rand paul has started which hopefully at some point tonight will result in a government funding bill. senator, thank you for your time tonight. senator merkley, have you got me? >> hello there. greetings. yes, i have you now. i should say good morning. >> exactly. i'm sorry, i have half turned into a pumpkin. some of my engineering stopped working once i turned into squash that's full of seeds. >> it's interesting to see that countdown clock suddenly start becoming a count-up clock. >> senator, what do you think is going to happen tonight? how do you foresee the next few hours? and what do you make of senator paul's tactics here? >> listen, he's making

they include senator jeff merkley, usa today communist edward, deceased actress patty duke, 13 -year-old in northern new york and a 96 -year-old world war ii veteran in southern california. at last count, 2 million individuals have been the victims of theft with filings in our record that they never wrote, sent or authorized. these comments are not the only odd and unnerving thing in the fcc record. nearly half a million come from russian e-mail addresses just under 8 million comments were submitted from a male to mains attributed to fakemailgenerator.com [laughter] over 1 million comments were designed to make it appear like unique submissions everywhere you look there is something strange. something is not right. what is wrong here is not confined to the fcc. let me offer a few more stories from other agencies to demonstrate. back, the department of labor proposed a policy that would inquire investment advisors working with retirement accounts to act in the best interest of their clients. the fiduciary role, as it is is slated for full implementation next year in 2019. in the meantime

let's bring in senator jeff merkley who is joining us.thank you very much for joining us. >> you're very welcome. good to be with you. >> we've learned, as you know, the president sees this memo as a way to discredit the entire russia investigation robert mueller has been leading. what's your reaction to that? >> this is a very bizarre twist in which the release of this memo seems to be a way to obstruct an investigation into the obstruction of justice. it also goes to the heart of manipulation of very sensitive national secrets, highly classified information that is given to the intelligence committee with the understanding that it will not be released in a fashion that endangers the united states or in a fashion that manipulates the information for political purposes. so that understanding goes to the heart of how the committee is able to get sensitive information in the first place, why the government is willing to share it with the committee. so this really threatens to blow up the whole contract between the branches of government ove

jeff merkley/d-oregon"when one holds up a gun in that situation they might well be the person shot ate police, believing they are the one that is committing the atrocity."as the debate continues, the victims of the parkland shooting wait for change.bela urbina/student, stoneman douglas high school"i feel angry. angry that we've let this happen. angry that we did not solve this problem a long time ago." i'm john lorinc reporting. ( robin ) this morning... some california lawmakers are pushing for new changes to gun laws in the state. california democrats are trying close what they feel are loopholes in state gun laws. assembly member bill quirk... who represents hayward... is trying to expand a state-wide database that keeps track of guns recovered by police. ( robin ) gun control supporters in the state say california's laws are working. according to the brady campaign to prevent gun violence - california has see

merkley, thank you. senator markey? >> it took me 20 years to get the other one out of my life, and now jeff and i have that.laughter] >> as you are figuring out your identity situation, i would cement to the record that superfund priority has been under administrator pruitt. the cleanup of the largest superfund site. epa administrator pruitt put separate and anaconda, superfund sites, on the emphasis lists. both are being fast tracked for completion and are getting his attention intention. -- intense attention. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i appreciate it. >> mr. pruitt, it is my understanding that the epa has finalized its conclusion that formaldehyde causes leukemia and other cancers, and had completed to assessments, and is ready rerelease for a public review. that it is still being held up. can you give us a status update as to the epa's handling of the formaldehyde issue and the conclusion that it, in fact, does cause leukemia and other cancers? my understanding is similar to yours. i will confirm that and provide the information to you. releasingu commit to that report, which is already in a short amou