christine and dave. >> jeff zeleny. thank you. >>> americans say they want tougher gun control measures in the wake of the parkland high school shooting. senator john kennedy of louisiana says we need quote idiot control more than gun control. >> and proposals ran into roadblocks on monday. including the tightening the checks to the background system. closed-door meetings will be held today. enforcing back ground checks not enough for chuck schumer. >>> the sheriff deputy who stayed outside stoneman douglas high school says the investigation will ultimately cleared him. scot peterson was armed and never entered the building. listen to what president trump said about him and other deputies whose actions are under scrutiny. >> i got to watch some deputy sheriffs performing this weekend. they were not exactly medal of honor winners. the way they performed was, frankly, disgusting. >> the toefattorney for socot peterson says the attacks were unwarranted. he failed to meet the standards of police officers is patently untrue.

christine and alex. >> jeff zeleny at the white house. thank you. >>> the reigniting gun debate taking an ugly political turn when claudia tenney who represents one of the most competitive district in the country. the majority of gun victims come from the inner cities according to the host of the radio program. tenney said this. >> it is interesting, so many of the people who commit the mass murders have been democrat. the immediamedia doesn't want t about this either. >> tenney is a gun supporter. she said we know the perpetrators have a wide variety of views, my comments are in response about the failure to prosecute illegal gun crime. i will stand up for citizens smeared by anti-gun liberal elitists. >>> the u.s. has warned russia not to interfere with the mid terms elections. they have taken direct action to address the meddling going forward. cnn's frederik pleitgen in moscow. fred, the russians say this never happened in the first place. how tough is the u.s. being at this point? >> reporter: you are right, christine. saying this ne

i want to bring jeff zeleny back in from the white house. is, jeff, that the president has authorized the release of this memo written by the staff for the republican chairman for the house intel committee. what are you learning? >> brianna, we are also learning now that the white house is saying there were no redactions to this three and a half page memo. that had been a question here in recent days. would the white house, would the president authorize some changes to this to, you know, essentially ease some of the concerns of the fbi and the justice department. we are told there were no redactions, no changes made to this memo here at the white house. the issue here is the fbi was pushing back a couple days ago and yesterday saying redactions aren't the issue here, it's the omissions from this document here. but we are now being told by the white house that the document was approved and declassified as it was approved by the house committee earlier this week. we're also getting word the president has addressed this in another event that he

there's this from our jeff zeleny. rob porter will be out of the west wing as early as thursday. the transition that sarah sanders talked about was the plan before things blew up today and is no longer operative. also an official tells jeff zeleny that porter misled people in the west wing, including kelly, by saying his exes were trying to smear him. this official disputes the assertion that kelly knew all of these details for months. it wasn't until last week that kelly knew he had been twice married, the official said. jeff also reports that kelly will be putting out a statement soon. so obviously we'll bring that to you as soon as it happens. back now with the panel. >> this is why you don't put out an official statement -- this is me putting my communications director hat on. you don't put out an official statement that unequivocal that he, you know, integrity, and he was wonderful. you don't do that until you have all of these facts done. they should have said, we are looking into this and, you know, if the alleg

christine and dave. >> jeff zeleny at the white house.hank you. >>> the white house released the budget blueprint with the two-year spending bill just passed and won't be adopted by congress. there is $200 billion for infrastructure spending. $24 billion for border security. the budget radically changes programs like food stamps. replacing that cash benefit with a box of food delivery. it privatizes the space station. and citing increasing threats from china and russia. the pentagon wants a budget boost. $686 billion. the office of management and budget says it cuts deficits $3 trillion over ten years. that assumes growth projections of 3% a year. the president signed two deficit increasing bills. the tax law and the budget deal that increases spending. both of those push deficits past $1 trillion next year. >>> the race to 60 under way today as the senate starts an open immigration debate. republicans declaring they will only allow the process to play out on the senate floor for one week in the attempt to force democrats to show their ha

jeff zeleny. thank you very much for that. >>> jared kushner's attorney claims his client has done more than what it expected of him in the security clearance process, insisting he will accept the decision about his downgrade and will not ask for any special treatment or permission from president trump. a final resolution could come soon. a source telling cnn the fbi is expected to wrap up kushner's background check in a month. >>> a report in the "washington post" says officials in at least four countries discussed ways they could manipulate jared kushner, according to the report. mexico, israel, china, and the united arab emirates considered taking advantage of kushner's intricate business arrangements, his lack of foreign policy experience, and financial troubles. it's not clear based on u.s. officials familiar with the intelligence reports if they acted on those conversations, though. >> the "post" report says the subject was first raised in intel briefings after national security adviser h.r.

jeff zeleny. dana, you first. the white house can't seem to clean up the mess. how much of that is because of the president himself, his own words, his own actions? >> it's all of the above. let's be clear. we are almost a week into this mess, as you called it. a week. i mean, can you imagine any white house, any operation that deals with communication on a regular basis that deals with process, that deals with, you know, kind of looking into what went wrong, otherwise known as crisis communication or crisis management, and it lasting a week, never mind that this being the white house and the presidency and the president of the united states. i mean, that in and of itself is just mind boggling, that it's self-inflicted wound after self-inflicted wound. it's like every single time either the president or people speaking on his behalf open their mouths, they make the story worse. and so there is no question that it is the president who really compounded things on friday, as you played there when he

. >> senior white house correspondent jeff zeleny is joining us from the white house right now. rly the white house officials there, they're struggling with this scandal and their response so far. what else are you learning, jeff? >> reporter: they are, indeed, and that testimony there from the director of the fbi was in response to a question from senator ron widen, and initially the fbi director said, i can't go into specifics. indeed, he did not go into specifics about what was in the background check. but the fact that he pointed out that timeline there simply has contradicted everything the white house has been saying for nearly a week, wolf. by the fbi director saying that in march the partial review was done, by july it was entirely done, saying again more information came in november and then in january was closed. absolutely directly contradicts what the white house spokesman raj shah said from the podium yesterday. rob porter was being eyed for a promotion. he was viewed very fairly and strongly by people here in the west wing, particularly john kelly, and it is really

. >> cnn's jeff zeleny joins us from the white house. the president says he wants to visit parkland. any idea when that will happen and when to expect the president's conversation at least about mental health? >> the president said he would visit with family members soon. we're told the planning is still under way, that planning is being discussed for a potential trip to parkland on saturday. the president is already going to be in mar-a-lago, florida, his retreat. he's scheduled to go down tomorrow for that. this school is some 42 miles from mar-a-lago, so it's an area the president knows very well, south florida. it's an area where he has a lot of supporters, and he is close to it. so potentially a trip on saturday. the white house is still working all of this out. one official says he does not want to be in the way there, so it could come as early as saturday, perhaps later over the weekend. john, in terms of mental health, that is something this white house has spent not much time talking about until today. one difference in all of t

jeff zeleny outfront live at the white house. it was emotional gathering inside the white house and president trump right in the middle of it. >> john, it was indeed. and stories of those six students from marjory stoneman douglas high school who one week ago walking the hallways of that school, hiding from the shooter. today they were in the state dining room of the white house telling the president their stories directly, of course sitting next to columbine, and they were not born two decades ago, and that under scores how long this has been an american problem. the president said it has been a problem for too long. now is the time for action. of course that is where the difficulty begins. you heard variety of different stories of what should be done. should school teachers and officials be armed? the president spoke out in favor of that. mother from sandy hook said, no, that is not what should be done. the problem should be addressed before a shooter gets to the school. but in a very emotional moment, a student who was in the

you heard jeff zeleny.headed by the president's own director has come out and said these are grave concerns that fundamentally impact the memo's accuracy. ko cou couldn't be more dire yet the president will go ahead. is there any chance he listens to his own fbi director and changes his mind? >> this is not about fbi redacts this. this is an administration says their executive branch is deep state trying to oust the president. we saw this when he say the deep state national security adviser susan rice to unmask things about citizens inappropriate. they say that is not correct. now we are saying deep state is incorrectly connecting information about this investigation. this is larger than the memo suggests we'll reveal national security. i don't think we will. this is about unique experience when a republican president and congressman tell us that republican department of justice and republican fbi are actually representative of the deep state. it's us versus them and the president has said if you don't beli

cnn's jeff zeleny standing by at the white house. jeff what are we expecting the president to say. >> we are going to hear from the president. the fourth such time he's delivered a speech after a major shooting in america. i am told by a white house official that the president is going to call for a plan that works, not just makes us feel better. but i'm told he's likely going to leave it there, not give specifics on gun policy. that is no surprise. in the wake of the shootings last fall, in las vegas, in the texas shooting as well, the president said that was not the time to talk about a gun policy. and, in fact, the white house has not talked about gun policy since then. republicans on capitol hill have not talked about gun policy since then. today i am told the president is going to issue a grieving speech saying his heart and thoughts, of course, are with the victims in florida. this has become sadly a rite of job of the president. president trump, told, i'm told will call for a plan that works, not just makes us feel better. jake

jeff zeleny is joining us.eff, some pretty raw emotions we're seeing. >> reporter: wolf, it was raw emotions and very personal stories from six parkland students as well as their families, as well as families of victims from columbine and sandy hook. of course those school shootings etched in our collective memory. but it was the personal stories as the president sat and listened to all of this that raised one question. will anything be different this time? president trump convening a white house listening session on gun violence in america. >> i want to listen and then after i listen, we're going to get things done. >> reporter: a week after the massacre at marjorie dy stonema douglas high school sat on each side of the president and told their stories. >> i don't understand why i can still go in a store and buy a weapon of war, an ar. i was reading today that a person 20 years old walked into a store and bought an ar-15 in five minutes with an expired i.d. how is it that easy to buy this type of weapon? how a

our coverage starts with cnn's jeff zeleny. >> reporter: good morning, rene and ryan. is the day that the classified controversial house gop memo appears to be on the verge of being released. president trump gave that order on thursday saying he read it and reviewed it. of course, this setting up a confrontation with the white house and the fbi. the fbi director whom the president appointed said he had grave concerns over the memo. the white house appears to be going ahead with it. the president on thursday gave his final go ahead to his advisers. this, of course, is the latest episode in the long running russia investigation. we know the president was calling friends and associates saying he believes the release of the memo will discredit the investigation because it will show in his view bias in the top ranks of the fbi. democrats are crying foul. they believe it should not be released and a matter of national security. the justice department and fbi believe the same thing. after the president signs off on it, the house intelligence committee expected to release it t

there he is, jeff zeleny at the white house. first time we're hearing from sarah sanders after so many things have happened over the course of the last couple of days. russia and everything that falls from that indictment in friday and certainly the russia investigation. as you and jamie were just talking about, about guns. one different person, one different player in this equation here in washington, in a debate we've seen time and time again. that new player is president trump. will he take a leadership position and roll with his party? he has sort of the history of being on both sides of this. before he joined politics, before he ran for office, he was in favor of some type of ban on assault weapons. of course, he changed his position during the campaign. of course, gun is the topic. i was in palm beach with him over the weekend when he was supposed to be getting a break in mar-a-lago over president's weekend. tweeting saying he has done more than the obama administration. that has to be unpacked and fact checked with the wh

for more on the president's search for a solution for school shootings, let's bring in jeff zeleny at the white house. >> reporter: christine and alex, president trump said he wants to do what his predecessors have been unable to do. that is some type of action on guns. he held the second listening session with state and local open officials on thursday. one day after he met with students and family members from the parkland, florida shooting and other shootings from columbine and sandy hook. the presideresident delivered t talk. he said more guns in schools would prevent more shootings. >> we have to harden our schools. not soften them up. a gun-free zone to a killer or somebody that wants to be a killer, that's like going in for the ice cream. that's like here i am. take me. they see that as a beautiful target. they live for gun-free zones. >> reporter: on top of arming officials and school officials, the president proposed to raise the age limit to purchase weapons. from 18 to 21 years of age. that is opposed by the national rifle association. raj shah said the president is not ent

the fbi head s to an escalation point tomorrow. >> certainly, jeff zeleny, at the white house. thank you. >>> one of the president's most trusted adviser. hope hicks and possible obstruction of justice. jim sciutto is here with us. >> that's right, we know this is a line inquiry for the special could counsel. you have donald trump offering dirt by hillary clinton by a russian lawyer. what followed the meeting in attempt to obscure the actual subject of this was in that room. that raises a question of possible obstruction of justice. >> special counsel robert is scrutinizing a meeting between president trump and his aid on air force one last year. it is part of the probe whether mr. trump obstructed justice. former trump's legal team is expected to be asked about it when he's interviewed by mueller's team in the next two weeks. cnn reported that the president helped craft a misleading meeting, and a russia lawyer offering dirt on hillary clin n clinton. e-mails from trump jr. jr. contradicted with that. the white house communication director, hope hicks, told president trump tho

. >> let's go to our senior white house correspondent jeff zeleny. he's over at the white house for us. jeff, how much pressure do we expect the president to put on the republican-led congress on this sensitive issue of gun control in the united states? >> the president is certainly talking tough about this. it's the second day in a row he's held some type of listening process about gun policy. he said he spent last evening on the phone with members of congress, both the house and senate, wants to urge them to act. the question, of course, is act to do what? we've seen just a stream of ideas come out from him on social media this morning as well as in that event with some state and local officials, everything from providing more weapons for officials and teachers at schools to erasing the age limit for some types of guns. that will be controversial with the nra. the nra has said it does not support raising the age limit to purchase weapons. but it is clear that the president said he wants to be the president to do something on guns. he said, too many

jeff zeleny joins us live.he word out is that hope hicks, the president's communications director, will testify for the house intelligence committee tomorrow. what do you know about that? >> she is scheduled to testify tomorrow. this is something that has been awhile in coming. we know hope hicks has sat down for hours with the special counsel, robert mueller, and his team of lawyers. and she is scheduled to be on capitol hill tomorrow answering questions from the house intelligence committee. it is an open question if she takes any questions. what i mean by that is steve bannon, the former chief strategist of the white house, was also appearing before the house intelligence committee several weeks ago, essentially declining to answer questions, citing executive privilege there. so it's unclear if hope hicks will answer questions tomorrow or simply show up to this meeting and say she can't answer questions. so that is something that we will find out tomorrow as the day goes on. don, it's important to point out

jeff zeleny is live for us at the white house. also joining us is shimon procupecz with who broke the story. hello to all of you. shimon, i'm going to start with you. what is at the center of what they're investigating now? >> we know special counsel robert mueller has been asking the last few months about jared kushner's business dealings prior to the investigation. mueller is asking about discussions kushner had with potential chinese and qatari investors. this is the first time the special counsel is asking about relationships he had with russia. the discussions revolved around 666 fifth avenue, which the kushner company owns, and there are financial issues. the building is in debt by over a billion dollars. we're told that the special counsel hasn't asked kushner companies for information. he also has not asked for any interviews with any of the executives from the kushner company, and a special counsel spokesperson declined to comment for the story. but we did get a statement from jared kushner's attorney earlier this evening

i want to get straight to cnn's jeff zeleny at the white house. jeff, what can you tell us? >> dana, good afternoon. we do know that president trump has indeed signed the order to declassify this house republican memo that he has been studying and reading for the last several days. he just spoke about this a few moments ago in the oval office at the end of another event. we'll be hearing from that shortly, but he did talk about what he's been talking about for days now, what he believes the bias in the top ranks of the fbi against him. of course, this all goes back to the trump campaign, the beginnings of the russia investigation. he is making the argument that the fbi was biased against him in their application for a fisa warrant, for a wire tap warned essentially here. this document written by house republicans is going to be released later today. word is being sent from here at the white house over to capitol hill and the speaker's office to have that three and a half page memo released that will go into at least some detail, again, from the perspective of supporters of t

let's to go jeff zeleny. you were in the briefing. how is the white house explaining what appear to be clear inconsistencies in the time line today? >> reporter: well, sarah sanders tried to explain in one word when she was asked who is telling the truth, who is giving version of the events, the fbi or the white house, she said both are. today's version had the press secretary essentially trying to say that it was this office of white house personnel security that was essentially to blame for this. that they were still working this. she did say for the first time, trying on clear up some of these discrepancies, that yes, the fbi's portion of the investigation was closed. then they required more field work. i am told that is to refute what rob porter was saying, or going back to look at more information about what he was doing saying there. what sarah sanders did not say was who in the west wing got that information are that office. was it white house chief of staff john kelly? don mcgahn's office? one thing saw today, sarah sanders sa

jeff zeleny, cnn, the white house. >>> other news involving the trump administration, u.s. of state rex tillerson is in argentina, the latest stop in what could be called a fence mending tour of latin america. he will also advivisit peru, colombia and jamaica. >> and among the topics discussed friday, trade, drugs and even russian interference in elections. on that, secretary tillerson had some sage advice. listen. >> you asked about russian interference in mexican elections. all i can say to you is we know that russia has fingerprints in a number of elections around the world. we hear this from our european counterparts as well. my advice would be to mexico would be pay attention. >> the pentagon under the old nuclear arms policy on friday puts simply the united states wants more nuclear weapons, not fewer. >> defense secretary james mattis says it is looking reality in the eye. it is also reversing course after years of trying to reduce the united states nuclear arsenal. >> and it comes as north korea gets closer to becoming a nuclear danger, but an old foe is still front

we'll start with jeff zeleny and new details on how russians allegedly worked to influence the 2016 election. jeff? >> reporter: president trump spending the weekend at his presidential retreat in mar-a-lago, florida. of course in the wake of the indictments back in washington, certainly hanging over the trump administration once again. for more than a year, the president has been saying the russia meddling investigation is a hoax, a witch hunt. that was proven to be not true, at least in the view of the department of justice. handing down 13 indictments, the most sweeping case yet of russian meddling in the 2016 election. of course the president has said that simply nothing happened. he's recounted the fact that when he talked to vladimir putin in vietnam during the summit, he denied russian meddling. the department of justice today said that was simply not the case. they went song and verse in a 37-page sweeping indictment about how the st. petersburg internet factory simply meddled in the election, in this u.s. election here. the president, though, had this to say on twitter in response -

more now from senior white house correspondent jeff zeleny. >> reporter: something of a bombshell at the white house with jared kushner, the president's senior adviser and, of course son-in-law, no longer age to look at the nation's -- no longer able to look at the nation's top-secret information here. chief of staff john kelly has made good on his plan to clean house in the security clearance front. jared kushner, of course, for the last 13 months or so, has been operating under a temporary security clearance. in the wake, of course, of the resignation of staff secretary rob porter, the chief of staff said that he was going to institute a tighter policy for security clearances. jared kushner, the most prominent person to fall under that. this, of course, will affect how he does his job. he's the -- essentially the leader on middle east peace. now he and his supporters say he's going to continue doing his job. he's going to stay on here. but without the top-secret security clearance, it will be done in a different way. questions about jared kushner's security clearance and his standi

cnn's jeff zeleny joins us from the white house. , this was the first white house briefing since the shooting in parkland. talk about what we learned and some of the messaging from the white house on this. >> anderson, it was the first briefing and certainly it was not long enough to answer all the questions that are still hanging over the white house tonight. first and foremost you remember the tweet the president made over the weekend essentially blaming the fbi for focusing too much on the russia investigation to miss the warning signs in florida? white house press secretary sarah sanders tried walking that back. she said look, this was the act of a deranged individual, in her words, and she said the president essentially didn't mean that. but she went on to say that the fbi's attention on what she called a hoax, the russian collusion situation, has dominated their time. but then she went on to say in greater words than the president has that russia did indeed meddle in the election. but it was a split screen conversation, still t

[ applause ] >> let's get straight to cnn senior white house correspondent jeff zelenis. what more came out of that meeting? >> reporter: the president talked almost exclusively for about an hour with the nation's governors about gun policy measures saying it is a time to do something. of course that's a big if and what that will be. the president did renew his call for arming school teachers. he talked again and again about how he thought that would be something that would ward off a school shooter. it would harden schools, in his words. he even mocked and questioned the honor and valor of some of the broward county sheriff's deputies and said if he was there he would have run into the school without a gun. perhaps that's a moment of braggadocio there. but he said mental health services need to be strengthened and fortified. i spoke with governor scott after that to talk about arming school teachers. he opposes that proposal the president supports. governor, you believe arming school teachers isn't the way to go. why? >> i believe you ought to make sure you have law enfo

. >> jeff zeleny joining us from the white house briefing room. the brief something scheduled to start right now. really, any second. i wonder how the white house is responding. we'll hear this in the briefing to admiral rogers' really extraordinary testimony. >> good afternoon, brianna. the white house has not responded to the testimony we're hearing on capitol hill. that is one of the topics i expect we'll hear from sarah sanders. this is the second time this month alone that the white house has been faced with the leader of their own intelligence community on capitol hill saying they've not been given any directives from this white house on how to combat cyber attacks in russia. this is the second time in as many weeks this is feeding into the narrative, the question here. the president spent so much time talking about the russia investigation, calling it a wich hunt again but has fa spespent less time talking about what he will do about that meddling. on both the house and senate side, under testimony by republicans and democrats saying yes, t

i want to go to jeff zeleny at the white house. what is the reaction to this tonight? >> reporter: erin, no question about it, people around the building walk on egg shells when jared kushner name is mentioned. senior adviser, but more importantly son-in-law. but today's bombshell reality he no longer has the top secret security clearance is raising questions what his clearance may be. he's going to continue doing his job. but the reality here is without the security clearance, that top secret security clearance, he will be unable to do the job he has been doing. now, he had ap ability to ask the president to intervene him. i'm told by white house official he did not want special treatment. and the president signalled it was up to white house staff john kelly to make decision on future. it appears it actually happened like that. that jared kushner did not ask for special treatment. but, erin, on a day like this, when jared kushner was on capitol hill and then holding a conversation about prison reform, it was clear that he did not necessarily expect this. but he is goi

i want to get more with cnn's senior white house correspondent jeff zeleny in south florida for us. the president just arrived there, in fact. >> reporter: he did indeed, brianna. he arrived here in south florida a short time ago. he said he intends to visit at some point the site of the shooting earlier this week, that he does plan to spend the rest of the weekend at his mar-a-lago retreat. but he was talking of course before he left the white house earlier today about this stunning indictment. now, he did get first hand information. the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein went to brief the president on this earlier today. of course the president has long called this a hoax. he has long called the whole idea of russian meddling nothing more than a witch hunt. back in november the president said he talked to vladimir putin and believed his denials on this. the justice department said today they did not and laid out in sweeping fashion the extent to which the meddling actually unfolded. now, the president of course put out a statement essentially saying it exonerated him from all

jeff zeleny, stand by. to get a better understanding as to what this downgraded security clearance means for jared kushner and his work in the white house, i want to bring in our military and diplomatic analyst, retired rear admiral john kirby. you've had a top-secret security clearance at the state department, at the pentagon. walk us through the difference between what kushner had, an interim top-secret, sci security kpleerns, clearance, as opposed to what he has now. >> sure thing, wolf. it's important to remember there are three levels of security clearance. confidential, secret, and top-secret. we're going to break down the differences between top-secret and secret. it's also important to also remember that it's not just your clearance that matters, whether you get access to information and material. it's whether there's a need to know, whether you actually have to have it to do your job. so with that, let's take a look. top secret is the highest level of clearance, most sensitive information. if it's

i want to get right now to cnn's jeff zeleny and get the reporting on that. evening to you. what have you learned? >> don, good evening. ivanka trump is back home tonight after leading that u.s. delegation to south korea to the closing ceremonies of the olympic games. by all accounts inside the white house, the trip was a success. we are hearing from some west wing officials that they were far less enthusiastic going into it and here's why. she had a high stakes meeting with president moon in south korea where she talked about those new sanctions against north korea. this is the latest example of the blurred lines between a senior advisor and the president's daughter. she said it was inappropriate to be asked about the sexual misconduct against her father. she said, i don't think that's a question you would ask many other daughters. but of course ivanka trump hardly like anyone else, any other daughter, she stands alone here. and again we're learning tonight some west wing officials not enthusiastic about her trip. including chief of staff john kelly. one per

let's bring in jeff zeleny. you're hearing more from the white house now about why this memo was allowed to go public. >> reporter: the president believes that the top ranks of the fbi is against him. he made that pretty plain when he was speaking there in the oval office earlier today. the big question here, wolf, you just said right there, deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, you could see the look on his face there. by saying "you figure that one out" certainly leaves open a question as we stand on a friday afternoon. if the deputy attorney general, who oversees the special counsel's investigation, where he stands with this president and with this white house. the president would not thaens. i've asked multiple white house aides and officials here what they meant by that. they've not been able to shed any more light on it. at this point, that was the question going forward here. will the president try and get rid of rod rosenstein? will he allow him to stay? unclear. the president clearly believes this dis

jeff zeleny, appreciate that. with us, democratic congressman jerrold nadler, ranking member of the house judiciary committee. congressman, i'm wondering what you make of this. the idea that the president was talking about releasing it saying 100% we're going to release it without having even read it. >> well, he obviously expected that this would in some way discredit the investigation. this is the latest step in a concerted campaign by the president to disable, discredit and attack the russia investigation. >> you have no doubt that's what it's about? >> it's clearly about that. and the real significance -- the real significance is the republicans in congress have now crossed the rubicon. until now we criticized them for standing idly by and doing nothing while the president trashed the fbi and department of justice and the other agencies we depend on to protect us and protect our security and did everything he could to sabotage an investigation of the russian interference in our election. now you have to say th

jeff zeleny is outfront at the white house. president did comments on twitter, that he believes will make schools safer. also heard him say he wants to get rid of though at the same time active shooter drills. how serious is he about that step? >> reporter: well, jim, there was certainly one stripping of consistent thought in the president's view on what should be done here. first, he voiced a lot of concern and ideas on social media. then again during a listening session with state and local officials. and one theme was to have more guns in schools. he said gun free zones in school, sign outside that says gun free zone is a welcome mat, if you will for shooters. sew said that school officials, coaches or teachers should be armed if they are prepared for that. he said not all of them, of course, will want to do it. but he talked about again and again about school teachers being armed. it's a deterrent. but we have all heard suicide by cop. this is what shooters do. this if played out would be suicide by history teacher perhaps.

our chief national security correspondent jim sciutto and our senior white house correspondent jeff zelenye security clearances that he had, they were temporary security clearances, not the full security clearances. even though he'd been there for more than a year and was dealing with some of the most sensitive issues affecting the president. >> i've spoken to a number of former intelligence officials involved in previous administrations, and they say very simply this is unusual, particularly for a position like this, where you are a gatekeeper to the president. as staff secretary you are in effect handling the information flow to the president. so you're going to see an enormous amount of classified material, highly classified material in that role. we now know why it was an interim security clearance, because in the background check the fbi spoke to ex-wives who said he had been guilty of spousal abuse. that is an enormous for obvious reasons red flag during a background check. today as you heard raj shah, he he repeatedly laid off responsibility for this in effect on the security cleara

we go to jeff zeleny. answer to the degree you can and is this the first time that the chief of staff was asked this question? >> this is not the first time he was asked. we know the president is capable of being furious at someone and keeping them in their position. look at attorney general jeff sessions, for example. he's been furious at him for months, but he remains. so i'm told by talking to multiple people here that the president may be upset with the handling of this, but is not in any way, shape or form ready to dismiss him or get rid of him over this. the question here, john, i think, is an internal white house one. what did the chief of staff know? multiple white house officials we are talking to last evening and this morning say there was a sense that something was amiss, that he was not getting the security clearance for a reason. but rob porter misled, in the words of white house officials now saying he misled many of them about the serious nature of these allegations, about the serious nature

jeff zeleny, cnn. >>> as you might expect, democrats in congress have plenty to say on the matter. here is just a sampling of their reaction. >> on page one of this indictment is the following sentence. from in and around 2014 to the present, defendants knowingly and intentionally conspired with each other and here is the relevant language and with persons known and unknown to the grand jury to defraud the united states, et cetera, et cetera. this indictment of these 13 individuals is not the end of it. just like the indictments of mr. manafo manafort, mr. gates, mr. flynn and mr. papadopoulous weren't the end of it at all. it will continue. >> what donald trump does in my opinion is less important than what people say and do. they ought to be outraged and furious. it was in fact informational warfare. that is the term the russians used to describe it. and it is repeated in the indictment. and it went on for years. >> the indictment is a clear message to all americans that the russians are now criminally held responsible for influencing the election. there has been so much by the p

cnn's jeff zeleny is waiting for the president to arrive. >> reporter: he will be arriving within the hour. you are right. he has repeatedly called this russian investigation a hoax and a witch hunt again and again from the oval office and at rallies. today justice department said that is not the case. this sweeping indictment has really upended everything the president has said about this. remember last november after meeting vladimir putin briefing during the apex summit in vietnam, he said he believes him when he denied meddling in the election of today justice department filed the first indictments in this case. the white house still holding firm. there was no collusion. we had two statements. let's look at both. first from the white house press secretary sarah sanders. she said this. the special counsel's investigation further indicates there was no collusion, all caps, between the trump campaign and russia, and that the election was not affected. in a second statement oceans to say this. we cannot allow those to sow confusion. it is time to stop the the are farfetched theories w

jeff zeleny, cnn, the white house. >>> the fired government employee who triggered the false alert in hawaii says he's being treated unfairly. he feels terrible but he did what he was trained to do now. we have more from hawaii news with the report. >> systemwide t, the failure, unannounced, unplanned drill, during transition time during shifts is a very vulnerable time. people weren't ready. >> employee one, as the state identifies him says he just logged on to his computer, saturday, january 13 at the hawaii emergency management agency when the phone rang. i was supposed to be on speakerphone, but someone picked up the receiver and the first part of the message exercise was not heard. >> reporter: what he did hear, instead, was not part of any language he heard before during an exercise. >> the message i heard was that this is not a drill and i did not hear exercise in the message, at all. >> reporter: he pushed the proverbial button, an option senting out the alert to hawaii cell phones that a ballistic missile was on the way. >> i was 100% sure it was real. did what i was trained

official told my colleague jeff zeleny that the office was akin to what an hr would be in a private sector. they take information and pass it on which is not what the white house was saying today. >> i was listening closely, and she did not use the word claiming that the white house security personnel office was doing investigation. she didn't say that. she said their process hadn't been completed. despite what sanders continuing to make it sound like there is distance. that office is part of the white house. either way, we know mcgahn and chief of staff john kelly were aware of these allegations for some time. >> reporter: that is right. we should not let what is important here get lost in what the white house is saying. seven-days since that first story on porter broke. today was the first day the white house mentioned this security officer. we know based on cnn reporting is that the white house counsel don mcgahn knew about these allegations and john kelly knew about these allegations and other officials knew about these allegations and not only did they allow porter to work in the whit

we begin coverage with jeff zeleny in the white house. what do we know about how much the chief of staff knew? >> rob porter's job was to control what the president sees and what he doesn't see in the oval office. we are told chief of staff john kelly had known about this for months. rob porter said he was part of a coordinated smear campaign. he said that as the white house was trying to explain and contain the fallout. >> reporter: few people stood closer to president trump. even a hand shake with chinese preside president. some top officials new about the allegations for months. >> rob has been effective in his role. >> reporter: porter responsible for every document that came into the president's hand even classified once despite having a security clearance. denying security clearance last fall. white house communication director hope hicks has been in a romantic relationship with porter aides tell cnn. despite he was involved in crafting the initial denial to the abuse allegations. porter first wife told cnn started shortly after the

our senior white house correspondent jeff zeleny joins us.resident insists giving teachers guns will save lives. >> reporter: the president has said this for several days in a row. he believes arming schoolteachers and other official who is are qualified would save lives and be a deterrent to shooters. he did leave out the idea to increase ah the age limit to buy a rifle from age 18 to 21. as he spoke in front of a conservative audience, the nra sponsored pac. the president said it's high time to stop the cycle of massacres in the american schools. >> the problem is people have talked over the last 20 years. it's all talk. it's no action. and we're going to take action. >> reporter: the president said protecting the nation's children can't be left to security guards or school police officers alone. pointing to the florida deputy who waited outside last week's shoot thing without rushing in. >> a security guard doesn't know the children. doesn't love the children. this man standing outside is school the other day doesn't love the children. pro