christine and dave. >>> jeff zeleny at the white house. a cnn exclusive. claims from former "playboy" model karen mcdougal about her alleged affair with donald trump. >> we saw each other at minimum five times a month and up to bigger numbers per month. >> over the course of how long? >> over the course of 2006 through i think i ended the relationship april of 2007. we saw each other frequently. >> mcdougal's alleged affair came to light before the election. she tells cnn she traveled to meet trump and he would reimburse her for the flights. he one time offered her money for things other than the fli t flights. >> after we were intimate, he tried to pay me. >> he tried to actually hand you money? >> he did. i had this look of -- i don't know. i don't know how to describe the look on my face must have been so sad. i have never been offered money like that, number one. number two, does he think i'm in this for money or why i'm here tonight or is this a normal thing. i looked at him and i said that's not me. i'm not that kind of girl. he said oh, you're reall

christine and dave. >> jeff zeleny, thank you. >>> "the wall street journal" reporting charges dropped against recep tayyip erdogan's security team. some charges were dismissed last year and others dropped last month right before secretary of state rex tillerson flew to ankara with meetings with erdogan. no one pressured prosecutors to drop the charges for political purposes. hard to believe that. bloody mess. >>> the austin serial bomber with a recorded confession minutes before police got to him. >> he talks about what he has done. i would classify this as a confession. >> but the bomber's motive is still a mystery. i'm g th k behind . and with godaddy, i've made my ideas real. ♪ ♪ i made my own way, now it's time to make yours. ♪ ♪ everything is working, working, just like it should ♪ "i have antivirus, but my computer's still slow..." "that's not right..." "maybe if i reboot..." "what's with all the popups?" "why does it keep on crashing?" "this is taking forever." "i think it's time for the fixmestick." fixmestick is a plug-in virus removal device. it's the smart, simple, safe way

first, let's go to our senior white house correspondent, jeff zeleny. jeff, tell us about this new shake up in the trump legal team. >> good evening, wolf. the president's lead lawyer in the russia investigation, john dowd, resigned today. this is coming after days of disagreements inside the president's legal team about how he should proceed going forward hear. we do no, of course, he hired a new lawyer a couple of days ago. so this is just the outgrowth of that. but when the president is in the diplomatic reception room earlier today, we asked him a key question. would he like to testify still before bob mueller's special counsel. >> mr. president, would you still like to testify to special counsel robert mueller, sir? >> thank you. i would like to. >> reporter: so the president there is saying directly, "i would like to," but wolf, that has been the subject of some of this disagreement here between some of the lawyers. john dowd, of course, the lead lawyer here was not advising that. he was hoping the president would not testify. so now we will see ho

christine and dave. >> jeff zeleny, thank you. >>> "the wall street journal" reporting charges dropped against recep tayyip erdogan's security team. they were accused of beating protesters during a visit to washington last year. that is right. another country's security manhandling protesters in washington, d.c. some charges were dismissed last year and others dropped last month right before secretary of state rex tillerson flew to ankara with meetings with erdogan. no one pressured prosecutors to drop the charges for political purposes. >> hard to forget that. >>> eight days after the special election, rick saccone conceding the race. connor lamb is ready to be sworn in to get to work. he will have to run again in november. lamb led saccone by 600 votes. saccone considered asking for a recount, but president trump effectively conceded on his behalf at an event tuesday night. that caught a lot of people off guard. there had been no concession and president trump talked about him losing. >>> the austin serial bomber with a recorded confession minutes before police got to him. >> he talk

cnn's jeff zeleny is at the white house for us. the former va secretary is defending what was a controversial trip that contributed to his firing. what is he saying? >> reporter: he is, good morning. we have known for days and weeks that the veterans affairs secretary david shulkin has been on thin ice here at the white house. he's one of several cabinet members who had some expensive flights and other matters that did not sit well with the president. there were also some other disagreements about the privatization of some medical services at the va, but we did hear from david shulkin, an interview with npr. he was explaining how he believes he was innocent in all of this. let's take a listen to this interview this morning. >> this was being characterized as a european vacation. it was far from that. this was official business on nights and weekends. i went out, never used government money for that. the single expenditure spent was on a coach airfare for my wife who was officially invited. >> the trip he's talking about ended up in

jeff zeleny did the reporting on the curious timing of the bolton story, who's also the one trying to get answers from the president today. jeff joining us now from the white house. the president not wanting to say anything at all about this today. >> reporter: anderson, he did not. we asked him questions, shouted questions to him as he was leaving the white house south lawn. at the end of a very busy day here, a very tumultuous week here. clearly did not want to answer these questions. it was notable he was walking alone. melania trump, the first lady, was -- arrived separately to andrews air force base outside washington. we, of course, saw them departing there in west palm beach, florida, but certainly, there was a sense here today, anderson, this was a different moment. as for the announcement of john bolton, i was told by administration officials that this did play a part in it. it was always scheduled to happen, but it was going to be announced as part of a bigger group of announcements. now, of course, the president controls the timing on all of this. he was also furious this w

for more here is jeff zeleny at the white house. >> reporter: christine and dave, the white house is dealing with questions about stormy daniels, the adult actress and porn star and her relationship with president trump before the campaign in 2016. was the was there hush money paid to her? the white house press briefing on wednesday, i asked sarah sanders, the white house press secretary, if the president knew about the payment. >> did he know about the payment at the time? >> i addressed this as far as i can go. >> did he know about the payment at the time? >> not that i'm aware of. there was no knowledge of payments from the president. he has denied all of the allegations. i addressed the question extensively. >> reporter: she tried to say she answered the questions and referred the other questions to the outside lawyer. the fact is the questions remain. the white house says it has been asked and answered before the election. the reality is these are new questions because of new legal information. a busy week for the white house and it is thursday. dave and christine. >> now it is

i want to bring in cnn's senior white house correspondent jeff zeleny. he joins us by phone. thank you so much. why was the time line for mcmaster's firing? why was it moved up? >> reporter: well, don there was no question there was a sense inside the white house all day long that the president was not pleased with the storyline that was going on. a, with the firing or the resignation if you will of john dowd but also the extraneous talk about other people who he has been involved with, other -- the stormy daniels and other situations. so he was clearly trying to -- white house officials believe, move up the time line of this. now, i was told by two white house officials tonight that they were not expecting the news of the new national security adviser to come tonight at all. they were expecting it would come as part of a larger rollout of other staff members. but it was accelerated in their view to potentially change the storyline. so we have john bolton as the new national security adviser. he said he was surprised by this in an interview with fox news earlier this evening.

let's start in the briefing room with our senior white house correspondent jeff zeleny. jeff, just bring us up to speed on who could be on the outs and especially this line about how at least it looks like john kelly, according to sources, is 100% safe. true? >> well, brooke, good afternoon. the only one who knows that for certain, of course, is the president. as we've been saying all week long the president controls the timing of any announcements, any firings, any hirings. the reality here is that this is the president's situation and staff to control. this is certainly something he started and fueled as the week went along, saying change is good. he signaled that he was almost ready to build a cabinet he was comfortable with, suggesting, of course, he want ed ed to make s changes. that has sort of fueled, you know, an intense week of speculation and questions and rumors. people here in the white house and, indeed, agencies across washington, quite frankly, have been wondering where they stand, where their bosses stand. as we sit here or stand here on a friday afternoon

jeff zeleny, thank you. we'll come back to more of that. >>> also this porn star, playmate and reality tv star, the chorus of women from president donald trump's past is getting louder. in the last 24 hours, results of the polygraph test found that porn star stormy daniels was telling the truth about her alleged affair with donald trump. a second woman is now suing to get out of the nondisclosure agreement and a state court ruled that a third woman can sue the president himself in connection with yet another alleged incident. with me now mj lee, cnn national political reporter. so this stormy daniels has gone from pretty cagey about her allegations, speaking primarily to her lawyer to now she is not holding back on her twitter feed. let's talk a little bit about what she has been saying. >> brooke, the fact that she even tweeted about this is actually really telling. you're right. she has been cagey. she has avoided major questions about her alleged affair with donald trump and the whole payout that she rece

>> great reporting, jeff zeleny at the white house. appreciate it. get back to work. head as we wait. >>> to jeff's point, the caucus says veto it, mr. president, conservatives saying this is a horrible bill, more spending than president obama ever got out of the republican house. veto it, mr. president. the president builds up hope among his own base that he's going to do something and now he's going to come in and sign it. he's going to propose tariffs on everybody. he angers the world and then creates all these exceptions. what is it? >> he's going to anger both sides, that's the problem. he could have owned it, taken the message to the republicans yesterday. they have some victories, it's not a perfect bill, but instead now he's not happy with it. why are you signing a bill you're not happy with? but the bottom line is, if there is a shutdown, there really is no way out of a shutdown right now and inevitably he would be blamed for the shutdown and have more trouble reopening the government. >> i suppose a lot of republicans would be mad if they shut down the govern

cnn's jeff zeleny is at the white house. jeff, what are you hearing about trump's unusual silence on these allegations? >> brianna, it's unusual indeed, but the silence has really extended into other matters. we have not seen the president in a public setting here at the white house, a public event on his schedule all week long. that is quite unusual for him to go essentially the whole week so far without saying anything. but it is, of course, these questions about stormy daniels white house officials simply do not want him to be in the position of being asked these. but yesterday at the white house press briefing, we asked white house press secretary sarah sanders why the silence. >> why the silence sm is someone advising him to be silent? >> i don't think it's silent when the president has addressed this. we've addressed it extensively. there's just nothing else to add. just because you guys continue to ask the same question over and over and over again doesn't mean that we have to keep coming up with new things to say. we'

jeff zeleny. interestingly steve bannon talking today saying if kelly is fired he doesn't think the president will bother with another chief of staff. he'll run it all himself. outfront know gloria borger hour chief political and list, and julia former assistant secretary for the homeland security. juliet, yes, we knew mcmaster was a dead man walking. this was a major shake-up. national security adviser and this is a huge change. >> it is a huge change. not just for the white house, but obviously for all the agencies in the national and homeland security space who look to mcmaster's office as a semblance of sanity in the insanity. and so this comes the same week that the secretary of state rex tillerson has left. so you have unease there. you have a shift from the cia head over to the state departments, you've got lots of moving pieces. with agencies that don't like chaos, for obvious reasons. they like order because their job is to maintain order. so my quick takeaways from this is if a president

for the latest, we go to jeff zeleny at the white house. jeff. >> reporter: christine and dave, the headlines of the newspapers, hope hicks leaving the white house. stirring more concern in the west wing. of the resignations from staff members to the cabinet members, few have hit home to the president like hope hicks. one of his closest advisers. she has been with him since before he decided to run for presidents. she decide -- president. she decided to leave the white house. she will leave in the coming weeks. she wants to pursue other opportunities outside of the administration. it raises questions of why. why the timing? she made her decision one day after testifying for some eight hours before the intelligence committee. two months after she testified and took questions from the special counsel robert mueller's probe. there is no sign she is a target of the investigation. no sign she is more than a witness. she has such proximity to president trump. the resignation of hope hicks, one of the bigger bombshells here, in a year of staffing s

jeff zeleny is at the white house live for us. jeff, what are you hearing about why the president is so angry with sarah sanders? >> reporter: well, brianna, certainly another day here when many people inside this white house would prefer to talk about trade. of course, there is enough drama surrounding that decision, but more on that in a minute. there is certainly tension inside the west wing about the whole stormy daniels situation, that it has indeed reached the white house for the first time. this is the first time really that this is drawn in. the white house, for more than a year, has been trying to keep this controversy outside, saying this has been asked and answered. of course, yesterday in the white house press briefing when i was asking the press secretary sarah sanders about this, it opened up this can of worms. this is what she said. >> the president has addressed these directly and made very well clear that none of these allegations are true. this case has already been won in arbitration. >> you said there is arbitra

jeff zeleny begins outfront live at the white house. this is stunning, no one more close to the president every step of the way, emotional crush as it was cridescribed to me. what are you learning about her stunning departure? >> reporter: no questions, we talked about resignation, this one is different. hope hicks was not ha political expert but she was a donald trump expert. she worked for him longer than virtually anyone else on staff. she joined right before he decided to announce for president. and was along with him entire way. and sat just steps outside the oval office. saw everything he did. she played a major role here. so this is coming across as a major bombshell. people across the west wing were surprise. people were crying. they were upset. in fact when she held a meeting with the few small staffers who report to her, she was crying and upset. because she wants because she said she wants to pursue other things. unclear. but the timing is what it is. hours and hours after a couple of days of testimony in a december to a bob

. >> let's go to our senior white house correspondent jeff zeleny. jeff, do we know when the president made this decision of what the white house is now saying about how secretary tillerson was actually informed? >> reporter: well, just to walk you through a bit of the timeline here, the secretary of state landed at joint base andrews just outside washington around 4:00 a.m. he was in africa for more than a week. less than five hours later, about four and a half hours later or so, this news was announced on twitter. we do know that the secretary of state was informed by white house chief of staff john kelly last friday into saturday. he was in africa. that the president had made a decision tro relieve him of his duties but did not say when that would happen. so employees here at the white house were surprised when the president made the announcement of the timing here, certainly no surprise that bad blood between the two had boiled over. it had been simmering, they were not on the same page here, but certainly a surprise to the state department that t

let's go to our senior white house correspondent jeff zeleny. jeff, what more can you tell us about the turmoil and the idea that the president seems to be enjoying all of this? >> there's no question that president trump has spent much of the week fueling this expectation himself. he has said publicly a couple different times change is good, and he is about to change some members of his cabinet to have it just like he would like it to be. so that is built up here. certainly in conversations here at the white house and indeed across washington and different administrations wondering who could be the next to be a fired or dismissed. so much so that there was a hash tag firing friday that was going around on line on twitter. but now white house aides are urging and advising aides to focus on their work. they're trying to dial back this speculation that anybody is going to be fired immediately. we do know, as you said, the national security adviser, h.r. mcmaster, could be among the senior advisers next on the list, if you will. the president has be

jeff zeleny at the white house. joining us to discuss all of this, legal analyst michael zelden. he was over the department of justice. jennifer tubb is with us. and mia malika henderson. there must be a tipping point but a reason that the president is going after robe eithrt muel. >> he thought in the beginning he might not go on the attack. but something has changed. we know in the terms of the context where these attacks by mueller are coming from, he has subpoenaed documents from the trump foundation related to russia and other things, right? we don't know what those other things are. can you imagine if you're president trump, you're talking to your lawyers, you're talking to your lawyers about what mueller is after during the scope of this investigation. you're also hearing from your lawyers about what bob mueller wants to ask you. his lawyers are saying they don't necessarily want him to sit down with robert mueller. i think that's where all of this is coming from. there is sort of a cumulative effect where this investigation is not only not going to wrap up soon, which is

. >> let's go to our senior white house correspondent jeff zeleny. jeff, the president has been tweeting on guns and school safety today. what is he saying? because the impression based on the plan released last night was he's walking away from his earlier suggestion that raised the age limit from 18 to 21 to purchase certain guns. >> if he's tweeting and not talking about it, if the president has a bully pulpit to use, something to draw attention to an issue, he's certainly not doing so today on guns. he's not holding a public event to talk about this, so we're about one month after that parkland shooting, and of course he convened a listening session here. he talked about it extensively. now he is backing away from some of those proposals. let's take a look at what he said this morning on social media. he said it's very strong improvement and background checks will be fully backed by the white house. in legislation moving forward, bump stocks will be out. highly trained teachers will be allowed to conceal carry depending on state law. on the 18 to 2

let's get straight to the white house and bring in cnn's jeff zeleny. jeff, a lot of buzz this morning about a fire friday. how does it feel near the lunch hour? >> reporter: john, as we approach noon here, at least, in the east at the white house, the level of anxiety and apprehension certainly is palpable. people still do not know who will be in their positions coming up. but there is a sense here from top officials in the west wing telling other aides to focus on your work, try and ignore the rampant rumors of firings. they say they do not expect anything today. again, all of this could change with a simple action of a tweet. the president controls the timing here. that's what a senior white house official told me earlier today and stressed it again. the president controls the timing here. and by all accounts, he's very much enjoying this speculation as he does try and change his cabinet, change his advisers somewhat. we do believe that the national security adviser h.r. mcmaster is among the next big departures here. is that going to be today, tomorr

let's go to jeff zeleny. jeff, last week was chaotic for the president. how are they trying to change that narrative today? >> reporter: controversy from said the white house as well as the russian investigation, but it's clear the president trying to change the subject but also sparking a furious and ferocious fight with his own party over the message he announced last week about imposing tariffs on some foreign goods. now, he is sparking this fight. speaker paul ryan is doing something he has not done much in the last year or so. he is urging the president to not go ahead with those planned tariffs discussed last week. he said it would hurt american workers, it would hurt the economy here, even blamed the drop in the stock market last week to this plan. the president asked directly about this in the oval office. he had this to say. >> we're not backing down. mexico is -- had a very bad deal with mexico, a very bad deal with canada. it's called nafta. our factories have left our country, our jobs have left our country. for many years nafta has been a dis

jeff zeleny is at the white house for us tonight.ed about other possible staff changes that may be coming down the pike? >> reporter: you're definitely getting the sense of a spring cleaning kind of mood and moment here at the white house. the president has

jeff zeleny has that. >> reporter: the white house is scrambling to follow through with what could be the biggest diplomatic gamble in generations. face-to-face talks with president trump and kim jong-un. a day after the president stunned the world by accepting it on the spot, it became clear how hard it will be. >> the president will not have a meeting without seeing concrete steps and actions by north korea. >> reporter: white house press secretary sarah sanders tried delivering a clear message. >> the maximum pressure campaign. the process has been ongoing. the united states is going to continue that maximum pressure campaign. >> reporter: left many questions unanswered about the nuclear program. >> how will the president and the united states be able to verify this before the meeting? >> that's something that will be determined through the national security and intelligence meeting. >> the previous president's predecessors have misplayed this. why can he be so confident this is the right move when in october, he said this would be a waste of time? >> it's clear may misplayed it or

our senior white house correspondent jeff zeleny is at the white house. senior international correspondent fred pleitgen is in moscow. jeff, fill us in on these sanctions and the delay by the administration in imposing them. >> wolf, this is the sweeping effort, the toughest effort the trump administration has announced in the last year against russia. there is a level of familiarity between the 19 individuals and five organizations announced this morning in the treasury department sanctions with that indictment list from a month ago from the special counsel's office. there is significant overlap so it's the first sign the trump administration at least is taking this more seriously. of course it comes a month and a half after congress mandate ad deadline here. we asked administration officials to explain why. they said it took them that long to get it worked out but it's raised questions in the meantime if the president was serious about this. even though there is a delay, certainly tough sanctions here and it's revealing for the first time that russia was

our jeff zeleny asked sarah sanders about that. >> the president still believe or draws distinction onfinances or business finances relating to russia as it pertains to the case? >> the president believes very strongly there was no collusion between the trump campaign and russia. for questions specific to the trump organization, i would refer you to the attorneys. >> the attorney for the trump organization said the latest reports are quote old news. >> news of the mueller subpoena came it is imposing sanctions on russia and including the special counsel indicted last month. this is six weeks late. the white house also launching a new accusation against the kremlin that russian intelligence tried to hack the u.s. energy grid. in total, the sanctions apply to 19 individuals along with 5 companies and government agencies. >> those passed 98-2. >> among them, internet research agency. the troll farm cranking out posts on facebook. two agencies and employees on the list also. after the administration announced the sanctions, sarah sanders would not say if russia is a friend or foe. >> is pu

. >> we begin with cnn's jeff zeleny live at the white house. jeff, people can justifiably say it's a retreat from the president. >> reporter: john, it certainly it. the president can evade attention on something unlike any country in the world. he decided to rescind his gun plan. not talking about it, at least not scheduled to. he is taking time today to welcome the houston astros, world champion to the white house. that is the only public event on his day. john, certainly so much different than the tone and the look in his eye and the tone in his voice when he welcomed the gun victims and their families from the parkland shooting almost a month ago here, vowing to do something. he talked about the specifics he wanted to do. he held that open meeting with the lawmakers. well, the reality here is now all that has changed. yes, it's possible he could still do something else in the future, but the urgency of the moment seems to have passed him. for this point, the white house says that's all we're expected to hear on guns right now. john, certainly

first, jeff zeleny, to you. when did kudlow accept and why did the president pick him? >> brooke, we're told that the president offered a job in a phone call formally last evening and was accepted at the time. it could be announced as early as tomorrow. the president is flying from los angeles to st. louis. he will be holding an event on the economy this afternoon and wants to draw attention to the economy. look, he is trying to reshape his circle of advisers and is turning to loyal and trusted friends in many respects. of course, larry k can udlow fits that directly. he has not always been on the same page but has always been on the president's side. he is a key adviser back during the presidential campaign, back when many republicans and conservatives were keeping at arm's length, larry kudlow has been supportive. he has been at odds with the president on immigration and other matters. by and large, there's chemistry. sympatico a little bit. he is also eyeing other changes in his cabinet. hardly the ending of this revolving door we've seen spinning pretty quickly over

cnn's jeff zeleny is live at the white house with more details for us. jeff, is this not a matter of if but when it comes to shulkin? >> reporter: it seems that way. the reality is the president has long expressed privately his displeasure for what is happening at the va. he does not believe that it is being run smoothly. he was furious about some of the spending there. and simply the va has not been operating that well with all this political upheaval there. the question is timing. of course it is up to the president as we have always seen when he decides to make a change. i'm also told that the white house is looking for a replacement, so they have a replacement to sort of have on board around the same time they make this public. but in the last several weeks we have seen a top level major firing every week. so we certainly wouldn't be surprised if something happens this week but the timing is up to the president entirely when this happens. the va is a difficult spot to fill. it is basically, you know, a large administrative role, they administer health

jeff zeleny, thank you very much. jeff hit on a lot of key topic, let's broaden this out with great voice, former senator rick santorum, a former white house aid under president clinton and national reporter mae reston, welcome to all of you. mae, let me begin with you, the whole chaos tweet from the president. maybe this is trumps attempt to say, move along, nothing to see here. the part of the tweet where he is saying there are some people he wants to change. who might those people be? >> well, there is any number of people, there is always the constant debate over who's headed for the exits last week we were talking about mcmaster. there are always folks on the internal staff he is thinking about changing. the thing about the chaos is earlier in the year kelly was hoping to have a lot of the exits not kind of roll out in this same way. they wanted them to be done, so that they could focus on the agenda at hand and instead the russia investigation has completely derailed that. you know, there are a lot of people who

outfront tonight jeff zeleny live at the white house. jeff, the president announcing on twitter getting rid of david shulkin, and does it hours after hearing major development involving possible pardons. interesting timing. >> erin, no question the president knows how to change the subject and how these announces these is his own decision. he controls the timing here. we are told that the chief of staff, john kelly here at the white house, informed secretary shulkin of his firing. the president we were told did not reach out to him directly. now, all of this of course is happening after hours and hours of questions here at the white house about the potential pardon. at the white house briefing, as you were showing there. sarah sanders walked a fine line speaking in the present tense saying not that i know of, i'm not aware of. but the reality here is we know that the president has expressed some interest in pardoning them. so the interesting timing though erin is the timing last year here before flynn actually pleaded guilty. now, there m

. >> cnn's jeff zeleny is at the white house. jeff, tell us how all of this played out there. >> well, we heard the president there saying i'll be speaking to rex tillerson for a long period of time. he did not speak to his secretary of state before doing this. at least the president did not directly. we are getting a bigger picture of how exactly this unfolded. we're learning that last friday the chief of staff here at the white house, john kelly, reached out to the secretary of state rex tillerson, who is traveling in africa and told him that the president had essentially reached the end of the line here with him and he was going to replace him. but was not told any timing specifically of when that would happen. so rex tillerson, the secretary of state, flew back to the u.s. early from his trip to africa, not knowing the timing of this. of course, his demise has been rumored and long mentioned for months here in washington. but so he was taken by surprise this morning when he saw the president actually make this announcement on

cnn's jeff zeleny part of the team that broke the story. a rare 10:00 a.m.ance on "newsroom," it must be big. >> reporter: good morning. more human resources news here at the white house. another staff shake-up, of course, with the va secretary as you have been talking about all morning. we are getting some more information about how the president is viewing his essentially the reshaping of his administration. we have seen a -- a major shake-up, really every week for the last six weeks or so a top adviser to him. we're also told that he's being

our jessica schneider is with us, as well as jeff zeleny, as we're waiting a press briefing at the white house. what with do we know? >> reporter: we do know that the new york times is reporting that there's a subpoena going out to the trump organization for the first time, going after business records directly. the trump organization, as they relate to russia. certainly signaling that this, a, investigation is far from over as the president has been hoping it would be and, b, showing that it is going even more at the heart of the trump organization and closer to the president. that's what we know for now. of course, we'll be looking for white house reaction at that briefing, as you said, coming up this hour. >> of course, our washington team is all going sfwast few ii furious right now. jessica, this comes on the heels of sanctions announced today against russia for their election meddling and giving us more insight into the mueller probe. put us into context for us. >> anna, we've seen how wide ranging this regulation is from the mueller probe. this investigation might have been wrappe

i want to bring in jeff zeleny at the white house. the white house says the he president doesn't believe stormy daniels was threatened as they claimed in the "60 minutes" interview last night. >> there was not a lot of specificity. they would not say if the president watched the interview or not but said it simply didn't happen. he was asked how they know that. this is what he said. >> the president doesn't believe any of the xlams miss daniels made last night are accurate. >> he doesn't believe she was threatened. >> no. he does not. >> what is his basis for that? >> he just doesn't believe, there is nothing to corroborate her claim. >> so again not answering with any specificity why they believe her claim was inaccurate. the rather tense white house briefing today, this question being asked again and again, important to point out, michael cohen was meeting with the president saturday evening at mar-a-lago. he had dinner with him. the president certainly in conversations with him. certainly this is not over. the president at some poi

. >> let's begin with the latest reporting, jeff zeleny live at the white house. toughest action by the administration. explain why and why the president doesn't talk about it. >> it was the toughest action taken by his administration. the treasury department, if you look at the list of sanctions released this morning, it is a near mirror image targeting individuals listed on the mueller indictment from february 16, one month ago. it's striking this investigation that the president has repeatedly described as a wish hunt. his administration sees similarities but you're right, we didn't hear the president talk nearly as forcefully as his own administration has in that statement from the -- france and germany and the uk in condemning the attack but the president did for the first time say he believes it was russia so, john, one more example of the president often not speaking as strongly but no question today, these sanctions are strong. perhaps not as timely as some would have liked but they will feel them. john? >> progress, one would say. jeff zeleny at the white

our jeff zeleny asked press secretary sarah sanders about that. >> does the president still believe between a red line on family finances separately from family finances or business finances relating to the russia as it pertains to the case? >> the president believes strongly there was no collusion between the trump campaign and russia. we will continue to cooperate with the special counsel and for questions specific to the trump organization, i would refer you to them. >> attorney for the trump organization said in a statement the latest reports are quote old news. >> reports of the mueller subpoena came after the trump administration announced new sanctions on russia. including people the special counsel indicted last month. the administration, six weeks late, meeting a mandate to impose punishments on moscow for the meddling in the 2016 elections. the white house also lodging a new accusation against the kremlin. that russian intelligence tried to hack the u.s. energy grid. in total, the sanctions applied to 19 individuals and 5 companies and government agencies. >> among them, internet

let's go to cnn's jeff zeleny at the white house. giving conflicting amounts of what he will announce later today, how presumptive it may be. what do we know after listening to the president? >> reporter: i think we have a pretty clear window of why there has been confusion at the white house. just listen to the president talk about that. a, it's complicated, of course, as all these agreements are, but he's also conflating and mixing some things here. but there has been confusion at the white house. yesterday they were preparing for a 3:30 signing ceremony, this morning it was scrapped, and now it's added back onto the schedule. the president clearly wants to show action on this in some way. but as he was saying there, there certainly are not going to be immediate exemptions for canada and mexico. he says that will come down the road, but it certainly does not sound like it will be immediate. but john, the pushback from republicans, from red state republicans, farm state republicans, joni ernst, republican senator from iowa, strongly

first let's go to our senior white house correspondent, jeff zeleny who has the latest on the ongoing shake-up of the trump team. jeff, there's no sign that changes are over yet. >> reporter: wolf, that's right. president has told people that he's upset with members of his cabinet and something else could happen as early as tomorrow when the president returns from his trip to st. louis and california. wolf, all of this is coming as the president seems to be in a firing mood. another day of churn at the white house. president trump tapping long-time friend and tv financial analyst larry kudlow as his chief economic advisor. even as other top aides are on the hot seat tonight. as a cnbc commentator, kudlow has been sharply critical but always loyal to the president. lately he's been outspoken in opposing the controversial trade policy. >> my problem with the steel and aluminum tariffs as they were originally announced is that it might do harm to american users of steel and aluminum. i made that point on the air, i made it to him. i just don't like blanket tariffs. >> but that's the spec

seen jnior analyst jeff zeleny t the white house for us. he's not leaving quietly. he said a controversial trip contributed to his firing. tell us about him. >> reporter: this is david shulkin, the now fired secretary of veterans affairs. he was defending a trip he took to wimbledon which the inspector general, he's one of many cabinet members here, who is doing some unauthorized and expensive flights. but he also says that he was actually being railroaded by other members of this administration who had strong disagreements with him on the privatization of some medical services at the va. this is how he explained it this morning to npr. >> as you said, there are many political appointees in the va that believe that we are moving in the wrong direction or weren't moving fast enough towards privatizing the va. as i've always said, i think that it's essential for national security and for the country that we honor our commitment by having a strong va. i was not against reforming va, but i was against privatization, and i think that it was really the political appointee

jeff zeleny, thank you for asking the tough questions. michael smerconish, back over to you, there are also serious questions about the trump team possibly breaking campaign finance laws. >> here is the big picture as i see it. this is a declaratory action filed by stormy daniels. that agreement ties her hands from speaking, she is seeking to have in null and void. it presents a co for president trump. number one, he can defend the underlying agreement and say it's valid. then, brooke, he owns it. politically speaking -- forget the legal argument. politically speaking, he's noe now saying, yes, all of that is true and i've bargained to keep it all silent. that's option one. option two, he ignores it and she gets the declaratory relief she's seeking which allows her to go and speak without the fear of a million dollar penalty for every time she speaks in violation to the confidentiality. i think there's a third option. the third option is one where he says, i didn't authorize that underlying agreement but i nevertheless think it's valid. i

. >> cnn's jeff zeleny live four s at the white house. jeff n one sense this is a big surprise, in another sense, it's a surprise. >> reporter: this happened moments before the president is flying out for his first trip to california. you could hear the president there openly saying he disagreed with the secretary of state. and that's been going on for months. the bad blood has been simmering. it reached a boiling point. now, the question is timing. we are told that white house chief of staff john kelly informed the secretary of state while he was in africa last week that this was happening, but we're told the timing wasn't clear. that's why the state department and many here at the white house were caught off guard this morning when this happened. but so clear in the president's praise of mike pompeo, he sees in him everything he didn't see in rex tillerson. he sees in him a like-minded figure on many things. and john, this would not be that big of a deal if he hadn't had so many other staff shake-ups. this coming on the heels of the chie

cnn's jeff zeleny at the white house for us. what are sources saying to you about a possible shake-up? >> that has been the question really hanging over washington, certainly here at the white house and across the agencies of government. who is next to fall? the president clearly in a firing mood, earlier this week with the abrupt dismissal of a secretary of state. advisers were saying that there is still a large shake-up to be expected. the president himself, the other day, said he's nearing having his preferred choices in his own cabinet. but also just a few moments ago in the oval office, the president was meeting with the prime minister of ireland, he was asked by a reporter specifically about this staff shake-up. the president seemed to say, no, there is not much of a shake-up coming. he said this, he said there will always be change. but he went on to suggest all of these stories are not true. we know we have heard that before. you'll remember a couple of months ago, when a lot of the reporting was coming out about the sec

and she answered jeff zeleny's chaos question. the president had a campaign. >> we are going to get the best people. >> we are going to get the best people in the world. we don't want people who are b level c level d level. we have to use our best. we are going to use our smartest and our best. we are not using hacks anymore. it is a chess mass but i have the best people lined up. you need people that are truly kanl. we have to get the best people. >> to jeff zeleny's question, why aren't they all still there, there is the private jet abuser who was fired and the alleged spousal abuser fired. and after all what national security adviser hasn't lied about russians and turned state's evidence. just a few days ago, the president said that is not a problem. >> believe me, everybody wants to work in the white house. they all want a piece of that oval office. they want a piece of the west wing. yeah, there will be people -- i'm in the going to be specific, but there will be people that change. they always change. sometimes they want to

so normally past say good predictor of future behavior and in this case is -- jeff zeleny pressed himn it -- pressed sarah huckabee sanders, claims were fabricated but on stormy daniels, he has been noticeably silent. i'm told by sources close to the president that's because he is being advised to those around him including lawyers that he's only going to make matters worse, that he's going to add fuel to the fire and potentially set himself up for defamation if he does wade into this so that is a big reason why he's staying noticeably silent. >> when i spoke to michael avenatti, the stormy daniels lawyer, he said, yes, there were contemporaneous statements that she made about this threat in the parking lot from some individual unknown individual and they're getting more information as we speak. how significant potentially could that be if they find this person? >> i think it's very significant. i think that everyone who saw the interview could evaluate credibility, is what she was saying, was that accurate, was it credible, was it believable, was it relatable? and most people came aw

jeff zeleny outfront. saying he is livid. >> reporter: no question.as furious that he did not follow the instruction per se of his national security advisers. this of course is the latest leak. sooernly remnant of the leaks last year when many of the details from the president's phone calls with world leaders happened to leak out. so it leads many administration officials here to believe is there sort of a sense in the national security apparatus trying to undermine this president. we know the president made the phone call from the residence of the white house yesterday morning. not many people were around at all. but it was certainly a small set of people involved in the briefing. but erin, i can tell you on a day when the government was shut down, white house was pretty quiet today except for this. people were on the lookout having meetings. and this is what one senior administration official told us about this. let's take a look. he said if the story is accurate, that means someone leaked the president's briefing papers, leaking such information is

jeff zeleny. we have sound as we all learn how this lawyer is who the president has now hired to join his team. this was him speaking on fox back in january. >> there was a brazen plot to illegally exonerate hillary clinton and if she didn't win the election to then frame donald trump with a falsely created crime. everything that we have seen from these texts and all the facts developing shows that the fbi and senior doj officials conspired to violate the law and to deny donald trump his civil rights. >> of course that was fox news. jamie gangel is with me and garrett grath is here, author of "the threat matrix." you know joe digenova. >> for more than 30 years and jeff used the right word -- aggressive. joe is a fierce advocate for clients. he is also more than that though. he's a former u.s. attorney in district of columbia. he knows his way around washington. he has served as counsel on many capitol hill committees. i think senate rules committee. so he really knows how it works. >> mm-hmm. >>