>> jeff zeleny at the white house, thanks. two trump campaign advisers caught on tape discussing the president's alleged use of the "n" word. these two advisers claim they were only talking about it because of omarosa's bullying tactics. katrina pierson and lynne patton can be heard discussing the possible existence of such a recording with the president using the racial slur. pierson even suggests mr. trump is, quote, embarrassed by it. >> both women now claim they were just trying to get omarosa to move on. pierson telling cnn's erin burnett, the former "apprentice" star was the, quote, complete epitome of annoying. >> it got to the point where we had a campaign to run. so, what you hear in that tape, which is not the tape she's been referencing, is me placating to her, which i did a number of times because she would not let this tape go. >> there were a lot of times that we talked about this tape because omarosa was literally obsessed with it. she brought it up constantly. it's clear now that the reason why she did was beca

. >> senior white house correspondent jeff zeleny joins us now live.eportedly, is omarosa speaking with the president's daughter-in-law lara trump. after she was fired, lara trump offering her a job in trump's 2020 campaign. offering the woman he called a dog and a low life. do i have that right from listening to that tape? >> reporter: you have that right. of course, at the time, he had not referred to -- the president, that is -- had not referred to her as a dog or a low life. that just came this week with the release of the book. at that time, it was a job offer that was certainly happening. i think the suggestion here from the release of that tape -- and we don't know necessarily, like all these tapes, the full context or what came after or before those recordings, but the suggestion by omarosa is that the trump re-election campaign was indeed trying to secure her silence, was indeed trying to get her to say only positive things. but it also could sound like a simple job offer. several former white house employees, some including who have been fire

jeff zeleny, thank you. >> thanks, brooke. >>> coming up, lawyers for former trump campaign chairmanfor his next upcoming trial. where they want it to be located and the possible defense strategy behind these requests. hey allergy muddlers. are you one sneeze away from being voted out of the carpool? try zyrtec®. it's starts working hard at hour one. and works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. stick with zyrtec® and muddle no more®. billions of problems. morning breath? garlic breath? stinky breath? there's a therabreath for you. therabreath fresh breath oral rinse instantly fights all types of bad breath and works for 24 hours. so you can... breathe easy. there's therabreath at walmart. you're smart,eat you already knew that. but it's also great for finding the perfect used car. you'll see what a fair price is and you can connect with a truecar certified dealer. now you're even smarter. this is truecar. and if you get lost, just hit me on the old horn. man: tom's my best friend, but ever since he bought a new house... tom: it's a $10 cover? oh, okay. didn't see that

jeff zeleny with the president in new jersey. thank you so much.out this with the experts. michael, you said in the last block were you advising paul manafort you would not have him testify. he's too vulnerable. what about if you're working for president trump? who wants to talk according to his public pronouncements. who says he has pn't done anythg wrong. >> purely as a lawyer, i would say, don't talk to mueller. it's too dangerous. you don't have a good enough command of the facts. you lie and therefore it's unsafe. but it's a political case, too. and it's not that easy as a lawyer to say to a political client don't talk because it looks like you're hiding something so what i think they'll try to do is negotiate like bill clinton did some type of interview on prescribed topics for prescribed period of time. perhaps like with reagan, some in writing and some orally. i think that in the end they have a hard time keeping him out of a conversation with bob mueller. >> does this become politically difficult if it does go before the house of represent

jeff zeleny is live at the white house. it is a stunning, unprecedented action. and they gave no evidence of him doing anything wrong with classified information. why now? >> that is a good question. a question that tonight is still unanswered. we have a window into at least the white house's thinking on this. you remember back three weeks ago on the 23rd of july, that's the first time when sarah sanders said the president was thinking about revoking security clearance of john brennan and others, right after the helsinki summit, he was being critical of his tepid language towards vladimir putin. we got a sense of the president may have gone ahead with that. when you look at the date on the statement from the president announced today by sarah sanders, it seemed like it was new information, like the president just reached this. but if you look at the date on the statement from the president, it is in front of the viewers, july 26th, 2018, the first date sent out. that was three days after this was first discussed and under review. the white house quickly sent out

we get more from cnn's jeff zeleny at the white house. >> reporter: christine and ryan, president trump looking forward to another day with at least no public events on the white house schedule, the second day in a row here he's not scheduled to be seen in public. but boy, in private, so much conversation still about those explosive charges in that book by his former top staffer here, african-american staffer here at the white house, omarosa manigault newman. now, of course, the president yesterday just being slammed for some of his responses to her, calling her, of course, a cruel word in a tweet in the morning, but then also going throughout the day, just going after her specifically. but it was in the white house press briefing in the afternoon where white house press secretary sarah sanders was asked about the president and if he has ever said the "n" word, that racial slur, on tape. let's watch. >> can you stand at the podium and guarantee the american people they'll never hear donald trump utter the "n" word on a recording in any context? >> i can't guarantee anything, but i can t

more from jeff zeleny from the white house. >> reporter: dave and kaylee, president trump has made no secret about the discord for the investigation. he called on the attorney general jeff sessions to bring an end to the russia probe. the white house quickly responded this was all about the president's opinion. not a directive to end the investigation to the attorney general. we asked press secretary sara sanders. how does she know it is opinion or presidential directive. >> when he temperatulls you as r of his staff, how do you know it is opinion? >> the president makes it clear. the president is not obstruct g obstructing. he is fighting back. the president is stating his opinion and clearly. he is expressing the frustration. >> reporter: no question the russia investigation continuing to consume at least some of the president's bandwidth here. the president is traveling for another campaign rally this week. he is campaigning for the midterms. after that he will end up in new jersey by late this evening. he will start summer recess vacation there. the russia investigation and all th

erin. >> jeff zeleny, thank you. and i want to go now to the democratic congressman of new york jerry nadler. congressman, i appreciate your time. we are reporting tonight president trump is in a fit of rage over these negotiations. the fact that obstruction of justice is still on the table. the washington post saying mueller is agreeing to cut the number of questions about the topic down, but that topic is still right there, obstruction of justice is important here. why do you think the president is so upset about it? >> i think he's upset about it because he knows he's very vulnerable to an obstruction of justice charge. you know, he said that -- when he said in his tweet that the attorney general should do something, when someone tells a subordinate officer you should do something, it normally is considered an instruction, when henry iii said if only someone would rid me of this meddlesome priest. the president has tried to intimidate the special prosecutor repeatedly. this tweet is another example of that. the tw

cnn's jeff zeleny joins us for that. it's interesting for all the times sarah sanders has been willing to essentially stick her neck out for president with a full stop answer, she didn't do that this time. >> she didn't, anderson that was one of the surprising things to me, at least. repeatedly asked again and again about this, she said the same answer. i can't guarantee that she knew of course that would be the headline coming out of this, that she can't guarantee it. think of all the radio introduce, thousands and thousands of radio interviews the president has done. all the recordings he has done going "the apprentice," other things, there could be a tape some where. traps that's what she wassing my thig wh thinking when she said i can't guarantee it. it was curious, at least, in that regard. >> jeff, the white house still saying the president's description of manigault newman as a dog is much ado about nothing? >> they are indeed. you heard sarah sanders say it there. he is happy to insult anyone. he is happy to insu

let's go straight to our white house correspondent jeff zeleny. jeff, the president is clearly leaving the door open to firing sessions after november 6th. >> reporter: wolf, he's leaving the door open. in fact he's hinting strongly that's a possibility. when he was asked directly in jeff sessions would be safe after the midterm elections, he said, i'm not going to get into it. but we do know that the president believes the justice department has been unfair in all of this. but, wolf, it's striking as we're nearing at least the unofficial end of the summer here, the friday going into labor day, there was a sense of apprehension here. would something happen? would there be a shoe to fall? nothing has happened, but that just means there's still more questions. this investigation is ongoing. >> why not commit to jeff sessions past november, sir? >> reporter: president trump flashing a thumb's up but giving no answer today as to why he's offering his favorite punching bag, attorney general jeff sessions, a brief reprieve. in an interview with bloomberg

more now from jeff zeleny. >> reporter: dave and kaylee, president trump answered a question hanging over the white house and justice department. will he dismiss or fire attorney general jeff sessions? he told "bloomberg news" jeff sessions' job is safe until november. that did not stop the president from going after the justice department at the rally thursday in evansville, indiana. >> our justice department and our fbi have to start doing their job and doing it right and doing it now. what's happening is a disgrace. and at some point i wanted to stay out, but at some point if it doesn't straighten out properly, i want them to do their job. i will get in there if i have to. >> reporter: he made that suggestion from time to time that he will get involved. he has not yet done so. his lawyers and others have warned him against interfering in the russia investigation. trump had russia on his mind as he rallied republican voters in indiana. focussing on the 2018 midterms. even if he talked more about his races in 2016. dave and kaylee. >> thank you, jeff. president trump telling allen we

i want to now go to jeff zeleny.sly watching all of these races closely. ohio and kansas, of course, where he also endorsed a controversial candidate for the governor race. >> erin, no question the plot be watching these results come in very carefully. he has a lot on the line once again today. don't forget, his name is not on the ballot in this mid terrell election year, but his policies, popularity absolutely are, and he is doubling down on those. he was in ohio saturday, campaigning there. he is meeting with a business leader at his resort bedminster out here. but after that is over, after that dinner is over, i'm told, he is going to be watching these returns. and erin, it is going to say a lot hab is going to happen for the next three months or so. he is investing himself heavily in all of these races. but republicans are not pleased with what he did in kansas, weighing in on that governor's race, weighing in for one of his long-time supporters, chris kovac there. a big immigration supporter of his, but going ag

jeff zeleny reports.esident trump further closing the door tonight to the idea of sitting down for an interview with robert mueller.president trump:"let him write his report. we did nothing. there's no collusion. if he was doing an honest report, he would write it on the other side."after saying for months, he wants to testify, the president essentially daring mueller to move without him.leaving the white house for a fundraising trip to new york, the president talking for the first time in days about the russia investigation ...... and mincing no words about the special counsel.president trump:"mr. mueller is highly conflicted. in fact, comey is like his best friend. i could go into conflict after conflict. sadly, mr. mueller is conflicted."airing old grievances over the russia probe, the president is also defending his new actions to revoke former c-i-a director john brennan's security clearance.he denied suggestions he was trying to silence his critics.president trump:"there's no silence. if anything i'

we have jeff zeleny with more. >> reporter: christine and phil, president trump is continuing the working vacation in new jersey, one thing is clear he is staying out of public view, but we know one of the things on his mind. that russia investigation. we saw the tweets over the weekend when he was talking trying to explain what happened in the trump tower meeting in june of 2016. the president, of course, saying nothing was wrong. it was trying to get opposition research on hillary clinton. of course, that is not the original explanation from a year ago. we know a couple of things since that tweet over the weekend. we know as we head into the week, the president's aides and lawyers are asking him not to tweet specifically about that trump tower meeting. this is why. it is adding more complication every time he weighs in. it complicates the previous explanations for it. we are hearing from the president's aides that in the next coming days, the president's legal team will have an answer or response to robert mueller's team. will he sit for the interview and what conditions will he sit for

jeff zeleny, cnn, new jersey. >>> the u.s. government suggests a new method for reuniting children and parents separated at the southern border, but that idea is being highlied. we'll tell you about it coming up here. >>> plus, the souvenir t-shirt that is supposed to be a gag but you some journalists are not laughing. oh! oh! ♪ ozempic®! ♪ (vo) people with type 2 diabetes are excited about the potential of once-weekly ozempic®. in a study with ozempic®, a majority of adults lowered their blood sugar and reached an a1c of less than seven and maintained it. oh! under seven? (vo) and you may lose weight. in the same one-year study, adults lost on average up to 12 pounds. oh! up to 12 pounds? (vo) a two-year study showed that ozempic® does not increase the risk of major cardiovascular events like heart attack, stroke, or death. oh! no increased risk? ♪ ozempic®! ♪ ozempic® should not be the first medicine for treating diabetes, or for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. do not share needles or pens. don't reuse

jeff zeleny in the briefing, senior white house correspond. jeff zeleny, why is she standing up there speaking categorically falsely about the genesis of this investigation based on a dossier, which is just wrong? >> brooke, they are trying clearly to explain and clean up after the fact the president's tweet this morning. really, this is not a new line of defense. the question major garrett of cbs news was asking, why doesn't the president do something about it. that, indeed, is a central question hanging over all of this. the president of the united states has the ability to -- he mentioned firing jeff sessions. that wouldn't do anything to the mueller investigation because he recused himself, which is one of the reasons the president is angry. he has never taken the step of also firing rod rosenstein, the deputy attorney general overseeing this. the president beliefs that is a bridge too far, a step too far. they continue to obfuscate and confuse. there's a strategy to this. the strategy is to discredit this investigation, so once the muelle

jeff zeleny, you were watching very closely. and as you pointed out correctly, the senator himself over these past 13 months, as he was dealing with this severe form of brain cancer, he got very much involved in planning all of this. >> he did, wolf. and that's what we are going to see really playing out over the next four or five days or so. really what senator mccain -- he's giving a message and a lesson to all of us, indeed the world. every day at every step of the way. and one of the messages we're seeing now, it's a bipartisan group there. something we don't see all that much of in washington. all that much in certainly in arizona. has become deeply divided. a democratic governor, former republican governor, a former democratic member of congress from arizona who indeed was a close friend of mccain's. but other lessons we're going to see going on in the coming days are going to be very specific in terms of who he chose to give readings. who he chose to give eulogies. even his pallbearers. there's going to be a tappestry if

jeff zeleny in indiana. thank you very much. let's talk about the breaking news on the president's timetable for potentially firing jeff sessions. our political correspondent sara murray is here. he says his job is safe until election day in november. what are you hearing? >> he is saying that sessions is safe until election day. i think trump has been an unpredictable president. who knows if he will wake up tomorrow or in a week and say something different. we know there are a number of people around him, other republicans on capitol hill and his other allies from his campaign days who have urged him to wait, wait on getting rid of sessions. they said you're in your rights to do that, you can do that, but let's wait until after midterm elections, get through one thing at a time, let's not do something that may act as a rally cry for democrats. it seems like that message is sinking in with president trump, i think it is telling in the bloomberg interview where he says sessions is safe at least until midterms, they ask about what

let's go to the senior white house correspondent jeff zeleny covering the president in new jersey. what's the latest, jeff? >> reporter: wolf, the trump administration is announcing sanctions against russia but this is hardly coming out of the blue and hardly the white house taking a lead here. members of congress have been urging the president and the white house to do this for more than a month. it's a turn of the screw in the negotiations of the surmer, will the president sit down with bob mueller and testify? the trump administration tonight is set to hit moscow with sanctions to punish the russian government for a nerve agent in the attack against a former spy and his daughter in britain. the state department saying, the russian federation has used chemical or biological weapons in violation of international law. the u.s. government condemned the attack it happened in march. but did not unveil sanctions until today. more than a month, congress urged the trump administration to impose the penalty. the announcement of the sanctions coming after the president has faced criticism f

>> jeff zeleny, thank you very much. let's turn to chief national security correspondent jim sciutto. how extraordinary was it for the 15 former officials signing on to the letter? almost seems like every day there's something unprecedented that happens in terms of the pushback of the intelligence community to the president. >> reporter: it belies the president's claim of partisan politics here, former officials who have an agenda. when you look at that list of officials on the list, they served republican and democratic presidents, they have decades -- we did a count. nearly 300 years of experience in national security. and on the front lines literally of many, many of the operations, counter terrorism operations, overseeing those through the years so you cannot look at this group and say that this is a partisan group that has a bias against the president. so that is remarkable. you can now add to the list someone who was a supporter of the president's in the campaign. jim woolsey. former director of the cia. he didn't

jake. >> jeff zeleny at the white house. minutes ago, as jeff just suggested, rudy guiliani spoke about the president's tweet this morning. he also said this. take a listen. >> we believe that the investigation should be brought to a close. we think at the end of it, they should render their report, put up -- i guess through playing poker, put up or shut up? what do you got? >> put up or shut up? . >> i don't know what robert mueller's voice sounds like, this is a familiar retrain from rudy guiliani who keeps saying this he says the investigation is coming to an instance, the white house offered no evidence. we are seeing rudy trying to downplay the president's tweet from this morning. he repeated it's not a directive. that's not going to happen. the president isn't going to direct jeff sessions in the investigation, something he can't do. it's not entirely that the president realizes he can't end the investigation the president made it quite clear he can end the investigation, which raises the question, if that's the case, w

jeff zeleny is at the white house.resident trump refusing to answer questions about the revoking of clearances during the cabinet meeting. >> reporter: it was an hour long cabinet meeting. the president talking about a variety of issues but not explaining or defending the actions yesterday. the white house insists he was not trying to settle political scores and did not explain the contradiction. >> is it appropriate for you to punish your critics? >> reporter: president trump biting his tongue today not answering questions. at a cabinet meeting. >> i won't say who -- >> reporter: the president not mentioning or explaining the decision to revoke brennan's security clearance. brennan, the intelligence chief under president obama is firing back. brennan writing mr. trump clearly has become more desperate to protect himself and those close to him which is why he made the decision to revoke my security clearance in an attempt to scare to silence others. he added his claims of no collusion are in a word hogwash. he pointed

so far he is not using it. >> jeff zeleny, thank you very much. i want to go to the former campaign manager for donald trump. rudy giuliani says president trump is going to decide, they are talking about it over the weekend and they will have a decision. yes or no to bob mueller's interview. which way do you think he goes? >> i haven't spoken to the president about it directly. if he did ask my opinion my -- i'm not an attorney, but my political advice to the president would be not to sit down with bob mueller because there has been no evidence that this president did anything wrong and the campaign did anything wrong during the campaign. and the opportunity to make a misstatement potentially or to potentially get caught up on the word is too great of something that can happen there. i don't think the president has a reason to sit down with bob mueller and have a conversation. what i do think is important is that bob mueller finishes his investigation and makes his report to the department of justice quickly so that we can get this behind us. >> g

cnn's jeff zeleny joins me at the white house. jeff, when did president trump make this decision to revoke brennan's security clearance? >> reporter: jake, that is something we don't know exactly the answer to. we assumed it was earlier today because it was announced in the white house briefing room but the two-page statement that the press secretary sent out to a reporters just a short time after that briefing is actually dated july 26th. that is three days after this threat was first made in that briefing room. so it raises a question of if this is a new announcement or if this is something that the president is sitting on. but in either case, the white house is insisting this is not about settling political scores but protecting national security. but, jake, there is one thing in common with all the names mentioned today, they have questioned and criticized the president. president trump taking the extraordinary step today of stripping the security clearance of a fierce critics, former cia director john brennan. >> he had levera

jeff zeleny, our senior white house correspondent, is watching this. cain. covered him for several years as well. and i wonder what you think as you watch all of this unfold. >> well, wolf, there's no question that senator mccain has been ill for, as we know, about a year. a little over a year or so. but i'm told by friends of his that his illness actually escalated fairly quickly. today on his 82nd birthday, a small group of his loyal friends i'm told were planning on being in sedona with him around him to say a bit of a farewell. of course, he died just a few days shy of his birthday. so that has a sense, talking to friends, how quickly this moved at the end of his life. but more than that, i think senator mccain would probably have a joke in this moment. he would wonder what all the fuss was about, but also he choreographed this specifically right down to, he's sending a message through everything we're going to see over the coming days here, through the speakers, the pallbearers, others and particularly the two former presidents, the 43rd and 44th p

>> jeff zeleny, thanks very much. let's talk more about omarosa's potential role in robert mueller's russia investigation. we're joined by sarah murray. sarah -- omarosa saying that she's been interviewed by the special counsel. in our experience the special counsel does not waste his time either with witnesses or questioning, why would he want to talk to her? >> we really don't have a good sense of what she might've shared with the special counsel. she wasn't particularly forthcoming about that in any of her interviews. she did suggest in that nbc interview that she believed that then candidate trump knew about these hacked clinton emails before they were ever public. she didn't offer up anything to substantiate that, but if that is something that she has proof of, something she has evidence of, that's the kind of thing that obviously the special counsel would be interested in hearing more about. we don't have incite into that. >> she's not the first person to say that. michael cohen has claims that he knows that to

cnn's jeff zeleny in new jersey near where the president is staying for the working vacation and the white house announced no public appearances today by president trump and also apparently staffers there hoping that the president will stop tweeting about the trump tower meeting. >> reporter: that is the hope. we have heard that before. aides and advisers asking him to stop doing this. it's been met with mixed success and the reason they don't want him to add oxygen to the already fraught discussion. the president is so far quiet today and that changes the more he watches television and talks to some friends. president trump summer vacation is sounding more like a venting session. at the trump national golf club in new jersey today, the president out of public view and raging on twitter over the russia probe. more than before, he's zeroing in on the trump tower meeting between top campaign officials and a russian lawyer promising dirt on hillary clinton. this was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics and went nowhere. i did not k

first, let's go to our senior white house correspondent jeff zeleny. russia is figuring prominently in the trump working vacation at niz new jersey golf club. >> reporter: good morning. russia is hanging over the administration on several fronts. first the new sanctions scheduled to go into effect in about two weeks or so. this is all after the u.s. government formally acknowledged russia's role in the chemical weapons attack last spring in great britain. this is comes as the white house or the president is focused on talking so much on sitting down to testify with bob mueller. tonight that looks increasingly less likely. the trump administration tonight is set to hit moscow with new sanctions. aimed at punishing the russian government for using a nerve agent in the attack against a former spy and his daughter in britain. the state department saying the russian federation has used chemical or biological weapons in violation of international law. the u.s. government condemned the attack after it happened in march. but did not unveil sanctions until toda

jeff zeleny reporting. joining us now, mike rogers, cnn's national security commentator, former chairman of the house intelligence committee. mike, thanks very much for coming in. pretty impressive show of force yesterday by the president's top national security team, all of them showing up speaking forcefully against what russia did during the 2016 elections, when they're attempting to do in the upcoming midterms. yet, the president says only a few hours later it's a russia hoax. >> yeah, pretty powerful display from the intelligence community, including the fbi and the law enforcement side and what they're doing. it's a little confounding. i just -- i passionate believe the president cannot separate this notion of which -- and i think he believes this, there was no collusion on his behalf, he doesn't understand this investigation, and what the russians actually did to try to influence the election and pit americans against american, and they're ramping it up. i think he believes if he admits that that, in

jeff zeleny at the white house, appreciate it. let's bring you to the studio.e said/she said between the president and omarosa. now you have a she said, she said, she said. i don't think we're ever going to sort this out. i think we do know that of these cast of characters, a lot of them have said things in the past that we can document as not being true. the president primarily among them. omarosa among them. to jeff's point, isn't this more about -- we were just talking about paul manafort, who was known not to be a boy scout when brought in by the trump campaign. the president himself in this tweet essentially says, i know omarosa was a crazy, wacky person, but i gave her a job with $170,000 a year of your money, but i did it because she said nice things about me. this is the president's best people, right? >> it's extraordinary. he's essentially admitting here that he, you know, when he was thinking about who he wanted in the white house, he was okay with the idea of hiring someone that he knew to be dishonest, that he thought was crazy, that he thought was

let's go to our senior white house correspondent jeff zeleny. 's joining us from the white house just ahead of this important press briefing. we're expecting some answers, jeff, as you know. stand by because our chief political correspondent dana bash is also with us right now. i first want to go to you because you've just received a statement from rudy giuliani defending the president's tweet on jeff sessions earlier this morning. tell our viewers what the president's personal attorney is now saying. >> well, probably more cleaning up than defending. explaining and clarifying more than defending. trying to calm the very real understandable concern, considering he is the president of the united states and this is a federal probe of great importance. here's what rudy giuliani said to me about this series of tweets. the president was expressing his opinion on his favored medium for asserting his first amendment right of free speech. he said should, not must, and no presidential order was issued or will be. so there you go. basically saying he's --

let's start with cnn's senior white house correspondent jeff zele zeleny. what is behind the president's sudden admission, jeff? >> reporter: good afternoon, brooke. i mean this working vacation is suddenly becoming more of a venting session for the president. what is behind it obviously is a sense of anticipation, perhaps i think a estate, perhaps worry over what the mueller investigation is actually doing. now we do know the president of course has said before that the purpose of that meeting back in june, 2016, in trump tower was to get some opposition on the clinton campaign. but president never said it so explicitly as he did in the tweet yesterday. the context and timing brooke is important. the president knows so much more now about the mueller investigation, knows so much more now at what he is looking at for obstruction of justice or conspiracy. it's coming in the second week of the paul manafort trial. he also has worries about his potential legal exposure for his son who was leading that meeting. all of that taken together led the president to twe

let's go to the senior white house correspondent jeff zeleny. so, jeff what's the latest. >> wolf, there is certainly going into the labor day weekend at the white house as much uncertainty as ever about the real status of the russia investigation. but the president is saying he is going to leave the attorney general jeff sessions in place through the mid-terms elections. but he is saying something else. he says he will get involved if he needs to in the justice department. >> why not commit the jeff sessions past november somebody which are. >> president trump flashing a thumbs up but no answer today on why he offers his favorite punching bag attorney general jeff sessions a bit of a reprefer. consumed with anger over the russia investigation the president has berated and badgered and all but blast listed his attorney general. but in the interview he says his session's job is is a safe. through the mid-terms. after that he wouldn't say. >> i'd like to have jeff sessions do his job and if he did i'd be happy. but the job entails two sides, not on

jeff zeleny was reporting senator mccain asked them to eulogize him. they were surprised the former presidents, they were political rivals at one point they didn't necessarily have close relationships with either of them franchise your perspective, what does this tell you from john mccain these were the people he chose to mark speeches to mark the end of his life? >> i think it shows, first of all, his profound sense of bipartisanship, this country is not composed of republicans and democrats, it's composed of americans who have to come toke and find a sense forward. also an innate sense of decency, i recall in the campaign in 2008, there was a remarkable moment at a town meeting a woman stood up and asailed then president obama in very pejorative terms, senator mccain could have shrugged it off. he went out of his way to say, no, ma'am, this gentleman is an american. i disagree with him on our issues, but i were him. et cetera. >> that type of decency is rare any place and john mccain demonstrated it every day. >> now, of course, majority leader mitch

the "new york times" and katherine lucy of the associated press and "washington post" and cnn's jeff zelenylcome. thanks for being here this sunday morning. jeff, i'm going to start with you. trump clearly loves being out on the campaign trail, right? it's like a flash back to 2016, all over the country. is he the gop's best messenger at this point? >> well, he's the one that they have. at least to the base he absolutely is, particularly when he is in a state that he won. i was with him in pennsylvania on thursday night. he starts the first -- i would say 15 or 10 minutes of the rally reprizing minute by minute in some cases election night 2016. loves to talk about that. there's not as much messaging as some republican eliters would like him to talk about, rarely talks about the tax cut. he talks a lot about immigration and other matters. for the people in the room he's the best messenger but those voters are already with him. the question is what else does he bring when he comes to town? a lot of baggage. we talk a lot about the suburban women voters and other suburban voters, does he hurt

. >> we will take that live, for now, jeff zeleny, thank you. >>> and now, let's just take a minute. because i want to underscore, no matter how you feel about omro so, mark the date, august 14th, 2018, the president of the united states, the leader of the flee world, the planet's most powerful person is calling an african-american woman a dog. unfortunately, it is something that america has heard before. >> you called women you don't like fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals. your twitter account. >> only rosie o'donnell. >> no, it wasn't. >> that was three years ago. today, 20 months after being elected president, he is calling a woman a dog. at a time when we teach our children not to bully. to be respectful. the president is anything but. i mean, his own wife kicked off a campaign urging kids to be best, to keep it positive on social media. listen to all the juveniles and hateful names he has called people since taking a vote. we made a list. loser, fraud, dumb, dumbest, dumb as a rock, crazy, flunky, low iq poke hahn us the o -- pocohan tu us, low life, deranged, wacky.

let's get straight, though, to the breaking news and senior white house correspondent jeff zeleny at the white house. some extraordinary language by the president and a stunning defense from the white house if you can call it that. take us through it. >> reporter: it was extraordinary language when you stop and think about it. the president of the united states calling a former employee a dog and that employee happened to be the highest ranking african-american official here at the white house and waging a war of her against the very white house. at the press briefing today, press secretary sarah sanders said, look, the president insults people of all races equally and fights fire with fire. jim, one thing is clear here tonight. there's plenty of that. >> i can't guarantee anything. but i can tell you that the president addressed this question directly. >> reporter: that's how white house press secretary sanders answering the question today of whether a recording to exist of president trump ever using the n-word while producing "the apprentice" reality show. the president denied it a

what is clear is that as each day is going you can sense -- and we know from jeff zeleny's reporting esident is focused on this trial wanting updates from his team and you can sense if you look at the way jeff mason was talking about the president's mood. he's unnerved. waiting for the manafort trial is part of that and donald trump is hoping that paul manafort ma calls a good man, 1 n is not convicted. >> if manafort is acquitted we have not fully understood what the president will do with it. maybe he'll issue a pardon. if he is found guilty to that mind-set it's clearly rattled him. >> we are in such a precarious moment in time in this presidency right now. the manafort trial, figuring out the determination about whether or not mueller will issue a report before we get into the election season. this is a moment of time where the president is feeling the heat. just watch what he's doing everyday. >> we will and you will, david chalian, thank you very much. >>> the grand exercise in incongruity, melania trump's anti-bullying message. president trump's bullying message on twitter. the

cnn's jeff zeleny is in pennsylvania where the president is about to hold a rally. over and over this afternoon reporters trying to square, the president calling the election interference a hoax with administration officials claiming the president cares deeply about the threat. >> reporter: you are right. no one in the world besides the president of the united states has as big of a mega phone to talk about any issue. when it comes to russian election hacking he has either equivocated or stayed silent. the president on his own we are told dispatched his team of national security officials to make the case for him. president trump's full national security team stepping forward today to say something he is not, american democracy is under attack. >> the intelligence community continues to be concerned about the threats of upcoming u.s. elections both the mid terms and the presidential elections of 2020. >> our democracy itself is in the cross hairs. >> make no mistake, the scope of this foreign influence threat is both broad and deep. >> reporter: at an afternoon brie

thank you to jeff zeleny. the president busy on twitter.ne of the most revealing is his comments on don mcgahn. the president said the rigged russia witch hunt did not come into play even a little bit with respect to my decision on don mcgahn. do you buy that? >> i find this president has a tendency to project what he is worried people are thinking in these. i don't see how it wasn't a factor. there had been grumbling that he was unhappy with him. now he is going out weeks after this came out and says it wasn't their idea. i don't know how much we were talking about that before that. i find it hard to not infer that this is what he is concerned is the truth and that we might -- >> my decision -- it was well known around town that when mcgamcg mcgahn was going to leave after the kavanagh confirmation. i think before the rubber hit the road in terms of sessions and the mueller report -- this is mcgahn's choice. trump can't stand the idea that a grown man has chosen to resign after two years which is a perfectly normal span of office. trump ha

know because we know that sarah sanders has stuck her neck out as you were talking earlier with jeff zeleny on many issues that we knew or lie. this one she could not lie about it because she could not. we don't need a tape or transcripts, we don't need any of that. donald trump has been pretty clear. just look at his business career. he started off as a racist when he stepped into the political arena and being the grand wizard of birthism which is inherently racist of president obama. when he stepped into the campaign world, he went after mexicans and called them rapists and drug dealers and his first year in the presidency when we saw neo-nazis marching down charlottesville he says very fine people and good people on both sides and did not acknowledge heather heyer of her death. >> paris, i want you to be able to respond. >> sarah sanders could not guarantee that there was not an audio tape of the president because taken or recorded years before he was president or a candidate, i don't think anybody could guarantee that omarosa was going to produce a tape that is actually a combination of

category of an intentional distraction, caught by our white house team, my colleague, our colleague jeff zelenyannouncing this as released by the white house after that press briefing dated july 26th, 2018. composed more than two weeks ago. the white house later said that was a cut and paste mistake. i don't know how you cut and paste a date to this. it looks like, gloria, does it not, you have been involved in statements like this before, john kirby. >> not this. haven't back dated things. >> looks like it's on the shelf and an omarosa problem. drop it today. >> all the hallmarks of trying to get us to talk about something else. i can't for the life of me think why they think this is better for them than talking about omarosa's book. this is an abuse of power. theodore roosevelt said it's morally treasonous to say the president shouldn't be criticized and think they thi t crossed this line today. >> yeah. stay with us. >>> president trump revoking the security clearance of john brennan. authorities investigating cyber attacks against the opponent of a congressman known for his pro-russia views

president trump, but president trump is keeping tabs on what's going on in that courtroom, according to jeff zelenytep back for us, pull back and explain, what is the danger to president trump in this trial? >> well, i think principally, it's political from the standpoint of if there is a conviction in this case, it's hard for him to try to delegitimize mueller. if mueller has convicted manafort, even though these charges don't relate directly to the president, it's hard to say that this is a renegade prosecutor, out of control, on a witch hunt, and the like. so, it's really optics, laura, more than it is potential legal jeopardy for the president, unless, of course, manafort is convicted and decides that i don't want to do my second trial in d.c. because it will end up as badly as this one did, and therefore, i want to start cooperating with mueller and can answer questions, such as did the president know about the june 9th trump tower meeting. >> does it strike you as interesting that we're even at this place where the former campaign chairman is in court on tax evasion charges? you know, it's in

jeff zeleny reporting he's getting briefings on it and he is clearly expressing some real concern about the pressure that's rash chetting rash -- r here. >> my colleagues have already reported he's long since wanted jeff sessions to unrecuse himself from this entire russia investigation. he's wanted that from the very beginning, so we're hearing the president say publicly what he has said privately many times, that he really wishes that jeff sessions hadn't recused himself and would just step back in, if that were a thing -- which it is not in our system of government. but he would really like for jeff sessions to be able to step back in and take control of this thing an steer it away from the president or in a way that's more favorable to the president. i think david's right, the white house has taken great pains to separate the manafort trial from the broader question of russia's interference in the election and potential collusion by the trump campaign. but let's also not forget that this is all unfolding as his legal team is working behind the scenes with mueller to figure out wheth

. >> jeff zeleny with the president in new jersey. let's talk about this with my experts. what do you think the president means when he says stay tuned? we know he has contemplated firing mueller before. do you think that is what he means? >> god only knows. he puts this in the minds of people. it really is about doubt. he is a magician or likes to think of himself as a magician. part of the segment when you talked about how his staff and team doesn't know, they don't know. they often find out on the back end what the president is actually doing. he wants to seed in the minds of the american people doubt. >> he will say stay tuned when he wants to buy himself time. this is suggesting more information is forthcoming that will clear him. one thing that is really funny about the refusal to call out mueller, he will talk to lester holt, sean hannity but won't talk to somebody who he is accountable for it. i think that is a political answer. i think people who want to see this investigation come to a close have to put the pressure on that question and why he will talk to journa

they wanted me to walk up and go like this. [ laughter ] >> jeff zeleny is with the president in new the president obviously just undercut his entire national security team after they took russia on from a group as a white house. why? >> that was the big question at that rally, was he going to talk about it? he said it was a hoax again. i'm told by talking to a variety of administration officials and people close to the president that he does not want to relent and talk about russian election interference with his base. he does not want to give that in that cupid of setting but he does realize that it is a problem and politically speaking a problem as well. his polls took a hit at a helsinki summit. there's no question voters want to see his voters take a you have to line on election interference. so he wants to show that his government is doing something. but he hasn't shown the inclination to talk about it. he is screaming it from the rafters, is anyone going to take it seriously? is vladimir putin going to take it seriously. so at the end of this week it was extraordinary to see a

jeff zeleny, not a lot of friendly history between mccain and bush and obama. >> and that was a questionident president obama developed some type of a relationship with mccain that we didn't know about. so i talked to friends of both men and it turned out they really hasn't. but you in april, he said will he deliver a eulogy for me. shortly after, he made the phone call to george w. bush. of course two rivals, the two men who stopped mccain from winning the presidency. but all part of the lesson and message mccain is trying to send out. and so i talked to steve dupre, and he explained it like this. he said i think john mccain is imparting a lesson in civility by asking the two men who defeated him to speak as an example to america that differences in political views an contests shouldn't be so important. he goes on to say that we lose our common bounds in the civility that is or used to be a hallmark of american democracy. so is something clear senator mccain trying to give a message here certainly unspoken, but president trump the intended recipient. >> and overcoming past differences h