donna brazile, cnn's chief white house correspondent jessica yellin and susan paige. i'm candy crowley, and this is "state of the union." so we want to bring you some new poll numbers cnn has, the first we have taken since these three controversies erupted and rained literally on the white house. i'm going to talk to dan fifer in a moment, but i want to set the scene politically with jessica yellin. i have to believe having looked at them the white house is probably pleased. >> i think you are right this morning, candy, because it is good news for the president. according to our new cnn/orc poll 53% of americans approve of the job president obama is doing. now, that poll was taken after this tough week. so it looks like the controversies have not eroded his support among the american people. >> is there anything inside the poll that says why not? because i think the convention gnat wisdom was going into it that he'd been hurt. >> absolutely. the numbers do tell a story. for one thing, his approval is largely unchanged from the 51% we found in our last poll that was in

jessica yellin traveling with the president in mexico. jessica has the white house released a statement yet? >> reporter: good morning, carol. the white house has not yet released a statement. as soon as they do, i expect it will be a measured and positive reaction that acknowledges the fact that numbers have fallen to a four-year low, but also says the u.s. has a long way to go. gent response from white house officials that this is pretty consistent with what the white house has been maintaining all along, they see growth in the private sector. the effects of sequestration, across-the-board spending cuts, holding the economy back in other ways. some of the games being played in washington as they would put it, are holding the economy back. the big-picture theme would you get, if washington were working better, if the white house and congress could come to terms on some rt of big debt deal, then the economy would be growing even more aggressively. so i think you will see a mixed reaction, with the white house acknowledges that is very posi

dana bash, jessica yellin, thank you both very much indeed.resident obama is in full damage control tonight. my next guest knows all about that. lanny davis, the author of crisis tales, five rules for coping with crisis in business and life. he is former special counsel to president clinton and the founder of purple nation solutions and joins me on the grill. couldn't be a more appropriate night to have you roasting on that grill. what a mess the president finds himself in from all fronts this week. let's start with this irs scandal. has the white house handled this properly, do you think? >> well, maybe b-plus but i'm mystified by the legalistic language. the president should be on camera in person expressing outrage, calling for an investigation of his own white house to get out in front of what the republicans are clearly going to do. being out in front meaning preempt what you know is coming. also i think a bipartisan committee of congress should be organized to investigate everyone who might have touched this. if this were a republican pr

jessica yellin at the white house. thank you so much for being with us this morning.n, as we look behind us right now, people going through their homes trying to salvage what they can. the aftermath of the storm just simply devastating. 24 people killed. nine of them children. we'll bring you the latest updates on the devastation here in moore, oklahoma, when we come back. i have low testosterone. there, i said it. see, i knew testosterone could affect sex drive, but not energy or even my mood. that's when i talked with my doctor. he gave me some blood tests... showed it was low t. that's it. it was a number. [ male announcer ] today, men with low t have androgel 1.62% testosterone gel. the #1 prescribed topical testosterone replacement therapy increases testosterone when used daily. women and children should avoid contact with application sites. discontinue androgel and call your doctor if you see unexpected signs of early puberty in a child, or signs in a woman, which may include changes in body hair or a large increase in acne, possibly due to accidental exposure.

jessica yellin, if you are still there to talk to us.k briefly about the relationship with president obama and david cameron, certainly not as reagan-thatcher, but they have enjoyed a decent partnership. >> reporter: they have. they are both young men, young leaders. the two have worked together on a number of issues the plans for draw down in afghanistan, as you well know, jake, also figuring out how to engage on syria, not necessarily to either man's satisfaction, but they are frequently in contact and they're both sort of, they have similar personalitys. they like to, they're intellectuals who like to sort of be cool and make jokes and sort of act like normal, young, kind of young leader, if that makes sense. i am told that in this meeting, they did caulk u talk abo-- tal syria and u.s., getting get to get representatives from assad's government and representatives together for some kind of discussions. that is something that is important to the cameron. cameron does care enormously and has the better relationship with putin. so could

president does today will do that, so they can get on with their important wiagenda items. >> jessica yellinessica, this is obviously not an easy decision for the president to go ahead and make a statement like this. >> that's right, wolf. i know the president's going to make a very brief statement, only five minutes. and it's already running a little bit late. very briefly, he will announce something of substance. i'm waiting to bring it to you. hopefully i'll have that very soon. i also want to tell you the speaker of the house, john boehner, is talking about the benghazi e-mails. the speaker has been quite outraged over the e-mails. and his spokesman says that the e-mails only confirm what the speaker's been saying all along, and that the release of these in no way alleviates the republicans' concerns, to make a change for political reasons. it seems the political nature of the state department's concerns raises questions about the motivations behind these changes, and who at the state department was seeking them. he says the release of the e-mails is long overdue. and he says that they h

going to take you live to asbury park and jessica yellin, our chief white house correspondent. ly weather i can see there for you this afternoon, jessica. tell me how the visit went. >> reporter: hi, brooke. well, the president was here for three hours, but it was a chalk full visit. he toured the boardwalk with the governor. he talked to some local business owners whose places had been shuttered and reopened. played an arcade game and he spoke, said exactly what the governor wanted to hear from the president. listen to this. >> you are stronger than the storm. after all you've dealt with, after all you've been through, the jersey shore is back and it is open for business. and they want all americans to know that they're ready to welcome you here. >> reporter: a lot of free advertising for the jersey shore. not the best weather for it, but people can come and visit. one thing, brooke, the governor had a better game day than the president. they both played a little bit of arcade games and the president went over five throwing a football through a tire. the governor got it right t

as jessica yellin reports, the union is not without its risks. >> reporter: the political odd coupleirst of all, say thank you to governor christie for that introduction and the great work he's done here. >> reporter: visiting a reopened boardwalk and facing off at an arcade game where the president went 0 for 5. >> little high. oh, well done. >> reporter: no worries. the governor won him a stuffed bear. the obama-christie political bromance started days after super storm sandy devastated new jersey. >> we will not quit until it's done. >> reporter: since then the president has poured more than $3 million into the state. this is to highlight rebuilding after the storm. >> it's pretty amazing what they've done. >> reporter: and win some free media for the shore. >> welcome back to the jersey shore. >> the jersey shore is back, and it is open for business. >> reporter: that's got to be a plus for christie, who was slammed for spending $25 million in federal funds on this ad campaign. >> because we're stronger than the storm. >> reporter: the president's return is not without long-term

karen tumulty of "washington post," and jessica yellin of cnn. >> best thing he has going for him is the republicanes and the one of the problems created this week they for the first time in a long time are united on all three of these issues. what he should be most worried about-- when i'm afraid he's not-- is the insularity of this white house. >> we continue with dan brown. his latest book is "inferno." i write about the vatican and antimatter in the same book, here i'm writing about futuristic genetic technology and humanism. i like writing in the gray area of ethical right and wrong where you can argue both sides of the equation. langdon loves to argue both sides of the equation and let the readers decide which way is correct. >> reporter: we conclude this evening with the film "before midnight," starring julie delpy, and ethan hawke, and directed by richard linklater. >> when you make a movie that spans 18 years, and you watch what people's relationship to romantic love is, what it means to you in your early 20s, what it feels like to connect with a woman for the first time. an

. >> jessica yellin at the white house. jessica, so we know clearly the white house in damage control there. you're watching in the rose garden there. the president yesterday announced the resignation of the irs commissioner. do you think that the administration feels like it's done enough or does he have more explaining to do today? >> suzanne, whether they feel they have more explaining to do or not, bottom line is they do. remember in 2007 and 2008, barack obama then a senator ran on a platform of hope ask change. he promised to run government in a different way. it would not be politics as usual. he's requiring more trust in government than at times in the past. and now there are a series of stories raising people's concerns or at least fed the perception that government can't function properly. so we have to answer the questions under his watch can government function properly? he has also insisted that his is the most transparent administration in history, but his administration has prosecuted more reporters for leaks

. >> and chief white house correspondent jessica yellin who was in the east room. president obama on one hand saying that the benghazi talking points issue is a sideshow, there's no there there. but having a very different tone when it comes to the scandal about the irs targeting conservative and tea party groups. >> that's right, jake. first on the benghazi. i have to tell you i'm not surprised by the tone he took. inside this building as you well know they find this digging around about the talking points and the e-mails sort of ridiculous and just sort of politics as usual because they argue as you heard him say not only has capitol hill had these talking points for many months and the e-mails about them and so the outrage seems sort of to them new, but it's sort of just the politics and what really matters is what happened on the ground. and they've explained. so they just think, you know, we're all engaged in a silly game of political gotcha. not new to hear that. on the irs issue, you know, i just saw the head of the rnc, reince priebus, tweet that he was sur

want to bring in jessica yellin and gloria borger. jess, yesterday's briefing kind of reminiscent of the briefings you and i used to have under bush pme over faulty intelligence in iraq. let's put the partisanship aside. what does this mean for the president, his administration, is he going to be able to get anything done in his second term? >> well, suzanne, look, i think this president's administration seems as you guys had said passive, on the defensive. their agenda, you have to worry if it's going to run aground over this. the president loves to say congress is inflicting self-inflicted wounds and you know they are feeling the sting of some of their own right now. but if you pull back and look atd the big picture, we are not at the point yet where his agenda is actually stalled. this is one story going on where you have a lot of questions and very serious concerns over these controversies, but on the other hand he does have legislation moving on capitol hill on immigration reform that continues to move and that would be a huge le

our chief white house correspondent jessica yellin

chief white house correspondent jessica yellin joins us now. what does the statement say?hi, anderson. president obama has said that he now has, this is in a paper statement, i now have the opportunity to review the treasury department watch dog report on its investigation and he says the report's findings are in his view quote, intolerable and inexcusable. he says that the federal government must conduct itself in a way that's worthy of the public's trust and that's especially true of the irs. the statement goes on to say that he has directed secretary liu, his treasury secretary, to hold those responsible for these failures accountable and to make sure that each of the inspector general's recommendations are implemented quickly so that such conduct never happens again. he goes on to say regardless of how this conduct was allowed to take place, the bottom line is it was wrong. now, anderson, in all, there were nine recommendations made by the inspector general. the irs accepted seven of them and has not accepted two. the president's calling on them to accept all nine. bot

dana bash, joe johns, and jessica yellin, thank you so much. as white house press secretary jay carney heard multiple times in today's briefing, this administration has been aggressive in pursuing leaks. that's putting it lightly. my next guest has been looking at that issue for his latest documentary. it's called "war on whistle blowers" and takes a critical look at the obama administration's role in pursuing those who decide to go public with sensitive information. this impacts not only the whistle blowers but the journalists covering the story. >> reporter: the impact of this administration's aggressiveness in the national security arena has had a inextraordinary chilling effect. the number of people who have indicated to us they wish they could talk but they can't because they are so afraid of what could happen to them is a terrible thing for our democracy. >> we're joined now by the producer and the director of the film "robert greenwall" also the president and founder of brave new foundation. robert, thanks so much for being here. what's

david gergen, gloria borger, dana bash, jessica yellin, appreciate it. let me know what you think. follow me on anderson@andersoncooper. boston strong. new information tonight about the manhunt for the suspects and what really happened the night of the shootout in watertown, next. take a look at some of the memorial behind me. people walking by, dozens, if not hundreds of running shoes that people have left outside. teddy bears, all sorts of signs. boston strong, people coming by and paying their respects on this, the one-month anniversary. >>> also the latest from cleveland where authorities took more evidence from ariel castro's house today. new information from law enforcement about what allegedly went on inside that house. the we'll be right back. we'll b. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ every day, more photos are taken with the iphone than any other camera. starts with ground beef, onions and peppers baked in a ketchup glaze with savory gravy and mashed russet potatoes. what makes stouffer's meatloaf best of all? that moment you enjoy it at home. stouffer's. made with care, for you or your family. to

our own jessica yellin is reporting and i'll read her tweet here that the irs report finds target criteriaidual or organization outside the irs. jessica goes on to tweet that she bets the white house is latching on to that. i bet jessica is right. the larger problem though, ari is right here. the liberal philosophy is the underpinning of it. that government is good. the government can do good things. look at the president's second inaugural address he gave a few months ago. this abuse of power by the irs goes right to the heart of that. people like me, you know, we love to mock the tea party saying they wear a tin foil hat, conspiracy theorists. this time they appear to be right. this is outrageous and does undermine people's faith in government. >> let me put a finer point on it. here's what's coming next. the irs is in charge of an awful lot of the implementation of obama care. the irs has been given enhanced powers under obama care to look at people's returns to determine who should get what type of subsidies. this is going to undermine a lot of already troubled implementation of obama

office since his reelection and a press conference today in washington, joining me is al hunt, jessica yellin, jonathan karl and chuck todd. >> he wanted to be in the thick of immigration reform by now he instead had guns come up and he has been thrown off by a terror attack and the north korea crisis, and still he was, you know, insistent he is going to not only get his whole agenda accomplished or at least protecting some, projecting some confidence he will, by reforming he wants to go ahead and go ahead and close guantanamo bay, part of his job is to, you know, project confidence but he really does seem to have this sense of calm about him and projecting a kind of, i am not going to respond to the critic, i am not going to move at their pace, i am moving at my pace. >> rose: from politics to social issues in our culture and the dramatic announcement today by jason collins, an active nba player that he was gay, joining me david stern, commissioner of the nba and his successor, adam silver. >> david has a particular style, i mean, you know, we have played sort of off each other, not long sin

in washington now, jessica yellin, chief white house correspondent, and gloria borg, chief political now you peppered jay carney today about this whole irs story. what's the movement on that? >> well, brooke, as you saw today, jay carney got questions from just about every direction on this story. and his response was something that is very familiar to anybody who has watched white house briefings over the years. can't comment on an ongoing investigation. listen. you say check our history, rapid commentary, but you have to understand and hear how it sounds like the administration might be hiding something. so can we take these one at a time? on the irs, on friday, they gave one version of the story that has changed several times since then. can you just say plainly, does the president believe they're being truthful and does he think the leadership there needs to change? >> well, i don't have that -- i don't understand how that tracks with your first sentence about assertion here. we have seen the reports as the president said, and if the reports are true, he would consider them -- >>

jessica yellin is traveling with the president in mexico.ifications of this? >> reporter: good morning, john, good morning, christine. this is cheery news for the white house, although i would expect as soon as the white house puts out its reaction it will be a measured one. they are always very careful not to overstate enthusiasm, even when they go down, it's positive news like this there are still 12 million people full-time unemployed, and the president always wants it to improve. on the positive note, though, something in here for both sides to crow about. the president will point out no doubt, there is still -- this shows the economy is on an upward trend. traction, and private sector growth. the argument that the private sector is growing and if people would invest more, take more money off the sidelines it would improve. the problem is largely in the government's -- in the government lately and government hiring, but the problem, he'll point out also no doubt is that what ken baer was saying earlier, sequester. the big headline, if se

let's go straight to our chief white house correspondent jessica yellin. she's watching the stories for us. jessica, the president seems to be getting increasingly fr frustra frustrated. >> hi, wolf. yes, especially on benghazi. the president views the talking points controversy as a manufactured political issue. here's what he said just hours ago. >> the whole issue of talking points frankly throughout this process has been a sideshow. >> two reasons, wolf, he says there's no "there" there. one, he says his administration told the public what it believed to be true in realtime after the benghazi attack as the administration got the information. and, two, he said congress had these talking points and viewed the e-mails about them months ago. so he's questioning why congress is expressing outrage now. but you know, wolf, nothing the president said today answers his critics or keeps this from being a top concern in the house of representatives for a long time to come. >> on the irs jessica, this is obviously a bad situation, but how bad is it specifically for

our chief white house correspondent jessica yellin travels with the president today to new jersey. she is joining us now live. jessica, how did it go? >> reporter: wolf, the reunion was short and sweet with a short-term upside for both men. political odd couple together again. >> let me first of all say thank you to governor christie for that introduction and the great work he has done here. >> reporter: visiting a reopened boardwalk and facing off on an arcade game where the president went 0 for 5. but no worries. the governor won him a stuffed bear. the obama/christie political bromance started days after superstorm sandy devastated new jersey and the president promised -- >> we will not quit until this is done. >> reporter: since then the federal government has poured more than $3 billion into the state. for a governor facing re-election, this visit is a chance to highlight progress rebuilding after the storm. >> it's pretty amazing what they've done. >> and win some free media for the shore. >> welcome back to "the jersey shore." >> the jersey shore is back and it is open for bu

let's bring in our chief white house correspondent, jessica yellin. she watched it all. jessica?growing criticism from the left, this was a chance for president obama to both clarify and redefine his counterterror policy before the history books are written. just months into his second term, president obama made the case for the yet times controversial method used to defend the united states. >> simply put, these strikes have saved lives. >> and he fended off repeated interruptions from a protester. >> can you stop this? >> the voice of that woman is worth paying attention to. >> the president gave his most extensive comments to date on the use of armed drones to target people, his administration decides are terrorists. he offered more detailed than ever before on his decision to kill american citizen anwar. >> he helped oversee the 2010 plot to detonate explosive devices on two u.s.-bound cargo planes. he was involved in planning to blow up an airliner in 2009. >> in the face of growing criticism of the drones program -- >> we will stop again. all right. >> pakistan, somalia --

jessica yellin at the white house now. heard the president say he learned about the irs -- >> he called it outrageous and the president said if true he quote will not tolerate it. listen to what the president said. >> if in fact irs personnel engaged in the kind of practices that have been reported on and were intentionally targeting conservative groups, then that's outray gous and there's no place for it. you know, they have to be held fully accountable. because the irs, as an independent agency, requires absolute integrity and people have to have confidence that they're applying it in a nonpartisan way. >> now that strong language at the same time he stopped short of calling for changes at the irs and that is classic obama. cautious and patient. basically he is waiting for the irs's own internal audit to come out before he make any determinations about what he might do. but the bottom line here is he has put himself in a position where if he doesn't take action, he politically is in a box. you know the president has to a

jessica yellin is standing by for that. jessica, do you have us? what do we expect?: i can tell you that right now president obama as we speak is receiving a briefing on the ongoing disaster response. he is here with his top homeland security advisers and the deputy administrator of fema getting that briefing. the deputy of fema is here because the director of fema is on a flight en route to where you are right now. the president directed craig fugate to participate and direct the federal response on the ground in oklahoma in person. i can tell you that the president was updated throughout the night as you would expect and he issued a disaster declaration so that federal response, federal money and people, could get to the affected towns right away. among the things that we already know are there from fema teams, one special team that coordinates with state and local officials. another that's assisting with search and rescue. another that is supporting the emergency response and yet another that's assessing damage. i can tell you just one example of what they're doin

our chief white house correspondent jessica yellin has been looking into this story for us. ld that there was an ongoing ig investigation after the irs before the 2012 presidential election. we now know that. but we're assured by administration officials that they did not know the outcome of that audit until just weeks ago. so i'll just walk you through the facts. as you say, they were told over at the treasury department about this audit back in june of 2012. now, let's look at this graphic we had built for you. in the summer of last year, the deputy treasury secretary was informed of the investigation, but again, just the fact that it was going on, not that there was any actual wrongdoing found. then in november there was the presidential election. in march, that's when the treasury department was first informed at a staff level only we're told, that there was -- they were given a draft that showed there had been wrongdoing. they found wrongdoing, but that only got to the staff level. in april of 2012, a final report got to the treasury secretary, and the deputy treasury se

we will talk to jessica yellin de white house and dana bash on capitol hill. >>> on the grill tonight in crisis. clinton counsel lanny davis, what would he do. >>> plus shocking new details of ariel castro's violent life behind closed doors. i will talk to his former daughter-in-law who was in the house while three young women were being held captive. she has explosive revelations about his behavior. tonight, one of castro's attorneys also speaks out for the first time and angelina jolie's brave battle, double mastectomy. her father tells me i fully

jessica yellin and dana bash join us now. jessica, off the top, can you ever remember a time when a white house has been battling three big scandals at the same time like this? >> reporter: oh, i'm sure it happened during the clinton administration at some point, don't you think? but i can't name exactly the day. but this is unusual for the obama administration. one of the things this president has a problem with is quick response. they're really slow off the dime. but once they get into action, they're better at reeling it in. it looks like the obama administration is finally in response mode, and you'll see if he's getting his footing. he's started today, piers. >> and in terms of the irs, which many perceive to be arguably the biggest of the three scandals. tell me this, why was steven miller -- and by the way, why wasn't there a real one? why has he had had to go, when from what i hear he wasn't actually running the irs? >> you ask the money question. that's what everyone is e-mailing me to ask. no, he wasn't in charge whe

we'll bring in jessica yellin at the white house, gloria borger. jessica, having covered the white house for years we know what it's like, to have that and tension in the briefing room. jay carney is always pretty cool here. but typically go to reporters one by one and try to start put out these fires. how are they handling this all right now? >> they know that they are under intense scrutiny right now and that this briefing will be watched very closely. look, i don't expect to get a lot of satisfaction from jay carney at this briefing, to be frank, because they're going to argue that there is a firewall effectively between the white house and the justice department or the justice department and the irs on the two big stories of the day. and the justice department in that story they'll say this is what i'm -- this is my understanding at this point. the justice department, you know, because they're investigating links at the white house, the white house doesn't have control over what the attorney general people do over there, so you can just see jay

and the president at the time, president bush, said he wanted to as well. >> that's right. >> jessica yellindid you hear anything in the speech that surprised you as a close watcher of the president? >> i was actually a little bit surprised that he dinged congress a bit in the speech, jake. you know, i heard the speech as a response to critics in his party who have been outspoken in accusing him of not being forthcoming enough in defining his own policies and so this was him saying, look, this is how i see it. this is how i define my terms and how i approach this effort. so he was explaining his own policies and then he went on to say those of you who were so critical of me during, for example, john brennen's hearing, attacking me for not being clear enough on my drones policy, well, he said, i went and we briefed members of congress on every single drone strike, including the one that killed an american citizen anwar awlaki. that was first, to make that public news. he also said, i am open to reconsidering the authorization for the use of force, which is what gives him the power to do these

listen closely to this and you can hear our chief white house correspondent jessica yellin ask about it at the end of this press availability. >> thank you, everybody. >> can you comment on your witness protection program -- >> thank you. thank you. >> no comment on your justice department's i.d. report? >> he totally ignored that one. that's okay. these known or suspected terrorists are in the wind. we don't know their names, the point of witness protection. it does appear the government tripped over itself once again and made it easy for these individuals to fall off the radar. i want to bring in cnn correspondent julia cayenne. let's start with the fact that there are suspected terrorists in the witness protection program. you're a former homeland security official. explain that to people. >> it's because there are big terrorists and what you might call small fish terrorists. what happens in these cases is you want to give protection to people who know what's going on, give them a new identity, protect their family and get the bigger fish. it's hard for people to separate the big

jessica yellin is here with me, dana bash and gloria borger. the chief political analyst for us here at cnn. jessica, let me start with you, with a perspective from the white house. you've had a chance to read through these, i know it's difficult when they're blocking out all these names from the cia to interpret what it means. what were the takeaways for you? >> a couple points. first of all, those two most controversial changes that you point out were, in fact, made by the cia, not by the white house which underscores what the administration has been saying all along. they did not make those changes that they have been blamed for all these many months. and that the cia made them because the cia wanted to protect the, as they put it, integrity of the ongoing investigation. so that's consistent with what the administration has said all along. now that helps the white house. on the flip side, there is still fodder in all these e-mails for the critics. for example, there is an e-mail as i first reported on friday that the state department took iss

jessica yellin has some brand new poll numbers. >> fred, it's good news for the president, according to our new cnn/orc poll. 53% of americans approve of the job president obama is doing. and that poll was taken after last week's tough week. it shows his support is basically unchanged from the 51% we found in our last poll in early april, and up from his low of 47% in mid-march. now, it should come as no surprise that there's a major partisan divide in these numbers with democrats showing overwhelming support, republicans highly critical, and independents, as always, split. so getting into the specifics, on the irs controversy, that involves the targeting of tea party groups. more than 6 in 10 say what president obama said about the matter has been completely or mostly true. a majority, 55%, say the irs acted on its own with 37% saying they believe the irs's actions were ordered by senior white house officials. now, there's good news here for republicans, too. some political analysts have warned the gop is in danger of overplaying its hand on these controversies. let's look at the co

joining me now are chief congressional correspondent, dana bash, jessica yellin, gloria borger and senior political analyst david gergen. dana, let me start with you. the resignation of the acting irs commissioner came out quickly after the audit was released yesterday. what do we know? >> that's right it came really quickly, there was so much outrage, so many unsatisfied republicans and democrats with the inspector general for not assigning blame and wrongdoing with the irs. they knew heads needed to roll. that's obvious for a lot of reasons tonight. not the least of which how much they wanted to make a statement. they put the president out there making a statement and then they released a letter to steven miller explaining why he had to go to restore public trust. steven miller seems to be the guy who was fired for several reasons. first of all, he's only the acting commissioner now, but he was the number two, and we learned this week he was told about targeting tea party and other groups a year ago. and he never disclosed that to members of congress who were investigating this very thi

. >> rose: joining me from washington jessica yellin, cnn's chief white house correspondent.aren tumulty of the "washington post." and albert hunt of "bloomberg news." i am pleased to have all of them. i begin, as usual, with my friend al hunt. tell me where you think this white house is at this moment, al. it's broader than these three scandals-- questions about the president not having an opportunity to finish his agenda. questions of whether he is a bystand tore his own government. and questions as whether what his agenda is and whether he has the power to finish it. >> charlie, he is in trouble. but, first, let me talk about what it is and what it's not. this is not watergate. there is absolutely no evidence of any criminality on the part of the president or any of his top aides. there was incompetence. there was some zealous over-reach. there was some deception. but for those who talk about this in terms of watergate, that's just crazy. it is not that and i will be shocked if any of that should emerge. why it's politically perilous for this president, though, is there's

office since his reelection and a press conference today in washington, joining me is al hunt, jessica yellinl and chuck todd. >> he wanted to be in the thick of immigration reform by now he instead had guns come up and he has been thrown off by a terror attack and the north korea crisis, and still he was, you know, insistent he is going to not only get his whole agenda accomplished or at least protecting some, projecting some confidence he will, by reforming he wants to go ahead and go ahead and close guantanamo bay, part of his job is to, you know, project confidence but he really does seem to have this sense of calm about him and projecting a kind of, i am n