our colleague jim acosta also report that don mcgahn whout counsel office many here believe he has not provided enough information to other officials here. so we heard sarah sanders say at the briefing, i'm basing this on what i know, information that i know. again, jim, tonight as we enter day number eight, as many questions as there were when we started the day.

jim acosta has late details. what do we know about rob porter's resignation and how it came about? >> reporter: essentially, anderson, they were starting to work on this over the last 24 to 48 hours when this daily mail story broke. they knew they had to respond to this, and essentially what they've been saying up until really late today was that, you know, there were some thoughts that rob porter could weather this storm. and, you know, rob porter himself put out a statement saying that much of this is not true. of course he resigned earlier today, and the white house had to deal with this at the daily briefing. but this is the statement from rob porter, talking about these allegations of abuse from two of his ex-wives. these allegations are simply false. i took the photos given to the media nearly 15 years ago and the reality behind them is nowhere close to what is being described. anderson, the photos they are referring to, one of the ex-wives is photographed with a black eye. cnn has obtained that photo as well as other news outlets. it obviously demonstrates there are serious

jim acosta from the white house. >> reporter: the white house is again at odds with the fbi, this time over the timeline and scandal involving former staff secretary rob porter. the director of the fbi said his agents completed their investigation into porter's background last july, contradicting what white house officials have said for days, that they only became aware of what happened last week. the white house offered a new explanation saying that the fbi background check went to the white house office of personnel security. asked about the shifting explanations, press secretary sarah sanders said that she's doing the best she can. >> obviously the press team's not going to be as read-in as some other elements at a given moment on a variety of topics. we relay the best and most accurate information that we have, and we get those from those individuals. >> reporter: aides to the president are becoming frustrated with information they're receiving from top officials inside the west wing. one white house official complained white house counsel don mcghan received much of the informatio

christine and dave. >> jim acosta at the white house. thank you. joining us here is julian zelizer.rning. >> good morning. >> general kelly is a highly decorated and respected four-star general. at one point was thought to be the adult in the room and disciplined. he has had a bad week by trumpian standards considering the knock on dreamers earlier. now this. two statements that came out yesterday. it was regarding the rob porter of true integrity and honor. cnn's reporting suggests that john kelly knew about the allegations. statement two says i was shocked by the allegations released today against porter. there is no place for domestic violence in our society. how does this happen? >> john kelly, since he took over as chief of staff, is not the other john kelly you discussed. he is an extension of the president. he has been an attack dog for the president. he has often been the justifier in chief for the various things the president does or problems that emerge in the white house like order . >> is there an honest explanation for missing this? >> we don't have all of the facts. it

jim acosta has more on what this scandal means for the white house. >> reporter: president trump finally broke his silence about the resignation about rob porter. hardly a me too moment. >> i found out recently and i was surprised by it. we certainly wish him well. it's obviously a tough time for him. he did a very good job when he was in the white house and we hope he has a wonderful career and hopefully he'll have great career ahead of him. but, it was very sad when we heard about it. >> reporter: the president said nothing about the women who said porter abused them. but he made a point to highlight porter's denials. >> he says he's innocent. i think you have to remember that. he said very strongly yesterday that he's innocent. so, you'll have to talk to him about that. but we absolutely wish him well. did a very good job while he was at the white house. >> reporter: that sounded similar to president's comments about failed senate bid for roy moore. >> he said it didn't happen. >> reporter: the white house is still involved in damage control after the porter scandal broke. chief of st

i want to go to our chief correspondent jim acosta and jim sciutto. jim acosta, let me start with you. this happened earlier this evening. not long ago you and i were on the air, you came back with this news. the president refusing to release the democratic memo which rebuts the nunes memo, that the president had absolutely no problem releasing last week over objections of the intelligence community. the big question be asked tonight by democrats is the president hiding something? >> you heard of the friday news dump. this was the friday news dodge. the white house had the opportunity, and they were telling us all week long, listen, we're treating the schiff memo the same we treated the nunes memo. it's going to go through vetting process with the intelligence community and so on. and the president did meet this afternoon with chris ray as well as officials from the white house counsel's office. but i think when this announcement came down it may have shocked a lot of people but it was not that surprising. keep in mind, this was a memo that was going

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

. >> cnn's jim acosta asked sarah sanders to clarify that remark. >> he was stating as a leader, he would have stepped in and help the individuals in the school. coach and other adults. even the students stepped up to protect other students. >> is he trained in firing a weapon? is he trained in using a handgun or firearm? >> i don't think that was the point he was making. he said he would be a leader and would want to take a courageous action. >> critics pointing out five draft deferments? >> bone spur. >>> troubling officials. >> i think this is a circumstance where we need to listen and educators should educate and not hoisted upon this responsibility of packing heat in first grade classes. i understand you have suggested this and we suggest things and sometimes we listen to people about it and maybe they don't look good later. i just suggest we need a little less tweeting here and more listening and let's take that off the table and move forward. >> it is not only democrats who have concerns this morning. we have jeff zeleny at the white house. >> reporter: christine and dave, presiden

we have all of this drama inside the west wing from jim acosta. >> reporter: christine and dave, the white house is dealing with a scandal with the top aide rob porter who resigned from his position after his two ex-wives accused him of abuse. he says the outrageous allegations are false. i took the photos given to the media nearly 15 years ago. despite the allegations, the white house released statements about porter from john kelly and others. the senior white house official told cnn the statements were written in response to the first story in the matter. other reports included one of the ex-wives featuring a black eye. sarah sanders said the president had confidence in porter. >> i can tell you that rob has been an effective in his role as staff secretary. the chief of staff has had full confidence and trust in his abilities. >> reporter: cnn learned one year into the trump administration, porter never obtained a security clearance to work here. it was widely known porter was facing trouble with the clearance and there were allegations from his ex-wives about becauabuse. christin

we begin at the white house with cnn's jim acosta. sanders said today about what the white house knew and when about rob porter. >> reporter: well, there have been shifting explanations as you know, anderson, for the past week. today was a new one.

the latest now from cnn's jim acosta standing by at the white house. so, jim, explain this. >> well, i think a lot of people want some explaining when when it comes to this decision, anderson. all week long, there was the expectation that the president in the issue of transparency, remember officials were saying we're going to put this memo through the same rigorous vetting process that we put the nunes memo through, and the suggestion all along is that in the issue of transparency that they would go ahead and release this moment, but, of course president trump is the final decider on this. he made this decision and sounds late today to go ahead and make this decision not to declassify this memo from the ranking democrat on the house intelligence committee, adam schiff. ener is a letter that is attached to the statement that came from the white house press office about this. we can put it up on screen. it's from the white house counsel. if we don't have that graphic available, i can just read this key paragraph to you. it essentially says, although the

let's go to chief white house correspondent jim acosta. jim, what options does the president have on the democrats' intelligence memo? >> reporter: we should point out our colleague jerry diamond who is reporting this morning, the president is expected to authorize this document, but of course the white house still has four days to make this decision. over the next four days, we're told by our sources that the white house is going to subject this memo to the same scrutiny, the same vetting that was applied to the republican memo last week. now, of course, we should point out just in fairness, the president was telling a lawmaker at the state of the union speech last week that he wanted to release that memo 100% before he even read it and the clear process was completed here at the white house. it's not going through the same process, obviously, when it comes to that democratic memo. we did hear speaker ryan telling manu raju and other sources that as long as this is scrubbed to protect sources and other methods, that that is okay to the lea

let's go to jim acosta. jim, this is a significant loss for kushner. >> it is, wolf. the president we should point out ignored questions about his son-in-law jared kushner losing his top secret security clearance at the white house earlier today. the questions are coming in response to a change made here at the white house by chief of staff john kelly that will affect white house staffers who are operating on interim top secret security clearances. as a result, those employees, including kushner, will have their access to sensitive materials limited. earlier this month we first reported that more than 100 white house staffers were working with interim security clearances. last friday the president said he would leave it up to the chief of staff john kelly to clean up that security clearance process in the wake of the rob porter scandal. here's what the president had to say last friday. >> general kelly respects jared a lot and general kelly make l make that call. i won't make that call. i'll let the general make that call. i will let general kelly make that decision a

i have done my own story on cnn, and i can to you whether it is jim acosta, tapper, dana bash, you can on and on and on, none of them have a degree in print journalism. ar down onto be that, they all have -- anderson cooper especially -- they all have alliances with the democratic party, but they do not announce that to us. is in the white house press corps specifically, not what you are doing, sir, is that they should have a degree in french journalism and let the conflict go from that, the white house press corps, with a degree in print journalism, with their own broadcast news is that they get it right, so another words, they police themselves. host: i want to get james a chance to respond to that idea. guest: should they have a degree in journalism? maybe they should not. i do not have a degree in journalism. i just sort of went out and did it and taught myself so i can tell stories. schoolsthat journalism have lost their way, and i think it goes back to water become a my history of reading, it goes back journalists started to pursue power instead of the truth. they view this as a

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

our chief correspondent jim acosta is joining us from the white house. jim, we're hearing a pretty familiar message from the president. >> reporter: that's right, wolf. instead of the presidential daily briefing, this is like the presidential morning briefing. the president receiving information from fox news and then dissem nagt it via twitter. the president was on a tirade early this morning putting out all sorts of tweets about the russian investigation. we can throw some of them up on screen. one of them in all caps, witch hunt, with an exclamation point, so it shows you where the president's mind is on all of this. i think it is no surprise that he is tweeting about the russian investigation, that this is under his skin this morning with hope hicks testifying and talking to investigators up on capitol hill. after all, she is as close inside the inner circle with the president as you can possibly get. long time aide to the president and, of course, then candidate trump during the campaign, and it will be interesting to see, asman manu said and what sh

jim acosta, cnn, the white house. >>> well, again, the main allegation in this metrodomo th they tried to fire carter page. >> how does carter page fit into all this? we asked tom foreman to explain. >> reporter: in the long investigation into possible russian meddling in the u.s. election, carter page has become a flash point, not because this one-time adviser to donald trump had a long relationship with russia or he traveled there during the campaign, that is true. instead, some republicans believe the justice department improperly used a fisa court to wiretap carter page. now, fisa stands for the foreign intelligence surveillance act. this is what is used when investigators want to spy on, e sp sensually somebody on u.s. soil. they go to fisa, present information why they believe this person is suspected agent of the foreign government and the fisa court gives them permission, if it's approved properly to go forward with this. the fisa court did that. they approved an extension three times. analysts say because there was something coming out of this that gave them reason to keep app

tonight, jim acosta told, the white house made redact portion of the memo. chairman rogers, i bring this up again to you, we heard from paul ryan and the congressman broadcast that you were on two nights ago. all are saying christopher wray had a chance to see this and nobody raise objections and started making changes to this. the implication was that the fbi had to essentially, christopher wray signed off on this. clearly, that's not the case. >> well, as my understanding when the fbi director was there, hey, this is a lot to take in. i want to take this back. he reads it and sees it and he said hey, it was just himself. the fbi director a few months now. he says i am going to go back and look at it. you need to give them the opportunity to run through that information with his folks and clearly they came to a different conclusion that it was, they admitted important facts to that case. here what i say drives me crazy about this is whole thing anderson. listen, if there are allegations that the fbi perjure themselves, both republican and democrats should b

first, let's go to our chief white house correspondent, jim acosta. jim, the latest shutdown deadline is nearing thursday night, midnight, and the president seems to be saying, bring it on. >> reporter: he certainly does, wolf. just as both parties appear to be on the verge o f a big verba agreement, president trump rolled a hand grenade into the mix, saying he would love to see a shutdown of the government if he cannot secure the concessions he wants on border security. here's what he had to say. >> if we don't change it, let's have a shutdown. we'll do a shutdown. and it's worth it for our country. i would love to see a shutdown if we don't get this stuff taken care of. no other country in the world has what we have. and we're going to get it stopped. and if we have to shut it down because the democrats don't want safety and unrelated, but still related, they don't want to take care of our military, then shut it down. i would shut it down over this issue. i can't speak for everybody at the table, but i will tell you, i would shut it down over this is

let's begin with jim acosta. he has the very latest. >> president trump continued his fault on the fbi dapg day by authorizing a partisan republican memo accuses federal investigators of politicizing the russia investigation. as all of washington expected, the president greenlighted the release of the memo portrays mr. trump as the real victim of the russia investigation. the president poured it on from the oval office. >> i think it is terrible. i think it is a disgrace what's going on in this country. i think it is a disgrace. the memo was sent to congress. it was declassified. congress will do whatever they're going to do. but i think it is a disgrace, what's happening if our country. when you look at that, and you see that and so many other things, what's going on, a lot of people should be ashamed of themselves and. worse than that. >> the memo drafted by devin nunes accuses federal investigators what republicans characterize as a politically written dossier. into carter page's interactions with the russians

our chief white house correspondent jim acosta is joining us right now. jim, you have new information on the fallout, and it's pretty significant from all of this. >> that's right, wolf. the white house is finishing this week knocking down reports that chief of staff john kelly is resigning or offered to resign. but we were told by our sources that at some point today the chief of staff had a conversation with the president about stepping down. as you were saying a few moments ago, the president finally did start talking about the resignation of his top aide, rob porter. the president sounded as though hefd defensing porter and not saying much about his alleged victims. president trump finally broke his silence about the resignation of his former staff secretary rob porter, but it was hardly a me too moment. >> i found out about it recently and i was surprised by it but we certainly wish him well. it's obviously a tough time for him. he did a very good job when he was in the white house and we hope he has a wonderful career and hopefully he will have a gre

>> jim acosta said the white house might redact portions. chairman rogers i bring this up to you, we heard from paul ryan, all of whom kept saying christopher wray had a chance to see this. didn't raise objections. nobody raised objections or put a pen and started making changes to this. the implication was that the fbi, christopher wray had sign off on this. and clearly that is not the case. >> well it is my understanding that when the fbi director said -- it was just himself, he has been fbi director a few months now and said i am going it go back and look at it. you need to give him the opportunity to run through that information with his folks. they omitted important facts to the case. and here is what drives me crazy about the whole thing. if there are allegations that the fbi perjured themselves both republicans and democrats should be upset about that. number two, clearly the way the republican majority here is trying to release this without all the facts is also a disservice. this is a classified committee designed to deal with very

the deputy attorney general jim acosta, at the white house, thank you very much. lets head over to capitol hill. the memo release is making a bipartisan divided everyone worst. you have been talking to lawmakers on both sides whart ae you hearing? >> a sharp dediviivide in the h. republicans in the house really are rallying behind for the most part of devin nunes believing that he's taking the right steps and what they believe abuses of the justice department and the fbi and paul ryan has been behind nunes all the way dpie fighting back and the fbi over the last several week to reign nunes in. democrats on the other side reigning some serious and profound concerns of a memo that's misleading and in their view reckless, on the republican side, it is much different. on the republican side in the senate, there is been a more muted response. republicans have either been sharply critical like john mccain earlier today said that it is actually doing putin's bidding and people like susan collins says this is not the way you deal with bipartisan issues within the intellig

jim acosta at the white house. thank you. >>> now that the president is seeing that memo by democrats. what are you hearing? >> reporter: the big question on capitol hill now that the clock is ticking for him to object or allow the releets. another big question is what are the republicans on the house intelligence committee who voted yesterday unanimously to send th this memo to president trump's desk, whether they will allow it to redact key portions of it the. right now a number of republicans are not saying one way or the other what they will do. the republican who is not saying what they will do is paul ryan. the house speaker. he would not say earlier today whether or not president trump should release the memo saying this needs to be skrubld of sources and methods. to be reviewed by the department of justice and the fbi. now, in addition to that, i had a chance to ask paul ryan earlier today about the president's tweet over the weekend that he was totally vindicated by this nunes memo. even as paul ryan himse

first to jim acosta. jim, first of all what deen about hope -- what do we know about hope hicks' reason for resigning? >> reporter: as you said, president trump has lost hope as in hope hicks, his communications director here at the white house and longtime trusted aide. she announced earlier today through the white house that she's stepping down over the next several weeks. the president put out a very glowing statement about his longtime and trusted aide here at white house. he said, "hope is outstanding and has done great work for the last three years. she is as smart and thoughtful as they come. a truly great person. i will miss having her by my side. when she approached me about pursuing other opportunities, i totally understood. i am sure we will work together in the future." i'm told by a white house official here that there is "nothing nefarious" about hicks leaving at this time. the official denied that this had anything to do with the rob porter scandal that broke over the last several weeks. and

. >> cnn's jim acosta asked sarah sanders to clar phify. >> he said as a leader he would step in and help as a leader to help the people in the school. the coach and other adults. even the students stepped up to help other students. >> is he trained in firing a weapon? is he trained in using a hand gun or fire arm? >> i don't think that was tpoin he was making. he is being a leader and would want to take a courageous action. >> president trump suggestion of arming teachers troubling many officials, including washington state's democratic governor jay inslee. >> i think this is a circumstance where we need to listen. educators should educate and not hoisted upon this responsibility of packing heat in first grade classes. now i understand you have suggested this and we suggest things and sometimes we listen to people about it and they don't look good later. i suggest we have less tweeting here and more listening and take that off the table and move forward. >> overwhelming majority of americans say they want tougher gun control measures in the wake of the stoneman douglas high school.

jim acosta is standing by at the white house. >> reporter: a lot of people want some explaining when it comes to the decision. there was the expectation of transparency. and the suggestion all along is that in the issue of transparency that they would go ahead and release this memo. of course, president trump is the final decider on this and he made this decision it sounds late today to go ahead and make this decision not to declassify this memo from the ranking democrat ranking committee adam schiff. i can read this key paragraph for you it says although the president is inclined to declassify the memorandum, he is unable to do so at this time. and it goes on to say, anderson, however, given the public interest in transparency and circumstances the president instructed the justice department to work with the house intelligence committee and come up with a version that is going to satisfy officials here. earlier today the president met with white house counsel office about all of this. and that is where the decision was made. there is another letter here attach. this is to rod rosens

jim acosta, thank you so much for now, our chief white house correspondent. let's bring in a panel and have a big ole conversation. i have with me journalist and women's rights advocate, anosha hussein, cnn political commentator amanda carpenter is back today, former communications director for senator ted cruz, and chris cillizza. chris cillizza, you're up to bat first, my friend, because we talked a lot friday about those on camera trump remarked where he mentioned those women and their allegations, zilch, nada, none whatsoever. friday night the president goes to bed, wakes up, thinks how can i make this worse and then he tweets. >> yeah. i saw some spin over the weekend, i think from marc short, the legislative affairs director, brooke, who said this -- or it might have been mick mulvaney who said, well, this could have been about steve wynn. the very fact that we're debating that is not a good thing. if the president wants to be clear about who it is, he should say who it is. it read to me like it was about rob porter. yeah, he has this very, i think, som

we begin at the white house with cnn's jim acosta. jim, explain what sarah sanders said today about what the white house knew and when about rob porter. >> reporter: well, there have been shifting explanations as you know, anderson, for the past week. and today was a new one. we had not heard the words "white house personnel security office" before today, but we heard it in the white house briefing. the white house press secretary sarah sanders was asked about some of these conflicting stories, why the fbi director was up on capitol hill testifying that his agents had completed their investigation last july, when we were told by raj shah, the deputy white house spokesman, and sarah sanders that that process was ongoing. and her explanation was, well, the office of personnel security had this matter and that they were still looking at it and that that process had not been completed. and so anderson, by my count that is the fourth or fifth different explanation officially that we've heard from the white house as to why this information a

jim acosta joins us now. we don't have a timeline from the white house as to who knew what and when. >> no, anderson. the white house is extending the timeline of the scandal because they're not giving straight answers at the briefings. you heard sarah sanders say while they weren't aware of the extent of what rob porter was accused of until last tuesday night, of course, we know for a fact, never mind that the deputy spokesman said they're fully aware in that general area, as well. anderson, we've known for months. we know they knew for months that this was lurking in rob porter's ground. he was having background check problems in the security clearance process. we know that. until the white house acknowledges that, they're going to have trouble answering this question. the other thing that's lengthening this process for the white house, is just the way the president has been going back and forth on all this. i talked to a couple of republican sources. one that used to work for the campaign, who simply said

but even today, tonight our jim acosta got ahold of a memo that kelly wrote to staff inside. and immediately i was hearing well, you know, it was nice he addressed his staff. >> do you want to read it? >> yeah. sure. there is no accountability in there which is very frustrating to people. >> this is the memo to the white house staff that dana is referring to. while we are processing the shocking and troubling allegations made against the former white house staffer, i want you to know that we are all take matters of domestic violence seriously. domestic violence has no place in our society. but they didn't. they knew for a long time. david, go on. what did you want to say? >> yeah. i was going to say that is a pitifully late memo. the fact of the matter is that porter couldn't get clearance in the white house for 13 months. if you're the chief of staff, you're going to get to the bottom of why that is. and what clearly happened here, what clearly happened here is that he is a well -- a highly regarded person in the white house. he's very close to the chief of staff. he's a use

let's go to jim acosta for breaking news at the white house. ng to sthok a lot of people. >> reporter: it's going to sthok a lot of people. but probably not everybody here in washington, erin, that's right. looking at this letter that was sent back to the house intelligence committee democrats from don mcgahn white house counsel it says, key sentence here, although the president is inclined to declassify the schiff memo of the memo, because the memorandum contains numerous properly classified and especially sensitive passages, he is unable to do so at this time. however, given the public interest and transparency in these unprecedented circumstances the president has directed justice department personnel be available to give technical assistance to the committee. and so what they are saying here, erin, in all of that washington gobbling gook, the president has decided he is not going to declassify that memo. according to the white house release along with this letter it says something has been sent back to the house intelligence committee that w

wait to go to jim acosta with the latest. what have you learned, jim?rter: well, anderson, one of the outstanding questions we had today was why the white house would think it would be a good idea for the chief of staff, john kelly, and others here at the white house, to release statements praising rob porter in light of these allegations, these very serious allegations of abuse. and we got an answer. senior white house official just told me a few moments ago that those initial statements were drafted and written in response to that first daily mail story that detailed some of the allegations, but did not include that photograph of one of rob porter's ex-wives with a black eye. i'm told that when that story emerged, that included the photograph with one of rob porter's ex-wives with a black eye, that that changed everything. but that simply the white house was not responding quickly enough to this fast-moving story, and obviously, the photograph did really change everything for this white house. now, you know, you can take a look at some of the statemen

jim acosta at the white house. we'll have more on that coming up. >>> more on the senate's bipartisan budget deal. our congressional correspondent phil mattingly is up on capitol hill. phil, there's a lot in the spending plan that democrats and conservatives don't like. >> reporter: yeah, no question about it, wolf. and look, when you talk to the aides of top negotiators, they acknowledge they went into this with their eyes wide open. they knew there would be folks on the far right and on the far left who wanted no part of this. for republicans, it's all about the spending. obviously just on the spending caps alone, $300 billion, more than $80 billion in disaster relief. billions more across the deal. that's significantly problematic for deficit hawks who also have outside conservative amnesty groups that are completely against this. on the democratic side, it's about daca. the defense spending piece that republicans and the president so dearly wanted increased was the key piece of leverage that democrats thought t

our jim acosta is reporting that the president seems to be backing away.itol hill are getting right now. i know you've been skeptical from the beginning that congress would take any action, molly. is this a sign perhaps of the imminent inaction? >> potentially. we haven't seen this president able to exert focus and sustained leadership on the details of policy at any point in his presidency. it's not really his strong suit. so you say concrete proposal. it was something he said, but it isn't something the white house put in writing as a proposal, isn't something the president took to congress and said this is the thing i want you to do and here is how. he's floating a lot of things. to me they're just trial balloons. he's seeing what people like and what they don't. he's hearing what feedback he gets. in this case the feedback from the nra saying we can handle some of the other things you're talking about, even things in the territory of gun control, but we don't like this one. so he is potentially trimming his sails. the bottom line is republicans in cong

let's go to our chief white house correspondent jim acosta over at the white house right now. jim, what more can you tell us about the focus of this house oversight committee's investigation? this is important news. >> i think it's very important news. the chairman of the house oversight committee, trey gowdy, a republican, volunteered on cnn that his committee has launched an investigation into all of this. there are some key points that they're looking at in the context of their investigation, but i just want to make sure we focus pretty closely on what we just heard a few moments ago from the vice president, mike pence. it was interesting what the vice president said. he said at one point, i think the white house could have handled this better, in reference to the rob porter saga. that's a pretty stunning admission from the vice president. i think earlier when he was skt the olympics, he told nbc's lester holt that while the white house says they could have handled it better, this was the vice president essentially saying, no, i think the white house could have handled this

jim acosta is going to join us right now from the white house. jim, i understand you have new reporting on don mcgahn and john kelly and when they knew specific information. >> that's right. you don't have a white house official, anderson, but you do have me. i was told by white house official earlier this evening who said that don mcgahn simply has not shared enough information about what he knows and what he knew at the time about rob porter's background. keep in mind, the fbi director, christopher wray said earlier today, the background check process, at least in terms of the fbi, was completed in july. and it was at that time this white house official says that don mcgahn knew some of this information that was lurking in rob porter's past. and simply did not share enough of it with top officials, including the chief of staff, john kelly. now, this official did say that perhaps kelly did not dig enough or prod enough for this information, but according to this official that i spoke with earlier this evening, a lot of these questions are going b

more on all of it from cnn's jim acosta. >> reporter: anderson, we're hearing from a source familiar with this review process about this nunes memo, this could happen tomorrow. likely to happen tomorrow and it's likely to be released. the source we talked to aller this evening said at this point that it is very likely that there will be redactions made in this memo to sort of respond to these concerns expressed by the fbi. the question now, of course, anderson, do these redactions go far enough to satisfy christopher wray, as you said, the president's hand-picked director of the fbi. we don't know at this point. we're also told by this source that as of this evening, the president has not been made aware of what might be changed inside that memo and what the actual results of this review are over here at the white house. and despite the fact that the source was saying, anderson, this is likely to be released tomorrow, the source was telling us no final decision has been made. that's despite the fact the president was saying 100% at the state of the union that this is going to be rele

but first, cnn's jim acosta was in the briefing room when all the bobbing and weaving was happening. he joins us now. i understand you're getting new reporting about that briefing today. >> reporter: that's right, anderson. i was just talking with a source close to the white house who advises this white house on communications strategy from time to time. this source was telling me that the reason why raj shaw was not giving a full tick-tock or explaining of the timetable in terms of what john kelly and other top white house staffers knew and when they knew it is because it is, quote, too damning and that is an indication, anderson, that i think they knew full well going into this briefing today that they simply could not give, you know, a detailed explanation as to what john kelly knew and when he knew it because it would just simply be too damaging to this white house. now obviously you were just playing these clips a few moments ago. it was apparent in the room. this was raj shaw's first briefing. he was filling in for sarah sanders who was away. you could have thrown anybody into

let's quickly go to our chief white house correspondent, jim acosta for this part of the story. jim, the president made somber remarks today, and he also took to twitter. >> reporter: that's right, wolf. the flags are at half staff here at the white house. president trump is offering the usual thoughts and prayers after this school shooting in florida, but the president appears to be clinging to the talking points of the national rifle association which call for measures dealing with mental health issues instead of gun control. >> our entire nation, with one heavy heart, is praying for the victims and their families. >> reporter: it's a sad and deadly pattern that is uniquely american. a mass shooting breaks out and a president offers thoughts and prayers. >> we are committed to working with state and local leaders to help secure our schools and tackle the difficult issue of mental health. later this month, i will be meeting with the nation's governors and attorney generals where making our schools and our children safer will be our top priority. >> president trump did not utter

jim acosta, thank you very much. we also have a statement from the chairman of the house committee, devin nunes. he said the committee has discussed serious violations of the public trust and the american people have a right to know when officials in crucial institutions are abusing their authority for political purposes. let's bring in our panel. jane harmes is here. commentator mike rogers is with us. he is a former chairman of the house intelligence committee. senior white house chairman pamela brown and our chief legal analyst gloria borger. let's talk about the future of some of these individuals that the president slapped big time by rejecting their personal and public appeals. rod rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, the number two at the department of justice. he's in charge, he oversees it, because jeff sessions recused himself, he's supposedly not involved at all. the president was asked, do you have confidence in rod rosenstein, and he said, you figure that one out, and he had an angry look on his face

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jim acosta joins us. you pressed on sarah sanders on kelley's comments, what was her response?yes, anderson. mainly because this appears to be one of a long line of offensive comments coming out of the white house aimed at immigrants in the context of this immigration debate. keep in mind the president has said in the past, we love the dreamers. well, if you listen to his chief of staff, it doesn't sound like at least the chief of staff loves the dreamers. he was essentially describing them as slackers earlier today. here's how it played out in the briefing room when i pressed the white house press secretary on general kelley's comments. >> just on the face of it, isn't that just a wildly offensive comment about these undocumented immigrants who are waiting for some kind of solution to come out of this city? >> the only person that's actually offered a solution is this administration. the president's been a champion of giving 1.8 million daca recipients and daca-eligible people a pathway to citizenship. and he's laid out a plan and a solution that actually addresses both republ

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first let's to go our chief correspondent jim acosta. the white house story, it keep oss changing. >> it really does. the white house is at odds with the fbi once again, this time over the time line of the scandal of rob porter, directly could n contradicting. it led the white house secretary to come out into the briefing room the once again and engage in shifting explanations. >> reporter: president trump once again steered clear of questions about rob porter. >> do you believe rob porter's ex-wives? >> reporter: and the allegations of domestic abuse has raised critical questions about the security clearance process for west wing staffers. at a hearing, christopher wray disclosed what he knew about the background check and said they completed their investigation last summer. >> the fbi submitted a partial report on the investigation in question in march. and then a completed background investigation in late july. soon there after, we received requests for follow-up inquiry and we did the follow-up and provided that information in novemb

when is the last time that jim acosta broke any news. his career is made out of the exchanges and yelling that he has and the level of obnoxious he reaches to as opposed to news that he breaks and information he shares. >> sean: sean spicer thank you. we appreciate it. more "hannity" after this break. (alarm sounds) ♪ oooooooooh! you sleep on a poorly crafted mattress, you might find yourself sippin' a hot cup of mud, too. you need a ghostbed™. the only mattress with cooling latex over gel memory foam to give you the deepest sleep. delivered to your door. in a box. at a great price. because you shouldn't have to pay a lot for a great night's sleep. order your ghostbed™ today and receive $100 off plus two free ghostpillows. ick! ghostbed™. amazing mattress. unreal sleep. ♪(somber piano) ♪you may say i'm a dreamer ♪but i'm not the only one ♪i hope some day you'll join us♪ ♪and the world will live as one♪ >> >> sean: i have a homework assignment for the media. if you are so shocked that russians tried to influence the election. read and lea

but when was the last time jim acosta broke any news?is entire career is made out of the exchanges and the yelling he has and the level of obnoxious that he reaches to as opposed to the news that he breaks and the information he shares. >> sean: all right, sean spicer, thank you. we appreciate it. more hannity after the break. you won't see these folks at the post office they have businesses to run they have passions to pursue how do they avoid trips to the post office? stamps.com mail letters ship packages all the amazing services of the post office right on your computer get a 4 week trial plus $100 in extras including postage and a digital scale go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again >>i have a homework assignment for everyone else in the media. if you're so shocked that russia tried to influence the election, go read and learn about what happened with uranium. go learn something about the dossier. clinton paid for it, full of russian and government lies. we have so much more on monday. have a . thanks for being wit

the latest now from cnn's jim acosta standing by at the white house. this. >> well, i think a lot of people want some explaining when when it comes to this decision, anderson. all week long, there was the expectation that the president in the issue of