avoid conflict through conversation and sorry you can't ignore russia like it's jim acosta at a press conference. [laughter] yet, so many progressives he progress. ironically, trump may do more for the cause of peace than any left when being president ever could because he's dealing from a position of strength. what a surprise? a 73 -year-old billionaire who is dealt with dogs his whole life where a grad student who writes bad poetry couldn't. how is that? he got the stick in the carrot in the right order. you build up the military and that is the stick then comes the carrot, liberals do the opposite. they declare six a threat to the environment and then they bury our enemies and carrots. [laughter] trump dealing with putin and trump's pocket is a big stick and he's not happy to see him. [laughter] let's welcome tonight's guests. if you ever become a porn star you won't have to change his name, former cia officer bart sexton. [applause] practicing her name, she is our business reporter from north of the border, foxbusiness network reporter christina. [cheering and applause]

jim acosta is joining me now here in new york.ou for coming on. >> thanks for having me. >> some people were yelling go home to you. then others asking for autographs. does that in a nutshell describe this twisting relationship? >> i think it does to some extent. listen. people are going to yell at us. they're going to tell us to go home. we're not going to go home. we're going to do our jobs. this elderly woman was whipping up the crowd into a frenzy and getting them to say go home, jim. but at the same time, you know, we talked to other people who said, hey, i don't agree with what you do or say but you have a right to do it. there was a man that came up and asked if anybody had a chair we could lend so his elderly mother could sit down. i was happy to hand over my chair. i was talking with the gentleman. it was interesting. he said, i didn't realize that, you know, you were going to sing the national anthem when the national anthem played in the rally. >> interesting. >> or say the pledge of allegiance. i said, i went to elemen

i want to begin our coverage with cnn's chief white house reporter jim acosta at the prime minister's country estate about 40 miles outside of london. jim? >> john, that's right. president trump still making waves across europe, making a big splash with the interview he gave the "sun" newspaper. he criticized theresa may's handling of brexit, her approach for a soft brexit and questioned whether or not that would impact trade deals with the united states. he also speculated about the possibility of bors johnson, the ex-foreign secretary becoming prime minister. they made a huge splash across the uk, one of the tabloids in london said the president's trip could be summed up this way "the ego has landed" but listen to how the president spoke the "sun" newspaper about theresa may and her handling of brexit. here's what he had to say. >> i would have done it much differently. i told theresa may how to do it but she didn't agree with -- she didn't listen to me. i think the deal she's striking is not what the people voted on. it's a much different deal than the people voted on. it was not t

i'm jim acosta. you're in "the situation room." >>> and we are following breaking news. the white house refusing to comment on roe versus wade and the president talks to nominees to the supreme court. we'll talk about that and more. but first, go to cnn's senior white house correspondent jeff zeleny. press secretary sarah sanders said the president is not asking about specific cases involving roe versus wade and many cases, jeff, they already know the answer. right? >> reporter: no question about it. jim, the list of 25 finalists to be the potential supreme court pick have been out there in the public eye and the president saying he is not asking specifically of landmark rulings but the reality is the federalist society, conservative group here in washington working with this white house on crafting that list, knows the answer to them. and there are so surprises in effect on that front. the sarah sanders repeatedly not saying if roe versus wade is a central issue and the white house trying to down pl

. >> our chief white house correspondent, jim acosta is here in helsinki with us. jim, let's take a closer look at how this historic day will go down in helsinki. it starts just a few hours from now. 5:25 a.m., that's eastern time we're talking about in the united states, the russian president, vladimir putin, he will arrive here in helsinki from moscow. shortly after that, he and the president will sit down for a meeting and that's expected to last for more than an hour, just the two of them. then a working lunch. then possibly we're told the two leaders will speak to reporters, have a formal joint news conference. then it's all over. by shortly after 10:00 a.m. eastern time when the u.s. president is scheduled to leave helsinki and head back to the united states. jim, basically the two hours will have an hour and change together plus more meetings with aides. what's the plan for what they're going to talk about? >> yeah. that's right, wolf. that's going to happen in about 12 hours from now. they'll have an initial 90-minute meeting according to the white house, sc

jim acosta joins me now from that location. jim, do we know when this is going to start?e the expectations? >> reporter: anderson, we have been told tentatively to prepare for 5:15 local time here in fill lan fill -- finland. that's going to slide back and forth because this has been chaotic from a scheduling standpoint all day long. the president and vladimir putin met longer behind closed doors with that interpreter one on one type of session. that lasted about two hours plus. we only expected that to go about 90 minutes. they could potentially trim back the expanded bilateral session where the secretary of state and other top officials are joining the president in that meeting with vladimir putin. obviously, as you noticed, over the last 12 hours the president has provided fresh material for us to ask him about at this press conference. we have been told this is a press conference. it's been described as such. we don't expect the president and vladimir putin to just read joint statements and then leave without taking any questions when you describe something as a press

later the president posted of a take-down of jim acosta. d then the white house pulled john bolton this morning on cnn's state of the union saying they didn't want to reward acosta's bad behavior. we heard them dismiss welker for his dishonest reporting. did it strike you as dishonnist? gillian: no. it was delivered in a critical manner. it was a provocative question. that was fair. i can understand why maybe a president with a good relationship with mainstream media would feel taken aback by a hard question like that. but it does not make it dishonest reporting or fake news. john roberts did issue a statement saying he didn't find kristen welker's question dishonest. mollie: when president trump says the allied countries need to provide more for their common defense. that's something that has been said by the previous 7 administrations. he said it more harshly because they didn't get the result they were hoping for. the underlying assumption that it helps russia to have a strong nato is wrong. it helps the nato countries. howie: there has b

let's start with what we know in this hour, starting with jim acosta at the white house. what have you learned, jim? >> anderson, late-breaking developments in the last couple minutes. we can tell you cnn has confirming now on the ground in michigan outside the home of judge raymond kethledge that he is at home in michigan, so he has not made the trip to washington. that would, i think, strike him off the list at this point. then within the last hour judge amy barrett at her home in south bend, indiana, confirmed to reporters she is at her house this evening. so she, too, did not make the trip to washington. so i think that means you can knock off two of those names off of that list of final four candidates. that leaves the final two, unless there's a big wild card announced in 58 minutes from now, that means that we're talking about judge hardiman and judge kavanaugh at this point. thomas hardman is a favorite of many inside trump's supreme court team because he is friendly with the president's sister who is also a judge. they both served together in pennsylvania. but and

jim acosta, are you with me? >> reporter: sure. >> you tried valiantly to get a question in, the president said, and i quote, i don't take questions from cnn. what were you trying to ask him? >> reporter: yeah, he does take questions from cnn. he took a question from me in singapore at the conclusion of his summit with kim jung-un. but putting that aside, perhaps his own version of fake news there in saying that, i did try to ask a question at the very end of that press conference. i'm not sure if you heard it because the president and prime minister were leaving the scene. i asked mr. president will you tell putin to stay out of u.s. elections. and he did turn and say yes. so, you know, the question that has been phrased to him in recent weeks is will you raise the issue of meddling with vladimir putin. that seems to get to the issue of whether or not they meddled in the 2016 election. what you hear a lot of people raising the question up on capitol hill and around washington is whether or not vladimir putin wil

first, backgrounds, you will remember his visit to teresa may, he ignored cnn's jim acosta and chosel on john roberts of fox news. >> it's such dishonesty reporting. nbc is probably worse than cnn. >> sense you attacked cnn. can i ask you a question in. >> no, no, john roberts, go ahead. cnn's fake news, i don't take questions from cnn. cnn is attack news, john roberts of fox. >> so roberts then asks, without making kimps i reference, he was criticized and arguably has shown on wednesday halle jackson was quizzing sarah sanders about when the president and putin interfered in the election. sanders tried to move onto the next questioner. here's the end of the back and forth. >> he sees, he is misspoken, he comes out and says that. >> you told the president once again, moving on to jordan. go ahead. >> so she was trying to call on jordan fabian of the hill. here's what happened next. >> i'm going to take a question. >> anything i remember a time the president publicly called out vladimir putin. >> i think the fact that the president said russia interfered with jordan. >> joining me now

finish her line of questioning before the questioning moved to me of course i was thinking about jim acostaohn roberts. were you thinking about the way that had gone down? >> i wasn't, michael. when you're sitting in a chair in a briefs room, you're just trying to make sure you don't sound like a moran on television, quite frankly. i was trying to get myself in the mind-set to ask mea question, and then this interaction happened. i'm not going to lie. we have talked a lot behind the scenes about press corps unity, make sure we can all do our jobs, and in that moment i thought deferring to hallie was the right thing to do. >> the bigger question -- do you think this may unfold in subsequent, in press conferences to come? >> i hope so, in the sense that all of us in the white house press corps have respect for one another and do our best to make sure we can all do our jobs. i view it in a bit of a different light. there's this dynamic now, partially because of how the president treats the media, that the media is the opposition party and we are tasked with defeating him. that's not how we vie

president of the united states those questions and i saw that preview before that the press or jim acosta people like that they already had their knives out they weren't going to listen to the president they were just going to ask questions as if they were in washington d.c. they had no interest in what the two presidents had to say they went there and i'm afraid and i'm going to agree with michael fell for it we should go ahead daniel. yet i would say washington would have woken up to a neo con nightmare no matter what happened there didn't even need to be a press conference this was all a foregone conclusion i will agree with mary as well i am pleased that this took place i'm also pleased that a great world cup was pulled off as well but you know this language today is against president trump and against putin as well all across the media you watch morning joe and it just on and on and on for at worse a across the channel spock's news is inflame c.n.n. and there's this short history in memory of president bush and vladimir putin having a good summit together trying and at that time ther

the post name's jim acosta and april ryan as two of those reporters.ne-word question for you, s.e. surprised? >> no. you know, trump has, i think, in business and life, operated as a sort of punitive force. i think he really likes to punish people to send a message or make examples or look like the strong man, the tough guy. and he has long wanted to punish the press, labeling us fake news, the enemy of the people has actually been very effective. trust in the media is at an all-time low. so, this is having a significant impact. the difference now, i think, is that finally our news institution, our media, our press is sort of united around -- in solidarity around each other. and that is something that you and i have talked about a number of times, that we used to see in past administrations. jake tapper calling out president obama for discrediting fox news or other organizations, calling out the obama administration for targeting the ap or trying to keep fox out of the press pool for an interview. there were those moments of solidarity that had not hap

. >> not only did she say we all think a threat exists, when jim acosta got in a question, asking did he tell putin to stay out of u.s. elections, flat out, and she said, he and putin discussed election meddling. right? she doubled down on that. wouldn't all-out say -- >> as a former press secretary, one of the tricks of the trade is, when you don't want to talk about the content, you simply give the list of the chapters of the book. they talked about ukraine and -- you don't talk about -- because you don't want to talk about the content, because she can't talk about the content, because they don't know. >> let's not forget, the president came out in helsinki and said that vladimir putin made what he called a powerful case that they did not -- >> very powerful. >> very strong, very powerful. so the reason all these questions are being asked, and the reason we're parsing words today and the reason we're parsing words yesterday is because of the president's own words in helsinki that everybody heard. so that is the reap that we're trying to figure out what "no" means. and again, we can

jim acosta is in for wolf blitzer. he starts right now. >>> hello. i'm jim acosta. it's 1:00 p.m. here in washington. thanks for joining us. his once loyal fixer michael cohen showing signs he might flip on the president. the man who once said he would take a bullet for donald trump now shifting loyalties. telling abc, quote, my wife, daughter, and son have my first loyalty and always will. i put family and country first. the divide seems to be deepening between cohen and trump as this criminal investigation continues into cohen's personal finances. and they are weighing on that relationship. a major shift from the close relationship the two men have shared for years. >> i will use my legal skills within which to protect president trump to the best of my ability. i'll do everything to protect mr. trump. i'm loyal and dedicated to mr. trump. one thing donald trump is, he's a compassionate man. he's a man of great intellect, great intuition, and great abilities. he's an amazing negotiator. maybe the best in the history of this world. i would say i'm definitely a cheerleader. he will

i'm jim acosta and you're in "the situation room."

i'm jim acosta. you're in "the situation room." >>> the trump administration telling a judge it may need more time to reunite migrant children and parents separated at the border. the handling of the crisis is facing growing criticism as top officials fail to answer basic questions of the plan of hundreds or thousands of children scattered across the country rejoin their parents. we'll talk about that and more with congressman eric swalwell and our correspondents, specialists and analysts also standing by. but first let's get straight to cnn's white house correspondent kaitlan come ens. the trump administration has a plan to reunite the families, it is not clear what it is at this point. isn't that right? >> reporter: it's certainly not, jim. right now the trump administration is struggling to contain this crisis that's largely of their own making and tonight thousands of kids are still separated from their parents. the white house isn't commenting on that but president trump and vice president mike

jim acosta there at the white house. jim, to the question posed today to the president when asked if russia's still targeting the u.s., and his response -- no. which is in direct contrast to what dni coats has said. do you expect more clean-up today from the white house? >> you know, that's an interesting question. i think sarah sanders is likely to echo what the president said earlier today when he said he does not believe russia's still targeting the u.s. as you said, that is really a contradiction with what the director of national intelligence, dan coats, said earlier this week when the dni decided to put out that statement not even clearing it through the white house when it talked about ongoing pervasive efforts being conducted by russia to intervene in u.s. democracy. that follows what coats said last week when he was speaking at an event. he said the warning system is blinking red. this is a big contrast, as you said. and lindsey graham, one of the hawks up on capitol hill, disagreeing with the president. put out

our chief white house correspondent, jim acosta is joining us now. jim, you are there traveling with the president. has his team reacted to the new indictments? >> reporter: they have. the white house released a carefully worded statement on the charges against the russians in the 2016 election, there's no allegation of knowing involvement in the trump campaign. the president is calling the russian investigation a witch hunt. he told cnn, he will tell vladimir putin to stay out of u.s. elections when they meet on monday, a summit that is still on. as the president was greeted by queen elizabeth and holding talks with theresa may, he was met with the unwelcome guest that never leaves his side. >> we are being hurt very badly by the witch hunt, the rigged witch hunt. >> reporter: at a news conference, he slammed the russia probe. the justice department preparing an indictment of 12 russians accused in hacking in the 2016 election. >> the president is fully aware of the department's actions today. >> reporter: on the defensive, the white house released a

. >> what's going on, jim acosta? >> reporter: a reporter is being forcibly removed from this room right now. a man who identified himself with being the nation of progressive publication. i'm not sure if that's accurate. that's how he represented himself to security officials. they initially asked him to step out of the room, which he did peacefully. they brought him back in to get his stuff. he said the reason why i'm being removed, talking about limbsehi is that he had a sign. a sign talked about the nuclear test ban treaty. i believe that's what i saw on the sign. something to do with nuclear testing. as he held it up, security officials grabbed him and forcibly removed him from the room. i don't know if you saw that on camera. it's happening in real time in front of us. it was a scuffle between this reporter and the security officials here. all day long, security officials on both the white house side and the kremlin side have been trying to screen everybody, screen all of the journalists, make sure they get insi

i want to bring in jim acosta right now who's here from london. the president will be staying here in london about 65 miles per hour from where he's standing right now. >> explain to me where we are on this european journey for the president and what this part means? >> well, that is big part of the trip, john, obviously they're rolling out the red carpet here in england but at the same time, i am not sure that carpet is any more red than the faces of european leaders across this conte content, they are furious with this president of what happened over in brussels and tense conversations that went behind closed doors. we'll see as the president meets with theresa may and queen elizabeth is maybe a little bit of fence mending. we heard from your sources from the president's conversation with the european leaders were tough on both sides, they were given and taking over this issue of burden sharing and defense spending, what we are hearing repeatedly from the british side is that the british as you said john are meeting their commitment of hitting 2

jim acosta is in for wolf blitzer. he starts right now. >>> hello. i'm jim acosta. it's 1:00 p.m.for joining us. his once loyal fixer michael cohen showing signs he might flip on the president. the man who once said he would take a bullet for donald trump now shifting loyalties. telling abc, quote, my wife, daughter, and son have my first loyalty and always will. i put family and country first. the divide seems to be deepening between cohen and trump as this criminal investigation continues into cohen's personal finances. and they a

with me now, mj lee and jim acosta. mj, let's start with you. tell me more about what was said in this recording? >> well brooke, if only we had a transcript or the actual recording so we could listen to exactly what was said between michael cohen and donald trump at this time. we do know this was a secret tape, according to rudy guiliani. in that donald trump claims he didn't know at the time he was being recorded. michael cohen did this without donald trump's knowledge. and we also know that this was a recording that was taken in by the fbi as part of its gigantic raid of michael cohen's home and office some months ago. we also know based on dana and gloria's reporting that there are other recordings of michael cohen speaking to donald trump. that of course is very significant, again, that there are other recordings involving the president. and we also know that of the recordings that were taken, also include recordings of cohen talking to other significant people. now, back to the woman at the center of all this, karen mcdo you goal, former p

our chief white house correspondent jim acosta as the reporting for you. all right . >> reporter: as the president was greeted by the queen, mr. trump was again met with the unwomu unwelcome guest that never leaves his side, the russia investigation. >> i think we're being hurt very badly by i would call it the witch hunt, the rigged witch hunt. >> reporter: at a news conference the president again slammed the russia probe despite he had been briefed that the justice department was preparing an indictment against 12 russians. >> the president is fully aware of the department's actions today. >> reporter: on the defensive, the white house released a statement noting the charges included no allegation of knowing involvement by anyone on the trump campaign and no allegations that the alleged hacking affected the election result. this is consistent with what we've been saying all along. the president said he would raise the issue of election meddling when he meets with russian leader vladimir putin on monday. >> i know you'll ask will we be talking about meddl

i turn you over to jim acosta in for wolf blitzer in "the situation room." >>> happening now, breaking news. liberty protest. a protester climb it is statue of liberty and forces the evacuation of liberty island hours before the fourth of july celebration is set to begin. >>> tipping point. epa chief scott pruitt's growing list of controversyiies inching forward with at least 14 federal investigations now targeting pruitt. will president trump follow through on the pledge to drain did swamp and let pruitt go? >>> presupreme choice. president trump can finalize the choice. he narrows the list of candidates to sit on the nation's highest court. >>> and no labels? michael cohen changes the twitter bio, dropping a reference of being the personal attorney to president trump after years of defending mr. trump and saying he would take a bullet for him. can s the latest move a sign to cooperate with investigators? wolf blitzer is off. i'm jim acosta and you're in "the situation room." >>> and this is a situation room special report. we are following breaking news. the statue of liberty on libe

i'm jim acosta. thank you very much for watching tonight. burnett outfront" starts right now. >>> "outfront" next, the breaking news. embattled epa chief scott pruitt resigns. and despite the scandals, the president still coming to his defense. >>> plus, a shocking new admission. the trump administration now suggesting hundreds more children may have been separated from their parents at the border. do they have any idea how many kids they have? >>> and breaking news, michael cohen further distancing himself from the president. what is he scared of? let's go "outfront." good evening, everyone. i'm kate balduan in for erin burnett. "outfront" tonight, breaking news. scott pruitt is out. president trump telling reporters he has accepted the resignation of his embattled epa chief, saying it was very much up t

jim acosta, thank you. joining us now, democratic congressman, john garamendi, he's a key member of the house armed services committee. congressman, thank you so much for joining us. >> good to be with you, wolf. >> how significant is the fact that indicted people were members of senior russian intelligence. >> extraordinary importantly. we're looking at the president hours ago saying, this is still a witch hunt. listen, mr. president, the witch hunt has produced 12 russian witches, at the highest level of the russian military. this is nothing to be waveded off. this is a very serious allegation. backed up by indictments and lengthy information, including some very classified documents and other sources that the fbi has used and the other intelligence agencies. it is time for this president to stand up for america. it's time for him to put on his big boy pants and push back against russia. russia is not a friend. russia is an enemy. russia has invaded crimea. russia has invaded the ukraine. russia has tried

let's go to our chief white house correspondent jim acosta. both of us were in helsinki for that putin summit on monday. seems like a long time ago. first of all, what reaction if any are you getting from the white house? >> reporter: silence, wolf. a lot of silence. the president did not speak as he left the white house for new jersey this afternoon. there was no briefing held by the white house press secretary. the white house is eerily quiet this evening, wolf. once again silenced by news that has overwhelmed the administration's message. and just when you thought this week would end with more cleanup over vladimir putin, another encounter has come back to haunt mr. trump, and there are recordings. in this recording of the president leaving the white house there is only silence. as he declined to comment on the bombshell his former personal attorney michael cohen recorded mr. trump discussing a payment to playboy model karen mcdougal aimed at covering up an alleged affair. >> i'm not a lawyer. i did what i did. >> reporter: for a president

jim acosta, thank you. let's bring in our chief national security correspondent, jim sciutto. jim, you've been speaking with diplomats from nato member countries. what are they telling you? >> reporter: frankly, wolf, they're telling me they're concerned. you see this coming out in some of the public comments from european leaders there. the president being challenged directly to his face by the nato chief, by the french president, by the german chancellor. in private, those comments, those concerns, even more severe. one particular concern is this. they will get in private assurances from senior u.s. officials, military officials, secretary of defense mattis, for instance. assurances that the u.s. remains committed to all of its commitments in europe. the trouble is that those assurances are often contradicted by the president's public comments. and their concern is that while there's been that dissonance for a year-and-a-half now under the president's administration, that those assurances that they hear from those senior national security officials mean less over time. they'

susan glasser who covered putin's first years in office as the washington post bureau speech, and jim acostaspondent, and diplomatic and retired rear admiral john kirby serving as both the state department and the pentagon spokesman under president obama. and jim, president clinton was not the first to try to flatter the russian leader and we know it did not work out. would it work this time? >> well, the world is watching and if he lace it on too thick, he is subject to criticism when he get bs back to the united states. one thing that we know, wolf, the one-on-one meeting is roughly 90 minutes and the white house has put out the schedule and then the expanded bilateral meeting where the other official s are going be in the room where they will have lunch and that is going on another two hours, and the president is going to have a lot of face time with vladimir putin, and the president said earlier that he has low expectations for the summit and his own national security adviser john bolton said that he does not expect any deliverables coming out of this and the question is where is the bee

president, jim acosta cnn -- (russian accent). don't know what it is about you, jim, something about you, i like you. ( laughter ) maria made friends with russian officials, doesn't necessarily mean she was a spy but the trail of bread crumbs she left behind means she probably with us. >> butina with an alleged russian operator in a d.c. restaurant. >> bragged about connections to the kremlin. >> extensive email trail. >> identified sources as alexander torsin, a former member of russian parliament and one of pant's allies. >> torsian medged her on twitter saying you've upstaged a russian spy arrested and deported in a prisoner swap in 2010. >> trevor: oooh, i feel like that last message jinxed her. how her boss going to send her the message? good job, you remind me of the spy who was arrested and deported, yeah. for more on the story, we turned to a reporter who watched many movies on spies, michae michael, everyone! ( cheers and applause ) yet another russian arrested for meddling in america's democracy. >> trevor, as an american

. >> let's go live to our chief white house correspondent, jim acosta, also here in helsinki, covering the president for us. is there an agenda, a specific agenda for this meeting? >> there is something of an agenda, wolf. the president has talked about this, he wants to talk about the situation in syria and also wants to talk about nuclear arms control with vladimir putin. it will go on one on one for an hour and a half and then they will have an expanded bilateral meeting with top officials, going on for two more hours during the course of the afternoon tomorrow. obviously, wolf, the big subject, discussion everybody's waiting to see if the president really pins down vladimir putin on is the russia investigation, meddling in the presidential election. he said yes, he'll raise that issue. he doesn't expect there to be a perry mason moment where vladimir putin admits that, yes, the russians were trying to hack into the presidential election. he did allude to that he is going to tell vladimir putin to stay out of u.s. leks, presumably meaning the midterm elections coming up later on thi

jim acosta was there for his joint press conference earlier today. he joins us now. jim, i'm wondering what the white house reaction has been to this after the press conference. >> well, anderson, they're trying to play cleanup on aisle six when the whole supermarket has been trashed. on the way back to washington, the president put out a tweet saying he has great confidence in the intelligence community. he obviously did not show that during that press conference with vladimir putin. but anderson, in just the last couple of minutes, i've obtained talking points that the white house is sending out to republican members of congress and other republican surrogates that are loyal to the white house. and here are a few of those talking points. they're trying to put the best face on what is obviously a very bad and devastating situation. these talking points say president trump approaches talks with russia grounded in realism but our desire for friendship, cooperation and peace remain. president trump said in helsinki that he has great confidence in his intelligence agenci

let's go live to our chief white house correspondent, jim acosta. you're in tampa. the president is getting ready to speak at a rally there. update our viewers on what you're hearing. >> that's rightering wolf. president trump is in florida tonight to do some campaigning ahead of the midterm elections. you can hear the crowd here is already raucous, a couple hours before he's set to take the stage, but the president and his team are still busy trying to get their stories straight on the russia investigation. mr. trump is now echoing his lawyers, as you said, who have gone to saying there was no collusion in the 2016 election to insisting that collusion is not a crime after all. racing past the cameras on his way to florida, president trump appears to have a new strategy for the russia investigation. ignore questions from reporters. while spinning up a new defense where he is shielded from outside scrutiny. tweeting collusion is not a crime. it's a notable leap from the president who has repeatedly claimed there was no collusion with the russians during the 2016 camp

>> sandra: and they were saying it's time to go up, jim acosta.at we are seeing play out? >> it's no coincidence. i know people out there think it's absolutely rude for journalists to be shouting at the president that way. it was another cnn correspondent who got punished by being disinvited from an event last week. if the white house trying to send a message her about being respectful, especially in the oval office and there's another world leader there. but the reason that journalists keep shouting those questions is that oftentimes president trump says -- will answer them. get out, get out, thank you very much. he will answer. when he stopped answering those questions the incident of the shouted questions will reseed a bit. >> sandra: the job of those journalists to ask those questions as well. thank you. >> good to see you. >> sandra: can i. more of "the story" coming up. ♪ what's the strongman? it's a pea-protein, gluten-free pâté. (whistles) it's a burrito filled with plants pretending to be meat. here we see the artist making an attempt to

jim acosta at the white house, thank you. we heard a lot from rudy guiliani today, including a surprising revelation, mr. trump's attorney exposing claims about a secret planning session before, before the infamous trump tower meeting with the russians. he went on later to deny those claims. it is one of the reasons viewers that watched guiliani on tv today may have been scratching their heads. our justice correspondent jessica schneider is with us. another curve ball? >> perhaps, but confusion most certainly. rudy guiliani said today he is trying to get out ahead of possible news reports that a meeting occurred three days before the trump tower meeting with the russian lawyer, and others where several top campaign officials found out about the upcoming meeting. guiliani described the supposed meeting, then said it never happened. and he once again reiterated the president knew nothing about the meeting in advance. tonight, rudy guiliani seems to be muddying the waters about what meetings may have taken place before the now c

i'm jim acosta. and you're in "the situation room." ♪ >>> this is cnn breaking news. >> we are following breaking news on president trump's race to find a new supreme court nominee and what may be record time. mr. trump revealing he interviewed more contenders today but tonight the white house is refusing to name names or talk about the possibility that the president's pick would vote to overturn roe v. wade. this as the white house also is dodging questions about new hints about michael cohen that he may be turning on the president. cohen also promising to eventually reveal more about mr. trump's role in the hush money payoff to stormy daniels. this hour i'll talk with daniels' lawyer michael avenatti. our correspondents and analysts are also standing by. first to jeff zeleny. the president is promising to reveal his high court pick next week. and it could very well be a woman, it sounds like. >> that certainly is one possibility. i'm told by people close to the process that the president is increas

jim acosta joins us from london.ny secondguessing you're hearing from the white house about still going forward with the second summit? or is there any possible moment when they may actually comment and express some form of outrage about the attack on the united states of america? >> that would be something, anderson, and that is something we have not heard up until this point. i talked to two white house officials, including the white house press secretary earlier this evening who said no, the summit is still on. no second thoughts about that. and, you know, the one thing that i did ask the president earlier today is whether or not he will tell vladimir putin to stay out of u.s. elections. he did say yes, he would do that. he said as he was leaving that press conference with the prime minister theresa may here in britain. but anderson, i think the big question going into that summit on monday with vladimir putin is whether or not the president will insist that vladimir putin turn over the 12 russian agents who were

cnn's jim acosta was also in the room on hand for the moment you just watched. he joins us now. so, jim, was there any doubt from people in the room the president was looking at the abc reporter and answering her question? >> anderson, do i believe the press secretary's explanation of all this? no, i don't. that would be my response to all of this. >> now when you say no, do you mean no, you don't believe her or do you mean no, i don't want to answer that question? >> i -- let me just put it this way. i believe the president was answering cecilia vega's question, anderson. and i think it's very obvious on that tape. and sarah sanders has a credibility problem when she comes into that briefing room and tries to clean things up in that fashion. her job is not to come into the briefing room and gas light the american people. >> she has a credibility problem or hasn't? i just want to be clear. we've had lot of problems with apostrophes in the last couple days. >> i would say she has a credibility problem, and i would not say that she doesn't -- >> okay. >> -- anderson. that doesn't m

jim acosta, thanks very much. joining us now, one person who can speak to whether the russia meeting was the sort of thing candidate trump would want to be told about, barbara res, a former long-time senior executive at the trump organization, author of the book "all alone on the 68th floor: how one woman changed the face of construction." barbara, thank you so much for being with us. >> my pleasure. >> you worked for trump organization on and off for years. the thing i never understood about this meeting is that don jr. would be told by someone allegedly representing the russian government that the russians were supporting his father's campaign and would not tell his father, either about that major fact or the meeting taking place or the meeting had taken place. given what you know about how the trump organization works, does it make sense to you donald trump would not have been informed about this? >> impossible. >> impossible. >> in my opinion, based on my experience working with trump and everybody that worked

jim acosta, i appreciate it. thanks very much. obviously the president goes to -- will be in london tomorrow. joining us now is author and retired army lieutenant colonel ralph peters. lieutenant colonel peters, first, the president's claims about payments to nato. what do you think it is? a willful gross misunderstanding. >> i think in the beginning it was a misunderstanding that he jumped on, but now it's a technique to throw red meat to his base. trump thrives on disruption. and the irony, anderson, is although we pay over 3% of our gdp, about 3.2, to 3.2% to defense, if you broke it out given our commitments around the world, far less than 2% goes to nato, is in support of nato. we're in the pacific. we're in the war against terror. we're in space. so on so many levels, the claim is false. but beyond the sound and fury, what matters is that nato is a bargain for the united states. it's cheaper than war. and it is the most successful peacetime alliance in history. it has made allies of european states that fought each other for

president of the united states those questions and i saw that preview before that the press or jim acosta people like that they already had their knives out they weren't going to listen to the president they were just going to ask questions as if they were in washington d.c. they had no interest in what the two presidents had to say they went there and i'm afraid and i'm going to agree with michael fell for it we should go ahead daniel. yet i would say washington would have woken up to a neo con nightmare no matter what happened there didn't even need to be a press conference this was all a foregone conclusion i will agree with mary as well i am pleased that this took place i'm also pleased that a great world cup was pulled off as well but you know this language today is against president trump and against putin as well all across the media you watch morning joe and it just on and on and on for at worse a across the channels fox news is inflame c.n.n. and there's this short history in memory of president bush and vladimir putin having a good summit together trying and at that time there w

i'm jim acosta. thanks very much for watching us on this 4th of july.py 4th of july, and may the spirit of lady liberty be with all of you tonight. more news ahead here on cnn. [ cheering ] ♪ >> robie: this place was a boomin'. you couldn't get through this town down there. but it's dead now. about eight or ten coal mines shut down at one time. >> coach: let's go! it's the same halftime speech