with me, jim sciutto and kaitlan collins. first to you, kaitlan. understand we got a statement from devin nunes. what is he saying? >> that's right, brooke, in response to that stunning statement from the fbi earlier. and in this statement devin said, quote, having stonewalled congress' demands for nearly a year it's no surprise to see the fbi and doj issue spurious objections from allowing the american people to see information related to surveillance abuses at these agencies. the fbi's intimately familiar with material owe missions with respect to their presentations to both congress and the courts and they are welcome to make public to the greatest extent possible all the information they have on these abuses regardless, it's clear, that top officials used unverified information in a court document to fuel a counterintelligence investigation during an american political campaign. once the truth gets out, devin nunes writes, we can begin taking steps to ensure that our courts and government agencies are never abused like this again. worrying abou

thank you, kaitlan. let's go to capitol hill. negotiations are ongoing. >> cnn's sunlen serfaty is up there. sunlen, what are you hearing? >> reporter: john, this just enters the next phase up here on capitol hill and the hard phase, i should say, after that extraordinary meeting yesterday at the white house. lawmakers have backed off here on capitol hill and have to actually go through what this legislation would actually look

. >> kaitlan collins at the white house. i'm not sure the president sees it that way, but what else can you tell us? >> yeah. especially after the president issued a very lengthy statement yesterday saying that steve bannon had lost his mind. poppy and john, the excerpts are continuing to dominate the news cycle and this book has not even been published yet with more coming out this morning including one where michael wolff writes that jared kushner and ivanka trump not only two of the top aides to the president in the white house but his own family, were trying to distance themselves from the president just six months in to the administration in trying to save themselves from them, and michael wolff quotes steve bannon saying the daughter will bring down the father. steve bannon and ivanka trump were on two different sides in the warring factions we saw in the early days of this white house with steve bannon spearheading the more nationalist type group and ivanka trump, jared kushner, gary cohn, being part of the more globa

that was totally wrong. >> our white house reporter kaitlan collins is with us, as well. kaitlan, you've carefully read not once or twice but probably three times this statement from the president of the united states. it's a formal statement. this is not a tweet. >> certainly not. we rarely see a statement like this especially blasting someone that worked inside the white house with the president for several months. before that was essentially the ceo of his campaign. but we've seen this before with the president and steve bannon. he doesn't like bannon taking too much credit for anything he's accomplished. we've seen a lot of that in the excerpt of the book out today. we see that he can codes here in this statement by the president saying steve bannon only came after i defeated the other republicans. and he didn't do that much to help me. quite a striking statement from the president that we rarely have seen in this kind of a white house. >> yeah. the president normally would not do had kind of a statement. my sense is he is angry very angry at steve bannon because of t

kaitlan collins at the white house. thank you. has the president thrown a wrench into republican efforts to extend a bill that white house as kaitlan reported has said is vital to keeping the nation safe. manu raju is on capitol hill with this. the president's tweets this morning really couldn't have come at a worse time, manu? >> forced republican leaders to scramble to make sure that they had the votes in order to get this through. i just actually had a chance to talk to the house majority leader kevin mccarthy about whether or not this tweet effectively -- essentially stopped this bill from going forward, and what mccarthy told me it won't. they're in good shape to pass this bill. they're starting to vote on one of the amendments right now, an amendment that republican and democratic leaders were supporting the bill do not want to see passed, an amendment supported by civil libertarians on the right and left that would propose new safeguards and much more oversight and stringent requirements on the warrantless surveillance prog

here's the thing, you're never going to be a successful chief of staff for donald trump because kaitlans, of course, right, he doesn't like to be undermined. the problem is he thinks he's constantly being undermined. he views himself as his best spokesman, strategist, pollster, his best everything. when you're the chief of staff and doing what john kelly has tried to do which is restrict the access in terms of news sources, so he is not getting information that is blatantly false and then broadcasting that information, the president is going to chief. he does not like to be managed in way, shape or form and thinks he's smarter than everyone who works for him. you're doomed to fail. if john kelly left and they bring someone else in, i guarantee trump would say, now this guy will be -- in six months, kaitlan collins will be reporting the same stuff about. >> there were so many examples in recent history, big personality, big profile chiefs of staff. rahm emanuel, james baker. but this president doesn't like to be overshadowed in any way. how do you see the significance of this. >> you can

with that, let's go to the white house and our kaitlan collins. look, kaitlan, it's not just one source or two sources or three sources or also a sitting u.s. senator or white house officials, not denying it. these are a lot of people who were in the meeting saying yes, the president used these words and now you know more about what the president did overnight. >> yeah. that's right, poppy. one white house aide described this to me as a victory lap because president trump spent thursday night calling his allies, his aides, his friends to see how they believed the quote s-hole remark was playing out in the media and that comes after white house staffers were telling me yesterday they did not believe this was that big of a pr crisis inside of the white house that when that comment was first reported because they believed this comment is something that will actually resonate with the president's base rather than alienating it. much like his attacks on the nfl players who kneel -- protest by kneeling during the national anthem did as well. we have tha

kaitlan collins at the white house, thank you so much. joining me to talk more about this, we have cnn political analyst and washington bureau chief for the daily beast, jackie kucinich with us. reporter and editor at large for cnn politics, chris cilizza and garrett graph, the author of "the threat matrix mueller's fbi and the war on global terror." garrett, i'll start with what we heard shimon reporting, that sessions was ed meddling in the election. what specifically would robert mueller's team have wouldn'ted to get from jeff sessions in this interview? >> well, there are multiple different phases of this russia investigation that jeff sessions intersects with. first, you have sessions own contacts with russian officials like ambassador sergey kislyak during the campaign on the sides of the republican national convention, potentially a meeting at the may flower hotel during one of -- then candidate trump's foreign policy addresses where jeff sessions and sergey kislyak were also present. and then, remember, he was involved during the

kaitlan, how is the administration responding? >> reporter: well, they're pushing back and pushing back hard, with the president himself weighing in on this decision, brianna, tweeting a short while ago that it just shows everyone how broken and unfair our court system is when the opposing side in a case such as daca always runs to the ninth circuit and almost always wins before being reversed by higher courts. that tweet from the president comes shortly after the white house press secretary, sarah sanders, issued a statement calling the decision outrageous, especially coming on the day that the white house had that meeting with a group of bipartisan lawmakers yesterday, focusing specifically on immigration and what to do about daca, in that remarkable meeting when they let the cameras come in for nearly an entire hour and listen to these negotiations go back and forth and the white house is outlining their priorities here, saying not only do they want protection for d.r.e.a.m.ers, but also enhanced border security and an end to t

kaitlan collins, thank you so much for that. i appreciate it. >>> in just a moment we will check in on capitol hill. first we want to play a bit more from one of the lawmakers who was inside that room when these comments were made. democrat dick durbin, the senate minority whip, brushing aside the president's denials and said his comments were racist, hate filled and shocking. >> you've seen the comments in the press. i have not read one of them that's inaccurate. to no surprise, the president started tweeting this morning, denying that he used those words. it is not true. he said these hate-filled things and he said them repeatedly. when the question was raised about haitians, for example, we have a group that have temporary protected status in the united states because they were the victims of crises and disasters and political upheaval, the largest groups, el salvador, the second honduran and the third is haitian and when i mentioned that fact to him, he said haitians, do we need more haitians. then he went on and he started

cnn's kaitlan collins is at the white house with the fiery response there. kaitlan? >> yeah. ana, certain will akey passage there that you -- a key passage you read in the book dominating the news cycle because trump junior himself acknowledged he took that meeting because he was promised incriminating information on hillary clinton, so if what michael wolff writes there is true it raises the question why was the president insisting the meeting with was about russian adoption when it so clearly was not and it also could form the basis for those allegations of a cover-up and personally involves the president in that statement. certainly a lot of questions being raised there. but for right now, the white house is dismissing many of the claims in this book as complete fantasy with the president himself specifically saying that he did not grant michael wolff access like michael wolff says he did with the president tweeting overnight, i authorized zero access to the white house, actually turned him down many times for the author of the phony book. i never spoke to him for the book

in the meantime, let's go to the white house, cnn's kaitlan collins is there. what's the word, kan? >> the white house is going into crisis mode almost it seems like because they are going to hav a briefing here in the next half hour with two white house officials. that's going to be the director of office of management and budget, mick mulvaney, and the white house legislative affairs director, mark short, who are going to talk to reporters about the potential of a government shutdown. we'll likely see some messaging come out of that. but this also comes as the white house has announced the president will not travel as scheduled to his mar-a-lago club in west palm beach if they do not get a spending bill passed here today. and the government does shut down. we're told that decision came after a staff meeting this morning. a white house official told my colleague jeff zeleny, because john and poppy, you do not need a pr genius to tell you it is bad optics if the president travels to south florida for a sunday raising event that costs $100,000 per couple while the government has shut

kaitlan collins is there. tell us about president trump's involvement in all of this. >> well, brianna, the president spent the weekend largely missing in action because he did not leave the white house and he did not make any public remarks since the government first shut down some two days ago. but the white house is out in full force today insisting the president is very involved, making calls to lawmakers. they haven't said if he's spoken to democrats specifically but they said he's been updated by his chief of staff john kelly and his legislative affairs director mark short, even though just an hour here ago on the driveway mark short said he had not spoken to the president yet today. but the white house is insisting that the president is being involved in this and that he's ready to help in any way that he can. but they say that it is hard to negotiate with what they are calling democrats as, quote, hostage takers today. this raises the question, brianna, is the president helping or hurting because if yo

to the white house now, kaitlan collins is there. we are getting some new reaction from the white house. >> reporter: that's right, john. after we confirmed this, i grabbed sarah sanders and spoke with her. she said they are not commenting on this beyond saying that the white house is cooperating with this investigation, and it is worth noting that jeff sessions is actually at the white house yesterday meeting with president trump. and i asked sarah sanders, the press secretary, if the two of them discussed his ee eed his i with the special counsel while they were meeting. she said she could not speak to that. >> errol lewis, alice stewart, kaitl kaitlan, everyone, thank you. don't go very far. there is a lot going on . >>> breaking news out of kentucky. seven people taken to the hospital after a shooting at a high school there. the governor says one person has been killed. the shooter is in custody. we have a live update coming up. ( ♪ ) i'm 65 and healthy. i'm not at risk. even healthy adults 65 and older are at increased risk of p

good morning, kaitlan? >> this memo alleges serious misconduct on the department of justice and the fbi against the trump campaign and according to this reporting from the new york times, specifically names the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein saying he approved the extension of surveillance of the former trump campaign aide and foreign policy adviser carter page. this is noteworthy because rosenstein is the person overseeing the russia investigation and this -- the white house so far, a source says the president would be for releasing this memo if they do vote to declassify it. here's what we heard the latest from the white house this morning. >> it could shed light on allegations that have existed for some time. nobody has seen the memo at the white house. i haven't seen it. we will see what is in it if the house of representatives votes about it and the president will make a decision. the president hasn't seen it. >> reporter: releasing this he has been a point of contention. they're worried that i

cnn's kaitlan collins is at the white house. kaitlan, what's the white house saying about this latest broadside from the president? >> well, they're maintaining that they're taking the same approach to north korea, but out of the 16 tweets that the president sent yesterday, this one was certainly the most striking, because he was essentially taunting kim jong-un by questioning the strength of his nuclear arsenal and making quite a jab at him, as he did so. and that tweet came after kim jong-un gave a speech on new year's day, saying that the, quote, nuclear button is always on his desk and the president tweeting that, and it's almost impossible to see, ana, how that tweet does not come up during the president's lunch today with vice president mike pence, secretary of state rex tillerson, and defense secretary, james mattis. now, to put that lunch in context for you, it's the only thing on the president's public schedule today. and we've seen the president and tillerson often differ on their approach to north korea, because as yo

kaitlan collins at the white house this morning where it is a bit of a confusing morning, to say the least. >> that's right, john. a lot of contradictions and cleanups going on this morning and it's only 10:00 alex marquardt he-- 10:00 a.m. at th white house. the president came out with a bill less than 12 hours after the white house issued a statement going to a vote in the house today. it got started when the president tweeted 7:30 saying house votes on controversial fisa act. to so badly surveil and i because the trump campaign by the previous administration and others. now that comes less than 12 hours after the press secretary sarah sanders issued a statement endorsing no changes to this amendment to this bill saying in a statement they urged the house to, quote, preserve the useful role fisa section 702 authority plays in protection of american lives. now those things would seem to completely contradict each other, a statement from the white house on the administration's position on this, and then a statement from the president on what the president thinks of this. so then abou

we're told the president is very likely to release this memo here, john. >> all right, kaitlan at the white house, thanks so much. one other thing, manu raju joins me now, the president hasn't seen the memo, chris stewart told me he hadn't seen the underlying classified intelligence that went into the memo. he says that's not the majority of what's in there, but it is interesting, different people haven't seen different parts of this. manu, you're at that news conference right there. paul ryan went in with a list of points he wanted to make on this memo. that was very interesting. >> reporter: yeah. clearly was prepared for that question. you knew this was going to dominate this news conference. trying to make the case that, look, there may have been some malfeasance at the fbi, if there was some, they need to figure out a way to move forward. but he also was prepared to defend this process, the process of giving -- getting -- allowing the republican memo, the nunes memo, to be released before the democratic memo has been released. tried to ask him at the beginning of this news confer

thank you, kaitlan. let's go to capitol hill. negotiations are ongoing. >> cnn's sunlen serfaty is up there. sunlen, what are you hearing? >> reporter: john, this just enters the next phase up here on capitol hill and the hard phase, i should say, after that extraordinary meeting yesterday at the white house. lawmakers have backed off here on capitol hill and have to actually go through what this legislation would actually look like. lawmakers, kevin mccarthy, dick durbin, john corbin, steny hoyer among the group that would sit down today behind closed doors on capitol hill with administration officials and start to go through all of that. coming out of that meeting at the white house yesterday, there was considerable statements, rosy outlooks of claims of progress made, but aides here tell us on capitol hill that there is considerable amount of this that needs to be sorted out. a lot of real questions and clarity over the actual policy that needs to get written. a huge divide between both sides. so certainly, behind the scenes,

kaitlan collins at the white house. every hour that passes we get more from michael wolff about his time in the white house, these new revelations about how things operated or frankly didn't inside the west wing. >> the book has not been published and it's continuing to dominate the news cycle, with more excerpts coming out, and only six months in one quote from bannon quoted by michael wolff saying the daughter will bring down the father. as you know, bannon and ivanka trump were part of two very different factions here in the white house, and john and poppy, we are seeing the fallout continue to happen with the excerpts released in the book where the president's lawyers sending a cease and desist letter, and he was quoted as saying that he thought that meeting was treesenious. when the president has fired people, he managed to stay in contact with him. my sources tell me the president spent the day telling people privately he was done with steve bannon. really seeking to down play any role steve bannon had in the whit

kaitlan collins is there with the latest. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, poppy. we're getting a lot of pushback from the white house. the press secretary, sarah sanders, was asked directly yesterday if the president would sit down directly with special couns counsel robert mueller if it was requested. sanders did not directly answer the question, instead saying that the white house is fully cooperating with the special counsel, but she would not definitively say if the president would sit down with mueller. on another front, the white house was asked, if the president thinks this whole investigation into russia is such a ax, a waste of taxpayer money, why doesn't he just fire bob mueller. the white house said part of that reason is because of how the press would react and it would cause a pr headache. to be clear, john and poppy, the white house may not be able to handle another scandal because they're already drinking out of a fire hose with all the bombshells that dropped yesterday. in a typical administration, what happened yesterday would be a very significan

. >> we have kaitlan collins standing by for us at the white house. and, kaitlan, the president had a lot to say about that extraordinarily meeting yesterday including how well it was received. >> reporter: yeah, that's right, brooke, as he welcomed the press back to, quote, the studio today, the pred talksident talk about a lot of things, including daca. but opened up lawmakers dac a to the cameras for 55 minutes. and we certainly saw the president enjoying that praise that he got. it was certainly something that doesn't happen very often. and it did allow people the chance to watch what is going on as the president negotiates with lawmakers. but the white house is also trying to accomplish something else by opening that up to everyone by letting the press come in, which was proving that essentially the president can do his job, especially in light of those allegations made in the new book, fire and fury by micha michael wolff, a lot part questions whether he is competent enough to be in office. but the president is riding high as he talks about this

let's begin with cnn's kaitlan collins. she's live. >> good morning. the government is back in business. there's little to suggest that the underlying dynamics of why we had this shutdown in the first place has change and there could be a showdown between lawmakers in just three weeks. president trump touting the end of the government shutdown is a big win for republicans. in signaling a willingness tweeting, see you at the negotiating table. sources tell cnn that mr. trump is eager to rebut criticism that he did little to help end the shutdown. >> the great deal-making president sat on the sidelines. >> aides say mr. trump's low profile was intentional, the white house saying the president had an impact but offering little clarity about mr. trump's position about the path forward for d.r.e.a.m.ers. >> does it not matter to the president? >> i think that's part of the negotiation process, but right now, again, we want a permanent solution for that program. >> the chairman of the republican congress telling the chairman mr. trump is key. >> his role wil

good morning, kaitlan. good morning. >> reporter: an extraordinary statement from the president coming on march kin luther king day where the president is denying he's a racist and denying that he made miss pair acknowledging remarks about african countries during meetings at the white house. it comes days after the white house did not deny that the president expressed these sentiments as he met with lawmakers. poppy, what's clear is there is no denying that what happened in that meeting is pitting senators against each other during what is going to turn out to be a critical week for washington. >> i'm on not a racist. >> i am the least racist person you have ever interviewed. that i can tell you. >> reporter: president trump on defense after days of outrage over his disparaging comments about immigrants from haiti and some african nations. >> did you see what various senators in the raofpl said about my comments? they weren't made >> reporter: lawmakers offering different accounts about whether mr. trump r

which among other things that the president is very involved this morning, that's their line, cnn's kaitlan collins is there. what are you hearing? >> reporter: that is what the white house is insisting after a weekend where the president was largely missing in action from these negotiations between democrats and republicans on capitol hill. and it is noteworthy because not only is he the president, but he also fashioned himself as this dealmaker in chief and now people are wondering just where those deals are. the white house says the president is frustrated about this shutdown and that he's standing by and ready to help. but that it is hard to negotiate with what they are calling the democrats, as, quote, hostage takers. we're seeing that come out, we're seeing the president continue to hammer democrats on twitter, several of his aides doing the same on tv appearances. that's what we're seeing come out of the white house right now, but, john, they are insisting the president is taking meetings today. mick mulvaney the director of the office of management and budget said he's meeting with

kaitlan collins reports. president trump -- gearing up for his first state of the union address --where he is expected to tout the economic progress of his first year in office while rallying support behind key legislative initiatives like infrastructure and immigration. marc short/white house legislative affairs director"i think the president is going to talk about how america is back." the immigration plan unveiled by the white house last week would provide a pathway to citizenship for nearly 2 million undocumented immigrants in exchange for 25 billion dollars to fund the president's border wall. the plan would also make major changes to legal immigration -- a key sticking point that democrats have called "dead on arrival" nancy pelosi/(d) house minority leader"that plan is a campaign to make america white again."sen. joe manchin/(d) west virginia"we don't need that type of rhetoric on either side. the president's laid out what he wants. that's a good starting point." the president's high profile speech com

kaitlan collins broke the news. she joins us now. if you ask them, everything is kumbaya, everything is fine. >> reporter: the president is publicly insisted that everything is fine. let me give you a brief rundown of what happened wednesday night before the president left for switzerland. john kelly was holding an immigration briefing with reporters in his office. the president comes down the hallway, starts taking questions and steals the show from john kelly. and then after that briefing he did what one source described as putting john kelly in a box, because he feels like kelly is undermining him more and more every day. that is significant because it shows the tensions between these two men and how they're starting to flare up between this very freewheeling president, very structured chief of staff and we're seeing the tension between the two of them come to the head and one source said the president dropping in on that briefing was a warning shot to kelly to show him that trump is still the boss here, he's still the one in char

kaitlan collins at the white house. i think the white house juggling several controversies all of a sudden this morning. >> yeah. they certainly are, john and poppy. one of the key parts in that book that has caused so many headlines is one where the president, michael wolff claims, insisted on saying that trump tower meeting in the summer of 2016 with donald trump, jr., jared kushner, paul manafort, and the russian lawyer, was strictly about russian adoption. now the part in this book michael wolff writes the president insisted the meeting in trump tower was purely and simply about russia adoption policy. that's what was discussed, period, period. wolff goes on to say even though it was likely if not certain that the "times" had the incriminating e-mail chain, it was possible that jared and ivanka and the lawyers knew the times had the e-mail chain the president ordered no one should let on to the more problematic discussion about hillary clinton. now the white house is dismissing many of the claims in michael wolff's

kaitlan collins for us at the white house.et's bring in susan hennessey, our cnn national security analyst and steve moore, cnn law enforcement contributor. susan first to you, just learning this information, the attorney general of the united states interviewed in the special counsel's probe into russian meddling, the first cabinet official, certainly the person closest or most senior ranking official interviewed yet in this investigation. what is significant to you here? >> one of the things significant sort of over the past week really is the ramping up these attacks against the fbi, coming from the house intelligence committee, this memo from devin nunes, president trump's tweet this morning regarding a series of text messages not preserved. so i think this does put additional sort of context into why the white house is potentially feeling so nervous and really ramping up their efforts to try and discredit robert mueller's investigation. >> so we'll remember, steve, that testimony that we were all watching sort of jaws dro

kaitlan collins at the white house, thank you. now to the political battle over the mysterious partisan and controversial memo. how speaker paul ryan this morning defending the republican memo and saying it should be released. manu raju is live for us on capitol hill, so the speaker just held a press conference. tell us what he said. >> that's right. he said there were legitimate questions that were raised in this memo, suggesting that it may have been some american civil liberties that were violated, he said that the reason they want this out there is to determine whether or not any rules or laws are broken, and to look at possible malfeasance at the justice department and the fbi. and one thing he did do also, brianna, is defend the decision by the republicans to release the nunes memo, the republican memo, but not release a separate memo, democratic memo drafted by that top democrat on the house intelligence committee, adam schiff. instead the committee agreed to vote to allow the full house classified access to this memo, but

senior political analyst mark preston, cnn political analyst carl bernstein and white house reporter kaitlan collins. also john dean, who was of course white house counsel, nixon's white house counsel and cnn legal analyst laura coates joins us as well. man, what a story we have here. i'm going get to all of you. but mark, i want to get to you first. let me read this. this is from maggie's reporting. it says the west wing confrontation is the first time mr. trump is known to have tried to fire the special counsel. mr. mueller learned about the episode in recent months as his investigators interviewed current and former senior white house officials in his inquiry into whether the president obstructed justice. so, mark, what's your reaction to this breaking story? >> you know, unfortunately, don, i'm not surprised by it at all. and i don't think anybody who is watching tonight should be surprised by it at all. he has been very adamant about his opposition to this investigation, which leads you to wonder why has he been so fervently against it? at the same time, there is a track record. he fire

i want to go to cnn's kaitlan collins at the white house. what are you hearing? >> reporter: let me give you the state of play here. this memo according to new "new york times" reporting specifically names the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein as the person who signed off on the extension of surveillance for that former trump campaign aide and foreign policy adviser carter page. now, this is noteworthy because rosenstein is also overseeing the russia investigation after the attorney general jeff sessions recused himself. now, critics say if this memo is released, that republicans are using it specifically to undermine the investigation as a whole. that is why they say some democrats say the republicans should not advocate for its release. as far as over at the white house, no one here at the white house has seen this memo, not even the president himself, according to some white house officials. but we are told by sources that the president would be okay with the releasing this memo if it is declassified. another twist to this is the president's attitude towa

kaitlan collins at the white house, thank you for that reporting. >>> trump world as you can imagineworking to discredit this upcoming book that describes the white house in chaos and its main players wallowing in dysfunction. a short time ago we learned lawyers for president trump sent a deecease and desist letter demanding the book not be released or distribute the book at all so who is the author michael wolff? let's bring in brian stelter, senior media correspondent. the white house on the attack. what do you know about wolff and the veracity of his reporting. >> michael wolff is a controversial journalist, a media columnist, reporter for many years covering rupert murdoch. he knew president trump for many years because trump was a creature of the media, reality show star, so wolff wrote flattering profiles relatively cozy stories about trump and steve bannon before inauguration day, perhaps a way to get access to the white house. if it was it certainly worked. we know that wolff had unprecedented access to the west wing for several months last year, hanging out there, having mee

kaitlan collins joins us. the man that wrote it all is now speaking. what is the white house saying? >> they are bushing back on so many aspects of the book, john and poppy, but the president specifically pushing back on the idea that michael wolff had a lot of access to him specifically and last night he tweeted saying i authorized zero access, and i never spoke to him for the book and it's full of lies and sources that don't exist. look at the guy's past and watch what happens to him and sloppy steve. and michael wolff pushed back on that this morning saying he, quote, absolutely spoke to the president, and more specifically he said he spent three hours with president trump over the course of the campaign and during his time here at the white house. when savannah guthrie asked if wolff flattered his way into having access to the west wing, he said he had to do to get access. we can see how many times he was cleared for access on to the grounds of the white house, if the white house releases the visitors logs which is a decision where they decided not

let's go first to kaitlan collins live at the white house. >> reporter: alisyn, a day of bombshells at the white house yesterday. cnn has learned that after months of interviews, special counsel robert mueller is now setting his sights on president donald trump himself and that negotiations are under way between mueller's team and the president's lawyers after mueller expressed interest in sitting down with the the president. special counsel robert mueller expressing interest in questioning president trump about his decision to fire former fbi director james comey and former national security adviser michael flynn, according to sources. >> we're going to be fully cooperative with the special counsel, but we're also not going to comment on who may or may not or could be interviewed at any point. but we're going to continue to be fully cooperative with the process. >> reporter: the russia probe also closing in on the president's inner circle. a source close to jeff sessions tells cnn mueller questioned the attorney general for hours last wednesday. sessions is the first cabinet secretary

let's get to kaitlan col

. >> kaitlan collins, thank you very much. >>> breaking developments in not just one but two sexual harassment today. hillary clinton stepping in to save the job of a campaign staffer accused of sexual harassment and also the u.s. ambassador to the u.n. nikki haley and reports she had an affair with the president. a place with 24-hour fvalet servicee and a boutique salon a place with all day arts and crafts it even has a day spa a place that's so much like home, because well... it is home home instead senior care when you need personalized care in the comfort of home. whhe's happy.im? your family's finally eating vegetables thanks to our birds eye voila skillet meals. and they only take 15 minutes to make. augh! (family giggling) oh my. birds eye voila! so veggie good. i'm the one clocking in when you're clocking out. sensing your every move and automatically adjusting to help you stay effortlessly comfortable. i can also help with this. does your bed do that? oh. i don't actually talk. though i'm smart enough to. i'm the new sleep number 360 smart bed. let's meet at a sleep number store. we p

thanks, kaitlan. we are hours away of the vote. who takes the lion's share of the blame if the debate drags on? we'll debate it next. fastsigns designed new directional signage. and got them back on track. get started at fastsigns.com. i'm the one clocking in when you're clocking out. sensing and automatically adjusting to your every move. does your bed do that? i'm the new sleep number 360 smart bed. let's meet at a sleep number store. why create something this extravagant? or make a back seat that feels nothing like a back seat? why give it every feature you could want, along with a few you didn't know you needed? it's simple. you can build a car, or you can build a cadillac. come in now for this exceptional offer on the cadillac ct6. get this low-mileage lease on this 2018 cadillac ct6 from around $549 per month. visit your local cadillac dealer. >>> all right. so we do know that the lawmakers have been holed up this week. they have been negotiating or not negotiating. but they have been there. however, they failed to reach a de

kaitlan, stick around as well. karoun, to you, whether it was this word or that word, you have a complete flip within a matter of 48 hours. someone is lying. the sentiment is what it is. and that's not debatable. >> yeah. look, you have seen a lot of republicans in the room initially saying i don't recall what was exactly said. or not willing to say things in public. they would put themselves on the record of what they heard the president saying what they thought about it. this is a close alternative that allows for some room of equivocation. it is the lesser of two evils in their mind right now. the fact that this has dragged on so long. and you have a he said/he said about what went on on in the room, does not take the issue off the table. they are trying to cover for the president in some way. they are starting to debate about what the exact word he used. we continue talking about it, debating it, scrutinizing the president and his opinion of these countries and other things said that has been controversial the

. >> any sense kaitlan, steve bannon said things about the president and was excommunicated from trump world altogether. >> reporter: any time somebody speaks out on the president or contradicts him or undermines him, it's something that can turn the president's attitude toward that person. we've seen it with steve bannon, jeff sessions, all people the president has turned on. we haven't seen him do that with john kelly. there's no indication that would happen with this. it could be the one thing that sets the president off, john and poppy. >> and kelly said a whole lot more in that interview that we'll get into that in this hour. let's get to the white house. abby phillip, can you see the president fuming? >> reporter: early this morning the tweets came loud and clear. and i think the message was clearly heard. this is not going to be the last we hear from the white house on this issue. it comes at a critical time when the white house is trying to sort out the issue over daca, the immigration issue and the government funding issue. we're hearing a lot from the president on both things

certainly on the face of it, kaitlan, that is very damming. it certainly looks like they are afraid of angering and upsetting what they perceive will be the next president of the united states. >> right. and because of those a parent biases, this is why both were let go from the mueller probe. and that's important. we all can agree that the fbi is not above reproach here. right. nobody wants to let any agency in the u.s. government go unchallenged. but the issue here is the issue of credibility. and so it's one thing to acknowledge that there are perhaps these biases. and that they have been dealt with. the mueller investigation, the mueller probe let these people go from the probe. it's another thing entirely to start grabbing things out of thin air without context, not only when you are a member of congress, but when you are the chairman of the house -- sorry, of the senate homeland security committee. this is already ar administration that has a credibility issue, not only with members of congress but with the american public sochlt wh. so

kaitlan collins has details. republican (pam) one thing that a possible government shutdown would not impact ... is robert mueller's russia investigation. that will continue regardless. (pam) in the east bay: a fremont police detective was hurt while trying to stop a suspects in a stolen car. (steve) it started when two fremont detectives tried to stop the car. and ended in a police chase and crash. this is the aftermath of the incident. police say a woman driving the stolen car hit a police car. when a second woman got out of that car and tried to run away. a fremont detective chased her. at one point the women in the stolen car hit both the detective and the other female suspect. the driver was then chased by police to this area you see here. both women were arrested. the detective is in the hospital with a moderate injury. (steve) new at ten... police have arrested san francisco resident islam moustafa in the stabbing death of his own mother. it happened last friday in the taraval district. police responded to

then on the other side of the coin, kaitlan, you have conservatives, you know, his base who went all those rallies and jumped out of their seats and cheered him for the wall, but now saying i'll take the heat i'll sign what you send me. how is that going to sit with them? >> when you look at all the issues, you can give him leeway with his base except on the issue of immigration. the base isn't monolithic group. you have ann culture, shouting from the house tops, and you have conservatives working on this issue griping about it. that's why this needs to be a bipartisan issue, not only because of that, but because they'll need the democrats votes. you bring up a really important point here, too, which is what are is the definition of comprehensive immigration reform? what is the definition of border security? there is a lot of talk broadly today, and i think we are talking about the president embracing some of these ideas. but what does he mean when he's talking about comprehensive immigration reform if he wants to move onto that? does that mean an endorsement of citizenship? does tha

. >> okay, kaitlan collins in west palm beach, florida. >>> it all comes down to the difference between a hole and a house. josh dossey is the washington post reporter who broke this story on friday. really on thursday night, that the president said these things in the oval office. there are new developments that you're reporting, josh, about how white house officials are now explaining this. i will leave it to you to say these words to i don't have to. what are you hearing? >> people said to me over the weekend there is a semantic difference. some people heard the phrase shit-house instead of shit-hole and are using that to knock back reporting. and they're using that discrepancy to say the president did not make those comments. to be clear, i've called my sources repeatedly over the weekend. i know colleagues, other outlets have too and no one in the white house is denying it other than the president that he made a similar remark to what we reported. just a difference in hearing on how he ended that phrase. >> so, josh, i'm tempted to say that republican senators are going on tv denyi

kaitlyn c kaitlan collins is there for a sense of what is going on. this is the morning after the speech, but we are on the eve of maybe minutes before the release of the big memo. >> reporter: that's right. it's a big of question what is going on. the big question is has the president seen this memo yet and right now no one seems poised to answer that question. we know that according to the white house as of the state of the union address the president had not laid eyes on this memo yet and i'm told by a white house official that after the speech was over the president came back to the white house but he didn't go into the west wing. instead he went straight into the residence. i'm told by someone who spoke with the president last night as he was calling his allies and his friends to see how they thought the speech went that he didn't even bring up the memo to them and was more interested in their reviews of his big speech. fast forward to this morning when the press secretary sarah sanders was on cnn and she said a final decision has still not been

i have to touch on this idea, reported first by our white house correspondent kaitlan collins, president trump believes this will play well with his base. you touched on this as well, mark preston. it's completely cynical. it's not playing towards the base but to us as humans, so far beyond the pale, even for president trump, who ran in some ways a very cynical campaign on the issue of immigration and it tells us how he views his role as president. he's never viewed himself as a moral leader. he's never really considered his words to have the weight that they do with the american public and he's never felt any sort of sense or obligation to say the right thing at the right time. >> i also think this cynical notion, as you point out, that this was going to play well with the base. i think it's giving the base a bad rap, to be honest. why would you assume that members of the president's base would think that these kind of comments are good? i mean, it's cynical to the extreme and i would argue with the premise. i don't think it's going to play well. i think people aren't proud of a preside

kaitlan, everybody should be prepared. the "new day" team is coming to washington, d.c. we'll be live from the capitol tomorrow ahead of president trump's first state of the union address. cnn's primetime coverage begins at 5:00 p.m. eastern tomorrow. >>> all right. if there are so many concerns about whether the president will try to have special counsel fired, why won't some lawmakers take action in case to protect bob mueller? we'll discuss that next. ♪ taking care of business with print services done right. on time. guaranteed! expert tech support. and this week all dell pcs are up to twenty five percent off! save even more when you purchase a dell monitor. and make sure you protect your investment. office depot® officemax. officedepot.com ♪ taking care of business 40 million americans are waking up to a gillette shave. and at our factory in boston, 1,200 workers are starting their day building on over a hundred years of heritage, craftsmanship and innovation. today we're bringing you america's number one shave at lower prices every day. putting money back in the poc

kaitlan collins, thank you very much. >>> get back to the steve wynn scandal that we have been talking about. columnist for "huffington post" as well as richard painter ethics lawyer and professor of corporate law. gentlemen, thank you, both, for being here. kurt, is this situation with steve wynn comparable to the democratic situation that they had with harvey weinstein? >> i actually think it's worse because in this case steve wynn is the finance chairman and he has an official leadership position with the political party. harvey weinstein at the time the allegations came out didn't have that. he was a big fund of the democrats and actual appropriate that the democrats returned those donations. in this case right now wynn is a member of the national committee finance team. and raising money for the republican party. at this point more than a day in it's been crickets from the republican party about this. they have to hold them selves to the same standard that they held democrats and harvey weinstein to. they need to be better than that and more proactive because at this point he's on

kaitlan collins live at the white house. controversial enough that even the republicans don't like the idea. >> reporter: that's right, chris. it has been rejected by republican leadership. the main question today is where has the president been in all of this? as you know, during the campaign, he fashioned himself as this deal maker in chief. but he has been largely absent and keeping a low profile over the weekend as these negotiations between democrats and republicans over on capitol hill were ongoing. but his aides were out in full force over the weekend blaming this shutdown, squarely putting the blame on the shoulders of democrats. and that blame trickled down to the white house comment line. and this is the message that people were getting when they phoned in. >> thank you for calling the white house. unfortunately, we cannot answer your call today because congressional democrats are holding government funding, including funding for our troops and other national security priorities, hostage to an unrelated immigration

. >> this based on a flimsy account, kaitlan, you know, you've covered as i say the white house.ing there, but all of a sudden the united states ambassador to the united nations has to make -- we only played a little portion of this extensive series of very angry comments that she delivered. >> yeah, that's exactly right. nikki haley actually drew a lot of attention to this allegation when she denied it. but i thought it was important for her to deny it. and also did not see michael wolff had enough evidence of this allegation to include it out right in his book. instead he alluded to it in the book and on air but wouldn't say it out right. but clearly stunning accusation to make to the ambassador to the united nations having a romantic a fair with the president of the united states. and he clearly didn't have the evidence to back it up. and then later on in his book he insinuates something about the communications director hope hicks as well which is a strange thing for michael wolff to assume that the two most powerful women in this administration have somehow slept their way t