and i think some of the best reporting has come from laura jarrett and kaitlan collins from the justice department and white house, look, perhaps rosenstein got a little out over his skis on this. on friday after the "new york times" story appeared, he expected to be fired by the president. i mean, wouldn't you? okay. and then there were -- the president was not happy, but there were lots of conservatives saying no, no, no, no. this is not the time to fire rod rosenstein. you should not be doing this now. and we reported here on friday that there were republicans saying to him, you don't want to mix up the kavanaugh story with, you know, with the rosenstein story. just hold your fire. and you also have the mueller investigation. this isn't going to help anything. rosenstein thought he was going to be fired, perhaps he drafted -- perhaps he drafted

i have gloria borger and kaitlan collins. it's like, seriously? >> if i recall, merritt garland was waiting around for 400 days and then never did get either a hearing or a vote. and so it is pretty rich to hear mcconnell say, you know, this is the schedule and we are going to stick to it. the other point he is making that is absolutely accurate is that this is politics. and this is payback former rit g garland, as you point out, and democrats believing that they believe dr. ford and they want her to be heard and now she is willing to be heard. and they want it to be done in a different way with an fbi investigation, et cetera, et cetera. but, you know, both sides here are playing hard ball, brooke.

cnn's kaitlan collins at the white house for us. kaitlan, this follows excerpts from the bombshell book by bob woodward, the book comes out next week, but it fits in with this general theme that there are senior officials in the trump administration who are trying to protect the country from president trump's worst impulses. >> reporter: that's right, jake. you can't ignore the timing coming out one day after that excerpts from that bookmaking stunning claims about things that bob woodward alleges, that the defense secretary to chief of staff, several other people close to the president who work with him on a daily basis have said and now we have this stunning op-ed in "the new york times" with a rare thing for them to do to publish an anonymous senior official in the trump administration. they don't say this person works in the west wing or the administration generally but this person essentially making the same argument as a lot of those claims in bob woodward's book saying that they do not agree with the president. they are stayin

laura jarrett breaking the news along with kaitlan collins.he analysis, shan, the breaking news. >> are we watching a saturday night massacre in slow motion here? i'm jim sciutto. thanks for watching us today. at this hour with kate bolduan starts right now. >>> this is cnn breaking news. >> hello, everyone. i'm kate bolduan. we're going to continue with the breaking news, really an amazing development this morning on the fate of deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, the man who appointed robert mueller, who kick started the special counsel's russia investigation. a source tells cnn that rosenstein has submitted his resignation. this comes after a bombshell report in "the new york times" friday, reporting that rosenstein discussed secretly recording conversations with president trump and also discussed invoking the 25th amendment to remove trump from office last year in the

along with kaitlan collins. shimon, the analysis, shan, the breaking news. >> are we watching a saturday night massacre in slow motion here? i'm jim sciutto. thanks for watching us today. at this hour with kate bolduan starts right now. >>> this is cnn breaking news. >> hello, everyone. i'm kate bolduan. we're going to continue with the breaking news, really an amazing development this morning on the fate of deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, the man who appointed robert mueller, who kick started the special counsel's russia investigation. a source tells cnn that rosenstein has submitted his resignation. this comes after a bombshell report in "the new york times" friday, reporting that rosenstein discussed secretly recording conversations with president trump and also discussed invoking the 25th amendment to remove trump from office last year in the chaotic days after president trump fired then-fbi director james comey. rosenstein, since that reporting came out friday, has denied the story twice. but now, w

making it clear why porter and cohn issued the denials in the first place. >> kaitlan collins at the white house. thanks. >>> democratic senator jeff merkley of oregon claims the trump administration is diverting hurricane relief money from fema to fund i.c.e. just as hurricane season is starting. merkley released a homeland security document tuesday showing a transfer of $9.8 million. that document says the money is coming from the agency's travel, training, public engagement, and i.t. budgets, not disaster relief. but senator merkley insists the white house is diverting money from response and recovery budgets to fund additional immigrant detention camps. he says any shift in funding will make it even more challenging for fema to respond to natural disasters. >>> history will be made one way or another this november in new hampshire. voters in the first congressional district will elect the first openly gay or first african-american congressman. in a district that regularly swings between the two parties and backed president trump in 2016, democratic voters chose chris pappas from

kaitlan collins with more from the white house now. >> reporter: president trump raising several eyebrows when he cited his administration's response to hurricane maria in puerto rico when talking about how they're preaching for hurricane florence as it barrels toward the east coast. the president was in the oval office. he had just finished a briefing with the fema administrator brock long and cited maria as one of his administration's most successful times since he's been in office. of course that was a storm that devastated puerto rico, killed roughly 3,000 people, and left millions without power for months. so the president raised a lot of eyebrow s when he made comment like this -- >> the job that fema and law enforcement and everybody did working with puerto rico was tremendous. i think that puerto rico was an incredible unsung success. >> reporter: in that same valves meeting, president trump brought up the denials of his two former top staffers. his chief economic adviser gary cohn and staff secretary rob porter. boefth w both who played pivotal roles in bob woodward's report abou

i want to bring in our white house correspondent, kaitlan collins, who is in missouri where the presidentas a major political event later tonight. kaitlan, what are you getting from the white house? how are they reacting? >> reporter: well, wolf, there's been no official response from the white house yet, but president trump just touched down here in springfield, missouri after spending a flight on air force one, presumably watching television, presumably watching this story being reported out. i've been texting with several white house officials who are talking about what a bombshell it is and how it proves the president's point that he believes there are people in this government, and especially in the justice department and the fbi, who are actively trying to undermine him. so they're waiting for the president to respond to this. they say it is not going to be pretty when he does respond, wolf, but it is interesting because though he and rod rosenstein had a pretty testy relationship at the beginning, things had actually kind of improved between them. the president stopped tweeting out

cnn's kaitlan collins is at the white house.ake us inside what you know about how this is being processed inside the white house, including by the president. >> reporter: well, john, we know that in recent weeks, president trump has been complaining he didn't sit down with bob woodward for an interview before this book went to print. there were several evenfforts m on behalf of woodward to sit down with the president, and those requests were made to some senior officials here in the white house. an interview never panned out. president trump never sat down with him before this went to print. that is something that has irked the president in recent days ahead of this release just next week. even know as thee excerpts are coming out about these stunning revelations. we also know there's no clear defense strategy for the white house. this is a white house that has seen tell-all books before, two in the last nine months. that one by michael wolf and the other by the former staffer, omarosa. because there were questions about whether

kaitlan collins, cnn, the white house. >>> and joining me now england. president trump is standing by brett kavanaugh. but christine blasey ford says she won't testify monday unless there's an fbi investigation and it doesn't look like that is going to happen. where does that leave kavanaugh's confirmation hearing if it continues without delay, leaving people wondering about the sexual assault allegations? >> well, it looks like, if you look at some of the signals from the republicans in the senate judiciary committee, they're going to go ahead with the vote, that if she does not testify, they don't seem to be interested in going ahead with her requests, to have an fbi investigation. and they've offered her a chance to have a hearing. if she does not agree to testify, they're going to go ahead with the confirmation. >> doesn't that leave a cloud hanging over brett kavanaugh from here and forever? this is a life long post he will be taking up. >> it leaves a huge cloud over this nomination. you have to remember, this is a nominee that's one of the least-l

. >> let's go to our white house correspondent, kaitlan collins. listening to the president sitting there next to president moon, he said, yes, he's meeting with rod rosenstein thursday to determine, as he said, what's going on. he highlighted the need for transparency. how did you interpret that? >> that comes, brooke, as we know president trump was skeptical of that "new york times" reporting based off those memos from andrew mccabe. rosenstein floated the idea of secretly recording the president or forcibly pushing him out of the office. president trump didn't react to that with the volcanic anger aides thought -- >> hang on. i'm hearing we have mitch mcconnell speaking about the supreme court nominee, brett kavanaugh. >> before they reviewed a lick of evidence, before they heard a minute of testimony, democrats already made up their mind and chose their tactics. delay, obstruct and resist. whatever it took, whatever the truth really was, they were going to do whatever they could to stop this qualified, experienced and mainstream nominee. democr

. >> let's start there with kaitlan collins at the white house. and staying on president trump, what more did he have to say about obama? >> reporter: well, it didn't take long for president trump to respond to that criticism from obama, some of the first criticism we've seen of president trump from obama so publicly like that and at such length going on and on critic e criticizing several aspects of the current administration. and right after that, president trump got on stage there and he was asked by a reporter did he watch the speech. well, you saw his response there. and he was going after obama for taking credit for the economy, but he didn't mention that one criticism from obama which was that the president has pressured the department of justice and the attorney general specifically and that comes after just minutes before that speech president trump was speaking with reporters on air force one and that is when he said that he does believe that jeff sessions his hand picked attorney general should be investigating who it is, which administ

our correspondents and analysts are standing by, but first to cnn's white house correspondent kaitlan collinskaitlan, the president continues to defend kavanaugh. he did it again today. >> that's right, jim. and president trump has been measured in his response that we've seen since these allegations made against judge brett kavanaugh. today we saw publicly what we know is happening privately behind closed doors and that's that president trump has doubts about the accusations. he pointed to the fact the alleged incident happened decades ago. he pointed to judge kavanaugh's record and he made clear he thinks he still will be confirmed as the next supreme court justice. >> he's an incredible individual, great intellect, great judge. >> reporter: president trump standing by his supreme court nominee day, projecting confidence. >> impeccable history in every way, in every way. >> reporter: even though for most of washington brett kavanaugh's cough fnfirmation i open question ahead of a scheduled public hearing ahead of a woman who says he sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers. >> i feel

kaitlan collins, walk us through this back and forth because it was so powerful and so dramatic today>> it was complete confusion all over washington today about whether or not he still had a job, but what we do know is that he did offer to resign to john kelly on friday. john kelly told people as of even this morning that he had accepted that resignation, but what we're told is the thinking behind that is that rod rosenstein thought president trump was going to be a lot angrier about "the new york times" reporting that he had suggested secretly recording the president and talked about invoking the 25th amendment to get him out of office. he thought he was going to be a lot angrier about that than the president turned out to be. yes, on friday trump was asking people, do you think i should fire rod rosenstein, but he also voiced a lot of scepticism about the reporting in "the new york times" because it was based off memos written by andy mccabe, someone president trump despises and often says he doesn't trust. that paired with the fact that his relationship with rosenstein has improve

kaitlan collins picks up this report. >> reporter: president trump calling on his attorney general to investigate the unnamed source of a critical "new york times" op-ed questioning his ability to lead the country. >> i think it is national security. i would say jeff should be investigating the author of that piece because i really believe it is national security. >> reporter: speaking to reporters on air force one, trump voicing concern that the anonymous official who described the president as petty and ineffective has a security clearance. >> supposing i have a high level national security and he has got a clearance and he goes into a high level meeting concerning china or russia or north korea or something, i don't want him to -- >> reporter: asked if he can trust his own white house staff -- >> now i look around the room and i say, hey, if i don't know somebody -- >> reporter: sources say trump has fumed about the op-ed since it was published as the search inside the administration continues to be a guessing game. >> we'll take a look at what he had, what he gave, what he's talki

sources telling my colleague, kaitlan collins, that really trump was skeptical of the story, because of the involvement of the former deputy fbi director, andrew mccabe. and he doesn't trust mccabe. and so therefore, he discounted the story. but, of course, rosenstein didn't see it that way, wolf, prepared to see the door. >> if he is fired, rosenstein, or if he resigns, what's the likely impact on the whole russia investigation? >> well, wolf, it's interesting. you know, there is a succession plan in place here. we often forget, justice officials had to dust it off today, prepared that noel francisco, the solicitor general, who argues cases before the supreme court, would take the reins, he would become the acting attorney general. but just for purposes of the mueller investigation, he would still remain as solicitor general. he is someone who is a known quantity within conservative legal circles. he's very close to don mcgahn, white house counsel. he also worked in the george w. bush white house. he also worked at jones day with mcgahn. so he's someone who is very well-known, very

back with me now is kaitlan collins, susan glasser, and mark mckinnon. mentioned this brett kavanaugh thing before, let's talk about it. but let's watch him defending himself on fox news earlier tonight. >> the truth is i've never sexually assaulted anyone in high school or otherwise. i am not questioning and have not questioned that perhaps dr. ford at some point in her life was sexually assaulted by someone in some place. but what i know is i've never sexually assaulted anyone. >> unprecedented, kaitlan, the very fact that he did this interview. i mean that's unprecedented, isn't it? >> it is. even when clarence thomas was accused of sexually harassing anita hill and there was that incredibly dramatic testimony on capitol hill, he never did an interview until a month after he was confirmed during that vote to supreme court. so we are seeing something totally extraordinary here. that is why so many people commented on the fact. what this shows us is just how concerned the white house and judge kavanaugh truly are about this nomination and the point that

kaitlan collins, thank you. let's go to capitol hill and the republicans say they intend to go ahead with a monday public hearing where kavanaugh and ford can testify. let's go to correspondent manu raju watching the negotiations which are shifting moment by moment. manu, when's the latest on whether the hearing will happen on monday? sounds like there are now doubts. >> reporter: there are doubts, jim. this is a very fluid situation all day long. republicans have been debating how to deal with this. and at the moment, they do plan to have this monday hearing. telling her that she can attend either a public or private session but the republicans have no appetite to delay this any further even as democrats are demanding to reopen the fbi probe and background check before any public hearing, something the president himself has rejected and republican leaders also are rejecting. senator mitch mcconnell, majority leader, made it clear to testify publicly or privately and they plan to move forward no matter what. >>

kaitlan collins is there.ing by on the first lady's response, but kaitlan, first to you, not only are all these people coming out with denials, they're printing out statements and hand hp delivering them to the oval office. >> that's right, brooke. you can see why these denials are rolling in

let's turn to cn white house correspondent, kaitlan collins. the president here claiming some credit for hurricane maria. >> reporter: that's right. the president today was bragging about his administration's response to hurricane maria, a storm that devastated puerto rico and killed roughly the same number of people as 9/11 did. now today those comments came as the president was saying that his administration is fully prepared for hurricane florence and they are sparing no expense. >> okay, thank you very much. >> reporter: tonight, president trump says the white house is prepared for hurricane florence. citing the way his administration handled hurricane maria, which devastated puerto rico one year ago. >> the safety of american people is my absolute highest priority. we are sparing no expense. we are totally prepared. >> reporter: in a briefing with the fema administrator, brock long, late today, the president called his management of that storm an unsung success. >> i think in a certain way, the best job we did was puerto rico. i think the

president trump is watching this very, very closely. >> kaitlan collins at the white house. one of the things i said at the beginning of the process was that democrats and republicans on capitol hill both agreed that the more this testimony becomes about the movement and the moment of me, too, the worse for brett kavanaugh. the more it is about this charge against him, the better. it's not good, but the better for him. we are hearing now from one of our reporters who asked senator, a republican from west virginia. a safe seat. do you think dr. ford -- what do you think of her testimony and until now she has not been a question of whether or not she would vote for kavanaugh. she is saying i think her testimony is riveting. one of the things that has been amazing for a lot of men about this movement is oh, my god, you read your facebook feed and your twitter feed. every woman has experienced something like this and it's shocking. >> we talked about it it in different periods of our lives. this is something women talk about. now america is seeing the conversations that have bee

>> kaitlan collins with the president in missouri. e play some of this sound from susan collins, and just keep in mind, the idea that sexual assault victims don't report the assault, that's the norm, according to advocates using justice department figures. they say two out of three sexual assaults go unreported. so it's not unusual. that's not evidence of anything. here is republican senator, susan collins, reacting to president trump's tweet. >> i was appalled by the president's tweet. i'm not saying that's what happened in this case. but we know that allegations of sexual assault are one of the most unreported crimes that exist. so i thought that the president's tweet was completely inappropriate and wrong. >> what changed? the president had been showing relative restraint. now he is attacking dr. blasey ford and her parents for not having reported this crime. he clearly -- this alleged crime. he clearly thinks it didn't happen. >> he somewhere got a green light to start doing this. whether it was, you know, talking to people on the

i quickly want to go to kaitlan collin at the white house. we got reaction from the president himself to this extraordinary article. >> reporter: that's right, wolf. we had not heard from administration officials but the president himself as we were talking about the president 30 minutes late to this event leading to some speculation he had had time to read this op-ed. why he was so late to that event with those sheriffs but you saw the president walk in there and he had a piece of paper in his hand that he pulled out and he went over after this announcement denouncing "the new york times" for publishing this op-ed which is written by an anonymous top official in the trump administration, anonymous to you and i, wolf. not the "the new york times" editors saying they know who it is, the identity of the person writing the op-ed and the president touched a nerve with. this calling it gutless. going after "the new york times" for publishing something with an anonymous source and then listing off in a bizarre sense the list of accomplishments so f

>> all right, kaitlan collins at the white house for us. let's talk about there with my experts.e a listen to president trump just last night. >> puerto rico was an incredible unsung success. i think in a certain way, the best job we did was puerto rico, but nobody would understand that. >> you're from north carolina. you're sitting in north carolina, getting ready for hurricane florence, and you hear the president say that puerto rico was a success? with a death toll of almost 3,000. what's going through your mind? >> yeah, look. it's just the wrong way to talk about this. and there are ways you can talk about it. you can say, we faced a lot of challenges in puerto rico. it's an island. there were two hurricanes. we really did a lot of work. we put an unprecedented amount of money into this effort. perhaps the death toll study was more expansive than other versions have been, including a lot of time after the storm. but we tried real hard, but it's a disaster. and you address it that way. because people are facing an incoming disaster, and they want to be assured that you're thi

kaitlan collins has been working her sources at the white house. what are you learning? >> reporter: we know that brett kavanaugh spent the day here mounting a defense and getting prepared and briefed by his confirmation team ahead of what was expected to be that public hearing on monday. now with this breaking news, that really seems to be thrown into doubt. what we have learned from what republicans have been saying all day is they have been getting more forceful in their defense of brett kavanaugh. they seem unwilling to negotiate an alternative date for the hearing on monday. we heard from multiple of them. not just people on the judiciary committee but senator lindsey graham and others who say that on monday, that would be her opportunity to come forward, to tell her story. they were going to move forward with a vote. if they are unwilling to go forward with that testimony on monday, there's a chance here, a really good chance they could move forward with this and have judge brett kavanaugh confirmed as a supreme court justice possibly by next week. for white house,

kaitlan collins, thank you. >>> trump's vow to get rid of the justice department's lingering stench, i think is what kaitlan called it, came hours after news broke on the number two at the doj. so is rosenstein the lingering stench? is it only a matter of time before he goes? should the republicans give judge kavanaugh's accuser one more day? tom fitton is the perfect man to discuss, next. the head of judicial watch. ♪ i'm going to be your substitute teacher. don't assume the substitute teacher has nothing to offer... same goes for a neighborhood. don't forget that friendships last longer than any broadway run. mr. president. (laughing) don't settle for your first draft. or your 10th draft. ♪ ♪ you get to create the room where it happens. ♪ ♪ just don't think you have to do it alone. ♪ ♪ the powerful backing of american express. don't live life without it. of great savings and service. with such a long history, it's easy to trust geico! thank you todd. it's not just easy. it's-being-a-master-of-hypnotism easy. h

yesterday, his white house literally barrednn reporter kaitlan collins from a white house event justuestions. >> cnn white house correspondent kaitlan collins was banned from nta late afternoon press e because the white house simply didn't like the questions she had asked the president earlier in the day. >> cnn immediately disputed thao asse releasing a statement saying this, "just because the white house is uncomfortable with a question regarding e news of the day, doesn't mean the question isn't relevant and shouldn't be asked." >> seth: hey, man, you can't just ban a reporter for asking questions that make you comfortable. for one thing, every question makes you uncomfortable. [ light laughter ] when reporters ask you questions, you literally hug yourself. [ laughter ] so what were these questions that made trump so mad? here's a clip of the exchange, which included a question about trump's decision to invite vladimir putin to the house. >> did michael cohen betray you, mr. president?nk >> no, tou very much. >> thank you, everybody. >> mr. president -- did michael cohen betray yo

kaitlan collins, thank you. for doing the late work for us.reciate it. >>> all right, trump's vow to get rid of the justice department's linger stench, i think is what kaitlan, called it, came hours after news broke on the number two at the doj. so is rosenstein the lingering stench? is it only a matter of time before he goes? should the republicans give judge kavanaugh's accuser one more day? tom fitton is the perfect man to discuss, next. the head of judicial watch. don't forget that the past can speak to the future. ♪ ♪ i'm going to be your substitute teacher. don't assume the substitute teacher has nothing to offer... same goes for a neighborhood. don't forget that friendships last longer than any broadway run. mr. president. (laughing) don't settle for your first draft. or your 10th draft. ♪ ♪ you get to create the room where it happens. ♪ ♪ just don't think you have to do it alone. ♪ ♪ the powerful backing of american express. don't live life without it. and i'm the founder of ugmonk. before shipstation it was crazy. it's great when you

kaitlan collins at the white house, thank you so much. so president trump is claiming this is a matter of national security. to be fair, both this anonymously written op-ed and the bob woodward book say that this is a matter of national security with all these senior administration officials suggesting that president trump poses a danger, even with stories of gary cohn stealing a letter from the resolute desk in the oval office. what is your take? >> i think the president's ridiculous. if you will. and i'm just -- to put it mildly. i think he's ridiculous and i also think that i am just patiently waiting for congressional republicans to do something. to say something, to do something. what donald trump is doing pretending as though the department of justice is a personal lawyer, over at trump tower, is not only problematic but there are safeguards in the constitution against things like this. when are folks going to step up and let the president know, sir, that is not how we do business in the united states of america? >> is there a natio

those sources telling kaitlan collins sessions has come to terms with the fact that his relationship the president sake this guy is mentally retarded, he's a dumb southerner, he couldn't even be a one-person country lawyer down in alabama. we found out what voters there think of the president's attacks of their former senator. >> reporter: alabama might have voted for donald trump, but really it's jeff sessions country. >> i think he's doing a great job. i'm behind him. i really like what he stands for. i like the way he thinks, i like the way he executes. i feel good about it >> reporter: folks around here look out for their own, and they don't like the way the president is treating the attorney general. >> what would you say to president trump if you could talk to him about this? >> i would say, hey, trump, let's talk about your personal skills with people. maybe you could be a kinder, gentler trump, more understanding, more open minded and slightly less of a jerk. >> reporter: this is the dew drop inn, it's full of people who are glad donald trump is president. but are troubled wi

from our partners at c- n-n, here's kaitlan collins.nplaying the chaos tonight...claiming the white house is a smooth running machine...as crisis unfolds in the west wing...the white house...taking questions from reporters today for the first time in nearly three weeks...sarah sanders....takin g aim at bob woodward over his tell-all book on the trump white house.sarah sanders/ white house press secretary"to not even take the time to get a 10 dollar fact-checker, to call around and verify that some of these quotes were.. when no effort was made, it seems like a very careless and reckless way to write a book." with no public events on his schedule today.. trump waging a war against bob woodward from behind closed doors...calling his book a 'joke'....'just another assault against me'....and hitting him for not naming his sources....trump highlighting denials from defense secretary james mattis and chief of staff john kelly...though woodward says they're just trying...to protect themselves...bob woodward/ author, "fear: trump in the white h

kaitlan collins has the latest. president trump voicing confidence today that his supreme court nominee will weather the sexual assault allegation made against himso confident in factthat he's already referring to brett kavanaugh.as 'justice'.. president trump:"justice kavanaugh...."kavanaugh's nomination seems to be moving forward...as republicans are growing frustrated with his accuser...christine blasey ford...who announced through her attorney tuesday night on c-n-n that she wanted an fbi investigation before testifying....trump..who has the power to make that callarguing for the opposite today.president trump:"i would let the senators take their course. let the senators do it."ford alleges kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were teenagersacc usations he denies. trump urging her....to tell her story...president trump:"i really want to see her...i really would want to see what she has to say..."but casting doubt on her allegations... president trump:"he is such an outstanding man...very hard for me to ima

kaitlan collins is there. kate bennett is also standing by on the first lady's response, but kaitlan, first to you, not only are all these people coming out with denials, they're printing out statements and hand hp delivering them to the oval office. >> that's right, brooke. you can see why these denials are rolling in as quickly as they are, because they know these denials are being printed out, taken directly to president trump, who is enjoying seeing these, as he did when general kelly and his defense secretary james mattis denied the claims that were attributed to them in bob woodward's tell-all book. these denials are coming in. they started with the vice president this morning and the secretary of state, mike pompeo, and now we're seeing more than a dozen of the most high ranking officials in this government denying that they were the ones who wret that anonymous op-ed trashing the president. that comes after sarah sanders, the press secretary, issued that surreal statement saying those who wanted to know

cnn's kaitlan collins is at the white house. whether it is woodward or the op-ed, why is the white house giving the story more oxygen and doing so like every 15 minutes? >> a sense of paranoia existed here in the west wing before the events of this week. now in this book written by somebody who works in this administration, the president's long standing fear that people who work here are out to get him is resurrected and heightened. even today where some of the most highest ranking people in the government, people that the president hand picked to be in the positions are tripping over each other to issue denials that it was them who trashed the president. president trump seething tonight, demanding names as he and the rest of the white house go on a frantic hunt to find the author of the anonymous op-ed calling him petty, ineffective. the speculation forcing more than a dozen senior officials to issue statements denying they trashed the president including mike pence who said this today. >> i think it is a disgrace. >> reporter:

. >> joining me right now, cnn justice reporter laura jarrett and kaitlan collins. we're back together. do we have any more clarity today? we're hearing white house officials are cautioning against presuming that rosenstein will be fired. what do you have? >> that's not because the dynamic between president trump and the deputy attorney general have changed at all but we know when they sit down on thursday, president trump does not like one-on-one conflict. he's not good at confronting people he's got problems with, he's not good at firing people. instead, usually giving that task to somebody else. that's exactly what we could see on thursday and what white house officials are cautioning against. this is the president's nature, we know how he is, we know he doesn't like to fire people one-on-one, but of course, they aren't ruling out that he could be fired either. as you heard from sarah sanders this morning, she was asked, does the president want to keep rod rosenstein? does she want to fire him? and she couldn't say either way. she said they're going to sit down o

let's go to kaitlan collins who has new reporting on that. irritated, what? that dedidn't do an interview. >> irritated he didn't do an interview with bob woodward before it went to print. that's not for lack of trying on bob woodward's part. he tried to get an interview with president trump on a book that details life inside the trump administration but there were discussions ant whether or not the president should sit down with him, have a chance to tell his side of the story and the interview never panned out between president trump and bob woodward before the book went to print. now the president has been complaining he's irritated he didn't end up doing an interview with bob woodward. what that really reflects is this going sense of anxiety in the white house over this book because over the last nine months they have been rocked by two tell-all books, one by michael wolff and the other by omarosa manigault-newman, the former staffer. but those books they are able to shield themselves a bit from the claims saying they're questioning but people in the whit

you know, kaitlan collins, it was only the other day, last week, when the president said it would be. his word, wonderful, to hear from professor ford. >> well, that's what i was saying publicly. because that's what his aides were encouraging him to say publicly. and that he was getting praise for that. and he liked getting that praise. so they thought he was going to continue doing that. and then he didn't. but what this boils down to, this is what the president has been saying privately all along. that he doesn't believe these allegations, he's always been suspicious of the #metoo movement, complaining that the mere allegations can ruin people's lives. something he's pointed out time and time again as we have seen people fall from pretty high positions because of allegations like the ones that brett kavanaugh is now facing. so president trump is simply saying what he's been thinking this whole time. he doesn't believe these accusations. made that quite clear last night in his tweet when he said there were false accusations and now we see him go on the attack, especially against thi

. >> you mentioned kaitlan collins. we've heard what you've heard. let's go to the white house. before we do that -- laura, thank you. before today's development, regarding rod rosenstein, president trump in a pretaped interview would not flat out say if he would fire rosenstein in response to that bock shell "new york times" piece. >> i don't want to comment on it until i get all the facts. i haven't gotten all the facts. but certainly it's being looked at in terms of what took place, if anything took place. he was hired by jeff sessions. i was not involved in that process because they go out and get their own deputies and the people that work in the department. >> so, that was the president. here's kaitlan in washington, d.c., with the white house. we heard laura tell the story of justice. you've been hearing from your people at the white house. what's the deal? >> we're getting a lot of different stories. laura laid it out perfectly but the white house's version is rod rosenstein during a conversation with john kelly on friday, when kelly, one of those few people still at the

cnn white house correspondent kaitlan collins. cnn political commentator, tara setmay setmayer, she's the host of the podcast, "honestly speaking tara." and also me, jill flipovich, a writer and a blogger. so ladies, i want to dive right in. sarah, first to you, they're both willing to come forward, both be questioned and testify. and depending on whose story you believe, isn't it possible that a teenage brett kavanaugh could have done this years ago and has grown into an upstanding, loving father and husband and judge? could both be true? tara? >> oh, i didn't hear you say that was for me. >> no worries. >> yes, both could be true, but it could also be true that this, in fact, happened the way that dr. ford remembers it and that it was politically motivated the way in which democrats released it. and it's possible that judge kavanaugh lied about it. i mean, all of these scenarios are possible. the issue now is whether this should be adjudicated properly. and it has to be, at this point. there's no way that republicans can move fo

. >> kaitlan collins. i want to take you back to this hurricane.e of the places directly in florence's path, wrightsville beach, north carolina, under a mandatory evacuation order starting at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow. we saw the lifeguard stands being hauled off the beach just a little while ago. with me now, todd byrd. he runs this live web cam of this boat ramp there in wrightsville beach. so we've seen, todd, this steady stream of people pulling their boats out of the water, in preparation for this storm. and i hear you've decided to ride this thing out. tell me why. >> caller: well, i've sent my family away. we'll say this first. i've sent my wife and my kids on a little vacation down to florida, let them go to disney land, while we ride this out. actually about a mile in shore. so i feel pretty safe here. we've battened down the hatches. yesterday was a big day at the boat ramp. and it's just been steady as she goes. everyone is preparing. >> what's wrong with you going to disney world with them? >> caller: i've got to stick around. we've got to tak

i want to go to our white house correspondent kaitlan collins. you're getting new information. are you hearing? >> reporter: that's right, wolf. as the president is calling on jeff sessions to investigate this anonymous white house staffer that criticized him, this comes as jeff sessions is telling people that he realizes his relationship with president trump is not going to end well one way or the other. of course, you noticed last year when president trump first started attacking him, jeff sessions kept his head down, kept doing his work at the justice department, and later on as those attacks continued, he started pushing back a little against president trump. now, wolf, in recent weeks the attorney general is readily conceding to people that his relationship with president trump has sunk even lower in the last few weeks. he's even taking to joking to people, wolf, that he checks out the president's twitter feed to see what his job status truly is. now with the president calling on the justice department to act at his political will as he did as far as those indictments of t

sources familiar with his thinking tell my colleague kaitlan collins that sessions concedes that hisresident has worsened in recent weeks, and perhaps the woodward book we've been talking about tonight is a reason. in it, the president is quoted as calling sessions, quote, mentally retarded and a , quote, dumb southerner. sessions himself was in alabama today speaking at a dedication of a federal courthouse in mobile. 360 gary tuchman was in mobile 06's" gary tuchman was in mobile today speaking to long-time supporters of the attorney general. >> reporter: alabama might have voted for donald trump, but really, it's jeff sessions' country. >> i think he is doing a great job. i'm behind him. i really like what he stands for. i like the way he thinks. i like the way he executes. i feel good about it. >> reporter: folks around here look out for their own. they don't like the way the president is now treating the attorney general. what would you say to president trump if you could talk to him about this? >> i would say, hey, trump, let's talk about your personal skills with people. maybe

i want to bring in white house correspondent kaitlan collins.does the attorney general -- what does he think right now? where does he think he stands as far as the president is concerned? >> reporter: well, wolf, he is really come to terms with the fact that the relationship with president trump won't end well one way or another and the request to investigate who it is that wrote that critical op-ed of him isn't going to help. wolf, over the last year and a half now that the president has been attacking jeff sessions at the beginning he said he was going to keep his head down, keep doing his job at the justice department and then as those attacks increased we saw him push back on the president more and more and now even in recent weeks he's acknowledged that that relationship with president trump has only gotten worse. wolf, some days he treats this with humor joking with people looking at the president's twiter feed to see if he has a j.b. and prepared for any outcome that's going to happen, including potentially him being fired, wolf. >> so do

sources are telling our colleague kaitlan collins that jeff sessions has accepted the fact that his relationshiph president trump is now likely to he said well o end well one way or another. while he has not said he plans to resign, he is acknowledging that their relationship is worse than it has ever been. the two rarely speak one-on-one anymore. and this all comes as president trump is now calling on his attorney general to investigate that nameless author of the op-ed that has so clearly gotten under his skin this week. he told reporters aboard air force one that he doesn't want the person who wrote the "new york times" piece sitting in on high level meetings. take a listen. >> do you think jeff sessions should be investigating who the author of the op-ed piece was? >> i think so. because i think it is national security. jeff should be investigating who the author of that piece was because i really believe it is national security. >> and is there action that should be taken against the new york times? >> we'll see. i'm looking into that right now. >> reporter: it is unclear what legal grounds

kaitlan collins is cnn's white house reporter, and cnn political commentators ana navarro and mike shields also here this evening. good evening to all of you. ana, watching the oval office today with the reporters there with fema, homeland security, at first the president seemed in command. it seems like he was committed to safety. but then he veers off-course. he's flat out wrong when he says the response to puerto rico was one of the best responses ever. it is offensive. i think it's offensive. what about you? >> you know, i don't even know what to expect from this president when it comes to puerto rico and the response to puerto rico anymore. practically everything he has done and said is inappropriate. it was insufficient. it is offensive. and if you and i are offended, just imagine how you would feel if you were puerto rican or imagine how you would feel if you are the relative, if you lost a loved one, if you are one of the 3,000 families in puerto rico who lost somebody that day. and let me remind you we are talking about 3,000 american citizens. those 3,000 deaths were american cit