here's kaitlyn collins. >> reporter: the congresswoman is rejegting israel's office to visit her family on the west bank. an offer that came with conditions one day after the country denied her and congresswoman ilhan omar entry at president trump's urging. visiting my grand mother under these oppressive conditions stands against everything i believe in, she said on twitter. those conditions would have included a pledge not to promote boycotts against israel while she was there. the president has faced widespread criticism for getting involved. >> it is disrespect for the congress and the american political system, for our ally to keep two members of congress out of israel. >> but sources tell cnn, the president's advisers believe his fight with four freshmen democrats who call themselves the squad could benefit him in 2020. which is why the president keeps hammering them on the campaign trail. >> it really is keep america great. we have these social i haves who want to take it away. >> the one mention they say advisers fear won't work out for him is the economy. shaky markets and unpre

kaitlyn collins is outfront traveling with the president in berkeley heights, new jersey. kaitlyn, trump obviously got really upset about this. >> yeah, he seems quite pleased with israel's decision that they have made today. but erin, the time line here is pretty clear. israel made the decision after the president urged them publicly on his twitter account as you showed to do so. even after last month the israeli ambassador to the united states said that, yes the two democratic congresswoman were going to be welcome to israel. and now we're seeing bibi netanyahu change his mind issuing the statement. and of course we know the president and he have a long history and had a warm relationship since they've been if in office. this is something that politically could help both. you see the president frame the women as his foil in the 020 election and netanyahu is facing an election of his own in just three weeks. now, the president would not say whether or not he spoke with netanyahu directly about this. but he did concede he spoke with israeli officials even though the white h

this is a name we are hearing be floated, kaitlyn collins reporting that nick ayers is being considered. he was actually considered to the white house chief of staff but turned that job down because he wanted to hold it for a short period of time. that is in part because he knew that one or more senate seats would become open in georgia and he wanted to be considered for that. he is very close to ivanka trump and jared kushner and the trump white house. could be an interesting name that could emerge. one big thing we found out today, though, alex, is that stacey abrams, who had a razor, a small margin of a loss to brian kemp in that election back in 2018 for the governorship there, she has said that she will not run for either of these two u.s. senate seats, which will now be open in 2022. >> ryan nobles, thank you very much. >>> another extraordinary development, the president reportedly offering pardons if his aides break the law to fast track that border wall of his. >>> plus in yet another incident raising red flags, the attorney general plans a $30,000 holiday party at the trump ho

kaitlyn collins joins me now. your reporting is that white house officials have met with nra officials in the last couple of days. >> they've been in conversation with them, a question that a lot of people have. you saw the president come out this morning, express an openness to potentially expanding background checks, which would be a move for the president. in the past we've seen him back off of it after he sat down with nra leadership. the president has not met with nra leadership yet. we do know his top aides are having conversations with them. that's coming into question. but also whether or not they have the political power to get the president to change his mind on a stance like that. often with this president, you've seen him in places like where he is today. he's coming here to the scene of this mass shooting, visiting with first responders, victims of the hospital right now, later going on to el paso. he tries to match his tone with where he is, meeting with victims, explaining background checks. when he

cnn's kaitlyn collins has that. want to start off quickly with the storm and what the president had to say about it he's going to do a briefing at the fema headquarters he said he's not worried about his own officials. following cnn reporting saying that a lot of people who will be surrounding the president and shepherding him through this storm are going through officials not confirmed in their positions. for one, the fema administrator is an acting person it was person nominated hasn't been confirmed and of course his dhs secretary has not been confirmed either. the other thing he's not worried about is mar-a-lago. the president said based on the briefings he's received is in the direct path of whenter storm is projected to go right now. he said he's not worried about anything. he said it is going to be fine. he's more concerned that state of florida. >> he was asked about the sudden resignation of his personal stand. what did he have to say about that? >> she's not this household name. her departure was pretty ab

kaitlyn collins outfront live outside the white house. what are you learning about what the president is going today and say tomorrow. >> he heads to ohio and then to texas. during the stops the president plans on meeting with first responders, the law enforcement and even some of the victims while he is there. and of course on the trips as we have seen in the past the spt known to make some impromptu remarks. something white house a.i.d.s. are not ruling out right now, erin. but of course something else going -- a problem the president has to deal with is the local officials saying they don't think it's best for the president to come. they've been pretty vocal about saying they think that right now the president should stay away from their cities because they are still grieving. white house officials are downplaying this brushes ing off the criticisms saying if the president didn't go in the aftermath of the shootings that the president would still face a round of criticism from similar people. but of course you hear from people like the

our white house correspondent kaitlyn collins joins us. the president blamed the shootings on a lot of things, but not necessarily on the weapons or on his own rhetoric. >> reporter: yeah. he also didn't introduce major new gun laws he thinks should be passed, proposals like that. wolf, he also didn't mention the background checks. he first tweeted this morning something that caught white house aides off guard. they didn't think it was wise what the president was proposing in the tweet which was linking background checks to potential immigration reform. as the president addressed the nation hours later at the white house, wolf, he did denounce bigotry and white supremacy and vowed to do something. now the question is what is it that the president is going to do. >> our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy. >> reporter: tonight, president trump is condemning white supremacy after two mass shootings in less than 24 hours. >> these sinister ideologies must be defeated. >> reporter: he's offering few details on what he'll do

collins. she's joining me right now. kaitlyn, what are you hearing about all of this? >> well, kate, that wasn't going to be a pretty backdrop for the president going to pennsylvania to this manufacturing town today where the white house said he was going to tout their economic accomplishment, something that the republicans want the president to focus on, the economy gains, but it will come with the mind-belowing receive did it dollars and the stalled trade talks with china that have been putting fear in investors and spooking the markets. so we're getting this news about this delay, even though we know that companies in the background have been lobbying the white house for exemptions from some of these tariffs that the president had said he was going to go full throttle with and that was a few weeks ago when the president made those remarks. and now we're going to be seeing him go to the petrochemical plant and now we've got the news about it changing and you're seeing the markets start to surge. it's something the white house has been keeping an eye on in recent week

we have katelyn collins and abbey philip and cnn political analyst and national political reporter for "the new york times." kaitlynll us about how and why president trump is feeling, quote, rattled. >> you've seen the president lashing out recently talking about roopuerto rico, the econo the border wall. a lot of what this boils down to we're told is right now the president is realizing what we thought he was going to be able to safely bank onto run on in 2020 the economy is not essentially what he expected it to be. he's become worried in recent days about the potential of an economic downturn. he's seen his aides disagreeing with one another how exactly they're going to stave it off. even privately they're admitting a lot of it has to do with his ongoing trade war with china which is also dragging on longer than the president expected. and that is why you see the president turn back to things like the border wall where he joked he would pardon aides if they broke the law to get his wall built. a lot of is because the president knows he needs an accomplishment to run on in 2020. he's turning back to old promises