kate bennett, cnn, washington. >> we will have to discuss.oining me now is the trump biographer with the truth about trump. the art of being the donald and bloomberg review and is being sued for defamation and was worth more than he claimed. >> for sean spicer saying that this was a direct attack on his policy, i just don't understand how nordstrom is viewed by the white house as attacking ivanka trump. >> there is two problems with this. one is they got rid of her merchandise because it was not selling. sean spicer in the white house is lying. he is fabricating a reason for why nordstrom dissolved the relationship. secondly ivanka said she distanced herself from the company and has distanced herself from the trump organization. presumably she has nothing to do with any of this. you wouldn't think the president would have to rise to her defense if she detached, which i don't think she has. >> it shows how involved it would appear and gives the appearance that donald trump, president of the united states is still involved with the economic out

cnn white house reporter kate bennett is with me now. e, let's just talk about -- first of all, he talked about it on the campaign trail but this is purchase's first foray into women's issues with his daughter with a seat at the table with the head of state. what will her influence look like? that's right. we have to remember that ivanka trump still doesn't have a formal role within the white house. within the administration. she says she didn't want one. she is in washington with her kids and getting them settled in school, et cetera. it is a little bit inusual here she is leading this charge with the women's issues, something she talked about this summer at the convention. so we know it's important to her. but very much putting together this group of women business leaders and ceos and trying to push the ball forward as she said to level the playing field for this generation and the next one. ivanka is vital in this. >> another woman worth pointing out who has a strong role in this administration, dina powell. i don't know if many peopl

kate bennett, cnn, washington. >> a lot to discuss.ael d'antonio, author of "the truth about trump," and timot timothy, sued unsuccessfulfully by donald trump reporting he was worth far less than he claimed. tim, sean spicer, the product, saying this was a direct attack on his policies, donald trump's, and ivanka's name. beyond how nordstrom's is viewed by the white house as attacking ivanka trump. >> there ice two problems with this. one is they got rid of her merchandise because it wasn't selling. so sean spicer stand at the podium in the white house and fab ray kating a reason for why nordstrom's stopped this relationship. secondly ivanka said she distanced herself from that company, her own company, and has already distanced flers the trump organization, so presumably she had nothing to do with any of this so you wouldn't think the president had to rise to her defense if she were detached from the company, which i don't think she is. >> it gives the appearance donald trump, president of the united states, is still involved with the

kate bennett, thank you so much.rom us today. >> and watch, the mood is tense. >> tense indeed, brian, because it's time to say bye-bye to bao bao. the giant panda is returning to her ancestral home. bao bao boarded the panda express in a crate compliments of fedex. she will have 55 pounds of bamboo. she what set to make the move. most captive giant pandas are on lone from the government of china. they are sent to participate in a cooperative breeding program. the national zoo first received a state gift of two pandas in 1972 as a gesture of good will and has participate ed in so-called panda diplomacy ever since. that's it for "the lead." jake tapper here turning it over to wolf blitzer in "the situation room." >> happening now. immigration shift, the trump administration comes out with a blueprint for cracking down on illegal immigration. it says the objective is not mass deportation, but says a million people could go. what about the dreamers who came to america as children? >>> it shaz to stop. after bomb threats

let me bring in cnn white house reporter kate bennett.e first lady moving to washington at all? >> according to the white house, the plans have not changed. reports are not true. she is going to wait until barron finishes school. the one thing that is interesting, the white house did tell us, she plans to split her time between washington and new york. in the meantime, she wasn't here, though, last weekend and she hasn't been seen in washington since the inauguration. so, it's sort of a question as to when she's going to come down here, what splitting her time means. does it mean weekends, when she can. >> obviously first ladies get their own office. they have their own agenda. melania trump said she's going to, interestingly enough, combat cyber bulying. she's been slow to hire a staff. >> so far no official hires in the first lady's office which means several things. no social secretary. no communications director. no chief of staff. so, right now even the visitors' office is on hold because there is no one staffed there which means the

kate bennett is back, one of the white house reporters, thanks, kate. >> i remember making the note you were asked to sit down, you asked the question, the president did not condemn the attacks, you saw this morning, was the condemnation strong enough? >> it's right. it's not a simple thing as he had said. and we have these attacks and threats of violence, but on the same hand we have the aability to talk about this in a fair and open forum which is such a blessing that the jewish people didn't have in other countries before coming to the united states. >> one of the questions is why now? why not condemn when he was with you or the israeli prime minister and kate one interesting piece is the tweet from hillary clinton. of all she could have directed toward the president she picked this one, jcc threats, cemetery desecration and online attacks are so troubling, everyone must speak out starting with the president of the united states. what role do you think she played here and why this issue? >> reporter: you know, brooke, it's unclear, she did make that three-nothing tweet after the immi

so kate bennett is with me in washington. first question, this is such a break in tradition, right?ole of the first lady is to host, to entertain in washington. where was melania trump? >> reporter: that was the big question mark, this is traditionally the first lady does when a dignitary comes from a foreign nation, typically it false to the first lady, they go to a museum, a school, things sort of a tradition, today mrs. trump who is staying in new york, until barron finishes the school year, did not join mrs. abe this morning which made it awkward to do the events alone, we have seen mrs. abe with michelle obama, also first lady bush, so it was a little odd not to have the first lady with firstly d first lady abe. >> did it surprise you that ivanka trump didn't step in today? >> reporter: i think a number of people, myself included thinking if mrs. trump is not going to be able to make it in time, there would have been a surrogate to join mrs. abe, or perhaps someone from the state department or maybe even mrs. pence just somebody there to represent the administration sort of in

. >> and kate bennett joins me now.s new information about the first lady's transition to d.c. >> reporter: that's right. the first lady's office announced she has hired her first official staff member, lindsey reynolds, to be her chief of staff. in the release tonight about the hiring, ms. reynolds says she is putting together a professional and highly experienced team which will take time. i'm excited to be bringing together such a dynamic and forward thinking group of individuals who will work together to make our country better for everyone. again, ms. reynolds is the first official hire. the first lady has yet to hire a communications person, a social secretary. there's still many, many open positions in the east wing. however, ms. reynolds says she plans to get the visitors' office up and running so tours can resume as quickly as possible. >> thank you very much. >>> our breaking news on president trump's national security adviser michael flynn, the fallout from telling iran that it's officially on notice. >> welc

let's bring in white house reporter kate bennett and you've been doing some great reporting on this.l how big a deal of this is for melania trump? >> you know, this is sort of unorthodox situation with the first lady where she's splitting her time between washington and new york so there's this inherent mystery about her anyway, so are we going to see her really pull out the stops here or is she going to set the tone for an elegant evening? she released a statement earlier today saying that the theme of tonight's dinner is going to be called it's spring renewal and she's really celebrating getting the country together, the governors together and it's going to be nonpartisan and it's going to be filled with, you know, the white house has come to life gleaming with the dazzling experience of eternal spring. i mean it sounds really great and then of course like donald trump tweeted that there's a lot to discuss including health care. so here she is saying it's going to be this nonpolitical evening with all the governors and then but potus president trump has maybe a different idea about

bennett. matt, first to you. you may not like the man in the oval office, but is it really fair or a good use of senator franken's time talking about something like this publicly? >> katehis came up first. it was on the bill maher show first, he was kind of joking, he was talking about this in the context of a funny segment he was doing on a comedy show. then jake asked him about it yesterday. but the fact of the matter is, you don't have to be sigmund freud to think this guy has a fairly serious narcissistic personality order. he's consumed with himself. he's easily flattered and distracted. and as senator franken noted, he lies all the time. this is a serious problem. whether he's diagnosable or not not the issue. the question is, is he stable. >> paris? >> i was looking on the label to see if i saw "doctor" below matt's name. i don't see how he or senator franken can say such things about the president of the united states. no one made claims about secretary clinton somehow needing clinical help or having some kind of a mental disorder. she lied about benghazi or when she told tales about her e-mail server and things of that nature. we need to be careful how we talk