the presidents estate at mar-a-lago. >> good afternoon. very interesting. imagine the presidents twitter mac storm today. he mentioned a bunch of people. john mcmaster, national security advisor, the mueller team. he talked about resident obama and as you can imagine, he also talked about adam schiff. the california congressman. the letter from the president gave a fit of a lack of a better description, a golf clap. for agreeing with him that the obama administration simply did not do nearly enough to combat the russia targeting of america's democracy. and i want to share with you a bit of what they said today on national television. >> i have said all along that i think the obama administration should have dunmore. and senator feinstein and i took the first steps to make public attribution because at that time he could not get the obama administration to acknowledge the russian interference. they were very weary of appearing to be putting your hand on the scale. >> i mentioned a bit of a golf clap. as they tweet that does that. finally, little adam schiff,

he was sitting at his mar-a-lago resort unable to play golf because of the optics of that. of course, the shooting in park dgs lan land, florida just 40 minutes south of mar-a-lago. so he was watching a lot of cable television and was tweeting a lot saturday evening into sunday. white house advisers did not know these were coming. they see these in realtime the way everyone else sees them, but it's clear despite the fact there are two major challenges going on, one, the tampering of a u.s. election, and two, another school shooting, the president again managed to turn this back to himself, asking questions about himself through all of these. but don, it's interesting that he is blaming president obama for not doing anything, but in the course of these tweets he has acknowledged more than he ever has before over the last year-plus that there was russian meddling. what's striking is the commander in chief is not saying what the u.s. should do to prevent this going forward. that's been absent from all of these. >> it's interesting. as you said, if we could put the tweets back

let's start from nearby mar-a-lago. dan, just looking ahead now, we know the president has a listening session with students and teachers from the florida high school this upcoming wednesday. who exactly will he be listening to? how is he preparing for that? >> hey, brooke. it seems this statement where it expresses the president's openness with strengthening the background checks in the united states is really the first step and something you'll hear a lot about during the listening sessions. it gives him something to back in the sessions. i want to read what was said this morning. the president spoke to senator cornant about the bipartisan bill. he and senator murphy introduced to improve federal compliance with criminal background check legislation. the president is supportive of efforts to improve the federal background check system. you were right though. we don't know what it looks like. president trump has been all over the map on guns for the better part of two decades. in a book in the early 2000s he backed the

. >> allie, president trump is at mar-a-lago this weekend. we've heard nothing from him since the memo was released, just a statement from sarah sanders. hogan was on and that's it. what are you reading into this silence? >> also on cnn last night, one of the things said new york city considerations of firing mueller. i think the quote he said is trump has confidence in rosenstein -- i said mueller before and i meant rod rosenstein. that's important when you think about attorney general going forward. yesterday in the oval office as the memo was released, president trump said you figure out when asked about confidence in his attorney general. that was left murky. now both publicly and privately telling us, there's in considerations of firing rosenstein, keep things the same at justice. that's meant to quell these cries from democrats after the memo, look, this is like the saturday night massacre. this is looking to calm the waters, the memo didn't have anything substantively in it we didn't already know, trying to tell us we're calming the wa

kevin cork reporting from mar-a-lago, thank you, kevin.nstein right now, host of the jamie weinstein show pod cast and national review on-line and founding partner at jmw strategies. let's talk about this issue called immigration. the first question i got to ask you, jamie, now that people are at home with their constituents, representatives what do they have to show their constituents in terms of what they are doing about daca and immigration? >> it depends on the different bases that are out there. in some extent, it seems like some of these bases just want to continue to fight unless they get 100% of what their particular sides are asking for. what's interesting right here is it seems that the contention right now is not on illegal immigration. there seems to be some sort of bipartisan consensus to legal liz 1.8 million -- legalize 1.8 million dreamers that was moving from a compromise on the president's side. there seems to be some sort of compromise on the democrat on some sort of border wall. but the question is what should the compo

that's 40 miles way afrom he fr in mar-a-lago. it was only one of many tweets from the president, his main focus was the russia investigation. the president attacking some of his favorite targets and democrats in the media. and going as far as to undercut his national security adviser hr mcmaster, someone that he's long been rumored to have serious disagreements with. it all stems from a comment that hr mcmaster made at a security conference in munich, germany, over the weekend. mcmaster was asked about the statements that were made by deputy attorney general rod rosenstein on friday and presenting his indictment. here's what mcmaster said. listen. >> as you can see with the fbi indictment, the evidence is now really incontrovertible and available in the public domain. >> reporter: and here is what the president wanted to clarify, his tweet about hr mcmaster. he writes, quote, general mcmaster forgot to say that the results of the 2016 election were not impacted or changed by the russians. and that the only collusion was between r

first of all, peter, the president's behavior this weekend, even for a trump weekend at mar-a-lago, was unusually prolific, shall we say, on twitter. >> yeah, andrea, i think that's exactly right. we know from aides they recommended he not play golf the last couple days in the wake of that shooting that took place not far from mar-a-lago, just 40 miles away in parkland, which allowed him a lot of time behind closed doors at his exclusive estate to watch television, and as it would turn out, to fume. we have heard repeatedly from this president over the course of the last year, trying to minimize or dispute any possible russian role in the last election. but after that indictment by robert mueller's team late last week, the president sort of cast it through his own lens, effectively spreading blame to everybody else except to russia in this situation here. some of the tweets were sort of stunning. the president, among other things, saying of russia that they are laughing their asses off in moscow. he wrote, get smart, america. he said, they've succeeded beyond their wildest dreams, quali

he shouldn't be going to mar-a-lago every single weekend. what happened to camp david?hink he's trying to deflect because he can't go outside and play golf and there are a lot of facts that he should be very concerned about because the underlying subjects of that indictment is that mueller is looking at these charges as a violation of campaign finance and election law. and i think that the trump campaign and all of the associates should be concerned about potential legal exposure. >> alan rosenstein, i want to stick with this theme as i read from another tweet. if it was the goal of russia to create discord, disruption and chaos within the u.s. then with all the committee hearings and the party hatred they have succeeded between their wildest dreams. they're laughing at us, get smart. what is the president trying to do there and what the legal implications, directing t folks here to get smart? >> well, i think as the other commentator pointed out what the president is trying to do is to deflect. i think what we have seen with these tweets is that the president prizes hi

then 20 minutes later the first family was back at mar-a-lago. before him the first lady wearing a red cape and the son sporting or white. while the president was at his golf club today, they stayed home. the president left behind -- which they say shows that the fbi and justice department have used their power with surveillance warrants on trump campaign advisors. democrats in fbi content the charged memo is misleading and a distraction to the ongoing russia probe by the special prosecutor. it is super bowl weekend. today and tomorrow no public events for the president and for the first lady have been scheduled. nor are any anticipated. the president is expected to watch at least some of the super bowl at mar-a-lago before returning back to d.c. tomorrow night. >> thank you. >> and all of this we bring in sarah westwood. she covers the white house for the washington examiner. always good to see you. phil brings up some questions in his report. what might be next and possibly the release of this democratic memo which would counter the republican

if he's out golfing in mar-a-lago or sitting at home watching the news. the tweet was very directed and had nothing to do with democracy, preventing elections. we have had every warning sign from the intelligence community over the last week and prior to that that this is going to be yet another year where russia is trying to interfere. you had vladimir putin the other day say to a palestinian leader that he had trump's proxy to speak on a particular issue. that -- that provoked almost no response from the white house. i mean you are going to keep seeing these kinds of things, and if the white house does not respond, they will only increase, i suspect. and so i do not think the white house is going to dhacchange it course. again, i think so much of what you saw in response was about keeping the president from attacking the special counsel. it says we had nothing to do with this, and i think you'll see more of that if you see anything at all. >> and sony, no chance of rain. that's the forecast around mar-a-lago. >> we'll see what happens. >>> we'll talk to

the mar-a-lago kitchen cabinet. he was ensconced at mar-a-lago for 48 hours friday night until sunday night mostly watching cable television, hanging out with his friends. he was serving club members, what he might do about gun control. he was complaining about the russia coverage. he was watching tv and feeling angry and fuming and tsuistewin. he had dinner with geraldo rivera who promotes conspiracy theories. >> let's reframe the conversation the way he demonstrates the way it didn't happen. i said it may be russia or china or another country or group or 400 pound genius sitting in bed playing with his computer. the russia hoax was that the trump campaign colluded with russia, it never did let's play what the president did say over the course of the last many months. take a listen. >> i don't think anybody knows it was russia broke into the dnc. they're saying russia, russia, russia. maybe it was. could also be china, could be lots of other people. could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds. >>>

but then he spent the weekend at mar-a-lago in florida. and he watched the news coverage before unleashing his anger in response to that indictment, 14 tweets just about russia in just over 48 hours. here's some of what the president wrote in this fuselage. quote, if it was the goal of russia to create discord and cay coswithin the u.s. then with all the committee hearings and investigations and all the party hatred they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. they are laughing their asses off in moskow. get smart america. this is not acceptable. they are spending too much time trying to prove russian collusion with the trump campaign. there is no collusion. get back to the basics and make us all proud. then there was this. "obama was president up to and until the 2016 election, so why didn't he do something about russian meddling?" >> the president even criticized h.r. mcmaster for russian election interference calling it quote, incontrovertible. as bloomberg's shannon pettypiece noted trump criticized everyone but russia for election

the president was at mar-a-lago last night dining with his sons according to sources. and his sons were egging him on to take a stronger stand against the fbi in light of the news that the fbi mishandled the tip about the shooter at margery stone ham senior high school. then the president stopped at a gala for a while and went to bed at 10:00 p.m. he's been indoors all weekend. the white house deciding it would be a bad idea to go golfing as he typically does on long weekends here at mar-a-lago, partly because they wanted to pay their respects to those students and teachers that were killed in the shooting. but the president has essentially been sitting inside watching cable news. and his frustrations boiled over and that's where we got those tweets. no word yet from the white house as to whether or not the president saw or was made aware of what the students were saying. >> meantime, the president's planning to hold a listening session with students and teachers on wednesday. that is actualexactly one week the shooting and this tragedy. >> reporter: here's the thing,

the president is at his mar-a-lago resort and he has been briefed on the situation. west palm beach covering the president mary lago at the latest. >> hi, eric. sunny and very windy day two for president trump been spent at the winner right house down the street where the president is right now. he's been there for the past four hours. while there, the president did send out this tweet about the deadly amtrak train crash on the train headed from new york to florida. my thoughts and prayers are with all the victims involved in this morning's train collision in south carolina. thank you to our incredible first responders for the incredible work they've done. the president who did this yesterday about the republican house intelligence committee member released on friday in consuming all of the beltway ever since. the memo totally vindicates trump probe of the russian went on -- witchhunt going on and on. no collusion and obstruction, the word not used because after one year of looking endlessly and finding nothing, collusion is dead. this an american disgrace. "fox news

that not far from mar-a-lago

president trump holed up and fired up during a weekend in mar-a-lago after special counsel robert mueller charged 13 russians with a plot to interfere in the u.s. election. and students beg lawmakers to act after that deadly school massacre in florida. the other white house says the president supports approving federal background checks. >>> plus, heartbroken and blindsided, the family who opened their home and hearts to the shooter before the rampage speaks out. >> everybody seems to know we didn't know. we had rules and he followed every rule to a t. >> and before he moved into your home, how well did you know him? >> i had met him a couple times before. he had spent a night at the house, and he was very polite. he seemed normal. >> cnn has learned that the parkland, florida school shooter had obtained at least 10 firearms, all of them rifles, according to law enforcement officials in the year prior to the shooting. meanwhile, president trump may have found an opening to take action after last week's massacre. today the white house is signalling a willingness to talk, saying in a statem

the weapon was discovered during a security screening outside of the mar-a-lago resort. the services the man lawfully possessed a gun that was prohibited in its jurisdiction. the man says he meant to leave the handgun in his car before joining the motorcade but forgot to do that. the president is on his way back to washington after spending the holiday weekend at his florida resort about an hour from the parkland shooting scene. he's been busy on twitter, posting about many topics from oprah winfrey to the russian indictments. the kremlin is weighing in now on the charges as well, dismissing them as proving nothing about russian government involvement. correspondent kevin corke is outside the president's florida compound. good evening, kevin. >> good evening, my friend. what a difference a day makes. one tweet about russia today from the president, one of two tweets all told and that's a dramatic departure from what we saw the weekend when he was virtually tweeting nonstop about the russian investigation. it was a digital day lose, president trump's tweet storm ran the g

at the same time, the president this morning, from his mar-a-lago resort, has been tweeting all about his poll numbers. saying that they are closer to 49% now. his poll numbers have gone up, but they're not quite that high according to the polls we go by here at cnn. the president seems to want far more credit for the improvement in his public standing that he's been receiving from the news media, fred. >> all right, abby phillip, thanks so much. >>> all right, so because of this memo, morale at the top law enforcement agencies just might be suffering. the document is very critical of the leadership of the fbi and the justice department. the fbi director was adamantly against releasing the memo and now christopher wray, fbi director, is telling his staff to stay focused, not be swayed by the political fallout. cnn justice correspondent jessica schneider is following this for us now. so jessica, what did the director say and how did he convey the message? >> fredricka, the fbi director, he put out a video message to the 35,000 members of the fbi. this was just after that memo was relea

instead spent saturday and sunday at mar-a-lago out of respect for the victims of the parkland high school shooting and their families. so he stayed away from his golf club. instead he watched cable tv in a you see and responded in realtime on his twitter account in the process of, elevating talking points where he suggested the fbi's failure to stop the gunman at the florida high school just 40 minutes from here was somehow linked to the fact agents were too much involved in the russia investigation. look, he said nothing to the point about vladimir putin or about how he would thwart continued russian attempts to interfere in the 2018 midterm election and beyond. >> quick side note, he said he didn't golf this weekend. where is he now? >> he just returned from trump international golf club. we don't know that he golfed today, but he was certainly there today. >> jeff, what is the strategy behind these tweets? ? a strategy or is this just donald trump's stream of consciousness? >> it's too hard to tell if it's a full strategy. it's certainly a concerted effort based on the public interview

polling mar-a-lago members who pay initiation fees about their thoughts.is golf club today as some of the victims were laid to rest this morning around 40 miles away. one white house official described news of the mass slaughter in a high school as a, quote, reprieve from other administration scandals like, for instance, how an apparent serial domestic abuser who couldn't get permanent security clearance became one of the most senior aides in the white house. that official told "the washington post," for everyone it was a distraction or reprieve. a lot of people here felt like it was reprieve from seven or eight days of just getting pummelled. you can imagine how that feels, to get pummelled. meanwhile, the most powerful voices to emerge in the wake of this tragedy have been those of the survivors themselves. students organizing protests, a march on washington, school walkouts, and speaking out to save lives. >> we are going to be the kids that you read about in textbooks, not because we're going to be another statistic about mass shootings in america, but

the president got worked up over the weekend at his resort in mar-a-lago, after talking to his sons andatching coverage of the russian indictment spurring on his twitter tirade. after a round of golf today, the president went back to twitter, this time taking aim at his predecessor, but notably, not russia. president trump began his press president's day at his florida golf course, after deciding to avoid it in the aftermath of the shooting. he took to twitter, blaming his predecessor, tweeting obama was president up to and beyond the 2016 election. why didn't he do something about russian meddling? the president spent much of the weekend raging on twitter at his mar-a-lago resort, watching cable news, getting riled up by his sons don junior and eric who urge him to take a tougher stance with the fbi, after revealed that the agency failed to follow-up on a tip about the florida shooter. very sad that the fbi missed all of the many signals sent out by the florida school shooter. this is not acceptable. the president tweeted they're spending too much time trying to prove russian collusion

here are the top stories we're watching now -- security scare near president trump's mar-a-lago resorts morning. the drive e of a white house press pool van detained after secret service agents found a gun in his bag. it is his personal firearm and he forgot to leave it in his car. >>> axios reporting without chief of staff had an altercation with chinese authorities during a trip to china. the incident reportedly happened last november when a chinese security officer tried to stop an american military aide following him into the great hall in beijing. >>> say you go to vote ot your polling place determined by your district, despite what you may think, they aren't always chosen based simply on your location. often designed to specifically benefit the political party that has drawn the district. that is called partisan gerrymandering. we've gone through the meaning of gerrymandering before. actually named after a guy whose name was pro founded gerry. the swing state of pennsylvania is widely considered one of the nation's most gerrymandered. today the supreme court is expected to releas

rather than getting up, the president decided to review the matter at the dinner table at mar-a-lago. see, there was mood lighting, at the time a little dark so people gathered around with cell phones and they did the president a favor and lit up all the material he was reviewing about the north korean missile launch that night using the flashlights from their cell phones so they are signing lights onto the cell phones about the security crisis while president trump and his staffers talked about it and figured out what to do about it and it all unfolded at the head table in front of all the other delighted guests present who were all mar-a-lago club members and some posted how neat it was to be in a situation style security crisis while enjoying their dinner. people who posted about this and took these photos and posted on facebook are not people with security clearances. the random people using their phones to illuminate the documents he was reviewing about the north korean missile launch were all those phones definitely secured devices? using the light of the phone, make sure you ge

with me is nbc news white house correspondent jeff bennett, who joins us from near mar-a-lago in west palm beach. what's up? why is the president tweeting so much? >> reporter: look, it reflects the fact he spends all of saturday and sunday holed up at his private mar-a-lago retreat. a white house official says he opted against his usual golf routine out of respect for the parkland high school shooting victims and their families so you mentioned the fact he congratulated or thanked ken starr for an interview he gave to fox news. it was apparent the president spent much of that time at mar-a-lago watching cable tv news and responding to it. you just ticked through the peek we got into the president's mind, what he's thinking about the mueller indictments. he and some of his aides, white house spokespeople, are trying to wave the flag of vindication perhaps prematurely because as we know, the special counsel investigation carries on. >> all right. he did, i want to remind everybody after that litany i just read, he attacked the fbi, h.r. mcmaster, president obama, hillary clinton, the d

today proves to be a busy one at the white house before the president flies to mar-a-lago tonight. rene and ryan. >> jeff, thank you. last minute changes to the republican memo are not easing worries at the fbi. there are still grave concerns at the bureau. cnn learned top white house aides are worried that director chris wray will resign if the memo is released. wray is not directly threatening to step down. >> his predecessor james comey offering support. tweeting all should appreciate the fbi speaking up. i wish more of our leaders would. take heart. american history in the long run, weasels and liars never hold up. >> the fbi agent association publicly thanking director wray expressing appreciation for his willingness to stand with them as they work to protect the country from security threats. house suprepeaker paul ryan. >> this memo is not indictment of the fbi, of the department of justice. it does not impugn the mueller investigation or the deputy attorney general. what it is is the congress' legitimate function of oversight to make sure the fisa process is used correctly.

. >> the president avoided the golf course this weekend at mar-a-lago as a sign of respect after the florida school shooting. he watched tv and got riled up by eric and donald junior who urged him to take a harder line on the fbi. he did. as you can see, the president quoted the deputy attorney general culla general and all in an effort to downplay collusion. and tried to talk about the russia investigation as a hoax. >> the president finished up with this, quote, if it was the goal of russia to create chaos within the u.s., then with the committee hearings and party hatred, they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. they are laughing their asses off. >> as you can see with the fbi indictment, the evidence is now really inn con tro vertable and available in the public domain. >> the president tweeted general mcmaster forgot to say the results of the 2016 election were not impacted or changed by the russians. he then slammed hillary clinton and other democrats. somehow are the new indictments and developments in the special counsel investigation going in russia? we have cnn's ma

that not far from mar-a-lago today, were funerals. two classmates will be laid to rest tomorrow and funerals con the throughout the week. the president tweeted and played golf today. he did not mention them in his tweets. he tweeted yesterday. the president did not mention him seethe. nor did he mention the funeral for alissa alhadeff. if you listen to his words in the immediate wake of the shootings, he made the promise. >> to every parent, teacher and child, who is hurting so badly, we are here for you. whatever you need, whatever we can do to ease your pain. >> we are here for you he said, whatever we can do to ease your pain. teleprompter trump sounds like someone who is a consoler in chief. this is not acceptable, they are spending too much time trying to prove russian collusion with the trump cap pain, there is no collusion. get back to the basics and make us proud. that is a pivot away from the murder of 17 people to himself. we talked on friday how the president's response had nothing to do with defending the country from a ho

we are told that the president he spent part of weekend at mar-a-lago. it is unclear what will happen next in terms of concrete steps to address the issue. joining us now, congressman, thanks for joining us. >> thank you. >> let's begin with the breaking news. i hear that robert mueller is looking at jared kushner's contacts in qatar and china. is that a subject of interest for the house intelligence committee as well? >> well, we've not gotten to that point. i will say that mr. kushner is a businessman, obviously. i think it is curious for mr. kushner to meet with this person a week after, with the trump campaign effort to solidify a deal. >> raised concerns. that it could pose a conflict of interest. is there anything in particular that worries you? >> well, i'm always concerned when you have folks who are in federal positions, misusing their authority. i think it is a concern for all of us. sometimes it happens unknowingly. in this case, it can be deliberate but we have yet to see. we'll wait for director mueller's investigation and see where the hous

today is a busy one here at the white house before the president flies to mar-a-lago tonight. rene and ryan. >> busy day indeed. cnn has learned top white house aides are worried that director chris wray will resign if the memo is released. wray has not directly threatened to step down. >>> his predecessor james comey offering support. all should appreciate the fbi speaking up. i wish more of our leaders would. take heart, american history shows that in the long run weasels and liars never hold the field. so long as good people stand up, not a lot of schools or streets are named for joe mccarthy. >>> the fbi agents association also publicly thanking director wray expressing appreciation for his willingness to stand shoulder to shoulder with them as they work to protect the country from security threats. house speaker paul ryan says the memo does not target law enforcement. listen to his argument. >> the memo is not indictment of the fbi, of the department of justice. it does not impugn the mulvanel investigation or the deputy attorney general. what it is is the congress' legit

the president is now in mar-a-lago, but he's tweeting and saying the republican memo released yesterdayroves he's right about the russia investigation. that memo that we talked about so much yesterday alleges an abuse of surveillance by the fbi and the department of justice. molly heninberg following the very latest here in washington as the fallout continues this weekend. hi, molly. >> hi, leland. president trump long maintained that his campaign did not collude with the russians, and he says that memo backs that up. >> the president says, this totally vindicates trump in probe, but the russia witch hunt goes on and on. there was no collusion and no obstruction, the word now used because after one year looking endlessly and finding nothing, collusion is dead. this is an american disgrace. the memo details why the secret fisa court gave the okay to carter page, placed in large part on material collected by former british spy christopher steele, who was paid, the memo says, $160,000 by the democratic national committee and the hillary clinton campaign via a law firm and a research firm t

typically when the first lady heads to mar-a-lago, it is private time.she is gearing up for a busy march and april at the white house. first official hosting of the white house state dinner. for now, nothing on the schedule for the president and the first lady officially. >> this alleged nine-month affair. payoffs and legal agreements to cope this and multiple affairs out of the news. in mcdougal's case, four days before the presidential election. paid $150 for the rights of the story and then buried it. just more fake news and said quote the president said he never had a relationship with mcdougal. and ronan farrow joining me now. you received notes that were handwritten by mcdougal about her alleged affairs. can you tell me about when they were written and why. >> they were written in the course of the selling of the story. and mcdougal says she was reluctantly interested in selling it. and she readily admits that she voluntarily signed these contracts giving up her life right then story. we have documents suggesting it was clearly donald trump. and sh

on sunday, speaker ryan met with president trump at mar-a-lago to discuss the republican agenda.n ted deutsch tweeted to speaker ryan, quote, as you go from your fund-raiser to the approximated president's resort, consider a stop at stoneman douglas high school where 17 people were slaughtered in a mass shooting last wednesday. i'll meet you there. congressman do you have included this map showing that the house speaker would pass the high school on the way to mar-a-lago. ryan did not make a stop at stoneman douglas high school. but his office tells nbc news, he did travel to broward county to meet with first responders, hospital staff and emts. we are told he, quote, listened to their stories and thanked them for their horrific efforts. when asked about gun law necessary a radio interview, ryan said, quote, we don't just knee jerk before we have all the facts and the data. >> join withing us now, maya. talk to us about about any updates we have to this investigation and also about what the families and the students are doing in response to the shooting. >> yeah, well, yasmin, th

not far from mar-a-lago today, there were funerals. two classmates will be laid to rest tomorrow and funeral will continue throughout the week. the president tweeted and played golf today. he did not mention them in his tweets. he tweeted yesterday. teacher scott beigel's funeral was yesterday. he did not mention them either. nor did he mention the funeral for alissa alhadeff. he did mention the shooting but not in the way that might be even remotely comforting for anyone, which is odd because if you listen to his words after the shooting, he made the following promise. >> to every parent, teacher and child who is hurting so badly, we are here for you. whatever you need, whatever we can do to ease your pain. >> we are here for you he said, whatever we can do to ease your pain. teleprompter trump sounds like someone attempting to be what all presidents are ultimately in difficult times, a consoler in chief. contrast that with twitter on saturday night. "very sad that the fbi missed all of the many signals sent out by the florida school

. >>> the president spent the weekend at mar-a-lago 40 miles away from parkland, florida, where the massacreoneman douglas high school claimed 17 innocent lives. sources say the president quizzed his friends at the resort on what he should did do about the epidemic of gun violence. so let's discuss. angela rye, mike shields, rick wilson, good to have you on, thank you so much. rick, the weekend after 17 innocent people were murdered in parkland, florida, the president spent his time at mar-a-lago asking guests about gun control. and i think you called it the world's most expensive and least representative focus group? >> pretty much. and look, a serious conversation about gun violence and about how we balance constitutional rights and public safety is really in order. but i don't think that the folks that are paying $200,000 a pop to be members of donald trump's palm beach golf and country club are really the folks you want to be asking specific questions about how we deploy a sort of policy direction in this country to handle this situation, handle this problem. it just seems a little bit -

this is result of a conversation with his sons and geraldo rivera over the weekend at mar-a-lago.ragedy we saw in parkland to break with his party? >> again, donald trump is more upset about the mueller investigation than the young people who lost their lives last week. i think the president can help be behind something that results in gun control and actual codified legislation, i'm all here for it. we need to know what he is all here for. his track record is he is all over the place. when we were talking about the tax bill, donald trump needs to be very specific and his administration needs to be very specific with what they will back. i think it is the young people who are pushing to make the changes. the roet response no single gun law can stop it. do you see an openness? not only from the president but other republicans? >> absolutely. no single gun law will deter temperature. you can have all the gun control legislation. if you have a desire to really carry out stuff, that you're going to do it. i think i like how he's approaching it. the fact that the president and the admi

president trump is going to be meeting with house speaker paul ryan today at mar-a-lago.e are expecting something to come out of a tweet or something but unclear if we will see part of that meeting but certainly be watching does paul ryan bring up the indictment and does something come out of that in regards what the trump administration is going to do to respond to what russia did during the 2016 election. >> dan, thank you. >>> joining us is tom fuentes and cnn political analyst julian zeleny. good morning to both of you, gentlemen. and former assistant director of the fbi. legality me start with you, tom. what do you make of the president connecting what happened in florida and what everybody says is a terrible mistake by the fbi and the russia investigation? >> with all due respect to the president, it is one of the dumbest things anybody has said in relation to this horrible tr tragedy. to say one or a few employees in the call center in west virginia made a tragic catastrophic mistake, which is admittedly what happened, to say that was because they were distracted o

. >> reporter: president trump celebrating the super bowl today at his mar-a-lago retreat and also celebrating the declassified memo, saying it vindicates hi vindicates him in the russia probe. it proves the special counsel investigation led by robert mueller is nothing more than partisan politics, democrats vehemently disagree saying the document heralded by devin nunez. >> it looks so much like this earlier effort which we know was coordinated by the white house, so by the same chairman that said he would recuse himself but of course hasn't. >> reporter: the house committee has a rebuttal memo that the house has refused to release. chuck schumer sent a letter to the president urging him to release the democrat's memo. republican congressman trey gowdy says not so fast. >> i have a lot of respect for rod rosenstein and i still think he's fully capable of running a justice department that we can all have confidence in. >> reporter: leaders of his own party have been unwilling to. >>> one couple has a rare opportunity to return home again thanks to a creative tribute. >>> and it's looking like

listen, jeff, you're in mar-a-lago. the president is down there for a golf weekend. he met with victims of a florida school shooting earlier. what do you know about his visit? >> yes, he did. the president and the first lady went immediately to broward county to the area around parkland, florida. they wept to a hospital to visit a couple of victims of that shooting that are still there, and then they went to visit law enforcement officials as well. this is what a president does. sadly, he's falling into the line of american presidents who must, you know, stand up as a consoler in chief, if you will. don, i can tell you on the ground here we have seen in interviews throughout the day, throughout the last couple of days here on cnn and elsewhere students in particular and parents as well are urging, calling for action from their president, from their politicians. president trump when he came here tonight did not meet face-to-face with any of those. it was a fairly quick visit, pretty sanitized visit in terms of not holding a town meeting of any kind, just meeting with

president trump will meet with -- with house speaker paul -- paul ryan this afternoon at mar-a-lago.will see what comes out of that meeting. >> dan, thanks. >>> joining us is tom fuentes and kelly jane torrance. tom, welcome back. kelly, good morning to you. before we get to the president's tweets overnight and on saturday afternoon and evening, a new tweet came within the last four minutes here and this is what the president tweets. now, i don't know fountain president knows this, but we just started the show with the breaking news out of iran that 66 people are prep assumed dead from a plane crash and the president's timing now to bring up a cache going back to iran and this criticism of the decision is part of the iran nuclear deal, the timing seems concerning at least? how do we put this the president tweeting this? >> victor, i could see if it he was going to relate that issue to what happened is a horrible tragedy and 66 people dead. if he pointed out the iran regime got that money and used to it help the people or refreshing some of its airplanes. this plane was 20 years old.

the development, here is jeff zel y zeleny. >> reporter: president trump spending the weekend at mar-a-lago. now of course in the wake of the indictments back in washington, certainly hanging over the trump administration once again. for more than a year, the president has been saying the russian meddling investigation is a hoax, a witch hunt. that was proven to be not true, at least in the view of the department of justice. handing down 13 indictments in a most sweeping case yet of russian meddling in the 2016 election. now of course the president has said simply nothing happened. he has recounted the fact when he talked to vladimir putin last november that he believed vladimir putin's denials of any russian meddling. but the department of justice today said that was simply not the case. they went song and verse in a 37 page sweeping indictment about how the saints pest. petersburg factory meddled. the president said russia started their anti-u.s. campaign in 2014, long before i announced that i would run for president. the results of the election were not impacted. the trump campaign did

the president of the united states now in his mar-a-lago, florida, home, claiming today the memo proves his innocent, tweeting this. this memo totally vindicates trump in probe but the russian witch-hunt goes on and on. there was no collusion and there was no obstruction. the word now used because after one year of looking endlessly and finding nothing, collusion is dead. this, as an american disgraced. that from the president. the white house declassified the controversy 3 1/2-page document. allowing the memo to go public, despite strong objections from the fbi and justice department calling the memo misleading. alleges leaders abused surveillance laws. democrats claim the memo is incomplete and partisan. critics of the memo worry the white house will use it to discredit the russia investigation. and use it as an excuse to fine deputy attorney general rosenstein. the democrats are warning the president may face a constitutional crisis if he were to use this memo as a reason to fire the deputy attorney rosenstein, so what is the white house saying about all this? >> the president actua

as trump melted down at mar-a-lago and the administration reeled from one of the most dismal weeks in 13 months, kushner and ivanka weren't in the country, according to two people familiar with their travel plans. the senior aides took a holiday in the sun, enjoying the long weekend in the caribbean. phil, prompting a friend of mine in this line of work to say, why is it when something bad happens those two are so often out of town and not in the loop? >> you're exactly right. i remember back last spring when the health care vote was coming into the house and there was a huge debacle there where the vote failed in the house the first time and jared and ivanka were skiing out in colorado or someplace like that, so they were not around for that either. look, the reality is that they're not traditional staffers in the sense of being on call and responsible for working 24/7 at the white house. yes, they're on the staff. yes, they have offices in the west wing. yes, they have titles and jared obviously now has access to the intelligence briefings, but they're also family members and they'r

one last note, we should tell you, the president is here in mar-a-lago for the long weekend and he'sot golfing today, something he typically does when he is here in palm beach. in part, out of respect for the victims and families of those affected by the shooting wednesday at marjorie douglas stoneman high school. the president skipping the golf course today. we'll see if we hear from him perhaps later tonight or, as he often does, tweeting early sunday morn during the political talk shows, fred. >> boris sanchez, thank you so much. >>> all right, let's delve a little deeper into these russian indictments. joining me to help explain what it's all about, cnn crime and justice reporter shimon prokupecz. how significant is this indictment? how much of a prelude is it to what potentially could be to come? >> te it certainly give us our first window into the intelligence, into the information that the fbi and our intelligence community, intelligence community had really gathered. you know, for the investigators in this case, it's also the first time that they get to display exactly what t

which happened 40 miles from mar-a-lago.the president's reaction after meeting with the medical staff and victims of the shooting who are still being treated. >> do the gun laws need to be changed, mr. president? well our coverage of the two big stories, nbc's white house correspondent kelly o'donnell, maya rodriguez and legal analyst danny savalos and white house correspondent aiesha rascoe. kelly o'donnell in west palm beach, florida. kely, the president has long referred to the russia probe as a hoax. what you what about now that there are criminal charges involved? >> well he's not repeating that language. and it is very notable that the president who has not spoken in person about this yet because he was at the florida hospital last night and he avoided any questions on this issue, when reporters tried to address it. we haven't heard him speak about it directly. he has through tweets and through a statement from the white house. no longer calling it at least in this iteration a hoax or a witch hunt. instead referring to

he launched a tweet storm while hunkered down at his mar-a-lago in florida. more than a dozen tweets since friday when robert mueller indicted 13 russian nationals and three russian groups for meddling in the u.s. election. >> mr. trump seems to be focusing his irritation on the russia investigation itself instead of what the indictments reveechlt he tweeted sunday that they are laughing their asses off in moscow. so let's talk more about this with leslie vinjamuri. she joins us from london. an associate professor at aoas university of london. good to have you with us. let's start with rick gates agreeing to plead guilty to fraud and cooperating with the mueller russia probe. what could this mean for paul manafort? but ultimately, what could it mean for president trump? >> well, thing is what we're all watching. mueller is a very savvy and highly experienced person when it comes to this kind of thing. and he is clearly pursuing a strategy of getting vuds indiv cooperate with him. now at the moment it seems like this primarily focused on manafort, on what gate