i want to bring in michelle kosinski, michelle, i think the speech by the president at west point does give a continuum of here's this visit and to west point, can outline his foreign policy. tell us what you know about this speech. >> this is one of those instances where he can talk about what has been accomplished. i think that this administration goes back to afghanistan and what has occurred there, that these wars were going before obama took office, that he was able to end them and bring folks home. so, as other controversies swirl around here at home, this is one place president obama can thank troops as this trip has been posed as the goal, but also, ben rhodes with the national security council said that we are going to be hearing more from president obama in coming days about the u.s.' position in afghanistan and also foreign policy in general. so really feels like this is a time for him to go there and, you know exon the occasion of memorial day, support the troops, show that he is there in person with their concerns in mind. and it's been interesting. i was at bagram about a

let's go to our white house correspondent michelle kosinski. she's got the very latest. michelle?. the white house put out a statement saying the president supports this resignation although nobody's really come out and spelled out why exactly this va undersecretary dr. robert petzel is stepping down. it is the first resignation we've seen after the scandal really broke on cnn. it comes one day after he testified before the senate veterans affairs committee, but he was about to retire anyway this year. that's why some are already calling foul on this move. >> to you solemnly swear -- >> reporter: va undersecretary for health robert petzel is now stepping down one day after he told a senate committee hearing on the deaths and delays at va hospitals this. >> we have worked very hard, senator isaacson, to root out these inappropriate uses of the scheduling system and these abuses. it's absolutely inexcusable. >> reporter: but petzel was already set to retire and faced tough questions even a year ago over backlogs, delays, and deaths at va hospitals in georgia and pittsburgh. that is

michelle kosinski reporting live from the white house.nk you. >>> we have two big business stories. general motors is adding another 218,000 cars to its recall. this time the chevy aveos. the daytime headlights can overheat and catch fire. so far this year gm recalled more than 15 million cars around the world. more than they sold last year. also just in this hour, another sign target has been hit hard by that holiday credit card hack attack. new numbers show profits took a dive last quarter. executives still don't know how much the cyber attack will cost them. alison kosik is live at the new york stock exchange to tell us more about target's woes. >> reporter: a really tough time for target to say the least. it doesn't look like it will end any time soon. this morning we earned what the first quarter earnings were. they fell. also target cut its profit outlook for the year. in business-speak, that means target is not confident about the future. here is another problem, and this is a biggie. sales at target are down. you know shoppers jus

white house correspondent michelle kosinski has more for us. >> reporter: well, the president didn't mention the va hospital scandal by name, but he did seem to touch on it when he emphasized to troops americans' sacred obligation, as he put it, to take care of wounded warriors. also, the president mentioned that this is really a pivotal time for u.s. involvement in afghanistan as well as foreign policy. he did mention that he hopes for a bilateral security agreement, and both of the presidential candidates in afghanistan who were involved in a runoff election right now have mentioned that they are amenable to it, something that would keep a limited u.s. presence in afghanistan. and as the president put it, would preserve the gains made there by u.s. troops. >> everybody knows afghanistan's still a very dangerous place. insurgents still launch cowardly attacks against innocent civilians. but just look at the progress that you've made possible. afghans reclaiming their communities and more girls returning to school, dramatic improvements in public health and life expectancy and litera

joining me now is michelle kosinski. you were at the white house and were locked down along with everybody else. what happened? >> reporter: this is a weird situation. the whole complex was locked down for about an hour with almost no information coming out. and people couldn't leave, so you had people kind of stuck inside in this big group. and, you know, every now and then you do get somebody trying to jump over a gate, trying to climb the white house fence and they're arrested. there's kind of a smaller situation like this. but even some of the people who have worked here nearly 30 years say they have never seen anything quite like this. in the middle of the afternoon while the obama daughters, sasha and malia, were being driven back to the white house in their motorcade, a car, a guy driving a honda was able to follow that motorcade in and made it past the security barrier. i don't know if you know for those of you watching outside of the white house on pennsylvania avenue, that's closed off to traffic. foot traffic,

i want to bring in michelle k kosinski on that angle of the story. clearly, this has become very ugly. we're already looking at a tweet that's come out from john mccain. he tweeted out, quote, glad he finally spoke, but remarks totally insufficient. michelle kosinskkosinski, can y into the fact the president came out by himself, not with the person who's going to run this show and run these investigations, and not with the person who's at the center of the hot seat, eric shinseki himself? >> i think he didn't want eric shinseki to be this lightning rod. it would be one thing if this were some widespread cover-up at some middle level of the wide bureaucracy that is the v.a. and really no one knew about them. but this becomes difficult to explain when over the course of many years these kinds of very specific problems were spilled out by the v.a. itself. i mean, you could explain, and the white house has tried to explain, by saying, look, we have tried to reduce wait times. there's been some discrepancy between which wait times were reduced. and the wh

michelle kosinski is at the white house. and in london, correspondent jim sciutto is standing by. i'll start with you, michelle. >> reporter: we will hear some announcement on syria. we know it's going to include some increase in assistance to the moderate syrian opposition. jay carney, the white house spokesman left a sort of cliff-hanger for us. he gave a briefing as the president is on the weight of this speech. he's asked is this going to mean military training for those opposition fighters as has been talked about these last two days. he said i'm going to leave it to the president on that. we're just going to have to wait and see what president obama has to say. what this means is military training. however, i will say that secretary of state kerry, in doing these interviews today with broadcast networks did say in no uncertain terms that this would be no american boots on the ground. so we know it's going to be some additional assistance. also, the president is going to announce what he would like to see happen to be approved by congress, this anti-terrorism fund, a partnersh

let's bring in michelle kosinski. the president just returned from an unannounced trip to afghanistan to meet with the troops serving there. what was his message when he was on the ground during this visit? >> i think it's a nice contrast to see this very solemn ceremony about to get under way today and he's just getting off a flight, a 14-hour flight from afghanistan from that surprise trip. he spent about four hours on the ground there. he didn't land back in washington until 7:00 this morning. and while he was there, although the time was brief as could be expected for a situation like that, for security and other reasons, he was able to be briefed about operations on the ground and then he was able to give this address to soldiers and he was joking around a couple times saying he just happened to be in the neighborhood. he also said off camera aside from his speech that he was there to bring brad paisley, the country singer over, to have a concert. his mood was relaxed but it was also energetic at times. obviously

correspondent along with gloria borger at the rose garden awaiting the start of this news conference, michelle kosinskianding by in new york. christine romans and in moscow, matthew chance. michelle, to you first. set the scene for us. these are very important talks underway right now. >> from the beginning, we've seep such alignment between president obama and german chancellor merkel. she has been talking to vladimir putin consistently as well. just within the last few days, another conversation between them. so, we're waiting to hear more about really at this point, the lack of progress that has been made in those diplomatic atte t attemp attempts. early on in the start of this crisis, merkel would speak to putin and say, it seems like hoos agreeing to some of this. there might be a movement of tro troops back from the border. that he's agleed to meet with a contact group. there really seemed to be an openness there and we've seen that erode over the course of weeks and weeks to the point that when you would get the read out from some of her conversations with putin, it would say yes, similar to wha

. >> that's our michelle kosinski, also jim shoot toe, barbara starr, a variety of reporters who aree are awaiting the president's remarks. he is at bagram air base, taking a little memorial day trip there and bringing along with him a country western star of some fame, i will say something, obvious obviously, that the troops are going to enjoy. >>> i'm candy crowley in washington, our breaking news this afternoon, a surprise trip by the president to afghanistan to visit troops this memorial day weekend. we are standing by for him to speak at any moment. with me now, cnn's barbara starr at the pentagon, michelle kosinski at the white house, jim shoot stow in the ukrainian capital of kiev. barbara, first to you. it is impossible to tell people what this kind of trip can actually mean to folks that have been out there, some on very long tours, it's kind of a, hey, you're important, wew

michelle kosinski is at the white house tonight. there is going to be sanctions if russia invades.ctions if they interfere with the elections. how significant is that rhetorical change? >> we were really surprised by that, because we had been hearing the same thing for weeks and weekses. and there has been pressure from members of congress. there has been pressure from the press as well asking, well, this is only going to happen if russia full-on invades ukraine. haven't they essentially invaded part of ukraine? questions like that. and then today the administration said. this it was like oh, wow, did i hear that correctly? that there is going to be a lesser benchmark, if you will, for imposing those more sweeping sanctions. and the question wasn't really asked today, and the president didn't really explain why that timing had changed for these sanctions. but obviously, events have necessitated that they change the plan. and we could now see this coming much sooner. today it was sort of explained that when the ssectoral sanctio would happen is if russia is seen to interfering with

michelle kosinski live at the white house to tell us more.>> reporter: could it be the first lady versus congress? taking a stand to keep high standards in school lunches. we'll have the story coming up. [ laughter ] smoke? nah, i'm good. [ male announcer ] celebrate every win with nicoderm cq, the unique patch with time release smartcontrol technology that helps prevent the urge to smoke all day long. help prevent your cravings with nicoderm cq. >>> the first lady michele bachmann ready -- michelle obam to take on congress. some schools will opt out of federal rules established in 2010. opponents argue the program is too expensive and some schools are having trouble meeting the program standards. the first lady accompanied by nutritionists who support the program will make a statement at 2:00 p.m. eastern time. very unusual for the first lady to take a stand like this publicly. michelle kosinski live at the white house to tell us more. good morning. >> reporter: who knew that school lunches could be such a murky topic so political and also p

let's bring in white house correspondent michelle kosinski as well as senior investigative reporter drew take on what we just heard? >> reporter: i think that's the first time we heard that put so bluntly. although there has been plenty of criticism, not only on secretary shinseki, but on the administration. and they've defended themselves these past few weeks, saying that they are taking action. they've launched this report, expressing confidence in shinseki. but meantime, the calls are growing from both sides. democrats and republicans just yesterday on cnn, senator john mccain said that he previously was waiting and seeing, you know, critical of the situation but not necessarily calling for shinseki to resign. well, he said, as of now, i am calling for him to step down. it seems like this report, it was a preliminary inspector general report that came out yesterday, really looking closely at the phoenix v.a., which is where the scandal broke, and some of the details in there turned heads, sparked a lot of anger among congressmen. so we saw, as of yesterday, many, many more calls for h

>> michelle kosinski reporting live from the white house this morning.to talk more about this with ken fisher, the chair marn and ceo of the fisher house foundation, fisher house builds homes for families of military veterans. thanks for being with us this morning. >> thank you for having me. >> you're on the front line of veterans care. should heads roll now? i'm wondering if you think somebody should be fired right now. >> you know, there have been actions that have been taken. there are reports that we're waiting to get a sense of what's in them. the ig report and of course the nabors report. i don't know yet -- i think secretary shinseki given his service to this nation deserves the benefit of the doubt, at least as it relates to these reports. so i'll reserve judgment pending the reports being made public. >> do you work directly with secretary shinseki? >> we have a public-private partnership with the va that actually works very well. fisher house building these homes away from homes and we gift them to the va. the va then agrees to staff and maint

let's bring in our white house correspondent michelle kosinski, she's joining us. aying? >> reporter: hi, wolf. this was interesting. president obama started his press conference today with german chancellor angela merkel by talking about american job growth. but he also had a caveat. >> grit and determine natiatione american people are moving us forward. >> reporter: that is because even though those numbers look fantastic, i mean, 288,000 private sector jobs added just last month, that's enough to lower the unemployment rate overall to 6.3%. down about a half a percentage point. and those are big numbers. but a reason for that is because so many americans, nearly a million of them, have actually left the labor force. either leaving their jobs or giving up looking for one. so that is enough to wipe out some of the gains in the first quarter. 800,000 americans left the labor force. another reason many economists are not so thrilled is because wages have also been pretty flat. overall, though, many do see this as positive. when you look at the bigger unemployment num

. >> michelle kosinski who attended the news conference. and michelle, talk to me about the significance here of this change and a trigger. first it was invasion, now sounds like it's the president -- these sanctions go against russia. and also, can we just be specific, explain sectoral sanctions. >> we keep mentioning this. it does bear explaining. so what they've sanctioned and targeted up until now are individuals and companies, basically a ban on them traveling, doing business with the u.s. and also, of course, the eu where their sanctions have coincided with ours. so they'll take somebody and say, okay, you can't come to the u.s., nobody can do business with you. but to impose sections on a whole -- sanctions on a whole sector of the russian economy, say arms dealing, manufacturing, that would be kind of shutting it out entirely from business with a whole other chunk of the world. but today president obama did mention that it wouldn't be realistic, for example, to at this point, at least, impose those kinds of sanctions on something lik

let's begin our coverage with michelle kosinski, barbara starr, and candy crowley in washington. michelle, let me begin with you. this was a troop that had been in the works. the plans have been in the works for some time now but why this weekend? >> reporter: yeah, for about two months the national security council said that they have been looking for a window of time that would be safe, appropriat and the deputy advisers said that the president didn't want to meet with the presidential candidates or the outgoing president, even though they had spoken recently, because he didn't want to be seen as influencing that, that he didn't want to get involved in the politics of the country but wanted to thank the troops. i thought what was interesting is he got this huge cheer when he said for many of you, this will be your last tour of duty here but he got even bigger cheers when he said our combat mission will be over and we're going to be bringing it to an end. he said, let's preserve the gains that you have made. and he listed those gains. so far what we haven't heard is when a decisi

michelle kosinski, thank you for that report. >>> michelle knight in her own words. today marks the one-year anniversary since she and two other girls escaped from that cleveland house. and she's sitting down with cnn to reveal what went on inside. and what she's doing now. >>> and people in ukraine prepare to vote as the violence escalates. we'll have a live report from the region. >>> later, monica lewinsky speaking out nearly 20 years after her affair in the oval office. what did she say, and why now? lots going on in the newsroom today. stay with us. ♪ ♪ ♪ gigantic, gigantic, gigantic ♪ a big, big love ♪ gigantic, gigantic, gigantic ♪ a big, big love ♪ ♪ the numbers are impressive. over 400,000 new private sector jobs... making new york state number two in the nation in new private sector job creation... with 10 regional development strategies to fit your business needs. and now it's even better because they've introduced startup new york... with the state creating dozens of tax-free zones where businesses pay no taxes for ten years. become the next business to d

. >>> white house correspondent michelle kosinski now. w information on that driver who caused a nearly more than one hour lockdown at the white house yesterday. michelle, tell us what you're viewing. remind our viewers what happened and what's the new information. >> this was such a weird situation. people who have worked here for decades say they've never seen anything quite like it. this car in the middle of the k day was able to follow a motorcade into the white house secure area. to make matters worse and more alarming at the time, it was the obama daughters' motorcade. lock down the area for more than an hour. but it turned out to be this 55-year-old man who worked for the irs. so everybody questioned, was he trying to cut through to the treasury building which is on the other side of the white house or what was he thinking? well, now a source inside the secret service explains this. says he was at an appointment in the afternoon and he usually isn't downtown. he's try to get on a major roadway after his appointment. he's confused by

cnn white house correspondent michelle kosinski joins us live now from washington. good morning. >> reporter: just in time for memorial day, just in time for trying to fix the va hospital mess and just in time for the serious foreign policy planning discussions that are going to happen as well as big decisions about what america's continued role in afghanistan will be in two remaining missions, training afghan forces and counterterrorism, the president suddenly arrives in afghanistan before the troops. one of his advisers says he's been wanting the do this for months, to thank them in person. he did that and, of course, this was a time for him to also list the accomplishments made by troops there. first and foremost being decimating taliban leadership. in a couple sometimes during his speech, the president got some big chief cheers, first when he told soldiers this is likely your last tour of duty in afghanistan. but the biggest cheers came right here. >> by the end of this year, the transition will be complete and afghans will take full responsibility for their sec

white house correspondent michelle kosinski joins me with more on this.g. >> good morning. cnn broke this story and for six months has tried to get shinseki to do an interview and address the issue. shinseki would not sit down with cnn, would not take questions. he has now answered one reporter's question only to say that he has not offered his resignation. he has now addressed veterans across america. he did it in writing. the tough talk is coming from capitol hill. >> these are men and women who served our country, and we can't just let them down. we've let them die. this is awful stuff and somebody ought to be held accountable for it. >> reporter: house speaker john boehner in his strongest statement on this issue speaks for the veterans affected by the scandal, 23 of whom the va said died because they remained on waiting lists for medical care. >> i have not called for general shinseki to resign although i have to admit i'm getting a little closer. here is the point. this spt ability one person. this isn't about the secretary. it's about the entire sy

michelle kosinski, thank you. >>> u.s.qaeda has evolved with threats targeting the u.s. and western europe. officials telling cnn, so far there's no indication of a cell operating within the united states. they say al qaeda in yemen is a particular concern. >>> the obama administration is about to release a secret justice department memo that authorized the killing of a u.s. citizen in a 2011 drone strike. the author of the controversial document has been nominated to a federal appeals court. today the senate is expected to hold a vote on his nomination. it could take weeks to release a redacted version of that memo. >>> want to show you amazing video from british columbia. mother bear picking the cup up by his neck. it happened in one of the parks. apparently the cub got spooked by traffic. the video has exploded on youtube. there's another cub who is thinking about maybe going for a little walk and then realizes not a good idea and turns around. >> she probably could have done it a different way, but she wanted to send a

our correspondent there michelle kosinski is standing by. what else are they saying about this latest announcement from the russian president? as matthew chance says, the third time he says those troops are moving away from the border. >> in three words, not buying it. senior administration officials today saying there's no evidence russia is moving any troops away from that region. russia has said they're going to do so several times in the past. few things really come to light here from what administration officials were say. first of all, no evidence of any movement, and secondly, no evidence that russia has actually been conducting these military training exercises at the border, which is the excuse russia gave in the first place for moving those tens of thousands of troops there by estimates of the ukrainians and also western countries. the u.s. isn't the only one who think, so at this point. the nato secretary-general is also saying they see no evidence of any movement. today, the white house said that officials are watching the situat

our correspondent michelle kosinski. the president has not really commented publicly on this controversy over the past few weeks, but i'm hearing, i suppose you are as well, we should be hearing from him about this fairly soon, is that right? >> yeah, we thought maybe even today, because he was meeting with some business leaders. he did deliver some remarks. we thought maybe he would throw something in there about this scandal, growing by the day, but this just wasn't the time for it. the white house has said we should hear from president obama soon. lately, it seems he'll come into the briefing room and he'll make some remarks when there's something happy to announce or something that's positive. we saw him giving news about the affordable care act self-weeks ago. we saw him announcing sanctions on russia. it's been tough to hear from the top on this matter. cnn has been trying to get an interview with the v.a. secretary eric shinseki for months i think. and president obama, the press has been asking to hear from him. t

i want to bring michelle kosinski into this conversation, our white house correspondencor. he didn't really get into the specifics of what the u.s. would do to arm or train those moderate syrian opposition rebels, if you will. he said he would consult with congress. i sort of was expecting more but what are officials at the white house saying? >> i think we all were. that was going to be the news that came out of this. the president really covered afghanistan and what the future of u.s. involvement there would look like. he got that out of the way yesterday. syria was going to be the headline today. i think what we got was this partnership fund with other nations that needs to be approved by congress and we'll look for supporting the moderate opposition on the ground more. even if that does substantially change the situation down the road, i think the way it comes across here falls a little flat especially with some of the buildup we've seen leading into it. i think defensive is kind of the word there. i think some of what has tainted or dampened the stance that administrat

michelle kosinski and rest of the gang thank you so much. i'll cover the va scandal today "on the lead" at 4:00 a.m. eastern. "@ this hour" with john berman and michaela pereira starts after this quick break. >>> hello there. i'm john berman. >> i'm michaela pereira. thank you for joining us. >> we'll get to the big public news. the establishment strikes back. establishment republicans beating back insurgency within their own ranks. >> from georgia to oregon, tea party and anti-establishment candidates fell to moderate republicans every single time. >> in kentucky, senate minority leader mitch mcconnell survived a challenge from a businessman. >> in georgia, they pulled ahead of a crowded field of conservatives to land in a july runoff. >> and in oregon, the more moderate republican will face democratic senator in november. >> joining us now from louisville, dana bash. looks beautiful there. let's talk about this. mitch mcconnell will face a tough challenge in the fall from democratic secretary of state alison grimes and it sounds as though

there is michelle kosinski and jim acosta and nischelle turner. cher still chatting.>> reporter: we are looking at katie so if you're going to break, don, you can do that because we are looking at katie too. >> tell jim it's not the first time i've yelled at him on television and it won't be the last time. >> reporter: don lemon says not the first time he has yelled at you on tv and won't be the last. >> that's right. >> bye, guys. see you soon. we will be right back. a lot of attention.ts nee there's unlimited talk and text. we're working deals all day. you get 10 gigabytes of data to share. what about expansion potential? add a line anytime for 15 bucks a month. low dues... great terms... let's close. new at&t mobile share value plans. our best value plans ever for business. before those little pieces would get in between my dentures and my gum and it was uncomfortable. [ male announcer ] just a few dabs is clinically proven to seal out more food particles. [ corrine ] super poligrip is part of my life now. to seal out more food particles. nehey!r! [squeals] ♪ [ewh!

. >> michelle kosinski in the rose garden. they both went out of their way to try to stress they were on the same page as far as ukraine and russia's concerned. >> absolutely. that is what we expected here. even though there have been some differences in alignment on each step in the sanctions, they've always tried to emphasize that the u.s. needs to work closely in concert with europe basically for the sanctions to work. the president stressed while he was traveling in asia that if the u.s. imposes sanctions, say, on arms dealing in russia, but then issue back fills those orders because they haven't imposed the same, it's really not going to do anything. that's some of what we heard today. i thought it was remarkable now, all of a sudden, really for the first time, we're hearing about these sectorial sanctions before a full-on russian invasion. every time that question has been asked over the past many, many weeks, they've said no, what we're seeing is not an invasion, really, this is not a military ininvestigation in the tra

let's bring in white house correspondent my zell kosinski. michelle, few things as angry as a lawmaker who is not responsible. i'm sure they all had their hackles up last night. >> wow, this hearing lasted four hours. it was just anger, frustration, at times emotion, these members of congress toward representatives of the va. they were asking these great relevant questions and for some reason the va just could not answer. in part, it was concerning this new official report on the phoenix va where the scandal broke. and now reaction to it is just exploding. >> how you can stand in a mirror and look at your in the mirror and shave in the morning and not throw up. >> it's unforgivable. >> there's question about destruction of documents and you don't even know who did it or the motive. >> reporter: the anger from congress overflowed. >> this is nearly a decade of excuses. >> the house is on fire, and nobody is going to survive. >> all of you, i think, got to find somebody else to do. >> reporter: and the va bur t krats at times squirmed. >> i don't know,

cnn's michelle kosinski is live at the white house. good morning, michelle. >> reporter: cnn broke the story, trade for six months to get an interview with secretary shinseki. now he did answer one press question to say he has not offered his resignation and now has addressed veterans across mek but in writing. while the tough talk comes from capitol hill. >> men who served our country and we haven't just let them down. we've let them die. this is awful stuff and someone ought to be held accountable for it. >> reporter: house speaker john boehner in his strongest statement speaks on beof half of the veterans affected by the scandal. 23 of whom the v.a. said died because they were on waiting lists for medical care. >> i have not called for general shinseki to resign. i have to admit i'm getting a little closer. but here's the point. this isn't about one person. this isn't about the secretary. it's about the entire system underneath him. >> reporter: and while the president's deputy chief of staff arrived at the phoenix v.a. are where the

michelle kosinski at the white house.. >> breaking overnight. three people are missing and may have been swept away when an enormous mudslide hit western colorado. this mudslide, four miles long, two miles wide, 250 feet deep in many places. the area is considered so unstable it's been blocked off and people aren't being allowed in. emergency crews say they believe the whole ridge had been sliding for most of sunday following heavy rains. >>> the pope today wrapping up his three-day visit to the middle east. he met with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. the move did not sit well among palestinians. it all comes after he invited israeli and palestinian members to the vatican to pray for the longstanding conflict. both sides have agreed to meet. >>> president obama is expected to keep a memorial day tradition laying a wreath at the tomb of the unknowns at arlington national cemetery. in new york, hundreds will join active duty service members to visit the intrepid sea, air and space museum. >> i played trumpet goin

let's go to our white house correspondent michelle kosinski. you're inside the white house right now. what do we know? >> reporter: you recognize that we're in the briefing room and we haven't been able to leave for an hour now. that's how long the white house has been under a lockdown. we got some confirmed information as to what exactly happened here and it's an unusual situation. a car, just a civilian, regular person's car followed a motorcade. we're not sure who's. i don't know if you know where pennsylvania avenue is that we're looking at but it's blocked off. it's a pedestrian area right outside the white house but cars can't go in there. it's been that way since '95. the barriers came down, let in the motorcade, a car followed that motorcade in. secret service says that it was immediately stopped, though, and the driver is now in custody. now, all of these journalists here in the briefing room are somewhat trapped trying to make their deadlines. they had their big interviews with the president today and are not able to leave here. we do

michelle kosinski put it well today.t trying to balance in his speech almost seems like mission impossible. >> he's gotten criticism over the last few months. the idea that he has looked weak, lacked credibility on the world stage. >> on that point, peter, how does he push back on that on even if it is just perception, perception at some point seems to become real lity when it com to this. >> look at ukraine where a lot of criticism is focused in recent weeks. we have a legitimate election in ukraine. the russians seem to be moving troops away from the border. the let of russian invasion has receded. the russians accept this new leader. we have a better prospect than we've had in months. i think american sanctions and leadership deserve credit for that. >> two sides of the coin. republicans say that economic sanctions while they've been tough against vladimir putin has done little to stop the violence we are seeing every day still play out in ukraine. >> right. there is still violence in the east but the russians have pu

. >>> let's bring in white house correspondent michelle kosinski to discuss how this happened and let'sndent from "the daily beast" josh roggin to continue to discuss. everyone is going to be wondering the same thing and there probably isn't a good answer for it quite yet. how did this happen? >> the pool reporter for this trip asked a white house staffer for a list of the names of people who would be briefing the president there on the ground. that white house staffer asked the military, gave the list to the reporter, who then distributed it to other members of the press. realize, wait a minute, there is the name and title of the top cia officer in afghanistan. the reporter says he asked the white house staffer and the staffer said, well, it came from the military. it should be fine. realizing only later it was not fine. and this person's cover essentially was blown by his own government. kate? >> josh, how serious is this? >> well, this is catastrophic event for this man's career and potentially for his future as a covert operator both in afghanistan or anywhere else. it could have a

michelle kosinski is tracking the new developments live from the white house.sident yesterday. what are you hearing today? >> as much as this has become a sort of storm for the va, it has also brought that storm to the white house. an embarrassing failure of leadership within the va. as much as the president one month after the scandal broke in a mad voice talked about the need for accountability, he didn't really get into how the secretary of the va is being or will be held accountable, even if only for the fact that this all happened on his watch for years. >> i will not stand for it. >> reporter: it was a time for the president to show that he, too, is mad as hell about the va scandal, using an angry tone. >> it is dishonorable, it is disgraceful and i will not tolerate it, period. >> reporter: if the president won't stand for secret waiting lists, months-long delays in veterans care, this administration as well as the one before it did stand it for many years. the va itself made it clear it was an ongoing problem. what is more difficult to explain, saying t