michelle kosinski is at the white house. michelle, what are you hearing? >> reporter: -- from the kremlin, they usually have a readout of these phone calls as well as the white house. so far there's no more information from the white house, though. we thought it was interesting, though, that this phone call happened this morning. i mean, this was a call initiated by the kremlin. it was supposed to be about the sanctions that the u.s. just imposed on russia. but now there are these questions about whether this was discussed. so what the white house is saying at this point is that they're not sure of the timing exactly. the press secretary is still trying to gather the details on what exactly was talked about with vladimir putin in that phone call. you know, over the last few weeks, we haven't heard much -- i mean, there's been so much domestically that the white house has contended with that from a news perspective, we haven't been hearing much day to day on the ukraine situation from the white house. so several weeks ago, there was a background briefing on

our michelle kosinski has more from the white house. >>> good morning.resident obama will to address the issue. we've seen the white house lay out what it calls an aggressive plan for dealing with this border situation. it's a lot of money they're asking from congress. nearly $4 billion. even more than originally expected. about $2 billion of that will be to house and care for these kids awaiting this legal process of asylum that they go through. in some cases it takes years, but that process is required by law, even though in reality, most just will likely be sent home. $841.5 billion will address border security and enforcement. and the remainder will pay for the judges and lawyers for the kids to go through that process. now, the question is, the president also wanted to expand the authority that the department of homeland security has to speed up the process in general. but, will congress pass this? already we're hearing pushback from republicans saying well, it's too much money. it's just a band aid. where's the accountability. here's one. >> you do

let's turn to our white house correspondent, michelle kosinski for us today. as we are checking, the president scheduled to land there in a couple hours, michelle. do we have any indication at this moment that he will head to the border? >> reporter: no, we don't. and really seems like that's not going to happen right now on this trip. i think by now we would have heard something about that. of course, that's always subject to change. but the white house has said, again and again, every single day, well, you know, we'll let you know of any changes. but it's not on the schedule. and they don't see a need for president obama to be there. they say the administration has been all over this problem, they have been mobilizing resources. other top members of the administration have gone down there. so it's not really necessary, in their opinion. >> okay, michelle kosinski, do we have sound? >> congress just said no to fixing our broken immigration system, in a way that strengthens our borders and our businesses, despite the fact that everybody from law enforcement to

let's bring back our white house correspondent michelle kosinski. michelle, what is the very latest? because this crisis is escalating as we all know. >> both sides fired up today. the president is in texas and not at the border, but meeting with community leaders and one of his toughest critic, the texas governor. today the justice department moved more resources to the border. the much bigger question is will congress even approve that nearly $4 billion the president is asking for to deal with this long-term problem. >> reporter: today far from the border in denver, president obama did address the the immigration crisis in a slam on republicans. >> congress just said no to fixing our broken immigration system, in a way that strengthens our borders and our businesses, despite the fact that everybody from law enforcement to corporations, to evangelicals, there is a coalition around immigration reform that's unprecedented and these guys still can't get their act will together. >> reporter: the administration defends itself. >> the whole federal govern

white house correspondent michelle kosinski reports. >> the u.s. with europe ratchets up the pressure on russia. >> the united states is imposing new sanctions in key sectors of the russian economy. energy, arms and finance. we're blocking the exports of specific goods and technologies to the russian energy sector, we're expanding our sanctions to more russian banks and defense companies. and we're formally suspending credit that encourages exports to russia and financing for economic development projects in russia. >> the administration clear in its condemnation of russia's actions. >> they have displayed an appalling disregard for human decency. >> as russia continues to move heavy weaponry into the border and fire on ukraine from russia. >> short of getting physically involved in the military conflict, which the u.s. has said is absolutely not on the table. economic pressure is the west's only weapon, europe today banned all arms trading with russia, that only applies to new deals and russia and europe don't generally trade all that much in mili

. >> michelle kosinski joins us from the white house with reaction. good morning. >> right. we heard arguments on both sides for some time now. what is not really clear is when the house and senate will take up this proposal, that the president has suggested, to pay for this crisis. and what the outcome of those votes will be. some republicans have indicated that they are willing to tackle it, but they want to make their own tweaks, targeted appropriati appropriations, there is a lot of disagreement on both sides, republican and democrat, about the amount the president is asking for. some saying that it is too much. but some of the arguments you hear aren't exactly what are expected. republicans are saying they want to see more on border security. even though both sides are saying that this is a crisis, and they feel that this is of critical importance and they need to tackle it. as for the administration, they're saying, well, is this even really a border security issue? because so many of these kids who approach the border, they're looking for border agents to turn themsel

michelle kosinski has the hard numbers.tom line, is the pay at the white house fair or unfair for women? >> reporter: in a word, fair. i mean, they have sort of a pay grade for each title and male or female, everybody working in those roles within each level makes the exact same amount. where this gets a little weird and this keeps coming up is that when you take the same kind of average that the white house continually uses to push for more pay equality in america and you apply that average to white house pay, then, yes, there is also still a pay gap right here. ♪ >> reporter: it's one of president obama's top agenda items. here just yesterday. >> let's make sure women earn pay equal to their efforts. >> reporter: and back in april this -- >> the average-working woman earns 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. >> reporter: that's been one tricky statistic. that's the u.s. on average. what it doesn't explain is the fact that more women hold the lower-paying jobs in a number of fields. for the highest-paying roles, the poo

. >> so let's go to the white house to our correspondent, michelle kosinski. wording. condemning the shelling of the school did not say condemning the -- if it is, israeli strike. >> right. they went so far as to spell it out further. it was originally tweeted out the white house was condemning the israeli shelling of this school. but they quickly said, wait, wait, that tweet is incorrect. we did not assign any blame here. we just condemned the shelling of that school. so -- and they went further than that. they're not just focused on israel here. they did expand a little bit in that direction, though, by saying that they're also deeply concerned about thousands of palestinians who have been told by israel to evacuate their homes and are not safe, in the u.s.'s view, in u.n. facilities. that's taking it even further. again, though, without naming israel. but the second part of this statement said they also condemn those who hide weapons within schools and other u.n. facilities. that then is condemning the palestinians, again, without naming anyone. they don't

michelle kosinski text white house. michelle, i want to start with you at the white house because in less than 30 minutes we're expecting the president to deliver a statement on this situation in ukraine. tensions so high between these two nations right now, the united states and russia, what do you expect the president to say? >> the white house specifically now isn't giving any guidance on what the specifics will be or even what the general -- gen ral its will be leading up to this speech which will happen very soon. there are three categories that we want to know about. the questions that have lingered are what about americans on board, what do we know about that. we know the question has been raised that there could have been people on that plane not traveling on an american passport but they could have held dual citizenship and that means they could even live within the united states. we're hoping the president will shed sml light on that. what will be the u.s. involvement? we already know that the ukrainians have s

cnn white house correspondent michelle kosinski joins us now. , michelle. >> reporter: hey, jake. >> how do the obamas plan to celebrate this big day? >> reporter: that is a closely guarded national secret right now. they're not giving away any details at this point. but yet they do spend it here. not a bad way to spend your sweet 16th, living at the white house, on the fourth of july. and america's really watched these two first daughters grow up over the years. at least to some extent. i mean, we know how protective the president and first lady are about keeping them out of the public eye. but lately they too have been openly waxing wistful about how quickly their girls are growing up. malia and sasha obama were 10 and 7 years old -- >> i love you, daddy. >> reporter: just little kids when they first stole america's attention at the 2008 democratic convention. >> louf, daddy. >> love you, sweetie. >> michelle obama even once led a crowd in singing happy birthday to malia on the campaign trail. ♪ and since then quietly, mostly behind the scenes,

it's very dangerous. >> jill doherty, michelle kosinski and nick peyton walsh. all three of you to stand by. quick break. we'll be right back. you're driving along, having a perfectly nice day, when out of nowhere a pick-up truck slams into your brand new car. one second it wasn't there and the next second... boom! you've had your first accident. now you have to make your first claim. so you talk to your insurance company and... boom! you're blindsided for a second time. they won't give you enough money to replace your brand new car. don't those people know you're already shaken up? liberty mutual's new car replacement will pay for the entire value of your car plus depreciation. call and for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. switch to liberty mutual insurance and you could save up to $423 dollars. call liberty mutual for a free quote today at see car insurance in a whole new light. liberty mutual insurance. >>> coming up, live pictures of the south lawn at the white house. we're still waiting for

michelle kosinski as well. stay with us, dan. that we're going to come back to you shortly. we're certainly hearing a lot from the president and others tonight. loud impatience, significantly complicating not just his efforts, but any efforts from either party to figure out what to do. take today's meeting. until he changed his mind late today, texas governor rick perry didn't even want to be caught on camera out on the tarmac shaking the president's hand. didn't want to do what republican chris christie did or what republican arizona governor did jan brewer and then republican governor charlie crist. they took heat from their party, and the climate has gotten even more partisan, even more harsher since then which may explain recent remarks from governor perry that are raising eyebrows. in addition to being factually unfounded, they're pure partisan red meat. they're also not entirely in character for the governor who also runs a state full of immigrants, legal and otherwise. listen to the governor at a primary debate a couple years ago talking about educating undocumented i

michelle kosinski joins us. the white house made a ask for more funding and power for the homeland secretary to try to deal with the crisis. >> this money is as well as republicans are calling a band-aid. it is reactive. but there is some proactive piece to that as well, working with central america. but also really just the crisis as it stands is trying to get these kids through the legal process because of this law that the obama administration inherited from the prior administration saying that these kids who come from countries other than mexico, from noncontiguous countries need to go through this asylum process if they ask for it. that means they need legal representation. they have to go through a judge. well, that system right now is so backed up that it's taking some of them years. so this money would speed up the process. the other part of it is trying to deal with that law. the obama administration wants greater flexibility for the department of homeland security to speed it up and use discretion wher

i want to go to michelle kosinski at the white house.issued more sanctions against russia. after this tragedy you hear russian president vladimir putin blaming ukraine for the situation there, but doing a very delicate dance not saying who pulled the trigger exactly. michelle, the question is, what is the white house saying? what are they indicating about how they will move forward now in treating this disaster and treating russia? >> they're also using a delicate, diplomatic and repeated language. we're hearing a lot of the same phrases over and over. very clear messages here. the white house hrepeatedly called for a full, credible, prompt, unimpeded and international saying that is critical and also vital that the scene remain safe and undisturbed. that evidence is available so there is safe and unfedered access to those international investigators and to ensure that the u.s. is calling now on all sides for a cease-fire. the white house offered ukraine u.s. experts to provide all possible assistance immediately. it's understood that uk

michelle kosinski, cnn, the white house. >>> as soon as merging markets are here, we're being joined from abu dhabi. we've had two other rounds of sanctions, haven't we? we hear that these are much more severe but how do they differ from the previous two rounds? >> well, it's fair to say that the european leaders took about four months to kind of rev up their engines. in fact, max, as you know they were cred sit for having a tepid response when the u.s. was trying to put sanctions on them. let's look at the three rounds. the first stage kind of basically had to do with visa restrictions and holding off talks to advance the restrictions. stage number two dealt with some asset freezes and some travel bans around vladimir putin but the third round is the most severe. it goes after key pillars of the russian economy. financial services and the russian economy. the idea is to go after the state run banks, the ceos are very close to vladimir putin, by the way, from tapping the capital markets, particularly in london where they like to raise money through ipos and the issuance. that will be

let's get to the white house with correspondent michelle kosinski. up for us, any chance that the president will say don't go on vacation when kids are being held in pens? you've got to solve this situation. >> reporter: we'll see about that, chris. i mean, as of this week the administration has lived up to its goal of starting at least to speed up the process for these people at border and send them home, but that also treads a fine legal line. now there's some criticism from democrats as to what kinds of terrible conditions are we sending them home to. also, some fallout over how to humanely house and care for these kids and families in the meantime. >> reporter: the border is tense, flooded, but the chief of homeland security had this to say after meeting with house democrats last night. >> the message that i and others have been sending is that our borders are not open to illegal migration. we will send you back. >> reporter: later today, texas senator john cornyn and representative henry cuellar plan to introduce their bipartisan bill to treat k

white house correspondent michelle kosinski, what is going on?rt of russians shooting down a ukrainian military jet. we have a handful of top russian banks, energy companies, defense companies and more individuals targeted by sanctions and it was the president himself who announced what the west has believed for a long time that russia has not been taking any steps to deescala'escalate the positions in there. those targeted are going to feel the sanctions, we are talking about banks here, essentially shut out of doing business in the u.s. dollar which can pretty important. you may have noticed these are not the sweeping sector role sanctions that would target huge swathes of the russian economy that the u.s. and others have been warning russia about for months. what happened to those? for one thing the u.s. is having a tough time getting europe on board with those. in response, russia called these targeted actions evil and harmful to the u.s. kate? >> michelle, thank you very much. >>> let's turn to this, all sides indicating talks could be exten

let's get to michelle kosinski at the white house. what is the reaction from there tonight? >> reporter: the white house just said that they find it disappointing that house republicans would, as they put it, waste time and taxpayer dollars on a political stunt. this goes right along with what we heard president obama say today. he just let loose on house republicans openly mocking them for threatening to sue him for, as he put it, doing his job when he said they, in fact, are not doing their jobs by passing bills like comprehensive immigration reform. the reason that these republicans are suing the president has nothing to do with immigration. i mean, they're not putting it into the lawsuit. that could also be politically explosive, it could backfire on them. what they're sort of delineating is the health care law. that's because there was a law on the books. the president changed that. kind of one that goes most legally in line with an argument that he overstepped his constitutional bounds. erin. >> all right, michelle, thank you very much. and you know this brings us to o

. >> michelle kosinski at the white house, thanks. the chairman of the house homeland security committee. congressman, thaveng for being here. if you're one of these house republicans the president has been poking fun at. he has a point, why won't house republicans even vote on immigration reform, which does include greater protection at the border? >> this is not about immigration reform. it's about security. and i would argue if he wants solutions, taking shots at republicans -- house republicans is not the most effective, most productive way to go about this process. we are looking at his supplemental request. i'm on the task force. what we want is a message of deterrence. i went down to the border, unlike the president, who came to my home state and couldn't take the time to go see these kids, these children, on the border. instead he goes to fund-raisers. i think it's a real slap in the face to the crisis at hand. this needs real solutions and will require us working together. >> what do you think of the $3.7 billion? >> i think

you michelle kosinski in live in texas. what is more important than seeing this humanitarian crisis with his own eyes? >> this question has been asked of the white house probably more than a dozen times. wouldn't this be the ideal time for the president to see the problem up close since they are calling this an urgent humanitarian crisis? they say there is no need for him to be there. he is well aware of the situation. other top administration officials have been there. they say the goal of the president is to speed this up process to get these kids into hearings and then sent home that. comes with a cost and he is about to ask congress for $2 billion to do that. of course, in the meantime this is a big political back ant forth. there are protests at the white house, around the country, at the border where tens of thousands unaccompanied children have been apprehended, some 60,000 just this year. >> where that money comes from? >> america is begging to see washington really work. >> this crisis is a call for reaction. >> re

the congressional hispanic congress along with anna navarro and our white house correspondent michelle kosinski. let me start with you, congressman gutierrez. very conciliatory towards the texas governor who first refused to meet with him when i had came to texas. saying i agree with him but all the things he's asking for he could get tomorrow if congress could pass this supplemental where the president's requesting another $3.7 billion to ameliorate the border crisis. congressman, will congress pass that? >> look, the president i think clearly expressed this is a big problem and he wants us looking for a solution. this is a republican caucus that controls the house of representatives is simply going to look to blame the president or are they going to look to work with him to solution? the past is an indication there will be more partisanship. my hope is that this meeting and the fact that the president spoke, so as you say, at length after the meeting, will demonstrate to the american public that a republican governor of texas and a democratic president of the united states, barack obama, can

. >> okay, michelle kosinski, we'll be watching and talking tomorrow as the president is sin texas. thank you so much. >>> now to this. >>> have to talk today about this case out of georgia about the toddler who died in his dad's scorching hot car in that june day in cobb county. justin ross harris is the father here. he's charged with felony murder, child cruelty for allegedly leaving his son in the car on purpose. today, harris' wife leanna visit this georgia jail where her husband sits after being denied bond end of last week. this is video from our affiliate -- actually, that information is from our affiliate out of atlanta. while eleanna harris is not charged, not a suspect in the eyes of police, many are wondering if she should be behind bars herself based upon what police said during her husband's probable cause hearing on thursday. martin savidge, let me bring you in. you have been covering this whole horrific story. the fact leanna harris went to this jail, she was there for 36 minutes, do we even know if they saw each other? >> no, we don't. you would presume if they did m

let's get straight what's really going on with our white house correspondent michelle kosinski. what are you hearing about what really happened behind the scenes? >> reporter: yeah, it continues today. the real problem is that the president is in texas, and it's for fund-raisers. i mean, if he didn't originally have plans to go down there, i don't think that this would have been as vocal as it's been day after day after day. but, you know, it gets to the point where now wouldn't it look strange if the president sort of gave into the political pressure and then decided, okay, now we are going to go down to the border? so what it seems like -- and we talked to strategists as well -- they want to try to find it on their own terms, a way to address the problem maybe more visually along those lines but on their own terms again and not seeming to give in to this very harsh now pressure coming to some extent from both sides, dana. >> michelle, you pointed out last night after the president spoke that, you know, if he calls that kind of visit theater in a photo op, then what about all t

let's bring in our white house, correspondent, michelle kosinski, and chief congressional correspondenth. dana, republicans allege the president was out of line when he utilize unilaterally deployed it, so what's the legal issue here, the basis of this lawsuit from boehner's perspective? >> the basis is the president did it on his own. yes, the house voted to delay. but the whole point, if you listen to republicans, is that this is a constitutional question. that the president unilaterally, decided to waive that employer mandate part of health care. however, the reality is that house republicans have been calling the president the imperial president, things like that, for months and months. they have been looking at their legal options for months and months and months on everything from health care to the environment to immigration to foreign policy. and they settled on this particular issue, just one singular issue to sue him on. they say it's because this is their best bet legally, but absolutely, i've talked to enough republicans who pretty much admit, it's also the best issue that t

. >> let's begin our coverage this hour, with our white house correspondent michelle kosinski who's standing by. the president spoke in denver. i know he had a brief comment about this current immigration crisis. >> yes, we didn't think this was going to come up. he was talking about trying to help the middle class. then he started slamming republicans for what he characterized as their failure to act and he brought up the border crisis. here's what he said. >> congress just said no to fixing our broken immigration system. in a way that strengthens our borders and our businesses. despite the fact that everybody from law enforcement to corporations to evangelicals. there's a coalition around immigration reform that's unprecedented. these guys still can't get their act together. >> it's become this real back and forth. the white house is blaming house republicans for holding up comprehensive immigration reform, which would include a big piece on border security, but republicans and other critic, of the president are saying really it's this administration's fault that the problem was able to ge

cnn's michelle kosinski is live for us at the white house. give us the latest, michelle?hey, alisyn. today is this big meeting between president obama and the three central american presidents to try to get them to do more within their own countries to stop this flow of immigrants, especially unaccompanied children to the border and, yes, the white house is considering this idea to grant what it says would be a very small number of these children refugee status or emergency humanitarian asylum, and that would be applied for and processed within their countries. this has been tried before to some extent in other places like haiti, but, of course, this raises a lot of questions. on the one hand how many of these kids would even qualify for a very specific legal definition of refugee, and would this just encourage more people than then to try to cross the border, something that's similar to a bill proposed in congress. you know, recent polling shows a majority of americans view these children as refugees, although a majority also consider border security very important and w

michelle kosinski, thank you so much for that. let's give you a look at more of our headlines right now. >>> breaking overnight militants have taken control of the iraqi city of tikrit 100 miles northwest of baghdad after iraqi security forces liberated several government buildings. fighting broke out with militants believed to be from isis. they fired mortar shells, machine guns and driving iraqi forces out. this battle left more than 50 service men and 40 militants dead. >>> also breaking overnight, at least 18 suspected militants were killed by a u.s. drone strike in pakistan, according to intelligence sources. missiles were fired from the drone destroying a compound in north waziristan. this is the fifth drone strike in pakistan this year. >>> overnight, breaking news, a dutch court says the netherlands is liable for the deaths of more than 300 bosnian muslims in 1995. the men and boys were killed in the srebrenica massacre during the bosnian war. the court ruled dutch u.n. peacekeepers failed to protect the 100 victims when t

let's go to michelle kosinski. she is working this part of the story. what are you learning about the school, the shelter that was hit today? >> reporter: both the white house and state department were very careful to point out today that they're not assigning blame in this case. the shelling of a school where more than 3,000 palestinians were sheltering. what they did in a statement was essentially criticize both sides, but without naming any names. it was interesting. they condemned the shelling of the school, but they also condemned those who would wide weapons inside a u.n. facility. the first thing is what israel is suspected of in this case and what hamas has been accused of throughout this conflict. however, now since the u.n. has come out and said there's abundant evidence that israel is at fault in this most recent case, the state department was questioned repeatedly today, aren't you essentially criticizing israel now? the response is there still needs to be a full investigation although the administration did say they have been very clear tha

cnn white house correspondent, michelle kosinski, has more on this. tell us what white house officials are telling us? >> reporter: we're getting some nasty weather over the white house right now, lightning and thunder and heavy rain, and believe it or not, it is not from arthur, at least not yet. but as this storm approaches, and we know that even a category 1 hurricane can do significant damage, sometimes these things do affect the country on national level, in terms of the economy, fuel supplies, infrastructure, insurance. so, yes, the white house is watching this closely and they're reacting to it. they say right now, first and foremost, number one priority is making sure that citizens are pay attention to it. that they are preparing and they're listening to all those instructions given to them within their own communities. but the white house is also crafting its own technical response through fema. they've already sent down a special coordination team to north carolina to work with state and local officials there. and they've pre-positioned some

let's get down to the white house, cnn's michelle kosinski has the latest. >> reporter: this is go timeiding whether or not to approve this nearly $4 billion that the president has requested. so we have both democrats and republicans saying it's of critical importance but there are still differences in what they say are the root causes, the issues around it and how to solve it. the republicans have wanted more border security and fault the president's plan for not including a bigger piece of that. here is senator john mccain. >> the fact is that we cannot have an unending stream of children, whether it be from central america or anybody else, to come into our country with all the strains and pressures that is put on our capabilities. it's not acceptable. every nation has the requirement to secure its borders. our borders are not secure, no matter what they say. >> reporter: the president's plan does include a significant chunk, about $1.5 billion for border security and enforcement. and the administration has said, look, this really isn't even a border security issue at this point becau

cnn's michelle kosinski is live at white house with more on this. first off, what do the conflicting rules mean for everybody at home. >> reporter: interesting to hear both sides declaring victory because here we have two different cases and two different appeals court. the same issue but opposite rules. back when congress approved the affordable care act, they said for those who qualify individuals who can't get insurance through their employers, they will qualify for these federal tax credits to keep the insurance affordable when they buy it through the marketplace that their state will then set up. as it turns out, only 16 states set up those marketplaces, leaving the majority of those individuals who neededed to buy insurance to get it directly through the federal government. about 70% of them who qualify for the tax credit had to do it that way. now we have a question of language. one ruling says, well, technically the law says to get that tax credit and keep the system affordable you needed to get it through your state. the other ruling saying