michelle kosinski is on the phone because, michelle we were showing the pictures of the briefing room pictures of law enforcement and canine in there. i understand they are clearing the north lawn which is normally the camera position for you. what's going on? >> reporter: well that's what we are trying to find out. but something very similar happened in the senate office building. everybody had to leave. not long after that threat whatever it was, was cleared, it was a suspicious package. while this was going on officers came in and first we went to the little street and then they moved -- >> i not the best cell signal apparently right around the white house where michelle is trying to talk to us. and clearly the point being, as she was making they are trying to figure out the reason why they have cleared out the briefing room and why they have cleared out the north lawn. these are live pictures outside the white house, obviously on the left side of your screen and on the right side of your screen the white house briefing room. art -- art roderick let me bring you back in retired u.s

christine. >> michelle kosinski thanks. the emphasis on training sunni and peshmerga fighters.h to get weapons in the hands more quickly and the fall of ramadi. this now seems to put less reliance on eyeiraq's central government. joining us is cnn's ian lee. they are still saying this is not enough. what is it they want? >> reporter: that's right, christine. for the sunnis, they have been calling for more weapons and more training for quite a while in their confrontation with isis. they are starting to get that. for the central government they say they still need more. they need more weapons. that is one of the key things. also they need more intelligence. one iraqi official talked to cnn about this. >> i don't think this is the only answer frankly. this may be part of the answer and small part of the answer. i know we are in need of training and in need of equipment and we are in need of weapons. we are in need of intelligence to get intelligence and proper intelligence. to know where the strong points of isis are and weak points of isis. what to do. this is unfortunately not

cnn's michelle kosinski has the very latest from the white house. michelle. >> reporter: hi john and christine. right, it was interesting to hear after so many questions have been directed to the white house, when is the president -- is he going to visit charleston? now they've announced that he and the first lady and the vice president will be going there on friday for the funeral of reverend clementa pinckney someone the president had met and knew personally. and the president will deliver the eulogy. it almost seems like we're in this new period of how the president engages on and addresses race. i mean we've heard several speeches lately where he uses extremely direct language. speaking of which, this hour-long interview that he did with a comedian in a garage for a podcast called "wtf." the headline though of course that the president himself used the "n" word. >> and it's not just a matter of it not being polite to say nigger in public. that's not the measure of whether racism still exists or not. it's not just a matter of overt discrimination.

michelle kosinski has the latest. >> reporter: what we have been. from the white house leading up to this decision was a lot of confident posturing saying things like this is an easy case. it should never have been taken up. almost challenging the supreme court publicly. so then to see this sense of relief around here the celebration after the decision tells you that maybe they didn't think it was quite so certain things would go their way. there were after all two separate speeches written just in case. then we see the foe e toes of full on hugging. the president slapping hands there with his chief of staff. also when he went out to the rose garden to deliver his speech he went to legacy. something that had been debated for decades but now health care is the right of everyone. listen. >> the affordable care act is here to stay. some day our grand kids will ask us if there was really a time when america discriminated against people who get sick because that is something this law has ended for good. >> so is the president going to celebrate this? the

christine. >> michelle kosinski thank you. the emphasis on training sunni and peshmerga fighters. the push to get weapons into the sunni hands more directly and quickly. following the timing of the fall of ramadi to isis. this strategy seems to put less on the central government there. joining us to put the pieces together is cnn's ian lee. ian, despite the trainers and new equipment from the american government iraqi officials say it is not enough. what do they want? >> reporter: that's right. for the sunnis they have been for a long time asking for this weapons and training that's going to be crucial for retaking ramadi. for them to control anbar province. iraqi officials are saying it is not enough. iraq's vice president allawi says they still need more. >> i don't think this is the frankly only answer. this may be part of the answer and the small part of the answer. i know we are in need of training. we are in need of equipment. we are in need of weapons. we are in need of intelligence. to get intelligence and proper intelligence and know where the strong points of isis and kn

michelle kosinski has more from the white house. >> reporter: john it is surprising to hear the president say these words. in any context regards isis that we don't have a come complete strategy. you know critics have been sending e-mails reminding people something the president said a year ago. we don't have a strategy. back then he was referring to what was going on at the time in syria. again, now, when you look at the totality of the strategy, but how best to accelerate the plan to train and equipped iraqi forces. he said it is not just an american question as he waits to get a more complete plan from the pentagon which we know could include more american trainers there, but it is something the iraqis need to live up to. he mentioned areas in a capacity to train more, but there are not enough recruits. the iraqi government needs to be inclusive because the lack of that has deterred more people from joining us. the recent isis gains like the takeover of ramadi is just temporary and ultimately isis will be defeated. 2/3 of americans say they feel the strategy against isis is not going w

cnn white house correspondent michelle kosinski has the latest. >> reporter: john and christine, we are hearing from the office of personnel management that this enormous hack has happened possibly the biggest government hack we have seen. affecting up to 4 million former and current government employees who may have had their personal information accessed. this office of personnel is the hr department of the federal government. they were actually trying to update their cyber security when they realized in april it looked like an incursion happened. we know more detail about this. those employees are being contacted. there's reports out there this could have come from china. for now, the white house is not commenting on that. the federal government has been plagued by the attacks, especially in the past year. we heard about the white house and state department computers accessed. just in the last week some 100,000 americans had their personal tax information accessed in the irs. that hack originated supposedly from russia. both china and russia have been suspected in numerous hacks in t

michelle kosinski is at the white house with the latest. >> reporter: john and christine, we saw senate majority leader mitch mcconnell try to get the votes to move forward and take a vote on the issue last night. once again, he was blocked by rand paul. meanwhile, the white house keeping urging the senate to act in the name of national security calling this an unnecessary risk. the white house still won't go so far as to say the american public is now less safe since these four patriot act programs have expired. they refer us to intelligence official officials. they still won't give examples of how any of the programs helped in the past. they say national security concerns prevent them from giving away that information calling them important tools that have generated information in the past that wasn't generated through other means. what the white house will do freely is criticize the senate. here's this. >> what we have seen is a lot of posturing within the republican party. there's a lot of politics played on this and it is coming at the experience of the national security and civil

michelle kosinski update our viewers. >> pinkney is one the president had met and knew personally.will deliver the eulogy. it seems like we're entering a new period how the president is engaging on and addressing race. he's given speeches lately using direct language. speaking of which this hour-lounge interview for a podcast called "wtf." . the headline though is that the president use the "n" word. >> reporter: the president is one word in a comedian's garage for a podcast hits nor bluntly than any speech. it's not just a matter of it not being polite so say nigge rismtr. societies don't overnight completely erase every that hand 200 to 300 years prior. >>> the shock value lost on no one, but the white house desnides that that was his intent that it was even planned. he it just came out. >> the president was merely making an argument. >> he had to have known this was going ton a reaction right? >> i don't think he was surprised by that but i do think it has prompted careful consideration of exactly what he said. >> it's the latest of several strikingly emotional statements after

michelle kosinski has more. >> reporter: john and christine. it is surprising to hear the president say these words. in any context, we don't have a complete strategy. critics are jumping all over there reminding people of something the president said almost a year ago that we don't yet have a strategy. well back then he was only referring to what was going on at the time in syria. again, now, when you look at the totality of what he said in the press conference, he wasn't referring to the overall strategy, but how best to accelerate to train and equipped iraqi forces. he said it is not just an american question as he waits to get a more complete plan from the pentagon, which we know could include sending more american trainers there, but it is also something the iraqis need to live up to. he mentioned a capacity to train more, but there are not enough recruits. iraqi government has to prove it will continue to be inclusive because the lack of that has deterred more people from joining up there. also president obama expressed confidence in the

michelle kosinski has the story. >> reporter: is the president going to visit charleston?e the first lady and the vice president will be going there on friday will be going there on friday for the funeral of reverend clementa pinckney. the president will deliver the eulogy. we're in a new period of how the president engages on and addresses race. we've heard several speeches where he uses extremely direct language. speaking of which, this hour-long interview that he did with a comedian in a garage for a podcast called wtf, the headline of course though that the president himself used the n word. >> and it's not just a matter of it not being polite to say nigger in public that's not the measure of whether racism still exists or not. it's not just a matter of overt discrimination. we have -- societies don't overnight completely erase everything that happened 200 to 300 years prior. >> well clearly there is a shock value in that thus the headlines around the world. but the white house is denying that the president planned this out ahead of time. they said he was simply making

michelle kosinski has more on that. >> reporter: the numbers we haven't heard before and the presidentaid more than 80 americans since september 11th have been held hostage overseas. more than half of them have returned home. then his adviser on counterterrorism said that currently 30 americans are held. the president's national security team said than clouds people held by cartel s and criminal gangs but couldn't elaborate for security reasons. the white house made a number of changes to its hostage policy mostly in the way the system works to make it more efficient, more integrated to share more information with families. but most strikingly they made clear that the u.s. now will not prosecute families for paying ransoms to terrorists even though it is illegal and even though u.s. government policy states the opposite and that has not changed. here's the president. >> i firmly believe the united states government paying ransom to terrorists risks endangering more americans and funding the terrorism we are trying to stop. so i firmly believe that our policy ultimately puts fewer ameri

it's a flooring admission for the white house's homeland security advisory s michelle kosinski do wee. we have to do our own keeping track. this is generally not something that the government comments on acknowledges even if you have a name. that's why it's so surprises. by our own count there are seven u.s. hostages around the world. this is really all we know of possible nine but because nevin is scant, not confirmed, it's really tough to know. of the seven that we do know about and their status has been confirmed by someone, four are held in iran. some names are very well known because of the act visit of their families. robert levinson held in iran -- or disappeared in iran in 2007. you have jason rezan, "the washington post" reporter since last year amir hacmadi, culture and language expert. also in iran u.s. christian pastor saeed is. some of these families have met with the president during his travels on the status of their loved one, but others we don't hear that much about. auston tice held in syria. caitlin coleman, who was pregnant at the time she was captured on a trip w

>> all right, michelle kosinski at the white house, thank you so much. joining me a three-time pulitzer prize journalist, senior fellow at the century foundation and author of "angler: the cheney vice presidency." a pleasure to have you on as always. do you think the government lost an important tool here or is the government overstating the case because they want as many power as they can have? >> they never willingly give up a power. they can still get the phone records of anyone. as of today for a couple of days they can't get the phone records of everyone. the power, the difference is it's slight. it might be a little slower for them to get what they're looking for but no one made the case that is an urgent national security concern. >> supporters of the collection of bulk telephone metadata insists there have never been any abuses of the program. is that true? >> it's really hard to define "abuse." the government likes to say abuse is when someone does something the government doesn't want it to do. others think the power itself and the secret inter

condolences, and moving forward, ashleigh. >> i want to skip over to john king, and thank you, michelle kosinski an eye on the white house briefing room. and john king, you are keeping an eye on the ad hoc prayer vigil on the steps of the white house steps, and tim scott got together his colleagues, and it is moving, but it is also tel g telling. >> yes, ashleigh, what we are seeing in south carolina and here in washington and from the various candidates for the presidency is impressive to a large degree, and you can see bernie sanders the democratic candidate for the presidency is having a rally, and he is facing criticism for not putting that the off, and now, some bipartisan statements, and if you know anything about south carolina politics, it is rare that you will see the republican governor and the governor to come together and speak about the community and speak of pain and not point fingers, but come together and talk about the commu community, and that is what has happened. and living in the encyclopedia of the white house, mark knoller says that this is the 14th time that president oba

let's go to cnn's michelle kosinski at the white house. obviously presidential poll numbers tend to go up when presidents are out of office. but these two guys this could be implications for 2016 especially if those challenging hillary clinton and jeb bush want to fasten president clinton and george w. bush's baggage upon them. >> reporter: right, interesting poll numbers on the candidates not quite yet candidates for 2016 namely clinton and bush. and they've each had some struggles there, too. but this new poll on the present presidency could also be telling for them. >> i am running to live again at 1600 pennsylvania avenue. >> reporter: if 2016 ends up being hillary clinton and jeb bush head to head they have to be both now looking at the latest polling with great interest and maybe worry. suddenly today for president obama, a slide. it was only weeks ago, he saw good news in the polls, finally a higher approval than disapproval rating americans carrying a rosier view of how things are going in this country than ever before in his presi

michelle kosinski at the white house.ther breaking news we're following here in the situation room. police right now they're stepping up their manhunt for two dangerous killers. they're swarming fields and farms in a town only a few dozen miles away from that maximum security prison where they staged an elaborate escape using power tools. the very latest, what are you learning? >> reporter: wolf we're learning that eyewitness reports and other indicators suggest that the killers are on foot so it does not appear that anyone was waiting for them to give them a ride. tonight police are searching a perimeter in willsboro new york, about 35 miles from the prison. tonight law enforcement officers using blood hounds and helicopters are canvassing upstate new york around the town of willsboro, after two suspicious men were spotted walking down the middle of the road and took off when a car approached. authorities are searching for two convicted killers, richard matt imprisoned for murdering his boss. and david sweat convicted of

i want to go to the white house now, let's talk to michelle kosinski.t's interesting, michelle the stakes here are so high for the president. strange bedfellows here. he's looking for support from republicans but it strikes me it's interesting what he said as he came back to the white house when he was asked if he got the support he needed he said "i don't think you ever nail anything down around here. it's always moving." so this is going to be a squeaker if we even see this next vote right? >> definitely. the white house hasn't even really wanted to say how they feel about how things are going because early this morning we got word from some on the hill some democrats, saying they didn't think this was going to pass. but you ask the white house and their take is "well, that's coming from people opposed. you don't know how it will go." then there was a scramble, a last-minute decision for the president to go to the -- go to capitol hill himself talk to democrats himself, causing some in his party to say, well this is late where was he before? still the

let's go to our white house correspondent michelle kosinski.mazing day for the president. >> reporter: definitely a president obama we have not seen before. maybe at times a little dramatic in there. you could say the unencumbered president that many especially black americans, have been wanting to see for a very long time. it just makes you think, this is a speech he ever would have done early on in his presidency? this follows a strikingly emotional week. you know that he was feeling that. this is one that will surely happen define his presidency. and he didn't hold back preaching, then in the admit of this eulogy, breaking into song. ♪ amazing grace ♪ >> reporter: at first even the crowd was surprised. was that really president obama singing? not just as president, but as himself. ♪ that saved a wretch like me ♪ >> reporter: using grace as a theme, the president energetically eulogized state senator and pastor clementa pinckney, a man he knew and the other eight lives gunned down while in prayer here. >> susie jackson found that grace. it is

our white house correspondent michelle kosinski is on the scene for us. set the scene, michelle. they must be so thrilled over there. >> you can really feel it here. this is just the usual assembly for a statement in the rose garden but you can feel a different energy today. administration officials just walked in laughing. somewhat boys ter ussoisterous. you can tell they're celebrating. we will hear from the president. we have heard from him a number of times over the last couple weeks on this decision as it was pending saying things like this should be an easy case. it shouldn't have even been brought up in the first place. we assume that the court is going to rule the way we expect that scholars have said it would. challenging the court almost. some might say even admonishing the supreme court for taking this case, but it ruled in the white house's favor and now we'll hear the president talk about that. he's not going to take any questions. that doesn't mean that some won't be blurted out, and this is a celebratory day clearly. as we've been talking about, the biggest day arg

michelle kosinski cnn, the white house. >>> an end could be in sight for greece's debt crisis.eaders are make slow progress to a deal after wrapping up an emergency summit in brussels on monday. >> greece submitted a new proposal over the weekend that has received some support from international creditors, but angela merkel remains cautious. >> translator: what greece has submitted is progress but what is also clear from the discussions is there is still a lot of work to do and the time we have for it is very short. >> and for more on the greek debt crisis we want to bring in linda live from athens greece. time is fast running out with that june 30th deadline approaching. what is likely to be in that final deal and whatever all parties decide in the end a final agreement has to go to the greek parliament for ratification. that could take time. where do things stand right now? >> well at the moment we're looking at a euro group tomorrow where we're likely to have some kind of more solid decision about what the proposals are and what they entail and that is likely to be taken a a

michelle kosinski is live at the white house.e know the fbi is involved and tracking this individual and also looking to connect it to any threats to domestic terror groups to see if that's part of the play here. what do you hear? >> reporter: that's always a big question here before details are known. does this have a link to terrorism? so we know that's going on on the justice side. as for the white house, we know they are aware of this and are working on a statement currently. we can only assume that the president has been made aware of this because for now his press staff has said this. there have been many shootings by police the shootings of police, the doj investigations that have resulted. but recently we heard the president talk about the communities themselves. the tensions that are there, the healing that needs to go on within communities and within individuals. and just yesterday we saw the president for his new attorney general erika lynch. >> many of the human rights have come after periods of heartbreaking loss. bu

our correspondent michelle kosinski is standing by with the latest. >> reporter: started with a storm over how best to protect our national security and privacy, and now of course it has also become a political storm. you have senator rand paul claiming victory now that these parts of the patriot act actually did expire for now. but as a result he's taking a verbal beating from some within his own party calling his tactics political posturing, and fund-raising. >> people here in town they i'm making a huge mistake. some of them i think secretly want there to be an attack on the united states so they can blame it on me. >> reporter: kentucky's two senate republicans at odds. >> the senate will be in order. >> reporter: over allows parts of the patriot act to lapse including the bulk collection of americans' phone records. >> that would mean disarming completely and arbitrarily basened 0 a campaign of disinformation in the face of growing aggressive and sophisticated threats. that's a totally unacceptable outcome. >> reporter: but that is what happened last night. the programs expired.

michelle kosinski cnn, the white house. >>> there is much more on president obama's most recent remarks on race on our website. cnn.com. >>> and with that we're going to take a quick break here. when we come back, an isis commander is killed in iraq and the u.s. says he was linked to this attack in benghazi three years ago. we'll have a full report coming up. >>> and a syrian town now free of isis but as arwa damon found out, there are still plenty of scars there. our report is just ahead. ♪ a good host, is a good host no matter where he's hosting. ♪ an hors d'oeuvre for the table? ♪ perhaps even an elegant gesture for the neighbors. ♪ stella artois host beautifully our eyes...they have a 200-degree range of sight. which is good for me hey! ... and bad for the barkley twins. take care of all your most important parts with centrum. now with our most vitamin d three ever. body pain? motrin helps you be an unstoppable, i-can-totally-do-this- all-in-one-trip kind of woman. when pain tries to stop you, there's motrin. motrin works fast to stop pain where it starts. make it happen with new mo

michelle kosinski, cnn, the white house. >>> for a president who chooses his word the carefully, maybe obama was trying to make a point when he used the n-word. but moist of the conversation since seems to focus on the fact that he used a racial slur. we are joined from washington. the president was trying to make a point that just because moist americans no longer use the n-word doesn't mean there isn't a conversation. it certainly wasn't beneath the office of the presidency why do we miss the point? >> i think he gave the word emphasis without actually giving it emphasis. if you look back over the course of history and presidents, he'sle not the very first president to have uttered the word. you have lyndon baines johnson president nixon who used the word liberally among their colleagues and not always in the nicest of terms. but if you look at lyndon baines he was a champion of civil rights. he passed a series of bills that maybe would have failed under presidents. but if you look at dr. martin luther king he used the word in affection about andrew young. so the word changes in term

let's get to michelle kosinski. correspondents rushed out, the cameras were covered, but then one big question it doesn't appear that president obama in the west wing just feet away from the briefing room was moved. >> right, there are a lot of questions still here. many were referred to the press secretary he referred them to the secret service. we know the president was in the complex somewhere, we don't know exactly where. but we know he was not moved. he was just left alone. the press secretary was moved, but he was moved to his office which again is only feet away from the briefing room. and other staffers that were there, were told to goo into his office and they weren't told to shelter in place, or take any precautions. just to stay there in the office. we're talking about a room that is feet away from the room that the threat was directed at. two questions are, if this were a serious bomb threat. as we think it was. i mean doesn't it raise questions in their minds they were told to stay feet away from this a

let's go to our white house correspondent michelle kosinski in the rose garden when the president came out to speak about the ruling michelle? >> for all the creative and confident posturing the white house has been doing leading up to this momentous decision calling this an easy case that shouldn't have even been taken up the sense of relief around here and celebration that things actually did go their way is more than palpable. >> aca is here to stay. >> reporter: celebration outside the highest court and in a far more reserved way at the white house. the president and his chief of staff -- >> today is a victory for hard working americans all across the country whose lives will continue to become more secure in a changing economy because of this law. the affordable care act is here to stay. >> reporter: administration officials beamed from the front row and the president spoke directly to his legacy clearly feeling it solidifying now before him on this. >> some day our grandkids will ask us if there was really a time when america discriminated against people who get sick because that

michelle kosinski is at the white house with details. >> reporter: yes, and they want to get equipment to the iraqi forces quicker. but we are not talking tens of thousands of troops. about 450 troops set to go to between ramadi and fallujah. they are there to help the iraqis help themselves. the question exists though if these deep-rooted problems have been there in the iraqi army for some time why wasn't this assistance and more done well before ramadi fell? and sending significantly more troops now when you look at the total number that's there, doesn't that indicate there were significant underestimates of what was needed in the first place from the administration? we have gotten as much of an admission there are problems as we're going to get, yes, there have been setbacks yes, forces do need to respond more nimbley to isis and to act quickly with a shortfall, yes, this is a problem they have been working on. there's criticism coming from some republicans as well as come democrats, not only that more needs to be done but also fears that the u.s. role is just going to get bigger an

the white house correspondent michelle kosinski joins us.pened and how serious a threat was it? >> reporter: to say this was highly unusual is putting it lightly. usually when we see the most serious threats that tend to happen during working hours, an object thrown over the white house fence that you think could be a bomb. the most we see is maybe a lockdown of the white house grounds. but this time middle of the daily briefing we have secret service come in and say this room is being evacuated. come with us. you have to see this as being a serious enough threat that people were taken out of that room. not only that but moved not just outside but off the white house grounds entirely. and then into a building across the street from the white house. we also have to look at this another way. this was clearly for some reason not serious enough to evacuate the president, the press secretary, the press secretary's staff, or the first family. each of whom in the west wing and the white house residence were only yards away from the briefing room. t

. >> all right, michelle kosinski, reporting live for us from the white house, thank you for that. it's often say that legacies, as michelle was just reporting, are fomented years after a president leaves the office. all those times he takes the podium to make an announcement of what he achieved, you can bet your bottom dollar obamacare will be a big peg in the foundation of his legacy. but will other legacies be affected by this? we'll explore that in a moment. your baby's chubby little hand latches onto your finger so hard, it's like she's saying i love you. that's why aveeno's oat formula is designed for your baby's sensitive skin. aveeno®. naturally beautiful babies. another day shackled by wires. how long do we have to keep untangling for just a little taste of power? who knew charging could be so... ...draining? you can keep plugging away... or, you can change the way you charge. the samsung galaxy s6 and s6 edge, with built-in wireless charging capabilities. get a 64 gigabyte gs6 or gs6 edge for the price of 32 gigabyte. food should be good. strawberries should sing. lettuce

i want to go to michelle kosinski, our white house correspondent. for the second day in a row, the president of of the united states welcomed a historic supreme court decision. now the white house is taking more action. >> they clearly see this as a victory for equality. sometimes the white house waits a while to craft the perfect statement or wait until they can organize an appearance like this one here in the rose garden. but today on this issue, we saw the president almost immediately tweet that this is another step on our march to equality. he added a hashtag of love wins. look at the page for that, the twitter page with a rainbow white house. clearly they had this prepared in advance ready to go. but they want to put that symbol out there. even the president using the word love in a hashtag. we heard him use that in the rose garden probably at least ten times. that's something we've heard from the administration on this issue. even though it hasn't been a big push when they talk about equality, they always say equality based on who you love. >>

let's go to our white house correspondent michelle kosinski. very excited, very happy folks. >> reporter: absolutely. what we've seen from the white house leading up to this decision is this extremely confident posturing, saying things like this is an easy case that never should have been taken up. almost challenging the supreme court publicly. to see the sense of relief around here today, the celebration, tells you that maybe they didn't really think it was so certain that things would go their way. there were after all, two separate speeches written just in case. then you see those photos of people hugging. the president exuberantly slapping hands with his chief of staff. when he walked out to the rose garden started off his speech he seemed to speak directly to legacy. saying, this is something that's been talked about for a century, debated for decades, now today health care is the right of everyone. >> the affordable care act is here to stay. someday our grandkids will ask us if there was really a time when america discriminated against pe

. >> michelle thank you, michelle kosinski.from phillip mudd and law enforcement analyst, tom fuentes, what do you think? is this going to encourage more americans being taken hostage if they now know families are authorized to pay ransom. >> the problem, wolf the families could always pay ransom. i can tell you in my almost 30 years in the fbi, the fbi left that to the family if they wanted to pay the ransom whether it was organized crime, kidnappings for hire whatever it may be and including terrorists that could be paid. the family if they can raise the $15 million, $30 million, $50 million whatever they ask for that's been a family decision without threat they would be prosecuted by the department of justice. >> you heard the criticism by making the announcement the president is in effect telling terrorists you want to make money go ahead and kidnap americans because their families not the u.s. government will be able to pay that ransom. >> the easy answer, wolf, yes this will fuel terrorism. i'm not sure the easy answer is

here is michelle kosinski. >> reporter: finally today we will hear the results of review of hostage policythe white house launched last summer. some of these details have already come out. we know they want to build this fusion cell or an intergovernmental group that is going to better coordinate how they candlehandle hostage cases and deal with the families. even though u.s. policy isn't going to change that the u.s. does not make concessions to terrorists does not pay ransom to terrorists. the government is no longer going to threaten families who might want to do that on their own. in fact, may even help them in some cases as we know the fbi did in the case of warren weinstein only recently. those two things may seem deeply add odds philosophically but here is how the president secretary says he views it. >> i think it's difficult to -- i certainly wouldn't want to put myself in a position in which i judged their reaction or their motivation to do one particular thing or another. because i can't imagine what it's like to be in that situation, to imagine, you know, a mother or a father o

bring in our white house correspondent michelle kosinski where she is standing by right now. be speaking shortly. he will be making remarks about this shooting massacre at the church in charleston. michelle, what are you picking up? >> reporter: hi, kate. right. all morning we've been waiting to hear a statement from the white house. we expected them to put out a statement. we've been waiting for that for hours as everyone seems to be weighing in on this. now we know why the white house has been silent up to this point. that the president himself will deliver a statement just about 20 minutes away right now before he departs on a trip to california. we did hear the attorney general, loretta lynch, speak on this not too long ago saying acts like this have no place in this country, no place in a civilized society. we expect him to reiterate that. and we also found out a little bit more about the victim, the preacher in the church, that not long ago, a couple years ago he had within the state senate in south carolina, he had proposed this resolution of gratitude to president oba

michelle kosinski they must be uncorking the champagne bottles over there. >> reporter: we can only imagine especially given the build up to this over the last couple of weeks. president obama almost putting out this force publicly as if they were trying to lobby the supreme court. the white house denied they were doing that but interview after interview, there was even one in which one of the anchors that was interviewing president obama thanked him for saving his life. there was so much put out there leading up to this decision but right now we are hearing silence from the white house, and the reason for that is because we strongly believe we will hear from president obama himself today making some kind of statement in some form appearing before the public to celebrate this win. when you look at the decision not just the wording of the decision itself, talking about the text being ambiguous, but you have to look at the broader structure of the law, and in justice roberts' majority opinion, saying congress created this law to improve the insurance market not to destroy it, these are almost

let's go to our white house correspondent, michelle kosinski.er cyberattack. >> this is looking like an act of cyber warfare at this point. the white house made it clear that this kind of hack is a threat to america's national security its people and its economy. but it didn't want to give any detail about how this could have happened and won't acknowledge that u.s. officials do think china's government is behind it. they did say that whoever did this is a dedicated adversary. what does this mean for the relationship between china and the u.s.? they always talk about forging a new way forward and then a hack happens. the white house says this is constantly brought up whenever the u.s. is meeting with chinese officials, that they've asked china to take certain steps to stop this and they're going to keep bringing it up. >> and the question comes up again and again, how best to get ahead of the attacks. it does seem whenever something is done lately it's reactive. the white house believes one way to do this is a lot more information sharing early