mr nunes cites what he said were "entirely false" accusations filed against him, concerning his closehip with donald trump. us house speaker paul ryan has since said that mr nunes still has his trust, and that he supports his decision to step aside. devin nunes has earned my trust over many years for his integrity and dedication to the critical that the intense gel community does to keep america safe. he continues to have that trust. he is eager to demonstrate he has filed all proper guidelines and law, in the meantime it is clear this process would be a distraction to the house intelligence committees investigation into russian interference in the election, so devin nunes has offered to step aside as the lead republican on this particular probe and i fully support his decision. particular probe and i fully support his decision. the top ranking democrat in the house of representatives intelligence committee, adam schiff, has said that nunes stepping aside is an opportunity to move forward in the investigation. ijust want i just want to express my appreciation for what the chairman dec

mr. nunes may have even coordinated with the white house. while mr. nunes defended himself by saying he needed to be at the white house to view the sensitive documents, one can peruse sensitive information at the capitol and other spots around washington. the story of the house investigation melting down continues, and it really emphasized how important the senate investigation is, and i have been very impressed by senator burr and senator warner working together to pursue that investigation. i feel that more needs to be done. yes, the f.b.i. needs to investigate and the senate intelligence and the press, but we should also have a special prosecutor. we should also have a bipartisan commission. but if each part of this puzzle pursues their work aggressively, good faith, we may get to the bottom of what went on, which is so important to hold people accountable, and if traitorous crimes have been committed, they need to be pursued to the full extent of the law. the article goes on that democrats have also chafed at mr. nunes' shuffling of the hearing sch

i had asked mr. nunes repeatedly over the last week would he step aside amid those growing calls for him to recuse himself, but the revelation that the house ethics committee is investigating whether he miss handled classified intelligence was the latest in a string of controversy that became too difficult for him to overcome. tonight the chairman of the house intelligence committee forced to step aside from leading the investigation into russia amid growing accusations that he had grown too close to the white house. >> strict procedures -- >> reporter: already under sieged congressman devin nunes facing a new problem, the house ethics committee on whether he improperly disclosed classified material. >> this is information that was brought to me that i thought the president needed to know about incident or collection where the president himself and others in the trump transition team were clearly put into intelligence reports that ended up at this white house and across a whole bunch of other agencies. >>

now the ethics committee in the house has confirmed that its investigating whether or not mr. nunes has disclosed any of his confidential, classified information and, also, i asked if he urge urged devin nunes to step aside. he did not answer that question. >> i'm sure there's more to come. jump back up when you have it. let's talk more about this and also everything that's going on in capitol hill. let me bring in right now republican from illinois. congressman adam joining me right now. thanks for coming in. >> thanks for having me. >> of course. your reaction to this news that's just developing of nunes stepping aside from the russia investigation in the house. what's you take. >>> well, i know devin. i know he's an honorable guy. he became the story in what was going on. i think with that with the details of whatever these ethics complaints are. i don't know the details of them. i think he realized i'm becoming the story. i'm distracting from what needs to happen here. and the other thing is we're going on recess to go back to district and he didn't want folks to have to answer

mr nunes says the charges are entirely false and politically motivated.prise and what are the implications? not a big surprise, he was under pressure. after a visit to the white house he was told that there was information that some of the trump campaign had been incidentally under surveillance by the intelligence community who we re by the intelligence community who were listening in on foreigners. they were incidentally caught up in that sweep. he went to the white house and apparently told president tromp and then it transpired that the information came from the white house. it became very murky. nunes became bigger than the story itself. the republicans are glad to see him step aside on this. it wasn't that the investigation into russian meddling was compromised it was that the perception that mr nunes was too close to the white house to conduct an impartial investigation. he has stepped aside and been replaced and life moves on. thanks very much. jane o'brien with the latest on that situation in congress. time for a look at the weather. here's darren

paul ryan still he still supports mr nunes.on this, saying the investigation of russian involvement in the us presidential election needs to get fully back on track. that is the first comment from the democrats. we'll have more from washington, dc later in the afternoon. for the first time since his election, president donald trump will meet the leader of the other economic superpower, president xi jinping of china. mr trump has said he believes the summit in florida will be ‘very difficult‘. relations have become fraught — with the us president taking a confrontational stance on trade and the north korean nuclear programme. 0ur correspondent barbara plett usher reports. muscatine, iowa, the pearl of the mississippi. an old industrial town in the american heartland, a brief stopping point for mark twain and more recently for anotherfamous visitor. xijinping has friends here. he met them during an agricultural research trip as a young man 30 years ago and returned for a reunion shortly before he became president. this is the hou

a few weeks ago, mr nunes told reporters he believed mr trump or members of the transition team may haverveillance by the american spy agencies. he cited dozens of intelligence reports he described as classified. we later discovered those documents had been provided to him by white house officials, unbeknown to the rest of his committee. his decision to step aside was made shortly after the house committee on ethics announced it was investigating mr nunes over allegations he may have made unauthorized disclosures of that classified information. the house speaker, paul ryan, gave this reaction. first of all, devin nunes has earned my trust over many years for his integrity and dedication to the critical work that the intelligence community does to keep americans safe. he continues to have that trust. he is eager to demonstrate to the ethics committee that he has has filed all proper guidelines and laws. in the meantime, it is clear this process would be a distraction to the house intelligence committee's investigation into russian interference in our election, so chairman nunes has offere

now, jake, this revelation of the house ethics committee is investigating whether or not mr. nunesified information just became the latest in a string of controversies that became too much for nunes to sustain. >> tonight the embattled chairman of the house intelligence committee forced to step aside from leading the investigation into russia amid growing accusations he had grown too close to the white house. >> strict procedures for -- >> reporter: already under siege, congressman devin nunes facing a new problem, a house ethics investigation into whether he improperly disclosed information about top skrelt intelligence with comments like this. >> this is information that was brought to me that i thought the president needed to know about incidental collection where the president himself and others in the trump transition team were clearly put into intelligence reports that ended up at this white house and across a whole bunch of other agencies. >> reporter: leaving the capital thursday, nunes refused to answer questions, but he released a statement blaming left wing groups for ma

shift and mr. nunesw those documents that got chairman nunes in a difficult position about that incidental collection of information as well as whether any officials were unmasked in their identities revealed within the intelligence committee. we are told that the full committee will start to look at this information. jim hines, the member of the -- democratic member of the committee told me he's going to review it today. some signs, wolf, that this investigation could be moving forward. now that devin nunes is stepping aside. nunes not answering any questions as he bolted out of the capital and left and got on a plane for the house recess. >> the fact that the ethics committee is even investigating a chairman of the house intelligence committee on potentially disclosing classified information, that is in and of itself pretty unusual. manu, thanks very much for that. now to the other show down we're seeing. the show down over the knneil gorsuch u.s. supreme court nomination. republicans followed through

his going to the white with, and with meetings white house officials, fed into the narrative that mr. nunesas covering for the president. tim: recusing himself now will not go down very well with donald trump. >> if i was the president i would think nunes had my back. if i donald trump, i would say, am why do we need to bring these other folks in? i had every confidence that nunes would do the right thing. tim: on to neil gorsuch -- as predicted, the nuclear option. what does that mean for the future lack of bipartisanship, perhaps in the senate, and what , this will mean in years to come? >> we have to go back to 2003 to see what this means for future events. in 2003, then majority leader harry reid changed for lower courts, inferior courts, to say you do not need a 60 vote threshold anymore. you can do it with a simple majority. fast forward to where we are today. gorsuch has support from republicans but there is fear among democrats he is out of the mainstream. what we saw today was a changing of the rules, lowering the threshold to simple majority of 51. what does that mean? toxic for t

and you know, you know that there have been calls for mr. nunes to step aside.t's not going to happen, unfortunately. so we are going to work together, hopefully, and pivot and go back to regular order this week. >> do you trust him? >> i think he's made it difficult for the investigation to go forward, but given that there are very few options, i don't have any choice. i'll tell you this. he was a very fair chairman under the obama administration. it's been difficult this last week or so, especially since obviously president trump took office. at this point in time, i wish i could say more. we have no choice. the speaker isn't going to knock him off. he's not going to recuse himself in the final analysis we are going to be reading the same documents. and we have been. we are going to be interviewing the same witnesses. i do believe we are going to have that open hearing. and i do believe we are going back to meetings with admiral rogers and mr. comey to find out exactly what took place. >> greg, it seems to me that when this thing is fully aired by the press an

you know, you know that there have been calls for mr. nunes to step aside. that's not going to happen unfortunately. so we're going to work together hopefully and pivot and go back to regular order this week. >> do you trust him? >> i think he's made it difficult for the investigation to go forward. but given that there are very few options, i don't have any choice. i'll tell you this. he was a very fair chairman under the obama administration. it's been difficult this last week or so, especially since obviously president trump took office, and at this point i wish i could say more. we have no choice. the speaker isn't going to knock him off. he's not going to recuse himself. in the final analysis, we're going to be reading the same documents, and we have been. we're going to be interviewing the same witnesses, and i do believe we're going to have that open hearing. and i do believe we're going back to meetings with the admiral rogers and mr. comey to find out exactly what took place. >> greg, it seems to me that when this thing is fully aired by the press a

mr. nunes deciding to recuse himself. democrats agreed and a list of witnesses to interview but there is a division on who they want to interview the republicans. republicans are interested in determining who may have leaked classified information while the democrats are looking for testimonies between any ties that can show any ties what so ever between russian officials and trump associates. they do plan to interview all of them. i expect the big name on the list is susan rice, she will have to defend why she did make those requests reveal the identity of u.s. citizens of those intelligence report and not only before the house but senate intelligence committee as well. >> thank you very much. relating news breaking tonight of the washington post. cart carter paige is kind of an adviser to candidate trump with was a target of the court surveillance warrant. according to the washington post, the fbi convinced the court that there was probable cause to believe paige was ak g acting of a russian in power. >> i was so happy

z mr. nunes tell you about -- >> responding to breaking news that his co-chair on the intelligence committee has decided to step aside from the russia investigation. he called it a "fresh start" and acknowledged that it was likely a very difficult decision, but also expressed confidence in his new partner, congressman conaway, who he will now be working with on this investigation. we want to read you part of the statement that former chairman nunes released just moments ago. he says several left wing activist groups have filed accusations against me with the office of congressional ethics. the charges are entirely false, and politically motivated, and are being leveled just as the american people are beginning to learn the truth about the improper unmasking of the identities of u.s. citizens and other abuses of power. despite the baselessness of the charges, i believe it is in the best interests of the house intelligence committee and the congress for me to have representative mike conaway, with

. >> i have to talk a little about your fellow congressman mr. nunes, ely lake who writes for bloomberg said nunes was dishonest with him about the sources he received. you have this "washington post" headline that three white house officials not just one shared those files, intelligence files with him. devin nunes said his sources were not white house sources. at do youake of that and do you think his leadership of the house intelligence committee at this point is credible. >> absolutely not. in fact, i do not think that the intelligence committee of the house can continue under his leadership. he has no credibility. he has lied. as a matter of fact he has been bumbling and stumbling with all of this. it's almost childish in the way that he's showing that he's but a puppet of the president. so i think he needs to either step down or paul ryan needs to take him away from that committee or shut down the committee on this issue. they cannot go forward with him in the leadership. >> i want to let you listen to his defense of himself. he was on a fresno st

the president provided for mr. nunes or his aides provided him some information.ntly assured congressman schiff that the whole committee would see it. if he has evidence of wrongdoing -- >> where is it? >> -- release it. that was true when he accusedthe president of bugging him as well. he levels these charges and never backs them up. he can solve this very quickly by releasing the information. >> he absolutely could. we have made it very clear -- i want to make it clear to anyone who doesn't know this watching. unmasking a anaheim, when it crumbs across your desk, that if she wants to know the name of the name is not the same as leaking it, right? having her know it is not leaking to the press. the washington speed toerl board took issue with that a little bit today. i wanted to read it to you. they write she is responsible for unmasking a silt zen which made that name more widely disseminated. michael flynn lost his job as 34r6r789 trump's national security advisor because of leaks. do they have a point? the unmasking made it more precarious and more likely for

. >> martha: she also says that mr. nunesthat the subjects of the conversations and the intercepts had nothing to do with the subject of russia. >> i want to be clear, none of this surveillance was related to russia. >> martha: and she points out that surveillance named or unmasked specific trump officials. >> i have confirmed that additional names of trump transition team members were unmasked. >> martha: so the national review's victor davis hampton writes about it this way he, nunes, is the new target in an already long line of those targeted by the media for forced resignations. here now fox news resident media howie kurtz, good to see you today. it's worth pointing out and she points this out in her piece that one of the biggest headlines in the nunes story he unequivocally pointed out that the president was wrong when he said that the obama administration was wiretapping trump tower. so she is claiming that, you know, he has had a pretty clear through line despite the fact that it's not being presented that at that way

the members of the senate intel committee, democrat and republican alike, still don't know what mr. nunes has been talking about. >> your committee began interviewing individuals today as part of the investigation into what is suspected, potentially some collusion between trump campaign associates and russia. can you tell us who you are interviewing at this stage, what sort of information you are seeking? >> wolf, what we're doing right now, we're still on the foundation. there was a january 6th report that the entire intelligence community contributed to, that said russians tried to interfere, they hacked one party and released selective information, they paid internet trolls that created bots that then basically flooded the zone with false information that helped shape the narrative in certain states that were key in the election. and we want to look at the people who put that report together and say to those analysts, tell me, you had to reach a 95% confidence level, let's say, on that piece of information, tell us -- maybe you only had a 60 or 70% confidence level, what he wanted up o

questions since those reports surfaced last week about white house officials, presumably helping mr. nunes access that conversation that surveillance information on white house grounds and he had said previously to our own wolf blitzer that no one in the west wing was aware of his appearance on white house grounds. he also told house speaker paul line, this was a whistle blower. i tried to ask him that on his way into this conference meeting. he wouldn't really answer. >> what do you think of this idea of giving flynn immunity? can you stop for a second? >> no. i've got to get into the -- >> what do you think of this idea of giving flynn immunity? do you standby that your source was a whistle blower? >> reporter: so not exactly answering there. the issue of immunity, of course, something that has really consumed the discussion about the witnesses who will come forward behind house and senate intelligence committee, whether or not to give michael flynn the immunity he is speaking now. devin nunes told one of our colleagues yesterday that he does not believe that he is going to ask fg immuni

i'm disappointed that the house leadership and mr. nunes have not risen above politics. i was struck by something he said in the clip, he said, well, who else is going to do it? he talked about ultimately we're accountable to our constituents which is u troo, but the day that we take the oath of office on january 3rd, each new congress, we take an oath to protect and defend the constitution and to serve the interest of the nation. so i would remind my republican colleagues we put the nation first, to para phrase edmund burke, we owe our constituents more than our vote, we owe our constituents our conscience. i think these are grave high akes mters involving russia and putin in particular, and the american people, two-thirds of them would like to see us to get to the truth. that's why i think who else can do this is an independent commission that is above politics. lyndon johnson came into office with control of both houses of congress after the assassination of john f. kennedy and to put the nation at ease, he appointed an independent commission led by chief justice earl

mr. nuneser heavy pressure for going to the white house before he briefed his fellow committee members on surveillance information that he was given. joining us from arlington, virginia, former speaker of the house, newt gingrich. he knows how these things work. were you surprised nunes stepped aside? >> i was. i talked with him today. he has a good rational reason, he doesn't want his fellow members to go home and spent the next two weeks answering questions about him. so, he simply stepped to one side. that puts trey gowdy, who knows a great deal about investigations, and a key position on the russian thing. nunes is still chairman of the full committee. probably not what i would have done, but i respect his reasoning and why he didn't. he did it to protect his fellow republicans. >> bill: the pressure on him was enormous, though, i think the left would claim a victory there, will they not? >> sure. it is all garbage. the trickle group that filed against him, one of them was moveon.org. i thi

we've seen pretty adequate evidence that mr. nunes is not his own person. what's he doing hanging around picking up the laundry from the white house and taking it back to the white house after he's cleaned it by saying he's an investigator? he wasn't an investigator. he was a delivery boy, bringing this stuff back that they gave him and saying it was news, alarming news. if that isn't show boating for the president, i don't know what is. what do you think it was? >> i think the best thing that can be said about it is that it's ham handed. i've said all along i feel like i'm watching a 3-d movie, deception, deflection, and distraction. that's what he's trying to do. but it's not going to work. >> one of your colleagues on the committee, another democrat on the tension committee said on cnn just day he thinks some of president trump's associates could end up in prison or in jail, he said. let's watch. >> i guess i would say this, that my impression i wouldn't be surprised after all of this is said and done that some people end up in jail. >> really? and how h

they broke the process and that is what i think has made mr. nunes a less legitimate player in all of this. i still believe that taking it out of congress and taking it to a bipartisan external commission is the better path. >> agree or disagree on this, the reported request of nsa director mike flynn asking for immunity when we talk about the senate investigation ongoing. agree or disagree with that that he was denied? >> well, at this point it makes no sense for them to prejudge who they might grant immunity to in return for, you know, for testimony. it is a little ironic to hear mr. flynn seek immunity when he characterized immunity as something generally is an indication that somebody might be guilty. i don't believe that, but that's certainly his position. so it's a little ironic he would be seeking immunity. is that some admission of guilt? i don't know. but i think it's far too early for the senate or anyone else to be granting immunity until they have a better sense of the full scope of what's taking place. >> yeah. >> one would assume immuni

mr. nunes says, no, he feels he can chair the investigation. >> this embroils the white house. schiff the top democrat on the intelligence committee went to the white house to look at documents that the white house says they have uncovered that relates to this coincidental or incidental surveillance. it's not clear yet whether or not this is the same material that chairman nunes was shown. >> again, the material might not be about russia. it's a question of the man leading the russian investigation. >> woodruff: there are so many strands in this story to follow. the two of you are on the case. we thank you. i feel like we've brought our audience up to date. thank you very much. lisa desjardins, john yang, thank you. >> woodruff: during the presidential campaign candidate trump promised to give the u.s. military more freedom to strike terrorist targets around the world. yesterday, it was announced that president trump made good on that promise. hari screenivasan has the story. >> sreenivasan: among the countries where the u.s. is using fighting terrorism are iraq, yemen and soma

committee's intelligence committee after the house ethics committee announced it was investigating mr. nunesor possibly disclosing classified information. representative nunes calls those charges entirely false. >>> jobless claims falling by $25,0 25,000 last week, the biggest drop in nearly two year. >>> and sunoco is selling its 7-eleven. >>> there is a lot going on today so let's start your coverage with the most important meeting, president trump's term so far, the one with china's president, xi jinping. the two are about to meet as the president's members-only resort in mar-a-lago, florida. that's where we find kayla tausche. >> reporter: the president is wheels up from washington, d.c. on the way to palm beach, florida, where the high-stakes meeting between the president and his chins countese counterpl be taking place. president xi is expected to arrive in 20 minutes, met by secretary of state rex tillerson. remember, rex tillerson and president xi had a meeting in beijing last month when tillerson went on an asia term when tillerson used the term "win-win" in terms of how he wanted t

nunes refuszal was a blow to mr. trump, less than three months in disruption russia campaign, political damage on some closest advisors and supporters, fury over the context the president's aide ith russian officials led to the firing of michael flynn, mr. rump's national security advisor and jeff sessions from overseeing the f.b.i. inquiry to effort and it led to recusal of mr. nunes from the committee russia investigation mr. trump faces potential revival of that inquiry. hat is in the "new york times" this morning, also a picture from yesterday, as i said, meeting with ent donald trump at mar-a-lago in florida, that is a picture of two gentlemen, their wife necessary that picture, as well, getty d to us from images, jim watson shooting for he publication o. top of the picture, as far as that is concerned in the "wall street marco rubio, d by senator from florida, about china meeting and specifically, headline. the trump should let china off the hook for human rights and make as far as china human rights history an

slight smile on his face because the chair of the house intelligence committee, mr. nuÑesfrom the russia investigation. democrats really want that russia investigation full screen, headlines every single day, and now they may well have it. no effect on the markets, we're still just fractionally higher. i don't think that really had any impact, nor really did speaker ryan's press conference that was held earlier this morning -- literally a few minutes ago. do we have senator ayotte still with us? yes, we do. >> yes. stuart: senator, i'm terribly sorry that we interrupted our conversation. >> no worries. [laughter] stuart: i was asking when we go to a straight majority vote to approve judge gorsuch, way couln the road who impact -- what impact will that have, doing away with that 60-vote requirement? >> well, the impact will be that whoever's in office in terms of the presidency will only have to meet a 51-vo so it's going to be very important that republicans keep the senate majority to make sure that if there's another vacancy in the senate and president trump nominates so

how'd they know unless they were feeding this to mr. nunes after the deep trump russia ties.s to be serious about the investigation not to do the bidding of the white house. >> he said it's unprecedented to have names unmasked during an investigation like this are before. this is not something that never happens. are you concerned about names been unmasked? they were and why weren't they? >> no. >> when american names are revealed, call it incidental collection. color reverse targeting. you surveilled internationally, the u.n. must identify which is illegal. more and more evidence that is coming out. wealthier time and time again is pivoting towards this idea that the russians are colluded with president trump when there's no evidence of that. >> i'm not concerned about the allegations the white house and chairman nunes are making appeared clayton: just not concerned? >> you seem very confident in the end result of these investigations it was about having answers. do you know something we don't know? >> now, i know people at home understand that our country was attacked. what

pile-on -- for nunes. but mr. schiff came out and said there is circumstantial evidence of collusion. where did that go? howie: a sleepyized chuck todd started talking about the surveillance scandal. the other one is the fake news story there is no victory for trump is pushing the phoney russia story. >> i think we are getting away from the point. >> when you watch cable, every missouri they have to reset the story. reason we are holding these investigations, we have to get to the point to see if russia meddled in these elections. the president is trying make it unmasking of names the biggest story but it's not. the biggest story is whether russia mid -- meddled in the election. howie: he went after a "washington post" story that said the white house sought to block the testimony of former acting attorney general sally yates. the justice department sent a letter to her lawyer saying her testimony. >> the implication that was shoveled to the audience at home, not just the post, but everyone covering it. this was if

mr. schiff publicly asked devin nunes to recuse himself from the investigation into possible ties betweenussia and the trump transition team. nunes himself is a member of that team. we'll talk to ari fleischer about this and so much more, including syria, next. remember when you said men are supeyeah...ivers? yeah, then how'd i get this... ...allstate safe driving bonus check? ...only allstate sends you a bonus check for every six months you're accident free. silence. it's good to be in, good hands. itbut one i think with quesa simple answer. we have this need to peek over our neighbor's fence. and once we do, we see wonder waiting. every step you take, narrows the influence of narrow minds. bridges continents and brings this world one step closer. so, the question you asked me. what is the key? it's you. everything in one place, so you can travel the world better. at where instead of payinging a befor middlemen,em. we work directly with family farms to deliver higher quality ingredients for less than you pay at the store. get $30 off at blueapron.com/cook >>> all right. let's talk about

mr. speaker, devin nunes has stepped aside from the probe into the russia potential ties and meddling in do you still have faith he didn't do anything wrong and did he mishandle classified information? >> let me just tell you what my statement is. first of all, devin nunes has earned my trust over the years for his integrity for the work he does and is eager to demonstrate to the ethics committee he has followed all proper guidelines and laws. in the meantime it's clear it would be a distraction for the investigation into the russian interference in our election so chairman nunes has stepped aside and i support his decision and we'll now have new leadership on this investigation and confident he'll oversee the investigation and follow the facts where they may lead. [question indistinct] >> chairman nunes wants to clear himself while the investigation continues on without any kinds of distractions. >> reporter: to be clear on that, given the fact he has your support and you reiterated several times your trust but the fact it's been a distraction do you feel confident for him to lead the c

mr. speaker, devin nunes has stepped aside from the probe into the russia -- potential ties and meddling he do anything wrong -- >> no, i put out a statement. first of all, nunes has earned my trust over many years for his sg sgintegrity and his critical wo to keeping americans safe. he continues to have that trust and i know he's eager to dralt to the ethics committee that he has followed all proper guidelines and laws. in the meantime, it is clear that this process would be a distraction to the house intelligence committee's investigation into russian interference in our election. so chairman nunes has offered to step aside as the lead republican and i fully support his decision. representative mike conaway will lead this investigation with respect to the house republicans on the house intelligence committee. i'm confident he will oversee the investigation and follow the facts wherever they may lead. i don't think that's the case -- but i think chairman nunes wants to make sure this is not a distraction to the important investigation. he wants to go clear himself while this investigati

he also spoke about devin nune'' decision to step aside from the russian investigation. this is 15 minutes. mr. ryan: good morning, everybody. everybody is just getting off the bus right now. [laughter] this has been a very productive week in the house as we continue our efforts to repeal and replace obamacare. this promise is just too important and the consequences of inaction are too dire for american families. we cannot just give up. that is why over the last couple of weeks, we have encouraged members from across the conference and you see many of them represented here today, we encouraged members to find consensus. in particular, i want to thank kevin brady and greg walden. while we have work to do to get there, we have made real progress this week. that's why we are here today. we have come together on a new amendment that we believe will lower premiums and provide added protections for those getting access to care. this brings us closer to the final agreement we want to achieve. this idea was offered by gary palmer and dave schweikert and has been embraced by a broad swath of our confer

mr. fix-it. bannon was devoted. and nunes has stepped aside from the russia probe. all of that has happened in the last 12 days. i'm joined by andy card. first of all, welcome to the team and welcome aboard. >> thank you. i'm thrilled to be part of the team and i enjoy being with you on the air. thank you for having me. >> i remember when you came in in 2001 and there was the, i think it was called an iron triangle. there was you, karen hughes and karl rove. we've talked about this befor but it seemed everybody made sure there were clear lines of authority. and then he besides stwopg the president, the buck stopped with you. it seemed fast that wasn't taking place the first two and a half months of this administration. perhaps are we seeing it now? >> i do think the chief of staff should be empowered by the president to have the responsibility for managing time and process at the white house. and i don't think that reince preebs has been given as much authority as the chief of staff should have. so that's an invitation to play there an inappropriate way in the syste

nunes became ineffective at doing that. i have to question whether mr. conway is going to be any better at it or whether tray goudy will be any better at it. there's no question nunes can't help the white house now. >> just minutes ago, hillary clinton former secretary of state with some of her most stenson i. comments about russia's election meddling. the mar-a-lago summit, meeting trump for the first time, what will they say about the north korea threat? and did white house advisor steve bannon threaten to quit? that's ahead. there's nothing more important to me than my vacation. so when i need to book a hotel room, i want someone that makes it easy to find what i want. booking.com gets it. they offer free cancellation, in case i decide to go from kid-friendly to kid-free. now i can start relaxing even before the vacation begins. your vacation is very important. that's why booking.com makes finding the right hotel for the right price easy. visit booking.com now to find out why we're booking.yeah working on my feet all day gave me pain here. in my knees.

nunes. conway, whoorts mr. will be taking the helm of the house intelligence committee on russia. both. speaker ryan taking the podium right now. speaker ryan: this has been a very productive week in the house as we continue our efforts to repeal in her place obamacare. this promise is just too important and the consequences of inaction are too dire for american families for us to give up. that is why over the last few weeks, we've encouraged members to comeoss the congress together to try to find consensus. i want to thank kevin brady and greg walden for being so engaged in these conversations and talks. we have made some real progress this week. that's why we are all here today. we have come together with a new amendment we all believe will -- this brings us closer to the final agreement we all want to achieve. this idea was offered by our two most conservative members. it has been embraced by a broad spectrum of our conference. as you can see by just a few of the members here today. i will let the authors speak more about it. this amendment would create a new federal risk shari

going to say, look, we have had two peek weea charade and mr offensive regarding incidental collection and that something is earth shattering. nunes has now seen them, schiff has now seen them, the white house has now seen them. so we're sort of getting to the bottom of if there's any there there. so at the end of two weeks of basically pr stunts. so maybe at the end of next week, we'll have clearer information on this. >> flynn in fact said people usually don't ask for immunity until they commit a crime. he was wrong about that then, the president's now saying it's fine for general flynn to say that. >> when you point out that general flynn, immunity is not given just if you have committed a crime. it's customary to ask for this. he made notice of the fact that multiple people within the hillary clinton orbit were given immunity, i think there was one time in the clips you refer to where he was referring to immunity itself. so in this case, we see general flynn asking for immunity, but what you do not see is jared kushner asking for it. you don't see this huge number of people in the trump orbit is asking for it. if michael flynn

mr. president. careful what you wish for. and secondly with respect to chairman nunes' behavior, frankly i think there's a good part of this that is just a giant distraction from the issue at hand. i'm going to remind everybody what we should be focusing on. the charge of our investigation is to get at the truth behind the degree to which if there were trump operatives coordinating and colluding with agents on behalf of the russian government in the interference of the 2016 election. that's what we should stay focused on, chris. >> you know, there has been a fairly explicit attempt by the white house and their allies -- and i would even count the chair of your committee among them -- to shift attention away from what you just said towards the way that we know what we know. that is to say leaks. that is to say improper unmasking within the raw intelligence product itself. are you concerned about that, or do you consider that to be a distraction as well? >> so my advice to chairman nunes, if he were ever to ask me, is crack open a history book and turn to the page entitl

mr. president. careful what you wish for. and secondly with respect to chairman nunes' behavior, frankly i think there's a good part of this that is just a giant distraction from the issue at hand. i'm going to remind everybody what we should be focusing on. the charge of our investigation is to get at the truth behind the degree to which if there were trump operatives coordinating and colluding with agents on behalf of the russian government in the interference of the 2016 election. that's what we should stay focused on, chris. >> you know, there has been a fairly explicit attempt by the white house and their allies -- and i would even count the chair of your committee among them -- to shift attention away from what you just said towards the way that we know what we know. that is to say leaks. that is to say improper unmasking within the raw intelligence product itself. are you concerned about that, or do you consider that to be a distraction as well? >> so my advice to chairman nunes, if he were ever to ask me, is crack open a history book and turn to the page entitl

mr. president. careful what you wish for. and secondly with respect to chairman nunes' behavior, frankly i think there's a good part of this that is just a giant distraction from the issue at hand. i'm going to remind everybody what we should be focusing on. the charge of our investigation is to get at the truth behind the degree to which if there were trump operatives coordinating and colluding with agents on behalf of the russian government in the interference of the 2016 election. that's what we should stay focused on, chris. >> you know, there has been a fairly explicit attempt by the white house and their allies -- and i would even count the chair of your committee among them -- to shift attention away from what you just said towards the way that we know what we know. that is to say leaks. that is to say improper unmasking within the raw intelligence product itself. are you concerned about that, or do you consider that to be a distraction as well? >> so my advice to chairman nunes, if he were ever to ask me, is crack open a history book and turn to the page entitl

mr. schiff wants. now, also, we're hearing that the senate intelligence committee can access those surveillance documents that nunes and schiff saw at f ft. meade, the home. national security agency and the question is whether the senators will go over there yet. no schedule as of yet, but at least they are saying they are making the information available at the nsa headquarters. >> which is not very far away from the capital in suburban maryland. thanks, manu. >>> joining us a member of the house intelligence committee, congressman jims himes of connecticut. thanks for joining us. >> good afternoon, wolf. >> i would like to go through all the headlines starting with the horrific chemical attack carried out against syrian civilians. we've seen all the pictures. his attitude towards the bashar al assad regime has changed very much as a result of seeing these pictures, yet at the same time the president believes syrian refugees should be barred from entering the united states indefinitely. now that these atrocities are taking place and the whole world is watching, do you believe the president can or will reconsider h

mr. trump. he likened it in january to mexican "soap opera star." the top democrat adam schiff says he's encouraged by today's turn of events. why do you think chairman nunesade this decision now? because for days he has been saying he would not step aside. >> i don't know the particular straw that broke the camel's back or whatnot, but i think he came to the right conclusion. >> reporter: schiff would not say whether he believed nunes improperly revealed classified information. he said that is now in the hands of the ethics committee. they will go ahead, scott, and review everything that nunes has said publicly about this issue, but we may not know what they decide under several months. >> pelley: nancy cordes on capitol hill. now, in addition to that house intelligence committee investigation, both the senate and the f.b.i. are looking into the russian effort to sway the election. jeff pegues has been following the investigation from the start. john dickerson, of course, is our chief washington correspondent. jeff, where does the investigation go from here? >> reporter: well, scott, as you know, the house intelligence committee investigation essentially

mr. spicer is, the ordinary course of who's business? >> according to reports, three white house officials helped chairman nunes view the documents that we'realking about on the white house grounds. nunes calls those reports though mostly wrong. >> the challenge was was finding a place to be able to view this information, to be able to get my hands on this information so there were people that probably knew about this. knew about me being there. but the fact of the matter is, that doesn't make them the source of my information. >> all right. that brings us to the first pulse question of the day. do you agree or disagree -- the house skel intelligence committee's russia investigation should be halted over questions about chairman cnunes? let us know what you think. all right, let's go to kelly -- kelly o'donnell at the white house for us. as we were running through what has happened so far today, the question is what is next in the investigation? we're starting a new week. >> reporter: there will be some developments but they come from the senate side, richard. we expect that the senate intelligence committee which has a team of investigator

mr. meadows: i'm optimistic on tax reform if we do it differently than health care reform. chairman brady, chairman roskam are working real hard. we met with devin nunes. we met with a number of different people. this fundamentally comes down, in my mind, on tax reform to a question, do you have the border adjustment tax or do you have it where it's not revenue neutral? at this point we need to go ahead and start having those discussions today. let's look at legislative text, what it means for our constituency. i do believe we will get tax reform and i think we can get it done before august. as long as we're real serious about having real debate. listening sessions are not real debate. it's where you come in and say, here's what we're talking about. you share your ideas and then everybody goes home and nothing happens. debate has to be about changing policy and having the rigorous debate. i'm very optimistic. i mean, if i were in the stock market i would be banking on the fact we will get tax reform , and that is a different narrative than perhaps what you're hearing here on capitol hill just because of some of the positions the freedom caucus has tak

mr. speaker. well, republicans are now joining democrats in calling for chairman nunes to recould you see himself from the house intelligence committee's current investigation into russia's interference in the 2016 election. by working hand in glove with the white house around an investigation that centers on the president and his administration, the chairman has blown the integrity of this investigation. . through his action he's shown he can't lead an impartial investigation. his actions demonstrate why congress must establish a bipartisan, independent commission to investigate president trump's political, personal business ties to russia. the majority of the american people favor an independent commission outside of congress, according to polling done by the associated press. this is a serious matter. our democracy's at stake. our national security is at stake. congress must call a bipartisan, independent commission to investigate these troubling connections between president trump and russia. with that i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose d

mr. trump said today he thinks china "will want to be stepping up" to deal with that. house intelligence chairman devin nunes stepped aside from leading a probe of russian meddling in last year's election. he's now facing ethic complaints of mishandling classified information. in a statement, nunes said: "the charges are entirely false and politically motivated," but that he's acting in the best interests of the committee. house speaker paul ryan met with nunes last night, and said today he agrees with the move. >> i think chairman nunes wants to make sure that this is not a distraction to a very important investigation. so he wants to clear himself while this investigation continues on without any kinds of distractions. >> woodruff: the committee's ranking democrat, adam schiff, had accused nunes of placing his loyalty to president trump before the needs of the investigation. >> i just want to express appreciation for what the chairman decided to do. i'm sure it was a very difficult decision for him. but as he mentioned i think it is in the best interest of the investigation. >> woodruff: three other republ