>> nancy cordes on capit i can't believe it. that we just hit the motherlode i got cones, anybody wants one! oh, yeah! get ya some! no, i can't believe how easy it was to save hundreds of dollars on my car insurance with geico. ed! ed! we struck sprinkles! [cheers] believe it. geico could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. >>> well, this has a nice ring to it. the fcc announced new steps today to block robocalls. last month alone nearly 5 billion robocalls were made in this country. that's about 15 calls for every american. here's moll a lenghi. >> reporter: from phone numbers you don't recognize and that never seem to stop. last year americans were bombarded with nearly 48 billion unwanted calls. today federal communications commissioner proposed new tools to arm the phone companies. >> we've authorized carriers to block robocalls from certain spoofed numbers. we've authorized the creation of a reassigned numbers database. >> reporter: the fcc will now allow major phone carriers to use a technology to block unid

nancy cordes is at the capitol tonight. y, this is a bit of a breakthrough. >> reporter: it is, john, because the president and his family had not been happy at all that the president's oldest son had been subpoenaed to testify coittee. and, in fact, the president ha congressional subpoenas. but a deal has now been struck that would limit the amount of time that donald trump jr. would spend answering questions-- just two to four hours max, behind closed doors in mid-june, john. >> dickerson: and what do they want to know? >> reporter: well, there appear to be some discrepancies between his testimony back in 2017, and what some other members of the trump inner circle have had to say about some key events, specifically about that meeting that he had with a russian lawyer who was offering dirt on hillary clinton, and what he knew about a proposed trump tower deal in moscow in 2016. so the committee wants to ask him about both of those things and see if he has different answers this time around. >> dickerson: all right, nancy co

nancy cordes reports from capitol hill. cr problem. >> reporter: federal aviation officials defended their agency against accusations that they allowed boeing >> what were the steps the faa took in reviewing the mcas system and the accompanying training? >> i can assure you that the mcas system was examined and certified. >> reporter: investigators say it was connected to two crashes, one in indonesia last october and another in ethiopia in march, killing a total of 346 people and grounding the 737 max worldwide. >> once we are absolutely convinced of the safety return to service, then we'll do it. >> reporter: this 24-year-old pshkilled in ethiopia. the required analysis and investigation by august. >> you don't think this plane should be back in the air any time soon. >> no, because we don't have any information about it. >> reporter: cbs news received awe owe from pilots complaining last year that they weren't informed about the jet's new system. >> somebody at the corporate level made the decision, people who fly the ai

nancy cordes joins us with more on this. ancy, some republicans earlier said they did want to hear from robert mueller. what's changed? >> reporter: what's changed is the senate's republican leader, mitch mcconnell, jeff, got the president's message loud and clear, and so he went to the senate floor today and said point blank, the case is closed. the 450-page muller report is out, he said, it doesn't recommend any charges against to move on. at the same time, the white house was taking another step to stymie the democratic-led investigations here on capitol hill, exerting executive privilege to block former white house counsel don mcgahn from complying with a congressional subpoena. in a letter to the house judiciary committee, the president's lawyers said mcgahn "does not have the legal right to disclose those documents from his time in the white house." that led the house speaker, nancy pelosi, to accuse the president of obstructing justice on a near daily basis at this point. still no word, jeff, on whether the special cou

here is nancy cordes. >> reporter: the long-planned meeting lasted about three minutes, and ended withresidential brush-off. >> to watch what happened in the white house would make your jaw drop. >> reporter: congressionalsay ed into the cabinet room 15 minutes late and didn't shake hands or sit down. he accused house speaker nancy pelosi of saying "something terrible" about him, and left. >> he just... took a pass, and it just makes me wonder why, why he did that. >> reporter: president trump says it was this comment this morning that set him off. >> and we believe that the president of the united states is engaged in a cover-up. >> reporter: he took to the rose garden to vent his frustration. >> instead of walking in happily into a meeting, i walk in, to look at people that have cover-up. epr: it's a loaded term, reminiscent of watergate. >> you maintain you have no knowledge of the cover-up? >> i had no part in any cover- up. >> reporter: in this case, democrats say "cover-up" refers to white house aides stonewalling on subpoenas and ignoring hearings. >> it simply cannot be the cas

and that seems unlikely, jeff. >> glor: okay, nancy cordes, loank you.ine of powerful storms is kicking up trouble in texas cknight, and up into the central plains. millions are threatened by flooding, hail, and tornadoes. here's mireya villarreal. >> reporter: major flooding surrounded homes in several houston neighborhoods, leaving drivers stranded and causing high-water rescues throughout the day. >> keep going. go, go, go. >> reporter: roads submerged in water caught drivers off-guard. matthew graver left his minivan behind when things got too dangerous. >> people were stuck everywhere on the side of the road. ahode, hundredsf.stight. homes in the kingwood area were flooded out. >> there is a funnel right there in front of us. >> reporter: the same storm system stretched into oklahoma, and is being blamed for a powerful tornado and floodwaters that engulfed the small town of sayre. back in texas, crews recover the body of a man who was reportedly swept away by floodwaters in austin, while preparing for yet another round of storms. ( thunder cracks )

nancy cordes has more. >> he lied to congress. if anybody else did that, it would be considered a crime. >> reporter: the house speaker's accusation ricocheted across washington today-- the justice department calling it "reckless, irresponsible, and false"-- as the man in question skipped out on a house hearing after a dispute over the format. >> attorney general barr has informed us that he will not appear today. >> reporter: one democrat mocked barr's absence by feasting from a bucket of k.f.c. >> chicken barr should have shown up today and answered questions. >> reporter: republicans argued barr was right to steer clear. >> we go back to a circus political stunt to say we want it to look like an impeachment hearing, because they won't bring impeachment proceedings. >> reporter: speaker pelosi argues, the nation's top law enforcement official broke the law last month when he feigned ignorance about reports that members of the special counsel's team were unhappy with barr's initial four-page summary of their work. >> do you know

trend continues, the house is prepared to hold more officials in contempt of congress. >> glor: nancy cordesthank you very much. the boston red sox visited the white house today to celebrate their world series victory. it was not without controversy. colorskipthe even as did manager alex cora, who is from puerto rico, and said he is not happy with the administration's response to hurricane maria. a dangerous line of thunderstorms is drenching parts of the deep south and plains tonight. in louisiana, flash flooding made it very difficult to get around. in austin, texas, yesterday, a man died after being swept away by rushing water. more life-threatening flooding is expected in the south through saturday. pope francis today issued a new church law to address the clergy sex abuse scandal that has rocked the catholic church. seth doane on what it does and doesn't require. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: pope francis' sweeping new law makes it mandatory for priests and nuns to report sexual abuse and its cover-up. the decree sets out procedures and timelines for investigations, including those against bishops,

here's nancy cordes. >> i said, "bob, what's with the letter?"reporter: attorney general william barr downplayed today the newly-revealed scolding from special counsel robert mueller, which came to barr in the form of a letter in march. >> the letter's a bit snitty, and i think it was probably written by one of his staff people. >> reporter: mueller complained that barr's initial summary of mueller's findings "did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance of mueller's then-unreleased report." the resulting confusion, mueller warned, "threatens to undermine full public confidence in the outcome of the investigations." >> my concern is that that gave president trump and his folks more than three weeks of an open field to say, "i was completely exonerated." >> it was a complete and total exoneration. >> reporter: barr insisted today that his four-page memo was intentionally brief. >> my understanding was, his concern was not the accuracy of the statement of the findings in my letter, but that he wanted more out there to provide .dditional

nancy cordes is on capitol hill. >> the f.a.a. a credibility problem. >> reporter: federal aviation officials defended their agency today against accusations that they allowed boeing to rush the 737 max into production. >> what were the steps the f.a.a. took in reviewing the mcas system and the accompanying training? >> i can assure you that the mcas system was examined and certified. >> reporter: investigators believe that boeing's new mcas anti-stall system was connected to two crashes, one in indonesia last october, and another in ethiopia in march, killing a total of 346 people and grounding the 737 max worldwide. >> once we are absolutely convinced of the safety return to service, then we'll do it. >> reporter: 24-year-old samia stiewma was killed in ethiopia. her parents were there today. >> how could you possibly finish the required analysis and investigation by august? >> reporter: you don't think that this plane should be back in the air any time soon? >> no, because we don't have the information about it. >> reporter: cb

nancy cordes is at the capitol. >> there's overwhelming evidence of obstructing justice. >> reporter: democratic dam broke today as a flood of house democrats announced their support for an impeachment inquiry. >> i'm personally much more open to it now than i was even a few months ago. >> reporter: the split came after former white house counsel, don mcgahn, refused to testify today. his lawyer sent this letter instead, "the president has unambiguously directed my client not to comply with congress." >> we will hold this president accountable. one way or the other. >> reporter: judiciary committee chair jerry nadler: >> he told mr. mcgahn to commit crimes on his behalf. >> reporter: democrats view mcgahn as a key witness to potential obstruction of justice. according to special counsel robert mueller's report, mr. trump repeatedly directed mcgahn to have the special counsel removed. mcgahn refused. >> it was no collusion, and no obstruction. >> reporter: more subpoenas went out today, including one to former white house communications director, hope hicks. but many democrats say it's

nancy cordes has that part of the story. >> reporter: lawmakers pulled on their catcher's mitts todayfter mueller tossed the ball their way. >> it falls to congress to respond to the crimes, lies, and other wrongd o trump. >> reporter: mueller's announcement only added to the democratic drumbeat for impeachment proceedings, especially from presidential candidates who said mueller's words amounted to an impeachment referral. >> he's laying this at the lap of congress. >> reporter: democratic leaders haven't ruled out impeachment. >> nothing is off the table. >> reporter: but in san francisco, house speaker nancy pelosi said it's too soon. >> you don't bring an impeachment unless you have all of the facts, the strongest possible case, so that the president is held accountable. >> reporter: republican leaders insisted the case is over and "it is time to move on." and mueller himself seemed reluctant to go before congress. >> the work speaks for itself. >> reporter: multiple committees are pushing mueller to testify. virginsae should. do you want to hear from him even if, as he said, he's

nancy cordes has that part of the story. >> reporter: lawmakers put on their catcher's mitts when mueller tossed the ball their way. >> it calls to congress to respond to the crimes, lies and other wrongdoing of president trump. >> reporter: mueller's announ announcement only added to the democratic drumbeat for impeachment proceeds, especially from presidential candidates, who said mueller's words amounted to impeachment referral. democratic leaders have not ruled out impeachment. but in san francisco, nancy pelosi said it's too soon. >> you don't bring impeachment unless you have all of the facts, the strongest possible case, so that the president is held accountable. >> reporter: republican leaders insisted the case is over. and it is time to move on. and mueller himself seemed reluctant to go before congress. >> the work speaks for itself. >> reporter: multiple committees are pushing mueller to testify. virginia senator mark warner says he should. do you want to hear from him, even if, as he said, he's not prepared to go beyond what's in the report? >> i think for the sake of the amer

nancy cordes is outside the committee room here as we switch to nancy.ancy, it feels like a tale of two hearings, the republicans focusing on how the mueller report started and the democrats bearing down not only the report but the attorney general's conclusions and how he framed them in his summaries. >> reporter: sure. it's still early on in this hearing, a long way to go, but already the attorney general has been forced to explain a couple of assertions that he's made in the past few weeks that now appear to have some factual inaccuracies. for starters, he was just grilled by patrick leahy, democratic of vermont, about his claim that the president had fully cooperated with the mueller investigation. leahy bringing up example of example in the mueller report that showed the president was not fully cooperative. he was also questioned by dianne feinstein of california, about this letter we now know robert mueller, the special counsel sent to attorney general barr after barr released his four-page member, sort of summarizing the report's findings, mueller

robert: joining me tonight, nancy cordes, chief congressional correspondent for cbs news. molly ball, national political correspondent for "time" magazine and toluse olorunnipa, white house reporter for "the washington post." nancy, you've beenn capitol hill this week, what prompted this escalation. ncy: the president says what prompted it was that word, cover-up. it's a loaded term in washington with connotaons of watergate and nancy pelosi uttering that just before she met with thet, preside said, when he made that impromptu appearance in the se garden, that really made him angry and he wouldn't deal with her ifha she used language. according to pelosi and many democrats, the real reason he walkedut is because he doesn't have the goods on infrastructure and they believe he's looking for a way out because theyere supposed to sit down and talk about ways to pay for this $2 trillion infrastructure package and they know that the white house is going to have a very difficult time selling aac spendingge of that magnitude to the president's own party. robert: sohas the power dyn

nancy cordes reports. >> reporter: the republican leader, mitch mcconnell, got the president's message he went to the senate floor today and said point-blank, the case is closed. the 450-page mueller report is out, he said. it doesn't recommend any charges against the president. and so, it is time to move on. at the same time, the white house was taking another step to stymie democratic-led investigations here on capitol hill. exerting executive privilege to block former white house counsel, don mcgahn, from complying to a congressional subpoena. in a letter to the house judiciary committee, the president's lawyer said, mcgahn, quote, does not have the legal right to disclose those documents from his time in the white house. that led the house speaker, nancy pelosi, to accuse the president of obstructing justice on a daily basis at this point. still no word on whether the special counsel himself, robert mueller, amidst all of this, will be coming to capitol hill to testify this month. >>> china's vice premier is part of the trade dell gratiegation to washington. new tariffs are schedul

nancy cordes reports from capitol hill. >> what they've done is abuse. >> reporter: the long-planned meeting lasted about three minutes. and ended with a presidential brushoff. >> to watch what happens in the white house would make your jaw drop. >> reporter: congressional sources say the president walked into the cabinet room 15 minutes late and didn't shake hands or sit down. he accused house speaker nancy pelosi of saying something terrible about him and left. >> he just took a pass. and it just makes me wonder why -- why he did that. >> reporter: president trump says it was this comment this morning that set him off. >> we believe that the president of the united states is engaged in a cover-up. >> reporter: he took to the rose garden to vent his frustration. >> and instead of walking in happily into a meeting, i walk into look at people that have just said that i was doing a cover-up. i don't do cover-ups. >> reporter: it's a loaded term, reminiscent of watergate. >> are you maintaining you have no knowledge of the cover-up? >> i had no part in any cover-up. >> reporter: in this

nancy cordes covered it all on capitol hill outside the committee hearing room. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, even though the attorney general did not show up for today's hearing, the committee was called to order anyway and the committee's chair, jerry nadler, said if they can't negotiate to get the attorney general back here soon, then the committee may hold him in contempt of congress. >> the attorney general has the nerve to try to dictate and the administration has the nerve to dictate our procedures. >> reporter: jerry nadler said barr had balked at the committee's plans to have both lawmakers and expert staffers question him about the mueller report. a setup republicans called unreasonable. >> bill barr was not coming to the circus that was presented to us today. >> reporter: in a senate hearing wednesday, democrats grilled barr about the letter he received from special counsel robert mueller. complaining that barr did not fully capture the substance of mueller's report. >> the letter is a bit snitty and i think it was probably written by one of

nancy cordes has that. >> he lied to congress.anybody else did that, it would be considered a crime. >> reporter: the house speaker's accusation ricocheted across washington today. the justice department calling it reckless, irresponsible, and false, as the man in question skipped out on a house hearing after a dispute over the format. >> attorney general barr has informed >> repter: one democrat mocked barr's absence by feasting from a bucket of kfc. >> chicken barr should have shown up today and answered questions. >> reporter: republicans argued barr was right to steer clear. >> we go back to a circus political stunt to say we want it to look like an impeachment hearing because they won't bring impeachment proceedings. >> reporter: speaker pelosi argues the nation's top law enforcement official broke the law last month when he feigned ignorance about reports that members of the special counsel's yohat fereing with that? >> no, i don't. i suspect that they probably wanted, you know, more put out. >> reporter: but it turns out he

nancy cordes reports.. >> reporter: president trump said he was surprised to learn that his oldest child was being ordered to testify again. >> my son testified for hours and hours. my son was totally exonerated by mueller. >> reporter: his namesake, 41-year-old donald trump jr., has been subpoenaed by the senate intelligence committee, which is run by north carolina republican richard burr. >> mr. chairman, what happens if don jr. doesn't comply with his subpoena? >> reporter: the move infuriated some of burr's gop colleagues. >> was there collusion? the answer is no. >> reporter: house minority leader kevin mccarthy. >> what does it say that a republican-led committee subpoenaed the president's son? >> i believe it's time to move on. i think they have it wrong. >> reporter: but democrats have long argued that trump jr. got it wrong when he testified before closed doors in 2017. >> his answers to questions, and i watched him, were smartalecy, untruthful and misleading. >> reporter: trump jr., for instance

nancy cordes has the story. >> i said, bob, what's with the letter? >> reporter: attorney general william barr downplayed today the newly revealed scolding from special counsel robert mueller, which came to barr in the form of a letter in march. >> the letter's a bit snitty, and i think ith barr's initial mueller's findings "did not fully capture the context, nature and substance of mueller's then unreleased report. the resulting confusion," mueller warned, "threatens to undermine full public confidence in the outcome of the investigations." >> my concern is that that gave president trump and his folks more than three weeks of an open field to say "i was completely exonerated." >> it was a complete and total exoneration. >> reporter: barr insisted today that his four-page memo was intentionally brief. >> my understanding was his concern was not the accuracy of the statement of the findings in my letter but that he wanted more out there to provide additional context. >> he couldn't decide about tt'ructcorr you feel good about your decision? >> absolute

. >> nancy cordes is following all of this on capitol hill. nancy, good morning. >> reporter: good morning. this new subpoena compelling the president's son to testify again was a bipartisan move. and the news came just a day after the senate republican leader declared case closed on the russia investigation. for the first time one of the president's children has been subpoenaed to testify. by the republican-led senate intelligence committee. donald trump jr. already testified back in 2017. but some lawmakers have questioned whether he was fully truthful about his meeting with a russian lawyer before the election and about his knowledge of a propose add trump tower moscow deal. >> he's a private citizen and not a member of the administration. >> reporter: on the cbs podcast the takeout acting white house chief of staff mick mulvaney said he was surprised to learn that donald trump jr. would be subpoenaed. >> to subpoena the president of the united states son and not get a heads up was bad form. >> reporter: in the day in a straight party line v

nancy cordes is on capitol hill with more on this story. nancy, what does this mean? will the documents be turned over? >> reporter: it looks like they're going to be unless the president wins an appeal. this is very significant, gayle, because it is the first federal court ruling in this fight between the white house and congressional democrats. it is a defeat for the president, who has vowed to ignore all congressional subpoenas. in this case, democrats had subpoenaed years of the president's financial records, from mazars usa, his long-time accounting first. democrats want the records to investigate whether the president committed crimines before taking office. the president called the ruling crazy and vowed to appeal. >> nancy, on that point of congress congress' power to investigate, they subpoenaed former white house counsel don mcgahn to testify today. does it look like that's going to happen? >> reporter: nope. he will be a no-show, anthony. according to his lawyers, he is following the president's directive here, and he is going to defy this subpoena. in resp

nancy cordes is on capitol hill.ood morning. >> reporter: good morning, you know, by the president's own admission, it was that term, coverup, that set him off, and led to his ultimatum. either democrats drop their investigations of him, or he won't work with them. even on issues he cares about. >> get these phony investigations over with. >> reporter: the president viewed his walkout as a power play. speaker pelosi called it a temper tantrum. >> i pray for the president of the united states. and i pray for the united states of america. >> to watch what happens in the white house would make your jaw drop. >> reporter: their standoff put a stake in what was one of their few areas of common ground. >> i told senator schumer, speaker pelosi, i want to do infrastructure. you can't do it under these circumstances. >> reporter: white house sources tell cbs news that president trump, an avid cable news watcher, exploded after he saw pelosi say this, just before their meeting. >> we believe that the president of the united s

. >> nancy cordes on capitol hill.awford will have an exclusive interview with attorney general william barr. it will be his first network tv interview since president trump appointed bar to lead the justice department. you can expect all this will be put to question. tune in to "cbs this morning" then. our coverage will continue on our 24-hour streaming network. you can watch it at cbsnews.com or through our cbs news app. there will be much more ahead on this cbs station and tonight on the "cbs evening news." many of you will now return to "cbs this morning." this has been a cbs news special report. i'm margaret brennan, cbs news, 24 hoff hour nondrowsy claritin. live claritin clear. like those from buddy. because stuffed animals are clearly no substitute for real ones. feel the clarity. and live claritin clear. hi, it's real milk, just00% farmwithout the lactose, id. so you can enjoy it even if you're sensitive. delicious. now, i've heard people say lactaid isn't real milk. ok, well, if it isn't real then, i guess th

nancy pelosi's news conference there. she took the president head on and said she struck a cord with him when she claimed yesterday on multipleengaged in a cover-up. she doubled down on that just now at the news conference. she said the president pulled a stunt in the oval office yesterday when he refused to talk infrastructure unless the investigations were dropped. your thoughts on what you just heard from pelosi. >> i'm praying for nancy pelosi is the first thing i would like to say. i don't see how the president could in good faith negotiate with somebody when an hour before she comes to the white house she says that he is guilty of a cover-up. when we've spent 22 months to have mueller investigate the trump collusion claim that went on for two years after $25 million and 2800 subpoenas and that found no collusion and didn't charge him with obstruction. so at what point are the democrats going the move on? now it's not collusion is in plain sight. now obstruction in plain sight. nobody from the department of justice decided to charge the president with obstruction. >> nobody in that room followed up with her claims the pr