that's seven months before the chief of staff makes this -- or removes rob porter and rob porter leavesite house. the next follow-up is in november. that's three months before early february when the chief of staff makes these decisions. it's not 16 days, i could see confusion over a short period of time, but let's cut to the chase. i don't care what was said today. in all this fog there's two questions you need to ask, when the fbi did the background investigation, did it include the information in july or november about former abuse of a spouse, that's yes or no. i don't care the story, just yes or no. question two, yes or no, if that information was included in the file in july or november, was anybody outside the security staff told, yes or no? i don't care what the story was, the time line was. i want a yes or no to those two questions, that's it, anderson. >> what does this say to you about how the white house is functioning or not functions? >> it's not just how john kelly's white house is functioning, when the fbi conclude what it concluded last july reince priebus was chief of

mj lee has gotten from one of porter's ex-wives. when he first learned of these allegations he characterized him as emotional abuse. jenny willoughby said they after they thought it was only emotional abuse. that is insulting to anyone in an abusive situation now, emotional and psychological abuse is abuse. meanwhile, both of those ex-wives tell cnn's mj lee today that the white house still has not reached out to them about these allegations, but clearly this telling by john kelly of how this all went down really goes against a lot of what we learned. sources told cnn that people in the white house, including kelly, knew about these allegations long before they came out in february and, you know, perhaps how we square this circle is just the way in which kelly said this to reporters, to us in that room when we were in there. he said he did not hear from the security office about the specific allegations or problems with rob porter's file. that's a very specific telling of the situation. it doesn't cover what we have heard from our s

in large part by this rob porter issue.e a lot of policy and playing a bunch of crucial roles and an adviser to john kelly. if you don't have normal systems in place, a lot of problems can arise and it has sort of taken the air of command to control that john kelly had managed to create around himself as bringing order to the white house, that has gone. >> right, the reporting i saw today about this meeting with steel executives that a lot of people in the white house didn't know what the president was going to announce regarding tariff. >> that is accurate. i spoke to one west wing advisor who was talking about how many people had to company many in early just to try to triangleate that the market could open down. this is toxic for the people who work there. many want to do good work and not hang out and have fun. >> you made the point that his tweeting can literally depend on it is good golf center. we called the weather center. the forecast is sunny. >> but windy. >> breezy we were told. so i guess, i don't know if that

after those facts became known, john kelly said this about rob porter. man of true integrity and honor, and i can't say enough good things about him. he is a friend, a confidant and a trusted professional. i am proud to serve alongside him. john kelly said all of that after jenny willoughby told her story of the marriage to rob porter and now a month later, john kelly is insisting that jenny willoughby's story amounts to nothing more than, quote, the accusations of a messy divorce. if it were up to john kelly rob porter would be still working in the white house after everything that jenny willoughby had to say about them. but the black eye photograph of rob porter's first wife was something that john kelly couldn't dismiss as just, quote, some level of emotional abuse. as if emotional abuse isn't abuse. as if a wife living in constant fear is just one of the possible conditions of marriage. it seems john kelly is living in constant fear now of being asked, what did he know about rob porter and exactly when did he know it? that is what congressman trey gr

working with both of porter's ex-wives. them a very complete read on what was going to be in that first story. i actually, just before that broadcast brought up my notes from that meeting, i read for myself what i read to them. i told them that dailymail.com determined that porter had grabbed his wife by the shoulders and yanked her out of the shower naked. we told them the date that happened. i explained how we were going to report at dailymail.com he had punched the window out, a pane of glass on their front door when she threatened to call the police because he was violating the separation agreement by being in the apartment. we told them about the temporary restraining order she filed. that she was walking on egg shells throughout her honeymoon. even she miscarried a pregnancy of six weeks because of the stress of being around porter. the idea that consisted of emotional abuse doesn't trap. there was physical abuse there. and one other correction, anderson. we didn't tell the white house about the first wife, colbie hol

rob porter played a role as a gatekeeper of the oval office. one of the jobs there was to run point on trade policy. rob porter, along with gary cohn, using shorthand here called globalists when it comes to trade. they effectively had isolated some of the protectionists like peter navarro. with rob porter out of the building, peter navarro has worked his way back into the oval office. a promotion ag a week ago and yesterday signed off on one of his top priorities, which are the tariffs on aluminum and steel which caught a lot of white house officials, including gary cohn, by a lot of surprise. >> michael bender, thank you very much. i want to talk more about this with abby philip, also in that meeting with chief of staff john kelly and our chief political analyst gloria borger, who has an excellent piece about all of this chaos we've seen inside the west wing this week. you were in this meeting, abby. so, you actually heard the chief of staff give this defense of himself with this timeline. does it add up? >> i have to say it was extraordinary

kelly fired porter. the white house put out several statements supporting him at a press briefing the next day. sarah sanders said that porter resigned but would stay on awhile. kelly said he thought the porter issue had been taken care of and didn't know that porter was still in the building. found out he was. he was telling his colleagues that he was thinking this idea of resigning and kelly was not aware of the photograph of his first wife with the black eye. kelly explains that when he saw that picture of her with the black eye, everything changed. that's when he put out the statement that there is no room for domestic abuse and that porter has left the white house. kelly insists that he and the white house counsel, don mcgann had no idea that the fbi had handed over a partial file on rob porter to the white house personnel security office in march and in june and he insists the first he heard about this was the afternoon of february 6. he did said "we didn't cover ourselves in glory in dealing with

porter. so i think way beyond they didn't cover themselves in glory, they really let this problem fester. they didn't do anything about it, and i think that, you know, it shows a white house that's really not functioning properly. >> kelly joked yesterday -- and i ask you this because you're a former white house chief of staff -- that his job is a punishment from god. what do you think of all the chaos that's currently surrounding kelly and so many others in the west wing? >> look, i think everybody who served in that office knows it's tough duty and it's a tough job. but general kelly was brought in to provide order in the white house, and if this is what order looks like, what do you think chaos looks like? i mean, it's really, i think, gotten really, particularly in the last couple weeks, it's gotten worse, and i think it may get worse still, because we have reports now that gary cohn may leave as a result of the tariffs that the president has imposed over his advice, we have reports that

will porter still in the house.cluding kelly on rob porter, it's because he still believed that these were allegations that fell short of what they were about to learn and then when that photograph came out of black eye, everything changed, harris, that's what they put out a statement about, crying domestic abuse and porter was gone. >> harris: you know, i was pretty particular taking notice of the words that john kelly used, serious allegations against rob porter. he knew there were security clearances way back last september with several people and i would think rob porter would have made that list because those were serious allegations against him then. what is the white house saying about kind of the take on it now with the wording? >> john kelly walked us through the situation with security clearances, not mentioning specifically who has interim now or top security or whatever. you but back in august when he first joined the white house, he took a survey because he was concerned the white house wasn't handling

according to the times the president keeps phoning rob porter and asking for his advice.t part of the "new york times" report will probably serve rob porter well as he looks for work as a lobbyist for businesses and countries that are seeking exemptions from the president's new tariffs. the president has speculated about him returning to the white house even though she cannot get a security clearance. so imagine one day to your surprise you have to suddenly deal with questions about the president rehiring the guy who was run out of the white house because of accusations that he abused both of his former wives. republicans are beginning to realize they are always going to have to answer for something new and crazy from the trump white house. here's republican congressman ryan costello with casey hunt last night. >> we're talking about porn stars and the president rather than tax policy and what we need to get done. i'll give you another example, i have a bill to bring back cost sharing reductions and create a plan for two years which will reduce health insurance costs for

allegations against rob porter. the first incident, according to the chief of staff, was february around 5:00 p.m. on february the 6th. it wasn't until a couple hours later that he learned there wasn't just emotional abuse. he learned about the emotional abuse and later in the afternoon, he learned about the physical abuse. the next morning when the reports that rob porter was still at the white house, kelly seemed to be asking about that in the following morning, he said that's when they made sure he was out of the building. at that point, he was just cleaning up his paperwork, quote/unquote, checking out. we're get iting attempt from th chief of staff to clarify what went down in terms of his strong support for kelly after some of these allegations were out there. he's also making clear when he found out there were pictures from the daily mail that allegedly showed rob porter, one of his wives with some bruises on on her face. we seem to be getting a little bit of explanation from kelly on this. it's still, i have

his chief of staff reignited it over rob porter. while kelly said he is not quieting over the controversy, he admitted to reporters that growing statements from the white house praising reporter just z at staff secretary was stepping down were a mistake. he said quote, we didn't cover ourselves in glory in terms of how we handled that. he also tried to clean up the time line. insisting he only learned of the red flags february 6. sources tell cnn a different story. that they were becoming aware of the allegations last november. kelly attempted to explain that saying quote, the first accusation had to do with a messy divorce but no mention of abuse. porter's second wife blasted that saying that is insulting to anyone suffering in an abusive situation. punching in windows and dragging someone out of a shower is physical. president is also facing growing criticism over the tariffs. moves that are almost certain to spark a trade war. his response, trade wars are good and easy to win. we win big. it's easy. "wall street journal" is not b

and a denial from porter. by the next day, after we had run the second story with the black eye photo, sara still read that same glowing statement from john kelly at the podium in the briefing roof before announcing he resigned. this is all curious. and, you know, general kelly is saying that porter resigned his job to him that tuesday before the first story ran. but the story that we ran carried a statement from him saying in the present tense that i'm proud to work with him. >> right. i noticed that. implying he was still working there. it was in the present tense. when chief of staff kelly today said he had been told about so-called emotional abuse. does that make any sense? >> not unless sara huckabee sanders was keeping facts from john kelly. this is career suicide. this is a man who worked for john kelly. we know from our reporting and you confirmed it, as well, at cnn. that the fbi gave kelly a deep dive into rob porter in november of last year. we know from what chris ray said on the hill that both of

this is a photo of what porter allegedly did to her. a word in what the white house engaged in. the word is gas lighting.

that's rob porter. the one whose two ex-wives and live in girlfriends said that he abused them. >>> plus interior secretary under fire tonight for saying he doesn't care about di virs verd. >>> after failing to mention the poison attacks and the call with vladimir putin and saying maybe russia didn't do it, the president is now stepping up and showing 60 russian diplomats the door. ctually happen? do you just flip a switch... and presto your business is magically transformed? not quite. it takes a ground-breaking company like dell technologies. a family of seven technology leaders working behind the scenes to make the impossible... reality. for instance, we're helping to give cars the power to read your mind from anywhere. ♪ we're helping up to 40% of the nation's donated blood supply... to be redirected to the areas and people that need it most. and we're even developing technology to create a whole new vision for the blind. so while you might not see what we're doing... what we're doing is changing th

on wednesday that the white house even updated john kelly's statement about rob porter and even then, he said, this isn't the man that i knew him to be whatsoever. it's not as if any where and there. i told him, he has to go. he was fired. they were maintaining he resigned and left on his own terms. >> i want to bring in white house post reporter jennifer ruben. what's going on here? >> you got me. i think john kelly is a lot of trouble and engaged in this death match with jared kushner and ivanka. clearly the president is very upset, so upset he probably started a trade war because he's so upset with john kelly. everyone is just covering their rear ends here and inconceivable, not only he didn't know as francesca said until the 6th but for an entire year, he had no press clearance. john kelly came in the summer. apparently, he was told in the fall somebody was told in the fall he wasn't going to be getting his clearance. so it was john kelly not told about that or not known the details? none of this hangs together. and i think it's really reflective of the fact that john kelly is on

the take away as it related to rob porter, after he first learned about accusations about rob porter, initially that they were only allegations of verbal abuse, no physical abuse, that rob porter was gone. that he was -- that he had resigned. effectively, what john kelly said was when it went from being something that was physical abuse, he immediately said this is done. you are resigning. but that timeline doesn't match up with what the dailey mail initially broke the story. they say the white house was alerted out of the gates that the allegation wasn't just a verbal abuse by one of porter's ex-wives but also of physical abuse, including one scene where jennifer willow by, one of the ex-wives says porter yanked her, physically out of the shower in one of the fights the two had. in an effort to in some ways put the story to bed, they have only revisited some of the questions that made it so hard to believe in the first place. >> ashley, i am wondering, i want to read you something else that you guys reported today about the president reiterating his long-standing concerns. he was ang

the knock john kelly in addition to how he handled the rob porter issue. the things he can control is staffing. and there are a number of people he has kept in their positions. people like peter who was promoted and now involved in the trade policy has become very controversial. a trade possible policy talked about in terms of tariffs. there are a lot of people who thought the jobs would be imperiled. he decided to take his time and he's been rocked by one controversy to another and has 97 really had time to go back at it. so you have this untenable situation. >> all right. thank you for your insight. always great to have you on. on what chief of staff john kelly said to reporters today, creating more of a controversy. that's next. psoriasis, little things can be a big deal. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not an injection or a cream. it's a pill that treats psoriasis differently. with otezla, 75% clearer skin is achievable after just 4 months, ... with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. and the otezla prescribing information has no

jared kushner and ivanka trump and rob porter and hope hicks. they enjoyed rarified access to the president and special privileges in the west wing. glamorous and well connected, they had an air of power and invincibility. they even double dated once. but an unlikely cascade of events set in motion by paparazzi photos of porter and hicks published february 1st in a british tabloid crashed down on kushner this week that many inside and outside the white house could mark the fall of the house of kushner. all this chaos and the hours of executive time to soak it all in, making for a very grumpy donald trump. nbc news is also reporting this afternoon that donald trump was angry and unglued when he started yesterday's trade war. for that nbc scoop, a trifecta of events had set him off in a way that two officials said they had not seen before. hope hicks' testimony before lawmakers investigating russia's interference in the 2016 election, conduct by his embattled attorney general, and the treatment of his son-in-law by his own chief of staff. to help

porter assured kelly there was nothing to the allegations but kelly insisted porter had to resign.night, and the next day, the white house released several statements in support of porter the. even though he had effectively been fired. >> he is going to be leaving the white house. it won't be immediate but he is resigning from the white house but ensure that there is a smooth transition moving forward. >> kelly took the blame from that saying he had not fully briefed the press office of what happened. when he photo of his ex-wife with a black eye. he revealed that porter had been removed from the white house. kelly also said neither he nor white house counsel don mcgahn were aware the fbi had sent information about porter's security clearance file to the white house in both march and july. kelly told reporters today that he never thought about resigning over the porter issue saying that he acted quickly when he learned about it and did things as appropriately as he thought he could, saying that it was nothing to consider resigning over. but, kelly did acknowledge that the white hou

pretty much saying that porter's a good guy. i mean, it's just -- i'm amazed this sort of behavior should not be tolerated. he should retire. there's a trend at the white house right now that is happening that people are resigning left and right. we just had the communications director resign. john kelly should follow that trend. connell: would you agree on how that situation was handled? >> with the rob porter situation, first of all, let's not forget that when you have a white house communications director romantically involved with the staff secretary these things have a way of clouding judgment and decision making. the only proper response in this situation is mistakes were made. >> should kelly resign? >> no, kelly should not resign. i think kelly has moved very quickly on this. obviously porter has been dismised. he's moving quickly on the interim security clearances. i think trump should continue to give him as much leeway as possible to bring order out of chaos. i see it actually moving in the right direction. mistakes w

made that public statement praising porter. he said porter at the time resigned and then a couple hours later when kelly learned about these physical abuse allegations, that's when he confirmed as he told us in no uncertain terms that porter would be departing. i was struck by one of the quotes. he said we didn't cover ourselves in glory in how we handled that on that day. he said it was confusing. in effect, john kelly says -- because one of the questions was why the white house was still standing by porter for 24 hours after the photo of a black eye came out. kelly saying he should have donna better job communicating it to the staff. the white house has become aware this allegations existed. others within the west wing, john kelly effectively said that christopher wray the white house had been communicated this information months ago, but that kelly said it was not information that he had ever received. again, this is reigniting new questions about the internal process of the white house. steve, right now storms are brewing i

we saw that rob porter's ex-wife jennifer willoghby issued a statement basically criticizing him for that. i think john kelly at the very end, basically, topped off a very interesting week for the white house. >> sean, i want to turn to your colleagues reporting on jared kushner's apparent downfall. here's the headline. jared had faded inside the 28 days that left kushner diminished privately. the president has reiterated his long-standing concerns. concerned that he was in his view being dishonestly maligned. but everything might be better for them if they simply gave up their government jobs and returned to new york. that is according to a white house official. what is it? does he want them to stay or does he want them to go? >> there's this increasing sense not only from the president and from the people around him and the broader community in washington that jared kushner is somebody who came in and had virtually no government political experience and had almost this princely status in trump's washington and that over the past year, you know, he has shown and demonstrated that pe

highway ignoring the question about porter. it's not clear how gowdy and cummings will respond. >> the stormy daniels scandal, multiple sources telling cnn some officials are worried the accusations and thorny legal fight could wind up dwarfing some of the president's past transgressions. lawmakers trying hard to distance congress from this mess. >> i haven't put a second of thought into this. just not on my radar screen. >> i don't know that we necessarily have to get involved. you can sure if any of that were happening with a democrat, the republicans would be very involved in it. our time should be spent making the future better for the american people. >> there was nos white house briefing on thursday. president trump is upset we're told with sara sanders for her handling of the stormy daniels on wednesday. she told reporters are an arbitration case was won in the president's favor marking the first time the president was involved in any way with daniels. >>> the interior department defending the nearly $139,000 price tag t

porter assured kelly there was nothinged to the allegations, but kelly insisted porter had to resign.he white house released several statements in support of porter even though he effectively had been fired. >> he'll be leaving the white house. it won't be immediate. but he is resigning from the white house but he'll stay on to insure there always smooth transition going forward. reporter: kelly took the blame for that. when he learned of the photo of the first wife with a black eye, port was removed from the white house. he said neither he nor don mcghan. he said he never thought about resigning over the porter issue. that he reacted quickly and took care of things after he learned what happened. but he did acknowledge the white house could have handled the situation better saying quote we didn't cover ourselves in glory in terms of how we handled that wednesday morning. it was confusing. lou: the fbi refusing to expedite the release of documents about secret meetings that took place between former fbi director james comey and former president obama. the fbi statement reads in part q

he did it for rob porter. he did it for corey lewandowski on the campaign trail when he grabbed a reporter. he does not mind about violence against women. it is something that really just, it doesn't matter to donald trump, and he just is showing us that this is something that is not going to stop him. he's going to staff his white house with whoever he wants, wherever he whatnots, and flaunt this behavior. >> he can't get a security clearance for him, we should note that. "the times" also reports that what donald trump misses about rob porter is his organization, is his ability to keep things in check and in line within the white house. in what universe does rob porter, even with that, look like a good option to bring back into the white house? >> he doesn't. donald trump likes to bring back or have around him anyone who reflects the donald trump he wants to see, right? so he calls up rob porter and he's like, hey, am i model? he's like, yeah, i'm a model. and he's like, great, you can come back. but there is

he basically said he had confirmed with rob porter porter would resign the same day he learned aboutestic abuse against staff secretary despite the white house the same day was defending rob porter. that contradicts reporting from sources that chief of staff kelly and white house counsel were made aware of these allegations against rob porter back in november kelly put out a statement essentially saying we did not cover ourselves in glory how we handled that situation. it was confusing. despite that kelly saying he did not do anything that would lead him to believe he should resign. back to you guys. >> boris sanchez, we appreciate it so much. thank you. >> john kelly may be feeling pressure from inside the west wing. a new report from the "new york times" claims president trump asked kelly for help pushing his daughter ivanka and jared kushner out of the white house. joining me political commenta r commentator. >> >> good morning. >> we know the president's circle is smaller without hope hicks. why would the president want his family members out. >> there's a lot of questions asked

>> what's the situation with rob porter? the staff secretary pushed out of the white house after reports of domestic abuse? >> reporter: this is extraordinary. the president, after firing rob porter for these reports that he domestically abused two of his ex-wives, the president has been calling porter, sources tell cnn, phoning him in the last several weeks and reportedly wants him to come back to the white house. that's in spite of all the things that have happened as a result of that incident, changes to the security clearance process and several other white house aides leaving as a result of that. the president seems to think that porter should be back here in the white house. remember, president trump actually defended rob porter on multiple occasions in the days after he left this white house. a source tells us despite the president's desire to bring him back in here, the issues that underlie this, the security clearance processes, the fact he couldn't get one, has not been resolved. it's really unlikely that he will e

now, it is not that surprising that the president kept in touch with porter.unning given the allegations made against porter and the nasty departure that he had here from the white house, very frustrating not only because of those very serious allegations but also because the president believed that that departure was botched here by aides in the white house including the chief of staff john kelly. but the president has stayed in touch with him. he does this with people who leave the west wing or his orbit, don't often leave for very long and we're seeing that here with rob porter. the thing you have to keep in mind is the context here, this is coming as the president's inner circle here in the west wing has continued to shrink over the recent weeks. only the departure of rob porter, but hope hicks, keith schiller, johnny mcintee, several aides close to the president as well. aides in the white house do not think it is likely that rob porter will return, given the seriousness of the allegations made against him. but it does go to show just how close he and the

>> he had the information related to porter. i don't understand why he would allow hope to date porter. >> how can he deep her from dating -- >> my point is he had the information, he tried to cover up the information, tried to get other people inside the white house to cover up the information for him. >> you believe kelly covered up the information about -- >> i do. >> that's not what the white house says. the white house says as soon as he found out, he acted on it. >> i don't believe that. >> is that another white lie? >> you've got to ask him. have him sit in the white chair and see if it's a white lie or not. the rob porter situation for me, i liked rob. i've been asked even by the president did i see any of that indication of rob. i didn't. but there was an fbi dossier on rob, and people knew about it. >> how does kelly survive then? why didn't he get the berated that hope hicks got? >> this is how it works. it's going to be up for the president to decide that. i guess he's an honorable marine, so he's got to look at hims

on wednesday that the white house even updated john kelly's statement about rob porter and even then,e said, this isn't the man that i knew him to be whatsoever. it's not as if any where and there. i told him, he has to go. he was fired. they were maintaining he resigned and left on his own terms. >> i want to bring in white house post reporter jennifer ruben. what's going on here? >> you got me. i think john kelly is a lot of trouble and engaged in this death match with jared kushner and ivanka. clearly the president is very upset, so upset he probably started a trade war because he's so upset with john kelly. everyone is just covering their rear ends here and inconceivable, not only he didn't know as francesca said until the 6th but for an entire year, he had no press clearance. john kelly came in the summer. apparently, he was told in the fall somebody was told in the fall he wasn't going to be getting his clearance. so was john kelly not told about that or not known the details? none of this hangs together. and i think it's really reflective of the fact that john kelly is on thin

it's incredibly unlikely to happen, especially because of those allegations made against porter which prohibited him from being able to obtain a security clearance which was required for that kind of job, the job handling the level of paperwork that rob porter did. but it does go to show who the president keeps in touch with despite how they leave this white house, what circumstances they leave the white house under, and rob porter seems to be one of the people the president has decide to do keep in his orbit here, brianna. >> indicakaitlan collins and mj thank you for joining us. >>> we have michael moore. he is a former district attorney for georgia and former publications director for ted cruz. when you think of how the president isn't responding publicly to the stormy daniels saga, it's astounding because he always responds to things. >> i think it's one of the first instances when scandal has not embroiled this administration. top aides are telling the president not to speak publicly about it, not to go on a late night or early morning tweet storm, and he's actually listening. wh

. >> john kelly revives the porter scandal and says he won't resign over it. >> seems to be a feeding frenzy inside the west wing. everybody is shooting at everybody. >> i served under six administrations, i've never seen such chaos. >> if they want to call it cares on kays on, fine. but we call it success. >> the president is facing growing criticism over the tariffs announced. >> on an average car, the actual impact will be a fwraraction ofe percent. >> we're seeing a lot of good things happening. >>> 8:00 on a saturday morning and we're glad you are with us. i'm christi paul. >> and i'm martin savidge. >> and we're really watching the people across the northeast because nethey will start to survey some of the damage after the bomb cyclone just unleashed a vee severe winds knocking down trees, some homes are destroyed. but the wind threat is still very much alive. we know five people have died as a result of this storm so far. and there is torrential rain from the storm that is causing some widespread flooding now. we know also that the third wave so to speak of this storm is yet to

i don't think anybody would say john kelly needs to go because of rob porter. i think the fact he came clean and said, screwed it up, won't happen again, that was sufficient. >> kelly jane, i want to ask about hope hicks. i was listening to "new york times" haberman talking about how she was like family to this president. she was somebody he trusted. she was a filter for him. she took a lot of the brunt from him but was able to direct him to some degree. with her leaving, is there any sense of who can fill that void in the white house? >> great question. does go to show jared and ivanka rumors may just be rumors. if trump is willing to let go or to be fine with seeing someone who is like family going, then what about actual family? we constantly heard this, we need people in the white house like john kelly, like general mattis, like rex tillerson to keep trump strong, tame that chaos. nobody has been able to do that. even hope hicks, who was close to the president and seems to have been a consummate pr professional as young as she was couldn't do it. why would

she was known to the press as rob porter's ex-wife. now jennie willoughby will be here to talk about a scandal she never sought. the president's lawyer is being accused of trying to vo: gopi's found a way to keep her receipts tidy, even when nothing else is. brand vo: snap and sort your expenses with quickbooks and find, on average, $4,340 in tax savings. quickbooks. backing you. howie: i spoke to the president's lawyer about stormy daniels trying to overturn a non-disclosure agreement. cohen was the one who had her sign the agreement. >> the idea an attorney would go off on his own without his client's lawyer and engage in this agreement is ludicrous. >> the story line is a porn star was paid $130,000 by the president's personal lawyer to keep her mouth shut about an affair that took place around the time his son was being born. this is not a good story line for the president. howie howie: cohen told me i committed no crime. the sole purpose of these negative attacks is an attempt to malign our president and distract from his historic

. >>> a source tells cnn that the president has spoken with rob porter multiple times, essentially using him as a sounding board. porter, who never obtained his full security clearance when he was working at the white house, was pushed out a couple of months ago after reports of domestic abuse involving not just one but both of his ex-wives. but, according to some reports, the president may want him back. >>> and growing questions today around the president's tweets. ridiculing his critics, typically a mainstay of his feed. noticeably absent, any mention whatsoever of this woman, stormy daniels. cnn has new reporting that the president knows he must handle the topic with more care than he does other matters and he, quote, unquote, knows the stakes. let's start with senior white house correspondent jeff zeleny, waiting for that to begin. first on this thanks but no thanks from more lawyers to join team trump. >> you certainly teed up many of the topics on the agenda, the topics likely to come up here. this is a recurring story. yet again, a major high-profile and powerful lawyers are sayi

porter has denied the allegations.liar with the conversations tell the "new york times" that president's calls with mr. porter have increased in the last few weeks as the number of people he is close to inside the white house continues to dwindle. according to a white house official, the presidents has told advisers he knows he probably cannot bring mr. porter back, but he has made clear that he misses the staff structure that mr. porter helped build and implement. >> and the white house is sending mixed messages concerning reports that president trump is planning to oust veterans affairs secretary david shulkin. one white house spokesperson said yesterday the president is still confident in shulkin, but hours later, another spokesperson dodged that question. >> the bottom line is, we all serve at the pleasure of the president and if he's not pleased, you'll know it. at this point in time, though, he does have confidence in dr. shulkin. he's done some great things at the va. as you know, the president wants to put the

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we saw that around rob porter. he very much guards the area around the oval office and views a lot of people with their own relationships with the president as an imperilling factor in his command and control structure, which he favors. >> is there, as anthony scaramucci just said, a culture of fear and intimidation. >> i don't know that i would use intimidation because i don't know what that is referring to. there is a culture of fear of getting in trouble, be getting on someone's batted side. you have this moment for basically two months after last year where the white house sort of was united for the most part people against steve bannon. they were able to tell themselves that was the problem. prior to that, they were able to say reince priebus, he's the problem. the problem is the person who sets the tone, and that is the president. so i heard again last night from some advisers who departed the white house saying they think without sort of people who can whisper in the president's ear very effectively, that th

porter was part of that. johnny mcintee, the personal aid that was fired and hope hicks who is expected to left white house any day now. >> the subject of the inner circle, you know, the president needs people around him to help on many fronts, one of them is the russia investigation. keeps on trying to bring on new lawyers and keeps on failing at that, kaitlan. >> reporter: that's true. no one is joining the white house legal team at this time, even though there have been a lot -- a lot of outreach. this is the fifth major firm that has been reached out to about the idea of joining the president's legal team, and now we have learned that two more lawyers have declined to join the president's legal team. that's from a chicago-based law firm, dan webb and tom buchanan, who say they are not joining the president's legal team. they put out a statement saying, quote, they were unable to take on the representation due to business conflicts. however, they consider the opportunity to represent the president to be th

rob porter. and a lot of people are wondering, why would he even -- why would he even bring that back under the spotlight? it seemed to be over to some degree. >> well, you know, may or may not be punishing john kelly by making him trump's white house chief of staff. he failed at almost every level as trump's white house chief. he has been unable to tell donald trump hard truths and at the end of the day he has failed by his own narrow definition of the job which is to be the hone honest broker of information to the president. stormy daniels changing timelines have been part of that. look, the reality is i heard somebody say the other day that this white house is guilty of spinning. spinning is not what this white house does. lying is what this white house does. and has done from day one. truth was the first casualty when sean spicer stepped up to the podium on day one. a story that i tell in the new chapter of my book. and, sadly, john kelly has enabled that. he's participated in that. and, you

the the white house scandal on rob porter has almost entirely been self-inflicted. the white house time after time changed its story, defended rob porter at probably inappropriate times. now, john kelly faced a lot of criticism for the way he handled it. i think he wanted to loop around and ride to fix it. as someone who is a former military officer, he felt that he had some level of accountability to put forward. >> how about the hope hicks departure, kate? how big a deal is that? >> well, she seems to be incredibly close to the president. somebody who was with him from before the campaign actually launched. seems to be sort of a confidante of president trump. so, you know, it sounds like this is a big deal. you know, what we're hearing is that this is somebody that the president relied on and sort of looked at as an adviser on all things. maybe not policy necessarily, but somebody who is a sounding board, somebody who maybe had a grounding influence on the president. so this is certainly -- it lends itself to increased chaos. >> yeah. so picking up on what kate sa

, donald trump, john kelly did not care about the ex-wives of rob porter, and hope hicks helped direct that to the country. no white house director has had a worse episode in the job than that. that came after the lack of judgment after she got caught publically engaged with n a romantic affair with a married man who had the title campaign manager, corey lewandowski. she got caught by reporters on the streets of manhattan having a quarrel with the married man she was having an affair with. donald trump had the good sense to fire corey lewandowski but never had the good sense to fire hope hicks. part of why hope hicks survived as long as he did as the most incompetent white house director in history, is that most of the white house press corp. fell for her and fell for her in a way they have not fallen for members of the white house press team. here's a moment from the first week of the trump administration. you will not see this kind of moment with sarah huckabee-sanders. in my years of working in government and washington, i never saw members of the press corp., socially kissing membe