. >> where was the white house on this? i mean, you vet everyone carefully, especially your national security adviser. and sean spicer's response to questions earlier in the week, even before we knew all of this? i don't know what he filled out or what he did or did not do. is that an acceptable answer? >> no. i mean, the short answer is no. and we should note for our viewers out there, michael flynn, retired general michael flynn, also oversaw all the intelligence agencies here in the united states and barack obama's administration. so it's not like he didn't know that he had to do this. and as manu just reported earlier, the fact of the matter is, his lawyer, flynn's lawyer says that he did brief them. so, there is a he said-he said situation going on here right now, but we do know that the white house transition was very chaotic. mike pence eventually took it over, but chris christie, the governor of new jersey, oversaw it at the beginning. and we also know that donald trump had a very thin, close circle of people that we

it's about the white house. will interject for a second to say i believe the white house made a tactical error here in handling this scandal. i don't think they are tactically did you mean and i'm not sure why they made this error. maybe i'll be proven wrong wrong. but if you study the history of american political scandal, when you have to stone wall, you have to build the stone wall piece by piece. that's way too left arming to people who are watching you supposedly try to be reasonable. you're supposed to start looking accommodating, mature, reasonable ability these matures, and then you work up to your stone wall so you don't set up the alarm bells at the beginning. when it comes to mike flynn, turn to stone, they would refuse to hand over any documents whatsoever about him. this was national security adviser. he was fired because of lying about his foreign government contacts. he retroactively registered as a foreign agent after they fired him. the white house was explicitly warned about him. this is not som

the top democrat on the house intelligence committee coming to the white house to get his first look at sensitive information. >>> and the former trusted member of the trump team is trying to save his own skin. former national security adviser michael flynn says he's got a story to tell about russia, but he won't say a word without immunity. >>> president trump weighing in this morning tweeting, quote, it is the same fake news media that said there is no path to victory for trump that is now pushing the phony russia story. a total scam. cnn correspondent ryan nobles joining me from the white house. congressman adam schiff was critical of the white house, even after accepting their invitation to come see documents. democrats on the house oversight committee are now wanting to see more. so is the devin nunes document controversy now kind of spiraling out of control for this white house? >> well, at the very least it's making it very difficult for the trump administration to push their agenda forward because they have to continue to answer questions about this controversy. and you mentio

. >>> breaking news p what and who the chairman of the house intelligence committee saw and met with at the white house. and why did the president shut down the kind of photo-op he typically loves to give. the answer when 360 continues. when you're close to the people you love, does psoriasis ever get in the way of a touching moment? if you have moderate to severe psoriasis, you can embrace the chance of completely clear skin with taltz. taltz is proven to give you a chance at completely clear skin. with taltz, up to 90% of patients had a significant improvement of their psoriasis plaques. in fact, 4 out of 10 even achieved completely clear skin. do not use if you are allergic to taltz. before starting you should be checked for tuberculosis. taltz may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if you are being treated for an infection or have symptoms. or if you have received a vaccine or plan to. inflammatory bowel disease can happen with taltz. including worsening of symptoms. serious allergic reactions can occur. now's your chance at completely clea

the white house made no apologies for that. they said, look, a legislation will come when it's ready with the house and senate. brooke, the reality here is that we are essentially -- the white house is just now getting behind what candidate trump promised on the campaign trail. they're a long way away from legislative meat on this. and the challenge of this, of course, is the president is coming to this with not as much popularity, as much strength as he had at the beginning of the administration. of course, the big health care defeat is looming over him. that could change. but the reality is, republicans are going to be among the skeptics of this bill. a, they believe that they were not fully informed and brought up to speed on this. but "b," they believe this is not neutral. this ll in fact raise the debt. as gloria said before, it could be revenue neutral if the economy grows but there is no certainty of that before. in fact, that has not happened over the last couple of decades through these tax cuts. but i think one of the

spicer: to ask the white house to produce documents that are not in the position of the white house is ridiculous. john. reporter: a few weeks ago, when general flynn's attorney wrote to the senate intelligence committee, suggesting some sort of immunity deal for general thin, i asked about whether the white house was invoking executive privilege. your response was, no, no problem with general flynn testifying, he is free to do so, no type of privilege. does that apply to any documents the white house may have pertaining to general flynn's short service as the national security adviser to the president and the time in which he served in the transition period as an advisor to the president-elect? whenpicer: when you ask -- asked, what he is looking into with the white house, my understanding is he was clear that that had to do with his time prior to that. that seems not germane to any of the questions being asked. reporter: prior to service at the white house. mr. spicer: that would have to go to general flynn. there's nothing being asked for with respect to his service with the white h

plus the white house war room. his office checking off the big wins. wait till you hear what's getting the big x. and senator elizabeth warren calling out president obama really nastily. let's go "out front." good evening, i'm erin burnett. "out front" tonight, new documents show trump's former disgraced national security advisor taking money from russia

speaking with the president of the white house correspondents association about the dinner and the significant of the president's decision not to attend. here is more. host: the president of the white house correspondents association. end of oneen the administration and the start of a new administration. from your standpoint, what have been the biggest challenges? >> they are the biggest , and we started with the new trump administration. think the biggest has been this adjustment. a new president comes into the white house with new priorities, and less experience, in this case, in dealing with the press, and new ideas. we have had significant tensions. that is not a surprise. we also developed a good working relationship with president trump's press team, on behalf of the press corps. there were certainly some battles that i did not expect to find, like the press moved out of the press room that was floated at the beginning, but we had a discussion about that, and we are still there, and the pool is flying on air force one, and that is all good things. west wing andthe the white house, why is

right now to ask the white house to produce documents not in the possession of the white house is ridiculous. >> chairman jason chaffetz and elijah cummings say there's no indication that flynn obeyed the law when he did not disclose payments that he did not receive from russia. >> as a former military officer, you simply cannot take money from russia, turkey or anybody else and it appears as if he did take that money, it was inappropriate and there are repercussions for the violation of law. >> i believe the oversight committee should be holding a hearing with general flynn. i'm seeing the chairman, we talked briefly about this and it seems this is the purview of the intelligence committee. but we need to have the opportunity to ask general flynn directly why he concealed these foreign payments from the defense department. >> we do have a statement from general flynn's lawyer that reads as follows. "as has previously been reported, general flynn briefed the defense intelligence agency, a component agency of dod before and after the trip and he answered any questions that were supposed by di

and furthermore, why has the white house -- is the white house apparently stone walling the committee on government and oversight reform in documents. mr. spicer: i'll correct you on that the committee sent a form letter to several agencies, including the white house, asking to find those documents. the documents in question, the department of defense possessed and sent over to them. the documents that occurred before he worked here it would be up to him to turn overful my understanding is the committee has the documents they were looking for. >> i know s.f. 86 was referred to the d.i.a. mr. spicer: wasn't just referred to them. >> apparently they have gained access to that document -- document but there were other documents that should be in the white house's committee that they said the white house can't provide because of the sensitive nature. there were no documents available prior to the 20th. but i also asked the question does the white house believe that lieutenant general flynn might have broken the law when he filled out s.f. 86. mr. spicer: that would be a question for him a

we have a sense of what the white house's intention was with this. 're told by a senior administration official that it was to convey the seriousness of the problem, to give senators a chance to ask questions and talk about the white house's response so far and their options going forward. so not -- and this has been a question going in -- not a major revelation in there, for instance, building support for an immediate military strike for instance but more a general conversation, in light of the fact of something that both parties agree on, democrat and republican, that the threat is very serious. it's getting more serious and you have to be inbegin to talk what you're going to do to keep japan, south korea and the u.s. safe. >> jim, there's now talk, as you know, of putting north korea back on the united states' terror list. would that make a difference, and why do it now? >> reporter: they were on the terror list and they were removed by the bush administration in 2008 at a time -- sort of a concession to north korea as they were trying to ramp up t

they haven't admitted the white house is the source of those documents. there's a whole bunch of problems. devin nunes simplicitily told a reporter he did not obtain those documents from white house firms, but apparently he did. apparently now the white house is at least implicitly admitting they were the source of the documents because today they made those documents available to adam schiff. how else could they be showing them to him if they never had them in the first place? the white house has still not explained why they previously covered up where they came from even if they are implicitly admitting now it was them. in print, this is sort of the coverup part of this scandal, i guess, experiencing it though in day-to-day life it feels less like a scandal is more like a fiasco, it feels like a mess. after reviewing those documents, schiff did release this statement about what he saw. quote, today my staff director and i reviewed materials at the white house. it was represented to me these are precisely the documents presented to nunez a week ago. i cou

how does the white house know that these are the same materials that were shown to the chairman if the white house wasn't aware what the chairman was being shown? and the second point was also made to me, and this i think was also underscored by sean spicer, and that is it was told to me by the deputy assistant that these materials were produced in the ordinary course of business. well, the question for the white house and for mr. spicer is the ordinary course of whose business? because if these were produced either for or by the white house, then why all the subterfuge? there's nothing ordinary about the process that was used here at all. jake, i think the answer may come from the president himself and you can say a lot of things about the president but one thing you cannot say is he's not subtle. and i think his tweets tell the story. and the story is look over there at leaks and look over there at anything the obama administration we can claim did wrong on its collection or anything else. whatever you do look here at me or at russia. i think that's really what's going on. >> do you

jeff, i want to go to the white house. sean spicer trying to clear up the miscommunication over the "uss carl vinson," the aircraft carrier and the battle group that was directed to the coast of the korean peninsula. what's the latest? what are they saying over there? there clearly was a blornlg miscommunication last week. >> there was indeed. i'm not shooun sure sean spicer clear that up at all. he beak said the fault of this was on reporters and others for not asking specific questions about this. he stood by what the president said that said the aircraft carrier, the carl vinson was headed that direction. indeed, that is true because it is now heading that direction and will be flm position likely next week or so. but at the time, last week, sean spicer made very clear this was happening in realtime, that the white house believed that the carl vinson was heading that direction. he said this, wolf. he said that it was when you see a carrier group steaming into an area like that, the forward presence is clearly a sign of a

the white house is vowing to appeal this. chief of staff reince priebus told me they will take this all the way to the supreme court. but it's another sign of the tests and the limits of presidential authority. now this white house so far has signed 26 executive orders since taking office in these first 100 days. they are signing even more this week. now that's a record for any president. but, again, limits of president authority and powers because the travel ban and now this have been turned aside by federal judges. >>> thank you, jeff. this is the second time president trump's own come back to haunt him in court. as with the travel ban the judge looked at the president's rhetoric noting what he said about defunding sanctuary cities, contradicted what government lawyers were arguing in court about withholding only a limited amount. >> the judge wrote this. the president has called this a weapon to use against jurisdictions that disagree with his preferred policies on immigration enforcement. the president and his lawyers disa

they haven't admitted the white house is the source of those documents. there's a whole bunch of problems. devin nunes explicitly told a reporter he did not obtain those documents from white house firms, but apparently he did. apparently now the white house is at least implicitly admitting they were the source of the documents because today they made those documents available to adam schiff. how else could they be showing them to him if they never had them in the first place? the white house has still not explained why they previously covered up where they came from even if they are implicitly admitting now it was them. in print, this is sort of the coverup part of this scandal, i guess, experiencing it though in day-to-day life it feels less like a scandal is more like a fiasco, it feels like a mess. after reviewing those documents, schiff did release this statement about what he saw. quote, today my staff director and i reviewed materials at the white house. it was represented to me these are precisely the documents presented to nunez a week ago. i could

they've asked the white house for documents but the white house referring them to the defense department, not cooperating on other issues. but when you have a republican and democrat, they are from the house oversight committee pushing for this. talking about possible breaking of the law by flynn. we've not seen the end of this case. >> i think you're absolutely right. jim acosta, the white house is pushing back a bit on the suggestion that they're refusing to provide documents to this committee. what are you hearing from inside the trump administration? >> that's right, wolf. the white house is saying it's impossible for them to turnover these documents to the house oversight committee because they don't have them. they are referring the oversight committee to the relevant agencies in that process apparently is now under way. they're not disputing this letter was sent from the white house to the committee. they acknowledge they did send that letter. we should also point out that general flynn's attorney did put out a statement. it says has has been previously reported general flynn brie

she also remodeled the white house. she was the first to really use that term -- this is one of the rooms she remodeled. she did a lot of interesting additions and renovations to the white house. she is followed by a first lady who is a little more like florence, and activist, nelly taft. you may not know she was an activist because she got sick shortly after she came into office, but she has been someone who has been very concerned about the plight of a number of underprivileged people. back when she was in the philippines with her husband, she was someone who really worked against a lot of the prevailing attitudes at the time to reach out to the filipinos and encourage dedication for the children there at the time the americans had a colony in the philippines and her husband was the attorney general. she was also concerned about working women in the united states and protested on their behalf and was the first first lady to ride with her husband to the inauguration. unfortunately, she came down -- she basically had a s

sean spicer during the briefing that's coming up is will the republicans control the house, republicans control the senate, they control the white house. why are democrats being blamed for a government shutdown. but that is the mix of elements, the volatile mix of elements that we're dealing with at this point. and at the same time you have the president just a few moments ago sitting at a luncheon with the argentinean president saying he is going to renegotiate nafta after we went through this whole exercise yesterday that essentially the white house was saying through unnamed officials that the president was ready to withdraw from nafta. that he was ready to perhaps sign an executive order notifyi notifying both canada and mexico of the u.s. intent to withdraw. then late last night after calls with the mexican president and the canadian prime minister the president now saying he wants to renegotiate, he doesn't want to withdraw from nafta at this time. so i think one of the questions for this white house at this briefing here is going to be about nafta and where things stand on that issue. and then of course you heard manu lay

senate into the white house grounds for an update? we'll talk about that when "the 11th hour" continues. >>> welcome back. tomorrow the white house will host all 100 senators for a briefing on north korea. but the white house is making it clear that just because they're hosting the meeting doesn't mean it's their meeting. joining our conversation, david jolly joins me in the studio. senior politics reporter from u.s. today is here and vivian joins us, the white house reporter for the associated press. i want to start with you guys. tell me what the white house is saying about bringing 100 senators down to the oeob where they have to create a secure space for a briefing like this. have you heard them offer any explanation that makes more sense than it makes to me? >> it sounds like trump extended the offer to mitch mcconnell and they're saying it's for logistical reasons. but as you pointed out, why would you bus 100 members of congress down pennsylvania avenue to a space that you would have to custom outfit to make it secure. and that'

director over here at the white house. the white house is not disputing that they sent that letter that that's their explanation at this point. general flynn's attorney has released a statement saying that general flynn did brief the defense intelligence agency about these speaking appearances and about the money he received for those speaking appearances and the house oversight committee is pushing back on that. i heard from a staffer just after that statement was released by michael flynn's attorney saying that this committee has seen no evidence that michael flynn briefed the intelligence agencies about these activities and so there is a bit of a he said, she said about what general flynn was doing to comply with the law in this area. president trump's first national security adviser was not in compliance with the law. that is no small thing. and underlined the fact that during this campaign, we saw this time and again, general flynn was leading the chance of lock her up during the campaign and now he's being accused not

the white house has yet to explain why the senior white house staff has shared them with only one memberof the committee. so schiff there making it perfectly clear is that he's unhappy with the way the white house has handled this, unhappy with the fact that nunes saw these documents a week ago and saying the white house should have shared the information with the full committees in the first place. >> and how the house intelligence committee chairman nunes responding today? is he responding to this? >> reporter: the white house continues to push back on these reports and confirmed today by cnn that two white house staffers were indeed involved in some way in these intelligence disclosures. his staff today issuing a very kurt statement saying, quote, chairman nunes will not confirm or deny speculation about his source's identity and he will not respond to speculation from anonymous sources. and later today, this evening, he was asked in an affiliate interview when he was out in california, his home state about these reports and he called them in his words "mostly wrong" but notably, ande

and the white house said no. t's how conversations always start in washington, d.c. the democrats are already jumping to this. >> honestly do not understand why the white house is covering up for michael flynn. i don't get it. after the president fired him. for lying. so the president fired him for lying about communications with the russian ambassador. they should be bending over backwards to help us. it does not make any sense. it makes the american people think the white house has something to hide. >> we don't know that yet. we're in the first 100 days. the democrats want to keep the anti-trump movement going. i get the politics of that. on something so important and so sensitive, the white house is covering up for michael flynn? if the white house is stalling on documents, call them on it. come out every day and say i asked you monday, i asked you tuesday. if they're covering up for michael flynn, then you have a scandal. on both sides the rhetoric is pretty overheated. >> this reminds me a lot of benghazi in

deja vu on the battle between the courts and the white house. the president had a couple tweets this morning criticizing the federal courts as well as the ninth circuit. also talking about ridiculous rulings. he said i'll see you in the supreme court. >> the white house blasting a federal court ruling after a san francisco judge blocked the president's kbektive action that threatened to strip federal funding from so-called sanctuary cities citing trump's own words in the decision. >> i don't want to defund anybody. i want to give them the money they need to properly operate as a city or a state, and they're going to have sanctuary cities, we may have to do that. certainly, that would be a weapon. >> in a scathing statement, the white house calls judge william's ruling an overreach by a judge who unilaterally re-wrote immigration policies and had the blood of dead americans on their hands. >> these cannot take away our rights and they certainly can't steal our tax dollars. >> hours earlier reince priebus asserting the ninth circuit is going banana

>> it doesn't appear as if he complied with the law. >> reporter: the white house saying most of the requested documents were handled under the obama administration. >> to ask the white house to produce documents that were not in our possession is ridiculous. >> reporter: michael flynn was fired for lying about a conversation with the russian ambassador. and he's already the focus of two separate congressional investigations and an fbi probe into possible ties between the trump campaign and russia. >> the fact that mike flynn did not fill out his disclosure forms, those are red flags, those indicate he was trying to conceal something about these russian payments. >> reporter: just last month, flynn requested immunity through his lawyer to testify before congress. the president supporting the move calling the investigations a wichl hunt. >> this is not only a nagging story, it's a potentially explosive one. >> reporter: the attorney for michael flynn telling nbc news flynn did brief the defense intelligence agency about this speaking event in russia both before and after it happened an

why did it have to be at the white house? why did all the senators have to get up on buses and go there for it? what was the important information that they needed to have imparted to them at the white house? about this urgent situation in north korea? i don't know. but senators seem underwhelmed. here, for example, was the republican chairman of the senate foreign relations committee. senator bob corker. >> how was the briefing? >> it was fine. >> did you guys learn anything in there you didn't know before? >> not really. it was an okay briefing. >> what do you mean it was an okay briefing? didn't really learn much? >> i -- it was -- it was okay. >> it was okay. maybe not worth the trip? senator cory booker from new jersey was there for the strange event today. senator booker joins us live next. y pause a spontaneous moment? cialis for daily use treats ed and the urinary symptoms of bph. tell your doctor about your medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pa

have received from the white house to the house oversight committee, guys. >> so, manu, the key issuek thereof, and this is a white house that touts its transparency, right? and at first blush, you've got the letter. this is a lack of exactly that. what kind of powers does this committee have? is this a committee that would have subpoena power? can they get these documents? can the white house be compelled to turn all this over? >> reporter: they can certainly issue subpoenas. that's well within their rights to try to obtain these documents. and the white house can assert executive privilege and not provide those documents. you might see a bit of tug-of-war between the president and the executive branch for these documents. it will be interesting to hear if that is the route they want to go to get documents related to this investigation and whether or not they want to actually hear from michael flynn publicly to discuss his disclosure or lack thereof, of some of these payments to the executive branch. so expect this fight to occur between the white house and congress over documents.

to assuming the white house. the third is they listed for every call and contact that he made. >> when it comes to this form, sf 86, another white house staffer, jared kushner, who had difficulty filling it out. he did not fully fill out section 19 about contacts with foreign officials even though he spoke to a number of them. he went back and filled that out. we don't know because we don't have access to general flynn's fs-86 what he put down there the documents. according to jason chaffetz, 127 pages long, that would indicate that he disclosed the payments. >> shepard: john, at the core of this is, the russians interfered with our election. general flynn received money through an entity that was from the russians. what they want to know is, was there collusion. the white house at least is giving the appearance, according to these congress leaders, of a lack of cooperation, which could give an overall appearance that they're trying to cover something up. why not quit with all of the semitic juggling and stuff and

[applause] >> shepard: that's the latest from the white house. one of the more interesting things there, do you want to vote this week? john roberts is at the white house. they asked him if he wanted a healthcare vote. from my understanding of the vote in the house, he doesn't really want that. >> i'm hearing that it's very, very unlikely that he will get a vote on healthcare this week. they have language last night. it's possible they could put it through the process and get something friday or saturday. but they have the big negotiation over the continuing resolution and making sure the government doesn't shut down. although i did ask healthcare still looking like next week? maybe this week. so they're still holding out some hope they could get one of the president's signature pieces of legislation passed before his 100th day. most people think it's not going to happen until next week. it's not scored by the congressional budget office yet. the president unveils his -- clearly the president wants to move this along, this healthcare bill, because

mason, white house reporter for reuters, thank you. mr. mason: my pleasure. >> you can watch the annual white house correspondents dinner live tonight at 9:30 p.m. on c-span. next, more on the dinner and a look at the memorial -- min memorable moments from the past. an upcoming book on the history of white house correspondents dinner's. thank you for coming. let's talk about this dinner. why the washington hilton? how may people are in attendance? how did you pull this off? guest: we used of the hilton specifically because they can accommodate these people. they can accommodate the pre-parties. they have holding room for the president. that gives everybody a comfort level. this is the same event they do every year, right? guest: except for the prayer meeting. host: president trump is not in attendance, why? guest: it is not unprecedented for president not to come. ronald reagan did not come. he had a good excuse. he had been shot. he called in. it was a funny call. before that, jimmy carter really disliked the press he skipped two of his. unlike other presidents who he wanted the

i would encourage him to adjudication staff in the white house to do the same thing. >> when i was white house course on income a lot of information came from outside the white house. same logistics? >> absolutely. one of the things that i think you learn when you cover the white house over time is that there is information you get after the building. it was sent and that took me a while to cover the beat and it was coming back this year after being off on the campaign most of last year. two of my resolution were to go to the briefing and to spend more time outside of the white house. you find that you just get a lot more depth in your coverage when you are talking just to the communication shop for the policy shop at the white house, but to us talking to them on capitol hill. who is talking to them in the lobbying world. one of the great things about president trump if he talks to a ton of people appear traditional people in washington you would expect him to put this wide range of people who are his friends and assess yet from new york, his business world. it gives us great advantage t

between the midway west wing and the white house itself. why is it so important to be in that location? mr. mason: it is critical just to be present for when things happen here at the white house, when the president decides to speak to the press. if the president has a meeting with a foreign leader, we are there. if there is something last-minute, where they need the press to come and see something, we are right there. being at the white house shows the transparency that is protected by the constitution, by the first amendment. coming through the gates of the white house everyday to report on the administration, to shed light on the administration, are all things that are protected by the first amendment, and the best way to fulfill those responsibilities is to be in the press room. >> tensions between the press and the president, not new. is it any different with this president? mr. mason: you are right to say there's been tension for decades , for longer than that. that is part of the relationship. it is hard to compare this to lots of oth

kristen welker is at the white house. kristen, talk to me a little bit about why the white house is denying the request for the documents that the house oversight committee has asked for? >> reporter: two reasons, katy. first of all, they say that they don't have a number of the documents that the oversight committee is asking for. they say that michael flynn's security clearance was conducted during the obama administration, and so those are documents that they do not have. they referred that request to dod. they also say that any documentation that they do have related to conversations that michael flynn may or may not have had with foreign entities is too broad. they say that he spoke with a number of officials in foreign governments on a daily basis, and so they say in order to provide specific documents, they need a specific request. so that is the push-back from the white house, and very vigorously deny there is any attempt at stonewalling. i press one of the representatives based on what we've learned today that mic

jim acosta at the white house. more on all of this, democratic senator chris murphy of connecticut is joining us. he's a member of the foreign relations committee. senator, thanks for joining us. >> sure, thanks for having me. >> let me get your quick reaction to the breaking news this hour. a federal judge now blocking part of president trump's most recent executive order to make away funds from sanctuary cities across the united states. your reaction? >> well, it's not surprising. it's yet another executive action that the president has taken that has not held up in courts of law to some extent. the checks and balances built into the constitution on executive power are working. the fact of the matter is, you know, the president really shouldn't be telling local law enforcement what their priorities should be. if a city decides that their priority is to go after violent criminals and not deputize their street officers as immigration enforcement officials, that's their decision. have you to give some discretion to l

right now, to ask the white house to produce documents that were not in the possession of the white househat he did was prior to coming to this white house. there is nothing that is being asked for in respect to his service here at the white house. that would be a matter for them to look into, not for us. again, that would need to go to general flynn. iam i am puzzled. the white house seems to be saying we did not know what was going on with general flynn before he came to the white house war before he came to the campaign. we were running these pictures of general flynn at this dinner with president putin, this particular picture, before the inauguration. they must have known that he was being paid for an event like this put up orat being paid for an event like this put up or at least could have been. there are two big issues, one is the white house vetting process under the trump administration. the questions about whether michael flynn was properly vetted or what donald trump just a keen to have flynn was properly vetted or what donald trumpjust a keen to have him in office that they t

is the white house now being hip critical, and blaming obama for the occurrences today. >> the white e is being hypocritical and their policy has been all over the map, giving assad authority to do what he wants to do and the russian government to do what it wants to do. that video was horrific and i'm sure very hard for americans to watch and people around the world. i know the administration has now made a statement but it but -- i would point out that when president obama was ready to take action in syria, it was the congress that refused to get together and issue an aumf to work with the white house to essentially device a strategy for syria. there was a lot of failure there. i hope we can do a better job in the coming months and years. >> and the authorization of u.s. force. he did draw the red line, and the regime used poison gas and the u.s. didn't do much about it. the congress didn't pass an authorization to use military force but the president really didn't do anything responding to that red line threat. >> well, i would -- i would point out that the strategy really was a co

joining us again jim accosta at the white house. ese phone calls to mexico and canada, do we know the details? >> reporter: what we know, anderson, it is important to preface this earlier in the day yesterday white house officials were saying anonymously to the reporters the president was considering signing this executive order to declare his intent to renegotiate or withdraw from nafta and then he had these phone conversations with the leaders from mexico and canada and then came the statement he was not going to terminate nafta at this time. the president was insistent today he was not softening at all on this issue. here's what he had to say. >> if you check my campaign -- any of my speeches, i said i'll either renegotiate or i'll terminate. so, they asked me to renegotiate, i will, and i think we'll be successful in the renegotiation, which frankly would be good because it would be simpler. but we have to make a deal that's fair for the united states. they understand that. and, so, i decided rather than terminating nafta, which

the white house is booked a room up in the hotel. steve bridges is just another guest walking into the hotel earlier that morning. in thatup was put on up room, and they brought him down right before he walked on stage and a freight of valor -- any freight elevator. host: you had no idea? guest: this was the dinner that stephen colbert was at. the next day, they were talking about his performance than the president. tremendouse was a divide between the reaction in the room of the 2600 people and the people watching on c-span or on cable channels. part of it is, bob hope first talked about this at the 1945 dinner. before people in the room would laugh at his jokes, they looked to president roosevelt. it is just a natural thing. he is the guest of honor. the president of the united states -- you are aware of his reaction. that night, you really were aware of the reaction. and stephen colbert within a very tough spot because he could not follow the normal rules of comedy at these dinners of making fun of both sides. he was in character.

the white house reaction is mixed. a dire warning of a clock has run out as well as the statement all options are on the table. then a statement from the secretary of state saying nothing. >> the donald trump white house facing issues over bashar al assad. his regime at issue. dozens of people have been killed. including children. according to observers on the ground. why is president trump blaming his predecessor instead of trying to oust assad? a busy day. 76 of the trump presidency. we have ivan watson live in seoul with breaking details on the missile launch. what do you know? >> reporter: good morning, chris. the missile was launched after dawn local time here on the korean peninsula. it was tracked by the u.s. military and south korean military. it followed an unusual arc. flying an altitude of 117 miles in the air. only a distance of about 37 miles into the east sea or sea of japan. it has been identified as a medium-range ballistic missile fired from land. identified as a kn-15 missile. that is not the first tim

so it's not as if the white house isn't responding. there just aren't documents and that's the problem. >> do you think michael flynn broke the law? >> it doesn't appear as if he complied with the law. don't see evidence that he complied with the law. >> this is not some witch hunt. this is about a fight for the soul of our democracy. and i want to be real clear on that. what i'm trying to do is make sure that we pursue this investigation and go where the evidence leads. our next step is to hopefully sit down with the white house and explain to them that they don't determine what we investigate as a congress, we do. >> sean spicer was also pressed on this today during the white house briefing. >> the president feel that he was misled by general flynn? >> i think the president made a decision a while ago because flynn was not straight with the vice president at the time and let him go. i think he stands by that decision and it's up to others to review all of the information that's coming out. >> does he now feel that he also wasn't strai

the strategic. tactical, there is a significant reason the house would want to know what the white house knew. ive one reason. discrepancies of what general flynn declared for security clearance at the pentagon and the white house. for the white house to say we don't know and we can't find it is impeding the investigation. if you have any documentation -- there is a bigger question, chris. i can't figure out why jason chaffetz is making this request in the first place. does the congress have the ability to investigate a crime and do they have the ability as the department of justice does to go and say we want to prosecute a crime? >> the no. >> the fbi is asking for the records. they are asking for travel records. i don't know why jason chaffetz is pretending to say he knows or the right to declare that general flynn committed a crime. >> david gregory. beyond the procedure that phil is talking about. remember michael flynn was the first named adviser to then candidate trump. he was with him all the time. >> shoulder to shoulder. >> we interviewed him several times because he was the spokespers

of these very troubling developments, last wednesday, on april 19, we received a response from the white house refusing to provide any of the documents we requested. we received no internal documents relating to what general flynn reported to the white house when they've added him to become national security adviser. death when they vetted him to respect -- when they vetted him to become national security advisor. we received no documents relating to his termination as national security advisor for concealing his discussion with the russian ambassador. the white house has refused to provide this committee with a single piece of paper in response to our bipartisan requests, and that is simply unacceptable. today i am releasing the white house a letter to you and i hope our committee will impress upon them the need for them to provide the documents that we are seeking. thank you. >> congressman, from what you see so far do you believe that , michael flynn broke the law [inaudible] are not getting permission for getting these foreign payments? >> personally i see no information or data to support

joe johns is at the white house for us. what's the response from the white house this morning? >> reporter: good morning, fred. well, among other things, the white house very much trying to downplay this latest activity by north korea. the president tweeting that among other things, north korea had disrespected the wishes of china's president by launching this missile. a clear indication that the administration wants to put onus on president of china to interact with north korea to bring resolution to the nuclear ambition of that country. the white house statement from the press secretary officially just two lines saying that the administration was aware of the missile launch and the president was briefed. there was reason for concern for the missile launch but also saying north korea has always been provocative in response to a question about the timing of the missile launch occurring a few hours after the secretary of state chaired that big beating at the united nations. quiet at the white house as the president prepares to go to pennsylvania to celebrate the 100th day of his

the white house? when you're in the white house, who the hell wants to play golf? >> who wants to leave the white house? how the hell do you leave for three weeks to play golf? >> if i get elected president, i'm going to be in the white house a lot. i'm not leaving. >> i'm going to be working for you. i'm not going to have time togo play gov, believe me. >> i think you know what thing 2 is going to be. that's in 60 seconds. >>> well, this weekend president trump is heading back to his luxury golf resort in flida at considerable cost to his neighbors. according to the orlando sentinel, the county is debating a special tax on mar-a-lago to offset the cost of the presidential presence. right now palm beach county spends more than $60,000 a day when the president visits, mostly for law enforcement overtime or almost $2 million since january. this will be the president's seventh trip to mar-a-lago since he took office. according to "the new york times," trump has spent half of his weekends at mar-a-lago, an

a lot going on in the white house. we're going to sort through it, next. >>> white house with a flurry of activity taz approaches the 100 day mark. big changes to nafta, taxes, health care, government funding all coming down while you were sleeping. we'll attempt to break it all down. >> good morning, it is a brand new morning of news. a lot going on overnight. i'm christine romans. it's 31 minutes past the hour. president trump announcing he will not withdraw from nafta after all. the president slammed nafta on the campaign trail as a raw deal for american workers and said he would get out of it day one. in phone calls to canada's prime minister and mexico's president, our president said he wanted to improve nafta instead of scrapping it. the president said it is my privilege to bring nafta up to date through renegotiation. i believe the end result will make all three countries stronger and better. >>> president trump is already withdrawn from another huge trade pact. it was already in the works. the president's decisi

more to stream to every screen. >>> new this morning, ethics filings from the white house and assets of about 180 senior officials were disclosed late friday. among them, new assistant to the president, first daughter ivanka trump. she has said her position will be unpaid within the white house, but she and her husband jared cushner are going to remain the beneficiaries of more than $700 million from valued real estate, investment and other businesses combined. i want to bring in kathleen clark, professor at washington university school of law and leading expert on ethics in government. as we look at one of the assets for ivanka trump, she'll continue to hold a stake in the trum international hotel in washington, d.c. we know it's a stone's throw from the white house. we've seen her sitting in on these international meetings. we do know people abroad would like to stay there and use their stays there as some type of leverage to ingratiate themselves with the trumps. is that a big concern? >> it absolutely is a very significant concern. what the trump family has done is essentially inv