the dogs. there was a time when white house pet messed up the plans for the white house cook. his involved a dog name links. he was a setter that was on the scene. according to white house reports, on the morning of marcf fried eggs and ham set out for the resident staff. the white house cook made this and stepped away to do something else. when they returned they were all gone. they realize this was because lynx had helped himself to a nice hearty meal. the press had a lot of fun with it and staged a photo of links eating ham and eggs off the plate. the cook was upset so soon after it was announced that lynx was leaving the white house to spend more time with his family. and that paved the way for the more familiar dog. one thing that was interesting is i find overtime these cooks fit into three boxes. they were culinary artists who are celebrated in their time. if you know anything about the food reputation of the fdr web white house is not great. people would have second thoughts of weather to come to a state dinner. i would have to admit i was engaging in race pry because i

we're out front tonight from the white house. sara, really remarkable here and more extensive than we've seen in the past. the president's own party condemning his statements tonight. is there any acknowledgment inside the white house that this may have been a mistake by the president. >> reporter: their only public defense is what you heard from sarah huckabee sanders that the president has no regrets. he feels like he's under attack and he hit back. but there is a lot the president could have been talking about today. there is a big health care vote that is sure to come up soon in the senate. he is trying to get republican senators on board with this plan to repeal and replace obamacare. he has a big foreign trip coming up. he's expected to meet with vladimir putin for the first time face to face on the sidelines of the g-20 and this was supposed to be energy week and the president did deliver a speech on energy today. he vowed to cut back on regulations. but this was all overshadowed by the tweet and that is why you saw the out

on the sanctions. a white house official told yahoo news that originally reported on this that at the time the administration was looking at all sanction schemes, not just against russia and that any lifting would have to mean that russia took significant action in a direction that the white house wanted and that that didn't happen. and on executive privilege, tonight a senate source tells cnn that if the white house tried that route, they don't think it would be successful. here you have a former official. it's somebody who wants to talk. the president, as we've said, has already spoken about those conversations publicly and even if the white house wanted to try to go through federal court to stop comey which it hasn't indicated it would be willing to do, this source doesn't think that that would work. wolf. >> it's interesting. the white house not flatly ruling out that possibility. michelle kosinski, thanks so much for that report. the white house is facing a barrage of questions about whether the president feels

all of which the white house has denied. a claim of executive privilege could be undermined by the president's own words. >> i said if it's possible, would you let me know, am i under investigation? he said you are not under investigation. >> those public comments could be enough to tank any climb that the content of the talks should be kept private. today a source close to comey tells cnn he was disturbed by what the president said to him and felt trump didn't understand it was inappropriate. put all together with trump's later firing of comey, many believe it could amount to obstruction of juflt. >> when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, i said, you know, this russia thing with trump and raerk is a made-up story. >> reporter: questions remain over why trump advisor and son-in-law jared kushner secretly met with a russian banker and former spy at an undisclosed location reportedly to try to establish a secret channel of communication with the kremlin before the inauguration. the bank maintains that sergei was meetin

they're not at the white house to celebrate the passage of the senate republican health care bill. may recall, president trump did with the house version. republican senators are there to meet with white house officials and try to search for some way forward, given senate republicans right now do not have the votes needed to pass their

over there is controversy whether she took to them or just served to them at the last minute so the white house housekeeper was in charge of the food but president roosevelt was on a diet and we're like to stray so the white house physician and eleanor roosevelt would team up to make sure he stayed on the diet so in her diary she memorialized in exchange between eleanor and the doctor. i will read that now. so what mcintyre said was colony if you need help. dr. mcintyre said to mrs. roosevelt. he cooperated in try to get the president back to normal finally he brought in doctors from the navy hospital the present eight every thing he was told simply because of the orders by the navy so to cut out all fried foods that was one directive from the doctor but typically the president will get what they get in the african-american staff is caught in the middle helping the president out. so i love the exchange sold is the was the wife of the president's longtime valet so she comes to the white house as a maid and often get a company resolved on a long trip but what was interesting about this the she ha

>> more like the white house. s the press >> shepard: they need a foil. >> the desire to build a wall around the white house to limit inquiry and you have a chance to criticize the press, cnn ran a story, they retracted it. >> shepard: on the website. >> they apologized for it. >> shepard: and they said, because i want to make sure they get this right. they said they did not go through their procedures. it did not go through standards and practices, and it did not make through editorial checking. afterwards, three people were fired. >> this is what you want to have happen. you want a news organization where they got something that she did not go through the process properly. they retracted, and made a public statement. we made a mistake. >> shepard: dessie the example of how to do it. journalism 101. you make a mistake, you admit it, and you take action. >> you have all those actions and procedures and editor panels. this one, it did not go through. they apologized. >> shepard: this is what we are talking about. th

the worst thing is that the trump white house elevated it. e the trump white house elevating a guy who is a known fraudster. >> sarah huckabee sanders said she didn't know if it was true or not but urged everyone to look at it. >> that's not good. let me just say, you always have fraudsters out there putting out selectively. if you're just falling for selectively editing videotape in 2017, you haven't been paying attention. but for the white house to fall for it and promote it, that's what really is terrible. >> you say too many democrats see the russia controversy as a magical get out of jail free card, meaning they think the president is somehow going to be impeached. >> listen, we have a bunch of problems in our party. rather than dealing with those problems in a serious way, whether getting back to talking about jobs and real pain at the bottom here in our country, you have a lot of people just going in loops and cycles. i'm not talking about news people. you've got to cover this news. i'm talking about progressive activists who talk about

the trump administration's fight for a travel ban and an appeals court shutting it down, but the white house is looking for help from the highest court in the land. we'll show you what happens now. let's get to it. first from the fox news deck this friday afternoon, the white house refusing to say whether president trump believes climate change is real, a threat to america or whether there's manmade climate change at all. listen to the very first question from today's briefing directed at scoot pruitt, the epa director. >> hoping you can clear this up. yes or no. does the president believe that climate change is real and is a threat to the united states? >> what is interesting about all the discussions we had the last several weeks, have been focused on one singular issue. is paris good or not for this country? that's the discussion i've had with the president. my focus is on whether paris put us at a disadvantage. it was. >> it was a decent dodge. then he handed off to sean spicer who was the third top administration official to refuse to answer that question. >> you said you haven't had th

, not with input from the white house so far. we'll see what happens after. >> my understanding is that that is very much by design, that mitch mcconnell, the republican majority leader said, mr. president, white house, we've got this one. let us take care of this one. >> it's -- >> the house got mucked up. >> that's right. it's interesting to me that -- ran as a strong leader, strong executive, has essentially said to the congress, you do this. you do this. i don't want to get involved until i absolutely have to. >> go ahead. >>> >> i think what's odd is that people in trump's base, they look at the leaders in the republican party and say those are our people, those aren't the people that are going to put forth the agenda that you campaigned on that we voted for. they're looking at this guy who they thought would take over the white house and advocate for them, and he's passing the ball to people who make them go he's not one of us. ryan's not one of us. mitch mcconnell is not one of us. trump, what are you doing to us? the peopl

and once again, so far, unless the white house reverses itself, the white house is not allowing live meras. the american public won't be able to see it or hear it live, only after the briefing is concluded, according to white house rules. will the networks, cable and broadcasts be able to air the audio-only of the briefing. no video. won't be able to see the questions and answers. we'll hear them, but only after the briefing is concluded. i bring in our senior media and politics reporter dylan byers. the past two weeks we've seen what two live news briefinging at the white house with the press secretaries. what's the new strategy for the rouse about? >> avoid being seen on camera taking questions they don't want to answer, in fact, can't answer, oftentimes because they don't have the go-ahead from the president of the united states himself. it's a lot easier to do that off camera, and not be under the scrutiny of the american people watching at home, but it's twofold as well. a second part to this strategy. an tall ntagonize us, the media. the lack of transparency and access act, ther

. >> folks in the white house but look at u.s. gence agencies ironies are the folks in the white house they very often report was kremlin has been saying. it's interesting while america remains target number one and number one enemy and 24/7 russian propaganda keep pounding the united states. donald trump is excluded from -- from the broad criticism. somehow he is being seen as -- did as a man who has been trying desperately trying to bring relations but the deep state prevented him from doing it. >> one of the things president putin said he said blaming russian for already blaming the american election anti-semitism blame willings jews. >> it's a witch hunt if -- if they caught doing something illegal they crying foul. it's a witch hunt, it's some like an anti-semitism he can say whatever he wants he doesn't care. as long as he sees his tactic works he can go with it even being blamed and then he will deny it. he tried to do it in france the failed by the way. he tried to do many other european countries. he is -- he sincerely bel

but the white house isn't saying they're worried. stead, they said they want james comey to be able to tell his story and the truth to come out. but there's also an option available to the white house that some presidents use under circumstances like this. it's possible that the president could try to use what's known as executive authority, that is intended to keep some of the deliberations inside the white house protected. it's unclear right now you if the president will do that. it's a long shot. it's a challenge. but he does have a certain amount of power that could cope comey quiet. >> president trump and james comey, the fbi director he fired, could be headed for a new power struggle this week. comey is set to go public thursday, about the russia investigation. but the white house is not ruling out a move that could block comey from testifying on capitol hill. by claiming an executive branch privilege that protects the privacy of a president's conversations with senior officials. in a new letter, democratic lawmakers warn the wh

in the white house. sn't exist for any other agency, and certainly that will likely get used. you can tell the attitude of the va has changed so much because they want people to tell them what's wrong. they want to do something about it, and that's the change in culture. >> sandra: as the president said when he was signing this legislation, he said we owe this to our veterans, we owe everything to our veterans for the blood, sweat, and tears in what they do to protect this country. you hope it brings that necessary. i know it is near and dear to you to your cart to my car. if i may ask at this moment in time, we're waiting to get feedback from the white house press briefing that was off-camera today. just a status of things come up morale in the military, how are things going in your opinion right now as far as progress of this president is making? >> the funding for the military really hasn't hit the military edge, and i think many of us are disappointed by the presidents fiscal year '18 budget because i

the white house or the president. there is still time. today was the last day of pride month, though it seems unlikely. the photographer here, fa breeze owe bench from reuters. we appreciate you watches us for this hour on msnbc. right now more news with mie colleagues ally velsy and stephanie rhule. >> good morning, everybody. >> it's friday, june 30th. let's get started. >> president trump hosting the president of south korea. >> there will be a meeting again this morning. could not be a more serious time for our relionsp with south korea. >> but is it planning to take any questions at this point. >>> the first full day that a scaled back version of president trump's travel ban is in effect. the government is already made one change, fiances now count. >> if there isn't a combined repeal and replace plan i'm writing a letter to the president urging him to call on us to separate them. >> we're very confident here at the white house that health care gets done in quick succession by tax reform. >> we have a situation in capitol hill where

>> and in the background, this like every word from the white house comes under investigation, the white house under the specter of russia. >> while i hope the white house is not worried about any of the investigations they should be focusing on helping the president do his job. and that is the discipline that should be at the white house. let the russia investigation take the path that it's going to take. everybody who is working at the white house, unless they're engaged in something that the special counsel is paying attention to they should be focusing on helping the president and let the chips fall where they may in this investigation. >> i have one more question on this statement, only because it's so unusual. aren't you curious in this chain, where it came from, the names, mcmasters, and pompeo? >> if they have not been part of the communications chain -- >> our remarks at the top of the broadcast, when you hear us we hear every night the president at 8:55 a.m., said this on twitter, it reversed and caused this to happen, do you have your arms around this quite yet? >> i don't thi

the news media. let's get insight from white house correspondents, the george w. bush administration. costa, you're our white house correspondent. let's start with you, the president tweeting today expanding his criticism, this one this morning. the failing "new york times" writes false story after false story about me. they don't even call to verify the facts of the story. fake news joke. some of the fake news media like to say i'm not totally engaged in health care. wrong. i know the subject well and i want victory for u.s. apparently that was a response to the story from "the times" who complained at least one republican senator came away from the meeting with the president about doubts about the president's involvement in the health care bill. >> reporter: the president himself has been peddling fake news for some time now. he's one of the founding fathers of birtherism who indicated falsely that president obama wasn't born in the united states when he was born in hawaii. he alleged that millions of undocumented people were voting in the election and that drew the popular vote to h

now the white house is conceding it's on the threshold of losing the health care battle. >>> the white house says syria will pay a heavy price if it launches another chemical attack. what prompted this warning out of seemingly nowhere from the administration? >>> and the administration is preparing yet another rollout of its travel ban after the supreme court agreed to take up the issue next term. what changes will happen, and how soon? >>> good morning, and welcome to "early start." i'm alison kosik in for k christine romans, another day or two of vacation for her. >> i'm dave briggs. june 27th, 4:00 a.m. in the east. >>> new in the health care battle, majority leader mitch mcconnell still pushing for a vote on obamacare repeal and replace this week. that despite developments that leave the senate health care bill hanging by a thread. two senior gop aides telling cnn mcconnell wants that vote but plans to assess sentiment today at a senate republican lunch. they say he could change his plans depending on feedback from senate republican leaders. >> the reason the gop bill is barely han

that is what led to the white house warning that caught a lot of people by surprise. t top cabinet officials but within the state department, within the pentagon, a lot of people didn't know that warning from the white house was coming. the real goal is to avoid officials tell us, avoid any additional u.s. air strikes. what they are hoping is that the russians will work to influence assad and get him to back off and not launch another air strike. but if he doesn't back off, if he were to proceed, u.s. military officials are letting it be known they have everything in place to strike again. >> all right. thank you. >>> and the white house says its warning to the assad regime was the equivalent of quote, putting someone on notice. let's bring in cnn international diplomatic editor nick robertson on this. can the russians influence assad to prevent another chemical strike? >> you know, i think on the one hand we've heard a lot of bluster coming from russia that this is unacceptable, threats to the leadership of syria. that's been their main line but they've also said tha

and the white house hasn't yet said definitively on the record what the president plans to do. white house press secretary sean spicer was asked about this yesterday and yesterday's briefing and he said, the hearing had only just been announced and that it had to be reviewed. he also said that he hadn't yet spoken with white house counsel and didn't know how the administration was going to proceed. there is some big questions attached to this debate over whether the president will or should or could successfully exert executive privilege. one is that if you do -- if he does so it runs the risk of sending the message that white house has something to hide regarding these conversations. and then the other big question, of course, is whether the president would be successful in asserting executive privilege, considering the fact that he himself has already spoken about and tweeted about some of his conversations with the former fbi director. he even went as far on twitter you'll remember to suggest that there could be recordings of those conversations and so legal experts say look,

there's a point when the white house spokesman tasked on speaking on behalf of the president doesn't an answer, how is that doing his job? >> pretty extraordinary. myself as a white house correspondent, seven years as white house correspondent. always saying, you have to go ask the president, he hasn't taken questions from the news media in weeks. only statements we have from him those on climate change, statements he tweeted a few years ago, climate change is a hoax. given the sensitivity of this issue, are they doing themselves white house officials a disservice by not simply answering that question? >> yeah. wolf, on this issue at least, i don't think he is doing himself a disservice for this reason. in the gallup daily tracking poll, he is around 40%. give or take a point or two. which is not very far off where he has been for his entire presidency. what that says to me is that president trump is playing to his base. his base is fine with this. it is a disservice if he is trying to reach beyond the base and right now they are playing to the base. kaitlyn is right, the president h

, but not at the white house. we will have live coverage of that. the private statement from the president's outside attorney reacting to this really explosive testimony today from the former fbi director james comey. also a member of the house of representatives mark maeadows will be joining me live. we'll get his reaction to two and a half hours of testimony. one very interesting part is when comey said that he deliberately had his memos leaked to the new york times because he wanted to generate some pressure for the appointment of a special counsel. listen to this. >> the president tweeted on friday after i got fired that i better hope there's not tapes. i woke up in the middle of night on monday night because it didn't dawn on me originally that there might be c corroboration for a conversation, there might be a tape. my judgment was i need to get that out into the public square and so i asked a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with a reporter. i didn't do it myself but i asked him to because i t

they make a difference on the white house staff. the bureaucracy, the executive branch of the government, congress and the world and so i would want discipline around the words that are spoken by the president and subordinately by the white house staff, which actually gives more discipline over don't leak. >> >> yeah, look, i think this is a chaotic at this structure, it has been from the very beginning, i think that reince priebus went into the white house knowing it would be somewhat chaotic because you had steve bannon coming off the campaign, you had jerod kushner, son-in-law in the white house playing an important role, he went through a succession of a security advisor within a month of the administration. so -- but i think in some level, i think that president trump's success has been in sewing kay's and i think he thought that would work for him as president. i think at this point, you know, it remains to be seen whether you could be effective as president, certainly he is having his challenges on capitol hill. >> rose: you t

if there was a democrat in the white house, i would expect republican to win the race easily and, nowh a controversial republican in the white house, no, this election is about donald trump. >> woodruff: than stu rothenber, tamera keith, this is about the two of you. thank you. >> thank you. >> woodruff: next, screening for cervical cancer in places where the disease rarely gets priority amid other pressing problems. special correspondent fred de sam lazaro has a report on one effort to prevent a disease that afflicts about 500,000 women across the world every year but has the most deadly outcomes in india. it's part of his ongoing series, agents for change. >> reporter: in a village just outside lucknow, india, recently there was a rare opportunity for many women like 35 year old kiran rawat. for the first time in her life, she saw a doctor. her timing couldn't be better. >> ( translated ): there are some white spots that i found when i applied the medicine. it's nothing to be afraid of. >> reporter: the white spots are lesions. if left untreated they can lead to cervical cancer in w

there is still business at the white house. how frustrating is this trying to push a message and you have a real issue to deal with in the legislative branch. a number of this investigation and this hearing. >> it's the nature of the white house after the democrats took over congress in 2006 when they won. the next two years were difficult for us in the white house because the democrats wanted to haul us up for hearings all the time and you try to continue an agenda. right now the president benefits from having republicans in the majority in the house and senate. it doesn't mean it will be easier. these are the cards you're dealt with at the white house and so i think that they're doing the right thing. they basically have several different things going on this week. they're talking about the fact that in the next eight weeks you can expect in the senate that a healthcare bill will be introduced and voted on. they said that yesterday. you'll have a debt ceiling bill. infrastructure week. we haven't seen too much of that because

after that warning, on multiple occasions, the white house officials, including don mcgahn, the whitemichael flynn continued to serve in that capacity for 18 days, going to classified briefings, so the democrats want to know why that happened. they're asking for records from the white house about the decisions that went into that, and they're saying it could have been a violation of very clear practices and regulations. >> and now there are specific questions about the cia director, mike pompeo, what did he know about mike flynn at the time. >> as we know from that 18-day period, mike pompeo, the cia director, did appear in some of those chasified settings with michael flynn and the president was not told specifically that from mike pompeo that he had any concerns about mr. flynn appearing with the president in the classified briefings, despite that warning from sally yates. it's unclear whether or not pompeo knew of the concerns raised by sally yates or didn't share those concerns. the cia did not comment about that story. people here on capitol hill still don't have an answer. >> in

the white house chief of staff, reince priebus, was here. the vice president, mike pence, and others from the white house legislative team. so, it's possible that machine was -- sean was in that meeting. given that there's a white house press briefing going on, as soon as i looked up at the door and saw that it was sean spicer coming out of the capitol, i thought, wait a second, is that really him? but it was and obviously as you saw it was a little bit bumpy and not just our camera but others trying to figure out what he was doing here and more importantly getting a comment on the big news from the united states senate about and the republican leadership that they are punting on bringing the health care bill up for a vote this week, something that the president himself was working to avoid, making phone calls, talking to people like senator mike lee of utah who told me last night that he got a call from the president and he is not alone, but instead, because that didn't work, the president is going to host all senate republicans in about an

>> so today the white house is business as usual. of the president hosted his array of meetings. he had the infrastructure assignment and a couple of senior staffers at the freedom conference where he received multiple standing ovations. -- >> martha: so he did not watch at all? >> he was aware of the testimony. he had a lot of meetings with the team. general mcmaster, also attending a couple of private policy meetings, so he of course, every single day is doing something at that white house. he is moving the agenda forward. today was no different. i do want to make the case to everyone that where washington said it was going to shut down, literally people took the day off from work to watch this. the president did not. he worked for the american people. and infrastructure. he has committed at least $200 million, probably upwards of a trillion dollars for the public private partnership to restore bridges and roads, and also to make a more modern, better run, more accessible, less hasslefree, i should say, airline system. people will spend less time on the tarmac, we will have a s

> but folks in the white house and look at the u.s. telligence agencies and i would say the folks in the white house very often repeat what kremlin has been saying and while america remains target number one, number one enemy, kee donald trump is excluded from these broad criticism. somehow he's being seen as a man who has been trying -- desperately trying to have relations but the deep state prevents him from doing it. >> what avladimir putin said ths like anti-semitism, that it's like blaming jews. do you have any idea what he's talking about? >> oh, it's the same story. it's a witch hunt. if they're caught doing something illegal, it's a witch hunt. it's like anti-semitism. he can say whatever he wants. he doesn't care. as long as he sees that his tactic works, he can go with it even being blamed and then he will deny. he tried to do it in france. he failed, by the way. he tried to do it in other european countries. so since he believes that these operations could help him to influence if not the result of the elections but the polic

but because the trump white house is the leakiest white house in history, we know tonight that the president is thinking about firing special prosecutor robert mueller. and the first wave of commentary that you may have heard about this included many people repeating the phrase "can't imagine." as in can't imagine that the president would actually fire the special prosecutor. if you can't imagine that, you have not been paying attention. to president donald trump. >> trump and the people around him are not acting like people who have nothing to hide. >> it's jeff sessions' turn to answer questions from the senate intelligence committee about russia. >> the last time he was here, he testified and gave false testimony. >> i did not have communications with the russians. >> we got a lot of questions we want to ask him. >> he violated his own recusal. >> if the president okay testifying in this setting tomorrow? >> i think he is going to testify. we're aware of it and go from there. >> i think what republicans ought to focus on is closing down the independent counsel. >> could the president fire

is that the strategy of this white house? >> it's definitely part of the strategy over here at the white house, don. here's why. the president does not have any major legislative achievements to speak of at this point. he's trying to get health care passed. he talked about the surprise that is apparently in store for all of us in the coming days, but we've heard the president talk about surprises before. he talked about possible tapes that he had of jim comey. that did not materialize. and this is a health care bill, don, that is -- if you look at the various polls that came out today, is somewhere between 12% and 25%. that is just not going to get the job done. when you talk to gop sources -- i talked to a number of them tonight -- one gop source said, you are just not going to get 50 senators to support that kind of legislation. and by the way, this war on the media is also a useful distraction when you have this fund-raiser taking place down the street at the trump international hotel, which by the way, i don't know if we'v

first let's go to the white house for more on the president's meeting with republican senators that just wrapped up. our senior white house correspondent jeff zeleny is standing by. jeff, the republican senators just left the white house. give us the latest. what came out of that meeting? >> reporter: wolf, the republican senators just left as you said and they talked about an hour and 15 minutes or so inside the east room of the white house. and i'm told that it was more of a listening session. the president talked at the very beginning of the meeting, but then sat and listened to so many of the concerns from the rank and file republican senators. but after the meeting senator mitch mcconnell he said that no is not an answer. they must reach a consensus. >> we made good progress. the president got an opportunity to hear from the various members who have concerns about market reforms and medicaid, the future of medicaid, medicaid expansion. so, i think the meeting was very helpful. the one thing i would say is that i think everybody around the table is interested in getting the yes, inte

how does the white house respond more effectively to the group. >> i think the white house should respond with facts. and this is a voluntary arrange sxment the white house needs to talk about the voluntariness of the arrange sxment they have to take what we signeded and explain it to the press in a clear, kind of way which i don't think they are doing as well as they should. >> leland: the roll out could have been better done? or are we too early to decide. >> no what president trump did was was great. but president obama misled everyone. ben rose noted that the media was easy to manipulate regarding obamacare or anything else. and ellen is right. the white house will have to explain things to the media. they are not looking at the paris climate agreement and haven't probably read it. everything is going to happen except dogs sleep with cats. but there is no impact to the goals in this thing and not so serious to be a binding agreement. it seems political. but if the media was really curious. they would notice themselves and be willing and capable of conveying to the viewers. but the whi

dan at the white house. dan, the question if the president will assert executive privilege to prevent the former fbi director from testifying. what is the executive privilege and how can the president use it to stop the testimony? >> reporter: executive privilege is almost a nixon era rule that came about during the nixon watergate investigation to allow the president to keep his conversations private in the executive branch. there are some who say he waived executive privilege rights because he talked about conversations with james comey on twitter and interviews. the white house so far is saying they don't know whether he will invoke executive privilege and leaving it up to white house counsel. there are a number of reasons he may not want to as well. it is a p.r. problem. the white house wants a full investigation into the russian ties and they want the investigation to go on. that is undercut if president trump says i don't want james comey to testify in front of congress. see what sean spicer and kellyan

so we're at a point where the white house counsel and the legal team at the white house can look at the options of executive privilege, which is intended to shield a president from having to have internal conversations, advice given to him, deliberations from becoming public. it's been used by past presidents. the real difference here is that even though the fbi would fall under the executive branch, comey has been fired. he's already been testifying in public on issues related to the russia investigation. and most notably, president trump himself has talked about his conversations with comey in an interview with our own lester holt. he's tweeted about it. so he has not been trying to protect that from public view. that could make the case for executive privilege very tough. but you'll see how white house officials are not willing to take any options off the table. here's a moment where kellyanne conway and george stephanopolous put this question to her and you'll see how she responded. >> will the president invoke executive privilege or does he want former director comey to testify bef

it's not the first time the 2016 world series champs have visited the white house. ear. president obama, a white sox fan did celebrate the cross town rivals on january 16th, four days before he left office. it's unusual to have a team visit the white house more than once to celebrate a big one. after 108-year wait can you blame the cubs for wanting to keep the celebration going as long as possible. that's all for tonight. "for the record with greta" starts now. >>> thank you, chuck. there's chaos tonight in your nation's capitol. an all out scramble inside a deeply fractured republican party. trying to get their own health care bill off of life support. >> is health care possible by friday? >> pigs could fly. >> first, we have breaking news. we are just learning fired fbi director james comey's memos are now going to capitol hill. now these are the documents that the red hot center of the ongoing obstruction investigations. they will get the memos and ever

and that the white house wasn't going to handle them anymore. they kind of began to push that off to the side. the question will be is how cooperative the white house is going to be with mueller. this is something that is going to go on for a very long time. mueller wants to turn every stone over. he wants to make sure that he gets to the bottom of everything, because he knows this will be the authoritative investigation and report on this matter. he knows how much attention is being given to it. so it's something that could drag out for a very, very long time. and the white house will have to figure out its strategy towards the investigation and towards other things. towards its regular agenda. and you can see where the investigation will soak up a lot of time and energy. >> by the way, there's a legal playbook for this and there's a communications playbook for this. we went through eight years of this in the clinton administration. you do what you need to do to comply. you have lawyers working on that. and from a communications standpoint, you

the white house is reviewing this issue. house democrats on the judiciary committee said two things. they don't believe on the merits should the president try and invoke executive privilege it would work. if he did, they point out the political ramifications. that it would look like he was trying to obstruct the testimony. these are two key consideration the white house will have to pay attention to as they look forward. as you noted, we don't have an answer. >> the day before comey appears, the deputy attorney general will also testify. >> reporter: that's right. separate hearing, separate focus. the big question is, what can members of get out of both deputy attorney general rod rosenstein but everybody else on the panel? the acting fbi director, the cia director and the director of the nsa. all of these individuals have played some role one way or another in this russia investigation. the reality is, what we have seen over the last couple weeks is all questions will be deferred to the special counsel, bob mueller. that's t

>> i will go to the white house. if the white house wants to -- the president wants to have a meeting with me, i am certainly willing to go and listen to what he has to say. i would say, i have so many fundamental problems with the bill that have been confirmed by the cbo score, it is difficult for me to see how any tinkering is going to satisfy my fundamental and deep concern about the impact of the bill. >> president tom can only go so far. >> personal relationships do matter, and i do think that the president is smart to bring the members of the caucus. i think it would've been more effective to have done so earlier in the process. he did have one lunch, which i attended and made several suggestions. they were not put into the bill. >> what about the attack ads that people are running, threatening? i am very disappointed. to see any republican pack running advertisement against dean heller. he has a difficult race in a state that hillary clinton carried. it is important that republicans unite around him. he's an ex

on the heels of the report we heard from two members of the trump white house. >> what is the current white house doing about this? >> well, allison, the president said prevail and he stands by that particularly as president-elect, that he would be concerned about anybody sbefrg in our democracy. we saw a lot of people interfering with our democracy by saying he couldn't win here at home. >> you were asked whether the president believes russia interfered with the 2016 election because he hasn't had a had a chance to have the conversation i'm wondering if you had the conversation and if the president is concerned about the interference. >> i have. thank you. and the only point that i would make as a point of clarification. he commented i think it was january fifth or 17th like that on that at the time and he said i -- russia probably interfered but maybe some other countries did as well. >> i think it was russia but i think we also get hacked by other countries and other people. >> there you go. thank you. >> does he stand by that is he concern about that. >> of course he is concerned

lawmakers hearing from the white house is budgets proposal. senator ted cruz try to recast himself as a dealmaker. he is trying to unite the republican party in both houses of congress to unite to kill obamacare. ♪ david: the senate select committee on intelligence announces jeff sessions will testify tomorrow in public before hearing of that committee. that will be at 2:30 p.m. eastern time. you attorney general believes it's important to hear the truth directly from him. joining us now is kevin cirilli. i want to ask you first about the negotiations that went into this. the attorney general saying a couple days ago that he was eager to do this. how does it matter that is open session instead of closed? kevin: it was a lot of back and forth about whether or not this was public or private. clearly the attorney general telling aides that he wants to do this in front of everyone to make it public. the second when i would raise is that there have been a lot of reports that there have been some tense relationships between the president as well as t

the trouble on the white house it administration position. e reason i raise this last week he was quoted as saying, several quotes from the white house are said they are interested in pushing a larger tax bill that would add to the deficit. that's ms. mulvaney talk about. keep for the text of internet. can you assist? >> that part of that is because that is a discussion going on in congress. director mull mulvaney. they're talking with congress about the plan moving forward. that's conversation, as i talked about. the present will have a conversation in the next several minutes with the senate and house leadership, and i'm sure they'll be a topic to discuss. >> reporter: and increase to the deficit is something that the administration would find acceptable? >> i would put them one like this. if there is a conversation that is going along with congress on how to proceed and if not at this time, i am not getting in front of that discussion. >> reporter: sarah said yesterday in response to question who it was they change the president nato speech

the white house today saying the president is not a liar. remember, the president once threatened in a tweet, there could be tapes. after comey said, if there are tapes he welcomes them. the white house was then asked, do they exist? abc's jonathan karl tonight. >> donald j. trump. >> reporter: toward the end of comey's testimony, the president took the stage at event with christian conservatives, no mention of comey, but he did level some of the same charges at his political opponents as they level at him. >> they will lie, they will obstruct, they will spread their hatred and their prejudice. but we will not back down from doing what is right. >> reporter: later, at the white house we tried to ask him about the big hearing. >> mr. president, any reaction to comey's testimony? >> thank you very much. >> any reaction at all? do you think he told the truth? >> reporter: but while the president was mum, his personal lawyer, marc kasowitz was not. >> mr. comey has now finally confirmed publicly what he repeatedly told president trump privately.

it's workforce week here at the white house. so that's going to be a major emphasis for the administration who are also moving ahead on several other tums on the president's domestic ask foreign policy agenda. today the department of agriculture released guidance for american beef producers who are preparing to ship u.s. beef to chinese markets for the first time since 2003. as e we announced last month as part of the u.s. china action plan that follow ed up on the meeting with president xi, china agreed to reopen this $2.5 billion market to american ranchers and cattle producers before the market was closed the u.s. was china's largest supplier of beef. the actions today are an important first step in the process of reopening this lucrative market to american businesses. tomorrow the vice president will be speaking at the department of health and human services about the continuing death spiral of obamacare and why we need to keep our president to the american people and e repeal and replace it with an alternative as soon as pos

but in bob's case, the home happened to be the white house. --'s movies became the made main basis of an award-winning documentary, howard nixon. in 2008 the family donated bob's extraordinary white house super eight collection, 25 hours, 20,000 feet of film to the national archives still below is now here is the next and library. was president nixon's strong right arm as well as being a wonderful family man. that brings me why we are hearing -- here today. we will hear from -- as she nixon'sher book is not story. it is her story. it is compelling and moving, that she tells with great skill and subtlety. was born as a third-generation californian also in los angeles. joe's best friend in high school set up and it would show and that's how the 15-year-old meant theto 17-year-old bob haldeman. because her friends latest love with sources, joe and bob each mistakenly assumed the other was into horses. but, once they got past that, they discovered they really did have some interest in common. that was the beginning of a wonderful 48 year love story

the trump white house getting ready to dig in and fight back against allegations of russian collusion dedicated unit being set up to deal with the investigation and allow the rest of the white house to focus on president trump's agenda. the weekly standard declaring it a white house on war footing, for more on this new unit, chief national correspondent ed henry. ed come out to this? >> fox news has learned that this war room is likely set up as a 5o1c4 organization meaning a political group run outside of the white house which was the original plan. that gives the administration literal and figurative breathing space to focus on the big issues like taxes and health care and president trump's agenda and will be walled off from responding to reporters and investigators tied to russia. that duty could instead fall to trumps advisors. sources tell me they are now less likely to take jobs inside the white house in part because the president believes they will be better deployed with what "the wall street journal" is saying an army of lawyers, researchers, and communications experts pushin

the house intelligence committee asked the white house for the tapes and said if they exist, turn them over by this friday. well, tonight, john, a white house spokesperson tells reporters, and i quote, "i can tell you, there will be something this week." so now we have to wait and see what exactly the "something" will be. >> what is something, is it yes or no? which are easy words to say, i might add. michelle kosinski for us in washington. thanks so much. >>> more to talk about next including why the white house let michael flynn sit in on classified briefings even after they were warned he was vulnerable to russian blackmail. you will hear what a key member of the senate intelligence committee has to say about all that, coming up. garfunkel (instrumental) is that good? yeah it's perfect. bees! bees! go! go! go! [ girl catching her breath } [ bees buzzing inside vehicle ] the all-new volkswagen atlas. with easy-access 3rd row. life's as big as you make it. the only bed smart enough to change sleep as we know it. it senses your every move and automatically adjusts on both sides to keep