sahil joins us from washington. the president obviously very happy to have a legislative victory even as this moves over to the other chamber, where the fight is not over yet. what went right this time they didn't go right the first time? sahil: getting what the president hopes will be a legislative victory on health care -- it is far from over, the battle just begun in the house. , david,the big lesson for the white house is that the president needs to be very actively involved in these things. the president did not been seriously involved until the middle of march or so when house republicans -- he outsourced the crafting and selling of the bill to speaker ryan and republicans in congress. to get anything done come he needs active involvement. something of this magnitude has never happened wandithout tha president trump in particular has the biggest megaphone in the world, millions of social media followers, the ability to travel across the country. the white house wants to do that going forward. david: i was talk

ylan mui joins us from washington. e big thing we see is a lot of spending cuts. >> this is a dramatic rethinking of the role of government from the previous administration. there are big tax cuts and big cuts in social safety net programs, some of which previously enjoyed bipartisan support. 1$1.7 trillion in reductions to those programs are included in this budget. roughly a third of that comes from changing the funding formula from medicaid and phasing out money to the children's health insurance program, more nonely known as c.h.i.p. another 272 billion is from broadwell fair broad welfare re. student loans are also in for big changes. the white house wants to combine several programs into one. the president's budget is just really a risch liwish list. it's up to congress to turn that into reality. and trump will need democrats' help to pass it chuck schumer said this budget takes a meat cleaver to the middle clast while cutting taxes for the wealthy. mick mulvaney called this a taxpayer first budget and said the wh

joining us from washington, capitol hill reporter for "the hill," molly hooper, good to have you with what was the thinking of having a post-victory rally in the rose garden yesterday even before this becomes law? we're still far away from this becoming the law of the land. >> that's true but it was a big victory yesterday for donald trump. and, you know, we could say the republican party and the house, but really for donald trump because he proved that he's almost a better whip than folks in leadership on the house side. the whole idea that he did have a phone booth basically set up in the gop cloakroom on hand yesterday. we had hhs secretary tom -- tom price and the chief of staff, reince priebus, they were both in the cloakroom watching this unfold. donald trump called members all the time. he didn't wait around. he didn't care what rank they were. he went to the rank and file and he listened to them. that's different than what's been happening in the past with the republican leadership. so, really, in the eyes of the conference, i think that he has built a lot of trust. moving for

washington. bill marks joins us live from london.highs, appear to be hitting a speed bump here. >> yes, worth pointing out, haven't nose dived in the past week, but traded, particularly five of the last six sessions, closed slightly in negative territory as did s&p 500. nasdaq was up. news about director comey and his memo and president trump broke after markets closed. futures in trouble this morning. all three major indexes open slightly lower. dow off more than 100 points. looking at the currency markets, dollar trading weaker against euro, yen, british pound. there's something to do with the chaos out of white house cited by a number of people. another story we're looking at involves amazon and the company attempts to get into the pharmaceutical business. it is a crowded space, with all of the proposed shakeups to health care in the u.s., seems to see an opportunity there. reporting there's a new general business manager hired by amazon to lead that new sector. >> thanks so much. >>> one more story. baltimore ravens almost lost t

sahil joins us from washington. the president obvious

treasury reporter, joining us from washington. walk us through the steps here.ax reform intensifying the debt ceiling debate? >> wealthy americans, who have nonwage taxable income, which they earned through stock sales or other asset sales, they are able to by law defer the payment about ae taxes for year. in november, when trump won the election and his vow of a tax overhaul became more real, and the pledge of providing a tax cut to americans became more real, they decided to defer paying their tax bills. what has happened now is, the national debt limit is about to be breached within a couple months, and the treasury is doing what they can using some accounting tricks to delay that default date in order for congress to come to an agreement, to raise the debt limit or cut spending. those extraordinary measures rely on tax revenue, but because mainly income tax receipts come are lower than expected, it is playing tricks on what steve mnuchin is able to do with those measures. scarlet: the wealthy have the opportunity to defer recognizing gains, thes, these taxab

abc's janai norman joins us from washington with the latest. janai, good morning. >> reporter: diane and kendis, good morning to both of you. as you both know, that gop health care bill narrowly passed the house last week, and now republican lawmakers are back home in their districts, some of them forced to defend their support of that measure. it wasn't exactly a warm welcome home. >> you're a fraud. you're a phony, and your days are limited. >> reporter: some republicans on the defense following their yes votes to repeal and replace the affordable care act. forced to explain why they supported the measure that rolls back key protections of obamacare. >> the bill protects the pre-existing conditions. [ audience yelling ] >> reporter: one of the biggest issues, pre-existing conditions. >> under this bill, no matter what, you cannot be denied coverage if you have a pre-existing condition. under this bill you cannot -- >> but you can charge people more. >> let me finish my point. you can't charge people more if they keep continuous coverage. >> r

rochelle: philip crowther reporting to us from washington, thank you. the syrian government is benign allegations that it beat a -- crematorium close to the saydnaya facility where prisoners are being detained. earlier this year, amnesty international said mass hangings have taken place at the prison. france 24's martin -- has this report. martin: these photos have been released by the u.s. government. detainees a day are killed here, their bodies placed in mass graves before their remains are disposed of in a hidden crematorium. these are the allegations have leveled at syrian president's bashar al-assad's government. >> they modified a building within the saydnaya to support what we believe is a crematorium , as shown in the photos we have the children to you. although the regime's many atrocities are well documented, we believe the building of a crematorium is an effort to cover up the extent of mass murders taking place in saydnaya prison. the allegations back up a report released earlier this year by amnesty international that said 3000 people were

abc's kenneth moton joins us from washington with the details. kenneth, still has a way to go in the senate now. >> reporter: it sure does. good morning to you. president trump and house republicans at the white house relished the moment seven years in the making back on capitol hill, the senate ready to get to work on health care. this morning president trump's fight over health care now in the hands of the senate. the president on a decommissioned battleship, the "uss intrepid" with australia's prime minister. >> right now obamacare is failing. >> the president made this stunning statement. >> i shouldn't say this to our great gentleman and my friend from australia because you have better health care than >> trump praised australia's government funded universal health care hours after celebrating the razor thin passage of a bill in the house that would gut obamacare. 6. >> we still have a lot of work to do. >> reporter: senate republicans already preparing to write their own bill, a version that could scare off house gop moderates or hard-liner

. >> all right, that's elizabeth hur live for us from washington. thanks. and the president's stop in israel comes under tight security as he plans to visit both israeli and palestinian territories. >> abc's molly hunter is live for us in london. you were based in jerusalem for much of the last three years. the president has a busy agenda. those goals that elizabeth talked about, what are the challenges ahead? >> reporter: there are a lot of challenges, kendis, but goal number one is kick-starring that peace process, getting prime minister netanyahu and president abbas back at the table. bargaining chips we don't know. he's spoken in broad, sweeping statements. a huge platitude about what he wants to do, he wants this ultimate deal but he's going to have to start drilling down into those details if he wants those two leaders back at the table. >> and, molly, why is this flight, the direct flight from saudi arabia to israel so historic? >> reporter: we think it's the first time a u.s. president has done this. now, diane, you can't fly this route commercially

john harwood is covering the story for us from washington. good evening, john. what are some of the specific domestic programs that the white house is targeting? >> reporter: the biggest one, sue, is medicaid. you remember that the republican health care bill earlier, which has passed the house, not moved in the senate, cut 800 and some billion dollars out of medicaid. part of that was reversing the expansion of medicaid that occurred under obamacare. but these cuts go much deeper than that. even though the american health care act, the trumpcare replacement, has not become law, they've assumed that and added some more medicaid cuts on top of that in this budget. you've also got cuts in food stamps and welfare and significant cuts in disability benefits. $72 billion cut out of those. >> john, what about the potential for the tax cuts that have been hoped for since the election? are those built into the assumptions in this budget proposal? >> reporter: well, yes. the tax cuts are built in in terms of their effect on expanding economic growth. but it is not clear

. >> all right, kenneth moton for us from washington. kenneth, thank you. >>> also breaking overnight former panamanian dictator manuel noriega has died. once a close ally and informant for the u.s., he ruled panama from 1983 to 1989. that's when the u.s. invaded panama to oust him and arrest him on drug trafficking charges. he spent 17 years in a federal prison. panama's current president said noriega's death closes a chapter in their history and his relatives deserve to bury him in peace. manuel noriega was 83. >>> now to baghdad where at least 15 people are dead after an explosion in the central part of the capital. the massive explosion went off outside a popular ice cream shop in an area of the city where many residents go to eat after fasting during the day for ramadan. isis quickly claiming responsibility for the attack. just a few years ago abc news profiled that same ice cream shop. >>> police in manchester, england, are now asking for the public's help regarding surveillance footage related to last week's suicide bombing. the im

abc's janai norman breaks it down for us from northwest washington. we are following some breaking news. a new incident airlines overnight. sam sweeney is at live desk with more. larry-- the united airlines flight from houston to ecuador was delayed after a scorpion was spotted onboard. united says the scorpion crawled out of a passenger's clothing on flight 10-35 as it was preparing for takeoff. that takeoff was aborted and the crew ordered everyone off the plane. paramedics passenger and determined that he hadn't been stung. passengers were put on a different flight, and eventually took off about three and a half hours later. no word on whether they captured the scorpion. this is the second time a scorpion has been reported on a united flight. back on april 14, a united passenger was stung by a scorpion, also on a plane out of houston. the venomous creature fell from an overhead bin and landed in a man's hair as he was returning home from vacation with his wife. developing now.. a new lawsuit against howard university alleges.. the school severely m

the federal reserve board, alice rivlin, a senior fellow of the brookings institution joining us from washingtonfor joining us. as you heard in the introduction, mario draghi address the dutch parliament and said the stimulus has not finished the job yet but he does acknowledge the economy is getting stronger. closer to the ecb changing its forward guidance possibly in june ahead of probable some say tweaking to the outlook of tapering for the qe program in september? maybe, but i think it is too soon to say. things are looking up a bit in europe and that was true before the french election. i think the outcome of the french election is positive for european growth. we have moved a bit of certainty that may have been there given macron take that a governing coalition which he does not have at the moment. he does not even have a real party. there's a lot of uncertainty about friends. -- france ban. could and should contribute to be settlement of the most urgent issues in international affairs. we discussed syria and quite a detail in the context of the ideas that have been put forth regarding the

he's also an award—winning author, and he's speaking to us from washington dc.hen i was watching the donald trump speech in his visit to saudi arabia, there seems to be some cognitive dissonance, doesn't macris make you see him chastise iran ina macris make you see him chastise iran in a country that is not democratic, and get iran hasjust had democratic elections and elected a moderate. it certainly deserves a lot of criticism. but to stand in riau, which does not know what elections are, and criticise iranians, and incidentally, the iranians, and incidentally, the iranians have now in three times in a row opted for the most moderate candidate on the ballot in three elections in a row. —— riyadh. not a lot of european countries can even brag about that. to do so for riyadh is the maximum amount of hypocrisy we have seen so far. unfortunately, this actually only benefits the hardliners in iran. because it is easy for them to dismiss valid criticism against the human rights record, when it is going for an administration that is this hypocritical. so why is the tr

joining us from washington is journalist james fallows, who started his career covering nixon's falln to become chief speech writer to president carter. he's now the national correspondent for the atlantic. good evening. thanks for coming in. first of all, let's deal with the new york times story that trump told the russians that comey was... the removal of comey ended the pressure on him and he went on to call him a "nutjob". is there the danger of obstruction of justice? the suspicion in most cases like this is you find some subtle clues of obstruction ofjustice and the president doing things because there's some three domino effect that will reduce pressure on him. according to these reports, trump is out right in saying this was the reason he got rid of fbi director comey. so, yes, in any normal, political environment this would be serious trouble for a president. you say in any normal political environment, so you are not sure? yes, the commentary you are having was right that there are legal enquiries under way but fundamentally this is a political decision. so far a major diff

joining us from washington is ron christie, a former adviser to george w bush. why not?what is going on in the united states government, it was engaged in a counterintelligence operation to ascertain whether or not the russians had on properly influence the election, the appointment of a special counsel takes it out of the realm of counterintelligence, when there is not a prosecutor involved. —— unproperly. now we have some blue with prosecuting powers. question a lot of republicans ask in washington, what is the underlying crime, i don't understand and i have not, from looking at the statement from robert mueller, i cannot see what underlying crime he may be looking at which donald trump, the president, or his associates are allegedly having considered violated. one possible case with the attraction of justice, violated. one possible case with the attraction ofjustice, if it was proven that donald trump asked jim crow me to drop the investigation into michael flynn. -- james comey. in the statutory, obstruction of justice, not only are you in a position where you are im

. >> joining us now from washington, d.c., national political reporter for axios, jonathan swan. good morning to you. president trump issued a statement about kushner sunday night. it reads, jared it doing a great job for the country. i have total confidence in him. he is respected by virtually everyone and is working on programs that will save our country bls of dollars. in addition to that, he is a very good person. question to you, does jared kushner have the loyalty of everyone else in the white house or just the man that matters the most? >> not even close. he's got donald trump's loyalty, his son-in-law, but jared kushner has made a lot of enemies in the white house. there's a number of people in there who resent the position he's in. they privately call him prince jared. i know that directly. i can tell you there's been a number of people in the white house have been waiting for this moment of weakness to pile on jared kushner. you've seen that in the last 72 hours with this flood of news stories, with anonymous people saying things about jared that have are not very flatt

she joins us from washington. >> thank you. earlier today, we spoke with a former fbi agent who was directly involved in the clinton email probe and we asked about the impact of the fbi director's termination on the russia case and he used this comparison. it is kind of like the train leaving the station paid once it's left the station, there's really nothing you can do to stop it, not even the termination of the fbi directord that was the same attitude at the white house earlier today. >> we don't think it's necessary. he has a house committee, senate committee, and department of justice working on it. i don't think there's the necessary need this point to add it. you have the deputy attorney general who i would say is about as independent as it comes due to the fact that he has such bipartisan support. >> white house talking about the need for a special prosecutor paid what we also learned today in the white house briefing is more about why the fbi director was fired in the first place. white house said that last year, when h

kim wallace joining us from washington. nicholas burns is coming up, the former u.s.to nato joining me. his take on the president's visit to brussels today. this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪ is "bloomberg markets: the trump economy." i'm david gura. let's take a look at what is going on in the auto industry with julie hyman. julie: we have been watching general motors today after it became the 6th automaker to be accused of diesel cheating. a lawsuit filed on behalf of thousands of owners of gm duramax diesel trucks, filing a class action lawsuit. they said that gm installed devices aimed at evading emissions tests into models of the trucks from 2011-2016. they are heavy duty trucks. many other automakers have been victim of these kinds of allegations, some of them paying out, as did vw, billions of dollars in fines. gm now down by 2%. and you can look throughout the industry, not as automakers themselves, but the auto supply makers seeing weakness. american axle trading lower. the auto rental companies interestingly taking a hit, but they have been trending lower as of late. av

mike joins us from washington.his is some the heels of the president abruptly firing the head of the fbi. i'm curious, is trump having an impact on what is going on in's -- in cyber world? are we more or less vulnerable to a cyber attack? emboldeningt is attackers. the new administration, a lot of people thought president trump would be more aggressive in cyberspace. we had a couple draft orders of the executive, the cyber executive order that showed a different task. when the order came out last week, it was more of the same, and if anything, that seems to have emboldened the attackers. we had not just the massive rent somewhere attack that spread -- ransomware attack that spread across the globe, but a group said they might decide to do a dump a month, which means they would release a new set of tools that the u.s. uses in cyberspace every month, which could be devastating. emily: talking about this rent somewhere attack, what new information -- this ransomware attack, is it contained? do we know the origins? wax

he joins us from washington and from our berlin bureau is reporter patrick donahoe.more about angela merkel's stance regarding all of this, from the closed-door caucus meeting. can you bring us up-to-date? >> merkel has been addressing us a week. she was at a beer tent at a campaign rally where she raised the issue of reliability and the issue of relations between germany and europe and the united states. she hasn't back down. -- hasn't backed down. she spoke today at a press conference with the indian prime minister and called india a reliable partner. she addressed this once again, saying this transatlantic relation is important but there are other relations too. vonnie: kevin cirilli, where does this go? odd days left30 and she started tweeting up about other things. vonnie: that is on the paris accord. trump has tweeted he is going to make that decision sometime later this week. let's take a step back with a relationship with the german chancellor. we are never on the campaign trail, they had a war of words but we also remember when chancellor merkel visited the

jesse westbrook joins us from washington.ted off with the wall street journal opinion piece by the new labor secretary and he encouraged the sec to take a look at and do more with fiduciary duty, something that did not happen under the past chairmanship. what is the status of the role at this point? news and midway through he announced the role that wall street hates, it will take us back to schedule next month. they thought the rule of law, the legal risk, they had to move it forward but he did outline odds, inrule is not at line with president donald trump stay regulatory agenda and he wants the sec who is this ,raditional frontline regulator broker, money managers to take a look at this and hopefully come that theomething industry might be happier with. david: is this a sign that it is passed over to the sec or is this another example of a dodd-frank role that has ownership by a number of regulators? >> i think the secretary wants nothing to do with this. it came on the labor department's terrain under obama because the se

kevin cirilli joins us now from washington, d.c. what did we learn that was new yesterday?n the former active attorney general seated next to james clapper. what did senators here that they didn't before? kevin: it wasn't just sally aids, but former president barack obama and the whole administration. warning president trump at the time about the risk that general flynn posed. general flynn was someone who had accompanied candidate donald trump frequently across the country, traveling extensively with the president -- then canada trump. on trail instructions was as is someone who russia blackmail risk. days for him to resign, essentially. we also have to remember president trump, who was asked about this in office several weeks ago during press conferences, defendant general flynn. percolatentinues to and continues to evolve, the question is now, not just from democrats, but also from republicans, about the nature of the investigation and when the conclusion would yield some type of new, finalized results. david: are we hearing from the white house? sally eight saying she w

. >> joining us from washington yet again, national political reporter from axios, good to talk to youain about fbi director james comey. reporting he's willing to testify in public. congressional mall hearings. meaning if the president's story is not straight. comey could do some real damage here. >> it wouldn't be out of character for james comey. there's a fascinating interview with one of his long time friends, benjamin. and it's with him he says, look, based on what he knows about comey. not on any inside information, he inspects that james comey at a time and place of his own choosing, probably in a congressional setting, he will tell his full account of the story. and he's done this before. this is the patent of james comey. whether you agree or disagree with his decision making, he's always been to a fault very full in his public explanations of what he did. >> jonathan, you know, democrats as you've been reporting wanted to appoint a special prosecutor here. we're talking about that last week to investigate russia and the russian question. lindsey graham t senator saying that'

get more now on our top story, the fallout from the sacking let's speak to jesse byrnes, associate editor of the hill newspaper — hejoins us now from washington much of this matters and how much is white noise? any president is entitled to sack the director of the fbi and, if you believe president trump and his supporters, this is all the democrats having a ha rd this is all the democrats having a hard time getting over the election loss. of course, you are right. any president can fire the fbi chief at any point. the remarkable thing this week has been the almost hourly change in the narrative coming out from the white house surrounding the sacking of the fbi chief and the reason behind it. donald trump said today that the reason he made the call to fire james comey and it was not the decision of anyone else but him. of course, democrats and even some republicans raised alarm bells over this firing and, of course, came in the middle of an fbi investigation into the tram campaign. mr drunk quite clearly admitted that the russian investigation was on his mind when he fire james comey. it is a remarkable kind of admission. he is basically sayin

he joins us from washington, d.c. let us get your reaction to the timing.ch of the conversation centers on that. a lot about the report of the relationship between mr. comey and mr. trump. why do this now. what is your reaction? mr. hoekstra: i am not that troubled by the timing at all. the president has just gotten his team in place at the department of justice. he has his attorney general, he has his assistant attorney general, who director comey reports to. he had been on the job for two weeks. believed analysis, that director comey had lost the confidence of the fbi, the employees in the fbi, made the recommendation to the attorney general to the president that he thought director comey should be terminated, should be fired. the president took that advice and move forward. david: how do you tap the reversal in tone, on the atpaign trail, when you look his recent tenure, what is most troubling to you, or what ucf the rationale that led the you see as the rationale that led the president toivhis firing orders? mr. hoekstra: a lot of people were troubled b

chris, thank you very much for your time and joining us from washington, d.c.rama enveloping the white house, and there's anxiety and concern in many parts of the white house, including on capitol hill. we are joined by the senior senator from maryland, the ranking member of the senate foreign relations committee on capitol hill. let me ask how you reacted to the revelations reported yesterday. how does this change your understanding of the white house and its role in washington? if the report is factually accurate, it is extremely damaging and shows the president was trying to interfere with an investigation. that is somethingthe prident caot do in the oval office, so it underscores the importance for us to understand exactly everything that has transpired. we have to collect all the facts, and it has to be done in a nonpartisan, objective, credible way, and that's why the department of justice wants to establish a special counsel they'll have the credibility of the american people and not have interference on the white house and conducting the investigation.

with spring and adam who joins us on the phone from washington.or is an analyst international studies. adam, great to have you here. it looks like a case of by the room and so the facts to the markets. somewhere out there to deepen cuts. >> i think that the opec meeting was disappointing in the sense that they didn't come up with those deeper cuts that you mentioned. they have extended it out to the first quarter of next year and that is probably enough time to pull stocks down enough that keep prices flat. how much is u.s. oil production going to go up, is the question, and how much oil is the president going to sell out of the petroleum reserve? >> i was just going to ask you those question. what are your estimates for that? >adam: u.s. production is climbing. initialthat is the wells that were drilled, but not completed, that could come back in quickly. they could come back into higher-priced markets and the rigs are being very efficient. once again further out, six months, one year, i suspect it opec willdown and have an advantage again. reser

joining us from washington is politico's author daniel litman. give us a temperature of what republicans are feeling this morning now in light of all this information and the possibility that president trump may have revealed this classified information to the russians. >> i think republicans think this is a huge black eye for their party and for trump himself, and it also hurts their priorities on the hill because everyone just keeps talking about the latest controversy of the week. republicans have always been seen as the party that is all about national security, but this really undermines that reputation. >> daniel, you know, there is -- at least it appears, because the president can declassify with broad authority. clearly what's at risk here is, let's not tell the president what's important. >> it's very hard to say no to the president when he asks for sources and methods, and it also hurts potential cooperation with foreign intelligence agencies. they've long been worried that if they give information now to the u.s. government, that will g

our national security reporter ryan brown joins us live from washington where he's monitoring all of ng us up to speed. >> reporter: good morning. this massive bomb vehicle borne ied going off near the diplomatic corridor very close the german embassy. it's estimated it killed at least 80 people and injured hundreds more. german foreign ministry saying some of its embassy staff were injured. an afghan security guard at that embassy was killed. there's still assessing these numbers. casualties are still being reported. u.s. military led coalition in afghanistan said afghan security forces did prevents this vehicle bomb from driving into the green zone where most of the u.s., of a again and government embassy locations are. so they were able to prevent that. this bomb injuring a lot of civilians during rush hour, during holy month of ramadan. security in afghanistan has deteriorated as summer pros brings an uptick for isis and taliban. both have conducted suicide bombings in kabul in the past but it's months since anything of this scale has occurred. it's still being determined who was

and bob costa joining us from washington. when you hear break up the big banks.an interesting phase. how real? >> the banks can get back to loaning money -- let's get something clear. the banks are still loaning money. president trump said we are going to break up the big banks. he is not the first to say it. gary cohn has already said it. when president trump did say it today you did see the bank index drop but then it came back. those in the banking universe said yep, he will get right on that. with the amount of things on president trump's plate, infrastructure, tax reform, health care, even dodd/frank -- he mentioned it there, it's going to be seriously majorly changed. great. get to the details, by the time they break up the banks the bankers in those seats right now are going to be long gone. >> robert costa, break up the banks can sound so pleasing during campaign season. isn't this one of the talking points that actually made some bernie voters trump voters? >> that's true, brian. there is this strain of populism that's coursing not only through the ameri

a lot to talk about with tracie potts who joins us from washington bright and early this morning. reading in the "wall street journal" this morning that the trump administration wants to reset its direction. how exactly do they do that? is it a staff shake up up? what are we looking at hear? >> we have been hearing rumors of a staff shakeup for a while. it looks like they're setting up what's described as a war room to deal with all these questions about russia. the president has been said to be quite annoyed by these continual developments in the russian investigation tied to his white house and his team. he wants to strike back at that. so he's got some of his stop str top strategists, steve bannon, reince priebus and jared kushner. some are asking kushner to lay low because of his potential ties to russian officials. the president said he has total confidence in kushner, so we may continue to see him playing a role there. the other thing is the public face of the white house. those daily briefings with sean spicer. we've been told for a while now he may be taking a step back in

let's bring in nbc's blaine alexander who joins us from washington, d.c. >> reporter: president trumpels up for first trip abroad judges as two major headlines breaking at home "the new york times" reporting during the oval office meeting with russian diplomats last week president trump called fired director comey a nut job adding firing him the day before would likely ease pressure on the investigation. the white house not denying "the new york times" article but instead are the reporting back to repeated leaks to the press as the national security threat as first reported by the "washington post" dmirmd i nbc news a currently white house official is considered a significant person of interest. the post-reporting now the investigation into russia and possible trump campaign ties is only getting bigger. >> we understand that this investigation into russian meddling in the 2016 election has escalated. you're going to see subpoenas, potential interview requests in the coming weeks. >> the president's team leaves washington still reeling from a tumultuous week before taking off the presi

fox news joe waldman joins us from washington where trump's personal attorney is also caught up in the investigation. joel? >> reporter: good evening to you. no one was really expecting the news about general flynn, he had invoked his fifth amendment right. but now, he will turn over some sensitive documents. meanwhile, a lot of the attention has been on the president's son-in-law jared kushner. but this probe appear to be ever expanding and is now looking into president trump's personal attorney. >> we have been talking about this for about eight months. >> reporter: more frustration at the white house this morning. michael cohen who is considered to be one of trump's closest confidants has become a focus on the expanding investigation into russian efforts to influence the 2016 campaign. he reportedly rejected requests to cooperate in the investigation. trump said on twitter that russians must be laughing at the u.s. much of the media focus in revent days has fallen on president trump's senior adviser and son-in-law jared kushner, specifically a december meeting between kushner and a

catherine herrige joins us from washington. i know you are learning more about how this attack played out. >> reporter: a congressional source who has been briefed said the forensic analysis of the device has begun and they're focusing on the shrapnel because the nuts bolts and nails can be traced back to a point of sale and even sometimes the seller itself. investigators are hopeful as well as security camera footage will show whether the suspect acted alone or had support from a known terrorist group. this morning in his opening statement, the director of national intelligence who oversees the nation's 17 intelligence agencies said that retaking the kwraoeus strong holds will not solve the problem. then adding -- >> isis is experiencing territoryial losses in iraq and syria. however, we assess isis will continue to be an active terrorist threat to the united states due to its proven ability to direct and inspire attacks against a wide range of targets around the world. >> reporter: adding to what rick levinthal was reporting.

joining us from washington, d.c., michael singh, manager of the russian institute and former directore national security council. leaks are not unprecedented, but it seems the public naming and shaming from one country to another that has the special relationship and trouble. >> obviously, there is a lot of outrage in the u.k. about this. the proximate cause of that outrage are these pictures that were published in "the new york times" of the the blast which was seen as quite insensitive to the families and victims. and this is an ongoing investigation. this terrorist is seen is not a lone wolf, but part of a network so there may be further arrests and raids, and then there's the desire not to compromise any event ongoing investigation. >> leland: as you pointed out, there is two parts of the danger of this, one is the issue of respect to the family, the second being the compromise and an investigation. the second question is who in the u.s. government would do this? conceivably anybody who has access to this stuff has gone through the security clearance process. you filled out those

tracie potts joins us from washington now with the latest on that and what else we can expect today.ood morning. >> reporter: we can expect to see congressional investigators going after some of those records that they wanted to see. the word is that flynn will turn over some of his personal documents, some documents subpoenaed from two of his companies from the senate intelligence committee. initially he took the fifth, now taking another look at this, he and his attorneys say there are some documents he's willing to turn over to the investigating committees. also michael cohen, president trump's long-time personal attorney and business attorney may testify if asked. koe whcohen says i have nothing hide. i will make myself available and i'm more than happy and willing to testify, but they have to be specific. initially he said no because he said the request was too broad. this just goes to show these investigators seem to be getting closer and closer to the president's inner circle. speaking of inner circle, the first briefing since the president came back from overseas at the white

the author of "gaining currency," joining us from washington today.omes a prince to the white house. they will be meeting in the oval office for the next few minutes before having a working lunch together on what is a busy day for the president with a trip abroad at the end of the week. this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪ david: this is "bloomberg markets," the trump economy. rod rosenstein is accepting the invitation to lead in all senators briefing regarding the firing of the now former guy director james comey. for now we want to bring in our executive director editor. explaining what this is, first of all, what many he -- what might we hear, if anything, from mr. rosenstein directly? >> very little, if anything, directly. it's behind closed doors and that's a rare thing. making it available to all 100 senators. not a common thing, not completely unusual, but we expect it to be behind closed doors and we would expect the , rosenstein,lves mcconnell, they might give a bit of a read on what happens. obviously there is an all mostly high interest on what rosenstei

our global affairs correspondent is with us from washington. with the muslim world. is he going to advivisit all of these places on his first trip. >> reporter: it's significant because what his advisers are presenting this is by going to all the centers of the great religious, judaism, against the forces of intolerance. in saudi arabia he will be meeting not only with the saudi leaders but also arab and muslim leaders to try and get a coalition together to fight extremism. in the -- in jerusalem will be meeting with israeli leaders making a historic visit where he'll be making an address but to bethlehem to be meeting with president abbas. they're trying to say that he's trying to get the whole world in a common fight against terrorism. >> and trying to broker peace a big issue there between israel and the palestinians. the president a few days ago made a bold statement about the difficulty. let's listen. >> maybe not as difficult as people have thought over the years but we need to have two willing parties. >> this was during the visit by the

the new york times reported says -- -- reported this may be mark mazzetti joins us from washington.ionel barber of the financial times joints me. know?what do we what is it we want to know about jared kushner and these conversations he had with the russian ambassador and the how would wer, and like to define them? mark: there are a lot of things we would want to know. what would be the purpose of the conversations? what was discussed? what each person wanted from each other, what the russians were interested in, what kushner was interested in, why was this being done outside of the normal diplomatic channels? normally, when a president gets elected or a candidate gets elected, there is a system in place during the transition with the state department giving briefings to the president-elect . the apparatus of the state department is available to the president-elect to set up phone calls with foreign leaders. that is the way things normally worked during the transition. in this case, it wasn't just with russia, the trump administration was unique in going around that apparatus. whethe

bloomberg's reporter has been covering this development and joins us from washington.ow the justice department for about almost two years has been looking into whether or not there's any type of rating in the markets of u.s. treasuries. -- treasuries, specifically in the trading of securities, the head of treasury options. what we reported this morning was that several banks have been subpoenaed recently, last month, as part of this investigation. the banks that we disclose today have been subpoenaed, bnp, rbs, and ubs. vonnie: what exactly are they being investigated for? being investigated -- the justice department began as a pretty broad look at whether there was manipulation in this market, similar to what prosecutors found in libor and currency rates are they took a bride look to see -- broad look to see in terms of collusion and any type of fraud, whether that was occurring here. now that we are seeing subpoenas, that usually is an indication that prosecutors are sort of now come up with the type of theory for potential -- for a potential crime. it doesn't mean t

joining us from washington is ed o'keefe of "the washington post" and sarah kliff. tell me what happened. the trump administration and president and other key leaders said they had the votes. in fact they did. was it difficult to pull this off? >> absolutely. they've been trying for weeks, charlie and they did it today by the skin of their teeth, 217 to 213. that was more more than needed. there's a few vacancies to the magic number was to get it over 216 and they called the vote shortly thereafter. no democrats voted for this. 20 republicans also voted no. a mix of members from swing districts who will face difficult re-election fights next year and face questions about health care and ardent conservatives who don't think the bill went far enough. when they figured out wednesday they had the votes and decide to do out thursday and they did it and it's a significant achievement whether you're a fan of this president and republicans right now or not there's no denying the house pulled off something many thought they could not do. this is the first major legislative a

our john harwood joins us from washington with a lot more. >> we are less than 24 hours into this stunning news of president trump firing james comey, the fbi director, who is leading an investigation of the trump campaign and trump associates over ties with russia, which, of course, interfered with our election. we saw just a few minutes ago that the two leaders in the senate, republican mitch mcconnell and democrat, shuchuc schumer took their roles. >> what we have now is our democratic colleagues complaining about the removal of an fbi director, whom they themselves repeatedly and sharply criticized. that removal being done by a man, rod rosenstein, who they repeatedly and continually praised. >> chuck schumer, the minority leader, had a different view, as you would expect. >> i will be requesting that the majority leader call a closed, and in necessary, all senators briefing with the attorney general and deputy attorney general separately at which they can be asked questions. >> but beneath those two familiar roles, we are seeing some cracks in the republican veneer of unity, specifica

nbc's blaine alexander joins us live from washington. blaine all happening while president trump is on his first official overseas trip. >> reporter: yes janelle this undoubtedly could not come really at a worse more inconvenient time for the white house. as you know of course for weeks the white house has really been trying to shift the focus wush away this russia investigation and shift the focus back to the president's agenda. and they were hoping to use this trip as a pivot point to do that. but again within minutes of the president going wheels up on air force 1 the two headlines coming out putting the focus back on the russia investigation. president trump wheels up for his first trip abroad just as two major major headlines breaking back at home "the new york times" reporting during the oval office meeting with two russian diplomats last week president trump called fired fbi director james comey a nut job adding firing him the day before would likely ease pressure on the russia investigation. >> the white house not denying "the ne