now, being a white house historian, the story of the white house does not end in 1820. it continues and changes and evolves. all of a sudden, you find yourself using all of your knowledge of american history and starting to connect the dots. in terms of major changes in american society or demographic or economic changes. you can see these things unfolding at the white house. so, it is one of those things where you do not really learn the depths of the history until you get into the job, then you realize how incredibly complicated and complex it actually is. susan: what is your story, how did you get to the association? lindsay: i met matt, we were both at mount vernon as follows. we were there for an extended period of time. i was working on my dissertation on washington, a different aspect. we stayed friends and touched base occasionally about what we were up to. i had a postdoctoral fellowship at the presidential history in dallas. that was coming to an end. they happened to have an opening. matt called me and said hey, we have this position coming up, would you like

guest: i cannot get into anything that was going on inside the white house when i was at the white house or confirm any information relative to that. but talking about the roadblocking, this is an age-old issue between congress and the white house on a lot of oversight issues. there are always disputes over what information the executive branch has to turn over to congress, and it is nothing new at all. as it relates to 2020, look, this is why we have elections. factlks are happy with the unemployment is at its lowest and more people are working than ever before and gdp growth is outstanding and we are getting better trade deals with countries, they will have to make judgments as to the successes of this administration. i think the president is up for that challenge and up to the task no matter who he has on the others. host: i want to ask about the issue of impeachment. usatoday.com,n most americans want the president to comply with subpoenas, but impeach him, not so fast. what do you think is the likelihood of the house proceeding ahead on impeachment proceedings against the president?

the white house pleaded a non-existent absolute immunity and that will stay. >> more now on hicks' testimony today. democratic congressman joins me, she sits on the house judiciary committee. thank you so much. you called hope hicks' testimony a forarce. did you learn anything today? >> i called the hearing or the interview a farce because she had white house counsel, her own personal counsel, about six different lawyers there telling her that she could not answer anything objecting to every single thing from, you know, answering a question where she sat relative to the oval office, later she was asked by the chairman did you tell the truth to robert mueller? and they immediately said objection, who objects to whether or not somebody is telling the truth to the special counsel. so this was clearly the white house trying to as you said in our opening comments, stymie the american people from getting information they deserve to have. we did not get a lot from hope hicks because of these executive, you know, the absolute immunity claim and one thing that was interesting, john, they did not clai

most white houses abide by it.ay, i mean she is not just using -- playing into politics, she is kind of attacking and obviously engaging in efforts to go after president trump's opponents. that's exactly what you're not supposed to do. that's why the law is in place. >> water, what happens now? because kellyanne conway isn't going to jail. she is not losing her job. is she allowed to just keep on making comments like this? >> well, she wasn't allowed to do what she did and she did it anyway, so she will probably continue and she probably won't be fired. i think one good thing that has come out of this is it truly exposes the level of lawlessness in this administration. you have got career federal employees who in this administration have been fired for hatch act violations. one of them was even barred from working for the government for another five years. but it seems that in the trump administration the higher the level the official, the less the rule of law applies to them. so at least now we have clarity that t

his rival white house hopeful cory booker said he must say sorry immediately. will biden apologize. >>> reparations resistance. huge crowds turn out as a house panel holds an emotional hearing on forming a commission to look at reparations for slavery. the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell is already dismissing the idea. can lawmakers come to terms with it? >>> and comrade kim. in a rare front page op-ed, chinese president called it a replacement relationship and cozying at the expense of president trump. i'm wolf blitzer and you're in "the situation room." >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. >>> we're following breaking news. the chairman of the house judiciary committee vowing to take the white house to court as president trump's former aide and long-time confidant hope hicks snubbed lawmakers questions about the white house in a lengthy closed door hearing that just ended. we're also following a new controversy facing presidential candidate joe biden. a growing number of fellow democrats are blasting him for touting the civility of his dealings with

house overnight and reform committee hearing on the office of special counsel's findings that the white house counselor kellyanne conway violated the hatch act is in recess for votes on the house floor. this is live picture from capitol hill. we are expecting the hearing to resume at about 10:30 eastern so the last few members can ask their questions too henry curno. when the hearing resumes, we do plan to bring you live coverage from c-span 3. until then some of the questions from this morning beginning with the committee chair elijah cummings. >> we will come to order. we want to thank you and the hardworking career experts at the office of special counsel who've spent many months doing a thorough and careful investigation. i understand your recommendation to president trump that kellyanne conway be removed from office was not made with careful consideration. i want to play a clip from a phone interview president trump did last friday on "fox & friends" responding to ofc's report. play the clip, please. >> you're not going to fire her? >> no, i'm not going to fire her. she's a tremendous sp

it's about a 17 minute drive from the white house to andrew's air force base. the first lady's staff has allowed me to bring a camera along for the cnn documentary. that doesn't happen often. neither do these trips. melania is hitting the road to promote her be best campaign. two years into her time as first lady it's her first solo domestic overnight trip. >> is that a normal first lady schedule? >> i think she does a lot less than other first ladies have done. >> the first lady of the united states, mrs. melania trump. >> she announced a cyber bullying campaign. >> we can and should teach children the importance of social and self awareness. >> i think that every first lady has felt compelled to have an agenda and to really work. >> the first lady to ever have an initiative was lady bird johnson when she had the highway beautifcation act. nancy reagan with just say no to drugs. the bush women both had literacy and then michelle obama with her lets move campaign. there was always a sense of an obligation to treat this like a job and we see melania trump treat

>> for white house aides. i'm not certain, but i think there's a reasonable argument that the privilege night extend beyond your white house service. in other words, if the point of the privilege is to protect the the president from being able to have confidential and free wheeling communications with his aides without having to worry about what happens without chilling that conversation, it's reasonable to think that the privilege might extend after that. that doesn't mean it covers everything. it doesn't mean it covers where your office was. it doesn't mean it survived reasonable requests for information. it doesn't answer those other questions about whether it extends back or it was waived. this is just the beginning of a legal fight. but i agree with emily jane, this is not a witness who seems to be chomping at the bit to tell her story to investigators or congress. she'll do only what she's required to do. she remains i think the president's hopey. >> and let me just say, it was behind closed doors, the d

a year after she moved into the white house, gossip about the reclusive first lady still churned. that like for you to have to deal with? >> some of the rumors are so funny, we have to laugh. there's a fake house in the area pops up. we laugh at that. it's silly. >> that rumor caught fire after melania made a radical decision. >> when first lady melania trump decided she would allow her son to finish his school year in new york before moving down here, it was classic, vintage monelania trump. she doesn't need a poll worrying about what people in washington think, worrying about what the media will say. she did what was right by her son. >> for melania, motherhood comes first. >> she gets up in the morning and she makes sure that he has eaten and there's arguments about homework and getting in the car and getting off to school. >> it's funny when you go to the white house and see the soccer goal in the garden. >> you think, yeah, there's a kid. because she's done such a good job of helping us forget that there's a kid. she has gone to great and almost poignant lengths to protect him

white house attorneys objecting to every question about hicks 'time in the white house. wouldn't even answer where her desk was in the west wing. hope hicks knows a lot about trump, one of his coastest confidantes during the campaign and in the white house at his side constantly. a close aide to the president telling me she was his emotional crutch. listen how the president talked about her. >> look at hope. hope hicks doing a fantastic job. she is a fantastic young woman. and i'm very proud of her. now hope hicks is a tremendously talented person. i love hope. she is great. >> and today the president made sure hicks knew he was still supporting her. tweeting in part, quote, so sad that the democrats are putting wonderful hope hicks through hell. democrats say hicks was called to testify under oath because smefs a key witness in the mueller investigation. her name is one of the most frequently mentioned, appearing nearly 200 times in the mueller report. she was a key presence at major moments, including the firing of then fbi director james comeyy. trump's role in crafti

pamela brown at the white house. cnn political reporter arlette saenz is in iowa for us, as is the former vice president, joe bid biden. he's in mt. pleasant, iowa, as we speak right now. arlette, biden took direct aim at president trump, calling him a threat to the president. what's the latest? >> reporter: that's right, wolf. joe biden wasted no time when he got here to iowa, criticizing president trump at his very first stop over in ottumwa. biden often goes after president trump on the campaign trail. it's just not every day that you have both biden and the president in the exact same state. and take a listen to some of that criticism that he lobbed president trump's way while he was in ottumwa earlier today. >> i believe that the president is literally an existential threat to america. he found time to go after bette midler, for god's sake, in the middle of the d-day ceremonies. for real. not a joke. and instead of repairing the relationships with our allies, he's continued to damage them. four years of donald t

our committee has obtained public testimony from numerous officials while they served in the white house. houseinclude white councils, the deputy counsel to the president, and associate counsel to the president. a deputy assistant rate the director of the white house office of security. in the case of ms. conway, two arguments have even less merit. we are not asking about any conversation she had with the president. asking about any advice she gave to the president. we have a case of a federal law over andating over again. we have video of that employee mocking the law itself and claiming it does not apply to her. we have the white house asserting congress may not question this employee. hernot investigate violations. this is the opposite of accountability. our system of to laws in this country. above the law. not even ms. conway. for these reasons, we will hear from our ranking member. special counsel kerner's opening statement. we will pause so members can vote on a subpoena to compel her appearance later today. i will yield to the ranking member. >> the report is outrageous. it is out

i wonder though what you are hearing about white house officials. do they still believe that she won't say anything damaging to the president? because remember, she had previously testified on the hill that she had talked about sort of white lies that she would tell on behalf of the president. >> and that was one of the most striking comments from that testimony when she did admit that she told white lies on behalf of the president and that is why some people are cautious about her testimony today. because even though they don't believe that she is going in there to give up all this damaging information on the president, they know that she was one of his closest advisers, a close confidant, someone that he told so much to that she was essentially a family member to them. but we've heard that they say they are not concerned about her testimony, that she don't think that it will go poorly. but some of these people also had to be reminded about that white lies remark from hope hicks. >> a lie is a lie from the white house. and we've seen more than one.

leaving the white house. embattled press secretary sarah sanders will be leaving the white house. announcing the move, president trump says she should run for governor of arkansas. >>> taking dirt. president trump is doubling down on his stunning comment that he'd accept dirt on opponents from foreign sources in the 2020 campaign, without going to the fbi. one senior republican says such a move would be impeachable. >>> blaming iran. the united states is blaming iran for attacks on two tankers in the gulf of oman. secretary of state mike pompeo says the assessment is based on intelligence without offering direct evidence but u.s. sailors report seeing a mine attached to one of the tankers. >>> and birthday greeting. after a series of harsh comments, it turns out kim jong-un's new letter to president trump is a birthday greeting as a biographer says the north korean dictator knows just what buttons to push with the president. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >>> this is cnn breaking news. >> white house press secretary sarah sanders, a dogged defender of president

you have reporters asking the white house questions. the white house responding to it. and then these people, toothless whatever come down the hallway saying a strongly worded letter that you should be fired. this is so dumb. i can't believe kpaenl conway has to waste five brain cells worried about this. huss outrageous. >> richard. >> this is an attitude toward ethics it's embarrassing and shameful. and it's shameful to use the title as a former assist to president george w. bush and you know that in the bush white house this wouldn't have been tolerated. we would not tolerate violations of the hatch act and not refer to the offs of special counsel in this manner. the bottom line is the reason this is happening is because the united states house of representatives does not have the courage to impeach donald trump, even to open up an impeachment inquiry. and until then we are going to continue to get the middle finger for every single house of representatives subpoena, we are continuing to get this attitude toward the office of special counsel and it's going on and on b

in the white house. end of quote. similarly, miss conway stated this week, quote, it is not even clear to us at the white house according to the white house counsel that the hatch act applies to assistants of the president, end of quote. let me make this abundantly clear. the hatch act absolutely applies to miss conway. period. it is written in black and white. we are the committee on jurisdiction over this law. and neither congress nor the courts have ever suggested that a president's adviser is exempt. finally, i want to address the white house's baseless arguments for refusing our request for miss conway's testimony here today. they sent a letter to the committee monday arguing that miss conway is, quote, absolutely immune, end of quote, from testifying. a claim that this principle has been, quote, consistently adhered to by administrations of both political parties. end of quote. ladies and gentlemen, this is simply not true. congress has never accepted the claim that white house advisers are absolut

he tells the white house tonight "i reject that assertion.ill be posed to her and we will address privilege and other objections on a question by question basis." chairman nadler goes on to say "the committee plans to ask ms. hicks about instances she witnessed in which the president took actions that may constitute criminal offenses, including obstruction of justice." essentially implicitly claiming there that it can't be a privileged communication if in fact what that conversation was about was the kmings of a crime. one other thing to keep an eye on with that hope hicks testimony tomorrow, democrats are also reportedly planning to ask her about the hush money payments that were made to two women who are planning to make public statements about alleged affairs with trump before the campaign. those happened during the campaign before the election. so not when hope hicks was working in the white house. not when she was working in the transition.

he didn't work in the white house. ever. >> corey why don't you think democrats put him in front to answer questions? >> out of all the people whose names come up, corey has the weakest claim to any sort of privilege. i don't see how there is anyway he can claim legitimately a privilege but remember, by refusing to answer and throwing the matter in court, that's a win for the white house even if they ultimately lose in court because the circus moves on and people's attention doesn't last. even if he fights and loses, he's doing a service to donald trump. >> delay is a means to and in and of itself. thank you so much for being with us tonight. appreciate it. >>> still to come, we have breaking news. joe biden just hit back at cory booker. we'll tell you what he said as a former vice president defends himself about comments of two segregationist senators and a veteran white house journalist will join me. sam donaldson will discuss a record set today, 100 days without a formal press briefing. cancer is the ugliest disease

someone who was a former white house communications director. someone who multiple congressional committees have been eager to speak with in the aftermath of the mueller report. and now she has agreed to go behind closed doors and talk to the house judiciary committee next wednesday in the aftermath of the committee, issuing a subpoena demanding documents and testimony as part of its investigation into potential obstruction of justice at the white house. this is a rare deal that has been reached between either current or former white house aides, current or former administration officials and the democratic-led panel. we have seen resistance from a number of officials, including white house officials and efforts by the white house to prevent these people from coming before this committee. but in this regard, at least a deal has been cut for hicks to come behind closed doors and answer questions. now, i am told that this means that the committee will have this hearing and then the transcription of the interview will be released afterwards. and the

the white house counsel says those documents the house democrats want, those belong to the white house. help us understand what's happening here and the implications of it. >> i think you're right it's not surprising. the first thing that's important to remember is that for people who no longer work for this administration, people who are former employees, they can testify, turn over personal documents. the choice is theirs. and ultimately, the choice that they'll have to make is one that involves whether government owes an obligation of transparency to citizens or of whether this president will continue to hide his activities, attempt to cloak them in executive privilege, a defense i think will fail in court. this begins to come together, whether this administration will continue to hide its activity or not. >> stick right there because we're lucky enough to have you on the show later for a different topic. >>> coming up, congressional democrats hatching a plan to try the case against president trump without actually invoking the i word. that includes hauling in a key figure in the ni

questions about her time at the white house. that includes questions such as where her office was in the west wing, as well as whether she told the truth to the special counsel. according to democratic lawmakers in the room, they're making very clear she's not answering anything about any topics about their time at the white house. democrats coming in did want to ask her about those allegations of obstruction of justice that were laid out in the mueller report. the efforts allegedly by the president to undermine the mueller probe, including how he handled the firing of james comey, whether he wanted to dismiss the special counsel, as was alleged in the report, among other things, including his relationship with michael flynn and her role in drafting a misleading statement that went out to the press when it was revealed that donald trump jr. had a meeting at trump tower with russians who wanted to offer dirt on the clinton campaign. all those topics off limits. coming out of this hearing, democrats are making it very clear they'r

you're the white house counsel. the report then goes on to say, quote, mcgahn told the president he did not understand the conversation that way and instead had heard, call rod, there are conflicts, mueller has to go. the president asked mcgahn whether he would do a correction and mcgahn said no. professor mcquaid, what's your reaction to this meeting as i've described it thus far? >> what mcgahn says is that he thought that president trump was testing his mettle, seeing how firm he was in his recollection of what had happened and whether he was going to be movable and mcgahn was steadfast and stuck to his guns and said, no, this is what happens, you did is -- maybe you didn't use the word fire, but you said, he has to go, you need to remove him so even if the precise words were not accurate, the gist of the story was and mcgahn was steadfast in his refusal to deny it. >> thanks to all of our witnesses and appreciate the attention that you're giving the facts as we proceed through this. mr. chairman, just if i may,

left the white house in march of last year. so there is a mixed bag of what the committee wants to talk to her about and what she is responding to as it has been described to us so far. again, there will be a transcript of her remarks published at some future date. we are gathering nuggets. as we like to call them in the white house. >> sure do. >> reporter: and bits of information from members as they're coming out. >>> kelly, i will let you get back to watching that door. we will come back to you live. hans nichols, we will come to you live. we don't think we will hear from the president until he gets back to the white house from florida. i imagine questions from his former confidante, although she hasn't worked at the white house for a while, might be top of mind >> reporter: there might be a close to realtime readout. they are expecting to talk to white house counsels to figure out just what was said in the meeting. just to be clear on when they will assert privilege, they will assert for the transition period. after presid

the white house is clearly trying to bring in congress to this. there will be a meeting of senior congressional leaders in the situation room here at the white house later this afternoon. it's an indication the white house wants to make their response appear to be bipartisan. >> this is interesting stuff. this is kind of interesting because there was an iran deal which allowed everybody to be involved in negotiations. the president pulled out of that. iran now takes an aggressive action against a u.s. drone. the president wants to point out there were no people in that drone but it was a big plane, not an amazon delivery drone. and now as hans says there may be some suggestion that there is space for negotiation. this feels a little bit like iran taking a page out of what north korea has been doing. >> reporter: well, i think the thing is that when the deal fell apart and president trump came in and pulled out of the deal and everything started to unravel and there was talk of a possible conflict with iran and the economy here started to collapse,

at "the washington post," white house reporter ashley parker. with us on set, former chief spokesman for the department of justice, matt miller. jonathan swan, national political reporter for axios. politics reporter for "the daily beast," betsy woodruff, and elliot williams, former deputy assistant attorney general. matt miller, i have got to start with you. i watched that and thought, wow, i thought we made don mcgahn a white house counsel with all those judges and two supreme court justices but maybe donald trump thinks he's telling the truth to robert mueller. but if there had been an interview with this president and robert mueller, i mean this is why people like rudy giuliani said they'd lay their bodies down on the train tracks before they'd let donald trump answer questions from mueller about the obstruction investigation. >> yeah. you know, the president's legal time wasn't the "a" team for maybe even the "b" team or the "c" team, but even rudy giuliani and john dowd could figure out if he sat down with the special counsel for an interv

the white house also blocking former white house counsel don mcgahn's chief of staff from cooperating annie donaldson, notes quoted stents 11 ht mueller report, central to it. at this hour the chairman of the house judiciary committee jerry nadler in a statement says this is evidence of the president's obstruction of congressional investigations, that some democrats are taking it further. >> he is a total obstruction, no witnesses, no talk, no documents, just like the po mob. >> do you think it's time to open up louisiana impeachment inquiry. >> long past time. >> house represent etch lloyd doggett and long past time. he says. thes house speaker nancy pelosi is staring downturn growing insurgents in the party. you can see the number growing every day. up to 59. so how long can pelosi cape everyone at bay? it may in the be much longer if you ask alexandria oxio cortes. >> do you sense impeachment restlessness among fellow democrats. >> pamela brown is traveling with the president in london where she is outfront live. pamela, hope hicks, annie donaldson, the latest blocked by the white

we want to bring in cnn's white house correspondent abby phillips, also kate lan colin, white house correspondent, and susan glasser, staff writer for the new yorker and cnn global affairs analyst. we have a lot of news breaking and susan, we want to start with the new video we're just trying to analyze now, released overnight, which pentagon officials say showed the iranians removing the mine from this vessel, some kind of coverup. let me ask you this. does this in your mind prove the iranians were behind this? and why would they do this? >> well, look, this is a pretty compelling evidence offered by the united states. i think it is interesting if, you start to see u.s. allies as well, weighing in, and saying that they find it to be convincing evidence, iran is the likeliest suspect in this situation. it also, it carries echoes of previous rounds of tension, ratcheting up threats to tankers going through the straits of hormuz, one of the riskiest global flash points that there is, in the sense that there is a bottleneck, these tankers are often sitting ducks. we harken back to the 1980s, and the

the white house has directed former white house officials hope hicks and annie donaldson not to turn to the house judiciary committee relating to their time at the white house. >> manu raju is on capitol hill with more. this is more of the same from the white house. totally stonewalling here. >> indeed, this comes after they have already directed other officials, including don mcgahn, the white house counsel, not to comply with the subpoena or turn over documents. this latest direction coming from the white house chief of staff, mick mulvaney, directing these former officials, the former white house communications director hope hicks, as well as annie donaldson who was the chief of staff to don mcgahn in the white house counsel's office not to turn over documents as required by a subpoena from the house judiciary committee today. now, one catch, though, hope hicks could still presumably testify, we're told, before the committee about -- turn over documents about her time on the campaign. this direction from the white house has to deal with her time at the white house, so there is pot

most recently as a white house communications director. e house judiciary announcing she has agreed to testify next wednesday up here on capitol hill via closed door testimony, but they intend to release a transcript afterwards. and of course she'll be facing questions about her time in the trump campaign, transition and during her time in the white house. now, significant thing to watch is the white house last week, they told hicks not to provide any documents to the committee related to her time at the white house. so the thing to watch here is whether they assert executive privilege to prevent her from talking to the committee about her time at the white house. but of course a campaign time will be fair game. dave and christine? >>> some breaking news, oil prices spiking right now after a fire on a tanker ship in the gulf of oman. this follows media reports that two oil tankers have been attacked. the companies that managed the tankers, were evacuated with one minor injury. the manager of the courageous says it's in no danger of sinking

in the white house. these include multiple white house counsels, the deputy counsel to the president, and associate counsel to the president, a deputy assistant to the president, and the director of the white house office of security. in the case of mgs conway, the white house's argue mingtments have even less merit. we're not asking about any conversations she had with the president. and we're not asking about any advice she gave to the president. here we have a clear-cut case of a federal employee violating federal law over and over and over again. we have video of that same federal employee mocking the law itself and claiming it does not apply to her. and we have the white house asserting that congress may not question this employee. may not investigate her repeated violations and may not conduct oversight relating to the legislation that we on this ommittee pass. this is the opposite of accountability much it's contrary to our fundamental system of laws -- accountability. it's contrary to our fundame

pressure from the white house? >> i think generally the people that want this to be over with and weekend it up. richard burr has stood up to that and is acting honorably as he should. >> you believe he has explained his role in the mueller report when he mentioned telling the white house about sensitive information that he as a so-called member of the gang has received. >> i talked about that. i think he was communicating to the white house, the witnesses they wanted to call and what our committee -- what witnesses we were after. incidentally he may have mentioned that information. i don't think it was a serious breach on his part, and i've seen no evidence of his cooperating or to accuse another word colluding with the white house on this investigation. >> the chairman of the house committee is threatened to s&p the fbi director to get specific answers on whether the counterintelligence investigation that's going on by the house intelligence committee into president trump is still active. do you know if it's stil

negotiations have often taken place, they have almost always fallen apart and it's worth noting that the white house has continued its strategy of basically stopping every single request related to the house-controlled democrats. the house intelligence committee did actually reach an agreement on their subpoena related to underlying information in the mueller report earlier on. there's some kind of a paradigm with success here. based on what the request has been, based on how jerry nadler has been very stout throughout that he wants the full unredacted report and based on the fact house democrats are more uneasy than they've ever been about what they've gotten in return for that request from the white house, right now it appears unlikely that anything. >> this latest offer from the justice department comes as the white house continues to stone wall the judiciary committee's subpoena for documents from two key former white house officials. what will the democrats do in response to that? >> it's still an open question, but it's very likely or at least very possible that hope hicks, the former white ho

the white house counsel that the house -- hatch act applies to the assistance of the president. let me make this clear. absolutely applies to ms. conway. period. we are the committee on jurisdiction over this law. neither congress nor the courts ave ever suggested president's advisers are exempt. baseless address the -- and they are truly are forless -- arguments refusing the testimony today. they sent a letter to the committee monday. immune, andis quote of quote from testifying. they claim this principle has byn consistently adhered to administrations of both parties. this is simply not true. congress has never accepted the arem white house advisors immune. our committee has obtained public testimony from numerous officials while they served in the white house. houseinclude white councils, the deputy counsel to the president, and associate counsel to the president. a deputy assistant rate the director of the white house office of security. in the case of ms. conway, two arguments have even less merit. we are not asking about any conversation she had with the president. asking

following that briefing at the white house the situation room briefing with the top congressional leadershipd it was all obviously behind closed doors, very classified, the house speaker nancy pelosi tweeted this. let me read it. in light of the targeting of an unmanned u.s. drone by iran it is essential that we remain fully engaged with our allies, recognize that we are not dealing with a responsible adversary, and do everything in our power to de-escalate. the senate majority leader chuck schumer -- mitch mcconnell i should say -- said the administration is considering measured responses. mitch mcconnell saying that. what are these responses telling you about the seriousness right now of this situation? >> well, nancy pelosi and chuck schumer over in the senate want diplomacy. you know, even chuck schumer said something about you can bumble yourself into war. but when you talk about measured responses from the senate minority leader, i mean majority leader mitch mcconnell, what he is saying is something proportional to what happened with this drone. and this is all based off of certainty f

if you're in the white house.current president and hopefully that's not what the message future presidents send but i think one of the points walter made is really important. i worked in an agency as well during my time in government and the vast majority of federal employees don't even have posters of candidates they support, whether they're democrats or republicans. they give no indication of that because it's not appropriate and that's not how you conduct yourself in federal service because you're serving the american people. there's only a handful, a very small number of even white house employees that can engage in political activity. this is sending the message that doesn't matter anymore and we don't have to abide by that and that kind of goes into this divisive theme we've seen from this white house that you only are governing a small population of the people in this country, that's to your political advantage and not the whole country. and that's a huge problem, obviously. >> walter shaub, jen psaki, than

senate gop leaders met with top white house could officials -- white house officials last week, lookingt raising the government borrowing limit known as the debt ceiling. those negotiations are expected to resume among top congressional leaders and senior white house officials this week, although a date has not officially been locked in yet. thetreasury secretary and majority leader have said they hope to raise the limit as part of any budget deal. the treasury department has been using extraordinary measures since march 2 can serve cash, but the government could begin to miss payments by early fall without a debt limit increase. that is from the "wall street journal." mike is in orlando. caller: good morning. know, since 1984, i saw when walter mondale brought up the debt, and at that time it was $4 trillion, and things have gone way out of balance since then. everybody is going to suffer because of this. mike from orlando. "orlando sentinel" with the headline, why is president trump's campaign coming to orlando? it is key to winning florida, experts say. a reminder, we will be coverin

policy advisor there should be leeway and some of the clips that have been played, some are at the white house and some were late at night, but i don't know all the context was nd also, is there any waiver provisions for a senior white ? use advisors mr. kerner: i don't believe so. >> the waivers of other guidelines previously exclude that. now the provision that mr. meadows has cited, she is not bound by the onduty provisions and she can can engage but they have to be permissible and to the campaign work so she can do that. i yield to mr. meadows. mr. meadows: i thank the gentleman. here's what i would like for you to get to this committee. in your response to the white house general counsel, you didn't put any notations as to the possibility of a waiver. i would ask your team to go back and address the waiver because it is an question that deserves a waiver. it is actually indicating that the waiver does apply to ms. conway. we have two different things and i would ask that you do that. earlier, you talked about how josh earnest and ms. conway are different, because you, in may of 2016, i gu

yamiche, we know thatthat this follows the white house firing of rob porter, who was the white house stff secretary. this was in the wake of disclosures viout domestic ence in his baebd, raising questions on the part of some about whether this white house is eitheing enough to vet the people they nominate, or wwhether they areilling to put forward people who have questionable behaviors an t actions ur past. >> judy, it's a key question, and that was the question i put to a white ho tse aiday. i said, "what do you say to people who say this white house is supporting men who are accused of domese,c viole including rob porter?" that person said it would be diculous to lin rob porter and act secretary shanahan. that person said becau rob porter left the white house last year, it's unfair to do that. the preside also has said in the past because he feels like he was falsely acced of sexual battery and sexual assault, he understands men armetimes falsely accused. the white house is saying, look, these are people that were accused but we still stand with them. the president says he supports

officials hope hicks and annie donaldson, but the white house has directed them not to comply. what happens next if the house votes to hold these former officials in contempt, but they still don't comply? >> look, basically, the same thing, but remember, there is a difference between core executive branch white house employees and agency heads. most administrations would have concerns about a white house lawyer or a white house west wing employee whose communications with the president might be subject to legitimate objections. but the point is, you can't refuse to show up. you've got to show up and assert those privileges, and then we can work that through. so we're going to win these claims, too. but if there are legitimate claims, they need to come and sit in the chair and assert them the way every other democratic administration has done in our lifetime. >> you probably know this, but so far 59 of your democratic colleagues in the house of representatives, we've got pictures of them there, they've all publicly stated they want to at least begin impeachment proceedings, forma

because as a former employee of the white house, those materials they say belong to the white house. could she still come and talk about that period? we'll see if that happens. but it is one of the ways that congress is putting pressure again applying it over and over to people inside the trump circle and of course hope hicks was at the right hand of the president, in his business career and the white house. she left the government's employment in february of last year and she is one of the people that we have rarely heard from. as you know, when she was communications director, she didn't talk to the press publicly. >> thank you, kelly. the communications director who does not speak. thank you. >>> still ahead, president trump is grilled about avoiding the draft in the vietnam war because of bone spurs. wait until you hear how he claims he is making up for it now. >> well, i was never a fan of that war. ibl hone i'll be honest. i thought it was a terrible war, very far away, you know, you are talk position about ving about y had heard of the country. >>> plus public resistance over

the character of the white house. the white houses take on personality of the man in the oval office. i will tell you, however, from everything i understand, the navy declined the request to shield the name of john mccain from the commander in chief and i'm proud of the navy for not allowing that to happen. to your point, you know, you have not only senator mccain, p.o.w. mccain, but his father and his grandfather, three remarkable naval officers that have tremendous history, all three of them heroes. so, again, i think the navy made the right decision not to shield the name of the mccain and hopefully that's a good message back to the white house. >> just while we're on the subject here, of course, the senator's son makes for the fourth generation of mccains serving in the u.s. navy. can you think of a modern history american family with that much influence in one branch of the service? >> yeah, nobody comes to mind. there are clearly legacies out there. some remarkable legacies. macarthur had a father who served. ro

after she was in the white house?yed in close contact with the trump family. my colleague pointed out her lawyer is trying to assert privilege over a conversation she had with the president when they went to dinner, wait for it, in april. >> she was asked some questions about things that occurred before the administration and afterwards. she did finally answer questions about that conversation but only in general terms saying they reminisced about campaign rallies. so it seems that it is incumbent upon the democrats in congress if they want to get answers, substantive answers to these questions, to push it, to go to court, to get a ruling that these questions need to be answered. >> do you buy, tim, that jerry nadler house judiciary chair is making the argument, hope hicks' unwillingness to participate is all part of the democrats' plan and could lay out a legal road map to basically destroy the idea of executive immunity? >> i have no idea how this is going to play out legally. it is very complex. i think barb has go

hope hicks a top aide to president trump during his 2016 campaign and his first year in the white house has agreed to testify before the house judiciary committee next wednesday. hicks will be the first former trump aide to go before the committee in investigating whether trump tried to obstruct a probe into russian interference in the 2016 election. pete, the white house did not want her to do this. the person who had the title that hope hicks had was dan bart let in our white house. i think if we were a witness in any sort of investigation, if the president had done anything wrong, it would be devastating, whether or not she remains loyal to the president, simply as a fact witness to donald trump's conduct in office, which robert mueller said was criminal, is a devastating development for this white house. >> i agree with it. i think they're not happy and probably fearful. it's important historically to remember alexander butterfield when he revealed that the white house had tapes. archibald cox did not reveal that, it was during the is goin to happen and all of us involved in politic

demands seek private and privileged communication, as was the case when they instructed former white houseouse judiciary probe into the potential obstruction of justice and white house officials say the approach is justified. >> i think the president has reacted as any reasonable person would given the unprecedent harassment that he's had to endure. >> reporter: plus, have have been some breakthroughs, including when the justice department agreed to provide more information about the mueller probe to two different house committees. >> the department of justice blinked at the 11th hour in the face of a criminal contempt resolution. >> reporter: but they cut deal after house judiciary committee jerry nadler narrowed his initial request. some democrats say that is not enough. >> it seems as though we're kind of signature on our hands, so if now isn't the time, then i think a lot of folks would like to know when is the time. >> reporter: manu raju cnn, capitol hill. >> our thanks to manu raju. >>> ahead, a smoke peek at cnn's new documentary all about life inside the white house for first lady

earlier today, the white house briefed congressional leaders on iran, including house speaker nancy pelosi and senate minority leader chuck schumer. both democratic leaders spoke to reporters after the briefing. >> i told the president that these conflicts have a way of escalating. the president may not intend to go to war here, but we're worried that he and the administration may bumble into a war. we told the room that the democratic position is that congressional approval must be required before funding any conflict in iran. >> we know that the high tension wires are up there and we must do everything we cannot to escalate the situation but also to make sure that our personnel in the region are safe. >> speaker are you personally convinced that this was an attack on american operating. >> yes. >> today's news comes amid a week of rising tensions in the middle east. the united states is blaming iran for attacks on two tankers last week in the gulf of oman. iran has denied any responsibility for those attacks. here for our leadoff discussion on a thursday night, our friend michael crowley

in the white house. these include multiple white house councils, the deputy counsel to the president and associate councils to the president. a deputy assistant to the president and the director of the white house office of security. ms. conway, the white house's arguments have even less merit. we are not asking about any conversations she had with the president. anyre not asking about advice she gave to the president. here, we have a clear cut case of a federal employee violating federal law over and over and over again. we have video of that same federal employee mocking the law itself and claiming it does not apply to her. we have the white this is the opposite of accountability. our system of to laws in this country. above the law. not even ms. conway. for these reasons, we will hear from our ranking member. special counsel kerner's opening statement. we will pause so members can vote on a subpoena to compel her appearance later today. i will yield to the ranking member. >> the report is outrageous.

the white house is rejecting the notion that she did anything improper in her role as counselor to the president when she made these statements on social media and even on television appearances from the white house north lawn. but ultimately none of this might actually matter because the hatch act is one of those provisions that is rarely enforced and, in fact, president trump himself is responsible for enforcing it. sources say that the president is very unlikely to fire kelly an as a result of something like this, particularly when it comes to these sorts of ethical violations which multiple white house officials at this point have been dinged by this very same office over the last several months. >> abby phillip, thank you for that. >>> a new warning to president trump about the damage a trade war with china could cause. more than 600 companies including walmart, costco, target issued a letter that said more tariffs will have a significant negative and long term impact on american businesses, farmers, families and the u.s. economy. the trump administration, though, is devoted to it

gone 95 days without a white house press briefing. let's begin with that breaking news. we now know the matchup. who will face-off on each of the two nights of the democratic primary debates hosted by nbc news. here they are. the announcement comes less than 24 hours after finding out which 20 candidates made the cut for the debate stage. the two-hour event airs on june 26th and june 27th. live from miami right here on msnbc, on nbc news and telemundo. joining me now, national political correspondent, steve kornacki. arguably, this is one of the key moments in all of the campaign, right? it's going to be a long campaign. but for a lot of these 1%ers and 2%ers. my question for you is. let's start with night one. a lot of people saying this is a chance for elizabeth warren as the one top tier candidate to shine. i wonder if it doesn't provide an even bigger opening without, say, a biden or bernie for some of the people lower in the polls to breakthrough. >> you can call this one the opportunity debate. the first night debate. elizabeth

he tells the white house tonight "i reject that assertion.stions will be posed to her and we will address privilege and other objections on a question by question basis." chairman nadler goes on to say "the committee plans to ask ms. hicks about instances she witnessed in which the president took actions that may constitute criminal offenses, including obstruction of justice." essentially implicitly claiming there that it can't be a privileged communication if in fact what that conversation was about was the commission of a crime. one other thing to keep an eye on with that hope hicks testimony tomorrow, democrats are also reportedly planning to those happened during the campaign before the election. so not when hope hicks was working in the white house. not when she was working in the transition. michael cohen has already gone to prison in part for his confessed role in arranging those payments. he didn't invent that scheme on his own. will hope hicks be asked about it tomorrow? will they be able to stop her from talking about what she knows