whitehouse: 2017, so it has been in place for a while. if you have to run the ability to ask an information request through headquarters, that gives them the chance to create institutional delay or put the kabul -- on an investigation -- kabash on an investigation. mr. wheeler: i will point out, we did not have a senate confirmed person until december of last year. i believe that is the longest time the agency had ever gone without a senate confirmed person. i think the numbers have gone up significantly since susan beaudoin took over the office. i think the program itself has improved. sec. whitehouse: i would like to ask you to get back to me on whether this memo is still in place. additionally, one of the edeviled people

whitehouse: thank you. mr. president, it's terrific to be joined here today by my colleague from oregon, senator wyden, to address some of the devastating effects of a changing global climate. from the shores of rhode island and our beautiful narragansett bay to the forests of southern oregon. rhode island is looking at losing significant territory to storms and sea level rise. oregon is seeing ancient forests go up in smoke. for most of the country, this summer has been a scorcher. july was nearly 2 degrees fahrenheit above average and before that, the contiguous u.s. experienced its hottest may and third hottest june on record. its oceans, too, just last week the rhode island organization save the bay recorded ocean surface temperatures in little narragansett bay off the coast of westerly rhode island at nearly 80 degrees fahrenheit, the highest in over a decade of data and perhaps the highest ever in rhode island history. the federal government's climate science special report released late last year warne

or whitehouse. sorry. senator whitehouse. i majored in how to introduce the next person. >> having been attorney general with senator blumenthal, i take any confusion with him as a great compliment to me. >> two of the most brilliant lawyers in the u.s. senate. >> so we are now in a situation in which the best path for senators on the judiciary committee to get access to a nominee for the supreme court's records is through the public foia process. the committee process for senators on the committee has forced us to go to the foia route which is available to the general public. that is a very troubling fact in the present state of affairs. throw in that materials that we will be getting as senators will be given to us so-called committee confidential, meaning the public won't have access to them and setting a trap for any inadvertent release of those documents. finally, we have just a complete variance from the past traditions of the senate in terms of what types of documents were provided for the committee about nominees. now

senator whitehouse. senator whitehouse: i viewed your predecessor's tenure as one characterized by a tawdry behavior in office, a desire to do damage to the agency that he led a , flagrant absence of transactional integrity and horrible environmental policies. i see you as a remedy to three of those four. so, in that sense i welcome you. appreciate itu i very much your courtesy and having the in. i very much hope that you follow through on putting teddy roosevelt's picture on your wall. i think that would be a good reminder and signal. a lot of what needed to be repaired at epa had to do with process stuff rather than the substantive disagreement you and i may have on environmental

senator whitehouse: ms. provost, what was the debut heard of attorney general sessions' april 6 decision to record zero-tolerance? >> i became aware on april 6. >> i would say on or about that date. senator whitehouse: mr. white him you said march 22 -- >> that is right, i left on the 15th of march and became aware of the announcement of the zero-tolerance policy on television on the 6th of april. mr. whitehouse: i assume you knew that this was going to take place before april 6? >> we were advised it was going to be a possibility. senator whitehouse: when were you notified that this decision would be taken? >> only a few days before it came out, so on or about april 6. senator whitehouse: ms. higgins? >> when it was announced, but i would note our director has indicated that he was asked to make a recommendation once the decision was made to prosecute. senator whitehouse: mr. white, i have a few seconds left, how many cases are you aware of separated children, separated pursuant to this policy, in which it

as senatorck whitehouse has said so well is absolutely essential. until the government of the united states strikes back, tech companies will be at the mercy of the russians and others like the iranians and chinese. a lot of people are aware of this problem. is intelligence community aware of it, the senate committee is aware of it, the people need to be more aware of it -- there needs to be more -- buttion declassified we will be working with one hand behind our back until the president of the united states ceases to deny it is a problem. as long as the president is wemissive about this issue, will be at his advantage. at a disadvantage for you to raise the elephant in the room, we need to prevail on the white house and the administration to exercise more leadership. the intelligence community has demonstrated it. warnedelligence has powerfully about it, but as we sit here 76 days away from the midterm election, we are faltering, and we are at risk. the evidence is most recently the disclosure of microsoft fake sites, that it has eliminated, but th

with that i would recognize senator whitehouse. >> thank you. first let me thank senator graham for this hearing and for our work together overou many years on practical and bob parsons opportunity legislation. protecting government networks and critical private infrastructure against cyber attack is a challenge that should transcend political party, and here in this subcommittee at those. i for one don't think we are what you need to be. cybersecurity will require a comprehensive and whole of government effort with the white house, legislative committees, and the private sector all involved. our witnesses today that all these areas and i'm pleased that will hear testimony from the department of justice, homeland security and found the odni. they drink is a snapped and review the attorney general recent cyber digital task force report prepared under leadership of mr. raman avenue dhs national risk management center. the defense of our nation's critical for such against cyber threats have never been more critical. we know that russian hackers and

schumer: senator blumenthal. >> or whitehouse. [laughter] en. schumer: i a i'm sorry. i'm pleased i made it to introduce to the next person that i introduced the wrong person. sen. whitehouse: for not having been attorney general with senator blumenthal, i take any confusion with him is a great complement. two of the most brilliant lawyers in the usa. so, we are now in a situation in which the best path for senators on the judiciary committee to get access to a nominee for the supreme court record is through the public process and the committee process, for senators on the committee have forced us to go to the foia route, which is available to the general public. that is a very telling fact in the present state of affairs. throw in the materials that we will be getting as senators, will be given to us, so-called committee confidential, meaning the public will not have access to them, and setting a trap for any inadvertent release of those documents. finally, we have a complete variance from the past traditions of the senate in terms of what types of documents were prov

senator whitehouse: may i offer one closing thought? there are multiple federal agencies who have been involved in this. none of the federal agencies have been giving the lead to move with congress to move the ball forward in a conference -- a comprehensive way way. there is a little bill here, there, but if we want to do this right, you got to put pieces together. on our side to have the exact same side, far too many committees which claim a piece of turf, and that we will go into a cyber catastrophe everybody predicts, that which we did nothing about because executive agencies would not get their act together and designate a single point of contact and congress would not get its act together and designate a simple process, and the result is everybody is waiting for somebody else to make the first move, and it all goes off. so that would be my final closing concern. and thank you, mr. fanning. mr. fanning: both the executive branch and the legislative branch are just waiting for the catastrophe. it is ridiculous, and everyone here ough

senator whitehouse. senator whitehouse: i viewed your predecessor's tenure as one described by damage -- a flagrant absence of integrity and horrible environmental policies. i see you as a remedy to three of those four. my visit to you, i appreciate it very much, your courtesy and having the in. i hope you follow through and putting teddy roosevelt's picture on your wall. that would be a good reminder and signal. a lot of what needed to be repaired at epa had to do with process stuff rather than the substantive disagreement you and i may have on environmental issues. some of the process stuff had to do with enforcement. in the first nine months of the trump administration, which we have data for, enforcement actions declined by 30% compared to the first nine months of the bush administration and 35% compared to the first nine months of the obama administration. 50% less inought fines and money for environmental cleanup than the bush administration and almost 90% less than under the obama administration.

whitehouse. chairman,itehouse: you were probably in the closed door briefing that we had when i asked the previous panel of witnesses what went wrong. two of our witnesses, people of had a chance to think about it a little bit longer. as simply as possible, what went wrong here? >> we were directed to do 100% prosecutions on amenable adults. of adults,jority approximately 85% for single adults. -- were single adults. senator whitehouse: is that an answer to my question? what went wrong? >> it is our responsibility to make the apprehensions and turn people over to ice. senator whitehouse: as far as you are concerned, nothing went wrong. >> i'm not saying that. senator whitehouse: you are not saying anything went wrong. our responsibility is the border security aspect of it. senator whitehouse: what went wrong? ands i indicated, both ice policieslong-standing and procedures policies and procedures to dictate how reunifications occur. i am answering your question. there is a standard practice they f

whitehouse: mr. president,

i'm happy to be joined by senators blumenthal and whitehouse, both from the judiciary committee. i want to recap where we're at with the supreme court nomination process. for weeks, republicans have been deliberately withholding the entire record of judge kavanaugh's three years as staff secretary, most senior position he held in the bush administration, and a job that he himself said was formative and instructive as preparation for being a judge. those are his words. meanwhile, the small percentage of documents the judiciary committee will get to see are being prescreened by a republican operative, bill burke, who not only worked for kavanaugh in the bush administration so this is someone who reported to him, but currently represents steve bannon, reince priebus and don

and what i was particularly troubled about -- and senator whitehouse knows more about this than any senator -- is the arguments that they made weren't federal governmentered to the -- weren't tethered to the facts. they kept saying there were all kinds of mandates in the agreement. as i colleague knows, there

whitehouse: thank you. >> thank you, senator. we are going to come to an abrupt stop, but we will make an exception because senator duckworth wants to be heard, but she will be the last one to ask questions and then we will close the meeting. senator duckworth: you are very generous and quite a gentleman. >> that is because you cosponsored my aviation bill. >> [laughter] senator duckworth: i talked to pilots and they are big fans of yours. mr. wheeler, although we don't see eye to eye on most issues, i believe you are making a good faith effort to reverse the course of epa and operate in a transparent manner. i support your memo calling on your colleagues to be open and accessible and committing to leading by example on open government efforts. i thank you for that. i think it's a first step to restoring the public's trust in the epa.

whitehouse: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i am so grateful to join my colleague, senator warren, today to discuss the financial and economic risks posed by climate change. you have just heard the senator from my neighboring state of massachusetts lay how the a powerful case -- lay out a powerful case. given the gravity of these risks and given our recent experience of the 2008 financial crisis, we should be doing everything we can to prevent another economic meltdown. we know exactly what we need to do to mitigate these economic threats. we need to transition from polluting fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy and we can do this simply by giving renewables a fair market chance against the gigantic public subsidies on which the fossil fuel industry floats. put a price on carbon emissions so the price of the polluting product reflects its pollution costs to society. that's the economics 101 answer. the problem is that fossil fuel

the white house -- senator whitehouse. good friend of wind who i met through many trips through senator mccain. so many have been coming down to the floor. tributes on the senate floor and in the newspapers across the country have been inspiring and they have been true. talking about a man of courage, a steadfast patriot. an american hero. a warrior of the indomitable spirit who not only believed in american exceptionalism but expired -- but inspired millions of americans and millions of people across the globe to believe in it as well. listened,watched and sometimes i have started to wonder what more is there to ask? there has been a lot said. especially from a freshman senator who has not served with john knew the as long as most in this chamber. taught us john mccain anything, it was to speak and you feel compelled to speak. when it comes to him, i certainly feel compelled to speak. particularly as a newer member of this body who thought the world of this man and learned so much from him. john mccain was a leader, there

whitehouse: mr. president, i look across the senate and see our colleague, senator mccain's desk, silent, draped in black, under a vase of white roses, and it breaks my heart. i'm here to say my farewell, and i have a bit of predicament, which is that i am a very ordinary man here to try and give tribute to a very extraordinary man. john mccain was an extraordinary man. extraordinary in his suffering and resilience, extraordinary in his ideals and principles, extraordinary in his courage and devotion, and extraordinary too in the devotion he engendered. we met when i was a new senator and he already a legend, his battles for campaign finance reform and against corrupting earmarks were legendary. he could make a mark on the floor with drama, punch, and declarative force. he could also be unreasonable, and he took a completely unreasonable liking to me. our politics did not match. i could offer him nothing and yet he befriended me. and, as so many colleagues know, john's friendship was a treasure. john

rhode island democrat sheldon whitehouse says one solution is to let u.s.companies "hack back" after cyber attacks. 0:58-1:09to allow hack back authority so capable responsible private sector actors can deter foreign aggression whitehouse hopes his colleagues act soon, ábefore the midterm elections. in washington, i'm anna wiernicki. coming up at eight.. a bill to end bail in california is now headed to govenor jerry brown. why some say it will make communities less safe. plus. storming an apple store and getting away with thousands.... it's a crime trend we've been following. how one group was stopped in their tracks in southern california. and next. a growing call to remove one student from an east bay school over reported violent threats made toward students. ((lawrence tease))i'm kron 4 chief meteorologist lawrence karnow.coming up, i will take a look at your 7 day forecast. details are right after the break. it's time for the 'biggest sale of the year' on the new sleep number 36

he and sheldon whitehouse spoke with reporters earlier today. >> hi, everybody. welcome to the abbreviated week,

he and senators richard blumenthal and sheldon whitehouse spoke with reporters earlier today. >> hello everybody. welcome to the abbreviated week for two democrats and non- daca republicans did not show up. as of yesterday. yeah, that's right. we are. i'm happy to be joined by senator blumenthal's and white house from the senate judiciary committee. for weeks republicans have been deliberately withholding the entire record of judge kavanaugh's three years as dust secretary, most senior position held in the bush and ministration in a job that kevin himself said was formative and instructive as preparation for being a judge. those are his words. meanwhile, the small percentage of documents are being prescreened by a republican operative who not only worked for cavanaugh in the bush and ministration so this is cavanaugh's someone who reported to him but currently represented defendant, rinse previous and don mccann. if this seems shady is because it is. even worse at the moment one third of the documents the judiciary committee had are being deemed as committee confidential, in other word

white whitewash whitehouse the questions many many restaurants in washington listening band up he's because they say he has imagination could could be any interest recitative instigating trump trumps highlights to russia read about about about. small small [inaudible] the radiation. going. senses vented his anger on twitter to if anybody was looking for a good lawyer. he's just shows you that you don't don't. also sells in like my cocoa and when i came. into. the kitchen. and she's dead. still to come hang. engines which would include. a maintenance to women women who say say hi how does. trump the testimony he has simply washington. for the first restaurant has a president. of one of his holdings in social sharing your election campaign. orders can say they i haven't had a laser overlooking. the i will no no none of us has has anything to do with the russians act that collusion or a middle level election which switching me to be the main main question service for business i started investigation by -- the system tell children. sit on me while. placing. wrestled close to shore prices. so th

peter whitehouse -- you're in the white house so much, we're just going to call him peter whitehouse.osh kirsten is also at the white house, and cynthia, a member of the justice department. cynthia, let's go to you. this talk about firing jeff sessions shouldn't be too much of a surprise if you've seen the president's tweets. he's been mad at sessions for a long time. what do you make of him actually discussing firing him with people in the white house? >> i agree with you it's not exactly news. he's been trying to bully this guy to resign for a long time. i think it's a sign of frantic behavior. look at the position he's in. manafort is convicted and is about to be convicted again. cohen has flipped. immunity has been given. his white house counsel has given 30 hours of testimony to mueller. i think he feels the walls closing in and is in just a panic and does not know what to do. if he does go ahead and do it, i will tell you i think it's grounds for an obstruction count, because all of his tweets, all of his statements to don mcgahn that he wants him to fire him, all of his stateme

rhode island democrat sheldon whitehouse says one solution is to let u.s. back" after cyber attacks. 0:58-1:09to allow hack back authority so capable responsible private sector actors can deter foreign aggression whitehouse hopes his colleagues act soon, ábefore the midterm elections. in washington, i'm anna wiernicki. (grant) coming up... a teacher is speaking out after she is suspended... for her after-work hobby. see why the school district is so upset. (vicki) the animals are being let out of their cages. why after more than a century... animal cracker boxes are getting a different look. after more than a century locked up -- barnum's animal crackers are no longer behind bars. the box for the classic nabisco snack has been re-designed. instead of caged on a boxcar-- the beloved animals are now shown outside ... roaming among grass and trees. barnum's animal crackers brand has been around for more than 115 years. and "peta"... is claiming some credit for the move. the groups says

before randomized control trials it did show significant results or of reductions but the but i know whitehouse the president was in the white house so but to see what was happening so what they did most recently especially with the advent of statins and all these other things that are anti- inflammatory they stopped having an effect on cardiovascular. that's why the study that says the omega-3 supplementation that is not associated with mortality your cardiac death and was accurate -- how about this one? [laughter] are we done? then they say no. something always comes up so for example we found no effect on stroke or heart attack but they did find that for siding. >> there is a condition and then to have correct in the cool kind of way. so omega-3, how grumpy are you? i could be in north heard iceland. but that with the vietnam war or nixon in china you are so far as actually doing something or was when something happens? that is my feeling it just seems to be there at the important moment. so where does that lead us in our discussion? there is a a whole other element to that business going ba

from the out to his room american far right groups are outnumbered but come to protest outside the whitehouse. in washington it's coming exactly a year on from the deadly unite the right rally in charlottesville. his car into a crowd of protesters. and of the program to the smalling a hacking contest in the u.s. reveals that even a level year old can interfere with the american election infrastructure and impact the results. we can constantly around me and it reminds me when you like. controversial nation state laws up for debate norm jewish citizens claim they face discrimination while supporters say it defends israel's identity. this law says that this land is only for half of the population and half would be discriminated against well i think that word is just heard is the exact example why we need it you have a person who is not an israeli citizen these bashing my country in israel all citizens are equal under the law on. their life marty h.q. kevin i am with you this morning thanks for watching we have you to do rather world's top story than a rally by far right groups and white national

want to bring up donald trump's elections, i saw hillary clinton, i saw john mccain, i saw sheldon whitehouse explicitly political foes on the president? >> i would say it is a different perspective in the sense that we know donald trump's side of the story is no collusion. we want today fill in the other side. but we also have a senior foreign policy to trump, and he was asked to be the cia director, and he didn't want to report to flynn. we also have the former sanctions coordinator who left when he felt president trump was trying to lift sanctions on russia. >> you chart back then businessman donald trump's connections to russians. what were the interactions you found there? >> the first clear he will elicit action was 1984. there was a russian mobster in trump tower, bought five condos from trump directly and it was ruled that that was money laundering, and you see dependents of it happening throughout the 80s and 90s. he starts getting in gettidebt,g through bankruptcies, and then the russian mafia start working in the trump organization. and it changed the dynamic. >> you're saying peop

and kelly kirkpatrick, a wonderful woman who stepped up in the absence of melissa whitehouse and has now been donned the queen of the budget -- budget team. i also want to recognize harvey rose because harvey rose is a critical entity in the process of the budget because he takes out the politics, and he just goes straight to the numbers and goes straight to the crux of the issue, and he squeezes, sometimes bloods comes out of this process, but he squeezes dollars and cents that allows us to begin the discussion on how we can add to the budget priorities laid out by the mayor's office. so harvey rose, thank you, you have been fantastic, the consummate professional, and i want to thank your entire team. and of course the clerk of the board, linda wong. as you know, the clerks run the machine. they run the committee. they start on time -- well, relatively on time, but the notes are there, and i would not be able to do my job if i did not have the outstanding help of linda wong. so folks, i hope you will enjoy this moment. i'm excited to stand next to mayor breed to sign her first, my l

senator whitehouse. >> when characterized by a tawdry personal behavior, any desire to the agency that he led a flagrant absence of transactional integrity and horrible environmental policies. i see you as a remedy to three of those four. in that sense i welcome you. my visit to you, appreciate your courtesy of having me in and i hope you follow through on putting teddy roosevelt's picture on your wall. that would be a good reminder and a good signal. a lot of what needed to be repaired at epa had to do with process stuff rather than substantive disagreement we may have on environmental issues. some of the process stuff had to do with enforcement. the first 9 months of the trump administration, enforcement actions declined by 30% compared to the first 9 months of the bush administration with 35% compared to the first 9 months of the obama administration. in the same period epa thought 50% less in fines and money for environmental cleanup, then the bush administration and 90% less than under the obama administration. some of that appears to have been a decision made by the office of com

. >>> plus amy klobuchar and sheldon whitehouse weigh in on the president's threats to shut down the whether a deal can be struck to avoid that. "morning joe" moments away. it was the last song of the night. it felt like my heart was skipping beats. they said i had afib. what's afib? i knew that meant i was at a greater risk of stroke. i needed answers. my doctor and i chose xarelto® to help keep me protected from a stroke. once-daily xarelto®, a latest-generation blood thinner significantly lowers the risk of stroke in people with afib not caused by a heart valve problem. warfarin interferes with at least 6 of your body's natural blood-clotting factors. xarelto® is selective, targeting just one critical factor. for afib patients well managed on warfarin, there is limited information on how xarelto® compares in reducing the risk of stroke. don't stop taking xarelto® without talking to your doctor, as this may increase your risk of stroke. while taking, you may bruise more easily, or take longer for bleeding to stop. xarelto® can cause serious, and in rare cases, fatal bleeding. it ma

this was the 22nd night of protests in front of the whitehouse. a group of political activists launched the nightly gatherings in reaction to the president's news conference with russian president vladimir putin. >>> 11 americans who survived last week's crash are suing that airline. the plane crashed just after take-off from the airport in durango, mexico alast tuesday. everyone survived. the lawfirm handleing the case says the passengers have the right the know exactly what caused the crash. the cause of the crash has not been determined yet. three of the four crew members have been interviewed but not the captain because he is still being treated for injuries from the crash. >>> the state assembly budget committee is holding a hearing this afternoon about solveing the long wait times at the dmb. dmb customers are spending more time in line than ever before. starting in october of 2020, you'll need a real id to board a flight in the united states. you have to apply for a real id in person. many people who renew a license online have to go to the

. >> sheldon whitehouse, thank you for being with us. >> good to be with you. >>> president trump's administrations making a lot of environmental changes. they are set to roll back obama-era coal regulations today so we have president obama's former epa chief with what she thinks about this next. adults are just kids with much, much better toys. introducing the 2018 c-class sedan, coupe and cabriolet. the thrills keep getting better. lease the c300 sedan for $399 a month at your local mercedes-benz dealer. mercedes-benz. the best or nothing. so you have, your headphones, chair, new laptop, 24/7 tech support. yep, thanks guys. i think he might need some support. yes. start them off right, with the school supplies they need at low prices all summer long. like these for only $2 or less at office depot officemax. mom: okay we need to get all your school supplies today. school... grade... done. done. hit the snooze button and get low prices on school supplies all summer long. like these for only $2 or less at office depot officemax. introducing zero account fees for brokerage accounts. and zero minimum