i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. >>> we're following multiple breaking stories. the house judiciary committee just released the written testimony by a one-time chief of staff to the former white house counsel don mcgahn. the panel revealing how the white house blocked annie donaldson from answering questions, get this, 212 times. also breaking, attorney general william barr says the decision on how to add a controversial question on citizenship to the 2020 census will be made in the next day or two. we're told the strategy to comply with the president's demand remains up in the air. an executive order is among the options on the table right now. barr also is weighing in on next week's congressional testimony by robert mueller. he's accusing house democrats of force the former special counsel to appear to create, and i'm quoting him now, "some kind of public spectacle." this hour i'll talk with house judiciary committee member steve cohen and our

wolf? >> you heard these women say the president is attacking them. he can't really look at their face. that's why he's going the way he's doing it with these statements, these tweets. >> yeah. wolf, i want to talk directly to that sound from congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez. take a listen. >> weak minds and leaders challenge loyalty to our country in order to avoid challenging and debating the policy. so, instead, he tells us that i should go back to the great burrough of the bronx and make it better. and that's what i'm here to do. >> wolf, a little bit of humor there at the end. the issue being when the president tweeted that the progressive congresswomen should go back to their homes, three of the members he was talking about, three of the members standing right behind me on the stage were born in america. alexandria ocasio-cortez, ras hich hida tlaib from michigan. the one who is not, a refugee from war-torn syria as a child, congresswoman omar. taking time to speak to people, co

>> wolf, this is hugely significant. it is not some marginal country that we don't deal with and this is the u.k. and we have important connections with them and the closest ally and the other half of the special relationship, important military and intelligence sharing relationship and here we have the president of the united states simply saying he will not deal with the representative of that country. now the president was very specific to single out ambassador kim darroch in his tweets and not talking about the unite the kingdom and praised the united kingdom and the queen and he singled out the ambassador as someone that we don't -- that he does not want to deal with. so what does that mean, wolf? how does the u.s. go forward and -- sand maintain its relationship with the unite the kingdom? does the president no longer deal with the ambassador, does the president's team no longer deal with the ambassador? we know, in fact, the two teams -- the two sides have very close ties. so where do they go from here? the presid

i'm wolf blitzer. you're "the situation room." >>> the breaking news tonight, high tension in the house of representatives, which is about to vote on a resolution condemning president trump's racist twitter attack on four democratic congresswomen, fueling the tension, the president and his top aides continuing defend his remarks along with a growing number of top republican lawmakers. we'll talk about the breaking news with congressman don myer of the ways and means committee. first let's go to our chief white house correspondent jim acosta. jim, republicans are circling the wagons around the president as the backlash against his racist tweets clearly is growing. >> the wagons have circled, wolf. president trump is not backing off of his racist tweets. he's claiming they were not racist. that is not true. they, indeed, were. meanwhile other top republican officials are jumping to the president's defense and digging deeper into the howl. kellyanne conway took a shot at one reporter who took up the presi

but this is a sobering report, wolf. because it reminds us that a lot of the infrastructure that was in place in 2016 that the russians managed to get into in all 50 states, that is still in place. a lot of states have not updated their infrastructure, and again, this is a country where all of this is handled on the state level. it's not the federal government that runs the elections. and that's one of the strengths of our system. it means that you have to -- if you want to change vote counts in all places, you have to go through the trouble, but it also means that you have weaknesses. some vulnerabilities that are all over the country, and in some cases, people really have not figured out how to fix the systems. can you get the things done for the 2020 election? >> anthony, you were one of the top cyber security officials over at the fbi. you were one of the first to witness the russians going in to try to influence or try to penetrate state election systems, hack into those systems. does this report -- what we're heari

>> reporter: that remains to be seen, wolf. but certainly president trump is back at the white house tonight. he is boasting about the surprise meeting he showed with kim jong-un, the north korean leader and the success of the g-20. but, wolf, even as president trump revels in the history-making trip he faces new challenges tonight relating to iran. tonight president trump back at the white house. tweeting there wasn't a thing missing or a mistake that was made. perfect. on the heels of the g-20 and his monumental surprise visit to north korea. where he had an impromptu meeting with north korean leader kim jong-un. >> i didn't expect to meet you at this place. the first u.s. president to cross this line. >> reporter: trump taking 20 step news north korea, making him the first sitting american president to set foot in the hermit kingdom. he was greeted by the smiling kim jong-un. >> this is my honor. i didn't really expect it. step ago cross that line was a great honor. >> reporter: the two leaders met for almost an hour, agreei

>> reporter: that's right, wolf. president trump is now gaslighting himself out of this mess. he claimed he tried to put a stop to the "send her back" chants coming from his crowd last night but that's not true. unlike the president, the video does not lie. president trump is finding out there's no going back after "send her back." the president tried to fudge his way around accusations that he didn't do enough to stop chants of "send her back" aimed at congresswoman ilhan omar at his rally in north carolina. >> i felt a little bit badly about it, but i will say this. i did -- and i started speaking very quickly. >> reporter: but that's not true. watch the video. the president paused and allowed the chants to continue for a full 13 seconds as he attacked omar. >> and obviously and importantly, omar has a history of launching vicious anti-semitic screeds. [ crowd chanting "send her back" ] she talked about the evil israel and its all about the benjamins, not a good thing to say. >> reporter: pressed on the chant, the

bob mueller is coming in one week, wolf. i'm preparing to question him from the intelligence committee and i'm going to be listening very intently on what he has to say before making any other further actions in this record. >> so we're going to see what happens on that front. the president has been speaking, as i pointed out to reporters, i think we're about to get that tape right now. and i want to go to it and play our viewers can hear what the president is saying. you see him walking out of the white house on the south lawn. he's going to be taking marine one over to joint base andrews to head out to north carolina for this big rally later tonight. i'm sure it will be very, very lively when the president goes out there. he'll be speaking extensively but just before leaving the white house, just as he's leaving the white house, walked over to reporters and clearly wants to answer their questions. listen in as the president gets closer to the news media. >> [ inaudible question ]. >> about what? no, if people want to leave

but you can see the pattern, wolf. he wants to keep the issues in play, and that is what he is trying to do, and keep the issues going around immigration, around the border, and around the raids, and that is where he thinks that politically he can benefit from it. and that is why he wants to keep it going, but the reality of it is that he lost in court, and, you know, he is going to keep losing these things if he keeps going. >> and the president is vowing to compile the data now to have a full and complete picture of the noncitizens in the country, and this is what the commerce department more than a year ago by the way recommended before the whole battle of a formal question on the census forms even came up. are you worried though about what the administration will eventually do with all of the new data? >> yeah. i mean, that is a real concern. we hear about it with the facebook and the google and a lot of the companies, the tech company, and data is a huge issue, and privacy is a huge issue, and now the president is

let's go to wolf for more. wolf? >> anderson, a lot of thought and care has gone into this process to make sure it's transparent and fair. here's how tonight's draw will work. cnn is conducting three draws. the first draw, the second draw, and the final draw. in accordance with the rules mutually agreed upon by cnn and the democratic national committee, candidates will be assigned to one of these draws based on their current level of support in qualifying polls. this is to ensure candidates of comparable polling are featured evenly across both nights. the first draw has ten candidates who will be divided randomly into the two nights, july 30th and july 31st. colorado senator michael bennet. montana governor steve bullock. new york mayor bill de blasio. former maryland congressman john delaney. hawaii congresswoman tulsi gabbard. new york senator kirsten gillibrand. former colorado governor john hickenlooper. washington governor jay inslee. ohio congressman tim ryan. and author maryann williamson. the second draw has

you don't see that often, wolf. it speaks to what is happening on the house floor, very partisan, emotional fight being waged. democrats moving forward, expect

i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >>> this is cnn breaking news. >>> breaking news this hour. a federal judge in new york says no to the trump administration in its fight to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. the judge refusing to allow the justice department to switch out its legal team in the case. >>> also tonight, president trump is praising his labor secretary as top democrats are ramping up their demands for alex acosta to resign. acosta's under fire for his role in a 2008 plea deal for multimillionaire jeffrey epstein who is now charged with sexually abusing dozens of underage girls. acosta's definitiending his act as a top prosecutor in florida while calling epstein's alleged crimes horrific. >>> also tonight, president trump is doubling down on his attacks to the british ambassador to the united states, calling him whacky and a very stupid guy. >>> this hour i'll talk to democratic presidential candidate, washington governor jay inslee and our correspondents and ana

wolf. >> we'll be getting that tape. we'll watch it closely. pamela, thank you very much. >>> that tape should come in fairly soon. joining us now, democratic congressman ro khanna of california, a member of the oversight and armed services committees. congressman, thank you for joining us. you served as co-chair of the bernie sanders 2020 campaign and sanders as you just saw in the poll has dropped four points. how do you explain why other progressive candidates right now are seeing a dramatic surge in their poll numbers? >> well, there is no doubt that kamala harris had a good night in the debate. and i give her credit. but we should remember, wolf, that at this point in the cycle donald trump was at 1% or 2% and barack obama was way down to hillary clinton. so the poll numbers as you know will change and we're still a long way from caucus day in iowa. >> i saw how dramatic the increase in popularity according to this poll for kamala harris, a nine-point bump in the poll. could her growing popularity, congressman, explain why you think she wa

you don't see that often, wolf. it speaks to what is happening on the house floor, very partisan, emotional fight being waged. democrats moving forward, expect that vote still tonight to condemn the president for his tweets over the weekend. as democrats say the president should apologize essentially and the president and the republicans pushing back, wolf. >> the republican leaders are clearly trying to circle the wagons, manu, right now. how are they doing? >> reporter: well they are starting to line up with the president. for the most part the house republicans and senate republican leaders say the president was in the right to push back. the house -- the senate majority leader did say that all sides should lower the temperature today. he would not condemn the president nor call the president racist or his tweets ratist. he said the president is not racist but when i asked the senate majority leader about a very personal issue that his wife elaine chao immigrated to the country and became a naturalized citizen if

>> well, there are really two sides to this, wolf.re's the policy side, so kamala harris and cory booker saying that joe biden has significant problems when it comes to policy dealing with race, on busing, his 1994 crime bill, they're trying to highlight these policies to show that he doesn't understand how to solve the nation's racial problems, racial divides. but then there's also the tile of how he talks about race. and cory booker over weekend on "meet the press" said he had some significant concerns that joe biden, if he were to be the nominee, would not be able to rise to the challenge of talking about race and healing racial divisions in the country. so it's a multi-pronged attack, but the question is, what effect is it having so far. and joe biden still leads among african-american voters in this poll with 36% support. however, when we asked who is the candidate who can best handle talking about race relations, kamala harris leads with 29%. >> a lot of democrats, though, they think that biden is still best qualified, best capa

>> good even, wolf. the biggest vulnerability is the president. he is the leader of our country, and it doesn't matter how hard the fbi agents and the nsa and cia work, if they don't have leadership at the top and a commander in chief directing them, giving them the resources they need, all the best resources will not prevent another attack. i see the threats every day. russia is determined to continue to do this. i fear we are more as a rule flect than we are in 2016, because russia and other countries will see the united states is open for business whether it comes to interference. >> do you worry the russians have the capability to actually change vote counts in the united states? >> yes. >>> so what needs to be done? >> bob mueller gave us a call to action yesterday. i thought it was hair-raising when he said this cannot be the new normal and the russians were attacking us at this moment. those were his words. unity is the best afternoon dote, but you don't see that from the president. i've tried not just to investigate, but also to legislate.

i'm wolf blitzer. follow me on twitter and instagram at wolf blitzer tweet at cnn sit room.front starts right now. >> breaking news, more than 40% of democrats going against pelosi's wishes voting to keep alive a resolution to impeach president trump. and speaker pelosi keep her party in check? plus president trump claims he is enjoying the fight over racist tweets showing no signs of letting up attack sns how do supporters feel tonight. bernie sanders fighting back over health care. does sanders plan to pay for the med proposal add up? >> and i'm erin burnett, outfrontle the breaking news the house of representative rejecting a bid to launch impeachment proceedings against president trump and president trump declaring victory.

what does that tell you. >> wolf, nathat's bologna. t president has no real interest in citizenship. they understood if they threatened a question on the census, that would create fear. fortunately, the courts have changed that effort back. that's not my words. the supreme court said in legal language that the administration was lying about why they wanted the citizenship, so the good news it's not going to happen. but the bad news it's been out there long enough that at least part of the president's objective has been achieved. there's concern out there in immigrant communities, which sometimes are communities that don't have access to as much information as other communities, so there's already a fair amount of fear out there. but make no mistake, this was not about gathering data on u.s. citizens. this was yet another -- by the way, along with a piece about raids this weekend, another way to scare our immigrant communities. >> on that point, do you think it's safe for immigrants here in the united states to participate in the census

>> that is a great question, wolf. especially for paul ryan who especially in the latter part of the tenure really went out of his way to defend president trump in the face of a lot of things that reporters who spoke to him privately and understand what is really going on know that he had a hard time with and now we know because it is on the record in this book, but he worked very hard to patch things over publicly and privately with president trump. and it worked. i think toward the end by all accounts they had a pretty good relationship but this book is laying bare what has been underneath the surface all along, the president has never trusted paul ryan and paul ryan has never liked trump. and that is just the fact of the matter. they patched it up for a couple of years to get a few things done and now that that is over, paul ryan is telling the world how he really feels but for people it seems a little too little too late. >> and now you spend your career in national security and the reports that we're getting that

i'm wolf blitzer in the situation room. you can follow me on twitter and instagram @wolf blitzer. our special coverage continue was erin burnett "outfront." >> this is cnn breaking news. >> good evening, i'm erin burnett "outfront" tonight, the breaking news president trump triumphant taking impromptu questions on the way to fund raiser to declare victory after the robert mueller historic testimony. >> this was a very big day for our country. this was a very big day for the republican party. and you could say it was a great day for me. but i don't even like to say that. it's great. this was a devastating day for the democrats. >> mueller appearing for seven hours in front of the house judiciary and intelligence committees and made several things

i'm wolf blitzer.room." >>> breaking news tonight, an you are jen urgent new warning of overcrowding. an independent watchdog just released truly stunning images of migran

wolf? >> thanks very much. president trump steps up his attack on powerful congressman elijah cummings and his city of baltimore. ♪ ♪ let's go! ♪ it's my special friend, antonio. his luxurious fur calms my nerves when i'm worried about moving into our new apartment. why don't we just ask geico for help with renters insurance? i didn't know geico helps with renters insurance. yeah, and we could save a bunch too. antonio! fetch computer! antonio? i'll get it. get to know geico and see how much you could save on renters insurance. you should be mad that this is your daily commute. you should be mad at people who forget they're in public. and you should be mad at simple things that are unnecessarily complicated. but you're not mad, because you're trading with e*trade, which isn't complicated. their app makes trading quick and simple so you can strike when the time is right. don't get mad, get e*trade and start trading today. >>> happening now, picking a fight. president trump escalates his racially charged attacks

i'm wolf blitzer.ht, democrats on the house judiciary committee taking a major step towards possibly impeaching president trump. they're moving in federal court to get secret grand jury material from the special counsel robert mueller's report arguing they nee

i'm wolf blitzer.om." >>> this is cnn breaking news. >>> breaking news this hour. a federal judge in new york says no to the trump administration in its fight to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. the judge refusing to allow the justice department to switch out its legal team in the case. >>> also tonight, president trump is praising his labor secretary as top democrats are ramping up their demands for alex acosta to resign. acosta's under fire for his role in

wolf, so many candidates on stage. pressure has to be on, because let's be honest, if you don't break through tonight and get into the main dialogue, you may not get another chance. so as we've seen in past debates, you want to make a name or a move, often it is going to be an attack. what will that be? we'll know in just a couple of hours. so right now let's start to get into our coverage of what is going on. the clock is ticking. let's get right to cnn's jeff zeleny inside of the debate hall. so, jeff, for the leaders and laggards alike, tonight very big. >> reporter: chris, no question about it. this is a -- the last debate for some of the candidates. we don't know which candidates those will be. but all eyes will be on the center of the stage as you said where bernie sanders and elizabeth warren are going to be. and they will be flanked by other candidates with moderate positions. that is going to be the heart of this debate. the ideological divide inside of this democratic party. which of course feeds into the ult

>> hey, wolf. new reports from inside some of the border patrol holding facilities show it will take a lot of work to address the sometimes appalling conditions and severe overcrowding inside. it seems that neither democrats nor republicans can agree on what the problem is or how to solve it. but now a clear majority of americans say there is no disputing this is a crisis. tonight the border crisis through the eyes of the most vulnerable. drawings depicting children in cages, are from 10 and 11-year-old migrants who were recently held in a customs and border patrol detention center, a doctor tells cbs she received the drawings from a social worker while touring two facilities last week. that doctor now describing what she saw and smelled. >> when i opened the door, the first thing that we -- that hit us was the smell of sweat, urine and feces and i heard crinkling to my left and looked over there and there was a sea of silver. i describe them like dog cages with people in each of them and the silen

i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >>> this is cnn breaking news. >> the breaking news tonight an 11th hour scramble just ahead of tomorrow's testimony by the former special counsel robert mueller before the house judiciary and intelligence committees. mueller has made a surprise last-minute request to have his former deputy special counsel sworn in alongside him. intelligence commissioner schiff says discussions are ongoing tonight about what the role will be. mueller's appearance before the lawmakers is clearly weighing in on the president's mind. sources say he's had multiple phone calls about it with aides and allies, but he's more irritated than anxious. he even talked about it before a group of conservative student activists. we'll talk about the breaking news and much more with the congressman of the arm services committee and our analysts are standing by. first, let's bring in our senior white house correspondent pamela brown and our senior justice correspondent evan perez. pamel

i'm wolf blitzer. we're in "the situation room." >>> the breaking news tonight, details how robert mueller is appearing this wednesday. including an opening statement that has -- iran claiming to have busted a spy ring and arrested 17 iranians accusing them of engaging in espionage in the united states. tonight iran's intelligence ministry says some of them will be executed. we'll talk about the breaking news with senator mazie hirono and presidential candidate tom ste steyer. first let's go to our white house correspondent kaitlan collins. we're about to get more on the mueller testimony in a moment, but there's breaking news. major breaking news about a budget and debt ceiling deal. >> yeah. it's the sign republicans have been waiting for. that's the president seeming to sign off on those budget deal talks that have been going on on capitol hill. the president tweeting just a few moments ago he was pleased to announce of the agreement which the president says has, quote, no poison pills. he calls it

and two things, wolf.an immediate medicare buy in the same as bernie's plan but she'll take ten years to get to full medicare for all. >> so what happens after ten years, if you like private health insurance, will you still be able to private health insurance or do you have to have medicare. >> there will be private medicare plans just like today in medicare and public medicare plans. >> what about private health insurance with other private companies? will they still be allowed to operate? >> yes, operating in the medicare system. just like they do today -- >> what if they don't want to operate in the medicare system after ten years, would that be illegal. >> you wouldn't want them to operate like they do today. they're raising deductibles and causing insane out of pocket costs. >> and people like their private health insurance. >> health insurance companies could get certified if they play by the rules but right now we're playing by their rules and that is the problem with health care today unless we bri

>> they're enablers, wolf. i mean, there's nothing new in that, unfortunately. there's no outrage too far. there's nothing he seems to be able to say or do that is going to trigger a moral response. and at some point, you know, people who used to say right is right and wrong is wrong and moral relativism can't be

. >> thanks, wolf. >> so you released a statement calling on secretary acosta to resign in light of the epstein arrest but the details of acosta's involvement in this plea deal, they were revealed by the "miami herald" basically part of a long journalistic investigation, it was all published late last year, why did you and so many others wait for epstein's arrest this week before deciding to push for his resignation? >> you know, i didn't vote for secretary acosta to begin with. so i think that was part of it. a number of us had opposed him from the very beginning as this being one of the reasons, as you know senator kaine asked him about this at the hearing. but i think there has been many new developments since that hearing. the first thing was a federal district court came out and said that that agreement that he had made with epstein's lawyer violated the law. i know as a former prosecutor that you consult with victims, sometimes you have plea agreements, but the law both state and federal say that you need to consult with victims and that didn't happen in this case so that was a vi

i'm wolf blitzer. situation room." >>> this is cnn breaking news. >> the breaking news tonight an 11th hour scramble just ahead of tomorrow's testimony by the former special counsel robert mueller before the house judiciary and intelligence committees. mueller has made a surprise last-minute request to have his former deputy special counsel sworn in alongside him.

i'm wolf blitzer in the situation room. erin burnett outfront starts right now. >>> outfront next, breaking news. a major reversal. the justice department ordered by the president to re-examine putting the controversial citizenship question back in the 2020 census. all because of a tweet. plus the president defending his july 4th extravaganza as the backlash and the price tag grow. one laurm suggesting the payment plan is illegal. he is my guest. and biden blind-sided. the former vice president raising $21 million but it wasn't enough to beat one expected candidate. let's go outfront. >>> outfront tonight, good evening, everyone i'm kate baldwin in for erin burnett. breaki

i will say that, wolf, this is yet another example of how my republican colleagues have lost their moral compass. under any other set of circumstances everyone would gather around and say of course this is racist. you would never -- three of these women were born here in the united states. but if you look at the litany of statements made by the president over the course of his candidacy and presidency, there are filled with examples of him trying to separate whites and persons of color and to somehow den grate people of color, whether he is saying it is a s-hole in some of the countries or calling mexicans rapist coming across our border. these are truly despicable descriptions. and at some point, he's an emperor with no clothes and when are we going to say that he is naked. >> what are you hearing, congresswoman, excuse me -- >> getting choked up, wolf. >> the republicans members in private, are they defending the president's remarks. >> i think they're uncomfortable. i've only spoken to a few of them. there is a level of discomfort by the president continuing to legislate by tweeting a

wolf? >> brian todd reporting for us. thank you very much. i want to go to new york right now. megan rapinoe, the star of the women's soccer team, is speaking to cnn right now. i want you to listen in. >> the power of winning and performing and doing so in the style that we always do. so we always kind of knew that. we knew that this would be a huge summer for us in many different ways. and this is just the first step in a very big summer that we look to have. >> [ inaudible question ]. >> yeah. it was pretty cool. you know, at the stadium to watch the game but i think the fans said it all. they're with us. wanting more. i think everybody is ready for, it as i was alluding to before. transcendent moment outside of sport, outside of soccer, outside of anything. it's so much bigger than just what's happening on the field and the fans were right there lock-step with us. >> nike and budweiser -- [ inaudible question ]. >> yeah. i think it's huge. everyone's always asked what can we do. you can support us all year long, you can watch the games, you can support our leagues. obviously

i'm wolf blitzer. follow me on twitter and instagram at wolf blitzer tweet at cnn sit room. erin burnett outfront starts right now. >> breaking news, more than 40% of democrats going against pelosi's wishes voting to keep alive a resolution to impeach president trump. and speaker pelosi keep her party in check? plus president trump claims he is enjoying the fight over racist tweets showing no signs of letting up attack sns how do supporters feel tonight. bernie sanders fighting back over health care. does sanders plan to pay for the med proposal add up? >> and i'm erin burnett, outfrontle the breaking news the house of representative rejecting a bid to launch impeachment proceedings against president trump and president trump declaring victory. telling reporters seconds ago we just received overwhelming vote against impeachment and that's the end of it. he called it a ridiculous projects. fighting high over the saga over the racist tweets is playing out. >> the do you think you're winning this political fight? >> i do think i'm winning the political fight. i think i'm winnin

i'm wolf blitzer thank you for watching. follow me on twitter and instagram. process @wolf blitzer. tweet the show at cnn sit room. erin burnett outfront starts right now. >>> outfront labor secretary alex acosta is out. yet another member of trump's cabinet forced to quit amid scandal. and tonight another my ranking official may be next. and tropical storm barry gaining power. threatening epic floods. landfall hours away. and the highly anticipated hearing with robert mueller next week may have hit a snag. what's the hold up? let's go outfront. good evening i'm kate baldwin in for erin front. president trump can quit you, especially if you are in his cabinet. tonight yet another departure, perhaps with a little push from the president. this time labor secretary alex acosta announced his resignation days after coming under heavy scrutiny for miss role in a plea deal with accused child rapist jeffrey epstein when acosta was u.s. attorney in florida. >> he has been a fantastic secretary of labor. and alex called me this morning and he wanted to see me. i just want to let you know, thi

>> reporter: he certainly is, wolf. president trump is stepping up to defend his labor secretary who is is facing calls to resign over his handling of the jeffrey epstein case. president said secretary alex acosta is doing a fantastic job. mr. trump also tried to distance himself from epstein in the oval office earlier today after once describing him alz a terrific guy. >> thank you very much -- >> reporter: tonight president trump appears to be standing by his embattled labor secretary alex acosta. at least for now. >> i can tell you that for two and a half years he's been just an excellent secretary of labor. he's done a fantastic job. >> reporter: the president appeared to diminish acosta's role as a federal prosecutor in 2008 plea agreement for jeffrey epstein who is facing new charges of running a child sex ring in florida that includes accusations of abusing teenage girls. >> i do hear there were a lot of people involved in that decision, not just him. i can only say this, from what i know and what i do know is th

jim, we're expected to see the president now any moment. >> that's right, wolf. we're expecting to see the president in the rose garden in just a few moments to talk about this census question that has been looming over this city for several weeks now. the president, according to our sources is expected to pivot away from this idea of inserting a citizenship question into the upcoming 2020 census, and instead order the commerce department to try to come up with that information on citizenship in the united states through other means. president trump appears to be looking for an off-ramp in his drive to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. after the president tweeted that he would have an announcement on the issue, officials say mr. trump is now expected to ask the commerce department to seek the citizenship data through other means. democrats were fearful the president would instead try to defy a recent supreme court decision against the administration's push to add the question to the census. >> this will be a real test of john roberts and the supreme

>> well, that's a great question, wolf. i do not know. there is an inquiry which has been launched into how this happened because it's not just a single document. this is a dump of sensitive material stretching back a couple of years, which have come from the embassy in washington. somebody's put it together and given it to the mail on sunday for some kind of reason. was it to undermine kim darroch? i doubt it. because he's almost at the end of his four-year tour of duty. was it to ensure his successor is not another diplomat but somebody who is politically deemed to be more of an unquestioning supporting of president trump? maybe. but i'm afraid this probably got caught up in a nasty polarized debate in the united kingdom as we try to choose a new prime minister between hardline pro-brexit people who are often supporters of donald trump and people who are more professional, dispassional civil servants. there are people who are saying why don't we have a nice political appointee in washington like we had in the past rather than somebody w

we asked democrats, wolf, what matters more to you, defeating donald trump or getting a candidate who agrees with you on the issues and it is not even close. six in ten democrats say that they want a candidate that could defeat trump. only 30% of democrats say they want somebody who shares their positions on the issues. and then we asked, okay, well who do you think you could beat trump and 43% of democrats say they believe joe biden could defeat donald trump, nobody else is close.