this is cnn breaking news. breaking news, fbi not expected to pursue charges against former national security adviser michael flynn over phone calls with the russian ambassador. but the investigation is not over yet. this is cnn tonight, i'm don lemon. meanwhile, the president meeting today with his friend, benjamin netanyahu and telling the

israeli prime minister this. >> as far as settlements, i'd like to see you hold back on settlements for a little bit. >> how will israel react? and is there a role for trump's son-in-law jared kushner in the peace process? plus, there's been plenty of speculation about what drives donald trump. tonight i'm going to talk to the man who says it's all wrong. you want to watch that. but let's get straight to cnn's chief national security correspondent jim sciutto, kirsten powers, and carl bernstein and ryan lizza. so glad to have all of you here. jim, your investigation on the links between trump advisers and russian officials is fast-moving. can you catch us up on the latest? >> absolutely. the two big headlines here are, u.s. intelligence and law enforcement found frequent constant. it was described to us as communications between -- this is the second crucial point -- senior-most officials in the

trump campaign during the campaign season, after his nomination as the republican nominee. contacts between campaigns and representatives of foreign governments, not unusual, but what stood out to u.s. intelligence and law enforcement was the frequency of these communications, but also the senior level of the officials involved. the closest leaders to donald trump during that time period. of course the context being, this is happening while russia is hacking u.s. political organizations in a presidential election year. all those questions still being investigated by u.s. and intelligence and law enforcement. what happened in those conversations wh conversations, what was the intent of those conversations, why did they happen. we don't have answers to those questions from the president. in fact, the president and his advisers avoiding all hard questions on that today. >> yeah, and so, again, who knew what when. or what did the president know and when did he know it.

do you know anything more about that today, jim? >> we don't. we don't. we know that the president, these were advisers very close to the president. did they communicate they had these conversations with russian officials? we don't know that. did the president direct them to do so similarly with michael flynn? we know that he had these conversations with the russian ambassador about u.s. sanctions on russia during the transition. did he receive guidance from the president or others higher up from him? not my question, that's a question being asked now by senator lindsey graham, john mccain, as well as democratic lawmakers. we don't have the answer to that question. >> carl, i'll state the same thing in a different way. what did the president know and when did he know it? just like the watergate scandal, is this deja vu for you all over again? >> we don't know yet. all we know is the russians

tried to hijack an american presidential campaign and they tried to do it through relationships around donald trump. and now we need to know all the facts, and the president has not been forth coming. his aides have not been forth coming, and republicans should embrace and open wide investigation as there was in watergate. it was republicans who joined with democrats as patriots in watergate to find out what had occurred in a presidential campaign, and had it indeed been hijacked by the president of the united states and those around him. that's the situation we're faced with, and all patriotic republicans ought to be saying, hey, open up, mr. president, let's see what happened here. let's get past this, if nothing happened. but we need to know what happened. >> kirsten, what are the chances of that happening? >> i think very low. [ laughter ] >> it's interesting, what carl is saying, that nixon was investigated by republicans. it's sort of unthinkable for that to happen today. our investigations, and the democrats are just as bad.

it's very partisan when it comes to the investigations on the hill and you can always see it right down the middle, how it goes. and i think that in this case, there's even less emphasis to do it, because they've been waiting so long to do so many things, and they have this wish list of policies that they're going to get to implement because now they're in control of all three branches of government, and here comes donald trump and he's going to get them to repeal obamacare and do their tax reform, and go down the list of all the things they want to do. so do they want to hurt the person who is basically, you know, made it possible for them to do this? i don't think so. i don't think that's right. i do think there are serious questions here, i agree, patriotic americans should want to know the answers to. >> what is the worst case scenario here? let's say a agree to an independent investigation, republicans and democrats on board. it's not going to change the outcome of the election. >> no. >> he still has a republican senate and congress. i don't think he's going anywhere. unless there's something really major -- something of this

nature, i don't think that even would warrant impeachment, would it? >> well, before i answer that, let me just say that i do think there are, as carl called them, patriotic republicans, who maybe are a minority, but the leaders in the senate on this investigation, on the republican side are john mccain and lindsey graham. and there are some other folks over the last couple days who have come out and supported a more wide-ranging investigation. mitch mcconnell, the senate leader, has not endorsed an independent investigation. he still wants it at the intelligence committee level. and frankly, if it's done at the intelligence committee level, it's just going to be invisible. because they don't really operate in the open. i suppose they could, but it's just not going to be the open full investigation that this warrants, if it's done that way. so that's one thing to watch. how many more republicans clamor for an independent select committee to look into this?

on the worst case scenario, i mean, look, this is why we need an investigation. because the fact that this is still at the level of anonymous intelligence leaks and rumor, frankly, it's unfair to the people implicated and it's unfair to the american people. people deserve to know the bottom line here. did the russian government, in the worst case scenario, compromise an american presidential campaign? let's be honest. that's what we're talking about in the worst case scenario. >> yeah, it is. let me correct the statement that i said, warrant an impeachment. it may not be possible, since he has both houses of congress in his favor and as kirsten said, the republican agenda is going through, and it's going to be tough to get republicans on board with that. that's just the reality of it. >> it's obviously much too soon to be throwing around that word. >> absolutely too early. >> the only thing i say that is because i've heard democrats mention it. and everyone has said it's much

too soon to mention that, and i'm wondering why they're doing it. because it seems like it's putting the cart before the horse at this point. >> you were talking about the worst case scenario, and in that, yeah, that's where something like this would lead. but we don't know. that's why there has to be an investigation. >> go ahead. i think the worst case scenario is that there's collusion. so that's the question. are these just conversations that are being head that are somehow -- is there a reasonable explanation for them? or is there some sort of collusion of the russians hacking into the dnc and then to hillary clinton's -- or po john podesta's e-mails and disrupting the election? that would be the worst case scenario. i don't see how that wouldn't be an impeachable offense. i don't know from a legal standpoint, but it seems to rise to the level of -- >> there's a larger context to all this. this is an investigation also that the fbi is conducting that

is about donald trump and his business relationships in the russian-speaking parts of the world. this is about trying to find out how a campaign might have gotten to a place where it could be compromised by the russians. and ethno-russians and neighboring countries that have russian secret service personnel who are very influential in those countries. this is a very big landscape we're looking at, and it includes -- and one of the problems has been -- that trump has not been forth coming about his business connections in that part of the world. and his organization. >> go ahead, jim. >> on those questions that both kirsten and carl wisely raise, on the question of whether there was collusion, whether these conversations indicated that they were sharing information, planning releases of information, et cetera, that's still something that law enforcement intelligence is looking into. they don't know the answer to that question, in part because they don't know, or at least

they haven't told us that they know the content of those conversations. and the separate issue, business relationships, et cetera. this was a part of that now famous 35-page dossier compiled by the british intelligence agent, many portions of it not substantiated, but some have. it raises questions about those business relationships. they are still questions today, but they're unanswered questions, and if they go somewhere, they start to raise harder questions about what the consequences are. >> those questions could be raised -- could be answered very easily by the president of the united states, and that's part of the dynamic here. >> we'll talk more right after this break, including the labor secretary, what happened to him, caught in a buzz saw today. and israeli and palestinian relationships. interesting what happened today. we'll be right back. only tylenol® rapid release gels have laser drilled holes.

they release medicine fast, for fast pain relief. tylenol®

president trump meeting at the white house today with israel's prime minister, benjamin netanyahu. back with me now, jim sciutto, kirsten powers, carl bernstein and ryan lizza. despite his warm welcome for israel's prime minister, president trump is backing away from some of his pro-israel campaign positions on israeli settlements, on moving the embassy to jerusalem. and on the nuclear deal with iran. but he did back away from a two-state solution. what is going on? >> listen, don, i don't think we can underestimate the importance

of that moment today in the east room of the white house. the president backing away from the two-state solution. there's so many news stories every day, seemingly in this new administration, but this has been a principle of administrations of both parties for decades as the aim for solving this intractable u.s./israeli problem. two people claiming the same lands in effect. borders recognized by the u.n. going back decades and you have the president saying, well, it could be one state, it could be two states, as long as everybody's happy, which is, let's be honest, a fairly flip description of that intractable situation. there's an enormous history of hif history, blood, sweat and tears involved. he also had a moment on the podium when he said, listen, hold off on settlements for a while, which is a remarkable thing to see a president do to

an israeli prime minister do because he's been at the forefront of expanding israeli settlements. but on the two-state solution, that's a big deal. >> carl, israel's conservative government is celebrating today's press conference with president trump and prime minister netanyahu there. feeling pretty good about what they heard. but palestinians feel this is the end of the road for the peace process when it comes to them. how are they likely to react to this? >> well, i wouldn't predict how they're going to react. but one thing to recognize, israel is a great democracy that's a divided country like our own. and the likud government, headed by bb netanyahu is not a majority government. it's part of a coalition government, it's not a majority of the israeli people and all of these questions are very delicate, but what we know about donald trump, those of us who have really studied him, is that he has ad liberal democr-libbedh life, being unprepared.

he boasts about not doing his homework, he comes into a room, he tries to read the room and then by the seat of his pants, take control of it. i believe that's a lot of what we're seeing here. it doesn't work for a president of the united states very often. and what we're seeing today, especially, but also throughout these first weeks is evidence that this seat of the pants approach to being the president of the united states doesn't serve governance or the people of the country very well. >> kirsten, i have to ask you, jared kushner has known prime minister netanyahu for a while. "the new york times" reports that the prime minister actually slept in his bed once when he was a kid, visiting his family. i think he slept in the basement so the prime minister could have his bed. he's placing the future of the middle east in jared kushner's hands. he's very young. that's a lot of pressure. do you think he's up for it? >> i'm skeptical, just because it's not really his area of expertise, obviously, and this is the most difficult, probably foreign policy problem that we

have. you know, that no one has been able to solve. so -- but i suppose he has as good a chance at anybody at this point. i don't know what to say, i'm trying to be nice. >> i could tell. i saw the pause and the fluttering of the eyes. and i think your answer was no, but -- go ahead. anybody else care to answer that question, is he up to it? [ all speak at once ] >> it might be a brilliant stroke. who knows. everybody else has failed, why not give him a chance? >> ryan lizza? >> well, he's -- his background is in new york real estate. he inherited that from his parents and his other entrepreneurial endeavor was buying a print newspaper that was not a great success, the new york observer. so i don't see anything in his background that would lead me to say that jared kushner is the man to solve the most

intractable problem in the world, maybe world history. but having someone with some fresh eyes on a problem is never a bad thing. i think there's a process question of what does this mean for rex tillerson, the secretary of state? what does it mean for whoever ends up being the new national security adviser? just having a senior white house official as your envoy to israel and the person with the responsibility to solve that problem, it's a lot of traffic he's going to run into. if that's the way trump is going to set it up, he better figure out how to have a smooth process running for that. >> and don, one more thought. don't underestimate, benjamin netanyahu is a clever negotiator. we talk about donald trump and the art of the deal, don't underestimate the possibility or the desire of prime minister netanyahu to muscle his way, does he see a partner there that he would have influence over, he's a player, he's a negotiator. it may be the kind of partner he

wants, to have him rather than say a george mitchell at the other side of the table. so don't underestimate that possibility as well. israel has its interests here and prime minister netanyahu is a strong leader, ask nd it may in his interest to have someone who doesn't have the stature and history that past u.s. negotiators have had. >> of course. but i want to talk about the labor secretary nominee, andrew puzder withdrew from consideration as the president's nominee for labor secretary. he ran into a buzz saw of opposition from democrats, but he was losing republican support as well. he had a lot of issues, but this definitely didn't help him. watch this. >> because once i made that break, and once i made it public and, and remember, my ex-husband was a public figure, everyone knew him and knew what he was doing, and once i made that public, he vowed revenge. he said, i will see you in the gutter. this will never be over, you will pay for this. >> so that was his ex-wife

appearing on the oprah winfrey show, accusing puzder of abuse, an accusation she later walked back. even so, how could the trump team put forward a candidate with so much baggage? where was the extreme vetting, kirsten? >> well, i assume they knew about this. it wasn't a secret. i do think that they -- i'd interviewed donald trump a while back over him defending roger ailes on the sexual harassment claims. and we've had a back and forth where he said, well, because gretchen carlson had come out and been nice to roger ailes, it obviously never happened. it was clear he did not understand how sexual harassment works. i suspect he, like many people don't understand sexual abuse, where women often recant. they were told, she recanted and they probably moved forward. but women frequently recant when they have actually been victims of domestic abuse. >> one more thing i want to discuss here and that is president trump's immigration

policy. jeanet jeanette is a mother of four living as an undocumented immigrant living in denver. i.c.e. officials announced they plan to enforce a deportation issue. is she what president trump means by bad hombres? >> this is about cruelty and blanket policies and identifying people as bad people by race, by country of origin, by the parts of the world they come from. it's a, quote, populist tactic that has served the people of this country and hard-working immigrants in a terrible way, and it's time for a little compassion from the president of the united states, and to start looking at things on a case by case basis instead of just broad tarring brush that he's wielding. >> thank you, panel. i appreciate it. when we come right back, there's been a lot of

speculation about president trump's temperament. i'm going to talk to the man who says it's all wrong. if you have medicare

parts a and b and want more coverage, guess what? you could apply for a medicare supplement insurance plan whenever you want. no enrollment window. no waiting to apply. that means now may be a great time to shop for an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. medicare doesn't cover everything. and like all standardized medicare supplement insurance plans, these help cover some of what medicare doesn't pay. so don't wait. call now to request your free decision guide. it could help you find the aarp medicare supplement plan that works for you. these types of plans have no networks, so you get to choose any doctor who accepts medicare patients. rates are competitive, and they're the only plans of their kind endorsed by aarp. remember - these plans let you apply all year round. so call today.

because now's the perfect time to learn more. go long. pcountries thatk mewe traveled,t what is your nationality and i would always answer hispanic. so when i got my ancestry dna results it was a shocker. i'm everything. i'm from all nations. i would look at forms now and wonder what do i mark? because i'm everything. and i marked other. discover the story only your dna can tell. order your kit now at ancestrydna.com.

there is plenty of speculation about what makes president trump tick, and my next guest says it's a lot -- a lot of it is wrong. i want to talk now with dr. allen francis, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at duke university medical college. thank you very much, sir. i read the letter today. you were the chairman of the task force that wrote the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders for diagnosing mental illness, and you have some strong opinions pertaining to the president. in a letter to the editor of "the new york times," you write, most amateur people have mislabelled president trump with the diagnosis of narcissistic personality disorder. i wrote the criteria and he does not meet them. he may be a world class

narcissist, but he -- >> so what are the characteristics of endornarciss personality disorder? >> well, these are people who are grandiose, self-absorbs, self-promoting, they look empathy towards others, they'll exploit others. they need admiration, they like to feel very, very special. now, you don't have to be a psychiatrist or psychologist to recognize that many of these things may apply to president trump. but that's not relevant to making a diagnosis of mental illness. you also have to experience distress and impairment. and donald trump causes distress, there's no reason to think he experiences clinically significant distress. and instead of being impaired by these characteristics, he's been rewarded with the highest position within our power to

grant. he's now in charge of our country and the fate of the world. so certainly beware of the fact that he has these features, but don't call him psychiatric names. psychiatric name-calling won't help him, and it very much harms people who do have real mental illness. >> that's not to say that you don't have strong feelings about the president. because you go on to say, he's been richly rewarded rather than punished for his grandiosity, self-absorption and lack of empathy. why do you say that is stigmatizes the mentally ill when people apply these sorts of terms to the president, in your opinion? >> there's a great confusion between people being bad and people being mentally ill. so when there's a mass murder, the question always arises, was he crazy, and the national rifle

association loves to say it was the mental illness, not the gun, that we should blame. when people commit terrorist acts, is this person crazy? we put many rapists in mental hospitals on the grounds -- and correct grounds -- that they have mental illness, rather than they're simple criminals. we should denounce donald trump in very clear terms for being incompetent, for being impulsive, for being ignorant. we should denounce his power grab, his fights against the court, the risks of him damaging our democracy and trying to establish a dictatorship. all of this is fair, all of this is absolutely necessary. there's no reason to call him psychiatric names. the people of today, it's been remarkable, the response to the letter was strongest amongst people with mental illness, thanking me, because they don't want to be lumped with trump. bad does not equal mad. most acts that are bad in our

world that are evil in our world and not committed by the mentally ill, most people who are mentally ill are fine people and i think it's a great disservice to them to say that because trump is acting so badly, that necessarily he has a mental illness. >> so my question is, have people come to use what you refer to as psychological name-calling because they either dislike the president's personal style or his policies? isn't that unfair to him as well? >> i don't think that being fair to donald trump is not one of my great ambitions in life. being fair to mental patients certainly is. we have to fight his threat to democracy on political grounds. this is a political threat, completely new to our country, and one that has to be taken very serial. almost trivializes the threat and reduces the thrust of the opposition to think that psychiatric name-calling will stop him. >> we do want to be fair, we have to be fair here, and that's why i asked that question.

because there are, you know, people who are watching this, and they're saying, by you saying this and writing this letter, that the comparison to donald trump is that, you know, it's an insult -- he's an insult to the mentally ill. am i correct with that? you don't think that's insulting? >> absolutely. absolutely correct. i couldn't have said it better myself. >> but is that not insulting to him? >> well, i think it's a funny question. being fair to donald trump when he's so unfair to everyone else is a high standard for people to hold. and i think the people who have written the letters saying he's mentally ill and there are about four or five petitions, with professionals and other people saying he's mohamed saying he's mentally ill, i think they mean well. they're puzzled by what he's doing, they're afraid of the future. and they think giving him a psychiatric diagnosis might be one way of stopping him. but this is a political threat

to american democracy and it requires a political solution. the future of the country will reside in the republican congress. it will reside in the supreme court. it will reside in the next election. it won't be settled by a bunch of psychiatrists and psychologists incorrectly applying the diagnostic system to say that he's crazy. >> i think you said you were surprised by the reaction to this letter. how long did it take you to write it? >> ten minutes. >> really? >> these are -- what i said in the letter is absolute common sense. for someone who's worked in the diagnostic system for as long as i have, the claims that he should be considered mentally ill are, on the face of them, absurd. it's not hard to state what's so obvious. >> you have a book coming out soon. it's entitled "trump is not

crazy: we are." i started this book before he announced for presidency. when he first began his candidacy, a tv producer called and asked me to go on a show like this to discuss his diagnosis. and i said that i couldn't do that, because i didn't think he had one. i said that i could say he was a jerk, a classic jerk, that was well known. and she said at the time, we don't need you for that because that's not news worthy, everyone knows that. that trump could have gotten to this position is absolutely incredible. it's partly a tribute to his being a very successful con-man. but even more, even more, it speaks to the fact that we have a great sickness in our society that he was able to take advantage of. and that sickness, more than anything, is the inequality that has so many people feel left out of the system. and he filled that vacuum, he filled it with falsehood, he's an insincere spokesperson for the people who voted for him. but they have great hurt and we need to address that hurt, but

we need to address it politically. attacking the person of donald trump isn't the issue. it's attacking the policies and then going much further, finding out how we can solve the problems in our society that have so many people so desperate that they'll vote for someone who is so obviously unsuitable for office. >> thank you, dr. allen frances, i appreciate it. >> thank you. when we come back, what does ant semitism have to do with the electoral college? we'll let donald trump explain that. hey there, hi. why do people have eyebrows? why do people put milk on cereal? oh, are you reading why people put milk on cereal? why does your tummy go "grumbily, grumbily, grumbily"? why is it all (mimics a stomach grumble) no more questions for you! ooph, that milk in your cereal was messing with you, wasn't it? yeah, happens to more people than you think... try lactaid, it's real milk, without that annoying lactose. good, right? mmm, yeah. i got your back. lactaid. it's the milk that doesn't mess with you.

an extraordinary moment today at the white house during president trump's press conference with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu, here to discuss t peter beinart and mary kathryn hamm, hillary rosen and andre bower, they're off in the interland somewhere. welcome to all of you. i want to play a clip from today's press conference between president trump and the israeli prime minister. the president was asked a question by israel's channel 10.

>> mr. president, since your election campaign, and even after your victory, we've seen a sharp rise in anti-semitic incident across the united states, and i wonder what do you say to those among the jewish community in the states and in israel and around the world who believe and feel that your administration is playing with xenophobia and maybe racist tones? >> well, i just want to say that we are very honored by the victory that we had, 306 electoral college votes. we were not supposed to crack 220. you know that, right? there was no way to 221, but then they said there's no way to 270. and there's tremendous enthusia enthusiasm out there. i will say that we are going to have peace in this country, we are going to stop crime in this

country, we are going to do everything within our power to stop long simmering racism and every other thing that's going on, there's a lot of bad things have been taking place over a long period of time. i think one of the reasons i won the election, we have a very, very divided nation. very divided. and hopefully i'll be able to do something about that, and i -- you know, it was something that's very important to me. as far as people -- jewish people, so many friends, a daughter, who happens to be here right now, a son-in-law, and three beautiful grandchildren, i think that you're going to see a lot different united states of america over the next three, four or eight years. i think a lot of good things are happening, and you're going to see a lot of love. you're going to see a lot of

love. >>. [ laughter ] >> oh, my gosh. okay, so -- andre, seriously, let's be serious about this. let's just be honest. that was painful. his first response, his instinct is to respond to this very sensitive question by tallying up his electoral college vote and after a minute he responded only in the vaguest of terms about perp pettuating anti-semitism. he's standing next to the prime minister of israel. what do you make of this? >> i think it's an exciting time for the people of israel and the people in the palestinian territory who want peace. netanyahu said it best. we have a friend in donald trump and for the first time since 2014, we have real talks about trying to come to a better situation for the people in that

area of the world that really want someone that cares about them, and donald trump has said, we're going to make this a priority. i think they're excited. netanyahu is excited -- >> what did you think about the answer to the question? i want to get this out of andre. what did you think about the answer to the question? >> i say this and y'all think i'm crazy, but donald trump is not a politician, he's a ceo businessman who's going to answer questions differently than most politicians. >> that's not an answer. can we play the -- hold on, andre, hold on, please. director, play just the question from the reporter. >> mr. president, since your election campaign and even after your victory we've seen a sharp rise in anti-semitic incident across the united states and i wonder what do you say to those among the jewish community in the states and in israel and

maybe around the world who believe and feel that your administration is playing with xenophobia and maybe racist tones? >> okay, go ahead, andre. >> well, again, he's not going to answer the question they want him to answer. he's going to direct the conversation the way he wants it. but at the end of the day, netanyahu said, i'm paraphrasing, but we have a friend and he feels better than he has in a long time about the leader of the free world that's willing to work with him and the jewish people feel better. and even people that want freedom in the palestinian territory feel better about donald trump as the new leader of the united states of america. >> go ahead. >> well, two things. with regard to netanyahu and israel, i think it's offensive to suggest that the last several presidents didn't also want peace in the middle east, didn't actually try for peace in the middle east. and netanyahu and i'm a big supporter of israel, of course,

netanyahu was one of the largest dividers and problems in this regard. i think the problem we have consistently with donald trump and it goes to, you know, what people are going through now with these deportations, is, this sense of tone deafness that he has about the division in this country. he says, oh yes, we have a divided country, but takes no responsibility for trying to heal it. we're going to heal it how? words from the president matter. if the president went there and responded and said, you know, i don't want racism in this country, there's no place for prejudice, we need to make sure people don't feel that way, don't feel afraid, don't act that way. if he disavowed at the racithe so many of his supporters are pushing, that would help. but he takes away from his own sense of being a part of that. it just doesn't fly. >> if you asked me the question, i would say, anti-semitism will

not be tolerated, neither will racism or bigotry. end of story. >> but you are not an epic narcissist. donald trump was asked a question about the concerns that american jews have. there have been dozens of bomb threats at jewish community centers, there's a tremendous amount of concern about the rise of anti-semitism. donald trump made the answer about himself. by the way, do you know that i had a huge electoral victory and then at the end, by the way, i have some jewish relatives. it's from the epic narcissism of thinking what's important to talk about is boasting about himself when he's being asked to address some very legitimate concerns among people whom he's supposed to be representing as president. >> yeah, you still sound surprised by it. [ laughter ] >> maybe depressed another than surprised. >> look, this is an obvious chance to hit it out of the park. he doesn't do that.

he goes to himself, he goes to validating himself. that's part of who he is, and it's part of what this presidency is. >> i want to let you finish, but i want to say it's every single person that i've watched that sound bite with, republican, democrat, liberal, conservative, whatever, have all gone [ exhales ] when he's like, oh, my gosh, this is so painful. >> get used to it. but i do think the larger picture is important and that's something that netanyahu talked about, and there are going to be differences in the way that this administration deals with israel. >> right. >> look, i don't think he's a man steeped in israeli/palestinian conflict diplomacy. >> no, he's blinding he ignorant. >> right. but i will also say there's a learning curve on this stuff. obama when he got the nomination, the next day apac said the capital will remain undivided and then he was like, oops, never mind. there's a learning curve and i think that over the past many years that we have not had

peace, it hasn't worked with the people who know all the things, and this is mirror of what -- >> even if netanyahu were brilliant on the israeli/palestinian conflict, this is a question about the rights and security of jews in the united states. it has nothing to do with his policies towards benjamin netanyahu and israel. >> right. i'm saying that the issue of israel in american politics has more to do with just this question. >> and that there's a learning conserv curve, especially with a new president. and to andre's point, this is a man who is going to do it his way. we'll be right back to continue our conversation.

back with you now with the panel. andre, it's been reported that the president will be holding a rally on saturday in melbourne, florida. sean spicer is calling it a campaign event. what's he campaigning for right now? >> you got me on that one. i think he's -- i think the guy loves people, he loves the interaction with people, and he's excited about the job he's

been elected to, and i think he feeds off the excitement of people that are happy we've got somebody that's a real person working in washington to drain the swamp and to bring a different approach to washington. look, he's going to stub his toe from time to time, but he's going to approach problems in a vastly different way and we're going to see changes we haven't seen in decades. >> do you think it's appropriate considering what's happening in washington right now with the turmoil surrounding the ban, with flynn? >> i think he can go out and do trippedz just as obama can go out and do trips and make contacts with voters. i think that's fine. i also our own sara murray did some great reporting on how this inscrewsible white house operates and he feels cooped up in the white house as obama did. i'm happy for him to get out if it's making him feel a little anxious and twitter-ready while he's sitting in the white house. >> he doesn't like being cooped up there. >> i think that's on the up and up for me. obviously, he could bring down

the campaign tone occasionally, but i'm not sure that's going to happen. >> as a campaign rally, we just -- that's what sean spicer is calling it. >> interesting they called it that. >> yeah, what do you make of it? >> i think donald trump loves to bask in the adulation. and he can do that. on the list of things that give me concern about the donald trump presidency, it's such a long list, this is very, very far down the list. if we could just have some clarification that he's not a russian plant, like that would be near the top of the list. the fact that he's going to give a combiampaign rally doesn't bo me that much. >> what about you? >> i could write that speech today that i know he's going to give. it's all going to be about how he's going to make america great again and everything that would, you know, the country's heard from the news media over the last two weeks about what's happened are just a bunch of lies. i think it's telling, though, that they're talking about

getting outside the white house today when today republicans, you know, in the senate are finally saying, we need to be investigating what's happening here at the white house. he does have support in the house. we can't forget, the house chair, who held like 20 benghazi hearings on a non-issue in many respects, has now said, we're not going to investigate any russian potential crimes or collusion between president trump and the russians. what we're going to do is investigate the leaks. so this sort of sense of nobody is really going to hold this president accountable. he's going to go out now and tell the country that he doesn't have to be accountable. it's just that it would be a perfect cap for this crazy week. >> 30 seconds. do you think this should be investigated, bipartisan or independent investigators? >> well, the fbi has already investigated it. if they found that there was

investigate, then absolutely. i want to make sure that our secrets are safe and we aren't giving things away to other countries that could harm us. but from my understanding so far, the agencies that investigated didn't find any reason to further the cause. >> they're continuing to investigate it. we learned that the intelligence agencies are so concerned about donald trump's lack of security in relation to the russians, they're not even giving him certain intelligence secrets. that's how worried they are. >> super healthy, everybody. >> all right, guys, i have to run. appreciate you guys coming here. that's it for us tonight. thanks for watching. i'll see you right back here tomorrow. goodnight. . .

the growing series of leaks in washington has congress demanding answers. top members of the house and senate are speaking up after the president himself went on the offensive. and the white house is looking for another for the labor department. and the president with the big shift on u.s. policy. he says the two-state solution may not be the only answer to mid east peace. he has one warning for the isra isra israeli prime minister ni. nice