walk the gospels and how their faith experience deepens. >> fascinating, we'll be watching. thank you so much. tune into the season premiere finding jesus this sunday at 9:00 p.m. eastern only on cnn. be sure to follow me on facebook and twitter. i'm jake tapper. turning over to wolf blitzer in "the situation room." thanks for watching. >> happening now, in denial, cnn has learned about multiple contacts between the trump campaign and russia's ambassador. but after months of denying any campaign contacts, the president is dismissing the controversy as a witch hunt. far enough? democrats say attorney general jeff sessions did not go far enough in recusing himself from any campaign investigations. tonight they want him to come back before congress to answer for what they call a lie during his confirmation. naacp sessions in the middle of the controversy over his russia contacts, the attorney general now sits down with the head of the naacp.

is he going to ease up on civil rights enforcement? i'll talk to the president and ceo cornell william brooks. and i won't be back. arnold schwarzenegger says he quit the apprentice in part because president trump is still tied to the show and he blames mr. trump for his bad ratings. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." with attorney general jeff sessions under fire for not disclosing his campaign contacts with russia's ambassador, new details are now emerging of such contacts by other members of the trp campaign team, including the president's senior advisor and son-in-law jared kushner. key democrats are not satisfied with sessions' decision to recuse himself from any campaign investigations. some still want him to resign. others want him to come back to congress and testify about his failure to tell the truth during his confirmation.

president trump says the democrats are overplaying their hand, accusing them of a witch hunt, a phrase also used today by the kremlin. he's counterattacking by tweeting an old picture of a senate democratic leader chuck schumer eating doughnuts with vladimir putin at a new york gas station and demanding an investigation of that. but as the list of campaign contacts grows, republicans, too, are putting pressure on the white house to come clean. and during the campaign, vice-president mike pence worked the crowds, accusing hillary clinton of threatening u.s. national security because she used a private e-mail server. but it's now emerged that pence also used a personal e-mail account to conduct state business, including security matters while he was governor of indiana. and that same account was hacked in a fishing scheme. i'll speak with democratic congressman jim himes of the intelligence committee along with naacp president cornell william brooks and our

correspondents, analysts and guests, they are all standing by with full coverage of the day's top stories. president trump is spending the weekend at his florida retreat again, leaving behind a growing list of questions about his campaign's contacts with russia. let's go to our senior white house correspondent jim accosta. jim, i understand you have new information. >> reporter: that's right, we are learning new details, wolf, about the scope of the trump campaign's contacts with the russians, in particular the russian ambassador who met with multiple aides of the campaign. one of those aides tells cnn he was doing what then president trump wanted when he advocated for a change in u.s. policy towards russia. when then candidate donald trump delivered a foreign policy speech in washington last april, russian ambassador to the u.s. sergey kislyak was in the audience listening in as the real estate tycoon called for better relations with the kremlin. >> i believe an easing of tensions and improved relations with russia from a position of

strength only is possible, absolutely possible. >> reporter: three months later trump national security advisors say they met with the russian ambassador in cleveland during the republican convention. former campaign advisor j.d. gordon tells cnn he and another foreign policy advisor carter discussed u.s.-russian relations with the ambassador. a meeting page did not deny on msnbc. >> so you're not going to deny you talked with him in cleveland? >> i do not deny that. >> reporter: heading into the convention he says he argued for language in the republican party platform that opposed the ukraine and pro russian separatists. he sought the meeting at a meeting in the trump hotel in d.c. earlier in the year when trump himself said he did not want to go to war with russia over ukraine. i was doing what the boss want the, gordon tells cnn. contrast that with former campaign chairman paul manafort who says they did not seerk the change in the party platform. >> it did not come from trump

campaign. >> reporter: though trump appeared to acknowledge an interview in the same day. sea they so muftened it, i was involved. >> reporter: jared kushner and michael flynn also sat down with the ambassador at a previously undisclosed meeting at trump tower december. now even republicans are saying it's time for white house officials to tell all. >> i think everybody who has had contact with the russians need to get in the practice of over sharing. >> reporter: the president who has pushed back on campaign's contacts with russians -- >> i had knowledge nothing to do with it. i had nothing to do with russia. >> reporter: is fighting back. vladimir putin and senate minority leader calling him a total hypocrite. schumer responded he's willing to talk about his contact with putin under oath asking the president, would you and your team? >> i have recused myself in the matters that deal with the trump campaign. >> reporter: democrats want attorney general jeff sessions' recusal from the russian

investigation may be only the beginning. >> a recusal is an admission that something is wrong. >> reporter: russia is not the only headache for the white house. as it turns out cnn has confirmed vice-president mielk pence used a private e-mail address when he was governor of indiana even as he was joining in on the trump campaign's criticism of hillary clinton for her e-mail practices. >> i'm very confident that our e-mail practices were in full compliance. there is no comparison whatsoever between hillary clinton's practice. >> reporter: now, the white house is definitely seeking some separation between the president and his team when it comes to russia during the campaign. a white house spokeswoman said just today, wolf, that the president had, quote, zero involvement with the russians. wofrl? >> all right, jim, thank you. jim accosta over at the white house. after rushing it first, its failed attempt at a travel ban citing urgent national security reasons, the trump white house has now failed to issue a replacement not yet, even as homeland security report may

undercut the rationale for such a ban. let's go to our senior white house correspondent jeff zeleny. what's the hold up, jeff? >> reporter: that is a great question. we're ending the 6th week of this administration here, and we have heard time and time again that the president will be signing a new travel ban. that simply is not happening as we are entering the close of business here yet on this friday. the white house initially said that they were going to hold back a day after that speech earlier this week to congress. he was scheduled to sign it on wednesday. they said they were going to hold off a bit. now they are still holding off. now, the question here on this, yes, there were legal challenges, yes, there are issues inside other agencies here. but what happened to the urgency that the president talked about? >> those given the high honor of admission to the united states should support this country and love its people and its values. we cannot allow a beach head of terrorism to form inside america. we cannot allow our nation to become a sanctuary for extremists. [ applause ]

that is why my administration has been working on an improved vetting procedures and we will shortly take new steps to keep our nation safe and to keep those out who will do us harm. >> reporter: so, it's clear that this is more difficult than the president originally thought, trying to find an executive order, a travel ban that will meet legal challenges. but the other issue here, wolf, is there is a new report from the department of homeland security, essentially undercutting the idea of this travel ban. it is saying that people are radicalized not from other countries, but after they spend time here in the u.s. it looked at 88 different people and it is a sign here that the majority muslim countries the president was initially targeting in that first ban which we believe he will be including most of them in the

second one, it may not have the same effect he was talking about, would have. now we do not know if it is coming next week. one official said it is still the president's plan to do it, but stay tuned on when that actually gets signed and when it happens, wolf. >> we will do that. thanks very much, jeff, for that report. jeff zeleny reporting. joining us now democratic congressman jim himes of connecticut. intelligence committee. thanks for joining us. >> hello, would have. >> cnn has learned that trump national security advisor j.d. gordon met with the russian ambassador kislyak during their republican national convention in cleveland in july along with trump advisors at the time carter page and walid phares. were you aware of these meetings? >> i wasn't aware of those meetings in particular, but it is, of course, part of a much larger issue, which is that there have been meeting after meeting after meeting with jeff sessions, with michael flynn, now with these other advisors. all kinds of people associated with the trump campaign, which by the way, in and of itself,

this is why the president's tweet about schumer and about pelosi are really pretty silly. there is nothing wrong with meeting with a russian ambassador. in fact, it's the russian ambassador's job to meet with people. what is wrong is when you then misrepresent or lie about it the way michael flynn did and subsequently jeff sessions did. and, of course, in the context of this administration, when we know that russia interfered with our election for the purpose of helping to elect donald trump, you have a lot of questions. >> do these meetings, though, concern you specifically about anything improper? >> well, you know, as one of the people on the investigative committee and the house, i don't want to say yes or no. let me draw a distinction between that and what the chairman who run the two committees, devin nunez and richard burr did last week when they were out there saying haven't seen anything yet. it is incumbent on those of us doing that investigation to be very clear there is not

necessarily anything wrong with those meetings. there are questions, why is the white house sort of denying that they occurred, why are they defending the inaccuracies that both flynn and sessions put forward instead of saying, hey, let's get to the truth. no, those meetings aren't inherently necessarily a problem. but -- and that's why we have an investigation to find out whether anything improper occurred related, of course, to the hack of the election. >> president trump's senior advisor his son-in-law, jared kushner, and former advisor, former national security advisor michael flynn, we now know they met with the russian ambassador in new york city at trump tower back in december. were you aware of that meeting? >> well, that's been reported in the news, so -- >> other than in the news, were you aware through other channels that that meeting was going on? >> yeah, wolf, i have to be a little careful about stuff i might have learned behind closed doors, but now obviously we're all aware of that. >> does that concern you, that

specific meeting at trump tower? >> well, when it's michael flynn involved, i'm particularly concerned because, of course, michael flynn very simply lied to the public, lied to the vice-president about his contacts with russia. why would somebody lie? somebody lies to obfuscate something not on the up and up. when michael flynn is involved, there is no argument about michael flynn the way there is about jeff sessions. the way the white house fired him from his position of national security advisor, of course the nature of those meetings is on the long list of things the investigation needs to look into. >> have you seen the transcripts of any of the conversations that michael flynn had with the russian ambassador, for example, or any other conversations? >> would have, again, i'm not going to comment on things that happened behind closed doors, but you should know that this

investigation that is underway in the house is going to have access to all of that. >> so, correct me if i'm wrong, but it sounds like the transcripts finally have been provided to the committee. you don't have to tell us what were in the transcripts, prum presumably that's classified. just the notion there are these transcripts and you were allowed to see them, can you confirm that? >> what i can do is i can tell you that both the republican and the democratic leaders of that committee have agreed on a scope of work, have agreed on what we want to see, and we expect to see a very wide array of information relevant to this investigation. >> i guess the question is was michael flynn fired simply because he lied to the vice-president and others in the white house about his conversations with the russian ambassador or was there something else? >> well, the disturbing thing here, wolf, is that he was

fired, not because of what he did, because, of course, what he did occurred, you know, really weeks before there was a new president. he was fired because, of course, the media discovered the story that he had not been honest with the vice-president and put the vice-president in the position of being out on national tv pedaling a falsehood. but it was only when the media exposed that that he was then fired, which raises very difficult questions about who in the white house was willing to proceed with a national security advisor that they know -- that they knew had been dishonest with the vice-president. >> but was there anything else beyond the dishonesty? >> i don't know the answer to that question, wolf. >> all right. stand by, congressman. there is more to discuss. we are getting additional information. we'll resume our conversation right after this. your path to retirement may not always be clear. but at t. rowe price,

we can help guide your retirement savings. so wherever your retirement journey takes you, we can help you reach your goals. call us or your advisor t. rowe price. invest with confidence. in my johnsonville commercial we open up in the forest. hi. i'm jeff. i'm eating my breakfast and all of a sudden a raccoon come up and ask me, "what are you eating?" i told him "johnsonville breakfast sausage, fully cooked." porcupine comes in and he says, "does that come in patties?" i said "yup"

wolf comes in and says, "how'd you learn to talk to animals?" and i said "books" and we had a good laugh about that. [laughter] that's a commercial made the johnsonville way.

we're back with democratic congressman jim himes of connecticut, a member of the intelligence committee. congressman, president trump tweeted a little while ago a photo as you pointed out, nancy pelosi with the russian ambassador in 2010 after she denied meeting with him. he here by demanded a second investigation after schumer, pelosi for her close ties to russia and lying about it. what's your response to his demand for an investigation into these two democratic leaders and their ties to russia? >> well, you know, there is a small lesson and a big lesson. the small lesson is that people who get asked who are members of congress who get asked if they've ever met the russian ambassador ought to be careful about the answer.

but the really big lesson and the only thing important here is there is absolutely nothing wrong with meeting russians. there is something wrong with meeting russians and lying about it and there is certainly something very wrong about meeting russians, lying about it to the united states senate as they are thinking about confirming you to be the highest law enforcement officer in the country. so, obviously, look, trump's tweets are not serious and he is the president of the united states, so, i wish he wouldn't sort of throw around lightly the idea of doing investigations. again, there is nothing wrong with meeting with russians. it's meeting with russians and lying about it that is the problem. >> that picture of nancy pelosi, that was at a meeting of then president da me tree medvedev. he was in the back there, she claims she was -- she never had a one on one meeting with the russian ambassador for what that's worth. another question, congressman, cnn is told that in the days

before president trump's inauguration, the state department sent a batch of documents detailing russian efforts to meddle in the u.s. presidential elections. worldwide to senator ben card en of maryland. have you seen any of those documents? did you receive any of those documents from the outgoing obama administration? >> well, i'll say this. as you might expect, the house intelligence committee which is undertaking the investigation of the russian hack and whether there is any knowledge of or collusion with that hack by people associated with the trump, obviously that committee and i will see those documents. but i can tell you specifically that, you know, in early january, after the election, the extent of this hack came -- became clear and once it became clear that the russians were doing this on behalf of donald trump as well, a lot of us worried that very soon on january 20th, the boss of all of these departments, whether it

was fbi or justice or cia, the new boss is, of course, would be trump people. we all worried there would be some risk that some of the evidence or some of the, you know, paper trail might suddenly disappear. that there might be a desire to sort of cause investigations and make them more difficult. for our part in the congress, a number of us wrote to the agency chiefs and others and to the last president saying, hey, do all you can within the law obviously to preserve whatever evidence there may be of this very dark finding that the russians interfered in our election. >> presumably some of those documents may be surfacing publicly in the days and weeks to come. congressman, thanks very much for joining us. >> thank you, wolf. >> coming up, after months of protesting jeff sessions' nomination, and even being arrested outside his office in alabama, today the naacp president cornell william brooks sat down with the new attorney general. cornell william brooks will be here in "the situation room." he'll be sitting down with us and he'll tell us all about it.

guests can earn a how cafree night when theypring book direct on choicehotels.com and stay with us just two times? spring time. badda book. badda boom. or... badda bloom. seriously? book now at choicehotels.com

that $100k is not exactly a fortune. well, a 103 how long did it take you two to save that? a long time. then it's a fortune. i told you we had a fortune. get closer to your investment goals with a conversation. on a perfect car, then smash it into a tree. your insurance company raises your rates. maybe you should've done more research on them. for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. and if you do have an accident, our claims centers are available to assist you 24/7. call for a free quote today. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance.

we keep learning new details about meetings between russia's ambassador to the united states and top advisors to president trump. even though he denied there were any contacts between his team and any russians during the campaign, we now know four of the future president's top advisors including then senator jeff sessions met with the russian ambassador in cleveland during the republican national convention last july. later in september, the ambassador met with sessions in his senate office and trump's son-in-law jared kushner, future national security advisor michael flynn, they met with the

ambassador in december over at trump tower in new york city. let's bring in our political experts. gloria borger, looking at the big picture, why are there so many meetings that we're only now learning about the russian ambassador with some top trump advisors? >> look, that's the question that ought to be asked and that we're going to continue to ask as journalists. i think there are a couple of ways of looking at it. one, the question is was this about policy? was this about a president who clearly seemed more inclined to do deals with russia than the previous administration? and was the russian ambassador who, by the way, is doing his job, was the russian ambassador just reaching out on policy issues? the second question you'll have to ask, which is a lot less but benign, is was this about some kind of collusion? was there collusion, for example, during the election? and again, we don't know any of this, but the likely question that should be asked is, was there collusion during the

election between anyone on team trump and the russians in terms of the election hack. we don't know the answer to that, but we do know the fbi is investigating it. >> this is what's so interesting to me, gloria. we don't know the answer to that. there is no doubt about that. >> right. >> but we do know that the intelligence agencies have concluded that russia was involved in trying to affect our elections and the benefit of trump and the detriment to hillary clinton. so, everyone knows that, even donald trump has conceded that he believes that to be true. therefore, why as congressman herb said on cnn this morning, anybody in the trump world who has had a meeting with a russian should probably be in the practice of over sharing. that's my big question right now. if in this context we don't know where this is going, given the context that we know what russia was doing with our election, where is just the full, here are the facts, every single fact? we've asked every single senior member of the team, detail every

connection they ever had, and get that out there as they try to manage this. >> and every single member of people who are -- talked to the team. i mean, i think the white house should err on the side of getting out more information rather than less. >> because as you know, mark, it's going to come out. there are a lot of people out there who have all of the sensitive information. if there are more meetings from the white house perspective, from the president's perspective, put it out yourself rather than let it come out in the washington post or "the new york times" or cnn. >> right. drown us with facts. the bottom line is that we didn't necessarily expect that jeff sessions would be pulled into this in the way that he has been, which leads us to believe when is the next shoe going to drop? when was there another meeting? we're not saying he's guilty by any stretch of the imagination. but what we're saying is that the best way for them to get over the story is to immerse themselves in the story and then immediately push back against russia, which is the most confusing thing throughout all of this is that donald trump

really has not done enough to push away russia. >> you have the national security advisor, the attorney general, the son-in-law, and two advisors to the campaign who have all said, yes, i've had conversations, which leaves the question, well, what else don't we know? >> and they had a campaign manager, his second campaign manager who had strong ties to russia. >> paul manafort. >> he was let go during the campaign. go ahead. >> what is confusing to me, you say you're waiting for the next shoe to drop. what is not clear to me is why, why -- if russia is the thing -- jake sullivan, the clinton national security aide and cam pap agent was on the show. he met with ambassadors. there is nothing wrong. there is nothing wrong with meeting with officials from another government if you're involved in a presidential campaign. >> but. >> so, what are you hiding? >> right. >> that immediately begs the question if you're not putting this forth, how do we stop asking the question? what more is there and what are you hiding if you believe for

some reason not to come forth with it until it is publicly reportable. >> this is why white houses generally do this if they're under siege on a particular issue. they put all the information out there. >> right. >> and we haven't, we haven't seen that. >> listen to the president. this is president trump on february 16th at his news conference. >> can you say whether you are aware that anyone who advised your campaign had contacts with russia during the course of the election? >> well, i told you general flynn obviously was dealing, so, that's one person. but he was dealing, as he should have been -- >> during the election? >> no, nobody that i know of. >> you're not aware of any contacts during the course of the election? are >> look, how many times do i have to answer this question? >> can you just say yes or no? >> i have nothing to do with russia. to the best of my knowledge, no person that i deal with does. >> so, is this a legal problem, gloria, or a political problem? >> well, i think it could be both at this point. obviously now it's a political problem because it is what we're talking about.

it is what journalists are investigating. there are a lot of unanswered questions and it is a problem for the attorney general who had to recuse himself from an investigation going on under his purview. so, and will it become a legal problem? i don't think we have the answer to that. >> how does he not know, by the way, that his national security advisor -- i'll give him he doesn't know that flynn is meeting with the russians. i'll give him that. how does he not know jared kushner, his son-in-law met with the ambassador in december and was he saying that wasn't the -- in trump tower, in his billing l building. that wasn't the campaign, it was the transition. it is absolutely the same thing. i don't think we're -- i think donald trump -- i'm not going to say he's lying to us about this. i just don't think he's being as truthful -- >> here's what's raising questions, david, and i want you to explain this. there's a lot of stuff out there that raises some questions. there were these meetings between trump national security advisors, the russian ambassador in cleveland at the republican national convention back in july.

a week later trump in a speech starts saying to the russians, go ahead, find hillary clinton's -- release hillary clinton's 30,000 e-mails that she deleted. >> hack -- >> hack and find those e-mails. and the other thing that's curious, there was this meeting at the republican national convention then all of a sudden anti-russian plank in the republican national platform on ukraine is suddenly removed and people to this day are not sure why it was removed. >> right. well, mark mentioned his second campaign manager paul manafort who was the convention manager, that was the role he was in when he came onto the campaign. and clearly had ties to ukraine and russia. so, there was a key figure involved in working with the rnc and on the convention plank. you'll recall in jim accosta's reporting on your air last night, some aides to the trump campaign believed they were moving through with donald trump's wishes about that, and then when donald trump was asked

by george steph nop last about that, he said he wasn't aware but it was a softening but he would look into it. >> the softening of the position? >> in fact, if they thought that's what he would have wanted, even if he wasn't directing them -- this is a big [ inaudible ] here. which is when you work for somebody in a political campaign and you think this is what the guy at the top wants, sometimes you don't have to ask him. you just believe that you're doing -- you're doing what he would want you to do and then when you come back to him, he'll go, oh, great. that's terrific. so, did they just aim to please? >> well, to david's point about paul manafort, he was asked on our colleague chuck todd show meet the press, why was this inserted? you know, did anybody from the trump campaign have anything to do with it? manafort answered, no, zero. so, clearly he wasn't telling the truth. >> all right, guys, the president once again very active today on twitter. he's targeting some democratic leaders. we'll update you on that and a whole lot more when we come back.

with not food, become food? thankfully at panera, 100% of our food is 100% clean. no artificial preservatives, sweeteners, flavors, or colors. panera. food as it should be. i use what's already inside me to reach my goals. so i liked when my doctor told me i may reach my blood sugar and a1c goals by activating what's within me with once-weekly trulicity. trulicity is not insulin. it helps activate my body to do what it's supposed to do release its own insulin. trulicity responds when my blood sugar rises. i take it once a week, and it works 24/7. it comes in an easy-to-use pen and i may even lose a little weight. trulicity is a once-weekly injectable prescription medicine to improve blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes when used with diet and exercise.

trulicity is not insulin. it should not be the first medicine to treat diabetes or for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. do not take trulicity if you or a family member has had medullary thyroid cancer, if you've had multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if you are allergic to trulicity. stop trulicity and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms such as itching, rash, or trouble breathing; a lump or swelling in your neck; or severe pain in your stomach area. serious side effects may include pancreatitis, which can be fatal. taking trulicity with a sulfonylurea or insulin increases your risk for low blood sugar. common side effects include nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, decreased appetite and indigestion. some side effects can lead to dehydration, which may make existing kidney problems worse. with trulicity, i click to activate what's within me. if you want help improving your a1c and blood sugar numbers with a non-insulin option click to activate your within. ask your doctor about once-weekly trulicity.

so this year, they're getting a whole lot more. box 365, the calendar. everyone knows my paperless, safe driver, and multi-car discounts, but they're about to see a whole new side of me.

heck, i can get you over $600 in savings. chop, chop. do i look like i've been hurt before? because i've been hurt before. um, actually your session is up. hang on. i call this next one "junior year abroad." we're back with our political experts. gloria, he's active, the president of the united states, on twitter. he tweeted just a little while ago -- >> that didn't take long. >> showing a picture of chuck schumer with vladimir putin writing, we should start an immediate investigation into senator schumer and his ties to russia. putin, a total hypocrite. schumer responded, happily read my contact with putin and his

associates took place in '03 in full view of press and public under oath. will you and your team -- >> i don't get the under oath part of that tweet because it took place in a luke oil gas station on the west side of new york and that's a russian company, which is -- >> i think what schumer is suggesting he's happy to talk about it, do it under oekt. he'd like trump to talk about it under oath. >> the picture wasn't under oath. >> limited to 140 characters. can't be that precise. >> is that what it is? and putin was visiting and he was in the country. his next stop was to go to camp david to meet with the president. and schumer, of course, pushed a krispy kreme donut on him. so, it was a photo op, and i'm hoping the president was joking a little bit about that. i'm hoping. >> are you hoping or -- >> but then he followed up, david, with this tweet, just a little while ago, involving the democratic leader in the house nancy pelosi.

i here by demand a second investigation after schumer of pelosi for her close ties to russia and lying about it. showing a picture of nancy pelosi. she was at a meeting in 2010 with the then russian president medvedev the russian ambassador was there sitting at the table as well. >> and, again, she made the same argument back saying, this was before cameras, not in hiding, and i didn't lie about it trying to draw a contrast with sessions. i do think there is something interesting to note here. donald trump, a lot of the time on this russia story, has taken to twitter to lash back at the press. he's not doing that now. he's going after democrats. i don't know if he's going to find that as satisfying in the feedback loop as going after the press because then we get all worked up that he's going after us. i wonder if just going after [ inaudible ] there is a more traditional partisan, not going to get the same level of coverage if that is a less satisfying tactic. >> like eating chinese food, an hour later you're not satisfied. >> who is over this strategy,

the president himself or is he getting advice -- in other words, to avoid going after the fake news, the media, because he's been relatively silent on that lately. >> right. i know there is an effort from the more traditional part of the west wing to have him be reigned in and toned down. we heard from the likes of, gosh, the chairman of the inauguration whose name escapes me. >> tom barrack? >> tom barrack himself has told and said it publicly he has told his good friend, tone it down, you can't go after the media. i wonder if donald trump is starting to heed some of those concerns. also, i wonder if steve bannon, mind you, is saying, you know what, back off a little bit right now. there will be a time to go back -- >> it may be he was basking in the glory. don't forget earlier this week he gave a speech to a joint session of congress that was very well received. >> right. >> and maybe he was basking in the glory of that and trying to carry that tone to the rest of

the week. i don't think it necessarily lasted, but you didn't see him tweet very much. that may be one reason why he's not tweeting against the media because our polls showed that he did well after that. and he was, you know, he got some critical acclaim after the speech from the media. >> very quickly, sessions, democrats on the senate judiciary committee now want him to come back, answer questions. is he going to do that? >> well, i doubt he's going to run right up there because i don't think he wants to answer these questions so quickly and republicans aren't calling for it. i think it is a smarter political tactic for the democrats than calling for outright resignation which is not going to happen. this seems to be a smarter just raw political approach, call for him to come back up, call for a special prosecutor. that's how they could continue to keep the heat on. resignation seems so far out of the realm. >> and over reach. >> over reach. >> could backfire. >> guys, everybody stand by. coming up, despite taking part in protests over jeff sessions' nomination, nacc president

cornell brooks met with the new attorney general here in washington today. cornell brooks, he's here in the situation room to tell us all about that meeting. that's next. did you know two ars of your brain can make it hard to lose weight? contrave is an fda-approved weight-loss medicine that may help adults who are overweight or struggle with obesity lose weight and keep it off. contrave is believed to work on two areas of the brain: your hunger center... (woman) i'm so hungry. (avo) to reduce hunger. and your reward system... (woman) ice cream. french fries. (avo) to help control cravings. across three long-term studies, contrave patients lost approximately 2-4x more weight than with diet and exercise alone. contrave is not for everyone. one ingredient in contrave may increase suicidal thoughts or actions in some children, teens, and young adults within the first few months. other serious side effects include seizures, increase in blood pressure or heart rate, liver damage, manic episodes, glaucoma and allergic reactions. do not take with opioids. reduce hunger, help control cravings.

contrave. the #1 prescribed weight-loss brand. go to contrave.com. guests can earn a how cafree night when theypring book direct on choicehotels.com and stay with us just two times? spring time. badda book. badda boom. or... badda bloom. seriously? book now at choicehotels.com so how old do you want uhh, i was thinking around 70. alright, and before that? you mean after that? no, i'm talking before that. do you have things you want to do before you retire? oh yeah sure... ok, like what? but i thought we were supposed to be talking about investing for retirement? we're absolutely doing that. but there's no law you can't make the most of today. what do you want to do? i'd really like to run with the bulls. wow.

yea. hope you're fast. i am. get a portfolio that works for you now and as your needs change. investment management services from td ameritrade. won't replace the full value of your totaled new car. the guy says you picked the wrong insurance plan. no, i picked the wrong insurance company. with liberty mutual new car replacement™, you won't have to worry about replacing your car because you'll get the full value back including depreciation. and if you have more than one liberty mutual policy, you qualify for a multi-policy discount, saving you money on your car and home coverage.

call for a free quote today. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance.

today saw the highest level of contact between the trump administration and the naacp, the group's president and ceo cornell william brooks met with the attorney general of the united states jeff sessions. cornell is with us here in the situation room to tell us about it. thanks very much, cornell, for being here. >> good to be here. >> a headline, how did it go? >> it was a polite but blunt

conversation about the state of civil rights in this country. and the rule of the department of justice. we were very candid about our concerns, about the fact that the in terms of backing away of a full fledged commitment to police in this country. and the degree in which history rests upon his shoulders. >> because all of us remember, you were arrested not once but twice protesting his nomination. you went to his senate office in alabama. at the time you said he can't be trusted to protect voting rights. he remains a threat to all of our civil rights. you, of course, was fully aware of what you did. and then you had this important conversation today. what did he say about that. >> well, he asked me about my time in mobile, and he was aware that we conducted this

demonstration in his office. he said that his staff said that the naacp was nice to them and they were, in fact, nice to us. so we joked about it. but what we did not joke about was the commitment or lack of sufficient commitment to civil rights by the department of justice thus far. in the opening days of his administration, he has talked about the fact that he wants to step away from using consent decrees, step away from using pattern and practice investigations to hold police departments accountable. where we had literally in the force of the last two years over 2,000 people lost at the hand of the police. where we have the young black men that understanding that he's 20 times more likely to be killed by the hand of the police than the counterpart. to hear him say that he's not going to use prosecutial tool

like that is very alarming. >> do you think he took your concern seriously. >> he took the meeting. >> it was his initiative. >> he requested a one-on-one. we had a meeting today. i think he understands the role of the naacp. when there is a crisis in this country, a civil rights country, people call on the naacp and they call on the department of justice. it remains to be seen whether or not he understands or that the department understands the gravity of our concerns and what we mean by that is where we have seen in this last election. a season of voter suppression, where the naacp secured nine court victories against voter sup completi suppression in ten months. for the court to reverse the decision that the state of texas

engaged in racial discrimination -- >> what is important is that the civil rights at the justice department. >> absolutely. >> as assistant for civil rights, did you make a recommendation, did you talk about that? >> we certainly did. we talked about needing an assistant attorney general for civil rights who has demonstrated commitment to civil rights and who has a commitment to prosecuting civil rights violations. we don't need someone in the position who is simply well-credentialed and well-polished and glib, but someone who has a record and a full fledged commitment. because people all across the country looking at the department of justice as a bulwark against injustice. you can't have somebody in the job who doesn't have that kind of commitment. >> it was obviously very important for you to sit with the attorney general of the united states but more important to sit down with the president

of the united states. what are the prospects of that? >> well, we would hope that we'll have such a meeting. but here is what i'll note. sometimes people call on the naacp when there is a crisis, when there are flames in the streets, when there is unrest. let's not call on the naacp as though we are the first responders of the civil rights when we are the primary care physicians of civil rights. >> so you leave bottom line hopeful? >> i leave hopeful and vigilant. we oppose senator sessions -- attorney general sessions' nomination. and with the same vigor that we opposed him we're willing to hold him and the department of justice, hold their feet to the fire. we have to do that. >> cornell williams brooks. with the naacp. >> thank you. growing list of contacts between the trump campaign and the russian ambassador to the united states. after months of denial the president is now dismissing the

controversy as a witch hunt. we've used real ingredients, whole nuts, and natural flavors from the very beginning. give kind a try. when you have digestive sensitivities, life can feel like a never ending search for food that won't cause bloating, gas, or inner turmoil. try pronourish. a delicious nutritional drink that makes a great mini meal or snack that has protein and fiber. and pronourish has no gluten or high fructose corn syrup. and is low in fodmap ingredients that can trigger digestive sensitivities. the search is over. pronourish. nutrition you can feel good about. why pause a spontaneous moment? cialis for daily use treats ed and the urinary symptoms of bph. tell your doctor about your medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, or adempas® for pulmonary hypertension, as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess. to avoid long-term injury, get medical help right away

for an erection lasting more than four hours. if you have a sudden decrease or loss of hearing or vision, or an allergic reaction, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis.

happening now. kremlin connections. there is mounting pressure on the president to explain his top aides' contacts with russia and more previously undisclosed meetings revealed. bandstand. weeks after the controversial roll out, a revived version of the president's travel ban is on hold again. and now a new intelligence assessment of the threat from foreign-born extremists appears to undercut the rationale for the ban altogether. you've got mail. trouble. vice-president pence claims

there is no comparison between his use of private e-mails when he was governor and hillary clinton's e-mail controversy. tonight pence defense. an allegation of hypocrisy. arnold schwarzenegger squiting the celebrity apprentice. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in the "the situation room." president trump is back on the attack after new revelations that even more of his key advisers met with russia's ambassador to the united states, including his son-in-law jared kushner. mr. trump is accusing democrats of a witch-hunt. as they keep the pressure on the attorney general sessions saying his recusal from campaign allegations isn't enough. top democrats are calling for sessions to