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toward syria's brutal strong man. what secretary of state is now saying during a pivotal trip overseas. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in the situation ro"situ >> this is cnn breaking news. >> bragz news tonight on the house intelligence committee mysterious trip to the white house grounds to view secret reports about alleged surveillance of the trump team. reporting that two senior wte house officials helped provide representative devin nunes with the information that nunes later shared with the president. it's adding more fuel to concerns that knew necessities has been trying to give political cover to the president for his debunked claim that he was wiretapped by president obama. the trump administration is refusing to confirm or deny the "the new york times'" report or discuss where nunes may have

received his information. the white house has invited leaders to view materials related to potentially improper surveillance and leaks. tonight the top democrat on the house swrns committee says he wants to know if the white hse is belatedly offering up the very same information that already was shown to chairman nunes. congressman adamchiff says he has profound concerns about the administration's actions. this as the senate held its first hearing on the critical issue right at the center of all the controversy, russians election meddling. witnesses underscoring that moscow still is trying to interfer in american democracy including a recent social media campaignargeting the house speaker, paul ryan. we also learned that aids from senator marco bio's presidential campaign were the target of two russian hacking attempts including one just yesterday. this hour i'll talk with the

democratic on the house intelligence committee, congressman carson. he's standing by along with our correspondents and analysts as we cover these breaking stories. first, let's go to our senior white house correspondent jeff zeleny. the white house press secretary once again raising more questions than he answered just minutes after that "the new york times" repor was released. >> indeed. the white house has sent a letter to the top democrats and republicans on the house and senate intelligence committees. sean spicer said it was sent earlier this morning but it became public just around the times that "the new york times" story was released and it was inviting the leaders to come over and look at the information. sean spicer this is all of course in relation to the russian investigation. the timing here is so interesting. it was just nine days ago that the republican chairman alone came over here to the white house, certainly raising so many questions about who invited him in. that's something that sean

spicer had said earlier in the week. he would try to get to the bottom of who invited him here and who showed him the documents and authorized all of this but this is what he said today. >> please don't put words in my mouth. i never said i would provide you answers. i said we would look in to it. the responsible for thing for us to do is to provide the individuals and the committees who are doing the review the materials they are looking for. or se of them. we don't know exactly what they're looking for and what they've seen and what they haven't. our goal is to be as forthright as possible. th asked in a march letter for information. we have are willing to provide them with the information they we have the materials that we have come across and i think that is an important step. our obligation is to make sure a review is done both in the house and the senate as we asked for not to make sure that we have illegally leak out information to you. >> reporter: the timing of this also interesting. it was on march 15th in an

interview with foch news that the president suggested the committee would suddenly be getting at some point some new information on all this. we don't know if this is the information he was talking about or not but he certainly raised that possibility. now the democratic intelligence ranking member adam schiff said he would come to the white house and look at this information but he also wanted to know if it was a distraction from all of it. this could simply be a side show. >> thank you. also tonight the ranking democratic in the house intelligence committee has a ve skeptical tonight to this new white house offered a review documents. once again as we just heard congressman adam schiff speaking out about ttnd his very tense meeting today with the committee chairman devin nunes. let's go to our reporter on the hill. what did we hear from congressman schiff. >> reporter: mr. schiff's raising questions about how the national security council staff apparently was the source of

this information, at least helped devin nunes get access to this infortion at the same time as they came across this information, the quote ordinary coursef business and now is allowing mr. schiff and other leaders of the senate and house intelligence committee to review this information at the earliest date. if this is coming forward now, does that mean that this was the same information that you provided to mr. nunes in that privacy briefing that he had before briefing the president of the united states on the surveillance information suggesting the president may have been iidentally collected the communications in the trump team through the united states surveillance efforts. now mr. nunes does not -- mr. scff does not have an answer that question but also raising questions may have been involved or trying to stall this investigation. i asked him directly -- so mr. schiff, do you believe that the

white house in any way was trying to slow down this investigation? this is his response. >> you're suggesting it but you're not saying it, do you personally believe the white house has been working with chairman nunes to undermine and undercut this investigation? >> the only thing i'll say is, again, trying to keep the focus on what's the best route to doing our credible investigation. if there's been any substantial question about whether we can do that, then we need to take whatever steps are necessary to restore credibility to the investigation and i don't want to speak for the chairman. i think you can and have asked him these questions. i z-o want to try to keep my focus on what's the path forward here, and to do my best to cordon off any distraction, keep

our eyesight on what's truly at stake here. reporter: now mr. schiff and mr. nunes did meet privately earlier today to discuss how to move forward, discussing possible witnesses that could come forward either in a private setting or in a public setting. the one thing that mr. nunes did not reveal to adam schiff was how he got on to white house grounds, who the source of his information was and whether or not that information that they are going to see in the coming days was the same information that mr. nunes briefed the president of the united states on and remember wolf, this all potentially stems back to that unsubstantiated claim that the president made that he was wiretapped under the orders of barack obama. a lot of suspicion that the white house potentially provided this information to mr. nunes to help pushback against those criticisms that the president had no basis for making those allegations, so questions about not just whether or not the white house tried to use mr.

nunes to pushback on those claims but also whether or not they're trying to tamper with this ongoing house investigation into russia and any of those contacts that may have occurred with the trump campaign. >> all right. thank you. the democratic congressman carson is joining us. thanks very much for joining us. >> thanks for having me, wolf. >> do you know yet who at the white house gave the house intelligence chairman devin nunes those intelligence reports? >> well, i've seen the public reports as you have seen them. i think what is clear, wolf, is that what chairman nunes has done and i know him, i've traveled with him, he's a good person aside from this, but wha he has done has been a tremendous fumble and a tremendous mistake and as a member of the committee along with other democrats we're calling for his -- we're calling for a recusal simply for the fact because we know how damaging his actions are and

have been. >> the "the new york times" as you know reports that two white house officials gave chairman nunes this information. th were high level officials, the senior director for intelligence at the national security council and a lawyer who was working on the national security council in the white house counsels office. can you say if these people gave chairman nunes these intelligence reports on their own or were they authorized at higher levels to do so? >> no, sir. >> but that's a key question right now from the standpoint of your investigation. who authorized these individuals to share this information with the chairman is that right? >> i think what's most disappointing, wolf, is that he did not consult with the ranking member adam schiff and i think in a very real sense, speaker ryan will make the call or should make the call. he has refused to so far at least to remove him at least from the position of chairman so

we can move forward with this investigation. we have to remember that it was the house intelligence committee and it is the house intelligence committee that has gotten us this far in terms of unearthing the necessary truths that are needed to get to the bottom of this madness. it has put a taint on the committee without question but moving forward i think in order do so in a healthy way and effective way he should recuse himself. >> if, in fact, the "the new york times" is true and these two individuals gave this information to the chairman, he suggested in various interviews healled them whistle-blowers, do you see them as whistle-blowers? >> well, at this point absolutely not, but however as we go forward we will see which is why special commission is necessary in dealing with this matter. i will say that the intelligence committee is a place, a safe haven for textbook whistle-blowers but i think what is happened right now is very

questionab, the way it was handled is very questionable and so the questions that you're raising are so important as a part of the fourth estate, it's so critically important because as we're dealing with the president who is accusing president obama of things that are very unfortunate. we have a president who is saying things and his i am pulse siffty is really bringing down the reputation of the united states and bringing down the moral of those staffers on both sides of the political aisle in the administration, in the intelligence community who worked so very hard and i think it's darkenning the cloud that already exists over not only the white house but of congress and the american people are disillusioned and disappointed and distrustful of our political process. >> chairman nunes told me when i asked if he was coordinating with the trump administration and he said that wasn't the case. do you believe chairman nunes

was telling the truth when describing his sources? >> well, you know, i can't speak to that at this point. what i will say he made a huge -- he made a bad judgment call in going to the white house. i think that he has shown himself to lack the objectivity needed to chair the intelligence committee and i think in reality going forward we need someone else to lead this effort along with ranking member schiff so we can continue doing the phenomenal work that the members who serve on that committee, that the staffers on both sides of the aisle do each and every day to really do the hard work that we've been doing. remember, were it not for the house and intel committee and senate we wouldn't have unearthed the truths that have gotten us this far. >> if these two senior officials at the national security counsel sit, the white house counsels office released this information to chairman nunes on their own

without clearance from their supervisors, the white house council or the national security adviser to the president or the vice president or the president, should they be fired? >> absolutely. i think they have -- they have really jeopardized the integrity of the process in terms of delivering information, transporting information and really breaking the chain of command if this happens to be true. >> if it happens to be true. stand by congressman. there's more to discuss. we're following several breaking stories right now. we'll be right back. to do the best

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moments. right now i want to get an update on the russian investigation that's underway in the senate. a hearing today drove home the gravity of the kremlin effect to the american democracy. jessica schneider was there watching it all unfold. very serious issues came to the floor. >> it did. you know, the senate intelligence committee today were all business and the experts sending a clear message. russians orchestrated widespread hacking during the campaign and it is still happening right now. >> reporter: the senate intelligence committee investigating the details of russian meddling throughout the 2016 election. >> our community has been a target of russian information warfare, propaganda and cyber campaigns and still is. >> this is not fake news. this is actually what happened to us. >> reporter: ranking democratic mark warner stressing the bipartisan aim of the process. >> i want to make clear at least for me, this information is not about whether you have a d or an

r next to your name. it is not about relitigating last fall's election. it is about clearly understanding and responding to this very real threat. >> reporter: the first open hearing features disclosures on experts from russia and cybersecurity. they've deduced russian interference may have been more wide ranking that previously believed. >> russia's covert troll sought to site line opponents on both sides of the political spectrum with adversary ideal views during the kremlin. may have helped sink the hopes of candidates more hostile to russian interest long before the field narrowed. senator rubio in my opinion you anecdotally suffered from these efforts. >> reporter: republican senator marco rubio revealing for the first time attempted hacks of his staff occurred last july and again yesterday. >> a second attempt was made again against former members of my presidential campaign team who had access to our internal

information, again targeted from an ip address from an unknown location in russia and that's effort was also unsuccessful. >> reporter: watts a senior fellow at national security think tank said during the campaign donald trump repeated claims also pushed by russian media. >> he denies the intel from the united states about russia. he claimed that the election could be rigged. that was the number one theme pushed by r.t. sputnik news all the way up until election. >> reporter: senator ron widen now urging the committee to call for president trump tax returns as part of the investigation. >> the committee needs to follow the money wherever it needs. >> reporter: russia is also accused of launching an online smear attack against paul ryan following the fallout from his failed health care plan. >> we observed social media discrediting speaker paul ryan hoping to unrest democratic institutions. >> reporter: those experts say

the russians seemed to be winning in cyber space because they have great propaganda and the best hackers out there. they stressed the u.s. government needs to change its methods to start attracting top tek talent. >> thanks very much for that, jessica. let's get back to our representative congressman. the senate is now making a point that they have a bipartisan effort to find the truth, the house speaker paul ryan today called the process in the house a little political, but that's clearly an understatement. you're on that panel. how do you fix it? >> well, i think we fix it by first pushing speaker ryan to allow chaman nunes to recuse himself and get someone in the chair seat working alongside ranking member schiff and i think also we have more open hearings now because of the classified level and the

sensitivity of a lot of the information that we deal with and many of the folks in the intelligence community. we have to have these settings in a classified area. however, i think the public needs to know, the public needs to see this played out. this is unforenat for our democracy at this time and i think, wolf, in a very real sense it is time for the american people to be engaged in what's taking place giving low levels of congressional approval, even lower levels of presidential approval. the american people have become disillusioned to a degree that is very troubling so now we have to launch an influence campaign of bipartisanship to win back the american people. >> do you believe the republicans on your intelligence committee will allow an open public hearing with sally yates, the former acting attorney general, former cia director john brennan, former director of national intelligence james clapper. it had been scheduled for this past tuesday but the chairman suddenly cancelled it.

will it happen? >> i don't want to speak on behalf of my republican buddies on the committee, but i will say that they are just as disappointed and embarrassed as the democrats are. >> they clearly are frustrated that that hearing was cancelled, is that what i'm hearing? >> frustration along with a bit of embarrassment in terms of impacting the reputation and the integrity of the intelligence committee process. and i think moving forward, speaker ryan has to be bold in this regard and make sure that devon removes himself from the committee because i know devin personally but recuses himself as chair and over this investigation. >> but you're saying that some republican members of the committee have expressed these same fears to you about him and about where this committee is going? >> i can't speak on behalf of my republican friends, but i can say that outside of our political posturing, outside of

some of our political statements, we all want what's best for this country. >> congressman carson, thanks very much for joining us. >> what a pleasure. thank you. >> just ahead more confusing statements from the white house as critics find new ammunition to alleged cover-up. more on the breaking news right after this. when you've en making delicious natural cheese for over 100 years like kraft has, you learn a lot about people's tastes. honey, what do you want for dinner tonight? oh, whatever you're making. cheesy chipotle pork quesadillas? mmmm... ravioli lasagna bake? yeah, i don't know... grilled white chicken... grab something rich, sharp and creamy. triple cheddar stuffed sliders. sold! we aim to cheese!

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the white house is refusing to confirm or deny a new report that two white house officials helped provide house intelligence committee chairman devin nunes with the secret report that he viewed on white house grounds, the "the new york times" offering new details about nunes's mysterious visit to the white house compound that prompted him to go publicith his claim about incidental surveillance of the trump transition team. let's bring in our political and legal analysts and gloria let me start with you. it's very confusing. walk us through how we got here. >> so let's go back to march 4th. wolf that was when the president initially did his tweet storm about how president obama had been wiretapping him. and then let's take a look at this time line here because on march 15th in an interview with tucker carlson you see it there, the president suggested that you're going to find some very interesting items coming to the forefront over the next two

weeks, when he was asked about these wiretaps. then on march 21 and we remember the whole cloek and dagger stuff about devin nunes getting a text on his phone and he goes and visits the white house complex. wouldn't tell us who cleared him in but he visited the white house complex. he got some clearly important information at least so he thought. on march 22nd right in between the, he holds a press conference. he says i've seen this incredible stuff. he goes and meets with the president and then on march 23rd, sean spicer is asked about it and was asked, well, where did devin nunes get all of this information about unmasking and leaks? and he was asked whether it came from the white house and sean spicer said, you know, coming from the white house doesn't make a ton of sense. so you have the question here

about where devin nunes got his information, the "the new york times" today reports that it did, in fact, come from two aids on the national security council staff inside the white house. and it leaves us all asking the question, did the president know about this before devin nunes informed him of it? was the national security staff talking to nunes on its own? was it told to give nunes this information? why didn't devin nunes bring down adam schiff with him to the white house to see this information if it was so important? i think these are questions we need answers to. >> i want to play a little clip, short clip, i had a lengthy interview with devin nunes here in the situation room on monday and we had this exchange. >> meet with the president or any of his aids while you were there that night? >> no. and, in fact, i'm quite sure that people in the west wing had no idea that i was there. >> well, if that's what he said on monday, if you believe the

"the new york times" report, he met with two senior white house officials atop official of the national security council and a top official in the white house counsel's office. those were white house officials. >> in his interview with you he also said he couldn't reveal what went on at the white house complex because it would reveal sources and methods, which is the language that spies use, so nunes was claiming that he was spying, he was on a mission, like a mission to the white house to uncover this material and he's the chairman of the house intelligence committee. that's not his job is to be a spy. this guy is so far out of his depth, he has no idea what he's doing. the question about whether he's clueless or corrupt or both is really the only question left in this investigation, at least as far as he's concerned.

>> the story in the "the new york times" headlined two white house officials helped give nunes intelligence reports. interestingly at the white house briefing today sean spicer, the press secretary, refused to confirm or deny, but you know he's not shy. when they want to deny something as they did yesterday in the "the washington post" story, 100% wrong. in this particular case, that silence is thundering. >> whether or not they are accurate, i might add. but yes, you're absolutely right. he did try to sew seeds of doubt, he said, you're assuming that its accurate and the reporter said, yes, i am. then you're right. he did kind of go back and forth but wouldn't outright say it but makes me think more is coming and he didn't want to put hips again in that situation where he's saying something isn't true and then it turns out in 24 hours that it absolutely is true, so. >> jeffrey, quickly has the white house lost control of this entire story right now?

>> yes. do you have another question? >> very succinct answer. what do they do? >> there's another thing about sean spicer where he kept saying over and over again that all of us journalist were concerned about process. the process of how this occurred rather than the substance of what devin nunes has learned. in fact, the process is quite important here. it's very important here, because devin nunes as jeffrey was saying refused to reveal who gave him this information, made it sound like it was some kind of cloek and dagger operation and we need to know whether, in fact, all of these gyrations were to prove in the end that donald trump's tweet on march 4th was even remotely accurate, which is what they may be trying to prove. >> and wolf, if i could just add very quickly, all of this

illustrates that when you have a stantive investigation as we do now of russian influence in the election, the risk of a cover-up, the risk of not telling the truth about what ultimately went on is often bigger than the risk of underlying misconduct being discovered and that's the problem here, all this -- no one can get their story straight, either the white house or the republicans who are supposedly investigating the white house. >> let me get back to that brief exchange that i had with devin nunes on monday and i'll be specific. did you meet, i asked him, did you meet with the president or any of his aids while you were there that night. nunes, no. and i'm quite sure people in the west wing had no idea i was there, which suggests to me that these two aids may have been acting maybe on their own. did they have authority from general mcmaster, the national security adviser or the chief

white house council to brief nunes on all this information? >> let's not forget one of these aids mcmaster tried to have removed and was rebuffed by bannon and donald trump. so this isn't exactly an individual that is someone that's really shining in the light of mcmasters to begin with. >> so the two choices are either they went rogue and they shouldn't have gone rogue or they were directed by their higher ups, which is worse. >> what do you think, jeff? >> directed by their higher ups. the question in all of these washington scandals if this turns into a scandal is who determined the course of conduct and the higher up the responsibility goes, the more troublesome it is. >> and it gets back to what you first said gloria on march 15th, the president himself suggested, get ready within the next couple weeks you're going to learn a lot more information. >> the president foreshadowed it and now looking back, you look

at it and say, well, gee is this what he was talking about and did he know this and were people trying to figure out a way to get it out or what else was he talking? >> there was an interesting question that was asked at the white house briefing today. maybe the president should tomorrow have a full scale news conference so we can deal with these issues. you anticipate he would do that? >> um, no. i don't think he's going to do that because when he's -- he's just gotten himself deeper into this every time he's tried to answer this question. >> and remember, it all started, at least this chapter, all started because of that ridiculous false tweet that barack obama had something to do with wiretapping donald trump. if he had never made that completely false allegation against barack obama, lots of this, maybe all of it never would've happened. >> and he was the one who said he wanted a full scale investigation, go ahead and investigate. he called for it. >> exactly. >> how's that going? >> exactly. >> don't go too far away.

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. we're back with our political team in a new round of twitter attacks by president trump targeting members of his own republican party. gloria let me read to you a tweet from him early this morning. the freedom caucus will hurt the

entire republican agenda if they don't go on the team and fast. we must fight them and dems in 2018. he started tweeting naming names. if rep mark meadows, would get on board we would have both great health care and massive tax cuts and reform. where are mark meadows, repeal and replace. he's not mincing any -- he's willing to fight members of his own party. >> those three men are probably going home to their safe districts, which are -- they won by substantial margins and if they want to buck the president, they may not be so afraid of his ire although nobody wants to be primaried. those are guys who are out there early for this president, so it's kind of stunning to me that he would take them on like that. >> how unusual it is for a president to be naming names like this going after fellow members of his own party? >> incredibly but he also --

this isn't the way to get to the freedom caucus by threatening them. i can tell you, freedom caucus source told the "the daily beast" today, quote, meh, meh was the comment when asked if this mattered to them. not only are they in safe districts. their constituents largely support what they did. you hear them over and over again on cnn, this bill had 17% approval. >> wolf, he also has a bigger problem with moderate republicans. they haven't been as vocal but the one -- they are the ones who really are in danger of losing their seats if health care went through in the form it was proposed. 24 million people according to the congressional budget office losing health insurance. senior citizens raising their rates. it wasn't just the freedom caucus that was rebelling, it was the more moderate members

and they're the ones who are going to be running from trump the fastest. if he remains -- if he remains unpopular at the level he is now. >> but the freedom caucus say larger block and there could present a problem on tax reform and several other issues because they like to say no. >> and he will need them on tax reform which is why its so striking that he was calling them out by name and group. you have to go to the well again and he's going to want them on tax reform, on corp tax reform and they would be likely allies. >> what can he really do to the members of the freedom caucus? as gloria you pointed out, in theory there could be primary battles against them but they're not in any danger. >> here's what he could do because the speaker paul ryan said the president is threatening to do this, namely work with democrats on this and the speaker doesn't want the president to be working with democrats as r as repealing and replacing obamacare.

>> what depends are going to work with donald trump to repeal obamacare? like not one. >> no. >> it's an idle threat. democrats have nothing but disincentive to work with this president. he is not popular among -- with the democratic base, they don't like a lot of his policies. obamacare is more popular than ever right now. what's the incentive? >> he can't force work with democrats. doesn't really work that way. >> i want to get your reaction to this jeffrey. according to south carolina mark sanford, the president sent his bud skret director former congressman mick mulvaney to deliver a message on the president's behalf. here's what sanford says mulvaney told him, quote, the president asked him to look you square in the eyes and to say that he hoped that you voted no on this bill so he could run against you in 2018.

how do you think republicans are going to respond to a threa like that? >> it's just silly. this is not how politics works. mark sanford has nothing to fear from donald trump running a primary campaign against him. it's just not going to happen, and he's not going to get their votes that way. now, i don't know how he's going to get their votes but threatening to run nonexistent primaries against him is simply not going to work. >> does the president have the capital to deliver on a threat like that. >> yes, he's more popular among republicans, but a president might be able to make that threat if he were over 50% popularality but this one is not. >> if representing their constituents and the constituents approve of what they're doing, trump doesn't have much of an argument to make in this district. >> everybody stick around. much more on the breaking news coming up. ingredients.

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. israel's security cabinet unanimously approved a west bank settlement, the first time in 20 years. it's to be north of ramallah and meant for settlers. plans were advanced to build 2,000 homes inside existing settlements. president bush last month asked israel to hold back on settlements, but a house official says today's move doesn't act as a defiance of the president's request because the approval was already in the

pipeline. also tonight, secretary of state recollecti rex tillerson says the long-term fate of strongman bashar al assad is staying. our global affairs correspondent elise labbot is covering the secretary of state's trip. >> reporter: wolf, secretary tillerson will be in brussels where he'll meet with nay nato. he's in turkey on what is arguably his most difficult mission since taking office. turkey obviously the most critical ally in the war against isis. u.s. air strikes are being launched from turkish air bases.

as the u.s. gears up its military operations in syria and the self-proclaimed capital there was a deep divide going on with turkey today on how to do it. the secretary's negligent is that the u.s. is ready to partner up with the kurds because the usa feels they're the best fighters to go against the group. they consider the kurds terrorists and the foreign minister said that partnering with the ypg would harm president trump's efforts to go against isis. >> what we discussed today are options available to us. they are difficult options. let me be very frank. these are difficult choices that have to be made. >> one of the most surprising

things to come out of the talks today were some comments by second tillerson that appeared to be a change in policy, the change of the obama administration was that the president assad must go. the argument is that assad's brutality against his own people, the bombing of civilians was making syria and adad the target of terrorists. today ses tillerson said that assad's future over the long term will be decided by the syrian people. it's clear that the trump administration is read to put assad aside for now. they seem to indicate that perhaps assad could help in that fight. >> thanks, very much. back here in the united states,

the federal government now is taking a major step forward to create a national network for first responders to communicate during a crisis. it's an idea recommended by the 9/11 commission more than a decade ago. our reporter has details. what are you learning? >> reporter: this was a problem first identified by the 9/11 commission that the communication network for first responders needs some drastic improvement, so today the department of commerce announcing a public-private partnership with at&t to start making that happen. that will potentially create thousands of new jobs. >> during emergency response of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, it was one of the biggest problems first responders faced. massive communication issues with the networks jammed. >> the administration is now prepared to deliver on the 9/11 commission's recommendation. >> today the federal government

teaming up with at&t are taking a big step forward. >> we now -- >> putting the wheels in motion for at&t to build and operate a network made exclusively for use by first responders. police, fire, and other ems responders will for the first time be able to communicate on the same network with a broadband capacity that will support them. >> it's bringing infrastructure to om rural areas that didn't have it before. >> officials estimate this will create more than 10,000 jobs in the first two years with the potential for tens of thousands more over the 25-year contracts. >> these are technical jobs. these are people who climb cell towers, people who lay fiberoptic cable. people who do logistical coding. >> reporter: they've vested more

than $40 billion to the effort. >> it will track capital and track capital investment. make no mistake, when business i invest, business is higher. >> creating one of the largest public-private feels the government has ever done. >> they're putting in six times as much as we're putting in. that's a very good pattern for private-public existence. >> reporter: the payoffs are huge, increasing first sporc responders' communications. >> we believe this will affect every responders life every shift they come to work. >> reporter: as soon as they opt in, at&t says they are ready to begin deploying cell torres and putting people back to work. the goal is to see this up and

running by the end of the year. >> very good, thanks for that. that's it for me. thanks very much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in the situation room. erin burnett out front front starts right now. . >> next breaking news, damning reports. st kwhar of the house intel committee working for trump? plugs the chilling warning to follow the trail of dead russians. how russia is said to be med allege at this hour. and is president trump to blame? the white house announcing it has uchb kovrds class died in information about surveillance during the election. the press secretary sean spicer says the documents were