spicer: no. no.clapper said yesterday point, we have to take no for an answer. the director of national intelligence was asked if there's been anything he's seen additionally -- it continues to be no. all the things the president is doing economically and national security wise to move the country forward is we need to take no for an answer and move on. >> is it the role of congress and the fbi to say when a matters be concluded? -- should be concluded? senator graham wants to look into president trump's business dealings to see if there are any connections to russia. press sec. spicer: the president was aware of senator graham's suggestion and he's fine with that. he has no business in russia, no connections to russia. he welcomes that. a fact, he's already charged leading law firm in washington, d.c. to send a certified letter to senator graham to that point. that should be a really easy look. matt? matt: two questions on two different topics. yates, you said she was a strong supporter of hilla

sean spicer: i'm moving on. john: reporter: he said "russia must be laughing up their sleeves watching the u.s. tear itself apart over the democratic excuse for losing the election." what did the president mean by that? sean spicer: i think the president's comments about russia and the collusion have been very clear. ithas been very clear that is one thing that he believes that the notion that there is collusion is a hoax, and that has been reaffirmed by several people. thate wants to make sure he is focused every day on doing what is best for the american people. reporter: how is the u.s. tearing itself apart? sean spicer: this is a subject that comes up over and over again when it has been stated on multiple occasions that there is no illusion -- there is no collusion that occurred and yet the narrative continues to be perpetuated. reporter: do you think this is what russia wanted all along? sean spicer: we have made it clear at this podium several times and the president made it clear what his feelings are on

sean spicer: no. reporter: how important is it that the fbi director be loyal to him? sean spicer: the president wants loyalty to the country. and to the role of law. reporter: in the dinner with james comey, does anyone have an audio recording of what unfolded uring the january 27 dinner? sean spicer: i am not aware of that. reporter: a follow-up question -- what can the administration do better when it comes to communication? today, the president tweeted out that he felt from behind the podium, it is not always possible to present the information with perfect accuracy. sean spicer: so, look. we come out here every day and we try to do the best job we can to communicate what the president has done and it -- and what he is doing for the american people. we get here early and we work beyond being here at the podium. we get here early and we work late. we do what we can but the president keeps a robust schedule. you are very well aware. and as you can tell by the activities of next week alone. and somet

>> press secretary spicer: i have no -- i mean -- no. i would assume when you raise your right hand and agree to tell the truth, nothing but the truth that you will do that. that is the whole reason you pledge. >> reporter: thank you. during the transition, president trump was not receiving a daily intelligence briefing. he was receiving his information from general flynn. you think that lack of direct information from the intelligence community contributed to the lax and vetting with general flynn? >> press secretary spicer: so first, he did get -- we excessively went over the daily briefings throughout the campaign peered back then, it was three times a week, and it was supplanted by national security team that would go in and do that. i don't think -- i think the premise is not there. secondly, as i mentioned to kristin, the processes followed by general flynn are followed by every government employee who receives a clearance at that particular level. >> reporter: on another thing, talking about the signing statement that came out fri

from may dump spicer, considering a fox host. the president may replace sean spicer and hire a fox news host as a possible spokesperson. six west wing officials telling the "new york times" that the president is considering the most far-reaching shakeup of his first term after being dissatisfied with several top aides, especially spicer. really guilfoyle is being considered -- kimberly guilfoyle is being considered. the president has spent several hours with spicer praising his tv ratings. reporting thes" president has grown dissatisfied with the performance of reince priebus and his communications director. that this morning from "the hill" newspaper. left it back to your phone calls and the issue of the white house briefings, whether or not you find them useful. the president racin racing the idea you may do away with them. caller: good morning. i would like to say happy mother's day to all mothers out there, and thank you for having me. i think that he should get rid parpicer, the rot, and replace him with the fbi director. ho

>> melissa mccarthy does a better sean spicer than sean spicer. >> and we were looking at bernie sanders and how well larry david pulled that off. >> exactly. >> this is the video that "snl" has released, the hair and makeup. >> i love her dimples. >> the forehead is exaggerated. not even a forehead. >> last question, sean spicer was back at the podium. on navy reservist duty. sarah huckabee sanders has stood in his place. not giving enough material to late-night writers. >> opposite end of the spectrum, that southern charm. >> yeah. >> you know, when i hearings i want to have a mint julep and bet on horse racing. you know, that saying, it's not what you say but how you say it. she could say anything and it could be fine. like i do declare we're at war with north korea. all right. let's play croquet. it's all good. listen, the bushes thing is the best, that he was in the bushes. is he a press secretary or a cub scout leader? what are we doing? this is the only press conference in the history of the white house where reporters walked away with poison ivy. we'll have a press conference. yo

look at what happened to sean spicer. being involved in this stuff in a very proactive way, this is for political professionals. >> look at what happened to corey le wan dow ski then. he's roaming around the white house at night out in clear view, two people that the president thinks are very loyal, even though he did fire him during the campaign. he puts it this way about those two, they are not polished characters being brought in. they are killers and the president loves that. >> yeah. the president has -- i don't know. the word killers, but, yeah, the president does like these loyalists, these people that are fiercely going to defend his agenda. >> tough. >> yeah, he loves tough. but compare this to the clinton administration. in the early years they found themselves floundering. and they brought in david gergin. they brought him into a democratic administration to right the ship. i think they said a political professional, and that is probably what's really required here from the white house. not necessarily a loyali

he was brought in by spicer as an outside voice. a departure is a sign how difficult it is to penetrate the president's inner circle. staffers have been told spicer isn't going anywhere. >>> breaking news. a huge explosion rocking kabul. afghan official describing it as a suicide attack near the german embassy. cnn ian lee has the latest and he's in its stan ball. >> reporter: this attack took place at the height of rush hour traffic when people were going to work. a large truck packed with explosives detonated killing over 80 people and we've been watching that number rise quite rapidly over the course of the morning, hundreds of people injured in this attack. the explosion taking place just hundreds of yards from the german embassy. no word on the damage to that embassy. we're hearing the french embassy was injured but chaos in the aftermath, carnage every where, burnt out cars, people bloody, walking away. one of the largest attacks bin a year to take place in kabul. this also comes as president trump considers one of the most ma

. >>> plus the world according to sean spicer. his description of the president's overseas trip, historic turning point, outstanding. and a long-time admirer of national security advisor h.r. mcmaster says the day has come for him to step down. that man is my guest tonight. let's go outfront. good evening, i'm erin burnett. tonight the white house press secretary in his first press briefing in two weeks not answering reporters and repeatedly charging their questions are based on anonymous sources. here is sean spicer responding to questions about the russia investigation and jared kushner's communications with russians. >> what your question assumes is a lot of facts that are not substantiated by anything but anonymous sources. your question presupposes facts that have not been confirmed. so again, i'm not going to get into confirming stuff. there's an ongoing investigation. i'm not going to dignify partisan accusations of anonymous sources and alleged unsubstantiated attacks. >> anonymous sources. the thing is, it turns out that

and sean spicer. that is despite spicer repeatedly talking about what he believed was a false narrative, there was nothing from the white house on what the actual, if they believe it was false narrative. there was no intication or a denial of being more explicit. that was striking and he came in prepared. they asked about the german leader. there was not as you expect to see something a little more substantive from the white house on some of these questions. frankly they linger as much now at 3:00 after the briefing as they did moments before the briefing as well. it was notable that spicer said that the president himself is his own best messenger that may be true to what we have been talking about and even during the campaign. donald trump likes to speak for donald trump. what we are seeing is not donald trump speaking for donald trump. he did not hold a news conference while on his foreign trip for nine days as is custom for a president to do and didn't get his own message about his son in law other

spicer ought to be commended. he holds himself just monotone the whole time, never gets flushed no matter what they throw at him. i'll give you a quick example, the fact that it was said by the news that martin luther king's bus was removed from the white house. >> but that was corrected long ago. a lot of this is coming from the president himself. >> you hear this drip, drip, drip on russia and we hear that there were ties between russia and the people in the camp of donald trump. but there's no facts and six months of investigation, still no leak that is concrete or anything that was illegal. but we don't hear much more about podesta's ties, the clinton ties, calls from putin to bill clinton. >> andre. >> so none of those are ever brought back up but in fact those should be investigated just as much as any ties. >> congressman jolly, you're listening? >> yes. >> thoughts? >> you don't hear about it because hillary clinton lost the election and donald trump holds the public trust and he's president of the united

sean spicer doing his job, and not answering questions that the president's personal attorney ought to be answering. >> okay. and eric lishblou, and if you are just tuning in, gives your news? >> what we are hearing is that c comey the fired fbi director and bob mueller the named special investigator a few weeks ago have a talked and met and worked out an agreement, and the parameters for comey to testify publicly which is a big deal. there are some questions since mueller was named about whether he would essentially allow that go forward or not, because of the concerns of could it bleed into the investigation if you have a fired fbi director, and so what we are hearing is that comey is going to testify as soon as next week before the senatele intelligence committee, and they wroshg it out, and it is -- they are going to work it out, and he is publicly, and he is eager to get into discussions with the president which are becoming so notorious about the investigation you remember as you referenced the one-on-one conversation where trump allegedly told him to drop or let go of the michae

saying, sure, sean spicer gets beat up a lot. he undermined him and threw him under the bus a little bit. >> we will get to that in a little bit. david axelrod, you worked for president obama. did he demand loyalty from all of the people who worked for him? did he say i want you to be loyalty, you have to pledge your loyalty to me? >> you know, i think that this would be so far from his mind to demand loyalty, particularly if there was an investigation going on touching his people. the president had very strict ethical guidelines in the white house which is why you had no major scandal attaching itself to the white house during his years there. >> jeffrey, i will play a clip for you. james clapper, former director of national intelligence. the white house and president keep citing stuff that he said to say there is no confirmation of any collusion between the trump campaign and russia. he was on msnbc today with andrea mitchell. listen to this. >> it's not surprising or out of abnormal that i would not have known about the invest

so we'll talk to sean spicer about all of this. i know you've been reporting on this, as well, part of the decision to hire mike flynn, to move forward with that appointment had to do with trust and loyalty. the fact that he had been onef president trump's then candidate trump's, earest supporters and a foreign policy adviser on the campaign trail. so a lot to dig into when this briefing gets under way. >> mike flynn met with donald trump in the summer of 2015 when no one else was taking him seriously. so that went a long way in terms of building trust and a relationship and he came onto the campaign in 2016 in february as a foreign policy adviser. then became very visible, as we all saw him during the campaign, especially at the republican national convention. kristen welker, thank you very much. mike, preview for us this other big news, this sally yates hearing and the testimony she'll be giving in front of the subcommittee, what do we expect to learn from her? >> reporter: well, the way we understand it, is that sally yates, whe

waiting for the white house press secretary, sean spicer. we'll take you there when it happens. >>> first, headlines this hour. casting call, wanted, one fbi director. democrats have their own ideas about who should be hired. >> anybody who has been involved in politics in one way or another, i believe, will not meet the test. >>> and tapes or no tapes? that is the question. at the white house, at least. trump said he recorded conversations with james comey. he is told if they do exist, turn them over. >>> courts are hearing trump's travel ban. >>> joining me from washington, a team of reporters covering the white house and the hill. let's start with nbc's hallie jackson who is inside that press briefing. hallie, they're looking for an fbi director. who are the top names right now. >> katy, there's eight of them. the department of justice has been interviewing among them people like senator john cornyn, for example, someone who has raised eyebrows, particularly on capitol hill. there is concern that could politicize his position. they are me

i feel sorry for spicer too, spicer, he's serving the president not the publicch oftentimes that service is if conflict. >> he is serving the president who is serving the public. it's a round about way saying he is serving the public as well. >> sometimes serving the public is in conflict with that president we see it day in, day out, for him and those listening and follow him. >> coming up, stephen colbert versus donald trump. there is going to get good. take a listen or wait. >> the president of the united states has personally come after me and my show and there's only one thing to say. he he he he. >>> more from lester hospital's exclusive interview on nbc with president trump. he says he was also disappointed in fbi director comey for exonerateing hillary clinton. >> he happened to have words with related lawyers, wow, he's guilty, guilty, then he gets to the end, she's free as a bird. >> so you didn't like the outcome? >> what happened, he had a lot of pressure put on and he exonerated her. >> we'll be right back. >>> welcome back to "hardball" sean spicer is back after a short bre

in is that spicer did not say no, there are no recordings. he did not define whether recording is even possible. if there is a system for reporting or some other means of recording. conversations the president has with james comey or any other guest or official in the white house. so a big question left unanswered. and of course, this is one of the things people will want to know. there might be legitimate reasons for his, toal purposes, for recording to take place. would all parties need to know? i think pete williams can speak to that issue. surprisingly today, based on the president's tweet, the issue of recordings, in the white house, is now a hot button issue. >> the meeting on january 27 is a pivotal moment in this saga. my understanding is that the view from his camp, from the comey camp is, bring it on. we hope there is a recording. right? >> well, that's right. and i should clarify that we have not heard from james comey all week. we haven't heard from him after he was fired. we haven't heard from him since the lester holt interview.

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sean spicer kept it tight. if you saw, he even answered that question about jared kushner straight reading from a script. he's not going to go off script. all the scrutiny from the president himself around his communications team and how they're handling them service, clearly sean worked really hard to stay on message. >> peter alexander is in the white house. do you think he was meant to leave at 41 minutes after hour or as soon as the conversation became about media coverage of the president, sean spicer's had enough? >> good question. i can't get into his mind but certainly there were a lot more questions that needed answers. one of them was as we were talking about this idea of fake news. one after jared kushner's name has been the top of several headlines. one thing sean spicer could not do is rule out the fact that jared kushner had conversations with russian officials about back channel communications with moscow during the transition period. if i had got a question, i was trying to get one answered at t

when spicer was leaving, was president obama right about flynn? was he right to warn you about flynn and it turns out he was. trump's inability to accept that he was wrong about flynn. >> it's all a diversion. you want to talk about leaks, you want to talk about sally yates leaking, toupt charyou wa charge the susan rice leak. the question is should flynn have been appointed national security adviser? it seems that there are serious questions there. they fired him 23 days later, whatever it was. and the question is why didn't he get that more extensive vet that he should have gotten? we know the president felt very loyal to this guy. and that is probably the reason he got appointed. but should he have been given all these issues? >> right. gloria is exactly right. the question is why after a meeting like that eight days later does president trump say to michael flynn do you want to be my national security adviser. not do you want ab an adviser. do you want to be my chief national security adviser. i put that to a former trump campaign official and

well, look, i finds -- sean spicer finds himself in that position a lot. but clearly there is -- the tweets highlight something really important here, which is that there is clearly a lot of frustration building in this white house about the lack of an agenda, a forward movement, and all these things they talked about on the campaign things that simply aren't getting done. so all these -- the wall, where is that? so the question is what are they going to do to start pushing forward on these agenda items? and it seems really far off as this russia probe just takes over everything. >> you know, kevin, it seems unlike, majority leader -- senate majority leader mitch mcconnell is not going to change the filibuster rule. he has said that he won't. it was then senate majority leader harry reid did the nuclear option with judges. it's not unheard of, it's just that most of the senators don't want to do it because they know someday the shoe will be on the other foot. >> a couple days before we left on the international trip, i interviewed mitch mcconnell, and he s

he even initially attempted to veto spicer, because spicer had said some things right before the election indicating that spicer wasn't confident that trump was going to win. who cares about that kind of thing? that's just -- i mean, he's micromanaged his press operation. we know that he's called spicer in on the carpet to yell at him. he watches the briefing. he talks about the ratings that spicer is getting. so it's a combination of the fact that we don't have a professional and experienced communications staff who knows how to do this in the context of the white house versus a president just intent on micromanaging his image. let's not forget one of the most startling stories about donald trump was that he used two aliases to talk to reporters, claiming that he was a pr agent. so he's behaving exactly as he did when he was a developer and a reality tv star. and that just doesn't cut it in the white house. >> let's take a break. it seems as if mr. spicer is running a few minutes behind, actually about 19 minutes behind for that scheduled white house press briefing. when that happens, wh

sean spicer is regurgitating what his boss likes. he sees these snippets and they pull them together and validate the position. but i think bigger picture, sean spicer also read the quote from merkel, which has been taken as a bigger critique of the president where he read the quote from her and it didn't sound as bad, actually. she never mentioned trump. we as pundits basically have interpreted that through analysis as a slight against trump. this is a break in the alliance. but i think when trump supporters inundate my inbox and have a complaint, that's your analysis but really she didn't mean that and that's your interpretation, your bias. and i think that is something that we have to wrestle with as journalists, as we provide analysis, we should be fair and really provide the context that is analysis and not exactly what she said. >> point taken. point taken. 100%. philip, back over to you on your piece from today on how the president consumes intelligence. tell me about that. >> yeah. so ashley parker and i have a piece at "the

and i feel sorry for spicer too because spicer -- his service -- he's serving the president, not the public. and oftentimes, that service is in conflict. >> he's serving the public who -- the president who is serving the public, so it's a round about way. >> but sometimes serving the public is in conflict with serving that president. we see it day in and day out unfortunately. >> the "hardball" roundtable is staying with us. coming up, stephen colbert versus donald trump. this is going to get good. take a listen, or wait. >> the president of the united states has personally come after me and my show, and there's only one thing to say. hee hee hee hee. what shall we call you? tom! name it tom! studies show that toms have the highest average earning potential over their professional lifetime. see? uh, it's a girl. congratulations! two of my girls are toms. i work for ally, finances are my thing. you know, i'm gonna go give birth real quick and then we'll talk, ok? nice baby. let's go. here comes tom #5! nothing, stops us from doing right by our customers. ally. do it right. whoo! look

in a spicer briefing the back and forth over the russia investigation was especially intense. >> he didn't know at the time. when did he find out? >> i think that assumes a a lot. >> reporter: considering spicer's response when if the president knew about an attempt to establish a back channel with the kremlin using russian facilities. did the president discuss? >> i'm not going to get into what the president did or did not discuss? >> does he approve that have action? >> you're asking if he approves of an action that's not a confirm action. that being said i think secretary kelly and general mcmaster have both discussed in general terms back channels are an appropriate part of diplomacy. >> reporter: the president made clear his frustrations with the russia investigation in a tweet. russian officials must be laughing at the u.s. and how a lame excuse for why the dems lost the election has taken over the fake news. >> mr. trump's by the pull. >> reporter: another familiar face from trump world has surfaced in the russia probe. the president owes personal attorney michael cohen who h

people on twitter instagram and facebook than he'll ever reach in any press conference or before sean spicer and mike huckabee's daughter, sarah, i mean, and go directly to the american people? and don't do any more interviews with lester holt which then is sent over their cable channel and cnn so they can rip it apart every way and side ways. >> right, right. yep, now, look, my advice would be to use the white house press room with no press. and every day to have someone come in, whether spicer or -- and by the way, i think that sarah has done a very good job under very tough circumstances. >> sean: so has spicer. >> sean, i guess -- is he back today from his military duty?

as we await press secretary sean spicer. spicer is likely to face lots of questions on that at the daily white house press briefing coming up soon. meantime, as questions continue over jared kushner's motives in meeting with russian officials last december, the counselor to the president kellyanne conway pushing back. >> i'm not going to comment on any of that because there is no reason to, frankly. we know that there have been many news reports recently that have the facts wrong. this entire thing is just a rush to judgment. it >> jon: fox anchor and attorney garrett joins us now. jared kushner is a focus of this investigation, not a target of this investigation. what is that terminology mean? >> if he was a target, then that means essentially that the feds have some evidence of a crime. but he did not get a target letter, so that means they don't have any evidence. so they just want to talk to him and see where this investigation goes. look, it's not a crime to talk to the russian ambassador. people think he's the bogeyman

this is sean spicer's first on-camera briefing since president trump's overseas trip. all of this coming as president trump's communications director mike dubke resigns. so is this just the start of a major shake-up at the white house? we're on it, but first here as we await sean spicer, it will be interesting to see what he has to say on all this. i want to bring in republican representative ron desantis, member of the house committee and oversight and government reform, a committee following the russia investigation very closely. welcome, congressman. g to have you back on the program. your take on the "washington post" allegation. >> the media has been doing a lot of the stories where there's a lot of smoke, really not fire or facts but a lot of smoke, and i was struck by the kushner report because for months now there's been a narrative that there was some type of illicit collusion between the trump campaign and the russian government, but then the fact that they may have tried to backchannel during the presidential transition is curious because if they were collud

ago with sean spicer. take a listen. >> few more questions for you, sean. number one, israel is the ally here who provided information that the president then shared with the russians. it is our reporting that that is the case. can you please speak to that? >> i cannot comment specifically on that. im's obviously pleased to see the ambassador's comment. we appreciate the relationship that we have with israel and appreciate the exchange of information that we have with them. that being said, i'm not going to comment any further on that. >> he was just referring to a statement that's been put out by the israeli ambassador basically saying that israel has full confidence in its intelligence share something relationship with this country, with the u.s., and that it looks forward to deepening that relationship going forward. as we heard earlier today from h.r. mcmaster, national security advisor who did brief reporters on camera, he insists that everything the president said and shared was, in his words on mult

to sean spicer and sarah huckabee sanders. you went through a million briefings at the white house correspondent, it can be contentious? >> dana parino on. do i think republicans often get tougher questions? a lot of times they do. the people in the mainstream media want to admit that or not. look at the wall the -- all of the root of this according to new york times story is that the president feels grievance, he's not gotten credit for winning the election and they say on the jump and unpredictable presidency shaped by deep resentment. where is the front page story of deep resentment on the left and they don't feel credit on why they should have won? hillary clinton talked about this a week or so ago and agreed and the leftist is marching the streets with anger and "the new york times" is focusing on the president's anger. this president has not gotten a fair shake, that's true. my point to be absolutely clear is that he is not getting a fair shake but he sometimes makes it worse by engaging in these, maybe there's tapes, fo

let's first get what sean spicer said to recorders just a moment ago. ma many. >> did president comey inform investigations to the president? why did he say that? why did he tweet that? what should we affirm on that? >> as i said, the president has nothing more to add to that. >> does he think it's appropriate to threaten someone like mr. comey not to speak? >> i don't think -- that's not a threat. he simply stated a fact, that tweet speaks for itself. i'm moving on. >> is the president of the united states currently taping conversations playing in the metal office. >> that tweet speaks for itself. let's go right to that tweet. james comey, better hope there are no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press. no tapes. is donald trump actually recording folks inside the white house while he is meeting them without their knowledge of this? a source close to james comey spoke to our own can dalanian and said he hopes there are tapes. that would be perfect. we've got a team of reporters here to win. we have josh earnest, we have net pr

you know sean spicer. he is a wonderful human being. he's a nice man. >> is he your press secretary today and tomorrow? is he going to be tomorrow in >> he's doing a good job, but he gets beat up. >> will he be there tomorrow? >> he's been there from the beginning. >> with me jonathan swan national political reporter for axio, pulitzer prize winning columnist for the washington post. chief correspondent for the washington examiner. jonathan, first to you. your thoughts about the president suggesting he does not have any at all press briefings or that he have them every two weeks and that he handle them himself. or he also said answer questions in writing. >> well, i can tell you the president has been incredibly frustrated with sean spicer specifically and his press team in general. he's been venting all week privately about spicer. he thinks that he's been poorly served. he views the whole comey incident not as a failure of himself as not giving them enough time, but he thinks their response was incompetent and that he was completely e

what are you listening for afternoon from sean spicer? >> i'm listening for sean spicer to justify why, after sally yates told the white house that michael flynn was lying and that he was going to be a problem and that their national security adviser might have been compromised by the russians that they still kept him on for something like 13 days. i think the administration needs to understand and make people understand why that decision was made because it goes to the heart of how this administration functions, whether or not they're vetting people properly, what are the decisions they're making in regards to people who to russia. that all goats to the heart of it so i would be surprised if sean doesn't get up there and start talking right away about salary yates or somebody's going to be peppering him with questions about salary yates and specifically what she told the white house. >>> . >>> let's take a quick break. we haven't gotten our two-minute heads up from the white house. they're roughly 20 minutes later. sean spicer heading to

now spicer's star turn may come to an end if it's up to the president. president trump saying he may bring an end to the daily press briefings and hold a press conference instead. >> let's get the very latest now from our justice correspondent pamela brown. what are you learning? >> reporter: today we're learning more about why former fbi director comb he dinner with president trump while the russia probe was ongoing. >> oh, and there's -- >> reporter: tonight a source close to james comey tells cnn the former fbi director was taken aback which president trump's request for loyalty over dinner on january 27thth. three days after the president told comey he would keep his job and the day after acting attorney general sally yates went to the white house with warnings about then national security adviser michael flynn. today the president flatly denying there was any request for a loyalty oath. >> reporter: did you ask that question? >> no, no, i didn't, but i don't think it would be a bad question to ask. i think loyalty to the country, loyalty to the unit

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you got sean spicer saying one thing, then you have the vice president trying to support that. you have members of the republican party in congress tryings at the consistent line only to then have the president once again shift. i'm getting whiplash trying to remember what's the story today about why the firing occurred. >> and it does seem -- you know, you dealt with crisis management and t the lines of communication don't seem to be clear at all, and the president complains about how spicer and how it's treated then he puts them in a difficult position of trying to maneuver and figure out what he's supposed to say about the tweets >> i think that's right. the same is true for the vice president, i think probably most challenging thing for this president and i know a lot of people voted for him thinking what a great advantage to have an outsider. he clearly does not understand administrative procedure. this is not the first time that a member of his cabinet, his spokesperson, his white house, vice president didn't know the direction that he was going. and people will forgive m

the white house press secretary, sean spicer. who was invited by president donald trump to come to today's meeting with pope francis. the white house told cnn, wow, that's all he wanted of spicer. the vatican limits the number of people who can visit the pope at one time. and the president had plenty of people that list. the communications advisor, the president's former bodyguard and his social media advisor all were on that list, but not his press secretary. mark preston is our senior political analyst out front. mark, you got to the parish as sean spicer, he's not just a katri catholic, but a devout practicing catholic. but it seems like he was excluded. >> sean spicer very well thought of within the church. and he doesn't necessarily talk about it but someone who absolutely follows it and is observing -- his inability to actually be in that audience with the pope is really hurting him. but it just says more about donald trump and his lack of loyalty that he surrounds himself with than it does in his pettiness not inviting sea

tirs, something spicer wasn't asked about. the president's comments about the civil war. >> had andrew jackson been later, you wouldn't have had the civil war. he was a very tough person but he had a big part. he was really angry that he so was happening with regard to the civil war. he said there's no reason for this. >> you think about it, why. people don't ask that question. but why was there the civil war? why could that one not have been worked out. >> it's worth noting andrew jackson died 16 years before the war. so let's talk about this with political commentators ben ferguson and howard kattell. he was also president trump's personal tour guide when he visited the home and laid a wreath at jackson's tomb on march 15th. which would have been president jackson's 250th birthday. so ben, first question, why would the president question this. >> i think there was a couple things here in context. he knew that he was dead before the civil war. that's when he said if he was around, the second thing is that he was an individual

sean spicer ended with a smile there. the crowd there in the briefing room, they were just as feisty as always, asking a lot of follow-up questions about what's been going on lately, in terms of statements the president make that seem to perhaps contradict some of the things that his press officials are out saying. john roberts is live from the briefing room right now with more. john, what'd you make of that? >> reporter: good afternoon to you. earlier today in the middle of a tweet storm the president sent out a tweet that was quite remarkable and something that i have never seen a president say, at least publicly. i have been covering white houses going all the way back to 1999 when he tweeted out, quote, james comey better hope there are no, quote, tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press. what the president was talking about was an article that suggested james comey, during that conversation that they had over dinner, was asked by the president to basically give an oral loyalty pledge and that

. >>> sean spicer is taking the podium. he's been going over a couple developments from over the weekend and scheduling for next week. let's take a listen. >> the small business week awards program later this afternoon. back to the president's schedule. after speaking with the community bank members, the president had lunch with vice president mike pence, secretary tillerson and secretary mattis as well as general mcmaster before meeting separately with secretary tillerson. i also want to add that fema held a call for the remaining threat of continued severe weather over parts of the southwest to the mississippi valley, which has already killed five people in texas. secretary of homeland security kelly participated in the call and the white house is in contact with local governments in these affected areas. we'll have those communities in our thoughts and prayers and encourage everyone to follow the directions of their state, tribal and local officials to stay safe. finally let me run down for what we're expecting for the p

for a long while sean spicer certainly has. did it seem that there was that disconnect between what was said the other day and what came out today in testimony? >> gosh, you know, i think that's an excellent question because there's been a lot of that questioning over the last couple of weeks, especially the institutional knowledge between the communications team and what goes on in the oval office. so -- but i think the core problem for the press team, maybe not -- isn't -- lack of institutional knowledge, i think it's the fact that the president is a wild card with a lot of his statements and so they find themselves sort of chasing him continual to try to catch up with what he's really thinking or the last thing he said. >> in today's hearing we know that some of the senators asked m m president's claim. we heard in that letter that he sent to james comey where he said three times you told me i am not under investigation. for our viewers who weren't watching, were you surprised? what was the answer? what did mr. mccabe say. >

she almost mailed sean spicer s sympathetic. i wrote today, please don't fire sean spicer. america needs the comedy. >> you don't think it has played out? >> i don't think so. i think trump a little bit so, but this hasn't yet. it was fun. this was a really nuanced portrayal if people watch it. you become sympathetic for sean spicer at some point through melissa mccarthy's depiction. you find out donald trump is the one saying, i'm the one lying to you. it is making a political point. many on the left say trump is giving spicer lies. spicer is complicit a bit. >> there are rumors he could be replaced. he was obviously earlier this week on some naval -- navy duty, naval reserve duty and that's why we saw sarah huckabee sanders come in. but is there any truth to this possibility that spicer's on thin ice? >> there's absolutely a possibility, ana. it is hard to know, like so much of what comes out of this white house, it is hard to know what is true and what is not. you know, both sean spicer and sarah sanders sat down for a meeting with the president on friday morning. came a

moments ago, white house spokesman sean spicer said this about sally yates. >> dwee whwe did what we should. just because someone comes in and gives you a heads-up and says i want to share some information doesn't mean you immediately jump the gun and take some action. if you flip the scenario and say what if we had dismissed somebody because a political opponent of the president had made an utterance, you would argue it was pretty irrational to act in that manner. we did what we were supposed to do. the president made ultimately the right decision and i think he was proven that -- >> reporter: how is she a political opponent of the president? she's acting attorney general. >> appointed by the obama administration, a strong supporter of clinton. that's now i think number four. >> let's start with jim sciutto, our cnn chief national security correspondent there. jim, we had a whole conversation a couple minutes ago about even spicer's characterization of her warning as a flippant heads-up. what did you make of his words today? >> reporter: he's doubling down on that heads-up descripti

spicer had a difficult relationship with the press as well but you have to look what spicer is doing. this is the hardest job in the world. he is having to tout the message of president trump and sometimes president trump as you know will have one message and then he will tweet out something that even contradicts his message. you have got spicer having to balance all this. it's a very tough job. he will never please the press. now he knows that. so i thought the press conference was fine. melissa: maybe them booing means he won? maybe they're disappointed how it went, i don't know. that could be a very high compliment to him. maybe the way out they're high-fiving, obviouslyhey didn't get what they wanted, they're booing. it is obviously a very contentious relationship. they come at him out of the gate, as i said, sitting there covering, first question was when did you stop beating your wife question. did the president know that jared kushner had this back channel relationship? when did he find out that he had it? wait, wait. hang on. we haven't even established this is going on. he ke

. >> did you ask the president if he had installed -- >> sean spicer wrapping up what was at times a very contentious press briefing and the big headline emerging out of that, sean spicer speaking for the white house will neither confirm nor deny that there are any recording devices in the oval office or around the president himself. this, of course, an enormous issue after president trump this morning tweeted out about fired fbi director james comey. james comey better hope there are no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press. this being seen by many as a threat to mr. comey not to talk about the conversations or dispute in any way. president trump's characterization of that meeting over dinner the two men had. pierre thomas, what do you make of this? sean spicer asked directly several times in this press briefing if, in fact, president trump recorded that conversation, that meeting. he side stepped it completely. >> you're right. he was asked repeatedly to answer the question whether there are recording devices at the white house taping conversations. he wo

sean spicer trying to downplay that. there's this world view in the "wall street journal" this morning talking about how it is not a gobble community, the world is not, it's an arena of competitors, companies, countries, nongovernmental actors. it's a real departure of what's been the world view of republicans and democrats for the past 70 years. >> because of globalism we're more reliant on one another than we have in the past. that will continue to be case as we move forward together. i think it's very obvious that president trump and chancellor merkel have extremely different policy views how they view the world. sean spicer will say they have a great relationship and if merkel is asked i'm almost certain she would say the same thing. it's obvious at least to me based on several statements she's made since the first meeting with president trump that she does not see eye to eye with him on many fronts. >> so this "wall street journal" op-ed really, folks, lays out the trump doctrine, the foreign policy. what do you mak

i do think sean spicer is doable in earnest. james comey could be the next -- and open investigation to hillary clinton female. >> there were folks within our agency who were frustrated with the outcome of the hillary clinton case and some of those folks were very vocal about that , those concerns. intrepid catherine herridge reports of former fbi agent suggests anger a strong that the new leadership could revisit the clinton case and the immunity deals made during the original investigation. malice, are they going to reopen the hillary case? >> i've been predicting for months that trump said he is not persecuting hillary so once he's in the white house the trap is set. these petty and vindictive and has many other great qualities. i have no doubt -- this kennedy. kennedy: cabe said the next sentence is a lot of them are really upset with the way the hillary investigation was handled which is why comey is out of a job. >> it's interesting there's word that president trump had made the decision to get rid of comey months ago. as

i can't tell where spicer ends and mccarthy begins anymore. this is insane. >> mccarthy was booked to be the host of this week's "snl" several months ago. it's towards the season finale coming up next weekend, so the timing's perfect for "snl," given that spicer's in the news in a not-so-friendly way this week. >> and again, the press office is in the news in a really unprecedented way, because what they were telling us earlier in the week, it's not true. it's been proven false by the president himself, again. and this i'm sure will be made fun of this weekend by "saturday night live," but it's a consequence beyond just comedy, you know. and brian stelter, sean spicer after his two-day hiatus, not on the podium, is going back today. what do we know? >> there's been talk that sarah huckabee sanders would be filling in for the week as spicer was at the pentagon doing navy reserve duty. now, that's changed. he will be at the podium this afternoon, 1:30 eastern time, live here on cnn. it's going to be notable to see how spicer answers questions ve

i think spicer was up at the podium saying, these tweets are no big deal. pay attention to our trade deals with china. before i reporter in that room and most viewers watching know the tweets are a big deal. and he also seemed to be saying, the president is sick and tired of turning on the tv and hearing russia, russia, russia, about hearing about these investigations. but they're not going to go away just because the president can change the channel. >> on the tapes, though, pamela brown, let me ask you. you have all of your reporting from your source close to james comey as he referenced these tape e tapes. what did you learn? >> right. you heard there in the briefing spicer basically not even going there, not answering questions if there is a recording device in the office or in the white house. i spoke to his source familiar with what's going on with james comey today. and a source basically said that james comey is not worried about any tapes that if there is a tape, if something like that exists that recorded the conversation he had with president tru