the white house is confirming the white house chief of staff contacted and pressured the fbi about that ongoing investigation. at least we believe it's an ongoing investigation. it's been reported and confirmed by multiple sources that the fbi is investigating contacts between the trump folks and russia while russia was messing with our election. the fbi is not confirming that on the record. the other investigations that we know for sure are ongoing into the trump folks and their contacts with russia while russia was messing with our election, the other investigations we know for sure for happening are being led by the intelligence committees in the house and senate and democrats have been concerned that the republican chairman of those committees, one of whom was a member of the trump transition team, democrats have been concerned that the chairman of those intelligence committees are not -- sorry, that's not what i meant to say, are not independent enough, they cannot approach this without partisanship and that they're already too much on the white house's side on this issue. that's w

particularly when an investigation involves the white house but also in general the white house shouldn't be able to steer prosecutions, right? shouldn't be able to steer investigations. the rule of law should be independent. the justice department should be independent. that rule put in place firmly and through this interesting mechanism in the aftermath of watergate. and for good reason. that said, nothing lasts forever. one of the scandals of the george w. bush era is that they let that rule, they let that post-watergate reform slide. do you remember there was a scandal in the george w. bush administration about them making federal prosecutor jobs, u.s. attorney jobs, making those jobs into political plums they handed out. remember the phrase loyal bushys. in the george w. bush administration one of their big scandal was they filred perfecty competent prosecutors and replaced them with political hacks who they liked. raising clouds of suspicion that those loyal bushy very republican favorited new federal prosecutors would pursue criminal investigations and prosecutions that were favore

sara murray at the white house. let's continue on and sort of let you know we're going to begin with breaking news. the cnn and "the new york times," los angeles times, politico, all blocked from attending today's white house gaggle with press secretary spicer, bright bart, washington times and one america news network were allowed in. sara murray is still with me at the white house, i also have cnn media correspondent brian stelter. but first sara you ayr sara you go, what happened? >> we were preparing for what they were saying was going to be an off-camera gaggle. it's a small group, an expanded pool tends to be one representative from each news outlet, in this case the white house was hand selecting the reporters they wanted to see in this gaggle and blocking the ones they did not want to see, so we saw a couple outlets more favorable towards the president like breitbart and other ones including cnn, "the new york times" and politico were not allowed in. cnn was the only major television network blocked from acc

when we take this white house and how its posture has been, this white house was relentless, for days taking on a pool reporter who misrecorded that the mlk junior bust in the oval office, he reported it had been removed. 30 minutes later, he apologized, said it was a mistake. the white house did not let that go for days. sean spicer talking about it from the podium. the president continuing to talk about it. that's the difference here. >> yeah, i'm going to give kellyanne this one, if she corrected herself. i'm willing to let it go. but i do think that the context is important, back to the issue that brian raised, which is, why do they feel the need to go out there and essentially make up news? because they so blew the explanation and rationale for the travel ban in the first place that they're sort of backfilling so desperately. the best way that they think they can do that is by trying to make people afraid of refugees and of immigration when we actually have a fairly robust system in place already. so i'm much more concerned about the rationale that they use to try to coupme up wi

the department of justice didn't notify the white house or the white house counsel at the time into transition phase until 13 days later. i think it's important to understand something very, very important. this idea why did it take so long, the furthest for squash would be where was the department of justice in this? they were aware of this but we will make a statement space of what general flynn was telling us started on january 13. the vice president went out on the 15th. they did notify the white house counsel until january 26. at the time there was an immediate, the president was immediately informed of that, and then asked the white as counsel to conduct a very, very thorough review. the first part of that review was focused on whether or not there was any legal issue. that's it. once that became the issue then there was a shift interface to which is whether or not there was trust still maintained. that issue, then it became a separate set of issues that were -- >> speaking to the actual evidence. the fbi has transcripts of these intercepts that i say were done by the nsc. the fisa court

we don't know if the white house version of events is true. here's the thing, even if it is, it doesn't exactly absolve the white house or, for that matter, the fbi, which, according to the white house, offered to the potential witnesses or subjects of that investigation. to put all this in context, when bill clinton -- you'll remember -- met with then attorney general loretta lynch last year on loretta lynch's plane for a conversation that both parties say largely concerned golf and grandchildren, republicans went, well, crazy. speculating that bill clinton was trying to intervene to quash investigations into his wife. >> so give the grandchildren two minutes, give golf three and a half minutes. that's a long time to be sitting there twiddling your thumbs. what else are we going to talk about? let's talk about hillary. let's talk about hillary. >> now, imagine if the obama white house asked the fbi to knock down stories about hillary clinton's e-mails. if that had gotten out, it would have been a huge scandal. and yet that's analogous to what

white house show. there was a sort of sense of showing off, trump coming down there as the conquering hero, the own earp of the club who is now president. look, the white house would compare this to bush's ranch in texas, right? he had a private home. of course reagan had a private home in california. the difference is there's a public nature to this place as well. >> by paying guests. paul, you were a top adviser to president clinton. is this an unusual scene? >> it's unprecedented. i spoke to somebody who used to do intelligence, and he used the word staggering, somebody not given to hyperbole. staggering. the reasons ryan states, there are so many soft targets there. every bus boy, every waiter, every bellman, every guest, every member. this is a security nightmare in terms of information, and i heard jim acosta's report, which i had not heard before, they have a sciff there, you can put a sciff anywhere. if they didn't have one it would have been dereliction of duty. you pull the president into the

house counsel of the situation, the white house counsel befed the president and a small group of his senior advisers. >> from that date on, the question is, how long did it take for the erosion of trust to occur that led to flynn's resignation? that was the reason given today. on january 28th, michael flynn was in the room when the president called russian president vladimir putin. michael flynn came into the white house briefing room and communicated for the administration to another nation state. >> iran is now feeling emboldened. as of today we are officially putting iran on notice. thank you. >> then just this past weekend, michael flynn was there as the president and japanese prime minister shinzo abe discussed what they would do to respond to a ballistic missile test by north korea. that was just 72 hours ago. so when did the erosion of trust between the president and michael flynn occur? let's bring out our panel members tonight, former chief of staff at the cia and the pentagon, jeremy bash is with us this evening. nbc's katy tur who covered the entire trump campaign from the

they're at the white house over

white house official says white house only reached to fbi because mccabe initiated the conversation. but either way the white house is asking fbi to refute stories which runs contrary to procedure memos issued in 2007 and 2009 to limit direct communications on pending investigations between the white house and fbi. >> great reporting. appreciate it. bring in david gergen, jen saki, kristen anderson, and jon meacham, good to have you. david gergen, get your reaction to the reporting. fbi refused request from the white house to publicly knock down recent stories about the russian contacts with trump campaign last year. what do you think of this? >> for starters it's inappropriate for the white house to reach out to the fbi about a pending investigation. the fbi protocols are quite clear about that. but generally speaking traditions within the white house are you keep your hands off. for the sake of fbi investigation and making sure that it does not either in fact or by appearance that the white house is not trying to influence investigation like this. you just stay out of it. charitabl

white house, the nixon white house. >> the lincoln white house. >> he went back, i think, to miller fillmore gergens reminded us of the question of watergate. what did the president know n when did he know it? my counsel to democrats and republicans. focus on the organ grinder not the monkey. we come and go, staffers. the president is the issue here. he has ties to russia. separate and apart from general flynn. if you'll fire general flynn for his ties to russia and lies about them, donald trump has ties to russia. >> unclear about that. >> he plainly has ties. >> but what you're suggesting is the ties that have been talked about would be in his tax returns and going down that line. we're not going to go there -- >> he is president in part because the russians meddled in our election. the biggest story of this presidency will be russia. this will never end. >> put aside some of what -- >> yeah, couldn't disagree more. >> may i ask you this, though, coming from a republican senator you've known for a long time. lindsey graham was on the show. and he has along the lines of what david

white house officials say the request was only made after the fbi indicated to the white house it did not believe all of the reporting was accurate. multiple u.s. officials tell myself, tell my colleagues, evan perez, jim sciutto, shimon prokupecz, in part because the alleged communications are the superintendent of an ongoing investigation. the white house spokesperson, sean spicer, responded to this, saying that basically we didn't try to knock down the story, we asked them to tell the truth. the fbi declined to comment, poppy. >> this is anything from a typical request, pamela, it is atypical, it is concerning, it is eyebrow raising. how did it all begin? >> reporter: it is certainly eyebrow raising. this began with the fbi deputy director andrew mccabe and white house chief of staff reince priebus, a white house official says mccabe took the initiative to tell priebus that the "new york times" story vastly overstated what the fbi knows about the contacts. a u.s. official says mccabe didn't discuss specific aspects of the case but wouldn't say exactly what mccabe told priebus. the

let's bring in nbc's kelly o'donnell at the white house today. kelly, what's the reaction from the white house over this dhs draft leak? >> reporter: yes, to give people a sense of what this is about, we were also able to obtain this three-page report from the department of homeland security. it is taking an assessment about the president's seven-country travel ban that affects mostly muslim countries and limits immigration from those countries. this report finds that those people with that citizenship from those seven countries are not any more likely to be responsible for terrorism inside the u.s. now, the white house is telling me that this is an incomplete report, that it was based on what's known as open sources, meaning publicly available information, not classified information, and that a more comprehensive report is still to come that will include that kind of data intelligence and would not be political. so i believe that the white house is saying that while this report could be part of the end result, it is not the outcome that they exp

house chief of staff, white house press secretary. what else do we know about the notion that the russians could potentially blackmail the national security adviser to the president of the united states? >> blackmail sounds so strong, it does not appear in our own reporting talking about financial information, we're talking about russians knew as well, that sanctions came up during that phone call. it appears that flynn had told other members they had not so russia could conceivably blackmail based on that information. but that appears to be what they're referencing on blackmail. on another point i would echo what jim is saying there about trump suddenly saying i'm tough on russia, certainly the record du doesn't back that up, but raises this question why sean spicer felt the need to do that, there seems to be in the white house that listen there's a will the going on with russia, the election hacking losing your national security adviser in less than a month. that's a change for this administration. we have yet though to hear that ki

nunes: first of all, the white house having a reporter -- if a reporter asks the white house, can you get a hold of whatever member of congress, i don't think there is an issue there. i don't remember the story. as a relates to the fbi, i believe what happened with the white house, as i understand it in my limited conversations that i have had, i just think it was an obvious question that one would ask. if there is no evidence here, can you talk about it? the fbi normally does not talk about leaks and whether or not they are investigating come or other issues, including who is under investigation. it is pretty standard for them not to comment on this. it is unusual if they do comment. and so, obviously, when -- i don't even know how true that story is. i would go to the white house and ask what conversations actually occurred. i think they were pretty simple if there were any. reporter: can you talk about where you are in starting this investigation? mr. nunes: just to make sure you understand, what caused me to go out one year ago and say the biggest intelligence failure since 9/11 w

. >> trust me, it's a lot warmer in the white house, i assure you. >> the white house did not give you anything to say -- >> they did not give me anything to say. >> so you cannot say -- >> asked and answered, chuck. >> the president still has confidence in his national security advisor. >> it's not for me to tell you what is in the president's mind and for our chief of staff. >>ing fascinating story there. the trump affect on pop culture. the grammys remind us the new president is polarizing, to say the least. >> at this particular point in history, our voices are needed more than ever. as tony morrison once said, this is precisely the time when artist goes to work. there is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, and no room for fear. we do language. that is how civilizations heal. so tonight we celebrate our most universal language, music, as we honor the voices of the past and the present. >> the atlantic's molly ball and o'keefe olivia knox atta hue news and the federalist. just moments ago a glimpse into the oval office -- with the canadian prime ministe

still yet a reason why we won the white house in 2016. we owe this to the conservatives to repeal and completely repeal obamacare. >> reporter: there is no question about it. there is a long road ahead. the fact legislation will move and happen, that in and of itself will help the members. on policy, not just on politics or timeline, there are clear differences in the republican party still on what to do with medicaid and what to do with the taxes that are applied to the affordable care act. they don't have straight answers on that yet. that will be with the negotiations going forward. it is a long path ahead. no question about it. there is at least movement and we talked to republican aides and they acknowledge that is a positive sign going into what is expected to be a rough recess. alison and miguel. >>> thank you, phil. the senate is in session at this very hour for a rare overnight debate and the clock ticks down toward the vote on the nomination of scott pruitt. it seems opponents do not have enough votes to block the oklahoma attor

the pushback that he needs, which you would have with a stronger white house counsel, a white house chief of staff. >> phil. >> chris lives in florida. he is not here in d.c. obsessed with the inner tick-tock of things. how would he know that of reince priebus. who was the last person he talked to familiar with the runnings of the white house? a man named donald trump. >> he probably had a half hour drinks with donald trump. then he's on tv saying that. if i were reince priebus, i would be more than a little nervous. >> i think there are mixed impulses on the part of donald trump. he likes chaos. he thinks is benefits him. i think he enjoys a situation in which nobody totally feels the ground secure under them. and he has shown himself very willing to shake up his staff. he did it repeatedly in the campaign. on the other hand, three weeks into your presidency looking at a 55% disapproval rating by far the highest ever for a president this new. any kind of change looks like retreat, like you're conceding to the opponent. i am guessing his natural instinct is being offset by his reluc

the white house is caused chaos. i want to speak to that. we heart and the in fighting. if president trump, if the white house doesn't get their appeal through, what does it mean for steven bannon? we know there's talk of president bannon, he's running the show. when you look inside the white house, you now clearly have two factions. those i spoke to say you have gary cohen, steve, jared kushner, three guy that is are social democrats, basically, then look and you have a rex tillerson, general maddox, who have has thousands of men and women report to them in their careers saying this isn't the circus i want to be part of. >> this is steve bannon. this is what donald trump's core constituency wanted. he said i'm going to build a wall, started. i'm going to keep out muslims, he's doing that. he's doing exactly what the people who voted for him wanted him to do. the problem is, it doesn't work well. he's realizing that. when you actually run the government, it's not being a king. you can't put through whatever policy yo

i spoke to white house officials tonight. i said who are the choices now. they are looking at a wide range. so we're still looking at that name but the search is expanding. >> kristen, thank you for your work and coming on. >> thanks for having me. >> gop political analyst steve, how putin cyber spies and wikileaks tried to steal 2016 election. but most importantly he was special counsel for president obama for ethics. richard painter is speaking out on donald trump's potential conflict of interest here in office. mr. schmits i'll begin with you. dishonest assertions and scapegoating. i have come to know you as a patriot and constitutionalist what do you think we're looking at, what do you think we're in for and how did it go where you are tonight? >> we never seen any behavior like that from an american president democrat or republican, the constant to victory, going after hillary clinton, self-pity, attacks on the media, you never seen an american president, the commander in chief, the most powerful person in the world, as disturbing as the performance is

house send meg one phone number and i still don't know what is the prob el lem of the white house sending me a number of a press person to call, and isn't the whole issue of the press to be transparent, and you want to talk to me, and that is why i wanted to create the press availability today to talk to all of you and versus more organized than you chase meg around in press scrums. >> and in the white house -- >> and no, no, no. it is this person wants to talk about "the new york times'" story, and then i got the number and i called the reporter. >> and mr. chairman on the flynn phone call, i am not sure that i fully understand the distinction between the ukraine sanction, and the sanctions that president obamap opposed, because it is not just kicking out the diplomats -- >> and let me describe it bluntly. >> are you contractors that participated in the hacking, and i guess that the question is that if general flynn telegraphed to the russian ambassador that those sanctions whether whether or not you think that they were serious enough or strong enough would be eased or lifted, would tha

a stunning and confusing morning at the white house. this morning we know that michael flynn is out as national security adviser. we know he talked about sanctions with the russian ambassador and then lied about it or misled or forgot to tell mike pence, and all of that is big news 25 days into the administration, and what is bigger news may be what we do not know. e we don't know if the president knew about the conversations with russia when they happened and we don't know if or why the white house ignored an explicit warning that russia could blackmail his aadviser. let's begin with dana bash who is in washington, and there's so much. good morning to you. there's so much to walk through this morning. let's begin with all of the reporting you have on exactly how this all unravelled in the late hours last night. >> well, the headline from senior administration officials who i am talking to is that they just realized and the president finally realized the situation was untenable, and they situation they describe as untenable is the idea

the fact is i can't reveal what the white house knew or didn't know and who in the white house knew or didn't know. all i can tell you is that general flynn as the national security adviser to the president continued in that role and the president also is -- wants me to refer everyone to the comments of charles krauthammer on a different network last night wherein he makes the point that it's not this contact or this incident necessarily. it's the misleading of the vice-president or the incomplete information. it's either -- it's being dishonest or forgetful and i'd like to say general flynn had a 30-plus-year honorable career in the military. he's one of the chief intelligence officers, key intelligence officers of a generation. we're sorry for this situation but the president accepted his resignation and moving on. >> i understand what you're saying there, kellyanne, but this is exactly the point. three weeks ago the justice department told the white house that general flynn was misleading the vice president, was misleading the public about his contacts with the russians. you had tha

the white house insists flynn broke no laws. last friday flynn admitted he could not recall if sanctions had come up with the russian ambassador. the president was asked about that on air force one. >> i don't know about it. i haven't seen it. what report is that? >> reporter: was he being truthful? >> no, what he was asked specifically is was he aware of a "washington post" story. he hadn't seen that at the time. of course he was involved. i just said he was aware of the situation right after the white house counsel informed him back in january. >> reporter: did the president instruct him to talk about sanctions? >> no, absolutely no. that's never-- >> reporter: you prefer he not comment? >> i think the president had no problem with the fact he acted in accord with what his job was supposed to be doing. >> reporter: in an interview with "the daily caller" hours before he resigned, flynn said, "there were no lines crossed. it wasn't about sanctions. it was about the 35 guys who were thrown out. i was basically, look, i know this

the white house stayed silent. ayelet shaked is the justice minister, and member of the right-wing jewish home party that is pushing settlement building in what the government calls judea and samaria, the biblical term for the west bank. she says netanyahu's announcements were made because donald trump is in the white house now. >> of course it's not a coincidence. for eight years, the obama administration refused any extensions in judea and samaria, and actually the reality, in the main cities, there were frozen. so of course we expect that in the trump administration it will be different. >> reporter: and there are other indicators of the trump administration's strong pro- israel sentiment. president trump's nominee for ambassador to israel is david friedman, reportedly a u.s. fundraiser for a west bank settlement, who believes israel should not be forced into a two- state solution. president trump seems likely to appoint jared kushner-- his son- in-law, viewed as extremely sympathetic to israel-- to negotiate a

senior officials were briefing reporters earlier this evening at the white house. they said the president and his team are still finalizing the speech at this point, but consider the theme of the address. it's going to be called renewal of the american spirit, an optimistic vision for all americans, contrast that with the president's talk of american carnage in his inauguration address. perhaps they're taking some of those criticisms to heart that the inaugural address was too dark in tone. and they also say that the president's address is going to be focussed i have heavily on national security issues and economic opportunity for all americans in those forgotten corners of the country. and also what we're going to be hearing from the president tomorrow night he is going to be talking about keeping campaign promises. whether you like his being in office or don't like it, it's hard to argue with the fact that he's keeping his promises. >>> jeff zeleny has more. >> reporter: the job of white house press secretary sean spicer increasingly includes being president trum

the white house confirmed it, the white house is concerned about it. but he said he's not familiar with those reports. he would not be the first president or politician to say oh, i haven't seen that. but that is something, wolf, the white house is quite concerned about with michael flynn. >> they certainly are. jeff zeleny reporting. let's take a closer look at the national security adviser. brian todd has been looking into all of this. what are you learning? >> as jeff just mentioned and as you saw on air force one president trump saying he was not aware of the comments about michael flynn. michael flynn is used to being under pressure but there is intrigue around him. and some veterans are telling us, given his litany of indiscretions he could be in some real trouble. >> general mike flynn. >> reporter: he's entrusted with advising president trump on the nation's most dangerous security threats, but tonight internal threats are growing in the white house surrounding retired lieutenant general flynn. cnn is told tonight mike pence is trying to get to

jeff zeleny is at the white house. sean spicer also told his staff not to leak news of his anti-leaking meeting. so how do you and i know about it? >> jake, it leaked. that is an example of journalism 101 or washington journalism 101. some leaks are sanctioned. some leaks are not sanctioned. all leaks are not created equally. no one knows that more perhaps than the president himself who has spent a lifetime in new york dealing with tab loit tabloid r and others. i am told he signed off personally on that meeting with sean spicer and his staffers to check their cellphones. it allows you to send messages and then they disappear. i am told it was sanctioned by the president, he knew about this and it was designed to send a signal across the government entirely, not just here in the white house, that they do not want leaks to happen. sometimes to send the signals, smaller leaks have to happen. jake, the bottom line is that the president is frustrated by this. and sean spicer, his role, among many, is to enforce what the pr

>> i think it's -- if the white house has been listening, if the white house is going to move forward past even his inaugural address, then i think it's going to be a big picture moment where he's going to start talking about what he actually wants to do, the policies he wants to implement and really about the budget and what he thinks is going to be the priorities that he wants to set up. >> heidi, what do you think? same thing, big picture or do you think it's a campaign speech? >> a mix, a mix, but in terms of how the american people receive this, this is his first big test as to how he's going to -- or whether he's going to continue to articulate that populist economic message and be specific about what he's going to do for those working class voters who previously voted for barack obama and who are now have very high expectations from him. the first few weeks of his administration, we've heard mostly about cultural divisive issues and not about those bread and butter, you know, economic issues that are important to those voters. >> all right. we shall all see come tuesday night.

we have a big white house team. i've been to a few of them and briefings sean spicer get more viewership and snl has only heightens that. it is an interesting time. host: how much interaction is there outside the briefings where people could see direct interaction? how much is there behind the scenes when the cameras are off in the briefing room? it varies. there is a reasonable level of interaction between the press staff and the press. toss that still has access the press areas which is important for reporters. for: what about access press with this of ministration and before? i think there was worry about the press being moved out and that hasn't happened. there were concerns about coverage but so far, it hasn't happened. host: john is an independent. good morning. weird: yes, i think it is with the delay, looking back and forth. host: just begin the phone. don't watch tv. caller: it is hard to believe that we're supposed to believe , the viceal flynn president didn't know about general flynn's actions. especiall

that ethics office thinks the white house need to take ot look. it was conway last night who said that flynn confidence of president trump. and then hours later flynn was out. president trump ignoring questions today as his spokesman explains what led to the resignation of national security advisor mike flynn. >> we got to a point not based on legal issue, but based on a trust issue where the level of trust between president trump and general flynn had eroded to the point where they felt he had to make a change. >> reporter: white house lawyers said flynn did nothing illegal, but the president asked him to resign after he misled the vice president and others about discussing sanctions with russia's ambassador. >> you cannot have a national security advisor misleading the vice president and others. >> reporter: former acting attorney general sally yates first alerted the white house three weeks ago, warning that flynn was vulnerable to black. why did it take weeks to deal with flynn? >> i think the first question should be where was the department

is that the right thing for the white house to do? president trump, himself, questioning an agency massively important to us. >> you know, actually this information, i'm just learning about standing up here so i really am -- the way i can speak to this issue is i just heard the individuals on the panel saying it is up to the white house to say this isn't true. it's also on the person throwing it out to say, ok, this is what we have, this is what it looks like, show some proof instead of throwing the allegations and everything up against a wall. throw that up there, then say, okay, now, contradict this. what you have, you have allegations right now. you want somebody to say, okay, these allegations are false. prove the allegations are false. >> let's talk about who does what. reince priebus has never been part of the government, he's from rnc. president trump ran a public company, but he's always run a private company. he's able to be commander and chief of trump universe. could they not actually understand? this is our house, call the

he's heading to the white house today. barbara starr is at the pentagon with all her reporting on who it is likely to be. petraeus not leading the pack because he comes with a lot of baggage. needless to say, who is at the front of the pack right now? >> good morning. three senior retired military officers. it looks like right now vice admiral robert harward may be the leading contender. a former navy simp.e.a.l. very close to mattis. he worked for mattis a couple of times. he's already serveod the national security council. i've interviewed him. he's one very smart guy. you don't get to a four-star position luke this unless you are. someone who also headed operations in afghanistan. the big international, geopolitical experience that petraeus has had? no, but this is a guy that knows how to manage things. the other two contenders, retired lieutenant general keith kellogg. he is older. he's had a lot of experience in past years. a decorated vietnam veteran but kellogg has not served in recent years during the whole isis er

the white house acknowledged that conway made a mistake. here is how it played out. >> using her who has been a champion for women in the workplace. go buy ivanka's stuff. i'm going to -- i'll get some myself today. it's a wonderful line, i own some of it. i'm going to give a free commercial here. go buy it today. you can find it online. >> kellyanne has been counseled. >> sean spicer did not specify what counsel meant. we're told that they did reach out to the kellyanne conway and advised her she could be in violation of federal ethics rules and during this conversation, wolf, apparently she admitted her mistake, that she should not have said that on fox earlier today. >> jim, there was another contentious moment at that briefing when sean spicer was asked about the president's tweets. tell us what happened. >> that's right. this may have been the testiest briefing so far for this administration. white house press secretary was asked about the president's tweets and why he has tweeted about certain things like nordstrom and not the pressin

let's begin with our white house correspondent athena jones. athena, official there deny judge gorsuch's remarks, even though the aide they appointed to help him get confirmed have actually confirmed those remarks. >> hi, wolf. that's right. another day, another argument over facts. the white house disputing the idea or the facts that supreme court nominee neil gorsuch called the president's tweets about federal judges disheartening and demoralizing. supreme court nominee neil gorsuch meeting with senators who will decide his fate and avoiding questions about president trump. this after senators from both parties say gorsuch told them in private that he found the president's remarks criticizing the federal judges handling a challenge to the administration's immigration ban demoralizing and disheartening. >> there's no question that judge gorsuch said to me that he found these attacks on the judiciary by the president to be disheartening and demoralizing. >> today, meeting with a bipartisan group of senators to discuss the nomination to the high

did the white house rule out military action in iran? >> reporter: they didn't put it out there as an option, be you they didn't rule it out. what michael flynn did was let iran know there is a new sheriff in town, and he may not be pulling his gun out, but it's in his holster. >> thank you as always. >>> in the meantime, the showdown on capitol hill. fireworks tonight, just 5 of the 21 nominees for the cabinet have been confirmed. his pick for education secretary facing new hurdles, and news on rex tirlson who has been scrutinized for his ties to putin. he has been confirm. nearly 1,000 diplomats have opposed the president's travel ban. abc's mary bruce back on the hill tonight. >> reporter: tonight, trump's billionaire pick to lead the education department could be the first confirmation casualty. >> i cannot vote to confirm her. >> reporter: two republican senators, susan collins and lisa murkowski both citing her lack of experience. >> i think she has much to learn about our nation's public schools. >> reporter: devos, a strong suppo

in his white house. your reaction to what he told matt lauer about the travel ban. >> that's him all over. one of the -- he made such an effort in his administration to establish the war on terror was not the war on any particular religion. and in fact, one of the weirder things that struck english speakers as weird, used the term evildoers to describe terrorists came about to find a word in arabic that would not be sensitive to arabic and back translate into that english. that was him. that was the authentic man. >> jonathan alter, the budget talk that the president ga today was thmost incoherent budget talk ever given by anyone who's taken the oath of office as president with all of those asides that trump does when he's giving a speech, no real specificity. he doesn't seem to understand what the republicans in the house -- in the congress are doing as opposed to what he talked about during the campaign. >> well, you know, you got to look at the people he's appointed and the bad news is he appointed a

which is a lot of negative headlines about chaos in the white house, the white house in turmoil. russian connections, on the campaign. and it was a good way to distract from those issues and it certainly energized his base without a doubt. >> and you know, alice, our founding fathers put checks and balances in place for a reason. what do you have to say to the argument from those who say look, if this is clearly an example of president trump feeling threatened by the checks and balances, not only from the media. but when you look at the judiciary, the way he's gone after judges because they put a halt on his travel ban. what do you have to say to that argument? that this is broader than just he has beef with the media because he doesn't like the headlines. >> in my view, it's not as though he feels threatened. he just doesn't like it. his way to fight back and get something he dislikes is to attack. and that's what he does. that's with a he did when other candidates like ted cruz, my boss, was a threat to him. he pushed back. and any candidate became a threat to him, or intimidat

leaks, there always leaks from the white house. you always get one faction trying to knife the other, quite frankly. but what astonishes me, you are getting leaks of phone calls between president trump and foreign leaders. we are finding out what president trump said to the australian prime minister. now we are finding out what he said to vladimir putin. >> you always have leaks, you're right. you always have more junior white house staffers wanting to be in the know with reporters. but the leaks of these conversations, i think, are problematic. i don't know if that leak is coming for the communications team. i do think they have to tighten this up. this is not in the best interest of the president. i think he has had some great foreign policy successes, i think this weekend, the golf summit seems to be going swimmingly. hearing these phone calls characterized, it underlines it, need to tighten it up quickly. >> chris: less than a minute, charles. i don't think that when you're talking about leaking private phone calls, sounds to m

the white house knew weeks ago. that is a twist in the stunning fall of the closest confidant for the president. let's get to ryan browne to get us up to speed with what happened. >> reporter: john, the acting attorney general, sally yates, informed the incoming trump administration that they were aware of the phone calls between flynn and the ambassador kislyak. the transcripts of the calls show the conversations with not just pleasantries. they extended to sanctions. flynn released a letter of resignation. saying i inadvertently briefed the president and others about my phone calls with the russian ambassad ambassador. i apologized to the president and vice president. i'm tendering my resignation. honored to have served our nation and the american people in such a distinguished way. now, flynn's departure from the white house leaves an opening that is temporarily filled by retired lieutenant general keith kellogg. he was the director of the nse. he was a vietnam vet. other names in contention for the post is david

toasked white house counsel review the situation. the first matter was whether there was a legal matte issue, h the white house counsel concluded there was not. this was an act of trust. amy: on tuesday morning, president trump initially responded to michael flynn's resignation by tweeting -- "the real story here is why are there so many illegal leaks coming out of washington. will these leaeaks be happenings is ideal on north korea etc.?" earlier today, trump wrote -- "the fake news media is going crazy with their conspiracy theories and blind hatred. @msnbc & @cnn are unwatchable. @foxandfriends is great!" he then added -- "information is being illegally given to the failing @nytimes & @washingtonpost by the intelligence community fbi? just like russia." the pro-trump website breitbart.com has described the dismissal of flynn as part of a deep state coup. on capitol hill, congressman elijah cummings, the ranking democrat on the house committee on oversight and government reform, called for a congreressional prprobe into t's ties to

charges the white house and doj can't fairly investigate flynn. >> the white house counsel cannot leave this investigation and the new attorney general cannot be, jeff sessions, cannot be the person to lead that investigation. >> as it wrestles with the public relations mess, the white house needs to find her place in flynn. sources say the leading candidate is retired vice admiral robert harward, a navy seal who served as deputy commander of satcom under james mattis. he speaks farsi. during seal training, he was voted on her man, the candidate who inspires others to keep going when they would otherwise give up. also on the list, general david petraeus, whose past may be more problematic, given what just happened with flynn, and keith kellogg, the nsc chief of staff who is now the acting national security advisor. >> bret: senior administration official told me that the president has already spoken with vice admiral harward. that means harward was on the radar screen before flynn was fired. the official said we wanted our ducks in a row. fox news has learned that while the white house

. >> there are people in the white house jocking right now. they not used to working in the white house in a political -- there's kushner in the mix. you have all of these power struggle. >> the national security coordinator, he supposed to walk in with the president and sit down with the president and say say, we're hearing this from pompeo, or tillerson, you have to come to this conclusion, it's going to be honest broker, a sane, sober judge, he telling hem what do you want to do. here is a guy who cannot rare if if you talked to russia about sanctions. >> the lack of transparency is the bigger issue because number one, how can you not remember a phone call you had in december that wasn't that long ago with the country that your country has priorityized as above all others, you should be able to remember that. second of all, it fills in this -- it adds to the narrative about lack of transparency on russia -- >> it looks like we are playing footcy with russia -- >> right. we don't know what their policy is. to my knowlee they don't have a sen

the white house. i was one, for example. but i also worked in a white house with people who had been there before, and a card, josh bolton. so this is a white house with far fewer people at the top who have had prior experience. and i think as a result, the rollouts was bumpier then most white house aides have had, and i think the president was right in saying that we need to get to the act together. there was a ten-point checklist, we do not know exactly what is on it. but i hope they have the right things on it to learn from the mistake. we need to correct it and be better in the future. >> jon: the "times" a story that is out today, a convenient portrait of the president, his wife and youngest son are living in manhattan where barron goes to school. but they rollouts at about 6:30 in the evening, there by himself, trying to get used to the new residents and to the new way of doing things. is that potentially part of the problem? >> well, i do not think so. it would be wise to realize, and i think t