excuse me. 10 former white house chiefs came to the white house and gathered around the table to give him their best advice. agreedl told him and all that he needed to be empowered to be effective as white house chief. of course, donald had no intention of empowering him as we found out. most of those chiefs came away feeling not very optimistic about his chances, feeling he had not prepared seriously. one former white house chief put it rather unkindly. he said rights previous had the attitude of a personal aide and cruise director. host: what did he mean by that? guest: he meant that reince priebus did not do any serious perforation for the job of white house chief of staff. it's an enormously important job and requires an extraordinary skill set. it requires a kind of infrastructure of deputy chiefs and things that you have to know in order to run the white house well. in this former chiefs opinion, priebus had not done any of that preparation. priebus would argue that donald trump was a unique president. donald trump is who he is and he was going to run the white house like the 26

an exhaustive week from the white house. we'll look at the events that might have the most impact. >> 25% for steel. it will be 10% for aluminum. >> steel wars. new reaction to the president's tariff remarks and how other countries are ready to retaliate by hitting jeans, bourbon and motorcycles. >>> the hope hicks era. the latest on her sudden departure from the white house and what it means for the parking lot. >>> new comments from form attorney general eric holder. he talks about the donald trump/jeff sessions conflict. >>> right now, new reaction from capitol hill from a member of the house intel committee dismissing the significance of hope hicks' comment about telling white lies for the president. here is democratic congressman mike quigley just a short time ago. >> it's not what she talked about. it's what she refused to talk about. she joined mr. lewandowski and bannon and jump junio-- trump j in refusing to answer questions. the fact that they're going along with the white house on a gag order, which makes finding

house and aren't the white house. this is seriously going to be a situation where things just leak and they are this one-sided and potentially damaging, don't we need to know the whole story? and so let's just find the leakers. >> well, i would certainly like to find the leakers. it would be a heck of a news story. >> harris: yeah. >> it would be a public service. i mean, having said that anybody who has been around washington for a long time, harris, knows it's almost impossible to find the leakers. leakers are smart. they -- you have people in the media who want the information. and don't wants to give up their sources. and, lord knows, we have done that, too. you have gotten leaks. i have gotten leaks. i don't give up my sources because you want people to continue to talk to you. and the result is very, very seldom do we ever find out who these leaks are coming from. it's clear that there is a series of leaks and does it make it harder for people to just do their business in this town? absolutely. >> you know, i wo

and hope hicks whose job it is to make the white house look good, made the white house look completely out of control and unsympathetic to the two abused wives of rob porter. and that was an accurate description of the white house, they did not care about the ex-wives of rob porter, donald trump, john kelly did not care about the ex-wives of rob porter, and hope hicks helped direct that to the country. no white house director has had a worse episode in the job than that. that came after the lack of judgment after she got caught publically engaged with n a romantic affair with a married man who had the title campaign manager, corey lewandowski. she got caught by reporters on the streets of manhattan having a quarrel with the married man she was having an affair with. donald trump had the good sense to fire corey lewandowski but never had the good sense to fire hope hicks. part of why hope hicks survived as long as he did as the most incompetent white house director in history, is that most of the white house press corp. fell for her and fell for her in a way they have not fallen for mem

at the hands of the white house. >> reporter: t

interview with the president from the white house. which did not think the president in the most favorable light, make president with child petulant, because we were in his house and he came down and spent time with us and was jovial and resting in person, focused and clear. completely friendly. i will say this and think about her. she does know her stuff and is steeped in policy. us, which she fed especially goes a long way camera crews. was are interesting examples of people who get a hard time almost every day, and ashley knows to story short on ivanka and how people feel about ivanka. >> i sat down with ivanka and jarrett a number of times and they are incredibly polite. i wrote a story that followed the line, follow the house of questioner, and he couldn't have been nicer and more polite. front the story coming he mentioned it -- and i think i had to deal with stephen miller on stories and people have a lot of opinions about him. professional, polite. i did a profile on him, not revealing sources, but one thing that supposedly ab

somehow linked to trump or his campaign or his white house or. his staff who have been indicted some of them have already pleaded guilty so there's just a big big complex of people who are behaving in ways that the american culture sees as inappropriate unethical illegal or even dangerous and that's why there's a special prosecutor the full power of the law has now been brought in to investigate all this issues whether it's russia in the campaign and now it's a dealings of question or another things are being investigated. as well so it's a question or is the is the kind of tip of the iceberg here here's the most dramatic and most glaring example of this apparently unethical behavior he still hasn't been indicted there are mostly reports in the press that we're dealing with so we just have to give the guy his constitutional rights and wait till the actual facts come out in a court of law or in some other mechanism but it seems that he is just the tip of a much bigger iceberg a bigger problem of people who behave in this way and they are very much

whether she's in the white house or out of the white house. this is someone who's a close confidant, a gatekeeper of sorts to the trump universe and the trump political orbit. the role that the -- comparison to make is to uma abedine and the hillary clinton and regardless of what people think and the opinion of the president, there's no question that hope hicks, you know, a 20-something is someone who has had a consistent access to the president and to candidate trump and she'll have that as long as she wants it. >> last question here about that trade announcement we were talking about. i want to ask you about the way this which that announcement was made. we saw meetings like last week many times before. the president opens the door to cameras. reporters come in and watch it unfold. you had a steel companies and aluminum companies there and not a lot of give or take or differing views. what does the announcement tell you about policy making for this administration at this moment in time? >> well, what it tells us is that it's being done in a

mcmaster could leave the white house by the end of the month and i'm guessing the white house is pushing back on that? >> they are pushing back on that. there was a quote from one spokesman over here that the president is referring to some of these reports as fake news. now, of course, don, as you and i have talked about frequently on your program, when the president describes something as fake news, more often than not it's not fake news. and we're hearing from our sources jim sciutto, barbara starr and others here at cnn, hearing that mcmaster could be out by the end of the month. jim sciutto and i are also hearing that plans may be in the works for h.r. mcmaster to join the think tank, the hoover institution, which is based here in washington and out at stanford, and that that may be the landing spot for h.r. mcmaster after he leaves the white house. no plans have been finalized or anything like that, but that is something that is being discussed at the moment. and so in addition to having jared kushner's security clearance downgraded from top secret to secret, the communications dire

when he's in the white house? >> jared kushner simply cannot continue in his present role. >> some of you people are petrified of the nra. if you add concealed carry to this, you'll never get it passed. >> mr. president, it's going to have to be you to bring the republicans to the table on this. >> we need to act. >> this is "new day" with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. >> good morning, everyone. welcome to your "new day." it's thursday, march 1st, 8:00 in the east. two days of chaos in the white house. white house communications director hope hicks is resigning. she's still there, but will soon be gone. a source tells cnn that the president berated her for admitting to lawmakers that she tells, quote, white lies, end quote, on his behalf. adding to his turmoil, president trump attacking his own attorney general again for how he's handling allegations of surveillance abuses.

white house officials say it is all perfectly normal. we'll discuss that next. ♪ ♪ there are two types of people in the world. those who fear the future... and those who embrace it. the future is for the unafraid. ♪ ♪ the future is for the unafraid. mvo: we had support from the synagogue, the churches. ♪ when disaster strikes to one, we all get together and support each other. that's the nature of humanity. ♪ i'll stand by you. ♪ i'll stand by you. ♪ and i'll never desert you. ♪ i'll stand by you. intrtechnology withnema. incredible color, sound and streaming. just as the creators intended. ♪ up to $200 off at dell.com ♪ when watching what you eat is causing a whole lot of food envy, try new marie callender's delights. a new take on comfort food. like our baked turkey meatloaf. because eating well calls for marie callender's delights. because eating well i'm an outdoorsman. so i've asked chase sapphire reserve cardmembers to find my next vacation. chile, what's going on? i'm at the el tatio geysers. geezer. geyser.

white house? >> what do you make of maggie's reporting then that you would expect from the president relating to ivanka? >> i don't think i believe her reporting, to be honest with you. >> why? >> i don't think that's how the president would operate. he puts something out in orbit or people are allowed to say sun certain things that aren't actually as it seems. that may be the narrative they're putting out there. that might not be the actual truth of how this is going on. >> i have no problem believing that donald trump would ask john kelly to throw ivanka, his own daughter, under the bus. but i think the important thing is that he would just do it. he cares about himself, he doesn't care about anybody else. i think the problem is -- look, they look like a nice couple. i don't know them. they're family. but they cause nothing but trouble for donald trump since they've been in the white house. it is double trouble. so jared has all these problems with foreign banks. he can't get a security clearanc

house that is almost like losing a member of the family white house communications director hope hicks is quitting she's only have the job about six months and she was the fifth person with that title since trump took office last year an obvious hit to his administration but hope higgs is more than just white house staff she was considered the closest and most loyal of all of trump's inside circle having worked with him longer than anyone the closest a family that you can get with donald trump and now after testifying before the house intelligence committee she says she is leaving is there a connection we'll go to washington in a moment and ask first this report on trump losing hope perhaps no one else was as close to president trump her departure came as a surprise to most in the white house hope akes had a seemingly untouchable role in the west wing as trump's communications director and one of his longest serving advisers she was well known to have the ear of the president he never publicly criticized her as he's been known to do with other advisers as the news broke trumpet her a f

saying something very wrong at the white house. i want to you elaborate. >> the chaos does seem worse but there have been many weeks during the trump administration. remember infrastructure week? these weeks where the news from russia dominates. the president is tweeting his way into trouble. there have been a lot of weeks like this and that's why he is a significantly unpopular restaurant. i think we can overstate how bad things are because he is still the leader of the republican party. the economy is doing pretty well. having learned if 2016 to write him off. i ain't doing it again. >>> a new bid to influence public opinion taking his claims of russian military superiority directly into americans' living rooms. and later, a self-acclaimed russian seductress. otezla is not an injection or a cream. it's a pill that treats differently. for psoriasis, 75% clearer skin is achievable with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. and for psoriatic arthritis, otezla is proven to reduce joint swelling, tenderness, and pain.

believe me, everybody wants to work in the white house. yeah, there will be people, i'm not going to be specific, there will be people that change, they always change. they want to go out and do something else. as is their custom, the new york times has added a new layer of intrigue regarding mr. kohn's sudden departure, his plan to leave also followed conversations mr. kohn held with the president in recent weeks about the possibility of replacing john f. kelly as chief of staff. the president never formally offered mr. cohn the job, those people insisted. they had discussions with him about whether he would be interested. cohn had threatened to resign in the wake of the president's comments about charlottesville, but remained and went on to shepherd the tax cut legislation. his resignation comes almost one week after hope hicks resigns. this is make no mistake an all time record in the modern era for turnover in the key positions around the president. put another way, this is a picture of the swearing-in at the white house back on januar

he is in charge of that white house. if he didn't know, why didn't he know? i think, frankly i'm stunned they're going back to this. could be arguing about many other things, and other things transpired but this must have stuck in twith him and the president. >> great reporting to break that story initially. thank you both. >>> coming up, exclusive reporting from nbc news. unplanned trade war because he was furious about the news cycle. the unglued president in two minutes. peninsula trail? you won't find that on a map. i'll take you there. take this left. if you listen real hard you can hear the whales. oop. you hear that? (vo) our subaru outback lets us see the world. sometimes in ways we never imagined. (avo) get 0% apr financing on all-new 2018 subaru outback models. now through april 2nd. and i recently had hi, ia heart attack. it changed my life. but i'm a survivor. after my heart attack, my doctor prescribed brilinta. it's for people who have been hospitalized for a heart attack. brilinta is taken with a low-dose aspirin. no more than 100 milligrams as

house that the president enjoys stoking, white house personnel reporting there has been in washington all week long and the president appears to enjoy stoking, what really stands out here is the white house has not really had to answer for at all is that in addition to firing rex tillerson on tuesday morning, later on the day tuesday they went on to fire another senior official from the state department. they fired the guy who put out the statement. the undersecretary of state that put out what we believe is the true statement explaining the realtime line when tillerson was fired, the timeline that says he was fired right after the russia remarks and put as freaking spotlight on this question whether his russia criticism could conceivably have been the precipitating event for why he got fired. the statement goldstein put out that tillerson had not spoken to trump, despite the president saying they had, the statement that goldstein saying that tillerson hadn't been fired days before, that he only found out he was being fired on tuesday morning when the president tweeted about it, it wa

other sides of the white house. not every one looped in. at least then the excuse was they had just gotten there. this was a new band of people who had never experienced the west wing before, protocols. they've had 13 months now. this is way things. are you have had a number of departures. one thing we've seen in terms of policy, the absence of rob porter, the staff secretary who left because of spousal allegations, he was playing a facility role. there's no one in that role. so what you saw in the chaos and the lead-up to what the president bmd tariffs, that's emblematic of how empty these chairs are. >> you reported that privately some aides have expressed frustration that mr. kushner and his wife are have remained at the white house plflt trump has told the couple they should keep serving in the roles, even as he has privately asked mr. kelly for his help in moving them out. that's stunning. >> as you know, he can say did i have things on different people within the same half-hour and he will adamantly believe wh

white house communications director hope hicks has announced she's leaving her post. the announcement comes a day after she appeared before the house intel committee as a part the of its russia probe. hallie jackson has more on this. >> where is hope spp? where is hope? hope, get up here, hope. >> another dramatic departure in the west wing. this time to someone who might as well be family to donald trump. hope hicks, his communications director and long time aide resigning. >> hope hicks is a tremendously talented person. >> nbc news has learned hicks told the president personally, according to a white house source, and said her good-byes to staff in an emotional meeting, the president saying hope is outstanding and has done great work for the last three years. she is as smart and thoughtful as they come, a truly great person. adding he totally understood when she said she would leave. often seen, but rarely heard on cameras or in interviews, hicks is a fierce defender of her boss, by his side for nearly every critical campaign moment. >> merry christmas, everyone, a

if the white house or mr. cohen has any evidence that he signed the agreement, they should be dissim nating it tonight. let's get it out there. find out if he actually signed the agreement. and at some point, at some point, lawrence, the president of the united states needs to answer the very basic questions relating to his relationship with ms. daniels. he needs to do so just like bill clinton did, just like gary hart did, just like countless other politicians have done over the last 30 years, period. >> i guarantee you viewers are tweeting your questions to donald trump right now. we'll see if you get the answers that way. >> it's been a long day, and suffice it to say i'm not going to be holding my breath zbr thank you for joining us. appreciate you sticking with us and staying with us this late. >> thank you. >> donald trump has set a record. he's fired more people and had more people quit on him in his first year than any other president. and now there are reports that rachel's big board is going to have

white house press secretary speaking that overall his ex while white house correspondent phillip crowther who joins us now from. oakland in california for the video face to face talks between those two men surely comes and end of several long caffrey orchestrated rounds of talks and negotiations and as far as we know that hasn't been happening. has its own house this. talk of a face to face discussions actually come about s so small. taken almt exclusively by uss presiden. donald trump w with maybe. without necessarily listening in detaill to his closestt a adviserss w white ththough today insnsisting t important people weree in te room when the south korean delegation was at the white house yesterday that includeded the national security advisiser. for the soututh korean president who of course made that momentous announcement jusut outsidee o of the west wing white house says. that this is something that the administstration has been working from now until may.s the dates when this whitete house believes that such a meeting could happen but as you just heard from the press secretary at

house that don't think like donald trump. >> as we know this white house is a snake pit. it's hard to disentangle one leak from the next, especially when you look to motivation. some days it's vanity, fewer days i think it's principle. this is interesting, though, because i think this may be one of those leaks of principles. when you look "the washington post" description, it describes them as two officials familiar with the note card. there was no den graduation of other officials. it was just a very simple leak that the president failed to heed the headline of that note card. when you read the headline, it doesn't seem they leaked any classified information. do not congratulate is not classified. there's no classified information there, especially when president trump himself said he had spoken with vladimir putin before the story came out. i think like most leaks in the white house, there is a compelling case that maybe this was done on principle, people seeking to do right, to remember the oath they took, to protect against all enemies foreign and domestic. >> let me

>>> turmoil in the white house. now stretches around the globe. the white house announcing tariffs on steel and aluminum that could cost jobs. policy rollout before policy was ready. >>> and the president has a surprise sit down with the nra. the nra says the president does not want gun control. >>> and get ready for a messy day in the northeast. evacuations in massachusetts and federal offices closed in d.c. we will have the full forecast for you. it is you ais ugly. the national weather service in boston calling it a life-or-death situation. good morning. i'm dave briggs. >> i'm christine romans. let's begin with the trade story. president trump slapping tariffs on steel and aluminum. impose tariffs on 25% on steel and 10% on aluminum to help the struggling industries. >> it comes to a time when our country cannot make aluminum and

goldstein and the white house. he tried to get tillerson out a little bit more and he's been on-the-record spokesman for tillerson on these trips. he's been seen as tillerson's voice. when tillerson pushes back on the the president it's usually in steve's name. it doesn't surprise me this has happened. i can speak for experience. i worked for secretary chuck hagel when he worked for president obama. guess who was on the street looking for a new job? when you're a spokesman in this town, you're tied to the principal. when your principal goes, you can expect you're going to go. this was pretty fast, but given the tensions that existed, i'm not surprised. >> i want to read the statement again because it is unusual. mr. goldstein clearly expressing his loyalty to secretary tillerson here and paying a price for it. the secretary had every intention of remaining because of the tangible progress made on critical security issues. he established and enjoyed relationships with his counterparts. the secretary did not speak to

could there be trouble today in the white house. if they try to push something like this through, ron johnson, a republican senator coming on today. is it true they are actually thinking on of legislation to change the president's abilities on tariffs because of how unhappy they are about how rash this move is? >> oh, i think they're definitely clear. more than 100 republicans in the house sending a letter and the speaker being very forth right -- very firm about this. he's obviously been telling the president these things privately for months and months and months. now they are coming out strongly in opposition to him and making the kinds of warning -- issuing the kinds of warnings that senator johnson is across the board. everyone except pretty much for free trade vice president mike pence is being openly critical in the party of this. and i think they have to use the "spectre" to get the president to listen. the fact that the white house was considering, is still considering, may consider, and of course at the last minute pull ou

the white house revolving door continues to spin this week with another major white house staff shake-up reportedly on its way. this uncertainly amongst staff is sure to be a topic of questions during the press briefing scheduled to start at 2:00 p.m. eastern. the ap reports president trump is planning to oust veterans affair secretary likely some time this week. he has faced several investigations over his travel and leadership at the department. a white house spokesman says the president does have confidence in him at this point in time. he would join a long list of departures in the last few weeks. a president of the president says trump sees no problem with this turnover. >> the president told me he's perplexed by all of these reports there's chaos at the white house or mass staff changes. he told me that he thinks the white house is operating like a smooth machine, in his words. >> white house correspondent for the washington examiner and a white house reporter for bloomberg. we talk a lot but it's usually through remote so it's nice to be in the same studio with you. let's talk abo

but here's where that nixon white house strategy has echoes for trump. nixon telling his aides to two a kind of limited hangout with investigators while using executive privilege to duck questions that could expose his crimes. and here's how the congressional watergate report expose that very trick, alleging nixon used a new strategy to keep criminal liability from nixon's aides to use executive privilege in a cover-up. the president worked with ehrlichman on a revised strategy for limited hangouts for white house aides. doesn't that sound familiar? right now when these key trump aides face the investigators on the hill, they say they can't talk about trump's executive white house tenure, while also saying, hey, we're not formally invoking executive privilege. it's become fashionable when people analyze things to kind of dismiss trump as being thoughtle thoughtless, but it could be a strategy that having watched nixon fall, white house lawyers don't ever want to admit they are pushing executive privileges, let alone a modified executive hangout. and what

the white house has said it's unaware of this the special council in the white house said he wasn't privy to any of these discussions. the only discussions he's been privy to is with the press. doud said he wasn't part of this. the president has sort of talked about this internally, the idea of pardoning michael flynn. and what the range of his pardoning powers is. which is broad. john dowd reached out to the attorneys for michael flynn and paul manafort to bring up the idea of trump pardoning them, this raises the question of whether he brought this up reportedly to influence their decisions before they struck any sort of deal with mueller's team or cooperated with them. there's no indication or no reporting to support that dowd actually discussed this with the president before he made these calls. but there are divided opinions in the legal community about whether this could constitute potential obstruction of justice trying to influence them. some argue that the president has broad pardoning authorities, this would not constitute. others say it could. those authorities aren't unlimited

roosevelt is working very hard in the white house helping him every step of the way. i'm going to let my hair down a bit and let my biographer toe the rest of my story. marguerite was an amazing person. she had a high school education as you've heard. and it's been written many times despite the education, hardly anyone had a high school education there and it was about 10% of the population eleanor roosevelt was a high school dropout and so she was an educated woman for her time how she was very smart, savvy, very discreet and got along like a house afire so she was a perfect confidential secretary. she had worked with him as the governor's mansion in new york and she and eleanor roosevelt and fdr worked out a system that served them well. she was teaching school in manhattan and wanted to keep doing that and keep up her other political causes. so she installed may see in the governor's mansion and whenever eleanor was gone, not only the private secretary but also the backup hostess. she continued doing this in the white house and traveled so much as the president's

speak of the white house's credibility? why should the american people trust anything this administration is telling us? mr. shah: our job is to give you the best information we have available to us and the most accurate information in a timely fashion. sometimes the dynamics are fluent in any given situation. mattersioned personnel and facts and circumstances change and we continue to give you the best information we can as quickly as possible. can you state categorically if the president is campaigning and trump organization to not violate election law regarding that payment? mr. shah: i can only speak for the white house. the white house did not engage in any wrongdoing. -- they can or mr.: address anything with respect to their actions. with respect to the interview, i would say president strongly and clearly and consistently has denied underlying claims and the only person was been inconsistent is the one making the claims. >> regarding the russian sanctions -- the president has not personally said anything about the e

house communications director hope hicks announced she would soon be leaving the white house, shooting down reports the national security advisor h.r. mcmaster was on his way out the door. the white house saying there are no personnel announcements at this time. >> bret: we will follow it. thank you. markets did not take the tariffs news well. dow plunged almost 600 points before closing off 420. s&p 500 down 36. nasdaq lost 92. deirdre bolton of the fox business network joins us from new york to telus may be what all this means. good evening. >> good evening, bret. markets closed near their session laws after president trump said the u.s. would place a 25% tariff on imported steel, 10% tariff on imported aluminum. one strategist told me if you own a steel mill great. if you don't, you are out of luck. steel and aluminum among the only ones that closed higher in today's session. many see the president's plan is a strike against china analysts say china floods the world's markets with cheap metals. the trick is we buy metals from allies such as canada and japan. cautioning against creat

and i asked the white house about that today. deputy press secretary raj shah tells me that the ball is in russia's court when it comes to how they want to respond. but the big question tonight, will president trump still sit down for that face-to-face with vladimir putin? the white house says he wants to, no date yet set. david? >> cecilia vega, starting another week at the white house. thank you, cecilia. >>> the fbi responding at this hour to multiple reports of suspicious packages sent to military installations around the nation's capital. abc news confirming tonight one of those suspicious packages was sent to ft. belvoir. the fbi continuing to investigate those packages tonight, and we will stay on it. >>> in the meantime, we move this evening to new reporting about the final moments before that helicopter crashed into the east river here in new york city. five passengers lost their lives, as you'll remember. and tonight, what the pilot was trying to do as that helicopter began to sink. here's abc's senior transportation co

how can this white house get anything done? >> it's dizzying, don, and as you know, this isn't just today, this is every day. and i talked to your producers this morning. we talk about what we're talking about tonight. by late afternoon, it's a completely different set of issues. you know, working in the white house, i call it the human microwave under normal circumstances. and so i just want to echo something maggie tweeted out, the surprise should not be that anyone's leaving, the surprise is that anyone's staying. but in this case, hope hicks, it is a big deal for everybody. because for a lot of reasons, i mean, one is that she's so close to trump. two, everyone assumed she would be there for most of the ride, anyway. and she and his former personal assistant keith schiller were such security blankets for him, that people are worried what's going to happen in a pretty chaotic white house and executive with them there, what it's going to be like without them there, so hope hicks is an interesting person, particularly intrigui

first, let's go to our senior white house correspondent, pamela brown. pamela, things clearly are heating up in the russia investigation. >> that's right, wolf. and we have learned that there has been recent back and forth between robert mueller's team and the president's lawyers about a possible interview. this as a source close to the president tells us that the president is growing increasingly agitated as he realizes what his own lawyers have been telling him about the russia probe ending soon isn't actually happening. >> the good old usa. >> reporter: tonight, an emboldened president trump is taking a more aggressive stance towards special counsel robert mueller and his investigators. as we learned, the president is adding a new attorney to his legal team, joe digenova, who has pushed conspiracy theories. >> they tried to frame an incoming president with a false russian conspiracy that never existed and they knew it and they plotted to ruin him as a candidate and then destroy him as a president. >> mr. president, does robert mueller still have your

clearly this white house is different from other white house. but i don't think anonymous sources have been serving our journalists very well. not only because they frequently turn out to be false. and also because reporters don't seem to understand this white house and president. howie: a lot of these anonymous sources seem to be in or around the white house. hope's departure came after that closed door testimony where she is alleged to have acknowledged white lies on the president's behalf. she didn't try to spin it. she just said i'm out of here. ed: the press put a negative spin on something donald trump did? this is the same song playing over and over again. when you played those clips, is it live or mem oorkd or memorex. but to be fair and balanced, the white house is feeding it. there are people inside the white house other fringes of the white house, advisors to the president. some people puff themselves you have and they are not really advisors. but i have never seen a white house where people like to dump on themselves and dump on the

i mean, i think this white house, the experience as a consumer of information about this white house is probably similar to what we experience as reporters in that it is probably as wild and chaotic as it seems to you. especially by comparison to past administrations and those of us who have covered past precedencies. the white house can often be a controlled environment in which there's a great effort to control the message, to know what is coming out every single day. there are lots of embargoes on information. you know, the obama white house was very much like that. they were not just trying to manage the message within the west wing but also across the federal government. and with this presidency i think a little bit of the opposite of that. there are a lot of little tornados happening all over the federal government, and that's what makes it so challenging to kind of keep up as a reporter. and i think -- i assume as a consumer of news it can sometimes feel you never really know where to look next. and that's because there really isn't a whole lot of central planning happening he

the white house gets to throw jokes at the media as well. it's mostly off the record except for the president's remarks. that's where the president made news saying of north korea, i won't rule out direct talks with kim jong-un. as far as the risk of dealing with a madman is concerned, that's his problem, not mine. they by the way called up a couple days ago saying we would like to talk, and i said so would we, but you have to denuke first. president trump made a joke about those security clearance issues you referenced in regards to his son-in-law. he said they were late because jared had trouble getting through security. eric: the president had an event with republican donors, but something he said is raising eyebrows. reporter: friday night he had dinner with rnc donors. when he spoke to them on saturday, both of these event were closed to the press. but his remarks saturday were record and cnn said they obtained a copy of that recording and president trump reportedly referenced xi jinping's getting rid of term limit. he said that's great

eastern where we thought it would be a white house press briefing by the white house press secretary sarah sanders. we now know the agenda has changed and part of that change, the notification came from the president's twitter account where he says there's going to be a news conference at the white house concerning the spending bill, 1:00 p.m. easter eastern. then we have to figure out how to get there. diplomatic room. and that's where we're going out with our cruise so that we can cover this life. the president now looking at a spending bill. $1.3 trillion, is this really the kind of money as a nation that we can take on as more debt if certain issues don't get dealt with like full funding for his border wall which he says is very important for national defense? >> melissa: i have to say that this is exactly what he was elected for by the people who voted for him is that you can tell by virtue of the fact that the media is all the wrong spot and scrabbling to go to the right place, you're going to see how impromptu all of this was and that he has announced that he's changing the ag

this white house? what kind of person would step into the fray here? >> well, willie, i think the thing that's challenging about this, somebody touched on this, that gary cohn is a process guy, i think the reason anybody would be reluctant to take this job is that gary cohn's departure makes it clear that he didn't have much of an opportunity even though he was the economic council director to influence this element of significant economic policy. this is an announcement that he made without a process. he announced it in a press spray and it's not just that gary cohn disagreed with the decision, he didn't have an opportunity to influence it and that's why i think if you're a serious person who wants to advise the president of the united states, why would you assume a role where it's clear you can't offer him advice that he will consider. whether or not he takes it in some ways is a different question. i can tell you from my experience in the white house that people like larry summers and others who hel

the white house. but cnn learned the president is encouraging an ally to tortures his chief of staff on television. is the president trying to bring down john kelly? >>> and the sex guru tapes. she says she has 16 hours of tapes that could help the u.s. investigation into russian election meddling. but where are the tapes and will she hand them over? >>> welcome viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. >> we're following breaking news. another high level white house official is leaving. president trump's top economic adviser gary cohn is resigning. the news came just a short time after the president denied any chaos in the white house, but admitted he does like conflict. we'll talk about the breaking news and more with senator chris coons and our correspondents and analysts standing by. first let's go to the chief white house correspondent jim acosta. jim, another west wing shakeup. >> reporter: that i

our chief white house correspondent jim acosta is at the white house. he's making a reference to the deposition given by then-president bill clinton in the paula jones case back in 1998. has there been a response from the white house on the prospects of the president, the current president, having to give a deposition in this case? >> reporter: wolf, there certainly are echoes of the '90s playing out this week over here at the white house. but as of yet, no, the white house has not responded to this prospect of the president giving a deposition in the stormy daniels case. i've asked various white house officials. they haven't gotten back to us yet. i suspect, wolf, when sarah sanders holds the briefing coming coming up at 2:00, that she'll be peppered with questions on that subject, mainly because as we all know, president clinton did have to give a deposition in the paula jones case. it was part of his undoing in terms of the impeachment that occurred late in his administration. that's obviously something that this white house wants to avoid, this pres

house. >> early last year, a private equity billionaire started paying regular visits to the white house. joshua harris, a founder of apollo global management. during that period, mr. harris met on multiple occasions with jared kushner. >> in november, apollo lent $184 million to mr. kushner's family real estate firm, kushner companies. an even larger loan came from citigroup, which lent the firm and one of its partners $325 million. that loan was made in the spring of 2017, shortly after mr. kushner met in the white house with citigroup's chief executive michael corbat. >> seth: you know that saying when a friend asks you for money because he's in a jam and you decide hey, he's your friend, you'll help him out. so you say "how much do you need?" and he says "half a billion dollars." [ light laughter ] and you say, "what the [ bleep ] did you do?" [ laughter ] that's jared kushner. [ laughter and applause ] seriously, that -- that is cartoonishly corrupt. how much more suspicious can jared kushner get? he took millions in loans from companies he met with in the white house, tried to set

as a result, we are seeing a shift in the white house, a softening in the white house, a softening in the white house, a softening in the white house, especially with talk of giving exceptions to mexico and canada are. the eu talked about retaliatory tariffs. they focused on american products. it could go beyond bourbon and motorcycles, much more than that. they are trying to avoid a tit—for—tat trade war. you talked about republicans inside congress who are deeply concerned. there is a letter which has come to president trump from 100 of those members of congress. they say they are writing to express deep concern about the prospect of broad global ta riffs about the prospect of broad global tariffs on aluminium and steel imports because tariffs make us businesses less competitive and they make us citizens more for. they are speaking out against donald trump because they want to change this policy before it comes into effect. we are also seeing canada and mexico doing what they can in the past few days to change that. they feel this has been eight death forward but they potentiall

the new york times says he was pushing the white house to dismiss rex tillerson the u.s. secretary of state who was fired last week and the paper says what he wanted an aggressive stance on iran and cats up he's accused of hacking his e-mails a charge cattle denies he documents reveal close coordination between broidery and george neda a lebanese american businessman and an advisor to the united arab emirates neda is reported to have organized a summit of five arab leaders and twenty fifteen four of them joined the blockade against cattle last june nader has reportedly been questioned by special counsel robert mueller his team about his ties to the u.a.e. u.s. media reports indicate mueller is looking into whether the u.a.e. try to buy influence in the white us it's bringing our guests on set with me is measure observer very director of the gulf studies center at cateye university from washington d.c. by skype is just on executive director arab sense out of washington and from florence also by skype is of shane shai senior lecturer of middle east politics at university of

not just about statements out of the white house. i mean that also out of the congress on both sides. i keep hearing dueling memos and so forth from the intelligence committees and my hope is that what the intelligence committee will do is spend its time trying to figure out exactly how the russians did what they did and how to keep them from doing it again because if you -- if they do it once shame on them. if they do it twice, shame on us. >> what do you think when you see people -- you must know chris wray. he was in d.o.j., during the bush years. >> right. >> emma rogers who testified on capitol hill in the last couple of weeks. body language said it all if they were asked if donald trump asked them to do anything to protect america from russia meddling in 2018 or 2020. as you say. the answer is no, not one thing. emma rogers was pretty careful to say that he used the authority that he has, but he's not been granted any extra authority. he runs cyber command. does that worry you? >> well, we should be doing everything that we can

house but not on white house grounds property. still unclear whether this was an accident, intentional, one person involved as far as we know right now. we don't know the condition of the person, nor identity, nor really the circumstances leading up to. we're also joined on the phone by former secret service agent jonathan rocklow. jonathan, give me an idea -- this is one of the most complicated and most important of assignments for secret service, you know, there at the white house. and especially on weekends, you've got a heck of a lot more traffic around the white house with tourists, et cetera. a situation like this that secret service, we understand, have had to respond to, with a self-inflicted gunshot wound of at least one individual, give us an idea, a thumb nail sketch, of what kind of response, you know, how secret service would be responding to something like this happening. >> absolutely. listen, these incidents are unpredictable and dynamic. the secret service trains for shots fired in situations around the white hous

house chief of staff. >> the trump white house without a white house chief of staff, one thing i'm wondering about, from our perspective, sitting out here, would anything at all appear to be different? could it possibly appear to be more chaotic if the white house chief of staff job was empty? >> i don't know if it would have an impact on president trump's public image but it would have a profound impact on the inner workings of the white house. and one of the challenges that john kelly has accepted and actually faired relatively well in managing is managing the intense staff level rivalries in the white house. there was basically open war in the west wing when reince priebus was chief of staff and huh the bannon wing and kushner wing. and john kelly, for all of his faults, has been able to put a lid on that, in some cases by firing people like steve bannon. i think this is a fear of everybody in the west wing that removing him as chief of staff would take the lid off those rivalries again. and as difficult a place the white house is to work under the best of circumstances, it would get far,

we have seen so many names leave the white house. some on the bubble, like general mcmaster and the president's attorney general, jeff sessions. actions that surprise people around the president, like comments on tariffs. do you see this as a white house in chaos or is this more predictably the promise of the president to be unpredictable? >> well, i don't think -- it would be very hard -- it's hard to imagine anybody likes the fact that the white house doesn't seem to be running well. they might like particular individuals. they might be more favorable. a certain number of americans have been waiting for tariffs and have followed donald trump with this particular line that it's important to have tariffs against steel and aluminum, but to suggest that anybody is fond of chaos in the white house is probably not accurate. but, it's also not predictability. there's unpredictability. nothing coming out of a strategic rational. it could be very add venn teenageous in certain instances if there's a strategy behind it that's intended to mak

house on tax policy and on trade policy, i think it's a big loss for the white house. yes, i don't think chaos is too strong a word. >> so the gary cohn departure would be another sign of what you initially called dysfunction or also chaos? >> yes. gary cohn, i think he's been a very constructive force on a number of issues. i think that's a very big loss. >> do you think it's a sign that the president is drifting one way or another, if he can't keep someone who you clearly respect like gary cohn in the white house? >> well, it appears on the trade battle, gary cohn and steve mnuchin lost to mr. navarro and secretary ross which i think is very unfortunate. i felt that the way these tariffs were rolled out was simply terrible. it was not done properly and apparently took a lot of people by surprise, and candidly, we all acknowledge here that tariff issue is one that as it relates to china, we need to deal with china on metals. but this proposal they put out there really went after our friends and allies in canada and germany and south korea and elsewhere. so i think we