A purge. Jessica schneider has been working on this. What are you learning . The president has phoned two u. S. Attorneys tonight telling them hes declining to accept their resignation. Those are the two acting Deputy Attorney general dana bente and rod rosenstein, up for Deputy Attorney general. We saw his confirmation hearings this week. As for the firings of the other 44, those came swiftly and abruptly. The people i talked with said they were flabbergasted this happen sod suddenly, no notice. It is normani for a president to want his own u. S. Attorney appointees but in this case the remaining 44 u. S. Attorneys who had been appointed by president obama, they had no notice and some like you mentioned found out through media reports. Others just from a department of Justice Press release. One source saying this could not have been handled any worse. Another one saying you dont just tell people to clean out their desks effective at midnight tonight, especially since some of those u. S. Attorneys are traveling right now. Of course, john, you did mention that rightwing talk show host calling for the purge. That was actually sean hannity last night saying in his words its time now for the president to fire anyone and everyone who is actively working against him. Sean hannity even cited the fact bill clinton fired 93 u. S. Attorneys when he took office, but tonight people are noting that those u. S. Attorneys got a lot more notice than this time around. I did talk to a previous u. S. Attorney who said that, you know, when president obama came in, he was given eight months notice and he se this is just bad for morale at the department of justice. Joining us is matthew axelrod, served as a deputy to acting attorney general general sally yates before she was fired. Matt, your reaction to this news and how it was handled. Both surprising and disappointing. Itis not unusual the president would want his own appointees in mace and thats typical and u. S. Attorneys are typically asked to resign at some point in time. Whats so unusual here is the timing and that people were asked to resign by the end of the day. A lot of these women and men have been in department for 20 or 30 years and thats how their service is ending, being told to go by the end of the day. Thats whats so surprising. I appreciate it may be difficult for these people and their staffs, but in the end, is this more than anything than just about feelings if they all knew this was coming eventually . It is. These are the chief federal Law Enforcement officers in their districts and spent years building relationship with state and local Law Enforcement leaders, other federal Law Enforcement agency heads in their districts and those relationships are very important and important to the mission of the department of justice. Those relationships take time to transition and that time has been deprived because of the u. S. Attorneys were asked to go by the end of the day. What needs to happen in this transition from one u. S. Attorney to another . Typically there would be meetings with Law Enforcement leaders so the outgoing u. S. Attorney could introtus the leaders to the incoming u. S. Attorney who usually is and in this case will be career Law Enforcement professionals who are working in the office. Their work is mostly e internally focused whereas the u. S. Attorney has been the public face of the office and working externally. Those transitions are very important. Have you had a chance to talk to any of your former coworkers, these u. S. Attorneys . Are they literally told to get a box and be out of the office by the end of the day . I have had an opportunity to speak with some of them. These are apolitical people, the chief federal Law Enforcement officers in their districts, many serving for 20 years, 30 years, through democratic and Republican Administrations alike. They are not ideologues. They are on the front lines every day prosecuting terrorists and child pornographers and violent criminals. I dont think they were told to get a box and p be out by the end of the day but they were told today would be their last day. Do they blame sean hannity for bringing it up yesterday and having it happen today . I think people are at a loss to understand why it hammed today. This actually was an issue that was discussed with the during the transition and the Transition Team made a recommendation to the white house to keep the u. S. Attorneys on for some period of time to allow for an orderly transition. I think people are just uncertain as to what changed so that now it happened in the manner that it did. Matt axelrod, thanks for being with us. Appreciate the discussion. Lets bring in our panel. Jason miller. Maggie haifrman who had the story of these firings first. Kayleigh mcenany is here. Kirsten powers is with us as well. Also former South Carolina democratic legislator bakari sellers. Maggie, you broke the story. Exactly whats the controversy here if there is a controversy and is it fair . Every president gets to clean house. They dont all do it in the same way but they get to put in their own people and that is always the case. What was unusual again as we said earlier was the abrupt nature of how this took place. All done in sort of personal phone calls throughout the day, on a friday, and be out by the end of the day, clean out your desk by the end of the day. This one that is most interesting and not much attention outside new york but a big story in new york is the Senate DistrictUnited States attorney who oversees a ton of Corruption Cases including ones involving governor cuomo, big de blasio and who met personally with then president elect donald trump who asked him to stay on. He told reporters he agreed to stay on. Jeff sessions had also asked him to. Thats the one that was the most surprising because hes not being exempted in this request for a resignation. What that means for those cases remains to be seen and in terms of the timing of why they did it now, ive heard from two white house officials who said theyve been planning on this for a long time. But that as haufen been the case with the Trump Administration it was not rolled out in a very smooth way. Ferrara told he was going to stay on and . As we often see with this president , hell Say Something and Something Different happens. As we often see with him, he watches cable news of all varieties. We know he watches sean hannity, hes friends with sean hannity. It doesnt feel like a coincidence that hannity yesterday calls for a purge inside the Justice Department and today there is one. This would have surprised mae little bit, certainly as you talked about in the leadin, its up to every president. They want to replace folks and put in who they want in that position. Certainly whether its at the u. S. Attorney level, whether were talking ambassadors, the president should be able to put his own people in. But today on friday, the only thing we should be talking about are 235,000 jobs, great jobs announcement. I felt it was stepped on. A little bit of a head scratcher. I know the president s probably in my opinion one of the greatest geniuses of anyone out there. It really surprised me this came out today and they moved like this. Kirsten powers, a former Trump Communications guy, says that the Trump White House just bungled the communications on this. Is that fair . I guess, unless they wanted to do it on a friday and so they figured something they didnt want to necessarily get a lot of attention and typically thats when you do Something Like this. So it could be that they thought by monday this story will be over. I think that, you know, i went back and looked at what republicans said when bill clinton did this. He actually fired all 93. And they called it extreme and unprecedented. The reason there werent 93 today is so many had already left. It would have been 93 probably. Extreme and unprecedented when bill clinton did it and they were actually given time and people were held over until you had people to come in and take over for them. Whats unusual about this is there are ongoing investigations that people are handling and if theyre being told to clean out their desk and leave then these investigations are just being left, you know, in the middle of them with nobody for them to transition them to a new person. That is extreme. There are legal considerations. Theres no reason for it. Kayleigh, what about that . Weve seen these transitions before and they dont have to be this. As kristen mentioned, bill clinton fired 93, reagan fired 89. This is not unusual. People are saying its uns predented the way trump did it. Whats also unprecedented and unusual is this administration is being beset by latin americas. Every day we get a new story leaking confidential information, people committing felonies, leaking informs about fisa warrants potentially, all sorts of information. Thats unusual. Thats unprecedented. I frankly am glad donald trump took Sean Hannitys advice or anyone elses, i dont care where it came from, communicationswise jason might be right, maybe not the right way to to it but substantively speaking, getting rid of people who are leaking left and right, obama holdout sas very smart move. To be clear, President Trump himself sort of leaked the idea of fisa warrants. President trump himself is the one who very publicly said he was being wiretapped right there. So its not just leakers inside who are fomenting this. But kary, bill clinton did fire 93 u. S. Attorneys. He did. This does happen. Yeah. I dont think i think politically speaking its not that big of a story because its something that has happened, just to contradict my friend, kag leigh, slightly, the calls, the leaks, the sources are coming from within the house. And i dont think theyre coming from these dedicated Public Servants who are now United States attorney s. This political jousting has been going on for a long period of time. Myself, for example, i was hoping to be one of the people considered to be the next United States attorney from South Carolina. I dont think im going to get the phone call for this president. However, i do understand that jousting has been going on for a long period of time. I currently work for a former United States attorney, so i know this on its face is not that big of a story. But what keirsten was talking about is the problem is the problem with this Trump White House. It goes to Michael Flynn, goes to a lot of things. The Transition Team, it was horrible. With all due respect to my friend jason who was on the Transition Team at that time, they failed to do their job and do it adequately. Now you get to a point you have cases which are open and people leaving today. We have these day to day line attorneys that work every single day to make these cases on behalf of the federal government. And yes, they are trying to prosecute terrorism and, yes, they are trying to prosecute child Sexual Conduct, children Sexual Conduct and exploitations. Now theyre left without any guide, any direction whatsoever . You have highprofile cases not just right here in new york, but throughout the country that are going on that these United States attorneys are leading that now they have no home. All right. Well find out perhaps in next few days what the Justice Department intend to do. Next, late word on the president s wiretap allegations. We were just talking about them. A new big flashing sign that lawmakers investigating it may be losing their patience with the white house. Later, todays jobs report, the kind that candidate trump used to slam in this remarkable admission from the white house, they were phony then but now theyre real. Really . [ sighs ] [ rumbling ] i did active duty 11 years. My in july of 98. And two in the reserves. Our 18 year old was in an accident. When i call usaa it was that voice asking me, is your daughter ok . Thats where i felt relief. It actually helped to know that somebody else cared and wanted make sure that i was okay. That was really great. Were the rivera family, and we will be with usaa for life. Usaa. We know what it means to serve. Call today to talk about your insurance needs. Modern life deserves a moderits sold out. Dont fret, my friend. I masterpassed it you can use it online and on your phone i masterpassed it. Playing the hero priceless dont just buy it. Masterpass it. Or is it your allergy pills . Holding you back break through your allergies. Introducing Flonase Sensimist. More complete allergy relief in a gentle mist you may not even notice. Using unique mistpro technology, new Flonase Sensimist delivers a gentle mist to help block six key inflammatory substances that cause your symptoms. Most allergy pills only block one. And six is greater than one. Break through your allergies. New Flonase Sensimist. Oh the things you say oh youre unbelievab e youre unbelievab e lawmakers have said they see no evidence of supposed wiretapping. Tonight a white house source tells us the president has not spoke on the fbi director james comey about this or anything all week. Also today another Michael Flynn eruption. He was working as a Foreign Agent for another country during the campaign and getting paid for it. Bigleague and bigly. There are questions tonight about what that white house new back then and later what he was vetted, if you could call it that at this point for the National Security job. More from cnns jeff zeleny. Reporter was President Trump aware his first National Security adviser adviser, general Michael Flynn, was registered as a Foreign Agent to represent the government of turkey . So were clear, general flynn filed with the department of justice two days ago. Reporter sean spicer said his lobbying business was private and took place before he joined the administration. Although at the same time he was advising the Trump Campaign last year. That is not up for the government to determine. There are certain private citizens activities you conduct and you seek counsel on or professional advice. Reporter flynns contract with the government of turkey ended after the election. Spicer dismissed a series of questions about the lobbying disclosure. No, no, no. The person who was in line to be the National Security adviser may need to register as a Foreign Agent. If that doesnt raise a red flag its not a question of raising a red flag, john. Its a question of whether or not they gave him the advice theyre supposed to. On day 50 of the trump presidency, this was the latest distraction at the white house. Its been a full week now since President Trump leveled the explosive accusation that President Trump was spying on him at trump tower, but again today still no evidence. Thank you all very much. Were fwing to get to work. Reporter asked three times, the president wouldnt say whether he had any proof to back up his unsubstantiated charges. White house is focusing on health care. Thats what people want, repeal and replace. Reporter yet washington is consumed by russia and the widening investigation into any connections between the Trump Campaign and russian operatives. The congressional probe includes allegations of president ial wiretapping which no one seems to know about but mr. Trump. Adam schiff, the top democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told cnns manu raju today hes seen no evidence but suppose the question will come up when James Comey Testifies on capitol hill later this month. Hes certainly prepared for the question and i dont see any reason why he cant answer it. He may even welcome the opportunity. Reporter chairman devin nunez echoed hi comment from earlier this week he had not seen any proof to back up the president s claims. We want to find that out but at this point i dont have anything to tell you. Jeff zeleny, were learning about a deadline to produce evidence, arent we. We are indeed. The House Intelligence Committee has given the department of justice a deadline. They say by next week on monday they want any relevant information on this wiretapping allegations. Now, so far as you said, no one has said that they have seen anything, not a democrat, not a republican, no one here at the white house except the president , but he hasnt talked about it. They are giving hem a deadline on monday. This is all building toward that first hearing on march 20th, a week from monday. Fbi director james comey one of the first witnesses to be called. The question is how much will he say. Jeff zeleny, thanks for being with us. Pack with the panel. Jason miller, fbi director james comey, the president hasnt spoken to him this week about this or anything. Does that seem odd to you . No, i dont think so. It will russia stuff or whether the taps, this is going to go to the house intel committee. Theyll investigate it. Theyll put forth their report. Theyll frakt there. Im certainly not going to get ahead of the white house on this. One of the things i would point out is there hasnt been any evidence thats been put forward saying that the Trump Campaign or anyone in trump world was colluding with the russians, but still seems okay to go and chase down that rabbit hole. What we do know as a matter of fact is that there were people who are being tapped. We know there were two fisa court applicatioapplications, o rejected, one accepted. There were reports of fisa reports, yes. But they were talking about the fact there were specific conversations where they had transcripts of peoples phone conversations. We know with mathematical certainty that there was tapping that was going on. Now, well leave it to the house spell committee to get to the bottom of it. There were reports there was tapping going on. Theres no evidence at all according to anyone whos spoke than president obama ordered wiretapping of President Trump, which is a world away, a universe away from there being investigations on somebody maybe connected to trump world and having there be wiretaps on them. Id push back a little bit and say we do know absolutely that the administration ordered it because otherwise how would the phones be getting tapped and getting this . The administration is a broad term talking about the Justice Department or intelligence services. Theyre technically all part of the administration. But i understand your point. Folks were being tapped, to be clear. We know that. We read it in the New York Times. The Russian Ambassador phones. What we read in the New York Times is there was Team Surveillance on the Russian Ambassador. People dont like the word routine surveillance, you know, those two words together, and thats understandable, but that is as we know it where those transcripts came from. Any broader suggestion there is no confirmation of the fisa court order report and certainly there is nothing so far that weve heard that substantiate what is President Trump said about his predecessor. Michael flynn, the former very briefly serving National Security adviser. The type of thing that maybe should have come um during the vetting process that he was working as a Foreign Agent for turkey and getting paid a lot for it during the campaign . Look, i think youre right, it should have come um in the vetting process and particularly today during the perress briefi when spicer was asked a question about you had the transition attorney who was informed about this and instead of directing that, why didnt that information get disseminated to trump himself for someone in the hiring process. He kind of didnt have an answer to that. My inclination, i believe the white house didnt know about this. I believe they didnt know he was considering registering as a Foreign Agent but i think it was overlooked in the transition process. My father always said if you have to eat crow, eat crow now. The southern way of saying it sometimes you have to own up to the fact we missed this one, it was overlooked and thats what sean should have done today. Bakari . Thats not true because the white house did know about it and the Vice President sefkally knew about it. Elijah cummings sent a letter directly to the Vice President of the United States during the transition process letting him know that there were relationships between Michael Flynn and turkey. And so when were talking about what the white house knew and when they knew it, which is a famous phrase, from before i was born, if i may say, i do think that the ineptitude of the transition is something we keep coming back to, something we talked about in the first segment, something we talk about now, and something well talk about in the future. The Vice President never got that specifically and that letter by the way was sent the day he was hired so it never made it into the Vice President s the fact that the Vice President during a transition period never got a letter that informed him from a Ranking Member of a House Committee that there were nefarious relationships or at least relationships he should be aware of just shows the flaws in the transition process. I think thats all im saying. Im saying that this transition process did not live up to the standards and for anyone to say what the white house didnt know about it is willful ignorance at best. I want to talk about another series of data points that we got over the last 48 hours people are looking at and going, hmm, thats odd. Faraj from Great Britain who is friends with donald trump and was pushing the brexit met with Julian Assange of wikileaks, walked into the Ecuadorian Embassy in london, had a meeting with assange and wikileaks released all that stuff hacked during the election, you know, its one of these things where i dont know if you can connect the tots but there are a lot of dots here. There are a lot. We have to be careful about speculating about things we dont know. There are things that look bad. It doesnt mean we necessarily know that somehow that was connected to things that were happening with donald trump. Im a little i like to wait and see and get more facts before i start making accusations. Can we go back to this fisa stuff . Sure. Youre saying that we know people were being tapped, if you want to accept that. Then that is more of an indictment of the trump people than anybody else because if that happened, that means a fisa court had reason to believe that they were doing something nefarious. So thats whats sort of ironic about this accusation is that indirectly donald trump is sort of saying that they were doing something wrong. Unless you believe the fisa court just lets them go and taps whoever they want. The other thing i was going to say is why doesnt he declassify this . If this is true, why doesnt he declassify the information around it and release it and let everybody see it . Id push back and say what we saw with this Previous Administration so, many aspects of the federal government becoming politicized, whether its the irs targeting people, certainly the folks of the Clinton Campaign would take issue with the way that the certain aspects of Law Enforcement was run, particularly during this past year. And i think bakari would probably agree with me on that one. Thats the height of irony for you to invoke director comey in your it was. But, look, i think the fact weve seen so much of this happen before, i mean, we dont know the details on it, clearly it was rejected one time, gone with another time, but all this is is a big chase down the rabbit hole to smear p president and say theres some sort of foreign involvement that made him win when the fact of the matter was he ran a Better Campaign again, the president may have dug this rabbit hole himself with that tweet last week. Well find out more in next eight days p. We know from the New York Times they were recording conversations recording someone elses conversations weather e dont know with whose and why. They did not tap donald trump and if you cant say that, thats the ultimate rabbit hole being chased. Thanks, girs. Up next, President Trump and the White House Press secretary are praising the new jobs report, the same kind of report candidate trump used to call phony. 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But you get unlimited done right. man 2 why dont they get a trophy . man 3 they should get something. woman 2 how about a plaque . I have to drop this. My arms getting really tired. Unlimited on verizon. 4 lines, just 45 per line. Announcer get on your feet for the nastiest bull in the state of texas. Find fast relief behind the counter allergies with nasal congestion . With claritind. [ upbeat music ] strut past that aisle for the allergy relief that starts working in as little as 30 minutes and contains the best oral decongestant. Live claritin clear, with claritind. The white house is touting todays better than expected job report. The rate ticked down to 4. 7 after the u. S. Economy added 235,000 jobs last month. Again, the trump team is taking credit for the numbers but keeping them honest on the campaign trail including back last february when 237,000 jobs were added, more than last month, and back to last may, when the Unemployment Rate first hit 4. 7 , then candidate trump had a darker view of the numbers even suggesting the Obama Administration was cooking the books. The unemployment number is totally fictional. The 5 figure is one of biggest hoaxes in american modern politics. It is such a phony number. Dont believe those phony numbers. That number, 5. 2 , is such a phony number. We have a statistic, 5 , doesnt exist. That number was put to make president s and politicians look good. Okay . Its not a real number. The Unemployment Rate is probably 20 . We probably have a 25 unemployment number. When you hear 4. 9 and 5 unemployment, the numbers probably 28 , 29 , as high as 35 . I hear 5. 3 unemployment that is the biggest joke there is in this country. All right. So are the numbers phony or are they real . White House Press Secretary sean spicer, he knew he would get that question today and he did have an answer. I talked to president prior to this, and he said to quote him very clearly. They may have been phony in the past but its very real now. A lot to discuss. Join us former labor secretary robert reich, professor at uc, berkeley, and author of saving capitalism. Steven moore, a senior economic adviser to the Trump Campaign, now cnn senior economics analyst. Steven, you are supportive of the president s policies, not always his words. The words today from the white house on these job numbers, somewhere between rank hypocrisy and admission that during the campaign you just sort of make stuff up. Well, john, youre burying the lead a little with that question because the main point is that it was a good jobs report, kind of well get tho that. I promise. But anyways, look, i know on the campaign trail that, you know, donald trump was saying things like you cant believe these numbers, theyre made up and so on. I never believed that. I dont think thats what he meant. I think what he meant is the statistic on what the Unemployment Rate is true today and true a year or two or three years ago about less than 5 unemployment isnt true. We have so many people that cant find a fulltime job. We have so many people that have exited the workforce for one reason or another that were not anywhere near full employment in my opinion. I dont know if robert reich would agree with that. But weve still got a lot of the work to do to rebuild this labor market. Thats not what e this said during the campaign or today. But, you know i understand. Take it literally. What he said today is my jobs are real and the jobs before werent. Thats what he said. Secretary, weigh in. I think steve smoor absolutely right, dont take donald trump literally about anything. What he said during the campaign, what he says now, i want to side with steve a little bit on the substance here, and that is that we do have in this country a continuing big problem with labor participation, that is the percentage of people who are of working age and who are not in the workforce for one reason or another, many who are too discouraged to look for work. That is a big and continuing problem. Todays labor market jobs report is good news, but its not particularly better than it was february of february 2016 or february of 2015. About the same number. Its a continuation of a recovery, a jobs recovery, that started about seven years ago and its good news, im glad its continuing. Donald trump cannot take any credit for this at all, even his own head of the National Economic council, gary cohen said that hes not you know, its too early for donald trump to take any credit for these numbers. Go ahead. I mean, look, the economy really turned around and the stock market really turned around on a dime on november 7th of 2016. We saw the rocketing forward of the stock market, we saw in previous months, bob, the highest rate of Consumer Confidence and Investor Confidence that weve seen in 25 years. Theres something going on here, john, in my opinion, and i think theres a new bounce in the step of the economy. Bob is right you cant judge an economy by one or two months jobs report, but everything that has happened since the election has really been very positive. You cant point to much neg theyves happened since the election in terms of im not pointing to anything negative, steve. Im simply saying this is a direct continuation of what we had before. The only thing that happened wait a minute. The only thing that happened on election day and nearby election tay, soon after election day, was the stock market took off. Now, were talking about jobs today. This is a jobs report. The stock market reflects expectations of investors about future profits. True. Obviously they expect a huge Corporate Tax cult and a lot of regulations being slashed and thats going to improve corporate profits, but it says nothing about jobs. Hang on, steven, because Jamie Donovan says donald trump has awakened the animal instincts in the market and the business community, as disturbing as that imagery might be on one hand, does he have a point . We talk to ceos all the time who tell us that because of the tax cults youre talking about, mr. Secretary, because of the regulation cuts, they are more optimistic and perhaps more willing to invest in their own companies. Wait a minute. Theres no sign that they are investing more. In fact, what weve seen is that they are buying up their own stocks, yes. They are doing more akwy significants. Yes. But theres no sign theyre investing more in jobs here in the United States. I see it very differently, bob. I mean, look at what happened with factory orders in january. Very positive. The preliminary results for february very positive. In fact, really good announcement bnumbers. That Means Companies are spending. Youre right, you cant read too much into three or four months, were in agreement, but so far you have to feel pretty good right now about the way this economy is moving. Its not great but its pretty good. Steven moore, secretary i feel pretty good about how its looked over the last six or seven months. I feel pretty good about give donald trump credit. I feel good about this discussion. If i had economics teacherings like you guys i might be in business right now. Thanks for being with us. Thanks. Just ahead, is that an icy chill blowing through the state department or just your imagination . Secretary of state Rex Tillerson is holed up in his cone of silence even as evidence mounts he may be being sidelined. When heartburn hits, fight back fast with tums smoothies. 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In the latest of a string of surprises coming out of the state department, starting with the cone of silence secretary tillerson has taken since taking the helm, fuel rug mors hes being sidelined. Michelle kosinski reports. Reporter secretary of state Rex Tillerson meeting with iraqs oil minister but once again taking no questions from the press. Many questions here lately conspicuously unanswered. Like the state Department Press office not even being told that mexicos foreign minister eventually secretary tillersons equivalent, was in d. C. To meet not with tillerson but with white house adviser and trump soninlaw Jared Kushner and two other officials. Well take that and get back to you. I was unaware he was foreign minister was in town. Reporter it turns out according to a mexican official that the foreign minister did talk to Rex Tillerson by phone just before his trip and they randomly bumped into each other at a restaurant wednesday night where they did briefly talk facetoface. The official says the kushner meeting was more a casual gathering, just a continuation of progress in an important relationship that has been repeatedly rattled by Donald Trumps tweets and statements. Its not only the Mexican Foreign minister meeting that Rex Tillerson has not been a party to. Diplomatic sources say there have been other meetings with foreign officials and, again, Jared Kushner. One source says the Chinese Ambassador now feels he need to deal primarily with, yes, kushner. A former Top State Department official say diplomats want to see Rex Tillerson succeed but many feel thats not happening right now. They feel Jared Kushner is essentially acting as secretary of state and they wonder why tillerson would want to take a job where he might appear sidelined. Even if that was just an appearance, it Still Matters the influence you have when you do meet with world leaders. Top positions at state remain unfilled, press briefings just started this week, and tillerson has resisted bringing a press corps with him on trips, even the extremely important visit days from now to china, south korea, and japan. Prompting senator ed markey to call on tillerson to allow better access, saying he is sending a dangerous signal to other countries about the u. S. Commitment to a vibrant media. The decision to exclude reporters from your trip falls into a broader pattern of efforts by the Trump Administration to sideline and undermine the press. The white house says tillersons just trying to save money by not bringing along a press corps, an odd response considering journalists pay for their own travel. The state Department Says its still being worked out. From tillerson himself, though, no comment. Michelle kosinski, cnn, the state department. Joining me now Global Affairs analyst tony blinken who served as deputy secretary of state in the Obama Administration. Tony, how concerning is it the fact that the state department wasnt even awarethe visit of foreign minister and he didnt meet with his counterpart but Jared Kushner, the president s soninlaw . It is concerning and seems to be not an isolated event but part of a series. What ive heard from former colleagues at state is that a whole series of foreign leaders have come to town not met with the department or the secretary of state but have met with mr. Kushner. It is concerning because it does seem to take state out of the Foreign Policy loop when it in fact is supposed to be at the forefront of what were doing. Two questions. Is this intentional . Do you think the administration is trying to take the state department out of the Foreign Policy loop . And from the other side, if youre coming here from china or mexico, why do you make the decision or allow yourself to be pushed toward white house official rather than state department . Look, i dont know whats behind this. I think a few things are going on, though. First, look, mr. Tillerson got off to a really good start when he came to the department the first day. Spoke to the entire team. Made a very good first impression. But since then, he has not been front and center. Apparently not been in a lot of meetings that are important at the white house, abroad, and as i said hasnt met with a number of senior foreign leaders coming to town. That tends to diminish your influence, and so when foreign leaders are coming, if they want to go to the place where they think they can have the biggest impact, and it starts to feed on itself. So the more word gets around that mr. Kushner is the guy whos taking these meetings, the more foreign leaders will hook to meet with him. Sean spicer, the White House Press secretary, was asked today about this notion of a deep state, whether he thinks there are people inside the government working against the administration. Listen to his answer. I think theres no question. When you have eight years of one party in office that there are people who stay in government or affiliated with, you know joined and continue to espouse the agenda of the Previous Administration. So i dont think it should come as any surprise that there are people that burrowed into government during eight years of the last administration and, you know, may have believed in that agenda and want to continue to seek it. I dont think that should come as a surprise to anyone. Again, as someone who has worked in the state department, tony, do you think in theres any merit to what he says . Totally disagree. Certainly not been my experience. Ive worked in government for 24 years through three administrations, two democratic, one republican. During the Republican Administration i was in the senate, on the hill. But i work closely with Career Foreign Service officers and Civil Servants throughout that period. And i can tell you almost to a person they are professionals, theyre not ideologues, not partisans. They go to work every day trying to advance the interests of the United States. Tony, great to have you with us. Thanks so much. Thanks, john. Just ahead, america uncovered, a collision of faith and politics in the heartland. Muslims who support President Trump and even his revised travel ban. They talk about what their views have cost them. This is one gorgeous truck. Oh, did i say theres only one special edition . Because, actually theres five. Ooohh aaaahh uh hooooly mackerel. Wow. Nice. Strength and style. Its truck month. Get 0 financing for 60 months plus find your tag and get 5500 on select Chevy Silverado pickups when you finance with gm financial. Find new roads at your local chevy dealer. But with my back pain i couldnt sleep or get up in time. Then i found aleve pm. The only one to combine a safe sleep aid plus the 12 hour pain relieving strength of aleve. And now. 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America uncovered try to get away from talking heads and see how the rhetoric affects real people. Muslim americans in a chicago suburb. Faced an anger and ugliness they never seen before. Thanks to donald trump. I have some of my Close Friends that turn their back on me. Pakistani americans and muslim, the backlash wasnt against their faith, but politics. I supported donald trump. Rasheed campaigned for trump and got to immediate him. Went to his inauguration. All of which earned them scorn from muslims. I had to receive comments like i never knew you were racist. Youre antiislamic. Trader. Brown guy trying to be white. Trumps campaign about muslims bothered many people. Including his friend. Attends the same mocsque. A life long republican who voted for hillary clinton. I was concerned about mr. Trumps statement at the time. Total and complete shutdown of muslims entering the United States until our countrys representatives can figure out what the hell is going on. How could you support a man who could seem to be so antimuslim. The statement about the muslim ban came out. I wasoffended to be very honest. I took a deep breathe and looked at the message behind the statement. The message wasnt of discrimination. Instead they heard trump identifying a problem they see in their own faith. One they say american leaders and even many muslims up until now have an openly faced. Violate radical extremism. The war is not out of islam. The first war we have to win is the war against the radical sgls the terrorism is a by product of war. Trump is taking action against some muslims. To protect all americans. Still they admit the first travel ban was a mistake. I think that was too much. I did not agree with him in the beginning. You think its better now. Its a little better now. It is, but again, his message is he is not its not hes hating all the muslims. Hes just trying to protect the country as a president. Thats his job. He sgredisagrees. 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Melania trump is to my imagination emerging as rather a m mona lisa of the first lady. Appearance and posture she seems to signal a strong impression. Its a centered quality. Its a independent quality. An independent quality that adds to the mystery of Melania Trump. I see in some way the same expression on her face at every moment. I know shes hiding from us. To some degree i feel great everyone think for her. It would be hard to be the one subject of so much attention and who knows that everyone is trying to figure out whats going on inside of you. When all you really want is to be a private person. Now heres the full cnn special report. Melania trump, the making of a first lady. The following is a cnn special report. Her journey to the white house spans two continues innocents. Melania trump turned wife of a bombastic billionaire suddenly in the spotlight herself. I will fight to the tend. I dont want to it damage my reputation and name. Answering questions about past. Hes an adult. He knows the consequences. And making promises ant the future