Transcripts For CNNW Wolf 20180214

There are very few americans or American Families that have served this nation more honorably or sacrificed more for this country than the family of general john kelly. John kellys service in uniform, his distinguished service at our department of Homeland Security where we saw a dramatic reduction of illegal crossings at our southern border, and his distinguished service as chief of staff gives me and the president great confidence in this good man. And i want the American People to know, not just john kelly, but family members in uniform here and gone have served this nation with a love and a patriotism and a passion that should inspire us all. On top of this, the House Oversight committee is now investigating. Heres what congressman trey gowdy, the committee chairman, told our Alisyn Camerota on cnns new day. Just so that im clear, will the Oversight Committee be launching an investigation into this . We did last night. So its official. We are directing inquiries to people we think have access to information we dont have. Im going to direct questions to the fbi that i expect them to answer. This comes a day after the fbi director Christopher Wray contradicted the white house timeline, explaining what officials knew and when they knew it. Lets go to our chief White House Correspondent jim acosta over at the white house right now. Jim, what more can you tell us about the focus of this House Oversight committees investigation . This is important news. I think its very important news. The chairman of the House Oversight committee, trey gowdy, a republican, volunteered on cnn that his committee has launched an investigation into all of this. There are some key points that theyre looking at in the context of their investigation, but i just want to make sure we focus pretty closely on what we just heard a few moments ago from the Vice President , mike pence. It was interesting what the Vice President said. He said at one point, i think the white house could have handled this better, in reference to the rob porter saga. Thats a pretty stunning admission from the Vice President. I think earlier when he was skt the olympics, he told Nbcs Lester Holt that while the white house says they could have handled it better, this was the Vice President essentially saying, no, i think the white house could have handled this better, and its in contrast with what the chief of staff john kelly said to the wall street journal that everything was done right. So once again, wolf, we have sort of this gang that cant shoot straight. Everybodys talking in Different Directions about this rob porter saga, and the Vice President , you know, saying at this event just a few moments ago that the white house could have handled it better is another indication of that. Its an indication that not only does he believe that they could have handled it better, but hes also, i think, perhaps putting a little separation between himself and whats happening over here at the white house in terms of the Vice President. As you were just mentioning, trey gowdy opening up his own investigation into all of this, is just going to prolong the agony for people inside the white house because obviously the committee is going to be asking questions. Theyre going to be seeking documents, seeking answers. Heres a letter on screen to the chief of staff, john kelly, from trey gowdy. I believe we have a tearout of that letter which focuses on some of the key issues theyre looking at. You can see it on screen. This is what theyre going to be looking at, policies, practices, and procedures relating to the investigation and issuance of interim security clearances, including interim security clearances for white house personnel, whether the adjudications of porters interim and final clearance were consistent with the policies, practices, and procedures identified. The date on which any white house employee wolf, this is very, very important became aware of potential derogatory or disqualifying information on porter from the date of his appointment, february 12th, 2017, to february 12th, 2018, where he was pushed out, or resigned. The security clearance adjudication dates for porter, including both interim and final clearance. Those questions go to the heart of the questions weve been asking in the Briefing Room over the last week or so. This is a textbook example of how a white house should not handle a matter like this. Theyve given us four or five different answers over a series of briefings in terms of what happened, who did what to who, who punched john, and so on. And just yesterday, the white house was talking about this office of personnel security, thats where the fbi background check went to. We still dont have the answers as to what was done with that information once it got to the office of personnel security. I suspect thatll be one of the key questions at the briefing this afternoon, which not surprisingly has been pushed to 2 30 this afternoon. And sara sanders is scheduled to do that briefing. Theyre not going to send out john kelly, let him answer the questions. Lots of questions for him. Why not simply send out the white house chief of staff instead of sending lesser officials . Wolf, i think that is right on point. He has been sort of ducking in and out of press areas of the white house, so reporters have had the opportunity to shoot some questions at him from time to time. Hes not really answered any questions about this. The other point we should make is the president has repeatedly been asked questions about this since friday, when he went ahead and said that porter is maintaining his innocence and did not say anything about porters alleged victims. So the president is also shied away from these questions. Again, its just a textbook example of how a white house should not handle a matter like this. They keep changing their story and avoiding the questions, wolf. All right. Jim acosta at the white house. Well stand by for that briefing later. Thats coming up fairly soon. Lets talk a little bit more about all of this. I want to bring in our White House Correspondent abby phillip, cnn political analyst, david gregory, and our chief political analyst gloria borger. How safe is kelly right now . Well, you heard the Vice President there. I think last night there was a lot of scurrying around and a lot of activity around the fact that the president had been calling people, one of whom he sort of remotely said, well, if i were thinking about changing chief of staff, would you be interested . He said, no, that was last friday. So theres all this kind of activity about replacements and people in the white house wondering what is going on here, and i think now were seeing an effort from the Vice President and others to say, stop, were done, its over, theres not going to be a replacement for general kelly. He is remaining where he is, and i think obviously that comes from the president. I think thats the important point. Mike pence, the Vice President , may be all the way over there in the olympics, but when he comes out and vouches for kelly in this way, that means theyre closing ranks. This is a president who doesnt mind letting someone hes upset with know because they leaked a fact that hes talking to other people about potentially replacing him. Maybe that was him firing a shot across. I thought jim said something thats important. Abby, you know this covering the white house day in and day out. You have to ask yourself whats worse than chipping away at this story through multiple versions of the story. Somebodys got to come out and clean up and say, look, this was a great guy, we loved him, we didnt realize this was going on, we screwed this up, and it was out of an abundance of giving him a fair shake and our belief in him, but we got to focus on these women and this was just horribly done. Somebodys got to own that. The president has only made things worse and continues to do that by just staying away from it. In a lot of ways what were seeing from john kelly is something we often see from the president himself, which is you dont back down, you dont admit you did anything wrong. As recently as earlier this week, he told tthe wall street journal he thought everything had been handled perfectly. Its a pattern of behavior thats trickling down in the ranks at the white house and also to glorias point about kellys future, there have been several times in the last several months where President Trump has talked about wanting a change in his top aides. Hes been doing it virtually since day one with reince priebus. Thats why a lot of people, even within the white house, are just not sure how this is going to shake out. But the fact theyre talking publicly about kelly having the confidence of the president is important. Theres a reflection in the white house that more upheaval and chaos would be detrimental to what theyre trying to do. They had some progress with tax reform. Theyre moving forward with immigration and with infrastructure. Getting rid of a chief of staff would be like upturning the cart at a critical time. And a guy who one very important on negotiations on immigration. Exactly. But you know, when you hear sara sanders all day yesterday, and well hear today, say to the best of my knowledge, as far as i know, you know, these kind of qualifiers, you have to assume that shes not being shes not being read in on a lot of this stuff. That this is something that kelly held very closely. Hes known for that. And when people are asking for explanations, they may not be getting the whole story from the very top. A lot of republicans, you know, think that kelly has got to have and this is what theyve said to me the guts to go into that Briefing Room and answer reporters questions from a to z and not leave until all the questions are answered if he wants to stay on the job and have credibility. 100 , i agree, but im not sure that is what is required for him to stay on the job. I think its very clear that the president his credibility. Well, right, his credibility. Especially given who he comes from, what weve been told over the past six months is, you know, lauding his military experience and of course his sacrifices to the country, which are immense. Of course, to be admired but are not relevant here, this is about his credibility as chief of staff doing a very difficult job and who did what, when and what did they know when. Youre right, this is a guy who comes from a tradition of accountability. Lets see it. Retired fourstar marine corps general. Its not going away. You heard on cnns new day earlier trey gowdy, they want to have hearings. They want to investigate who knew what and when. They want specifics. Right. There is, in fact, a broken system here. Cnn has reported rooecently tha 30 to 40 white house staffers dont have full security clearances. Thats a huge problem. The porter scandal is one element of that. I think republicans need to inoculate themselves from this on several fronts. One, on the National Security front about putting someone like porter in a position where hes often dealing with classified information but may not have ever been able to get a full security clearance, and secondly, the idea that the white house is indifferent to Domestic Violence is incredibly damaging to republicans. I think they recognize that. I think thats why youve heard people leek paul ryan start to come out and say this is, you know, its not acceptable to us. But the one person you havent heard that from is the president. Thats a problem that the white house doesnt seem particularly eager to resolve. He could have walked from the oval office to the Briefing Room at any point over the last week, and he hasnt. But everything many this story is context. If the president were to come out and say this, then of course we know what occurred during the campaign and these 17 women who were accusing him. Then that raises that specter all over again, and donald trump understands that. I dont think he wants to go there. Its also worth noting its not clear that more information is going to help them here. Every time weve learned more about how this has gone down, its looked worse for them. Everybody stand by. Theres more news unfolding right now. Up next, porn star pay you have. The president s lawyer now claiming he paid Stormy Daniels six figures out of his own pocket. Well discuss. And u. S. Intelligence chiefs unanimously are saying that russia is taking direct aim at this years midterm elections here in the United States, but the president of the United States is still not convinced. Is the u. S. In danger . And just in, the Vice President talking about that infamous scene over at the olympics, sitting right near kim jonguns sister. Well hear what he just had to say when we come back. Guess what i just got . Uh i used to be spellbound hello again. I used to be spellbound hi. I used to be spellbound thats a big phone. In your arms. [screams] ah, my phone. You built the flame that warms my heart, but lying and cheating has torn us apart and im moving on. When you can squeeze one in wbetween friday and monday at hilton . N theres a vacation at the end of every week. Whatever type of weekender you are, dont let another weekend pass you by. Get the lowest price when you book at hilton. Com lets team up to get the lady of the house back on her feet. 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Wolf, first of all, its really important to keep in mind that both Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels have previously adamantly denied allegations of this affair having taken place back in 2006, and they also really have not engaged questions about the issue of this payment. So it is a big deal that Michael Cohen is now saying that he did make this payment of 130,000 to Stormy Daniels in 2016, but what he is emphasizes is he did it on his own, that it was his own money. Heres a statement in which he explains who was not involved in making that payment. He says neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump Campaign was a party to the transaction with miss clifford and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly. So hes clearly wanting to emphasize here that the campaign was not involved because some questions have been raised about whether this may have violated some Campaign Finance rules. But the question you ask, wolf, about why he would have made this payment if there was no affair, well, heres how cohen answers that question. He says, quote, just because something isnt true doesnt mean that it cant cause you harm or damage. I will always protect mr. Trump. So what cohen is saying here essentially, wolf, is out of loyalty to his client and friend, trump, he made this payment. He made this decision to spend 130,000 of his own money to have this money be given to Stormy Daniels. This of course is extremely unusual and not normal behavior coming from a lawyer. Did he say that in exchange for the money she had to sign a nondisclosure agreement, she wouldnt talk about this . Well, this is not something that Michael Cohen has addressed, and you remember that when Stormy Daniels has been asked about this, shes kind of danced around the issue, strongly suggesting that she couldnt speak freely because she had signed an nda. And that, of course, raises a whole new set of questions about whether cohen might be violating such an nda, but again, we have a lot of questions that are still unanswered. One of those questions is whether there is an nda and whos violating what at this point. All right. Thanks very much, m. J. I know youre working the story for us. Gloria, youre also working the story. This is a weird twist of developments. I would say it is. When your lawyer pays 130,000 in hush money or whatever you want to call it to a porn star, yeah, i think thats a little strange. What was interesting to me about the statement was that he said very specifically that neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump Campaign was a party to the transaction. What he doesnt say is whether donald trump was a party to the transaction or knew about the transaction or approved of the transaction. These are all questions we would like to get an answer to. As ive been talking to folks this morning, this is absurd on multiple levels. One, as an ethical matter, if youre a lawyer, you have an obligation to inform your client of any Material Change in a case like this. You cant do it without your clients knowledge. Maybe the use of was not party to this is their way around that. Any kind of big change in a case like this, youd have to chasha with your client. The other part of this it doesnt say he didnt. Heres what else is absurd about this. This notion that donald trump has been accused of Sexual Misconduct at, what, in a dozen cases, and this is number 13. But this is the one you want to pay off because even if its not true, that could be damaging . But all those other allegations that are out there, those were not worthy . The last thing is, who runs a law firm where you pay out of pocket . On your clients behalf. So whats the quid pro quo here . Maybe donald trump pays cohen and his firm so much money they say, yeah, well take care of this because were going to get a lot down the line. But the notion that he just did this because hes protecting trump is absurd on so many levels. I think we also should keep in mind that Michael Cohen, when this story first emerged, the wall street journal reported the payments, he denied the payments were made, which we now know is false. Hes admitting to it. So theres a credibility issue on its face with things that he says about what did and did not happen. And i think thats why we should keep some of this stuff, you know, take it with a grain of salt. Its not all we cannot take it all at face value because hes proven to be willing to lie about what happened when the truth later comes out. He issued this statement because common cause filed a complaint with the federal election commission, with the Justice Department that this could be seen as an inkind contribution, 130,000 to the campaign a month before the election, and thats why he had to release this public state. I quickly want to go to another important development. The Vice President now sides with the cia director, the director of national intelligence, the director of the National Security agency, the director of the fbi in saying what the president is reluctant to say, that russia did interfere in the president ial election and is still interfering. Listen to this. There were efforts by russia and likely by other countries to involve or influence american elections, and we take that very seriously. As we speak, that inquiry Investigation Continues to be ongoing, but its also forward looking. In my briefings at a variety of our intelligence agencies, we have discussed plans Going Forward to ensure that meddling in our elections by russians or other powers around the world will be rebutted and well continue to develop the kiennd technologies that ensure and maintain the integrity of our electoral system. Okay. He may say that, the intelligence chiefs may say that, but the president apparently still doesnt believe it. Right. And hes not going to change. This is a threat, he believes, to the legitimacy of his election, and hes not going to get off of that. As weve been talking about, he also believes that this is the way countries do business with each other. They spy on us, we spy on them. And theres no big deal. The challenge is what will they do Going Forward. If the Vice President is taken at his word, what are they prepared to do . We dont see any evidence of them taking it seriously or taking remedial steps to stop it, and thats something you ought to be very public about and private about. And the president should be leading it. This will be a test of whether this can happen without the president , whether mike pence can step in as the number two in command and say, im going to be leading the whole of government approach to this. But if you dont have credibility with your own intelligence agencies is, who by the way under president obama didnt react in realtime. Thats on the obama administration. The question is what does the Trump Administration do now that we can all recognize what this kind of influence looks like . Theres been some reporting about whether President Trump even wants to hear about the russia investigation. Mike pompeo was on the hill yesterday. He talked about this. We know that he believes that this happened. Is the government operating without the president in command . Are they doing these things to address the russia interference even while he doesnt want to hear about it in his Daily Briefing or mike pence ends up being the one leading it. Its entirely possible that could happen. Even with trumps own, you know, trumpled cia that he now owns and runs. But it doesnt fit into the president s narrative on the russia investigation, which is that the fbi is corrupt and that is a problem for him. So if the fbi is corrupt and other intelligence agencies were corrupt in dealing with the dossier and the russia investigation, then he cant sort of do a back flip ive been watching too much olympics he cant do that and then say, you know, at the same time that we have to stop russia, we have to stop russia. So it doesnt fit his current narrative right now. Certainly doesnt believe it, even though everyone else, the former intelligence chiefs, the current intelligence chiefs, the ones he himself named, they were out there very vociferously yesterday saying the russians did it and theyre still doing it. I want to press what the Vice President said. He said other nations besides russia. Maybe china. That they interfered in the president ial election. Thats what hes talking about specifically. I wonder, yeah. I want to find out who else hes talking about besides russia. After the general kelly briefing. Maybe theyll explain that as well. All right, guys. Thanks very, very much. More breaking news. The conflicting timelines on who knew what has sparked a house investigation now into the handling of rob porter. This as doubts swirl over john kellys future in the west wing of the white house. Plus, its not the first time a trumpappointed official has been accused of misusing taxpayer dollars for personal travel expenses. 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Some rare side effects include temporary numbness, discomfort and swelling. Ask your doctor if coolsculpting is right for you and visit coolsculpting. Com today. For your chance to win a free treatment. The white houses rob porter scandal has revealed a glaring issue with security clearances. Porter didnt have fulltime, full security clearances even though he was handling some of the most critical documents for the president. Now the Congress Wants to know why and has launched a formal, fullscale investigation. Joining us from capitol hill is republican chris stewart, member of the house intelligence committee. Congressman, thanks for joining us. Of course, wolf. Good to be with you. Another member of your committee, a republican, trey gowdy, said on cnn this morning that his committee is now launching a full investigation into the security clearance issues surrounding rob porter, the former staff secretary at the white house. Do you agree that a full congressional investigation is needed . Yeah, for sure. Theres some questions here we really need to get the answers to. Part of it is a personnel type of question, were procedures followed, but more portly theres actual National Security implications for this that i think we need to understand as well. You believe someone like porter, who had no full security clearance and was accused by his exwives of domestic abuse, should have had access to the president ial daily brief, which he delivered to the president , and other topsecret, classified information . Yeah, you know, this is a bit of a gray area in the sense that its not uncommon for those who are waiting on a final clearance to be granted some limited access, but it should be limited, and it should be on an interim basis. It shouldnt go on for obviously as long as this one went on for. Again, this is a problem that we need to understand. More broadly, wolf, as well, weve got an enormous background. I mean, a years long backlog in getting people their background and security clearances. Speaking more generally, weve got to get better at that as well. What about the president s soninlaw and Senior Adviser Jared Kushner . Hes also in a similar limbo situation. He has interim clearances, no the full clearances, but according to the washington post, he has access to the president ial daily brief as well. And i raise the question whether he should because dan coats, the director of national intelligence, testified yesterday before the Senate Intelligence committee that if you only have interim clearances, you should only have limited access. Should someone like Jared Kushner have apparently full access to the president ial daily brief . Once again, i think i stated what director wray said as well. That is an interim clearance situation should be limited access. I think thats generally the rule. It should be the rule. I dont know if the white house operates outside of that. They might have some executive authorities that allow them more latitude. I dont know the answer to that. But once again, we should comply with the rules that exist. Theres a reason they exist. And if some of those rules were broken, we should identify that and correct that. Let me switch gears for a moment while i have you here. Youre on the intelligence committee. Yesterday we heard the nations intelligence chiefs, all of them. They reiterated during their testimony that russia did, in fact, meddle in the 2016 president ial election. I want you to listen to this for a moment, congressman. There should be no doubt that russia perceived that its past efforts as successful and views the 2018 u. S. Midterm elections as a potential target for russian influence operations. Yes, we have seen russian activity and intentions to have an impact on the next election cycle here. No change in my view of the 2017 assessment. I support that. I agree with director pompeos assessment about the likelihood of the 2018 occurrence as well. I participated in that 2017 work. I stood by it then. I stand by it now, and i agree with director pompeo, this is not going to change or stop. Yes, it is not going to change, nor is it going to stop. And moments ago, the Vice President mike pence said the same thing basically, reiterating that russia did, in fact, interfere, but the curious question and i know weve discussed this before, why does the president still refuse to acknowledge that fact . You know, i think theres two issues here. If i could talk about what these gentlemen said and just say i agree, i agree, and i agree. I was in moscow just before the election, came home and said theyre going to mess with our election. No question about it. And you look at the success that theyve had. Theres no question theyre going to continue to try in 2018 and 2020 and beyond. I think the president divides these into two different boxes, if you would. One of them is, did russia try to interfere . We all know they did. They were actually successful to varying degrees. The second one, and i think the one he speaks about, is these accusations of him or some of his Campaign Aides actually colluding with russians. I think thats the one where he says that didnt happen, thats not true. So why doesnt the president say in a state of the union address, he didnt even utter anything about this, or issue a directive and these intelligence chiefs say they got no specific directive from the president to investigate. Why doesnt he make this a priority . Yes, the russians did it. Theyre already doing it again. We have midterm elections in november. We have to take some steps to stop them. Why dont we hear that from the president . I cant speak for the white house, wolf. Uh cant speak for the president. But many of us recognize it is a prior priority. Thats why weve been investing this going on 15, 16 months now. The house intelligence committee, a few other committees, judiciary, the senate is doing the same thing. The russians were successful in manipulating Public Opinion and breaking down that foundation of democracy that we know is so important for us to be successful and that they targeted, and we need to be able to come to the American People and say, this is how we can counter this. This is how we can do better. And i hope that the focus will shift over to that, especially just before the next election. We need to address it before next november comes around. Congressman chris stewart, thanks so much for joining us. Thank you, wolf. A coverup filled with false statements, a doctored email and taxpayer money. Details now on the new report regarding the president s secretary of Veterans Affairs. We have new information. Well be right back. Wallet, so [girl 1] perfect you can send a digital payment. 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They stay up to three times drier so babies can sleep soundly all night wishing you love, sleep and play pampers free tickets to wimbledon, expensive taxpayer funded travel now engulfing another member of the trump cabinet in major controversy. Its the veteran affairs secretary. Our senior politics writer is working this story for us. Whats new in this new report about what the secretary of Veterans Affairs was up to . Wolf, this is a pretty expansive report. It finds that the chief of staff to va secretary altered an email and made false statements and that then led to the secretarys wifes travel being paid for, for this more than a week long trip to europe last summer. That comes in an ig report today. That cost taxpayers more than 4,000. Other findings in that report as well that he improperly accepted tickets to wimbledon that had he purchased, the igs report said would have costed thousands of dollars. It also says very interesting here that shulkin himself dreked a staffer at the va to access what theyre calling, and im quoting, a personal travel concierge to him and his wife, setting up all kinds of personal activities that didnt have anything to do with the agencys work. Shulkin is being ordered to repay the department for his wifes travel. Also, reimburse the business associate who gave these tickets back the money for those wimbledon tickets as well as to overgo an investigation into the travel packages of the department he leads. What is secretary shulkin saying about this . Release id a statement to this as well as a response to the va ig. He says, a report of this mach is a direct assault on my spouse, my character, and my understand blemished record of service to the Veterans Affairs administration. Your staffs conduct related to this investigation reeks of an agenda. Hes not the only cabinet official whos been under fire for travel practices. There have been five other cabinet secretaries under fire. Members of congress saying they want to hear more, at least one republican who sits on the Veterans Affairs committee, says shulkin needs to go. All right. Good report. Thanks very much for that. Were following breaking news on the rob porter abuse scandal thats engulfed the white house and the white house chief of staff john kelly now for more than a week. The Vice President , mike pence, offers a staunch defense of the chief of staff as the house of representatives launches its own fullscale investigation. Ur onlx Service Getting you . Stop by your local Jackson Hewitt and get all the benefits of a tax pro. With Jackson Hewitt you get 100 accuracy and our max refund guarantee. So, switch to Jackson Hewitt. Open late and weekends. Alright, i brought in high protein to help get us moving. And help you feel more strength and energy in just two weeks ill take that. Yeeeeeah ensure high protein. 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And i still feel that way. That being said, any more counsel i have on this ill share with the president of the United States. Crisis isnt likely to end any time soon. Were told the House Oversight committee now opening a fullscale investigation into the porter saga on how the white house handled it or mishandled it. Joining us now to talk about that and more, democratic senator gene chahine. Thank you for joining us. Nice to be with you. Whats your reaction to trey gowdy announcing on cnn he was launching a fullscale investigation . I think thats helpful. Both republicans and democrats in congress should be very concerned about oversight and about whether the people who are handling sensitive and classified information in the white house have the appropriate security clearances. So, i hope thats what theyre going to be looking at. And i hope that we will get answers as to why so many people in this white house have not been cleared by the fbi so that they can handle these sensitive documents. Should they be able to handle these sensitive documents . Specifically, lets say, the president s soninlaw, jared cushner, who has limited security clearance but who has access to the president s daily brief, the most Sensitive Information out there. This is unprecedented, as far as i know, in history, that you would have people who dont have security clearances, who have access to this kind of information. So, i think everybody in the white house who doesnt have proper security should not be handling these documents. And i hope that this administration will make those changes and make sure that only people who have clearance are able to look at the documents. Do you have confidence in the white house chief of staff, john kelly . Should he stay on the job or should he resign . Thats for the president to decide. I think its important to send a message that we understand that having proper security clearances is important for this nations National Security, that we understand that its very important to send a very strong message that Domestic Violence is not acceptable and we wont tolerate it for men or women. And i hope that we will continue to see this white house say that. The Vice President was very clear whats been missing is the president s being willing to come out and say exactly that, that he does not tolerate Domestic Violence and understands that when victims come forward that he needs to listen to them. Lets listen to the debate thats under way on the floor of the senate as we speak right now. Is there going to be legislation, a bill passed that will protect the socalled dreamers, the Daca Recipients in exchange for a lot more money for border security, including a new wall that the president wants built along the u. S. mexico border . Well, thats what ive been working for, to make sure that we can allow those dreamers, the young people who were brought to this country through no fault of their own by their parents are able to stay here, that they can go to college, serve in our military, that they can work in productive jobs. I hope well be able to make a deal that the majority of 60 votes of democrats and republicans can support. Will you support 18 billion for that wall . Apparently thats what the president wants in the budget, plus billions more for other security elements. Weve heard from the department of Homeland Security that they could use about 2. 5 billion in the next year to address security along our border. I support that. I think we need to interdict drugs that are coming in. We have a huge Opioid Epidemic in new hampshire. I want to make sure that those drugs arent coming across the border and people arent coming into the country that are a threat to the country. I think were not going to set up a slush fund that the administration can take money from at any time over the next ten years. What we need to do is make sure that there is a commitment to border security, that there is oversight for those dollars and that we know how theyre going to be spent. Senator chahine, thank you for joining us. Thank you. Concerns about the administration is not able to contain the rob porter abuse scandal and, of course, the president s lawyer claiming he personally paid a porn star to protect then candidate donald trump. Well have a lot more on that. New information coming in. Stay with us. Well be back. Vice president mike pence spoke earlier this hour, was asked about the infamous scene at the olympics last week when he was sitting very close to kim jonguns sister. I didnt avoid the dictators sister. But i did ignore her. I didnt believe it was proper for the United States of america to give any countenance or attention to someone in that form that is not only the sister of the dictator but leader of the propaganda effort. This is a family that very recently order ed that their brother be murdered using chemical weapons, and the world saw that in horror on airport videos reproduced. This is a regime and a family that also ordered that their uncle be executed with artillery fire in front of a crowd of 10,000 people. And shes the leader of the propaganda effort in that government. More on north korea coming up later. In the situation room, 5 00 p. M. Eastern. Meantime the news continues right now. Wolf, thank you. Im Brooke Baldwin and youre watching cnn. This is not normal. This colossal blowback over rob porter working at