several russian oligarchs have been stopped and questioned by mueller s team in a twist that sounds like it comes out of a spy thriller at least one had his electronic devices searched whether his private jet landed in new york. apparently an effort to ensure he couldn t wipe his phone before investigators got to look at it. sources are telling cnn that mueller wants to find out whether those russians illegally funneled cash into donald trump s campaign. that is more evidence that they re digging deep in the potential flow of russia into the 2016 election. you know what they say, follow the money. we re learning for tonight about president trump s suddenly announced plan to send national guard troops to the border. the president signing the memorandum just tonight after his own administration spent the day ducking questions about how many troops, when they ll arrive, where exactly they ll be deployed, and what they ll be expected to do. all questions this administration ought
female employee s door during overseas trip sources say. va nominee ronny jackson facing hostile working environment allegations. in the face of the allegations the white house is just now digging in and starting to mount a defense of jackson. here s press secretary sarah huckabee sanders attempt at that this afternoon. dr. jackson s record as a white house physician has been impeccable. in fact, because dr. jackson has worked within arm s reach of three presidents, he s had more vetting than most nominees. we are continuing to look at the situation. i can only speak to some of the personal accounts that those of us have as well as the records that we have that are substantiated through a very detailed and thorough background investigation process. but as with all things trumpian, white house aides are quietly telling reporters a different story with all fingers pointing at the president s impulsivity. politico reporting jackson was chosen with little vetting, angering s
the position he s in of criticizing president trump and his so-called collusion with russia unless he did use classified information. but brennan isn t backing down, even threatening to take his concerns to court. i have been contacted by a number of lawyers. they have already given me their thoughts about the basis for a complaint, an injunction, to try to prevent him from doing this in the future. if my clearances and my reputation as i m being pulled through the mud now, if that s the price we re going to pay to prevent donald trump from doing this against other people, to me it s a small price to pay. so i am going to do whatever i can personally to try to prevent these abuses in the future. and if it means going to court, i will do that. all right. cnn s ryan nobles is in new jersey, where the president is spending the weekend. so ryan, what s happening? reporter: well, fred, it seems pretty clear this is a fight the president thinks he can win. just based on his
let s go to kaitlan collins. don mcgahn left the job two weeks ago. they had this encounter at the white house. what did president trump say? reporter: it was one last time that president trump blamed him for the mueller investigation. they were sitting face to face in the oval office, supposed to be this exit meeting that typically would not be a situation like this, a critical situation or meeting like the one that it was, but we are told by sources that president trump brought up the mueller investigation, blamed mcgahn for it, saying it happened on his watch and has now cast this cloud over the presidency, which we know that president trump has said privately multiple times that he believes the russia investigation hangs over this white house and hangs over any of his other accomplishments. they were sitting in this oval office face to face, but this was long after the president announced on twitter much to mcgahn s surprise he was announcing his departure. he always ex
the media. refusing to take any responsibility for stirring up any rage in america. is it fair to ascribe the president any role in tearing apart the nation? welcome to the lead. i m jake tapper. we begin with the politics lead. minutes ago, the white house press secretary defended president trump s response to a series of major traumatic events gripping and in some cases terrifying the nation. sarah sanders claiming that president trump has brought the nation together. she says he bears no responsibility for tensions, and despite the president directly blaming the media for tensions, sarah sanders claimed he had not blamed anyone. she said a lot of things that were difficult to believe, and in some cases, some things that were just plain false. as just an example of how upside down this afternoon s press conference was, at times, she made the assertion that president trump was elected by, quote, an overwhelming majority of 63 million americans. now, obviously, the pres
of several jewish grandchildren. his daughter is a jewish american and his son-in-law is a descendant of holocaust survivors. tomorrow, the president and first lady will travel toll pennsylvania to express the support of the american people and grieve with the pittsburgh communit community. well, just minutes later, sanders defended the president against accusations that he s enflaming anger and division within the nation as it faces the death of 11 members of the synagogue. plus, a man accused of a racially charged double murder in kentucky and a suspect accused of sending more than a dozen mail bombs to critics of president trump. here was sanders, moments ago. and then this morning, suggesting that the news media is responsible for the anger in the country. how does he do that, when, in the case of the pipe bomber, this was somebody who went to trump rallies, this is somebody who had a van covered with attacks on the media and praise for the president. the shooter in p
he s an honest, honorable person, unlike the white house which is defying congressional subpoenas. there is no legal reason for defying the subpoenas and i can t imagine that mr. mueller would defy the law. he s an honorable person. let s dive in on this. renata marin oughty is a senior atlanta and gloria borger is our cnn political analyst. and welcome to both of you. and what are the mueller options. i think mueller is going to testify and he didn t want to and he ll be careful about what he will say and what questions he will answer. so i suspect what mueller will do is he s going to give very carefully worded answers that are drawn largely from his report and i think that is going to be enough for chairman nadler. one thing that it is worth noting is that when mueller made that public statement on television, he said nothing new. he repeated it is all in the report. yeah. and yet it had a big impact. we saw almost an shift in how president trump and allies treat
reestablish connection. right now, we do have max foster joining us. what can you tell us, max, as far as the investigation this morning? we know the fire is out. we know that investigators and engineers are inside the building and they re trying to assess the damage, also a lot of water damage as well they have to look at because of all the hoses that were used last night to put the fire out. they want to know what started the fire as well. but if you can see behind me, this is the back of the cathedral which was engulfed by flames. you can see a crane on the right. they re literally going around inch by inch to see what sort of damage was done to the building. how much mortar has crumbled between those big blocks, and whether or not actually it is stable. so they haven t given us an update because they don t know yet, ana. tell us about how they managed to rescue artwork and artifacts that were inside there. it s amazing they were able to salvage so much. yes, real he
the rivers are still rising and more storms are expected tonight. ed lavandera is west of tulsa. ed? reporter: and these floodwaters started coming up yesterday. there are several dozen homes in the community that are under water. some residents say they ve taken on about two to six feet of water. and that dam right now, according to the army corp of engineers, is releasing 275,000 cubic feet of water per second to kind of put that in terms that we might be able to understand or comprehend, that is more than three olympic size swimming pools out of the dam and all of this flowing downstream. is not only a concern for the continued flooding here in the tulsa area but this continues to move toward western arkansas in the fort smith area. so ed was in fort smith. and the schools have been forced to shut down because classes were to end on thursday. further north in kansas, missouri and iowa and illinois and the greatest dangerous is from tornados. overnight in ohio one perso
cnn, i m brooke baldwin, thank you for being with me. we re getting new details about why the president called off a pending military strike in iran, after iran shot down a u.s. drone in the straight of hormuz. planes and ships were cocked and loaded after sending out this candid explanation on twitter. the president revealed why he stopped short with just turn minutes to spare. they came and said, sir, we re ready to go, we d like a decision. i said i want to know something before you go. how many people will be killed. in this case iranians. i said, how many people are going to be killed. sir, i d like to get back to you on that. great people these generals. they said, came back, said, sir, approximately 150. and i thought about it for a second, i said, you know what, they shot down an unmanned drone, plane, whatever you want to call it, and here we are sitting with 150 dead people that would have taken place within a half hour after i said go ahead. and i didn t like i