eugene, looking at the story here. we had repeated denials from the administration that there were the conversations. not conversations about sanctions per se. let s listen to some of the denials and talk about it on the other side. they did not discuss anything having to do with the united states decision to expel diplomats or impose censure. what i can confirm is those conversations that happen to occur around the time that the united states took action to expel diplomats had nothing whatsoever to do with sanctions. the report has multiple sources here saying it did happen. flynn did talk about the sanctions. what do you make? we have pence saying flynn told him. we have intelligence saying
the white house briefing room triggering ethical and legal concerns about using her position to promote a trump family business. where is the separation with brand trump and trump white house? critics quick to pounce. a bipartisan call for an investigation. the top democrat on the house oversight committee and chairman jason chaffetz sent a letter to the ethics office. calling the comments wrong and over the line. asked about the uproar, conway said this. we re aware of the letter. we are reviewing that internally. i m happy i spend a lot of time with the president of the united states this afternoon. and he supports me 100%. the white house press secretary says sean spicer says conway has been counselled, but did not elaborate. we are told conway acknowledged making a mistake. no comment so far from ivanka trump. let s bring in eugene scott
and brian stelter. brian, tough week for this white house. the optics of standing in the white house and endorsing a family brand. everything that ethics experts worried about. spicer with the psa. the press secretary says she was counselled and moved on. this is one of those self inflicted woun inflicted wounds that any administration tries to avoid. let s go to eugene scott. washington post breaking news that michael flynn after he said it, sean spicer said it and president said he never spoke to the russian ambassador about sanctions. washington post says he did. this is the ongoing investigation of the trump campaign team and conversations with russia. this happened not before trump got into the white house, but
they denied talking about the sanctions. on thursday, fliynn backed away. his spokesperson said he had no recollection. clearly back pedaling there. trying to clean up a mess. this is going to be a big topic for sean spicer later today. a topic for other trump aides addressing the issue. another mess to clean up. this administration cannot get out of its own way. there are a number of stories. all of them showing the white house tied up in knots. sometimes contradicting itself. on the defensive. we see trump trying to take various actions through executive order and trying to set a tone and show he is delivering on promises. so many controversies. eugene, you hear from the administration and we talk about