from the white house for us, thank you. any moment now the president s pick for secretary of state mike pompeo, the cia director, faces lawmakers up on capitol hill. cnn s manu raju is setting the scene for us up there. manu this will be very, very important whether or not he gets confirmed or not confirmed. reporter: no question about it, wolf. already we re seeing significant democratic opposition to his nomination. there were 15 democrats who did vote for him for cia director when he was confirmed last year. but a number of them have raised concerns about his candidacy for secretary of state. the question today is two key democrats on this committee, jeanne shaheen, tim kaine, who did vote for him for cia director. they have questions about what he will say today. this is a significant hearing. expect questions about the iran deal, what he ll do about that, something he s been telling senators privately he s not prepared to scrap just yet. he wants to see it fixed first. in additi
certainly a lot going on this day here in washington. manu raju on capitol hill, we ll get back to you. let s bring in our panel right now, nia malika henderson, cnn s senior political report, dana bash, our chief political correspondent, retired rear admiral john kirby, cnn military and diplomatic analyst, michelle kosinski, senior diplomatic correspondent and phil mudd, senior counterterrorism analyst. john kirby, the french president macron has proof not only were chemicals used in the attack, but bashar al assad was responsible, was behind it. describe what that proof might be. we all see the horrific video of the kids suffering, but what about the proof? i think the video is part of the proof. i think he s probably got testimony and talked to some of the medical professionals on the ground, no question about that. they have been very public about what they have been seeing and how they have treated those who have survived it. there is no question that assad
hacking attempts. joining me now senior congressional correspondent manu raju on capitol hill. there s been a lot out of this hearing, manu? reporter: that s right. the administration defending its response on how exactly to deal with the threat going forward and members themselves of this committee issuing a series of recommendations. they believe the states should take ahead of the 2018 elections to ensure that nothing happens like this again. one thing that they are debating here, whether or not enough was done in 2016 to ensure that the state prevented russian efforts to influence the elections back then. that s why you have jeh johnson, former homeland security secretary saying that he preferred that the administration the government took steps to label state systems as so-called critical infrastructure to ensure the federal government could do more to clamp down and prevent this kind of activity.
house intelligence committee earlier this late last year, raising questions among democrats in particular about whether or not he misled the committee and we now know that bob mueller is also investigating that seychelles meeting and about whether it was in fact a back channel effort to create this communication between russia and the white house. but that s something that erik prince denied furiously, including under oath. manu raju on capitol hill. joining me now, jennifer rogers, professor, thank you for being with us. let s start where manu finished up, this meeting on the seychelles. the washington post is reporting something more than what we have here, which is that the special counsel is looking into the possibility that the trump team and at that point a transition team was looking to set up this back channel with russia. it was before the inauguration. what would be the problem with that? well, there is nothing wrong with an actual president, of course, and governme