efforts were successful, and he says the kremlin will continue using propaganda and social media to widen the political divide in the u.s. listen to senators questioning the intel chiefs about president trump s role in combating the russian threat. we re taking a lot of specific efforts to blunt directives by the president? not as specifically directed by the president. okay. directly have you received a specific presidential direction to take steps to disrupt these activities? not sure could you sorry, i m not sure how specific. despite the testimony from his top intelligence agencies, three sources familiar with the president s thinking say he remains unconvinced russia interfered in the 2016 election. president trump calls the immigration debate now underway in the senate the last chance for dreamers. negotiations are off to a rocky start with democrats and republicans in a standoff over
he does include chief economic adviser gary cohn, house majority leader kevin mccarthy, and budget director mick mulvaney. mulvaney has denied he s under consideration. press secretary sarah huckabee sanders said yesterday the president has confidence in kelly. this coming as the white house struggles to control fallout over allegations porter, former white house staff secretary, physically abused his two ex-wives. porter denies the accusations. chief of staff kelly is defending his handling of the situation, telling the wall street journal, it was all done right. scrutiny only intensifying on tuesday after the director of the fbi up-ended the white house timeline of events. a quick recap now. on monday, the white house said top officials learned the extent of the allegations last tuesday, and that porter s background check was still ongoing. then yesterday, fbi chief chris wray told the senate intel committee the bureau notified the white house of the allegations months ago.
daniels that alleged an affair with president trump. this is the first acknowledgment since it was reported last month by the wall street journal. he paid stephanie clifford, better known as stormy daniels, he says, out of concern the accusation could damage the president. in a statement, he says, the payment to ms. clifford was lawful and was not ape campaign contribution or expenditure by anyone. just because something isn t true doesn t mean that it can t cause you harm or damage. i will always protect mr. trump. cohn says he was not reimbursed by the trump campaign or the trump organization. he has previously said the president denies any affair with daniels. she has dodged questions about an arffair in recent weeks but has not publicly denied it. the nation s top intelligence official sending a unanimous, full-throated warning to the white house russia is already meddling in the midterm elections. director of national intelligence dan coates telling a senate committee russ
according to cnn s reporting. he has doubts that russia tried to meddle. then if you think about it, you know, if russia meddled, maybe the special investigation into into collusion might have something to it. it s like in his best interests if russia didn t meddle. but everybody has said that russia has meddled. who would be in a position to know? the question is, are we going to see the white house take action after this clear warning is spelled out? any action at all? senator mark warner says we still do not have a plan. thank you very much. we ll check back with you in about 30 minutes. president trump calls the immigration debate now underway in the senate the last chance for dreamers. but negotiations off to a rocky start with democrats and republicans in a standoff over how debate should proceed. majority leader mitch mcconnell trying to open the session with a vote on legislation to punish sanctuary cities. minority leader chuck schumer objecting to the measure because
in the senate the last chance for dreamers. negotiations are off to a rocky start with democrats and republicans in a standoff over how debate should even proceed. majority leader mitch mcconnell trying to open the session with a vote on legislation to punish sanctuary cities. minority leader chuck schumer objecting to the measure because it has nothing to do with the dreamer act. no reason, no reason not to come together and get a solution this week. this has been going on endlessly. they shut down the government over this. i want to see what they want to do. finding 60 votes for something that meets the needs of both sides and can deal with the dreamers and border security is not easy. we all know that immigration is fraught with peril, but this is the closest we ve come, and everybody head to make a really final effort. reporter: florida bait