have contacts with russians, he wasn't thinking of himself in capacity as committee member meeting with ambassador, normal thing to do, but thinking in terms of campaign surrogates meeting about the campaign with russians. so he maintains that he did not still talk about the campaign in these meetings, but his mind was framing it differently. of course now in retrospect he says, he wished that he had been able to clarify it then. >> so many questions here. jeff, i understand we're hearing from the white house. what is the white house saying? >> we are indeed. president again this evening trying to stop this conversation and talk about this. look at statement here. jeff sessions is an honest man. he did not say anything wrong. he could have stated his response more accurately. but it was clearly not intentional. this whole narrative, the president says, is way of saving face for democrats, losing an