chief white house correspondent jessica yellin is joining us now with the breaking news. so the administration has been feeling clearly bipartisan pressure for several days now on these leaks. what do we know? >> look, it's a time tested washington strategy leak unpleasant news on a friday night and hope the media is out drinking and too busy to pay attention. the president, joking a little bit, the president also was under a lot of pressure after his answers at a press conference today when he didn't definitively say whether or not the administration was investigating these leaks. here's the president. >> what i'm saying is we consistently -- whenever there is classified information that is put out into the public, we try to find out where that came from. all right? okay. thank you very much, everybody. thank you. >> now anderson, the president -- some on the hill have accused the white house of deliberately leaking the information to make the president look like a strong commander in chief in an election year. the white house has emphatically denied that charge. the question is, was anybody in the administration involved in sharing any of this information, and that's what this investigation is helping to get to the bottom of. >> and clearly, if you read the reports, there was an article in "the new york times" about the computer virus used against iran. it does quote administration officials, whether or not they were leaking classified information. i guess that's what investigators will look into. some on capitol hill, senator mccain among them, had called for an independent investigation. a special counsel to be appointed. clearly the white house is not going down that road. do you think this will satisfy critics on the hill who say the justice department should not be investigating the white house? >> well, there's some who are probably not going to be satisfied. but this is according to attorney general holder standard procedure at this point. what you have at this stage are two very senior prosecutors who are investigating them. each is a u.s. attorney. there's robert macken, a democratic, who is leading one of the investigations. but the other investigation is being led by rod rosenstein. he was appointed by president bush. he actually served with ken starr. you remember him because he helped investigate whitewater and the monica lewinsky affairs. so hardly a neutral -- not to be -- you can say in the president's back pocket. both are graduates of harvard law school, interestingly because the president was as well. eric holder has notified members about this investigation, but will continue to update them, both members of the intel committee and the judiciary committee. so that should satisfy some members of congress who do insist on being kept abreast of this. >> you've been covering the white house for a while. how seriously is the white house taking this? how bad are they worried about this as far as having blow back from the president? >> this administration points out, and it's true they take leaks seriously. and they have investigated and prosecuted more leakers than other administrations. >> in fact, all other administrations combined, they have six ongoing cases. >> right, and they take a lot of heat from the left for it. because it's not something that you expect from a democratic administration. they say they take it seriously. the president pointed that out today. that he has zero tolerance for this. the thing about these sorts of investigations is once they start, you never know where they lead and how long they last. so the political implications could be potentially damaging for this administration in an election year. and i'd add this has not been a good week for the president. not only this leak story, but other stories. he had all sorts of political damage with the campaign this week. it's been a tough one for the president. >> jessica, stick around. i want to talk to you more about that in a moment. in another report now, president obama gave republicans what some are calling a gift when he said this at the friday press briefing. >> the private sector is doing fine. where we're seeing weaknesses in our economy had to do with state and local government. oftentimes cuts initiated by, you know, governors or mayors who are not getting the kind of help that they have in the past from the federal government. and who don't have the same kind of flexibility as the federal government in dealing with fewer revenues coming in. >> the republicans have pounced on the first five words. the private sector is doing fine. within hours they surfaced in a republican national committee web ad. >> the private sector is doing fine. >> mitt romney and other leading republicans also jumped on president obama's use of those words. >> he said the private sector is doing fine. he said the private sector is doing fine. is he really that out of touch? >> well, mr. president, i used to run a small business. and mr. president, take it from me, the private sector is not doing well. >> we just listened to the president say that the private sector is doing fine. and my question would be to the president, are you kidding? did he see the job numbers come out last week. >> and romney also attacked president obama for calling for more stimulus money to hire workers. >> did hoe not get the message from wisconsin? the american people did. it's time for us to cut back on government and help the american people. >> well, democrats quickly jump on mitt romney for specifying firemen for saying we don't need more of. governor walker kept firefighters and police from seeing the same cuts many others in public sectors face. the white house clearly are ware that saying the private sector is doing fine was giving ammunition to the president's opponents and then the president later clarified his remarks. >> the economy is not doing fine. there are too many people out of work. the housing market is still weak and too many homes underwater. >> to be fair, when the president took office, the economy was in the basement. you can decide for yourself how much credit he should get. it's also true that private sector corporate profits are at an all-time high according to government reports. but keeping them honest here are some other facts. last month, the private sector added 82,000 jobs, far fewer expected and less than the 147,000 in march. job growth is slowing down and unemployment rose to 8.2% last month. a lot to talk about. joining me, chief white house correspondent jessica yellin and ari fleischer and paul begala. so the private sector is doing fine, then he clarifies the remarks. how big of gaffe do you think this is for the president? >> well, anderson, remember when john mccain said in the 2008 election the fundamentals of the economy are strong and then candidate obama hammered him mercilessly for it saying he was out of touch and he rode that all the way to the victory. president obama hasn't demonstrated repeated instances of being totally out of touch. what it's done is gotten him off message. this press conference was intended to let the president take the offensive, to let him say that it's the republicans in congress who are responsible for these jobs -- the disappointing jobs numbers we just saw and he was trying to get the republicans in congress to take action on his jobs bill. >> the president's critics say that the president is out of touch and this is another example of that. do you think it's similar to that john mccain comment? >> no, it's about a 2.0 on the mccain richter scale. it was clearly a mistake. he went in and cleaned it up. heat created -- he hasn't, the american economy and the private sector has created 4.3 million jobs since the recession ended. that's not good enough. but it's better than in the last recession, the last republican presidency, the last presidency we had, we only created 1.7 million jobs. i can't remember the name of the guy, but he was a terrible president. just dreadful. so he's got an argument to make. what's interesting is mitt romney answered it with a gaffe of his own. he attacked president obama for saying we need more teachers, cops and firefighters. >> ari, i want to go to you know. we'll get to what mitt romney said afterward. but let's focus on what president obama said. i mean, do you give him a pass on this or do you think this is a sign that he's out of touch? >> no, i think the only difference between this and what john mccain said is president obama has the advantage of having said it in june when fewer people are watching. john mccain said it in september, october, when it was in the middle of a intense campaign. i think the bigger trouble is an ongoing pattern of dismissiveness of the private sector. the president said oh those rich people are doing fine. it comes from his days of being a community organizer to being the president. >> can't you interpret it as making record profits right now, so he's saying they're doing fine it's the public sector where government can actually do something do in the short term? >> but anderson that's also part of the president's misunderstanding how the private sector works. the reason so many corporations are sitting on the cash is because they're worried about obamacare and the impact on the bottom line, the tax hikes scheduled to go into place on january 1, and the anti-business and anti-corporate environment. people are worried more taxes and regulations are coming down on them so they're being cautious. >> in point of fact, it was said inartfully, but what he meant to say is that the part of the economy where jobs are being added -- where jobs are being lost is the part where government can make the most difference. it's an argument against austerity. he is saying it's astonishing to him that congress won't do something to help government add more teachers' jobs, add more police officers, add more firefighters. this is about a fundamental difference about the role of government. he does not believe in austerity at this time, while republicans do. he's saying republicans should do something -- >> jessica, that's not what he said. >> ari, go ahead. >> that's not what he said. >> it's what he believes and what he said. it was a gaffe, but we have heard him say it many, many times. you have heard him say it. >> i have heard him be dismissive of the private second of the many times that's one of the fundamental drags on the economy. that's one of the reasons his policies aren't working. he's suppressing job creators in this country who fear what's next. >> so paul, then to romney's point, romney makes this statement which i'm wondering if he's going to now clarify that a few hours from now. he said that the president's talking about hiring more teachers and policemen and firemen. we need to be cutting government, that's the message we learned in wisconsin, that the american taxpayers want. it's rare -- do you think that was a gaffe or do you think that was just kind of politically incorrect honesty? because it's rare that people talk about cutting government, but rarely do they specify, you know, teachers and firemen and -- or at least firemen and firefighters and policemen. >> right. it could be that romney just being consistent. when he was in business he laid off private sector workers. and now he wants to be president and he wants to lay off the government workers. it's time for us to cut back on government and help the american people. that's an interesting notion, that fewer cops and fewer firefighters will help the american people. he would be better as a rhetorician if he said not teachers and cops and if i had as many mansions as mitt romney did, i'd want as many firefighters out there. he benefits from the firefighters more than most of us. >> ari, this was a gift to the democrats, but do you think this was a gaffe on mitt romney's part or do you think he's right? >> of course if he had said it about the government workers, but that was his point, he said more workers. he didn't say fewer or less, or he's going to fire as paul has said. he said more. the issue here is as jessica pointed out, philosophical. president obama believes the way you grow the economy is by having the government find more reasons to hire more people. and mitt romney believes in having a private sector thrive so you can hire more people. i think that's the philosophical difference between what the president said and mitt romney said and at the end of the day, mitt romney is a huge winner of this. >> do you think mitt romney is a winner today? >> no. first off, it's june and it is a wash. but the argument is going to be this. whose side are you on? right? both of these guys have the elitist streaks. sometimes the president can be very professorial and that's off putting and sometimes, like always, romney can have the marie antoinette syndrome and insults the working people like today. >> i love that your big insult of the president is he's professorial and mitt romney is he's marie antoinette. >> i'm a state school guy. >> equal on the criticism. but go on, paul. >> well, the president can be a little little ethereal at times. neither are like joe biden who i think is great on middle class kind of cred. but if it's about who you'd rather hang out with, i don't think romney is going to succeed there. >> all right. it's been a fascinating day. thank you. let us know what you think. we're on facebook. follow me on twitter. what do you think of the president's remarks today? there are new images out of syria tonight. video of a doctor and staff of volunteers risking their lives to save civilians and others in a city under siege. we're going to show you what they're up against. it's a cnn exclusive, next. i'm an expert on softball. and tea parties. i'll have more awkward conversations than i'm equipped for because i'm raising two girls on my own. i'll worry about the economy more than a few times before they're grown. but it's for them, so i've found a way. who matters most to you says the most about you. massmutual is owned by our policyholders so they matter most to us. massmutual. we'll help you get there. our cloud is made of bedrock. concrete. and steel. our cloud is the smartest brains combating the latest security threats. it spans oceans, stretches continents. and is scalable as far as the mind can see. our cloud is the cloud other clouds look up to. welcome to the uppernet. welcome back. the latest on syria now. we've gotten some video that we're going to show you in a moment. it was taken by a journalist named robert king who has risked his life to bring it to you. the video shows you in a way we haven't seen before the every day horror that people in some parts of syria are facing. we've cut down the video, because some of it is so gruesome we didn't think we could show it to you. it shows kids who have been cut apart, blown open by shelling, shot by snipers. we want you to see the video because for all the talk and all the statistics and all the debates over what if anything can and should be done to stop the slaughter in syria, this is the reality. men and women and children dying. some of them are fighters, yes. some of them are simply kids. some simply people who have demonstrated for freedom. in homs, more shelling by government forces. at least 40 people killed across syria in the last 24 hours alone according to activists. that follows the alleged killing of 78 people earlier this week, mostly women and children. which of course followed the alleged killing of more than a hundred people two weeks ago in houla. again, mostly women and children. of course the dictator al-assad denies all of this and blames the bloodshed on terrorists. he also says his forces don't kill civilians. they're just fighting terrorists. there are concerns about the fighting in syria, but this fight began with peaceful protests, wasn't begun by jihadists or terrorists. but by regular syrians who had had enough. they began demonstrating 15 months ago calling for reforms. the peaceful protests were met with bullets and batons, tear gas and tanks. the bloodshed is such a daily occurrence, many no longer want to pay attention to it. many people don't cover it anymore. and i understand that, but we ask you to just pay attention for just a few minutes tonight. the only thing worse than children being murdered is children being murder and no one stopping to even pay attention to learn their names or to learn the stories or the loss that their families feel. these images taken by photojournalist robert king who has repeatedly risked his life to document the truth of what's happening right now in syria. the images were taken in a makeshift clinic in the city in al-qusayr, homs province, a place under siege for months. people are injured and sick, but might be saved. those people are dying. >> what is your name? >> dr. kasen. >> dr. kasen? >> yes. >> go, go, go, go. this regime is a terrorist regime. >> doctor, what has happened here? >> i don't know. the army of al-assad. you see this child? terrorists? they cannot go to any hospital in syria. they will kill the wounded. >> even the children? >> even the children. [ child crying ] >> we are every day very busy. if not the wounded, we have more patients. look at this child. is he a terrorist or a fighter? why are they shooting him? you see he is not a fighter. not old man, not young man. he's a 6-year-old with severe injury in the stomach and the liver and the kidney. what he did for our regime is the sniper take this -- this is the child. why is he shooting him? >> will he survive? >> yes. i think. god willing. >> the hospital just got hit by a rocket. [ crying ] we cannot stay in the same place for a long time. >> why can't you stay in the same place? why do you have to keep relocating your hospital? >> because they will -- they will try to catch us. >> are you worried for your own life? >> no. if i will die when i help people, it is good for me. because i am a doctor. i must help people. especially in this very catastrophic time. after the revolution, before the revolution, during the revolution, i will help people. >> life and death in a makeshift clinic in syria. those images taken by robert king, again, who has risked his life to shoot that video. i spoke to him earlier today from inside syria. the video that you've taken in this field hospital is probably some of the most -- i don't know the adjective -- i mean, horrific video that i've seen. it really gives you a sense of just the chaos in the makeshift clinics and the struggle these doctors are under. a lot of people wounded are men involved in the fighting and the free syrian army. but you're seeing so many children. have you seen children who are actually shot by snipers, directly targeted? or are most of them unintended victims of shelling? >> no, i've seen at least two to three children that have been directly targeted by snipers. >> i remember being in sarajevo, in the siege, and over the years people would get angry after a while of reporters who had taken pictures for years, and yet they felt like nothing was changing. do people there feel like the world has abandoned them? >> there's just not that many journalists here anymore. whereas in sarajevo, there was a lot more journalists, a lot more coverage. now this this war, the reaction is the same. there's a lack of response. the difference is that there is no real international media presence. and in some regards, you're it, anderson. i mean, you're the only one that i'm aware of that's continually broadcasting these war crimes from this area. and i'm not saying it just because i'm speaking with you. i can't even move my pictures. it's amazing. >> i think the thing, and we talked about this the last time, none of us can pretend we don't know what was happening. we can't say i didn't know. be