Deconfliction channel. Of course, the russians are backing those Syrian Regime forces. And they backed up for about two hours, but then those Syrian Forces, pro Regime Forces, came back, started bombing the u. S. Backed forces again, and essentially, the u. S. Shot down the plane. A statement from the Coalition Said the u. S. And the coalition are not looking to get into an escalation with the Syrian Regime, but they have pledged to collective selfdefense, and thats defending and protecting those syrianbacked forces as they go against isis. Their statement says theyre not looking to create an escalation of events, but should this be regarded as an escalation in military action . Reporter well, i certainly dont think the u. S. Is regarding it as an escalation. We havent seen anything since then. We have to wait and see what this Syrian Regime will do. We have to wait and see what the russians will do, whether this will lead to an escalation. I certainly dont think the u. S. Is looking to escalate, but i think it also raises the question. The u. S. Did call the russians, who are backing those Syrian Forces. Theres always been a question as to what kind of influence the russians really have over this Syrian Regime. And the fact that the Syrian Forces came back might indicate that they dont have all that much influence. So, well have to wait and see over the next 24 hours. These Syrian Forces, the pro Regime Forces stretched very thin, so you would think they wouldnt want to escalate and risk getting shot down by the u. S. Again, but well have to see. All right, elise labott reporting. Thanks for staying on top of it for us. Turning to politics and the question about whether President Trump himself is under investigation. He tweeted friday that he is, but 48 hours later, his lawyer says, uhuh, no, the president s not being investigated, period. Confused . A bit perplexed . Heres what we know, last week, the Washington Post reported that special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating President Trump for possible obstruction of justice and that muellers interviewing at least three Senior Intelligence officials as part of this expanding probe. The post report was the most significant suggestion yet that muellers investigation is growing beyond questions of russian interference in the 2016 election. President trump called the report phony, but friday he tweeted this, and i quote, i am being investigated for firing the fbi director by the man who told me to fire the fbi director. Witch hunt. Lets bring in White House Correspondent athena jones. Athena, the president s lawyer was asked about that tweet. Do we have clarity now . Reporter not entirely, ana. These are the sorts of mixed messages that have come to define this white house. This is just the latest example of someone whos working for President Trump who isnt exactly on the same page as the president , and it doesnt help that the president is constantly contradicting not just his aides, but himself. You mentioned the report on wednesday in the Washington Post that he was under investigation. He called that report a phony on thursday. Then on friday, tweeted what suggests to be a confirmation that he is indeed under investigation. One of his lawyers, jay sekulow, speaking on state of the union, said that the president was referring to the Washington Post report. Listen. Should we take that tweet from the president as confirmation that the president is under investigation . Let me be clear, the president is not under investigation. As james comey said in his testimony, that the president was not the target of an investigation on three different indications, the president is not the subject or target of an investigation. The president said i am under investigation, even though he isnt under investigation . That response on social media was in response to the Washington Post piece. Its that simple. The president is not under investigation. Youre saying that the president when he said that was not accurate. No, the president wasnt it was 141 characters. Theres a limitation on twitter, as we all know, and the president is a very effective utilization of social media. So, heres what you have, the president issued that tweet, that social media statement, based on a fake report, a report with no documented sources from the Washington Post. So, a couple of points to make there about that interview. First of all, you had months of white house officials telling us that we should take the president s tweets at face value, they are president ial statements. Now you have the president s lawyer arguing differently, suggesting that the character limit is why he didnt get his full message across. And then we also have the president s allies constantly arguing that he is not under investigation because former fbi director james comey testified that he told the president three separate times that he was not under investigation. But we all have to remember, ana, that comey has not been in charge of the fbi since the beginning of may, so that information is out of date. And its also important to note here that jay sekulow, the president s legal team wouldnt necessarily know whether hes under investigation or not because the fbi and the special counsel wouldnt necessarily notify his legal team. So, this is just more mixed messages. Ana . All right. And athena, it is the same lawyer who just last weekend said President Trump was going to address whether there are any tapes. Still no answer. Reporter exactly, still no answer. And sekulow was asked with b that today, and he said, well, there was a lot going on last week, the president had that major address on cuba, announcing a change in cuba policy. There was also the shooting at the republican members of congress baseball practice. He talked about the assassination attempt of House Majority whip Steve Scalise, who is still in the hospital. And so, sekulow says that the issue of the tapes was not the priority number one last week. He expects that could be addressed this week. But the bottom line is this is just one more example of deadlines that shift. We really dont know when were going to get a clear answer on whether or not there are tapes or ana . Athena jones, thank you. Cnn political analyst and columnist for the Washington Post, josh rogin. Cnn legal analyst and former federal prosecutor who has worked closely with the special counsel, Robert Mueller, michael zeldin, and an attorney who helped prosecute watergate, philip allen lakuvara. Is there any way to definitively know whether the president is being investigated . No. In a word, no. The work of the special counsel should be done privately and confidentially and that the leaks are leaks and that we can see where gho, but we dont kno now that the president is under investigation for obstruction of justice because mueller hasnt said it. And until mueller says it, we dont know it. And as athena pointed out, jay sekulow, the president s lawyer, may not know it, either. But josh, the president made a point to mention so many times that he wasnt under investigation. He even mentions it in comeys firing letter. After trying so hard to prove that he wasnt the focus of an investigation, why tweet now that he is . Well, it seems that the president of the United States places a lot more faith in the Washington Posts reporting than his aides do and than some of our guests do and than his lawyers do. The bottom line is he cant have it both ways. Either theyre fake news reports or he really takes them at face value and is complaining about the substance of them. So if we read the tweets as the president s contemporaneous thoughts, he believes hes under investigation. Its true that he doesnt know. Its not true, as jay sekulow said on several morning shows today, that we could be sure that hes not under investigation. He doesnt know, the president doesnt know, you know, i tend to trust the Washington Post reporting. Theyve got some great reporters over there. They usually do a great job. And it seems the president is inclined to as well, if were to read his tweets literally. Well may i add one thing . Go ahead, michael. Which is, to call somebody under investigation, meaning that they are a target or a subject of the inquiry, is a very specific legal term. To say that there is an inquiry going on by Robert Mueller, where hes taking witness testimony and then determining where those witnesses take him is quite another thing. So, i think that to say that someone is under investigation may be a misstatement of what it is. I think theres an Ongoing Investigation or tblit could be a perfectl accurate statement of whats going on, because you dont know if hes under investigation or if theres an inquiry to determine whether hes under investigation either, so well you cant call it a misstatement because you dont know what the ground truth is. Lets let philip give his take on this. What do you think, philip . Yeah, i think its extremely likely that there is an inquiry that probably is already ripening into an investigation. That is many people, including me, have said that jim comeys testimony established the basic grounds for an obstruction of justice charge, and theres other corroborating evidence to that effect. I think it would be remarkable if bob mueller and his team were not looking into this, but as others have said, its unlikely that he would confirm that the president isnt under investigation, because jim comey got himself in trouble by telling President Trump a couple of months ago that he wasnt under investigation at the time. So i think its much more likely that there is, in fact, an effort to see what other evidence exists that may bear on the president s own culpability. [ everyone talking at once ] can i point out real quick prosecute i just everybody wants to get in. Josh first, then michael. Then philip. We didnt even talk about the second part of trumps tweet, which is also wrong, by the guy who told me to fire comey, when the president admitted he decided to fire comey before anyone wrote any letters or asked for them to support the decision he already made. So theres a lot in the tweet thats misleading. We can go over and over whether its an investigation or inquiry, but the bottom line is what the president has said and done and tweeted has made it worse for himself, has encouraged Robert Mueller to expand his investigation, putting him, his aides and his lawyers in a much worse position. Thats the news here. Thats whats important. Michael . Thats where we disagree. I think that there is a preliminary inquiry going on, as phil said. It may lead to an investigation where somebody is named a subject or a target. Obstruction was always part of muellers mandate. Im not defending the president by any means. I have no, you know, political dog in the fight. All im saying is, were in a preliminary stage and we need to be careful about calling people targets and subjects of an obstruction how do you know were in the preliminary stage . Do you have inside information from bob muellers team that supports that assertion or are you just saying we have no knowledge that subpoenas [ everyone talking at once ] youre making me argue with you, which im not trying to do. Im asking on what basis you claim we have an inquiry thats in a preliminary stage thats not an actual investigation let michael finish his thought. Because witnesses havent been called, because grand juries havent been convened, because subpoenas havent been issued. I think when those things happen, we will know that they happen. I am confident that [ everyone talking at once ] thats wrong, witnesses havent been called . Let me just expand the conversation for a minute. Just wrong. Ask you this question, philip, given, again, you have had some experience with president s in trouble with watergate, obviously. You helped prosecute watergate. Ive heard from a lot of legal minds saying the president cannot obstruct justice. He could fire whoever he wants to fire because he is the executive of the executive branch. So, what do you make of that . I mean, this idea of the investigation expanding into obstruction of justice, why would it go there if obstruction of justice really cant be found for the president . Yeah, i think thats part of one of the lines of defense that the president s boosters are trying to put out there in the press. I think its simply unfounded. The fact that the president has the power under his Constitutional Authority to fire an executive branch official doesnt mean that he could fire the official without regard to the other requirements of law, including criminal law. The most obvious example would be if the president had been bribed to fire the fbi director. Theres really no doubt that he would be subject to criminal prosecution, in my view, for being corrupted to use his power, just the way anybody else who has governmental power is responsible for corruption in the exercise of that power. So, i think this is a monstrously large red herring. If the president has violated the terms of the obstruction of justice criminal statute, the fact that hes the president , in my view, doesnt excuse him from the normal requirements of criminal law that apply to everyone else in the exercise of power. Can we do a quick flashback here . President trump, hes called this investigation a witch hunt so many times, but take a look at this Old Newspaper clipping. This is from 1973 during watergate. Nixon called it the exact same thing, this investigation into his business, a witch hunt. So, phil, was that nixons strategy . Was that counter to his legal team and what they were trying to do at the time . That was part of the nixon strategy, to try to martial Political Support for his position to undermine the course of the Watergate Special prosecutors investigation, and thats why ive said on a couple of occasions recently, i get this feeling that ive seen this movie before, and much of what has been going on over the last several months parallels with almost eerie precision a number of the things that unfolded in watergate. Now, thats not to say that the outcome will be the same as it was in watergate, as others have said on this panel. Were still at a relatively early stage, regardless of what label we attach to the inquiry, but some of the steps that have been taken by the president and the president s men do resemble some of the things that did unfold in watergate. Gentlemen, ive been enlightened. Thank you all for joining us. Thank you. And happy fathers day to the dads. Thank you. This is cnn breaking news. Lets turn to more breaking news this hour, this from the west african nation of mali. At least two people have been killed, 30 rescued from a hotel thats popular with westerners. It was attacked by gunmen today. The Mali Security Ministry is telling us that antiterror forces are still trying to secure the scene. It comes less than ten days after the u. S. Embassy in malis capital city warned americans traveling there about an increased Security Threat to westerners. Well stay on top of that story and bring you new developments as we get them. American lives lost at sea after a u. S. Navy ship collided with a cargo ship off japan. And now questions asked about whos to blame for this tragedy and what could have been done to prevent it. Youre live in the cnn newsroom. St the other day he came to the world in the usual way but there were planes to catch and bills to pay so i moved my meeting saw him walk that day he was talking fore i knew it, and as he grew hed say im gonna be like you, dad you know im gonna be like you and the cats in the cradle and the silver spoon Little Boy Blue and the man in the moon. Its about moving forward, not back. T. Its looking up, not down. Its being in motion. In body, in spirit, in the now. Boost® high protein its intelligent nutrition with 15 grams of protein and 26 vitamins and minerals. For when you need a little extra. Boost® the number one high protein complete nutritional drink. Be up for it this is a story about mail and packages. And its also a story about people. People who rely on us every day to deliver their dreams theyre handing us more than mail theyre handing us their business and while we make more ecommerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country, we never forget. That your business is our business the United States postal service. Priority you new information now about the massive london fire that killed at least 58 people. We are learning about potential problems in the 24story tower that burned, as Police Released new video of the charred damage left behind. Huge flames tore through this residential tower early wednesday. A senior uk Government Official now says he believes the cladding recently used in a recent upgrade to the tower is banned for buildings above a certain height. There will be an inquiry. Angry residents, many who lost everything they owned in the fire, voice fears of a coverup. London police have opened a criminal investigation. More breaking news on cnn now. The tragic accident this weekend in the pacific in which seven american sailors lost their lives. U. S. Navy rescue divers have managed to recover the bodies of these sailors in the flooded part of the japan destroyer the uss fitzgerald. It was badly damaged after crashing into a container ship three times her siz