At the heart of the fire iing o National Security adviser michael flynn. The post reports flynn was at the meeting when kushner reportedly made this offer. But the president is pushing back and so are several of his top aids. Namely National Security adviser mcmaster. Listen to this briefing with reporters. We have back Channel Communications with them in a number of countries. So generally speaking about back Channel Communications, what that allows you to do is kmoout communicate in a discreet manner. It doesnt predispose you to content. So we would not be concerned about it. Lets begin with jeff zeleny. How is the president responding to all of this . The president is defending his soninlaw. Hes concerned by just a gravity and the deepening nature of this russia investigation. But the president is defending his soninlaw. It sounds like hes doing that for internal divisions inside the west wing here as much as anything else. Lets take a look at this statement that the president gave to the New York Times in a story they have this morning about his soninlaw. It says this. Jared is doing a great job for the country. I have total confidence in him. Hes respect ed by vir yulely everyone and is working on programs that will save our country billions of dollars. In addition to that, and perhaps more importantly, hes a very good person. Defending his soninlaw certainly is extraordinary. But theres no mention of any of the matter at hand of this russia investigation. His statement does not talk about that at all. So the question here is as the president tries to change the subject and get back to their agenda of doing something they were elected to do, the russia investigation is hang iing over them and the question is what happens to Jared Kushner. He was first among equals. Im told hes willing to talk to the fbi, willing to talk to members of congress here and hes going to. Keep his head down internally. What its allowed is for some of his rivals inside the west wing to sort of resume their previous positions of strength here. So all of this is going on as this white house tries to get back to the subject and their jebd. Now the russia investigation is one of their agenda items. Jeff zeleny, all of this at play. Lets continue the conversation with evan mcmullen, tomorrower operations officer. He launched a third party run for president against donald trump. Good to see you. First just on the news that kushner wanted to set up this russian back channel. Your response . I was shocked. And i think the term back channel is very generous to Jared Kushner. A back channel in the diplomatic sense is something that a president would sign off on. Its an officially sanctioned effort to communicate discreetly with the foreign government. Thats fine we do that as others have pointed out. The problem is that this was not that. This was secret communications or a desire to set them up with our largest adversary using their equipment at their facilities. This was before they took power. This was before inauguration. They can still have communications before inaugurati inauguration. Some would say that needs to be managed carefully, but you could still have that. The concern is that they wanted secret communications with moscow at a time when they knew that moscow and its role in our election was under scrutiny and they want the ed it now and wanted to be skrelt. The question is what is it that Jared Kushner and his boss wanted to communicate with such urgency in such secrecy with the kremlin. We dont know the answer to that. Im sure there are multiple committees who will want to. To your point on back channelling. At the cia if i arrange comes with russia outside of official channels and set up a a secret meeting, i would be tried tr espionage. Would you agree . Absolutely. Absolutely. Theres not a question. In the world of espionage, communications are critical, very sensitive. Topic. How communications are conducted, who controls them. Does it matter he would have been a private citizen . Granted on the transition team, but a private citizen versus the krirks a. They can be guilty as well. He had ak b ses to the protect. He was one of the president elects closest advisers. They were heading into a presidency with enormous power. Especially over sanctions. Reuters has reported that the fbi is investigating to see whether Jared Kushner was actually involved in conversations with the russian bank in which there was a a discussion about whether sanctions could be relaxed and then the bank could offer financing to Trump Associates in response. You have to wonder is this what they wanted to talk about or what these secret communications were necessary. Maybe no protocol. Hes not been in politics before. I think thats part of it. Thats a very important point. People seem to think that its something that comes separately from espionage. Many people who get into these situations do so out of incredible hue brous, ego, there are many things that are involved in decisions to commit treasonous acts, to commit es peon age. Sto say he was naive is a misunderstanding of how this works. You mentioned hr mcmaster and secretary kelly has come to his defense. But if you havent heard what they are saying, listen. Whatever the communication is comes back into the government and shared across the government. So its not a bad thing to have multiple communication lines to any government. Using their equipment in their diplomatic facilities . Again, dont know if all of that is true. I would just say that any line of communication to a country like russia is a good thing. They are down play iing it. They certainly are. Im sad to say that secretary kelly is misleading the american people. Its very disappointing. He says that any communications with a country like russia are a good thing. Its simply not true. If that were true, then espionage contacts would be okay. That could be a good thing. Its not true. And notice that neither he nor mcmaster refutes the underline report, which is there was this offer, discussion about b Covert Communications with the kremlin. They dont dispute that. They go back to explaining why a back channel is a good thing. This is not a back channel and i wish we would stop using that term to describe it. Thats what the administration want. S to say to describe it. Thats not what americans, those of us concerned about National Security should say about it. Point taken. And he has said to congress, yes, you will meet with them and give up information of any of these meetings so far but the probe is widening. The president s soninlaw, thank you so much. Lets talk now that the political ramifications of all of this, the Washington Post reports that the Trump Administration is preparing a special strategy to handle the fallout coming from this russia probe, including latest allegations involving Jared Kushner. So we talked last hour to john wagner. He was reporting on how the Trump Administration is creating a war room, sort of the Monica Lewinsky bill clinton days with lawyers and communication experts. You can understand why. Because the goal here is to try to wall off people who focus solely on that. You just heard jeff zeleny say to that this is an agenda item. So that is is a realization that this is true. So try and get a team solely dedicated to that, those are the only people that answer those questions. Every time somebody gets questioned about the russia investigation say talk over there and then more importantly perhaps, free up everyone else in the west wing who is not working on that at all in the administration the flexibility to try to enact an agenda is just a strategy that attempts to cordon off what is all consuming so the entire administration is not engulfed by it. Then Jared Kushner issue, apparently the whole thing is jared island. This is how some of the trump staffers are referring to him to the New York Times. They discuss his special status in the white house. The fact he left that trip early almost protective of the president knowing the news was going to drop on this kremlin communication. Probably was a smart move. There are definitely are a couple different fangss in the white house. One that is circling the wagons around Jared Kushner and the other that are sniping behind his back and say iing exactly wt you said. The whole jared island conversation. This is one of the reasons that having a Family Member so close to power. The president is family above all else. Jared kushner is his daughters husband, so hes not easy to dispense of, nor does the president want him to be dispensed of. So the fact that the president is responding so vehemently to this, he had an on the record comment in the New York Times. How often does that happen . It shows how seriously they are taking this. And how problematic this is going forward, even if Jared Kushner does go to the senate and tells them what he knows. So this is on the agenda. We know the president is back because twitter has been afire in the last 24 hours. Part of that includes tweets like this one. It is my opinion that many of the leaks coming out of the white house are fabricated lies made up by the fake news media. Whenever you see the word sources say in the fake news media, they dont mention names, its possible that the sources dont exist and are made up by fake news writers. But reporters are pointing out they are asking to speak to reporters all the time. And trump is wanting his administration to find the leakers and saying the leaks are fake, you cant have it both ways. Certainly anonymous sources. Pi find little sthie for the white house when they complain about the white house. Nearly every white house has used that complaint and folks love to remain anonymous. So when it comes to the leaks here. Notice the movement of President Trump on this. He was asked flat out in february at a press conference youre saying that the news is fake or that the leaks are fake. He said the leaks are real. Now hes calling the leaks fake. So he has moved on this as the news that has been leaking out, has been less and less favorable to him. I think you just gave me a headache. Jackie, big week ahead. What should we be looking for . Its a really open question, to be honest. Congress is out of session. I dont believe, the last time i looked at my phone, there wasnt an agenda set for the white house. There is talk about the president weighing in on the paris climate agreement. Theres been some reporting this he might decide to pull out of it. But again, his daughter ivanka and eric have initially were telling him to stay in it. We heard there was a meeting that was supposed to have over this agreement rescheduled several times. So its sort of an open question at this point on what the white house decides to focus on this week. Paris acord, health care, well see if they can take some of the momentum from the trip and parlay it into Something Back here at home. Thank you so much. Breaking news now involving golf legend tiger woods. Look at this. His mug shot. He was arrested this morning suspected of driving under the influence. What we know, well tell you, coming up. Also ahead, new pictures of that Manchester Concert bomber and his blue suitcase. Why authorities are asking for the publics help. Two heroes sacrificing their lives to defend two strangers ob a train during aracist attack in portland. One of the strangers is speaking out about what haunts her the most. Youre watching cnn, im brooke baldwin. So nice, so nice. Sweet, sweet st. Thomas nice. So nice, so nice. St. Croix full of pure vibes. So nice, so nice. St. John a real paradise. So nice, so nice. Book three nights and receive 300 in spending credits. Only at visitusvi. Com if you have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, isnt it time to let the real you shine through . Introducing otezla, apremilast. Otezla is not an injection or a cream. Its a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. Some people who took otezla saw 75 clearer skin after 4 months. And otezlas prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. Dont take otezla if you are allergic to any of its ingredients. Otezla may increase the risk of depression. 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Theres this. a bit of this. Why not . Your hotel should make it easy to do all the things you do. Which is what we do. Crowne plaza. Were all business, mostly. Breaking news out of south florida. Once the greatest golfer in the world, tiger woods arrested this morning suspected of driving under the influence near his home in jupiter. He was later released from jail with no bond. Let e me bring in christine brennan. Talk about a fall from grace. No one ever thought they would see a mug shot of tiger woods. Its sad. Its absolutely sad. And as someone who has been k t critical of him over the years in the sports media, theres nothing but sadness here. The horror of what could have been if driving under the influence as the Authorities Say what we could have done, not only to himself, but others on the road in the middle of the night in jupiter, florida. Tiger is 41. Hes not 21. He has two kids. Hes an adult in every way. But he would make a decision to drive while under the influence of something, were not sure what it was yet. Its astounding. The fall from grace is just stunning. I cant even believe were discussing this. I was going back just to try to understand what hes been up to recently. Hes been in and out of action. He had some back fusion surgery as recent as a month ago where it was an instant nerve relief. And he said he hadnt felt this good in years. That was last no. The surgery was midapril and hes hoping to come back. We havent seen him much. Hes played three times worldwide in two years. Hes had four procedures. On the same spot in his back over the last three years. So four different surgeries in the exact same spot over three years. This was the latest. But this was what he felt was necessary to finally aleafuate the pain, which is why we havent seen him on the golf course. So he would have been in a good place and would have been happy. I think it also shows the depths of where he is. He cannot play the game he loves. He was groomed for this. Hes won 14 major titles, but none now in 9 years. Just the difficulty of his life in this public demise and tall from grace is sastounding. Maybe not surprising entirely except the decision of a man w has his life together to make this decision. He will regret that and live with it for his entire life. What do we know about his personal life . Just over the past couple years, you mentioned his two kids after the infamous divorce. The run . Was 2009. Then the cascading debacle of his personal life fall it iting apart all selfinduced. He has two kids. A boy and a girl who plays so soccer and takes them to and from school. He has a Good Relationship with his exwife. By all accounts hes living a very nice life. Except for the back problems hes had and the surgeries hes had to endure. He doesnt play much golf because he hasnt been able to play. He opened a restaurant. Hes seen around town in florida. And as i said, hes living a relatively normal life. So again, this is something that is just a misstep that he could not afford to make. Thank goodness no one was injured. Thank goodness. We wish them the best. Thank goodness for him and anyone else that could have been on the road. Thank you so much. Coming. Up next, a shocking attack on a portland, oregon, metro train. Two men killed, another barely survived after stepping in to defend two girls from a man shouting antimuslim slurs. Well hear from the heros Family Members and ill speak to the mayor in moments. He died fighting the good fight protecting the innocent. Its what he would have wanted. I count on my dell Small Business advisor for tech advice. With one phone call, i get products that suit my needs and i get back to business. Itthat can make a worldces, of difference. Expedia, everything in one place, so you can travel the world better. The future isnt silver suits anits right now. S, think about it. We can push buttons and make cars appear out of thin air. Find love anywhere. Hes cute. And buy things from, well, everywhere. How . Because our phones have evolved. So isnt it time our networks did too . Introducing americas largest, most reliable 4g lte combined with the most wifi hotspots. Its a new kind of network. Xfinity mobile. Despite americas division, the rhetoric, the hate we see in the headlines, there are 12i8 still heroes hong us. Even in the unlikeliest of places. Even on a train. Its friday afternoon, two young women riding this commuter train in portland, oregon. One of them wearing a hijab when a monster begins to yell out racist and antimuslim slurs at them. He told us to go back to saudi arabia and he told us that we shouldnt be here and to get oit of his country. He was just telling us that we basically werent anything and a and that we should just kill ourselves. The young women there tells us she and her friend moved to the back of the train to get away. But then a stranger steps in. He defends them and says to the men yao cant disr