Praise about his tax cuts, his looks, 2020 campaign, and much more. But he only spent a little bit of time, only a few minutes, actually, on the republican that he was supposed to be promoting. And he also slammed multiple democrats, the press, and past president s, but take note of the soft touch he took with north korean dictator, kim jongun, whos expecting to meet with President Trump by may in an historic diplomatic first. Came to my office, after having gone to north korea. And seeing kim jongun, and no, its very positive. No. After the meeting you may do that, but now we have to be very nice, because lets see what happens. Lets see what happens. Now lets go straight to cnn white house correspondent, boris sanchez. And boris, tell us the backstory to the president s appearance. It did not go as aides had expected, but i guess that is no surprise, in a sense. Reporter thats really no surprise, pamela. I spoke to one white house official who told me that the president did about five sentencing of the remarks that were prepared for his speech in pennsylvania saturday night and then he just went off, attacking some of his favorite targets, the media, hillary clinton, elizabeth warren. He added a new line about a rumored 2020 opponent, oprah winfrey, saying that he knows oprahs weaknesses. Then he kind of pivoted and gave us something unexpected, his 2020 campaign slogan, keep america great. Im told that was not in the script. One white house official did not expect that to come out last night. And then the president went a step further and promoted the idea of pushing for Capital Punishment for drug dealers. Something that initially got a mixed response from the crowd. But overall, it appeared to be positive. Youre right, though, in noting that the portion of his speech in which he dealt with north korea was different than what weve heard from the president before. One white house official telling me the president actually consulted with advisers and aides about the language that he was going to use in that part of the speech. We should note why he was in pennsylvania last night. Hes campaigning for rick saccone, the house candidate for pennsylvania district 18. Theres going to be a special election tuesday. It is a district that the president won by more than 20 points in 2016. So republicans are hoping that the president s popularity transfers over to saccone. We should note, i was told that there were portions of the speech that dealt specifically with pushing for rick saccone as a candidate. The president apparently ditched those and started to improvise, calling saccone a hand msome that would likely vote for items on the president s agenda. He had saccone say a few words and took the mike back. It boils down to the president s popularity. Swirling controversies the in the white house, not only on churnover in staff, but the russia investigation. Well see if the president still holds that kind of popularity in these districts as republican strategists and insiders are telling us that this race on tuesday, right now, is a tossup, pam. And well have to wait and see what happens, but this certainly appeared to be a president who was on the campaign trail during that speech. Boris sanchez, thank you so much. And President Trump says the world is watching tuesdays special election in pennsylvanias 18th congressional district. Republicans scram tobbling to s the gop house seat in pittsburghs working class suburbs, a district trump easily won by nearly 20 in 2016. Well, this tight race now too close to call, pitting gops rick saccone against democrat firsttime candidate, connor lamb. Last night, President Trump touted, quote, handsome rick saccone. And connor lamb lamb the sham, right . Lamb the sham. Hes trying to act like a republican so he gets he wont give me one vote. Look, i dont know him. Looks like a nice guy. I hear hes nice looking ping im better looking than him. I do. I do. I do and hes slightly younger than me. Slightly. No, i heard that. Then i saw, hes okay. Hes all right. Personal personally, i like rick saccone. I think hes handsome. Well, all right. In the latest monmouth poll, saccone holding a slim 3 lead, well within the polls margin of error. And just today, saccone picking up a key endorsement. That would be the pittsburpitt postgazette Editorial Board writing, quote, saccone is equipped to be a strong and independent vote for the 18th. I want to bring in Jason Carroll there in waynesburg, pennsylvania. Jason, youve been speaking with voters. What are they saying on the ground there in terms of how this race is going to turn out in these crucial hours . Reporter well, clearly, this race is going to come down to a lot more than just looks, pamela. Thats very obvious. And even though youve seen the endorsement that rick saccone just got, it should also be noted that connor lamb also got the endorsement out here today from the united mine workers, given all the talk that weve heard from this president about the maining industry, there was some thought that perhaps rick saccone would get that endorsement, but not the case. Look, very clearly, this is al referendum on the president. Youve heard it being said over and over again, how well the president did in the 18th district. And there was some thought that would immediately transfer over to rick saccone. Not the case. And thats got a lot of folks within the gop worried. Its got a lot of people from the democrats excited, although cautiously. There was some thought that bringing in the president would somehow give a boost to rick saccone, but not to all the voters we spoke to out here today. It was just the same over and over. Hes a con artist. Conning people. But it was more about trump than it was about rick saccone. Rick saccone is just a trump puppet. You know, we need better. Weve got to get rid of this stuff and bring in real people like connor lamb thats going to actually work for the people. Reporter so, certainly, the president still enjoys a great deal of support throughout the 18th district, whether youre in the rural part of green county, where we are right now, or just outside of pittsburgh in suburbs like mt. Lebanon. So he still enjoys a great deal of support. But the question, pamela, what its all going to come down to is which party is more fired up . And were going to see come tuesday. Pamela . Okay, Jason Carroll, thank you so much for that. And the president also talked about his upcoming highstakes meeting with north Korean Leader kim jongun. Listen to what President Trump said about it. Hey, who knows . If it happens, if it doesnt happen, i may leave fast or we may sit down and make the greatest deal for the world and for all of these countries. Including, frankly, north korea. And i want to bring in republican congressman will hurd of texas. He serves on the House Homeland Security committee, the intelligence committee, and the oversight committee. Congressman, thank you for coming on. Hey, tpamela, its always a pleasure. So i want to talk about this upcoming meeting that is expected to happen. Defense secretary jim mattis has said the potential for misunderstanding remains very high. What do you think of the white house approach to this meeting so far and what would it take for you to view the meeting as a success . Well, pamela, first and foremost, among the things i learned as an undercover officer in the cia is that when people are talking, youre not fighting. So the potential for talks is a good thing. But all the work that has been put into getting the north koreans to this point, working diplomat lically with countries like china, putting a lot of our lame elements of the seventh fleet into that region, making sure that sanctions are working on north korea. Those kind of things need to continue. And the preparatory work that needs to happen before this kind of meeting is just as important. If the president of the United States meets with the president of a rogue nation, the outcome needs to be pretty spectacular and in this case, the only thing that would be spectacular is a north korea agreeing to denuclearize the korean peninsula. And do you actually see that happening . Im cautiously optimistic. One of the things kim jongun is interested in one thing. And that is dying of old age in pyongyang. He wants to stay in power. And we had to change his calculation from saying he used to think the only way he would be able to stay in power if he had Nuclear Weapons. And now we need to get him to think that hes not going to stay in power if he continues to pursue Nuclear Weapons. So, we have to be cautiously optimistic, but we have to continue working diplomatically, because kim jongun knows that we are probably one or two round of sanctions away from preventing north korea from being able to consume any kind of energy. If he cant import energy from china, which he gets about 98 of his energy from china, then hes not going to be able to fight a conventional war. Hes not going to be able to make sure that his Nuclear Weapons has fuel. And so this is something that he knows is close to happening. And one of the reasons why i think youre happening this reaching out to not only the u. S. , but the south koreans. So we all it is in the benefit of the entire world to resolve this issue diplomatically, but the end goal must be a denuclearized korean peninsula. All right. I want to move on to the russia investigation. Top intelligence officials say, congressman, that russia is already trying to influence the 2018 midterms. However, right now, there was 120 million allocated to fight russian meddling, just sitting at the state department thats going unused. Does that concern you . Well, i dont know the reason why those funds arent being used. I do know in a place like the department of homeland security, theyre working with various secretaries of state to make sure that the infrastructure that goes around elections, you know, are that their cybersecurity is proper. Were working to get some more funds for some of these states right, but thats homeland security. Thats what were doing here to try to deter the attacks. But thats not stopping the russians from trying to infiltrate our systems. And mike rogers, as you know, testified that the president has not given the command to counter some of these russian cyber attacks. Well, a key theres a thing called the National Intelligence priority framework, which ranks all of our adversaries around the world and whos supposed to collect on it. Russia is very high. I know that our intelligence communities are collecting on this. What specific actions that may or may not have come from the president s mouth. The Intelligence Community is collecting on russia. But theres a broader question here. And the state department is not going to be able to handle russia disinformation alone. How do we counter this russian disinformation . Whos responsible for it . When it comes to the elections, elections are under the control of secretaries of state. And you know, we have 10,000 different election administrators. We do need to be having a broader conversation around countering russian disinformation. But we also need to be accounting, we all learned when we were in school, dont get into a car with a stranger. Unless its an uber driver. Bewe need to learn, why are you sharing information on social media if you dont know where its coming from . Now, thats the long game. Thats something that we feed to make sure is part of our culture and how we use social media. But we need to make sure its very clear what the public sector, what the private sector, what the media, what academia should be doing in handling russian disinformation. But do you think the president should be doing more, being more outspoken about Russian Election meddling . Maybe he should. But weve got to remember the people that are tasked with this, that care about this issue, that are trying to make sure that were resilient to russian disinformation is working on this. You know, im proud of the works that the folks in the Intelligence Community are doing to try to collect this information. But we could be doing a better job of sharing information between the private and public sector. When you look at the u. S. Social Media Companies and their research on how russia used their tool to try to influence the elections. All of that was Research Done by themselves. The federal government still hadnt shared the information that we have access to, in order to make sure that theyre looking and turning over every single rock. This is something that the only way were going to make sure that were prepared to defend against this kind of disinformation is if the public and the private sector are working handinglove on such an important issue. All right. Congressman will hurd, thank you so much. Always a pleasure, pamela. Thank you. Well, former Trump Campaign aide, sam nunberg, said this about complying with the special counsel investigation on monday. Im not going to do it im not going to do it. But then he went on to testify before a grand jury on sunday. And later said this whole thing is not a witch hunt. So what does that mean for the president and the russia investigation . Plus, uk police are warning hundreds to wash their clothes because they could have been in contact with a deadly nerve agent. The latest from salisbury, up next. With 5 times more ethnic regions. Ancestrydna can pinpoint where your ancestors are from. And the paths they took to a new home. Could their journey inspire yours . Order your kit at ancestrydna. Com if yor crohns symptoms are holding you back, and your Current Treatment hasnt worked well enough, it may be time for a change. Ask your doctor about entyvio, the only biologic developed and approved just for uc and crohns. Entyvio works at the site of inflammation in the gi tract and is clinically proven to help many patients achieve both symptom relief and remission. Infusion and serious allergic reactions can happen during or after treatment. Entyvio may increase risk of infection, which can be serious. Pml, a rare, serious, potentially fatal brain infection caused by a virus may be possible. 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Well, heres the tweet from President Trump, denying a story that hes looking the to add to his legal and also dissing the need for special counsel Robert Muellers investigation. The president says, quote, i am very happy with my lawyers, john dowd, ty cobb, and jay sekulow. They are doing a great job and have shown conclusively that there was no collusion with russia. And yet, thats not the conclusion from sam nunberg, who was fired twice from the Trump Campaign. And his guess may be better than anyones, since he just spent six hours friday with the grand jury. I was there a long time and they have a lot of questions. Did i ever hear russian spoke in the office . And then they asked, why did President Trump support putin in syria. Do you think its a witch hunt . No, i dont think its a witch hunt. Theres a lot there there. Joining me now, cnn political analyst, ryan lizza, and sabrina siddiqui, politics reporter for the guardian. Sabrina, ryan, thanks for coming on. First to you, this tweet to the president today, saying that his lawyers have shown conclusively that there is no conclusillusio russia. Thats simply not true. There have been no conclusions on this matter. Where is that coming from . Since the very beginning, the president has dismissed this investigation as a witch hunt. He sees it as delegitimizing his victory in the election. But he has also refused to even acknowledge russian interference in the election. And he has dismissed the fact hes slightly acknowledged it. Hes tip todatoed around it back and forth, one day it happened, one day it didnt. But there have now been at least four officials indicted. And you have sam nunberg, his longtime mentor is roger stone, who had contact with julian assange, cofounder of wikileaks. That is where the hacked emails from the Clinton Campaign and the dnc have appeared. So what you have is this pattern of contacts between officials who have either associated with the campaign or with the president and moscow, you know, the extent to which there was a quid pro quo, we dont yet know. But the special counsel team has issued a series of indictments indicating that there was some, potentially, conclusion. And you have sam nunberg really changing his tune. On monday, he was saying, im not going to go before the grand jury, this is all ridiculous. And then on friday, after he spent six hours before the grand jury, he says, this investigation is no witch hunt. That this is actually legitimate. How is the white house reacting though, do you think . Something happened in that grand jury that was so sobering to nunberg. Because he came out and did this interview with abc and he seemed to take very seriously what mueller, the road mueller is going down, right . And its one of the clearest takes we have on the kinds of questions that are being asked behind closed doors. The special counsel apparently asking things about policy decisions that the white house made and how they relate policy decisions about russia, and obviously, the line of questioning suggesting, is there any quid pro quo . Is the president of the United States making policy with regards to russia because of something, some relationship . And that is kind of shoc