Number overnight. House speaker ryan lost more support than he can handle to pass the bill. Good morning. Welcome to early start. Im dave briggs on this st. Patricks day. One of us remembered. One did not. I have a green pen. Im irish every day. Im christine romans. 16 irish. Im christine romans. It is friday, march 17th. 4 00 a. M. In the east. The white house lashing out defending the unfounded wiretapping allegations. The most combative stance yesterday in the briefing for the ages. This was epic. Press Secretary Sean Spicer quoting the leaders who say there is no evidence president obama ordered a wiretap of the trump campaign. We have not seen evidence there was a wiretap or fisa court order of somebody in the trump tower. Ryan backed up by richard burr and ranking democrat mark warner. Based on the Information Available to us, we see no indications the trump tower was the subject of surveillance by any element of the United States government before or after election day 2016. Cnns jim acosta was directly in the line of fire at the white house. Reporter dave and christine, the white house is digging in trying to explain to Donald Trumps baseless claim during the 2016 wiretap. Sean spicer the president will be vindicated after the committees investigate the matter. The president has already said clearly when he remembered to wiretapping, he referred to surveillance. It sounds like you and the president are saying we dont mean wiretapping. Now were going to say other forms of surveillance. What will it be there was widespread reporting through the 2016 election, there was surveillance on a variety of people. The investigation going on whether they were contacted in the campaign . You somehow believe i get it. Somehow you seem to believe you have all of this information. You have been read in on all of these things which i find very interesting. Reporter President Trump will have another time to standoff when he has a meeting with Angela Merkel later today. Dave and christine. Jim, we admire your restraint. James comey will testify before the House Committee on monday. The ranking democrat telling cnn he expects comey he will say he has seen no evidence to support the wiretapping claim. Jim asked Mick Mulvaney if the numbers in the budget are a hardhearted budget. I dont think so. It is one of the most compassionate things question do. Reallocate and reprioritize spending as any family or business would do. The federal government is not a family and is not a business. While supporters will say it is wasteful, there is a lot of backlash getting cut. Meals on wheels. The white house says there is no evidence that meals on wheels works. Program in many independent studies say otherwise. This started in 1954. It supports 5,000 community organizations. It helps 2. 4 million seniors get meals and safety checks. Administrators say a year of the cost of feeding a senior in meals on wheels is less than one day in an er if they were to fall or something were to happen and no one to check on them. Another move thats getting push back is the 5. 8 billion cut to the nih. A 20 budget reduction. The American Medical Association issuing this statement. The American Medical Association has concerns could the cuts. Nhi conducts research in chronic diseases which are major drivers of health care costs. Bottom line, will private Companies Fund research into very obscure diseases . Thats what the government steps in and researchers step in. Thats a big concern. Highly controversial day. The bill to replace obamacare hanging in the balance this morning with the growing number of republicans voicing opposition to the plan. House Speaker Paul Ryan clinging to his hope measure will survive. He cannot afford to lose support from more than 21 republicans. Right now, exactly 21 republicans on record they wi will oppose or leaning against. President trump tweeting, great progress on Health Care Improvement being made. Republicans coming together. More now from cnns Sunlen Serfaty on capitol hill. Reporter good morning, dave and christine. Opposition continues to stack up here on capitol hill. Over the House Health Care bill. Speaker of the house paul ryan has very little room for error here as he continues to work behind the scenes to wrangle the votes he needs. The vote inched forward passing the budget committee. It goes to the rules committee. That is where speaker ryan can make the tweaks and changes he has been talking about. Thats where essentially it gets really difficult. You have ryan who very well knows he needs to attract enough conservative votes and make enough changes to attract new conservative votes, but not make too many changes to lose moderate votes. Here is how he put it on thursday. Clearly the main parts of the bill will stay as they are, but we are making improvements and refinements based on the feedback from members and the president of the United States is the one mediating this. The president is bringing people together and sitting around a table and hashing out differences so we get to consensus. The goal here is get to a bill that can pass. Reporter note at the end, speaker ryan taking pains to portray that. He and President Trump are in sync as they push forward on the bill and push ownership and responsibility for its passage back on donald trump. Sunlen, thank you. The seattle federal judge who blocked the first travel ban declined to extend that order to travel ban 2. 0. Judge James Robarts ruling is not necessary because two other judges have blocked it from going into effect now. Press Secretary Sean Spicer says the rulings are preventing travelers from going into effect from six majority muslim countries. The danger is real and the law is clear. The presideresident elected to the broken immigration system. He will continue to exercise the Constitutional Authority and president ial responsibility to protect our nation. The top democrat on the House Intelligence Committee believes President Trump may have revealed classified information wednesday night with fox news. The president was being asked about his wiretapping allegation against president obama when he revealed the cia had been hacked before he took office. Listen. I just want people to know the cia was hacked and a lot of things taken during the obama years. That was not during us. During the obama situation. Democratic Congress Member adam schiff is trying to determine precisely what mr. Trump was talking about. He acknowledged the president has the power to declassify anything anytime, but he called mr. Trumps comment reckless. Secretary of state Rex Tillerson in south korea today among rising tensions with north korea. Why does tillerson believe diplomacy has already failed . We will go live to seoul next. Happening right now. Rex tillerson overseas in south korea speaking right now with the south Korean Foreign minister. Tillerson sending a message the Trump Administration is abandoning diplomatic efforts to talk north korea out of a nuclear confrontation. The secretary says after two deck aades of trying, it is tim for a new approach. You see him standing at the podium now as the south Korean Foreign minister speaks. For more on what he means, lets go live to seoul, south korea and bring in paula hancocks. Paula, are you with us . Reporter dave, i am. Im up at the dmz where secretary tillerson was earlier today talking to the military brass. He is now talking to the politicians. He is next to the south Korean Foreign minister. The main headline of what he said is if policy of strategic patience is over. This is the Obama Administration policy. A wait and see policy. Not engaging with north korea. It is widely believed to not have been successful as the Nuclear Missile program has increased with some intensity over recent years. Now secretary tillerson also said north korea must understand the only way to a secure and peaceful future is to abandon developments of nuclear weapons. He mentioned a new range of policies. I have been looking and i took this press conference. I have not heard anything new. We dont know the policy for the Trump Administration. We are hearing secretary tillerson saying this is not just an asian problem, but global problem. Most countries need to be involved and china needs to be doing more. The main trading partner and ally of north korea. Mentioning the Missile Defense system which started to arrive here last week. China is furious about the deployment. Secretary tillerson said the economic repercussions that china is carrying out on north korea are inappropriate and troubling after this trip saturday morning local time, he will be heading to china. Some fairly strong words for beijing. Thank you, paula. A stunning new study finds female Financial Advisers at Wells Fargo Bank are 20 more likely to lose their jobs than men. The Research Shows wells fargo shows the highest rate of women fired were 27 between 2015 and 2017. The statement, wells fargo, says has a diverse and Inclusive Work environment. This is a concern over the cultural issues over the fake account scandal. Huge fire overnight destroying a building in raleigh, north carolina. The blaze spread to a nearby building and grew to five alarms before midnight. One telling affiliate wral he saw a parking deck catch fire and 10 to 15 explosions. The cause is under investigation. President trump meeting chancellor Angela Merkel today. What is on their agenda . We will go to berlin next. [car engine failing to start] [clicking of ignition] uh wha woof eeh woof wuh [silence] [engine roars to life] [dog howls] dramatic opera music swells from radio [howling continues] the dinosaurs extinction. Got you outnumbered. Dont listen to them. Not appropriate. Now im mashing these potatoes with my stick of butter. Why dont you sit over here. Something for everyone is awesome. Find your awesome with the Xfinity Stream app. More to stream to every screen. All right. Defining moment for u. S. And german relations. President trump hosting Angela Merkel at the white house today. It is the first facetoface meeting after accusing her of ruining germany. Cnns Atika Shubert is live in berlin for us. Just to be a fly on the wall here. Angela merkel has tried to steer europe through years of financial crises. Now donald trump with america first. Reporter absolutely. These are two leaders on opposite corners. It is interesting to see them try to reestablish some sort of relationship. Merkel used to have a close relationship with president barack obama. Now she is starting from scratch. She has to find a way to connect with President Trump. They are at polar opposites. With the eu, he said he could do without the eu. She is a main champion of the eu. When it comes to nato, he said nato is obsolete as an organization. For her, the cornerstone of german and europe security. That is not getting into the refugee issue. Trump said opening the door for refugees is a catastrophe. She told trump directly on the phone she feels his immigration ban was quote wrong and violation of international law. They have to overcome the difference to find common ground. That may be the issue of trade. On that issue, even then, there are major differences. Trump has taken issue with the trade and balance with germany and the u. S. Threatening at one point to put a border tax which would threaten german carmakers. The most important thing for them is to simply establish a good working relationship which at this point they dont have yet. Interesting. A very important meeting today. Thank you, Atika Shubert. Mcdonalds now saying it was the victim of a hack attack. After this tweet appeared on top of its page thursday. Reading donald trump, you are actually a disgusting excuse of a president. We would love to have barack obama back. Also, you have tiny hands. Afterwards, mcdonalds vowed to launch an investigation after the page was hacked. Once he appeared in a mcdonalds commercial along the big purple blob grimace. Long a mystery. Also a picture on air force one or campaign trail with a bag of mcdonalds on the plane. He is still a fan. People wondered about this. Robert gibbs works for mcdonalds. Some thought he was behind it. They confirmed they were hacked. Saturday night live doing something it has never done in the 42 years. Taking the councshow across the country. You will see secretary spicey. The first saturday night live is set to air april 15th hosted by jimmy fallon. Top brass say it will allow everyone to get in on the joke at the same time. Do you think Melissa Mccarthy has any material . Did you see the press briefing yesterday . The big question in washington, will President Trump defend his wiretapping allegations today when he faces reporters for the First Time Since his twitter tirade . More on the epic White House Defense of the claims next. 9 of bad breath germ for a 100 fresh mouth. Feeling 100 means you feel bold enough to. Assist a magician. Or dance. Listerine®. Bring out the bold™ testinhuh . Sting is this thing on . Come on your turn where do pencils go on vacation . Pennsylvania laughter crunchy wheat frosted sweet kelloggs frosted miniwheats. Feed your inner kid you are mischaracterizing what happened today. Where is your concern when they said there was no connection to russia. A press he briefing for the ages. A combative message despite members of the Intel Committee say there is no evidence. And the white house budget proposals hitting the needy. The white house standing by its case. And the health care overhaul. A growing number of republicans oppose the gop plan. A critical moment for speaker ryan who may have already lost more support he can handle to pass the bill. Welcome back to early start on this st. Patricks day. Im christine romans. Im dave briggs. 4 30 a. M. The white house lashing out on all sides defending on the unfounded wiretapping accusat n accusatio accusations. The most combative stance unleashed in the White House Press briefing for the ages. Sean spicer speaking out about the campaign. Speaker paul ryan not mincing words. We have not seen any evidence there was a wiretap or are fisa court order of somebody in trump tower. Ryan backed up by Intel Committee chairman richard burr and marc warner. Based on the Information Available to us, we see no indications that trump tower was the subject of surveillance by any element of the government before or after election day 2016. Cnns jim acosta was in the line of fire at the white house. Reporter dave and christine, the white house is trying to explain the claim that president obama wire tapped him in the 2016 campaign during a briefing at the white house. Sean spicer predicted the president will be vindicated after the committees investigate the matter. The president has already said clearly when he referred to wiretapping, he referred to surveillance. It sounds like, sean, you and the president are saying we dont mean wiretapping anymore on. Now were going to expand to other forms of surveillance. What will it be next . Jim, i think thats cute. We talked about this for three days. What the president had wiretapping in quotes. He is referring to broad surveillan surveillance. We talked about this several days ago. The bottom line the investigation in the house and senate has not been provided all of the information. Where was the hold on. No, no. I think the president addressed that last night and said there is more to come. These are pointing out there is widespread reporting through the 2016 election there was surveillance done on a variety of people. The investigation going on into about they were contacted you somehow believe okay. Okay. I get it. You seem to believe you have been read in on all of these things which i find interesting. Reporter President Trump will have another opportunity to soundoff when he holds a joint News Conference with Angela Merkel later today. Fbi director james comey will testify before the House Committee on monday. Adam schiff expects comey to say he has no evidence to support the wiretapping claim. You can add the uk spy agency dismissing the wiretapping claims. The claims surfaced on tuesday on fox nuews and repeated by sen spicer. Three sources have informed fox news that president obama went outside the chain of command. He did not use the nsa or cia. He did not use the fbi or department of justice. He used gchq. The british spy agency. Having two people saying that the president needs transcripts of the candidate. Cnn International Diplomatic editor Nic Robertson live in london this morning. Nic, how is the uk pushing back against the latest allegations . Reporte