A total Solar Eclipse, first time in nearly 40 years. Boy, is there a lot on the agenda today. Yeah, the next hour of new day starts right now. The white house vehemently defending asking the fbi to deny reports of communication between Trump Campaign associates and russians known to u. S. Intelligence. Im against the people that make up stories and make up sources. This is something that embarrasses the white house. Thats not a leak. Thats a news story. If you think theyre going to give you your country back without a fight, youre sadly mistaken. The democrats have a real chance to change things. Thats why he beat all of those other republicans because he stole a democratic message. We do have to lead with our values. Were all in this together. Thats got to be a message. Well, good morning to you on a saturday, im christi paul. Im victor blackwell. Good morning to you. Wub stabbed were starting with pushing back the white house. Denying any wrongdoing asking trump to speak out about reports between the Trump Campaign and the russians. The revelations is raising decades olds questions, can the white house have an open discussion with the fbi when theres an a discussion ongoing. And how should that conversation happen. And the president unleashing another round of attacks on the news media, cnn and other outlets are blocked from attending a press briefing. Is the white house picking favorites here . Of course, this morning, the Democratic National committee is set to elect et cetera next chairman. Who will lead the committee and can they heal the divisions still in the ranks there. The white house said they did, yes, ask the fbi to knock down media reports of russian contact during the 2016 race but they say they did nothing wrong. President is demanding the fbi find the leakers within the government, because he says, theyre endangering the country. Cnns chief National Security correspondent scombrjim sciutto. Christi and victor, in the midst of the coverage of this story, in fact the white house admits is that it did speak with the fbi about an Ongoing Investigation and communications between advisers to trump during the campaign and russian officials and others known to intelligence and that it in fact did ask for the fbis help in tamping these stories down. Reporter the white house vehemently defending asking the fbi to deny reports of Campaign Associates and russians known to intelligence. The pushback following cnns exclusive reporting of the white house request. Senior officials insisting it only asked for a denial after a top fbi official himself volunteered in the New York Times story on those communications was inaccurate. White house officials who asked not to be named outlined their time line of events saying the conversation happened on february 15th, after a 7 30 a. M. Meeting led by white house chief of stab rines are priebus. Andrew mccabe asked priebus for five minutes alone after the meeting ends, this according to Senior Administration officials. And calls a report linking Trump Campaign advisers to russian intelligence total b. S. Priebus, the white house says asked mccabe, quote, can we do anything about it . And whether theres something the fbi can do to, quote, set the record straight. Later in separate conversations mccake and fbi director james comey tells priebus the fbi cannot comment on the reports. Priebus then asks comey if he is cite mccake and comey as, quote, top intelligence officials in pushing back on the story itself on cbs news last sunday which he did. Ive talked to the top levels of the Intelligence Community and theyve assured me that the the New York Times story was grossly over stated. Reporter and because of decades old restrictions on such contacts concerning pending investigations. You dont want the appearance of political influence with respect to an investigation or prosecution. Thats why the protocols are in place. Reporter President Trump on friday ranted against the leaks that have plagued his administration, making a case reporters should only use named sources. Even as white house officials spoke to reporters asking not to be named. Im against the people that make up stories and make up sources. They shouldnt be allowed to use sources. Unless they use somebodys name. Let their name be put out there. Let their name be put out. A source says that donald trump is a horrible, horrible human being. Let him say it to my face. Reporter mr. Trump also criticized the fbi directly tweeting, quote, the fbi is totally unable to stop the National Security leakers that have permeated our government for a long time. They cant even find the leakers within the fbi itself. Classified information is being given to media that could have a devastating effect on u. S. Find now. Now, on the larger issue of the existence of communications between advisers to trump during the campaign and russian officials and other russians known to u. S. Intelligence, Reince Priebus said theres nothing to the reports but the fact that the fbi is still investigating the communications as are both the senate and house intelligence k349s. Christi and victor. Jim sciutto, we appreciate it. Thank you. Joining us, eric bradner cnn politics reporter and jack kingsston, former commentator and former adviser to the donald Trump Campaign. Gentlemen, good morning to you. Good morning. Jack, let me start with you, your level or discomfort, if you let me know, about the communications between the fbi and white house, should these specific players because there are times that the fbi can communicate with the white house. But in this 2009 memo, we know there are specific players who should be involved. What do you think about were seeing here . You know, im comfortable with it, the way its been described that Andrew Mccabe came up to Reince Priebus after another meeting and said, by the way, this is all b. S. And priebus says, what can we do on it . He says, i dont know, we cant comment on every story, we cant call the balls and the strikes, and he said comey called and said he cant do anything about it. But you can imagine the white house frustration, here the fbi telling them theres nothing to the story. Then you see in many news outlets, hey, this is going on. Meanwhile, were got the president of the United States needing to negotiate or normalize relationship with russia and this is detracting from that diplomatic efforts because theres so many issues that we need to be talking to russia about, from i. C. E. Is, to syria, to crimea, and its very difficult to do in an atmosphere like this. Lets be here about the reporting there, we heard from jack that Reince Priebus, chief of staff, spoke to mccabe and said, hey, what can we do about this . However, the reporting is from cnn that priebus later reached back to mccabe and asked the director and asked the fbi to talk to reporters, to come out and defend the white house and clear up what they saw as a discrepancy . Thats right. And priebus, after later being rebuked by the fbi being told they wouldnt play that role went on sunday shows and cited the fbi as sort of a named source, right . He sort of told the story on his own. Saying that hed been told by highlevel officials that theres nothing to this. So he took ten on consult what he couldnt quite get the fbi to do for the white house. Eric, also, we hurt from the president there in jim sciuttos piece saying he is against reporters using anonymous sources. Saying hes against the people that make up as he said, that make up stories that use these s sources, they shouldnt be able to use sources unless they use a name. But the white house did a briefing on background and asked for their names not to be used. Thats right. This is totally normal. White houses do this all the time. We just talked about it Reince Priebus did it himself on sunday shows a few days ago. And President Trump has a long hist tear of tweets attacking former president obama used unnamed sources of his own. Lets put that up while we talk about it. Continue, eric. Saying obamas birth certificate was fake. This birtherism falsehood. Trump himself was using unnamed sources. We saw with the priebus episode exactly how these unnamed sources sort of come about. Priebus didnt deny cnn reporting. Of course, its sort of the playbyplay here. So, yeah, this is how white houses operate. They have background briefings. They some officials made available, as, quote, a senior official. And its important to sale every leak is not classified that comes into the press. Jack, reconcile those for me. The president saying they should not, speaking of the media, use sources unless they use their names. But we just put up the president , then citizen trump, commenting on an extremely credible source about the president s birth certificate calling it a fraud. I think part of it in public office, he gets frustrated on unnamed sources. Its not unique to the president , its really to everybody in washington. But i do think his point about classified information coming from an unknown source. Thats very scary. And it should be to all americans that if we do have within the Intelligence Community because of some motivation, maybe they just dont like trump. Maybe they feel like they know better than somebody who got elected to run the country. They need to leak things out that are sensitive. You know, they might not even be classifying, but getting that information out in public is not helpful. For example, i think we can all agree that when wikileaks reported that president obama had the schedule of angela merkel, it was an embarrassment at minimum, but it could have been a lot worse than that. I think what the president is saying, weve got to run the country. And if we have people within our administration that are leaking information that hurts our strategy, its not a good thing. The president loved those wikileaks, as he said, those are his words, not mine. Last word, quickly, jack. We all like wikileaks if the leak favored us. But i do think the reality is, youve got to do something about the Sensitive Information that deals with strategy. All right, jack kingston, eric bradner, thank you. First President Trump slams the media. Then the white house slams the door on reporters blocking cnn and others from a news briefing. Is the reporting on the trump Team Contacts with russian officials during the election the real reason this is happening . Plus, indonesian officials mets with a suspect being held in connection with kim jongnams murder. This, of course, comes after Malaysia Police says he was killed using a lethal nerve agent. Weve got influence detanew det. And a cnn exclusive report, u. S. Soldiers now. The closest weve ever seen them to the fighting on the ground in mosul. Were live in iraq. Reporter were on the southern edge of mosul where weve seen a steady bombardment of isis. At fidelity, you get a retirement score in just 60 seconds. And well help you make decisions for your plan. To keep you on track. Its your retirement. Know where you stand. To keep you on track. Now that i work there, i value dothe food even more. I feed it to yoshi because there are no artificial colors, preservatives and its made with real chicken. Im so proud to make dog chow natural in davenport, iowa. Of being there for my sons winning shot. That was it for me. Thats why im quitting with nicorette. Only nicorette mini has a patented fast dissolving formula. It starts to relieve sudden cravings fast. Every great why needs a great how. A few days ago, i call the fake news the enemy of the people. And they are, they are the enemy of the people. They say that we cant criticize the dishonest coverage because of the First Amendment. They always bring up the First Amendment. We have a respect for the press. When it comes to the government. But that is something that you cant ban an entity from. You know, conservative, liberal or otherwise, i think thats what makes a democracy a democracy, versus a dictatorship. That was White House PressSecretary Sean Spicer back in december offering a different message when it comes to the media and press briefings. Yesterday in an unprecedented move, the white house blocked cnn and other Media Outlets on a briefing. On the campaign when it came to russian intelligence leading up to the election. We have cnn media analyst bill carter and rob mahoney, dispute director of the committee to protect journalists. Gentlemen, thank you for being with us. We certainly appreciate it. Bill, i wanted to start with you here, and i wanted to play some sound from the former press secretary. Talking about it is not a violation of the First Amendment. Lets look. But stop making this as if some reporters have done, its a terrible violation of the First Amendment because weve acquiesced already. The president used it regularly that barack obama hand picked columnists to have meetings with. I dont remember him saying every columnist has to be in that meeting. So theres no principle here, high ground principle saying white houses cant pick who they meet with. Of course, white houses can. I just think its a personality issue more than anything. Its going to hinder the relationship between the press secretary and press corps. Thats why they have an obligation to everybody. Bill, whats your comment to that conversation . I think theres a separate issue, the president taking his private conversations are different from the press secretary gaggle which traditionally include a wide range of outlets. Obviously, it comes after the president labeled enemy of the people, it looks like retribution, rather than criticism. And clearly, theyre trying to put pressure on certain organizations, you know, because they dont like what theyre seeing. Theyre very right to criticize the press. Theres no violation of the First Amendment to criticize them. But you have to see this for what it is, its a campaign that delegitimized certain press outlets theyre saying its fake because they dont like it. And trying to discredit the organizations that are particularly finding out things about them that they dont like. Rob, mr. Fleischer went on to say hes never seen a president meet so often with the press corps and that he seems to be tremendously acceptable to the president as a president. What is your take on that . The problem here, the way this looks, it looking as if the administration is trying to delegitimize the press that is investigating. Maybe its getting ready for disappointments in the future, that people wont believe the press. Because weve had a steady drum beat of rhetoric against the press. Calling it enemies of the people. Fake news. Fake news is news that the government doesnt particularly like. And this sends a terrible example, not just throughout the United States, but around the world where automatauto cats ar thats disturbing. Lets list ton jake tapper. He had a response as well. This white house does not seem to respect the idea of accountability. This white house does not seem to value an independent press. There is a word for that line of thinking. The word is unamerican. Bill, we also had bret baier tweeting some at cnn and the New York Times stood with fox news when the Obama Administration attacked us and tried to exclude us, a white house gaggle should be open to all credentialed orgs. What does that say as saying how strong this is going to be against President Trump . That is says, theyre professionals, and professionals have to stand up to one another. The next time, i thought it was interesting you had several organizations pulling ought ii that gaggle yesterday. And by the way, i want to make a point about the other point about ari made, remember when he was president elect he didnt do a press conference when obama had done seven. He put off having a press conference for a long, long time. The idea that he was accessible was basically as a candidate. He did not big press. I think thats a bogus point. Rob, we had donald trump saying yesterday to cpac the media doesnt represent the people, it never will. And were going to do something about it. Is this what were seeing, is that him doing something about it . Certainly looks that way, even if it wasnt intentional. Thats the message that people are taking away. You know, you keep vilifying the press, and then this happens a few hours later. That legitimate accredited journalists are deliberately excluded. Its very easy to make that conclusion that this was punishment for those news organizations that were probing and investigating the administration. All right. I want to make a real Quick Response here, thank you, bill carter and rob mahoney. But cnn does have response saying this is an Unexpected Development by the trump white house, apparently this is how they retaliate when you report fakes that they dont like. Still to come, since kim jongnams death, officials are speaking to one of the suspects being held in connection with that murder. Also, a cnn report, american troops one mile away from the intense battle in the city of mosul. Were live now for whats happening in the fight against isis. And of course, thats a helicopter overhead, firing heavy machine gunfire. And missiles inside the city. Heart healthy california walnuts. The best simple veggie dish ever . Heart healthy california walnuts. The best simple dinner ever . Heart healthy california walnuts. Great tasting, heart healthy california walnuts. So simple. Get the recipes at walnuts. Org. Incr. Think it wouldotection in a pwork, but