It too. The acting attorney general informed the white House Counsel the president asked him to conduct a view whether there was a legal situation there. That was immediately determined that there wasnt. One minute past 7 00 on a sunday morning. We are grateful to wake up with you. Im christi paul. Im victor blackwell. Right now in france, people are voting for the next president there in an election that has turned the established political order upside down. Today, capping off a bitter fight between the final two candidates. Far right National FrontLeader Marine Le Pen and independent centrist Emmanuel Macron. Whatever way it turns out the outcome has implications not just america but the rest of the world as well. President trump did not fully endorse le pen directly but did say whoever is the toughest on radical islamic terrorism will do well. Meanwhile, former president barack obama gave a lastminute endorsement to macron. I have admired the campaign that Emmanuel Macron has run. He has stood up for liberal values. He put forward a vision for the Important Role that france plays in europe and around the world. And he is committed to a Better Future for the french people. Now on the eve of the election in an eerily similar situation, the u. S. Candidate macron campaigns was hacked. Thousands of emails dumped. Voting ends today at 2 00 p. M. We are covering all angles of the election there in france so with our reporters and panelists across the globe, lets start with Cnn International anchor hala in paris. We have a very significant number that was published an hour ago. Reporter in france you have reporting restrictions that you cant talk about candidate platforms or polls either. What you can report, a benchmark many people use to try to figure on out which candidate is favored by this number and that is voter turnout. So at noon local time, 28. 23 of voters in this country turned out to vote. That is lower than five years ago. A low voter turnout number tends to favor the more extremist candidate. In this case, it would be the far right candidate Marine Le Pen. Lets talk about what we have seen already. Marine le pen cast her ballot in her stronghold. Emmanuel macron the centrist candidate cast his ballot along with his wife. Incumbent president , the socialist hollande so unpopular decided not to run he cast his ballot today. So what are we going to see this evening 8 00 p. M. Local time . We will see the face of the winner of this pivotal French Election appear on Television Screens across the country. It will be either the candidate who is an antieu, antiglobalization, antiimmigration candidate personified by Marine Le Pen. Or the established centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron who embraces International Organizations to oppose candidates and this is a pitched battle between two very different idea of where france should head next. Beyond france, hala, give us what this really means for the rest of the world, beyond the borders. So we saw with the brexit vote in the uk with prish voters the majority of british voters deciding in a referendum last year to leave the European Union. We also saw with the election of the u. S. President donald trump. A sort of populace fever sweeping western democracies. Will it be the case in france and will le pen come out on top or perhaps a candidate in the person of macron who is more of a mainstream candidate who prefers the status quo in terms of International Organizations, not just the European Union but nato, but the World Trade Organization who thinks globalization is actually the way to go as opposed to someone like Marine Le Pen and other far right populace candidates who with, in fact, want to completely disrupt sort of the world order as it is as its been seen over the last several decade. That is the big question. Therefore the result of this election will have an impact far beyond the borders of this country for those reasons. Hala there in paris, thank you. We are joined by marie suar suarez. What are you hearing from voters in that area . Reporter good morning to you. We did see Marine Le Pen arrive two hours or so ago and she cast her vote and looked confident and happy and didnt say a word but we can assume that she voted for herself. But its important to note why she came here not to pair russ but where she began her campaign some eight months or so ago and this is what she calls the forgotten france, the elites have forgotten about them and she played very well here and really won the hearts and the mind and she is hoping the votes of the people here in northern france, this rust belt of france. Two or three years ago the party won a battle here and been in charge three years or so. In comparison its the last 70 years have been dominated by the socialists and she has been able to make a huge sweep. One of 12 towns across france and playing very much into the key areas that we heard hala talk about which is the economy and trying to keep jobs at home. Locally they have reduced taxes by as many as 10 . People tell us for the first time they are being heard and paying attention. There is a very sharp battle between the two very distinct candidates and its about the haves and have nots and globalization versus patriotism. People i spoke to this morning said we are not popping the sham bottles just yet and we hope she is going to win and hope she wins. Isa soares, thank you. Errol louis and Amber Phillips are joining us now. Thank you both for being here. We just heard from former president obama endorsing macron. Im wondering if there is any gauge as to whether the french care what president obama or President Trump say about what is happening in their country . Because as we sit here and watch it, it does seem very familiar to us, does it not . It does seem familiar. There is an enormous popularity, i think, for president obama among the french. That was demonstrated during his presidency. They loved him, franklin. Even as long as ago 2008 they were putting him on the front pages of all of their magazines and so forth. I think that he would not have done the ad if macron had not believed that it would help him. So this is an appeal to everything that the le pen voters dislike and distrust which is the notion of sort of an elite elegant banker class that is not really bearing the burden this a lot of the small towns and a lot of the folks in older industries have really experienced as far as displacement, unemployment, all kind of disillusionment that is out on there. This is something we are going to see happen, not only in france but we have seen it happen in canada and seen it happen in the United States and we are seeing it possibly sort of a similar path in both italy and in germany later this year. This is a global phenomenon. There are winners and losers in the modern global economy. President trump says it almost every day basically in his own way that he is on the side of those who have been left out and who have been losers. President obama really in a lot of ways represented those who are the winners. I want to read something from macron here, amber, because he almost connected himself to the u. S. In a way with this statement. Talking about how he was not going to just assume, based on polls, that he was going to win. He said that was almost certainly the mistake Hillary Clinton made. Im absolutely not playing that game. Right from the first day is not how i defended myself or polls have macron leading but how much credence does anybody give polls at this particular time . I think this is a perfect example of this totally you wanted down world we are in. We saw in the u. S. Election the entire political media was pretty sure Hillary Clinton was going to win. Guess what. She didnt. I see macron not resting on the fact that he has like a 20, 25point lead in the polls. Really what that underscores for me is he recognizes there are no rules in this new political reorganization of the western world right now. We dont know what kind of candidate voters are going to like when they feel like there arent enough jobs, they feel like they are not safe from terrorism. The polls arent able to act accurately at least in the u. S. They werent able to capture whether voters in that situation want a traditional candidate to lead them through these insecure times or just complete and total change. The polls were inaccurate, i suppose, too, when we look at brexit as well. Lets talk about le pen here. Errol, she had i think we need to keep our distance from both russia and the u. S. And no reason to wage cold war against russia because its a major power and russia hasnt shown any hostility toward france. What does take say to . Does that risk her popularity in france . We should point out for the record that there were major rur russians banks and others who supported lpen and not a neutral observation about russia and its influence. Look. The destabilization that we just saw in the closing hours of the campaign has all of the fingerprints of the kind of russian meddling we saw in the u. S. Elections and their goal is very clear. Look. Russias economy about the size of italy. They do not compete. They did not compete with a unified europe economic, strategically or militarily. They would like to see europe dent grate politically and economically. Music to the ears of the russian leadership when Marine Le Pen talks about reinstating the franc and out of the nato and that is what Marine Le Pen represents. People will vote for their local domestic reasons and culture resentment and economic dislocation, but in effect, what is going to happen from a geo political standpoint is russia gets another win. Errol louis and Amber Phillips, appreciate the two of you being here bus. Thank you. We are looking ahead to crucial testimony from former acting attorney general sally yates as she prepares to reveal what she nose about former National Security adviser Michael Flynns ties to russia. President trump signed an executive order this week granting religious institution nor political freedom. Some religious experts say this is a slippery slope. More on that ahead. 106 wildfires are now burning in film. Next, what the state is facing as they try to fight them and when the weather might try to provide some help. 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Reduce hunger, help control cravings. Contrave. The 1 prescribed weightloss brand. Go to contrave. Com. Went to ancestry, i put in the names of my grandparents first. I got a leaf right away. A leaf is a hint that is connected to each person in your family tree. I learned that my ten times great grandmother is George Washingtons aunt. Within a few days i went from knowing almost nothing to holy crow, im related to george washington. This is my cousin george. Discover your story. Start searching for free now at ancestry. Com tomorrow, we will finally hear from the high profile witnesses in the Russia White House fallout. Sally yates is expected to testify before the Senate Judiciary subcommittee and expected to contradict the Trump Administrations version of events regarding to Michael Flynns tie to russia. Jim sciutto has more on her crucial testimony here. The honorable sally yates. Reporter for ten days in january, she was the acting u. S. Attorney general and on one of those days, she delivered a forceful warning to the white house regarding then National Security adviser Michael Flynn. I want to thank you for your leadership. Reporter now on monday, sally yates will, for the first time, tell her account of that warning to the Senate Judiciary committee. Cnn has learned in a january 26 meeting with white House Counsel don magan, yates said that flynn was lying when he denied discussing u. S. Sanctions on russia with Russian Ambassador to the u. S. Kir lkislyak. It described her warning in far less serious terms. The acting attorney general informed the white House Counsel that they wanted to give, quote, a headsup to us on some comments that may have seemed in conflict with what the he had sent the Vice President. Reporter just days after delivering the warning, yates was fired for refuse to go enforce President Trumps travel ban. Yates testimony comes as a multiple congressional committees investigating russian inference in the u. S. Election pow bipartisan appearances. We are working together we sl well, the whole commit comootee grateful for that. Reporter republicans focused on alleged leaks of classified information. Director comey, have you ever been an anonymous source in news reports about matters relating to the trump investigation or the clinton investigation . There are clearly members of the ic that have had different points in the past leaked classified information. That is an illegal act, correct . Reporter democrats focused on any ties between the Trump Campaign and russia. The president of the United States could be a target of your Ongoing Investigation into the Trump Campaigns involvement with russian interference from our election. From an investigative standpoint is the sheer number of election usually or significant . Reporter sally yates testified on monday and so will James Clapper but because these are public sessions and much of the information is classified, there will be limits on what they can say. Jim sciutto, cnn, washington. Jim, thank you. Lets bring in errol louis and Amber Phillips. Amber, back to the february 14th briefing there at the white house. Sean spicer, the day after flynn resigned. Lets listen. The evolving and eroding level of trust as a result of this situation and a series of other questionable instances is what led the president to ask for general flynns resignation. Immediately after the department of justice notified the white House Counsel of the situation, the white House Counsel briefed the president in a small group of senior advisers. The issue here was that the president got to the point where general flynns relationship misleading the Vice President and others or the possibility that he had forgotten critical details of this important conversation had great a Critical Mass and unsustainable situation. Amber, it seems that the time line seems to contradict the narrative here, because the president knew every criterion based that he used to ask for the resignation of flynn on the on 26th, two weeks before he actually asked for that resignation. Yeah. The white house has been giving mixed messages about, you know, how they how they truly understand what conversations general flynn had with the Russian Ambassador and when. You know, of course, we learned over the weekend that flynn was warned by top trump transition officials to be careful about having conversations with him because that would put him under potential surveillance by the u. S. And that has created a huge political headache f