Republicans speaking out about the don junior drama urging another shoe could drop at any moment. One top gop senator is threatening to subpoena a key player in the controversy. They are hours away from unveiling new Health Care Legislation with members of their own party in revolt. The august recess on hold. Will it revive hopes for passage or be dead on arrival . We want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world. Wolf blitzer is off. Im jim accosta. Youre in the situation room. Announcer this is cnn breaking news. Breaking news tonight, President Trump is speaking out about the new russia controversy surrounding his son. Mr. Trump says he was unaware of donald trump, jr. s meeting with the russian lawyer until days ago. He doesnt fault don junior for seeing the lawyer after being promised dirt on Hillary Clinton. President trump is getting ready to fly to paris and leave behind a white house in crisis. The trump team is paralyzed and the president is frustrated and furious after the donald trump, jr. Email bombshell. Tonight cnn has obtained exclusive video of donald trump at a 2013 event with two russians who are central figures behind that controversial meeting involving mr. Trumps son. As the russia investigates moves deeper into the president s inner circle. His choice to replace fired fbi director james comey is promising independence from the white house. Confirmation hearing he said he doesnt believe special Counsel Robert Mueller is on a witch hunt. As mr. Trump claims. He told senators it is highly unlikely hell meet alone with mr. Trump as comey did. He said he refused a loyalty pledge if the president asked. In the midst of all of this, President Trump seems to be trying again to shift the focus by slamming Hillary Clinton in a new christian broadcasting interview, the president suggests Vladimir Putin would have preferred had clinton had won the white house because mr. Trump says hes stronger on the military. This hour ill talk about those stories and more with republican senator James Lang Ford. He is on the intelligence and Homeland Security committees. Correspondents and specialists are also standing by. First were get to the new interview with mr. Trump in a moment. Diane gallagher was more on the nominee. They raised questions about the fbi investigation today and the new email evidence, didnt he . Thats right. At times it appeared to be the only topic, russia there, jim. It appears the committee must have liked what Christopher Ray had to say . Response to those sharp questions, which came at from both sides of the aisle. With senators praising him during the hearing, some already offering support for his confirmation. The truth, the whole truth reporter Christopher Ray, President Trumps pick to leave the fbi after the firing of james comey facing senators today. If i am given the honor of leading this agency, i will never allow the fbis work to be driven by anything other than the facts, the law, and the impartial pursuit of justice. Period, full stop. Reporter the russian fire storm engulfing washington dominated questions from both democrats and republicans. Do you believe that the russians were involved in trying to influence the 2016 election . I have no reason to doubt the intelligence communitys assessment. Reporter including questions about the recently disclosed emails from the president s son, donald jr. , about a meeting between a russian attorney and him, trumps soninlaw and top advisor Jared Kushner, and former Campaign ManagerPaul Manafort. The director of the fbi fell so heres what i want you to tell every politician. If you get a call from somebody suggesting that a Foreign Government wants to help you by disparaging your opponent, tell us all to call the fbi. To the members of this committee, any threat or effort to interfere with our elections from any nation state or any nonstate actor is the kind of thing the fbi would want to know. Reporter ray breaking with President Trump who tweeted as recently as this morning that the investigation into possible collusion between his campaign and russia is a witch hunt. I do not consider director mueller to be on a witch hunt. Reporter while he lauded past working relationships with both special Counsel Robert Mueller and fired director james comey, ray, a former assistant attorney general under president george w. Bush in charge of the criminal division, maintained he has the ability to remain independent. No one should mistake my lowkey demeanor as a lack of resolve. Anybody who does would be making a very grave mistake. There isnt a person on this planet whose lobbying or influence could convince me to just drop or abandon a properly predicated and meritorious investigation. Reporter and that, according to ray, includes the commander in chief. If the president asked you to do something unlawful or unethical, what do you say . First i would try to talk him out of it. And if that failed, i would resign. Reporter the president has denied it, but fired fbi director james comey testified under oath that during a private dinner, mr. Trump requested total loyalty from him. Specifically loyalty in the context of asking me to stay. No one asked me for any kind of loyalty oath at any point during this process, and i sure as heck didnt offer one. As you recall, director comey contemporaneously made memoranda to reflect his conversations with the president and others. Would you do the same . If a conversation that i had suggested to me that i ought to create some record, i wouldnt hesitate to do it, and ive done that before at various stages of my private practice, for example. Reporter ray testifying that in the two times hes met with President Trump theyve never discussed the russia investigation. I can assure you that if anything had been said that made me remotely uncomfortable, i would not be sitting here today providing testimony in support of my nomination. Reporter ray may have finished the day with positive reviews, but chairman Chuck Grassley definitely does not feel the same way about the acting director andrew mccabe. He took timeout today during rays hearing to tick off a series of complaints about mccabe, arguing that he was too partisan and too close to the clintons. Jim, of course, this isnt grassleys first attack on mccabe. He sent a letter to the Deputy Attorney general raising concerns about his independence. Diane gallagher, thank you very much. Now to the breaking news, President Trump offering new comments about his sons meeting with the russian lawyer last year and the fall out. Cnns Jessica Snyder is at the white house for us tonight. Jessica, tell us more about this new interview with President Trump. Very interesting. Reporter very interesting, jim. You know, no public schedule for the president over the past four days but he did grant two interviews today. The most recent with reuters, it being the first time that the president has addressed other than twitter donald trump, jr. s meeting with the russian lawyer and subsequent emails that came out just yesterday. The president really reiterating what his lawyer and Deputy Press Secretary said over the past 24 to 48 hours, that he didnt know anything about that meeting. In fact, this is what the president told reuters just a short time ago. President trump saying, i didnt know until a couple of days ago when i heard about this. I think many people would have had that meeting. The president expressing the same sentiment that donald trump, jr. Did when he went on the conservative talk show host Sean Hannity Show last night, donald trump, jr. Saying in the interview he took the meeting because it is something he thought he should do as a business person, he said as a business person it is something if someone came to you with information you would take it. Donald trump, jr. Also attributing it to his political noviceness. The fact that he didnt know that he shouldnt take this meeting. So, the president finally addressing that in that reuters interview, also President Trump touching on his twohour meeting with president putin last week. He talked about the fact that he pressed president putin on whether or not russia did in fact meddle in the 2016 election. Reuters reporting that the president has said this. The president saying, i said, did you do it . And he said, no, i did not. Absolutely not. I then asked him a second time in a totally different way. He said absolutely not. But, of course, the president there not addressing somewhat of the controversy that existed last week when russias foreign minister said that the president accepted russian president putins denial of that. The chief of staff Reince Priebus has subsequently said, no, the president did not accept the denial. So, not addressing that in the reuters interview, jim, but the president still talking about his discussions with putin last week as well as his eldest sons meeting with that russian lawyer back in june of 2016. Jim . Thats right, jessica, not a definitive answer whether he accepted Vladimir Putins words on this. The president also spoke on camera today, jessica, about that meeting with the russian president. Tell us about that interview. Reporter he did. He sat down with tell evangelist Pat Robertson of the christian broadcasting network. It was a wide ranging interview as far as we can tell. In the transcript or some of the clips that have been distributed thus far, it does not appear that Pat Robertson asked the president about donald trump, jr. s meeting with that russian lawyer. However, president putin was a topic of discussion. The president said that he thought it was beneficial to sit down with the president of russia to open up that dialogue, saying that nothing bad could come out of speaking with the president of russia. But then, of course, as President Trump often does, he pivoted the conversation to his old rival in the president ial contest, Hillary Clinton. And were the most powerful country in the world. And we are getting more and more powerful because im a big military person. As an example, if hillary had won, our military would be decimated. Our energy would be much more expensive. Thats what putin doesnt like about me, and thats why i say why would he want me. Day one i wanted a strong military. He doesnt want to see that. Day one i want fracking and to get low energy pricing. Were going to be exporting energy. He doesnt want that. He would like hillary where she wants to have windmills, okay. He would much rather have that because Energy Prices will go up and russia, as you know, relies very much on energy. There are many things that i do that are the exact opposite of what he would want. So, when i keep hearing about that he would have rather had trump, i think probably not. Reporter so, two interviews with the press there today at the white house. The president will be leave being the white house in just about an hour. Hell take off for paris tonight and and of course tomorrow he will hold that press conference in paris with the french president emmanuel macron. It is very likely that at that point the issue of donald trump, jr. s meeting with the russian lawyer could come up and the president , jim, may finally have to address it in a public forum. Jim . Well see what kinds of questions are asked. Jessica snyder, thank you very much. Lets get more on all of this with Senate RepublicanJames Lang Ford, a member of the intelligence and Homeland Security committee. Senator, thanks for joining us. Appreciate it. Good to be with you. You heard Jessica Snyders report there, the president essentially said, anybody would have held the meeting. Would you have held a meeting with someone i would have had a lot of questions about a Foreign Government contacting me saying they were connected to a Foreign Government to have a meeting. I understand that for don junior who is a political novice, as he mentioned before, first time to be around a campaign, but for him to be able to contact Paul Manafort who is not a political novice and ask him to be a part of that, Paul Manafort should have raised the flag and said this is a concern. Hes been in politics a long time and he would have known that was wrong. He was in the meeting. President trump says he learned about the emails and the meeting, quote, a couple of days ago. Do you believe him . I dont have any reason not to believe him on that based on what weve already seen. There is obviously a lot of questions that are there. What came out initially was, yes, this meeting occurred. We met with them, it was 20 minutes, it was absolutely nothing. Jared kushner left early because they were getting nothing they thought they were getting out of it. So, if it ends up actually being no content, that would make sense that theres no reason it should ever get to the candidate at that point to his level of attention. The reason why i ask the question is because we have this exclusive video that weve been running during the situation room, it shows then Businessman Donald Trump with the Rob Goldstone, this very interesting character who apparently set up the meeting with donald trump, jr. And that russian attorney. So, it does appear in this video that he knows these men. Right. Who are connected to the kremlin or at least the father in that situation is connected to the kremlin. Does that raise concerns with you as to how much the president knew about all of this . That was publicly available. Obviously there wasnt video out before. It was publicly known that that family was in las vegas at the miss usa pageant. They were part of that. The sponsors then in the Miss Universe pageant was in russia, he was establishing a business relationship there. Having them there early, that part doesnt bother me. What i want to know about is what happened in the meeting, what documents were exchanged, was anything given to them, was there followup after that. Those are reasonable questions. The fact they met in 2013 at a pageant event and maintained a business event the next year or later the same year to be at a pageant in russia is old news. The video does show a lot of familiarity and one would think that don junior would have told his father, you know, remember those guys we had that great dinner with in las vegas a few years back . By the way, im meeting with somebody that they say we should be talking to. But im curious, when you look at the content of those emails and the emails essentially promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton, does that in your mind amount to collusion . There are questions about whether collusion is a crime, not a crime, and so on, but doesnt it meet the definition of attempted collusion . No, what it teelz me very clearly and reminds us all again is that the russians are reaching out trying to find every way to be able to penetrate into the United States electoral system. We know that now. That we were still learning in too time period. In early june of that time period there was nothing out in the media about russia, about emails, the hack of the dnc, none of that was known at that point, what russia was already doing. It tells me it is an unwise thing for them to meet with someone from a foreign power. Basically they were doing it because it was a russian government baiting them to be able to say, hey, we have this secret information, dont you want this . But i guess my question is that if this is not collusion, what is collusion . You have an email from, you know, somebody saying, theres a russian lawyer coming to town. She has information on the clintons that you really need to see. Shouldnt we sit down with these people, somebody who is connected to the russian government . I dont know how would you have more of a situation that meets the definition of collusion . So, youre all over the place trying to define collusion. What im trying to zero in on, this confirms what we already know, the russians are reaching out to us. What i said from the very beginning of this investigation in the Intelligence Committee i cant take this investigation like anyone else watching it on tv and commenting on it. I have to take it from the legal perspective of it because we have to walk through all the facts. We have to get all the facts out because the essential thing is did any american cooperate with a Foreign Government to try to influence our election. And do you think you want to see more emails because donald trump, jr. Released four pages of emails. Do you think it is incumbent on the white house, incumbent upon donald trump, jr. To provide any and all emails that pertain to this meeting, other meetings that may have involved russians possibly connected sure, absolutely. He was very forthright to come out and say let me get this out there and dump this out there whether he knew the New York Times was going to dump it, whatever. That would be helpful to get everything out. One of the great frustrations is the drip,