And missile deception. A very disturbing new report says north korea is secretly operating a Dangerous Network of hidden missile bases, despite kim jonguns promises to President Trump. Has the dictator duped the american commanderinchief . Im wolf blitzer. Youre in the situation room. This is cnn breaking news. Were following breaking news. A very closely watched recount under way right now in two hotly contested races in florida. Election officials are racing to meet the states thursday deadline, while courts consider multiple lawsuits and President Trump claims voting fraud but offers absolutely no evidence. Ill talk about that much more with congressman Eric Swalwell of the Intelligence Committee, and our correspondents, analysts and specialists are also standing by. First, lets get the very latest on the breaking news. Cnns jessica dean is in florida for us tonight. Jessica, officials, they have until thursday to complete this recount. Reporter thats right, wolf. And good evening to you from florida. We are here in Broward County once again, getting a lot of attention. And the florida recount, much like the year 2000. Inside the building behind me, they are working to get toward that deadline, and all across florida, supervisors of elections are trying to make sure they can meet that deadline on thursday. This as lawsuits are being filed on both sides of the aisle. Tonight, florida is racing toward a recount deadline. The razorthin margins in the governors race and senate race triggered an automatic machine recount saturday. According to unofficial results filed by the counties, republican governor rick scott leads incumbent democratic senator, bill nelson, by more than 12,500 votes. The two have gone right at each other. Bill nelson is clearly a sore loser. He cant stand the fact that hes not going to be elected for what, the first time in decades. One fact is that rick scott isnt interested in making sure every lawful vote is counted. And the second is that hes using his power as governor to try to undermine the voting process. Reporter the spread in the governors race is larger, with former republican representative ron desantis ahead of democratic tallahassee mayor, Andrew Gillum by nearly 34,000 votes. Over the weekend, gillum revoked his previous concession. I am replacing my words of concession with an uncompromised and unapologetic call that we count every single vote. Reporter desantis is attempting to stay above the fray by keeping a low profile during the recount. As the counting continues, the spotlight has focused on two counties in particular, broward and palm beach. Republicans have zeroed in on the supervisors of elections in both counties. With protesters calling for Broward County supervisor, brenda snipes, firing over admitted mistakes in the count. Ive worked here for about 15 years, and i have to say, this is the first time that this office or i have been under such attacks. So if we make mistakes, we own mistakes. Reporter and then theres the flurry of lawsuits filed by both sides. Count every vote reporter in Broward County court monday, a judge denied a motion by governor scotts team to impound Voting Machines and ballots. Instead both sides agreed for three additional county deputies to help monitor in the recount. The judge also advised both sides to, quote, ramp down the rhetoric, finding no evidence of fraud. Were also getting some interesting reporting from our affiliate, wjhg in bay county, florida. Theyre reporting that the supervisor of elections there allowed 147 voters to vote via email, because they were displaced by hurricane michael. The secretary of state explicitly saying thats not allowed. So now weve got to discern where those votes are in the whole process. And also as all of this continues and we look toward thursday, this deadline, governor rick scott is planning to head to washington, d. C. , wolf, to take part in activities for incoming senators. Well watch that, as well. All right, jessica, thank you. Jessica dean down in Broward County, florida. President trump, meanwhile, is slamming the recount, even though its required by state law. Lets go to our senior white house correspondent, jeff zeleny. Jeff, the president has been taking to twitter to weigh in. Reporter wolf, he certainly has. And we did not see the president today at all. He did not have any official events here to mark the governments observation of the veterans day holiday here. But we did hear from him, particularly on the florida recount, sending out a variety of messages earlier in the day. And just a few moments ago, the president under his signature, the rnc, sent out an email fundraising solicitation saying stolen, talking about the florida recount. Clearly the white house not paying attention to what the judge said to ramp down the rhetoric. President trump out of sight at the white house on the federal holiday observing veterans day. But airing one grieve after another on twitter. Hes injecting himself squarely into the florida recount, trying to tip the scales to republican candidates for senate and governor, who were locked in razorthin races. The florida election should be called in favor of rick scott and ron desantis. Large numbers of new ballots showed up out of nowhere, and many ballots are missing or forged, he tweeted. An honest vote count is no longer possible. Ballots massively infected. Must go with election night. But theres no evidence to back up those claims. Florida law requires a recount in such close elections. And its an odd message for veterans, considering votes from troops serving overseas have not yet been all counted. Their ballots are allowed to arrive after election day. After a rocky weekend visit to paris marking the centennial of the end of world war i we are gathered together at this hallowed resting place to pay tribute to the brave americans who gave their last breath in that mighty struggle. Reporter the president taking aim tonight at u. S. Allies in a series of tweets. Never easy bringing up the fact that the u. S. Must be treated fairly, which it hasnt on both military and trade. It is and always has been ridiculously unfair to the United States. It is time that these very rich countries either pay the United States for its great military protection or protect themselves. It was likely a response to french president , emmanuel macron, who confronted trump for calling himself a nationalist, not a globalist. Translator patriot terrorise exact opposite of nationalism. By saying our interest first, who cares about the others, we erase what a nation holds dearest. Its moral values. Reporter trumps whirlwind visit to paris doing less to bolster the Transatlantic Partnership than to expose its cracks. A far different reception than his visit for the bastille day parade when he and macron radiated in their newfound friendship. In this trip, on full display, with the president arriving alone sunday. He was widely criticized for missing a ceremony of American Military cemetery during a rain storm. The white house insisted the visit was scrapped for safety reasons, because the weather was too bad to fly. The next day, the president hinted at his displeasure with the rain, while addressing a handful of living world war i veterans. You look so comfortable up there under shelter. As were getting drenched. Youre very smart people. Reporter before ultimately mentioning the victims, he first tweeted this threat. There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in california, except that Forest Management is so poor. Remedy now or no more federal payments. Now, wolf, all of this is happening as special counsels russia investigation appears to be entering a new phase. The white house paying very careful attention to that. But House Democrats are, as well. As they prepare to take over their majority in january, they are already saying that Matt Whitaker, the new acting attorney general, will be one of the first witnesses to be called there, and the top democrat in the senate, chuck shoochumer, a saying that democrats might attach a funding bill to ensure that he stays impartial in the russia investigation. So, wolf, as we begin this week here after the election, the president himself personally focused on this investigation with that new acting attorney general in place. A lot could happen this week, wolf. Yep, i think youre absolutely right. Jeff zeleny. Thank you. Lets get some more on this. Joining us, democratic congressman, Eric Swalwell of california, a member of both the intelligence and Judiciary Committees. Congressman, thanks so much for joining us. Thank you, wolf. You saw this very strong article, the incoming chairman, we expect, adam schiff, of the Intelligence Committee, just wrote it, posted in the washington post. Matthew whitaker, were watching you. Very strong words. You have got a strong tweet that you posted today, as well. Let me read it to our viewers. The days of president ial immunity are over. Over, all caps. Gone. No more free passes to cash in on access to oval office. No more colluding with russia, and well see if your attacks cheat. America is putting a balance of power on your abuses of power. Welcome to democracy. So tell us exactly what you mean by that, including your reference to a balance of power. And first, wolf, happy veterans day to our veterans out there. That was a response to the president s tweet, blaming a dip in the stock market today on what he calls president ial harassment. And what he may be viewing as harassment is probably a response to the two years of immunity that hes been receiving. And what he now sees is going to be oversight. And while were going to prioritize, you know, the economy and lifting up, you know, wages and protecting health care, were also no long longer going to let the president get away with easing sanctions on Chinese Companies while he gets a 500 million loan from the chinese and a trump tower project. Were not going to allow the president to just, you know, kill this russia investigation by hiring an assassin like Matt Whitaker to take it out when you say assassin yeah, whitaker was hired because of his views on the investigation. He prejudged the investigation. Fox has reported that the president and whitaker have been plotting to have whitaker come in and wind down the investigation. If that had happened on monday, last monday before the election, we would be powerless. But the voters want a check on these abuses of power. Were not powerless any more. So how are you going to died up between what your Judiciary Committee is going to do and the Intelligence Committee . Were not going to chase every ball the president throws. Were going to prioritize what matters to our democracy and people and their everyday lives. And so first we want to make sure that no one is above the law. And so seek to protect bob mueller, by insisting we have protect mueller legislation. You need republicans, too. Well, the republicans have not been able to get a budget passed in the last two years with their own votes, despite controlling the house and the senate. So if they want democratic votes, were saying theyre going to need to ensure that the Mueller Investigation so is that an absolute . Youre not going to vote for mustpass legislation to keep the government open unless you have that kind of inclusion . Again, they control government. So if they can sort it amongst themselves, they can pass it. If they want democrats at the table to work with them, we think that the rule of law is paramount in our country and were going to insist on that. Its interesting. We spotted mike Michael Cohen, a decade working closely with donald trump. Hes been in washington today, just left. Weve got some video of him arriving at Union Station here in washington. Here hes departing in late afternoon. We dont know what he was doing here. But his criminal defense attorney was with him, and we know that it follows that big explosive story in the wall street journal the other day about the president s President Trumps involvement in hush money payments to two women. Whats your understanding . I hope hes coming clean. Theres reporting that hes been talking to the special counsel, special counsel has had a number of witnesses before the grand jury. It looks like theyre moving toward, you know, more progress and indictments. But mr. Cohen knows more beyond Just Campaign finance violations. I was a part of the interview of mr. Cohen. He was negotiating with the trump Tower Property to go into moscow during the primary when russianamericans who were connected to Vladimir Putin were offering to connect putin and trump. And they even said, if we do this right, we can engineer this and elect our boy as president. So theres a lot of concerns about, you know, what donald trump knew about those offers while the russians were interfering. And i just want to be precise. We spotted Michael Cohen here in washington today for several hours. With his criminal defense attorney. We also noticed there were eight of Robert Muellers attorneys working on this federal holiday, veterans day, today. We dont know what Michael Cohen was doing. We can surmise, we can guess. Could have been at the mall. I suspect i dont suspect he was at the mall. If he would have been, maybe would have come with his family as opposed to his lawyer. But do you believe that the hush money payments are potentially impeachable offenses. I think what they show, wolf, these guys are shadowy operators and gives us reason to look at what they were doing with respect to the russians, what they were doing with respect to the saudi arabians. And deals that we suspect were being conducted at the time. You know, i think we have to be careful that we dont, you know, go too far on what is an impeachable offense. And that whatever we investigate that we have impenetrable evidence and we seek to have bipartisan support. Because we dont want to be as reckless with the truth as the president is. You expect indictments this week . I think because of the number of people bob mueller has interviewed and that he took a pause for the midterm elections and now a week after the mid terms, it wouldnt surprise me one bit. And you say you want bipartisan support. Bipartisan support to protect Robert Mueller right now. Do you see that happening . Ive seen it already in the senate. The senate Judiciary Committee passed legislation to protect bob mueller. Mitch mcconnell refuses to bring it to a vote. I hope it will build momentum over there in the senate. As you know, Top Democrats are asking that the acting attorney general, matthew whitaker, go to the ethics panel at the Justice Department and recuse himself because of all of the public statements hes made and what hes done in recent years as a private citizen. If he doesnt respect the advice of the ethics officer over at the Justice Department, what can you do about that, if anything . If he doesnt recuse himself . We bring him before congress and find out what promises hes made with the president. Also, as a former prosecutor, thats just what good, honest prosecutors do. They dont put their own personal interests above a case. And if he wants to uphold the integrity of the department of justice, he will do that on his own without being forced to do so by congress. Lets talk about the devastating fires, the horrible fires out in your home state of california right now. One of those fires, i understand, not too far from your own district out in california. This is what the president tweeted on saturday. Listen to this. There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in california, except that Forest Management is so poor. Billions of dollars are given each year with so many lives lost, all because of gross mismanagement of the forest. Remedy now or no more fed payments. Your reaction. Well, again, im sorry that so many families are going through this in california. They dont deserve to be insulted by the president. My mom always said, if you cant Say Something nice, dont say anything at all. The president should just remain quiet. But, wolf, a majority of the forests in california are under the president s management. Hes been on the job for two years. If hes blaming Forest Management, he owns a lot of the problem. And it look, based on what youre hearing from your own district 25 campaigned in the camp fire. My district is fine, but for the grace of god it could happen in many places in california. Right now people are coming together. Going to fire stations. Donating food. And products that the Fire Department needs. Thats what american spirit is. Not what were seeing from the president. Very quickly. I know you were in iowa this weekend. Youre running for president . Very well received there. They want new energy, new ideas and a new confidence. And that really i think emboldened me to make a decision soon. Youll make a decision soon. Well watch it very closely, congressman. Thanks for coming in. My pleasure. Next, well have more on Michael Cohens surprise appearance right here in the Nations Capital with his defense attorney. Plus, members of the mueller team working on this veterans day holiday. What might all of this mea