Dear leader. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the lead. Lets take a listen right now. Were getting some footage in from President Trump signing a bill. Jim accosta, what are we looking at here . Reporter yeah, jake, youre seeing the president there in the Oval Office Meeting with some coal miners, mitch mcconnell, joe manchin, democrat from West Virginia, rand paul, senator from kentucky and others. And this is essentially an event where the president is announcing that they are rolling back some obama era regulations that were aimed at going after coal mine pollution. And the president , from what i understand, talked about that News Conference lets listen in, jim. Thank you. All of the wonderful politicians, especially the miners. [ applause ] this is our second bill signing this week and we continue to work for the American People. This is hj resolution 38 and that will eliminate another terrible jobkill rule saving many thousands of american jobs, especially in the mines which have been promising you. The mines are a big deal. I get support from some of you folks right from the very beginning, and i wont forget it. I went to West Virginia and i we had 17, 18,000 people and they couldnt get in the big arena. You were a few of them. That was some night. I want to thank the majority leader mitch mcconnell, House Speaker paul ryan, House Majority leader kevin mccarthy, house Natural Resource he Committee Chairman rob bishop. Thank you, rob. And Representative Bill Johnson who worked very hard on this bill. They real difficult. They worked very hard. This was a tough one. I also want to thank the great members of congress who have joined us today. We have a lot of them. In eliminating this rule i am continuing to keep my promise to the American People to get rid of wasteful regulations that do nothing, absolutely nothing but slow down the economy, hamstring companies, push jobs to other countries which is happening all over, although i must tell you we stopped it. Youve seen all the factories, all the plants that are moving back. Theyre going back to a lot of places. So, you know that, right, fellas . Theyre moving back fast. Ford, general motors, fiat, very happy. Compliance costs for this rule would be over 50 million a year for the coal industry alone. Its a unnecessary. I want to also thank the incredible coal miners with us today. I think we can maybe thank them the most, the political leaders. [ applause ] President Trump at an event in the white house talking to coal miners and supporters talking about rolling back obama era regulations on coal, part of his Campaign Promise he said to roll back regulations. At the beginning of his remarks you may not have heard because the audio was spotty. The president said, quote, we had an interesting News Conference, depidnt we . We did indeed. President trump held a News Conference in which he stressed that his administration is not in chaos, and is, in fact, running like a, quote, fine tuned machine. He listed any number of accomplishments that he said the media is not covering. Most of the president s remarks were focused on that, in fact. Not on the accomplishments, but on the media. In a wild and some would say an unhinged riff, he focused on journalists what we say about him, what we write about him. If you were not a journalist, a soldier in harms way or a hungry child in appalachia or inner city or a steel town, you might be forgiven if you listened to the president s press conference and wonder just how focused the president is on you instead of focused on what is said and written about him. The president did make some news today. He will introduce a new executive order on immigration and travel next week and obamacare replacement should come in early march. But its clear the passion in his remarks, the passion was unquestionably focused on attacking the Fourth Estate and also repeatedly the democrat he defeated almost four months ago, hillary clinton. The press conference was purportedly about his new pick for labor secretary, former u. S. Attorney alexander accosta, but he actually spoke much more about our own jim accosta who joins us now from the white house. Jim, i have no doubt that Trump Supporters loved watching him insult the media for an hour, but a bigger question. Is this going to help him pursue his agenda and solve the many problems facing this nation . Reporter well, jake, the president thinks its gift that keeps on giving in terms of his attacks on the news media. President trump finally took the hard questions about his campaigns dealings with russia. As he was dish ing it out he was taking it on just as much and dishing it back at us just as much as he could. He once again attacked the news media as fake news. He seemed could soon seed the leaks coming out of his administration these days were real, something we pressed him about during this very wild News Conference. To be honest, i inherited a mess. Its a mess, at home and abroad. A mess. Reporter President Trump launched into his first full News Conference of his Administration Ready for combat with his favorite adversary, the news media. As he battled back against reports that his team had contacts with the russians during the campaign. Well, i had nothing to do with it. I have nothing to do with russia. I told you, i have no deals there. I have no anything. Reporter it took a few tries but the president finally stated hes not aware of any aides that were in touch with russian operatives. I have nothing to do with russia. To the best of my knowledge, no person that i deal with does. Reporter the president also acknowledged the mistakes made by Foreign National security advisor Michael Flynn who was forced out for misleading the administration about his calls with the Russian Ambassador before mr. Trump was sworn into office. The thing is he didnt tell our vicepresident properly and then he said he didnt remember. So, either way it wasnt very satisfactory to me. And i have somebody that i think will be outstanding for the position. Reporter he repeat lid called the reports about his campaigns contacts with the russians fake news, while conceding the leaks were real. The leaks are real. You know what they said. You saw it. And the leaks are absolutely real. The news is fake because so much of the news is fake. Reporter a contradiction we tried to clarify. It sounds as though you do not have much credibility here when it comes to leaking if that is something that you encouraged in the campaign. If i may ask you that. Let me do one at a time. If you mind. Yes, sir. So, in one case youre talking about highly classified information. In the other case youre talking about john podesta saying bad things about the boss. Reporter this from a president who once said as a candidate that he loved leaks. Wikileaks, i love wikileaks. It seems there is a disconnect there if if the nfs coming from those leaks is real then how can the stories be fake. The reporting is fake. Look, jim, you know what it is . Heres the thing. The public they read newspapers, they see television, they watch. They dont know if its true or false because theyre not involved. Im involved. Ive been involved with this stuff all my life. But im involved. So, i know when youre telling the truth or when youre not. I just see many, many untruthful things. Reporter the president repeated that hes determined to repeal obamacare, but on immigration a shift. As he indicated a willingness to allow the children of undocumented immigrants to be able to stay in the country. But one area where the president said hes not changing, media critic in chief. Arent you concerned, sir, that you are undermining the peoples faith in the first amendment, freedom of the press, the press in this country, when you call stories you dont like fake news, why not just say its a story i dont like . I do that. When you call it fake news youre undermining confidence in our news media. Isnt that important . And youre right about that except see, i know when i should get good and when i should get bad. Sometimes ill say, wow, thats going to be a great story. And ill get killed. I know whats good and bad. Id be a pretty good reporter. Not as good as you, but i know whats good. I know whats bad. Reporter asked why he held that News Conference today hastily arranged almost at the last minute, White House PressSecretary Sean Spicer said this is what mr. Trump enjoys doing. President s view is that sparring with the press is what helped him win the election and perhaps it can help get his presidency back on track, jake. Jim accosta, thanks so much. Cnns michelle kaszynski joins me live from the state department. There were actual bits of news here and there. President trump, for example, was asked by cbs news about various russian provocations in recent days, including that russian spy ship making its way up the east coast. What did the president have to say . Reporter just as its been very, very hard to discern what exactly trumps stance is towards russia, it appeared to be everything from a bromance with Vladimir Putin to a hopeful working relationship to now a contentious one. I mean, this week a much harder line and even a battle of tweets. So, today were his responses all over the place. At one point he did blame the press for a bad relationship with russia saying that he believes Vladimir Putin is watching press coverage and thinking he can no longer make deals with the u. S. Because trump is under pressure by the media and it wontd be politically a good time. He seemed to be blaming recent and continued russian provocations for the same thing as well as saying this. The greatest thing i could do is shoot that ship thats 30 miles offshore right out of the water. Everyone in this country is going to say, oh, its so great. Thats not great. Thats not great. I would love to be able to get along with russia. Now, youve had a lot of president s that havent taken that tact. Look where we are now. Look where we are now. Reporter one thing he did repeatedly say was that having a Good Relationship with russia would be a good thing. He said that hes been briefed and one thing hes allowed to say out of that briefing is that Nuclear Holocaust would be a terrible thing, jake. Interesting. Michelle kosinski, thanks so much. Joining me now is senator dick did you remember bin, minority democrat. What did you make of the president s News Conference today . It was hard to follow. There were so many Different Things he said. It clearly was a spur of the moment decision. And what i think frankly we should reflect on is were deal with some extremely serious questions. 17 different intelligence agencies tell us the russians did a cyber attack on the american electoral system during the course of this campaign. And the president dismissed it as a ruse. He had to accept the resignation of his National Security advisor for conversation with the Russian Ambassador and he seems to dismiss that as some sort of creation by the press. And some illegal leak. The president would have been well advised to sit down for five minutes with his Legal Counsel before that press conference and get a few things straight before he made these statements. Just to be clear when you talk about a hack on the electoral system youre not talking about the voting machines. Youre talking about the information campaign. Thats exactly right. No evidence of any attempt to change votes or the counting of votes. But there was a clear evidence of the russians trying to invade our space when it came to our election and to influence the out come of that election. One of the things that President Trump said today that was intriguing was that he fired Michael Flynn, the former National Security advisor, not because he thought there was anything inappropriate about general flynn talking to the Russian Ambassador to the United States and, according to government sources, suggesting something along the lines of dont worry about these sanctions president obama is imposing right now. In response to your interference in the election, we can revisit those later. That wasnt the issue that President Trump had with Michael Flynn did. It was his misrepresenting that phone call to the vicepresident. Does that bother you . Of course it does. And theres much more to the story. General flynn, this wasnt his first rodeo. This is a man who had to understand that when he got on the telephone with the ambassador from russia, these conversations were going to be monitored and transcribed, every single word of them and yet he deliberately misrepresented those conversations, at least at best we know now, to the vicepresident and maybe beyond in the white house. Who else was involved in that decision . Who else knew what was actually said in that conversation . These are critical questions. And we need an independent transparent investigation of the involvement of russia and what just happened with the resignation of the National Security advisor within the first four weeks of this administration. There are, of course, a lot of questions about the relationship between President Trump and people in russia. Listen to what President Trump had to say about that subject. I own nothing in russia. I have no loans in russia. I dont have any deals in russia. President putin called me up very nicely to congratulate me on the win of the election. He then called me up extremely nicely to congratulate me on the inauguration. So did many other leaders, almost all other leaders from almost all other countries. Your response . Mr. President , please show us your tax returns. How long are you going to keep the same position . The American People have no right to know what every other president ial candidate has been force today disclose in modern times. You tell us theres nothing to worry about. Please show us the tax returns. We will know once and for all what the truth is. President trump seemed very focused today as many of your republican colleagues, especially those in the house are as well with the leaks from the Intelligence Community instead of what they were leaking about. I understand that youre concerned about what theyre looking about and the allegations about russia and ties with members of the trump team. But does the president not have a point about all of these leaks and the fact that they are classified, if not of higher marking . Of course he does. No president likes a leak unless its in his favor. And in this situation they clearly were not in favor of the trump presidency. I dont know the source of the leaks, dont know where they came from, whether they came from within the white house or within the Intelligence Community. But lets be very frank about this. We know from the transcript, we know from the conversation the National Security advisor was forced to resign. It wasnt the leak that caused his resignation, it was the substance of the conversation he had misrepresented to the president and vicepresident. Have you seen the transcript . No, i have not. Just from the reports about that . Thats right. When you say that you want there to be an independent counsel to investigate the allegations about the trump team and russia, you dont think the Senate Intelligence committee on its own can do a good enough report . Im skeptical. I trust mark warner completely, but he has to work with the republican senator who may not be as enthusiastic about this. I served on the intelligence committee. We met for hour after weary hour behind closed doors. We need a public hearing on what happened here with the russian involvement in this election and since. And finally, when there is a report coming out of the Senate Intelligence committee, trust me, it will be heavily censored and redacted and the only way to get that information declassified is with the permission of the white house. Imagine, if you will, something about President Trump and they have to a grow to disclose it to the American People. We should have an independent transparent and open hearing on this whole question. Senator dick did you remember bin, democrat from the land of lincoln , thank you so much. Appreciate your time, sir. Good to be with you, jake. An unusual president ial News Conference by just about any stand 5rd, President Trump spend morgue than an hour, largely airing his grievances from Media Coverage to his Electoral College victory which none of you appreciate enough to his firing of Michael Flynn, our panel is here to discuss it all next. Look closely. Hidden in every swing, every chip, and every putt, is data that can make the difference between winning and losing. Golfers like me have played these holes thousands of times, generating countless data points. The microsoft cloud helps me turn that data into insight that used to be invisible. Here, intuition would tell me to lay up with a 3iron, but the analysis from the cloud tells me to go for it, and use a driver for a 12 percent higher chance of birdie. There are countless points of data in the pga tour. The microsoft cloud makes sense of it, helping them transform their business, so players, and fans, will experience the game in a whole new way. The microsoft cloud gives you the power to turn information into insight. Welcome back to lead. Sticking with politics, President Trump insisting at a News Conference his administration is running like a, quote, fine tuned machine. And that the level of dishonesty from the media is, quote, out of control. Lets dive right in with my panel. Ryan, let me start with you. So, White House PressSecretary Sean Spicer said the president made the decision this morning to have a press conference. Quote, this is what he enjoys doing. He recognizes this is why he won. What did you think . I think that part of it, yeah, i dont think he won because he was attacking the media. I think he won because he won for a lot of reasons. But i think the question they have been grappling with over there is who is the enemy. Last week a senior white house official reported this in the new yorker last week, was musing on the phone with me and this person said, in the campaign it was so simple. The enemy was hillary clinton. Right. Everything was really clear. Now and this person went on to say, who is the enemy . Is it Chuck Schumer and the democrats . Is it Elizabeth Warren . Is it the media, is it the elites . I think today we have the answer to that white house officials question. It iss the media more than his political opposition. In congress, this a more fuss ee lee leets, it is us. He went on attack the media and most of the time between the banter and the asides, it was attacks. I think thats all washington has to gram with who the white house sees as the enemy. I dont doubt for one second trump fans, trump enthusiasts loved it. I dont doubt that for one second. What do people who voted for trump that are ambivalent about trump, what about people who didnt vote for trump in other words, what about the majority of the country . Clearly this was his attempt to point the finger at the media as the bad guy. And not him or his administration. From the standpoint, from a communications standpoint, i think its not a grand idea to attack the media and call them fake news when youre pointing out today, one of the key points was the leaks are real, the reporting is fake. That clearly doesnt make sense. It doesnt it defies reality. With all of that being said, i would grade his event today as an aplusplus for what he wants to do. Which is . He wants to distract from the Media Coverage. This morning looking at the top newspapers in the green room today, the headlines were, white house in crisis mode. Flynn facing fbi probe. Those were the stories leading into this press conference. Now going to all this be websites, it is trump blasts the media, inherited the mess. He would rather talk about those issues. From that standpoint it was an aplus. I want to be in alices class. That is not im not going to grade, because it would just be Dishonest Press grading. Thats not the grady would give it. Yes, it distracted attention, but it distracted attention by setting off this whole other fire and i just dont think even if you were at work and didnt witness the whole event, when you come home from work and you turn on your news, you turn on your cnn, you see the clip, youre going to say, whoa, what is this guy talking about . I think that distracting people from your problems by suggesting that youre i think i heard the word unhinged on this network. Somebody said it. Yeah. Is not probably the best strategy. Ryan . Not just people on this network. I was emailing republicans to find out what republicans in washington thought of this, right . Republicans on the hill have an agenda, right . The bargain here was traditional conservatives up on the hill, yeah, they got trump but hes going to sign their issues into law. Paul ryan today was talking about tax reform. Earlier in the week republicans were talking about repealing obamacare. Its hard to see how this press conference advances the legislative agenda. One house aide said to me this press conference was bizarre and borderline unhinged. Thats a view from your allies. Republican. Thats a Republican House aide. Heres the thing, alice. I dont doubt you for one second lets change the subject. I dont know what the headlines are going to be tomorrow morning, the day after that, the day after that. And there are people out there who voted for trump, or even if they didnt vote for trump, who want him to be working to help them. On those things that he talked about opt campaign all the time. Immigration, jobs, trade, counter terrorism, draining the swamp. Do you think it would have been nice to have seen some passion about those issues instead of don lemons ratings, which by the way are pretty good . I think, i think clearly the way he executed what he did today, thats not something i would recommend. But clearly it works for him. He did that throughout the campaign. Hes doing that in the administration and while i understand campaigning is different from governing, he has seen that as a way that is successful for him. We did get some positive news out of this today. We learned by the way, the News Conference was about his new labor secretary, alex accosta, that was the driving headline. Well see more about that. That was not the driving headline. He talked about jim accosta more than alex accosta. That was the reason for the News Conference. Also we had news on the new executive order coming out. He will have more details on obamacare in march. So, the news moving the ball down the field voters want to see is happening slow and sure. But just the style is much different than anyone has ever seen before and anyone who thinks its going to change is sadly mistaken. One more thing on the policy news. He sounded extremely sympathetic to daca. To the dreamers. Absolutely. And leaving them in place. In a rambling way saying hes sympathetic to this. He has to convince the immigration hard liners. Thats what i read like his attorney general. Good luck with that. You know what i thought was one of the most interesting moments, they said dont pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel. Dont pick a fight with people who have google on their smartphones because he just completely folded when Peter Alexander challenged him on his magnificent Electoral College land slide. And it was as if and he kept going back to peter at various points. Is that okay, peter, is that okay, peter . I thought it was actually a really interesting lesson for us in the media in the future in terms of being able to challenge him. You have to have the information right there to say that. Youve done this at times. To say thats not right, because sometimes when confronted with facts he just disputes them. But this one he just backed down. That was an extraordinary moment. Its a great demonstration why people in the media need to rise to this moment and make sure we have our facts right when we make reports and when were at press conferences. I used to cover the Clinton Administration in the early days and it was a very bumpy moment and actually it was very quite contentious between the administration and the press. And i used to say then you had to question them as if you were taking a deposition and thats at least as true now. When you take a deposition you have your papers in front of you. And one quick thing in term of the Media Holding his feet to the fire, the one question they wanted answered was about did any members of his campaign communicate with russia during the campaign. They never really got an answer on that. It was not as far as i know, basically. They kept in defense of everybody who was in that room, they really did keep going at it and realized. That was great solidarity there. Ryan, ruth, alice, thank you so much to all of you. President trump is heading to florida this weekend to what sean spicer called a campaign rally. What is he campaigning for . Repealing and replacing obamacare time line keeps changing. Is that because the republicans dont know what theyre going to do next . Well have more on that as well. mic thuds uh, sorry. Its unlimited without compromising reliability, on the largest, most advanced 4g lte network in america. thud uh. Sorry, last thing. Its just 45 per line. Forty. Five. cheering and applause and that is all the microphones that i have. vo not just unlimited. Verizon unlimited. Deartheres no other way to say this. Its over. Ive found a permanent escape from monotony. Together, we are perfectly balanced, our senses awake, our hearts racing as one. I know this is sudden, but they say if you love something. Set it free. See you around, giulia so we know how to cover almost alanything. Ything, even a truckcicle. [second man] how you doing . [ice cracking] [second man] ah,ah, ah. Oh no [first man] saves us some drilling. [burke] and we covered it, february fourteenth, twentyfifteen. Talk to farmers. We know a thing or two because weve seen a thing or two. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum welcome back to the lead. Were going to stick with politics. At his News Conference in between whatever that was, the president did make some news including that an obamacare replacement is coming in march. Today House Republicans met behind closed doors trying to unify their message on plans to repeal and replace obamacare. As of now there is still no agreement on any tangible replacement plan and some lawmakers are frankly concerned that moving too quickly could spell political disaster. Later, if constituents wind up losing coverage, lets go to Cnns Phil Mattingly on capitol hill. Phil, tom price, the newly minted health and Human Services second, he was also at todays closed door meeting. Any hints as to what might be next in efforts to repeal and replace obamacare . Eventually a proposal for the near term, they want information. And, jake, when you talk to gop leadership its one of their biggest issues right now. They felt that their members are out of the loop. Thats why theyve been so unsettled. Thats why theyve been complaining about the time line or lack of policy details. There is a strategy Going Forward and theyve had a series of behind closed doors briefings including that briefing today really trying to dig in on specific issues. And heres why. Jake, the house is no longer in session. They are going home for recess. That means town halls, that means 7figure add by liberal groups. What republicans did today was arm their members with powerpoint packets, talking points walking through why the Affordable Care act in their view is failing, why replace plan will eventually work. Jake, there is no question about it when it comes to policy there are sharp differences within the House Republican conference, differences that dont have answers yet. Speaker paul ryan making very clear when they come back from recess, we will start the legislative process. How that process ends up, theres no answers to that yet, jake. Phil mattingly, thank you. Now on to our National Lead. Another round of rallies and Grassroots Efforts are taking place across the country today. This time they are to protest not President Trumps policies on health care, but his policies on immigration and travel. Immigrants in washington, d. C. , new york, chicago, houston, los angeles and other major u. S. Cities are skipping work and school today. Some are planning to not spend any money on this socalled day without immigrants. I want to bring in cnn correspondent tom foreman in the georgetown neighborhood of washington. Tom, is this having any sort of impact nationally or locally . Reporter well, there is no real way to measure what the impact is nationally. It is having some local impact. Behind me is one of the restaurants in d. C. That has closed down for the day. Normally this would be hopping. We had customers come by a short while ago trying to get in and theyre not alone as this effort has extended, as you noted, to cities coast to coast. We are worker. Reporter in chicago, in atlanta, in charlotte, and in austin, protesters rallied loud and long against the trump policies on immigration. Among the many immigrants who walked off of their jobs to hammer home a point. The people that are here, they just want to be heard. They just want to be respected. They want to do their jobs. Reporter employers joined the effort, too. Some restaurants in particular are allowing their workers to stay off of the job from los angeles to philadelphia. The bureau of labor statistics has found more than half of all restaurant workers are foreign born. Thats over 7 million people. We want to let them know. Were not criminals. Were workers. We support our country. Were just going to close the store completely. I wouldnt be able to run it without them in the first place. Theyre the backbone of my business and they make the machine go. If you stand for something, whatever your ideology is, you have to stand up for it. Reporter in the Nations Capital more than 100 eateries, bars and caves shut down including a good many that serve pentagon. And on capitol hill, some even had managers working in place of their immigrant employees so the restaurant could stay open. Were running a limited menu in support of our staff. My wife is here washing dishes, for example, you know, we needed to kind of call in all hands to help out. Reporter even a restaurant in the new trump hotel was so short staffed it was offering a limited menu. And its sister restaurant was closed altogether just to block from the white house where the new administration has been steadily defending the new president s policies. Those who are in this country that pose a threat to us or with a criminal record are where his priorities are going to be first and foremost and were going november through the rest of the folks in this country illegally. Reporter but some arent buying it. Celebrity chef who is involved in dueling lawsuits with the new president over a contract dispute closed some of his restaurants and tweeted a message at the white house. Immigrants feed america. I only want to run a successful restaurant and you are making it very difficult. Reporter at least one bilingual school here was also clos closed. As best we can make out, it didnt seem to shut down any community anywhere, but it did get a lot of voices heard everywhere. Thats really what they wanted most of all. Jake . Tom foreman, thank you so much. President trump pledged to build a wall, but a new cnn investigation uncovers what might really happen with that wall. It could leave some Trump Supporters sorely disappointed. Stay with us. If you have moderate to severe Rheumatoid Arthritis like me, and youre talking to your rheumatologist about a medication. This is humira. This is humira helping to relieve my pain. And protect my joints from further damage. Humira has been clinically studied for over 18 years. Humira works by targeting and helping to. Block a specific source. Of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. Its proven to help relieve pain and. Stop further joint damage in many adults. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. 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Were the williams family, and were usaa members for life. Call usaa today to talk about your insurance needs. Welcome back. Lets dive into the National Lead now as President Trump calls for a big, beautiful wall opt border between the United States and mexico. A new report out today questions whether the fence in place now is even effective. The current barrier is 654 miles long. It covers not even half of the 2000 mile border. The fence stops and starts at various points throughout california, arizona, new mexico and texas. The cnn air drone shows you what it actually looks like over nogales, arizona. Those in charge of building and manning a new wall now say plans may need to be scaled back, way back. Our Senior Investigative correspondent drew griffin explains why. Reporter it is 18 feet tall made of steel with a cement base. Call it what you want, but the government planners, Security Experts and Homeland Security officials who will be in charge of building it call this a fence. This is the most recently built barrier between the United States and mexico near brownsville, texas. And cnn has been told by multiple sources within the agencies involved in building, paying for and enforcing this barrier that this is what President Trumps wall may look like. U. S. Customs and Border Patrol is planning to present the plan for Border Security to its bosses possibly this week, and cnn has learned new details. First, they say the wall should not be a wall. It should be a fence, and that could become a sticky situation for a president who insists otherwise. On the fence, its not a fence, its a wall. You just misreported it. Were going to build a wall. Reporter source he tell cnn the biggest job in moving forward is convincing the president that the fence is more secure and it will be up to Homeland Security secretary john kelly, sources say, who must find a way to allow the white house to spin the promise of a wall into a fence. Secretary kelly seems to have already begun. In testimony to congress, repeatedly referring to the border fortification as a barrier. Yes, there are many, many places that we need some type of physical barrier right now backed up by men and women of border protection. Reporter why would President Trump agree to a fence instead of a beautiful wall, as he says . Security and common sense. U. S. Customs and Border Patrol officials on the ground and in charge of actually securing the border tell cnn a fence actually offers more security than a solid wall. One source telling cnn, you never want to have a barrier in place that will obstruct your vision. That prevents you from seeing the other side of the border. Another saying, i am not calling it a wall because we are talking about a fence that we can look through. Thats what we need. Its more secure for border agents. It eliminates many environmental factors like drainage. And its costs will be significantly lower. If the current plan is approved, it will look like this ballard style fencing, the steel slats secured 6 feet below ground and sfanding 18 feet above, the slats reinforced with rebar. Another proposal according to sources, it will not go coast to coast. This is the current fence from the Pacific Ocean to the gulf of mexico with large gaps in between for a total of 654 miles. The latest plans involve adding 177 new miles of fencing and replacing 272 miles of alreadybuilt fence. According to onehigh level source with knowledge of the project. That means the total barrier between the United States and mexico would cover 831 total miles of a nearly 2000mile border. Still not even half, according to these sources. As for the cost, if President Trump accepts this recommendation, it will be about 5 billion according to sources. Should President Trump insist on complete coverage included in a department of Homeland Security draft report seen by cnn is a proposed threephase plan to do it all the way as cross, an additional, 1,080 miles of fencing at a cost of roughly 21 billion. But leading experts say constructing it across rough terrain is not only unrealistic, but according to one source, pure fantasy. And add to this, jake, a Government Accounting Office report released just this afternoon basically saying the customs and Border Patrol really doesnt have a good handle on how effective fencing really s. The report says the cbb has yet developed any method of assessing the value of fencing or how well it integrates into the overall Border Security system. One thing is clear in the report, the old fencing which is called legacy fencing appears to be very easily defeated. In fact, the gao says in a fiveyear period from 2010 to 2015, legacy fencing, jake, was breached either cut open, driven over, or tunnelled under nearly 9,000 times. Jake . Drew griffin, thank you so much. Coming up, what is north korea sell bratding with parades and fire works . Cnn has the only western reporter on the ground in pyonyang. Well go there live. Stay with us. Tech dont let a cracked windshield ruin your plans. Trust safelite. With safelites exclusive on my way text. Youll know exactly when well be there. Giving you more time for what matters most. team sing safelite repair, safelite replace. Looking now to our world lead, north korea may be one of the few countries not fascinated with the death of kim jonguns half brother. It celebrated one of its national holidays, the late leader kim jongils birthday. Theyre pulling out all the stops for the day of star celebration. Lavish fire works, concerts, and military displays, a lot of money that could be better spent feeding their own people. Lets go to pyonyang, the only western tv journalist on the ground. On the heels of one of the most advanced missiles is this years celebration any different from previous years . Reporter this celebration is very similar in many ways to celebrations weve seen before, jake. Perhaps a bit larger because it would have been the 75th birthday of the late noren leader kim jongil. What we saw a more than 20 minutes fire works display, public dancing in the streets, and people throughout pyonyang practicing their routines for hours during the day. We saw 100,000 people attend a flower show, special flower designed and created for kim jongil. These are things weve seen in north korea before. And yet this is a country that continues to be under very heavy sanctions, unprecedented sachkss for its nuclear and missile programs. There was that Missile Launch over the weekend, a considerable amount of this country resources spent on developing these weapons by some estimates up to a quarter of its gdp. And, so, you have people who will might be coming from homes that dont have electricity and yet theyre seeing these lavish displays. You have people outside of pyonyang in the country side who dont have a nutritionally sufficient diet who may be watching these extravagant celebration on television during the couple of hours a day that they have power. And, so, that is the real thats the perplexing thing about this country. The state media, the propaganda tells people they are going without these things, they dont have good quality food, they dont always have consistent electricity, theyre kept isolated from the rest of the world because their country needs to develop these weapons to protect their national sovereignty. They tell people that the United States is just miles away from pyonyang where im standing right now with an army of forces waiting to invade this country. And when we stalk to people on the streets, thats what they tell us. We ask if they think the Weapons Development is worth it for the hardship they endure. They say they have no other choice. They dont blame the regime, they dont blame their Supreme Leader kim jongun for their financial troubles. They blame the United States because thats what the state controlled media has been telling them. Now, we spoke to some everyday people also about the u. S. Elections and specifically about President Trump. Surprisingly pretty much everybody knew the name, they know who he is, but they say theyre not expecting much from the new trump administration. They say every u. S. President continues a hostile policy against their country. So, whether its trump or obama, they dont feel optimistic anything will change. Government official are telling us privately there is some hope the new administration will take a different approach with north korea and be willing to negotiate. Jake . He is a negotiator. Will ripley in pyonyang, north korea. Stay safe. President trump pushing back on criticism that his administration has been chaotic. He said, in fact, his white house is running like a finetuned machine. That story coming up. The future of business in new york state is already in motion. Companies across the state are growing the economy, with the help of the lowest taxes in decades, a talented workforce, and worldclass innovations. Like in plattsburgh, where the most advanced transportation is already en route. And in corning, where the future is materializing. Let us help grow your companys tomorrow today at esd. Ny. Gov deartheres no other way to say this. Its over. Ive found a permanent escape from monotony. Together, we are perfectly balanced, our senses awake, our hearts racing as one. I know this is sudden, but they say if you love something. Set it free. See you around, giulia today, unlimited gets the netwverizon. Eserves. mic thuds uh, sorry. Its unlimited without compromising reliability, on the largest, most advanced 4g lte network in america. thud uh. Sorry, last thing. Its just 45 per line. Forty. Five. cheering and applause and that is all the microphones that i have. vo not just unlimited. Verizon unlimited. Happening now. Breaking news. They will say donald trump rants and raves at the press. Im not rantsing and raving. Youre dishonest people. Ranting and raving at a News Conference. He touts what he calls incredible progress under his administration, then spends more than an hour excoriating the news media. Russian ruse, mr. Trump says he has nothing to do with russia and he wasnt aware of contacts by his Campaign Aides with russia, dismissing the story as fake news. Is it making it harder for him to dealing with moscow . Basic facts. Even