Indicating its willing to talk to north korea but saying its up to kim jongun. So who blinks first . All of that coming up. Lets start with the confusion inside the white house as officials try to get their heads around President Trumps stance on rob porter, the former aide resigning over spousal abuse allegations. Publicly the president has defended porter, saying the accounts are just mere allegations and shouldnt ruin someones career. But reports say that privately the president considers porter, and im quoting now, sick. Our senior white house editor jeff zel aeny. What are you hearing from the president to publicly stand by rob porter . Reporter we do know at this moment, first of all, white house chief of staff john kelly is still on the job here. He is the key to this equation. Rob porter, who resigned abruptly last week, is perhaps on the president s mind but the president did not answer questions about him, and the whole matter of security clearances just a short time ago here at the white house when he was doing an infrastructure event with governors and others from around the country. But the white house chief of staff was front and center in the room with the president , and he is indeed on the job here. Now, this certainly has given an opening for many people who dont necessarily like john kelly to voice their concern. But we do know, as far as we can tell at this moment, the president still stands behind him. This is what Kellyanne Conway, the Senior Adviser to the president , told jake tapper yesterday on state of the union. I spoke to the president last night. I told him i would be with you today, and he said, please tell jake that i have full faith in chief of staff john kelly, and that i am not actively searching for replacements. He said, i saw that all over the news today. I have faith in him. And he does. So that, of course, is the president s words through Kellyanne Conway, that the president has confidence in the chief of staff. But again, it is the question about rob porter. The president , of course, standing by him publicly, but private some reports say he was not thrilled at all by what he saw. The question is there has just not been a sense of unified message or clarity here. Weaver not hea weve not heard from the chief of staff, weve not heard from other advisers here, so until people come forward and answer other questions, maybe it will answer in the briefing this afternoon, there is still a cloud here hanging over the white house, wolf. That briefing has been delayed to, what, around 3 00 p. M. Eastern . Indeed. And this is the first briefing where Sarah Sanders has the opportunity to answer some of these questions and fill in some of the blanks on what the president said on friday. He said rob porter is a goodm. Good man. He tweeted on saturday saying lives shouldnt be ruined because of this, but there is a question where the president stands on all of this. That is one reason for the press secretary to answer all these questions, wolf. Well get back to you, and lets bring in our panelists. Rachel bay, our chief political analyst, gloria borger. Lots of confusion. White house officials saying theyre baffle ld d by what the president said in private as opposed to what he said in public. What do you think . I would be baffled, too, if i worked inside the white house. Theyre also concerned about a timeline offered by general kelly that theyre not sure is accurate. Did he lie to his own staff . I think there is a lot of confusion there. The president , you know, you heard Kellyanne Conway saying that, you know, that the president has confidence in general kelly. I know from my own reporting that the president has been calling around to people saying, well, if this job were to become open, would you potentially be interested in it . His good friend tom barrack said, no, i would not. It was not, i want you to do this job, it was kind of one of those, well, if i were thinking about making a change. So if youre sitting inside the white house, of course you would be scratching your head about this, because its completely dysfunctional. You probably saw that report, theyre suggesting that rob porter was told to stay and fight these allegations. Right, and so the discrepancy between stay and fight versus i told him theres the door 40 minutes after i understood the allegations were credible is your first disconnect right there. Not to mention the fact this goes back to the beginning of the Trump Administration in terms of the number of times people in the white house were warned, that this was actually a concern. And they had reason to maybe ask questions about what the substance of this was and knew to some extent that it was about these issues, because porter was not getting fully approved for his full security clearance. So this is just its remarkable that weve been talking about this for a week at this point. Its not the first time the white house has had difficulty getting its stories straight, but to go on for this long is really striking. And indicates that, look, this started out rob porter Domestic Abuse is a problem. But for the white house, this is a management problem and it continues to be a management problem because they cant get their stories straight about what happened and what they decided to do. The scandal represents a significant embarrassment, very awkward situation for republicans generally the Republican Party has basically been silent on these latest allegations. Its starting to spill onto capitol hill which is where i work every day, and basically republicans are embarrassed by this. They dont want to touch it with a 10foot pole. But there are a group of democrats who have vowed to get answers on this. They want to know who knew what when. Was this on porters security clearance . This is totally drowning everything thats going out this week. The senate is getting ready to take on this huge immigration debate this week where the president S Immigration proposal is actually going to get a vote. The president is out there talking about infrastructure, and nobody is really listening to that stuff because porter, six days later, is still taking up everything and sucking up all the oxygen. And look, the rnc, when steve wynn had to leave as the finance chair, theyre not giving back contributions at this point because they say the allegations against him are unproven, and so, you know, you have this whole steve wynn scenario playing out on the sidelines to the rob porter snacenario playi out inside the white house. If you want to take a middle road, there were all kinds of options in the last 13 months. Put him on administrative leave while you investigate it. None that fof that happened, ei. You show how much turmoil this is for the gop that were comparing those situations, and theyre comparing shows situations as well and that were still talking about it a week later. Then you have a president who has not talked about in the case of rob porter, he hasnt talked about the women. He just talked about how terrible it is for rob porter publicly. He should probably take a cue, then, from Kellyanne Conway who has actually gotten her remarks yesterday were very delicate. She talked about not only these being accusations but also mentioning the Police Report and these women talking under penalty of perjury to sort of emphasize that this goes beyond a mere allegation, and you would think the white house would take a cue from that. Not yet so far, at least. You would, indeed. Also the other thing i would stress is this is one person out of over 30 people that dont have their full security clearance yet. The fact were focusing on this one person, what are we not focusing on for the others . Presumably they are not looking at these cases and the daytoday functioning of the white house. In a way the fact this has continued on is really surprising and shocking and also means were not paying as much attention to countless others. Its interesting, gloria, because i know you look at the numbers closely. In the 2016 president ial election, the president carried 41 of the womens vote, 52 of white women. What do you think thats going to be now that he seems to be going against the me too movement . Z its honestly hard to predict, wolf. It depends who the president is running against, et cetera. Noncollegeeducated white women, the president won by 27 points. A remarkable number. And the question i have is whether the me too movement, if the pendulum kind of swings to the other side, whether these women will be with donald trump on this or not, you know . I think there is a lot thats got to play out before we really know. I think the women who were not with him are not going to be any more with him, lets put it that way, and maybe the socalled well, these women we know more of them are running for political office. We assume more of them will go out to vote, but its these noncollegeeducated white women that hes so powerful with. The question is how this will affect them. I dont know the answer. What do you think . There was a report in the past 24 hours saying steve bannon, who used to be very close to the president and obviously not so much in the circle anymore, but saying that exactly, that he is concerned that the women are going to be so opposed to donald trump that this could potentially swing the midterm elections in 2018 and then again in 2020 have a really dire effect on his reelection. All right, guys. Thank you all very much. Dozens of white house officials still operating without a full security clearance including, as we reported, the president s soninlaw jared kushner. Youll find out what classified information theyre actually seeing. Plus a Seismic Shift in recent days involving Nuclear Tensions with north korea. Why the u. S. May be warming up with talks with kim jongun. And the former first lady making a rare public appearance for the unveiling of their official portraits. Youre going to see what happened. We took legendary, and made it liberating. 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And unlike sonicare, oralb is the only electric toothbrush brand accepted by the American Dental Association for its effectiveness and safety. My mouth feels so clean. Ill only use an oralb. Oralb. Brush like a pro. Dozens of people are still operating with interim security clearances more than a year into the trump presidency. One of the notable names on the list, the president s soninlaw and Senior Adviser jared kushner. Lets get some perspective from former cia operative bob baer. Bob, is this unprecedented in your experience . How unusual is this . Wolf, ive never seen this before where youve got people in the white house. Theyre given precedence for getting security clearances, and remember, the white house is seeing the most secret stuff, special Access Programs from the pentagon and the cia, and for these people to be held up on a security clearance is very, very unusual. In fact, im not sure ive heard of it before. The question is why. Even the white house doesnt know why theyre being held up because the fbi does their investigation. Theyre looking for unexplained foreign contacts, financial entanglements or crimes. What about someone without a full security clearance having access to some of the most sensitive classified information. Walk us through the kind of risk that potentially could pose. Well, what happens, wolf, a lot of this stuff is transmitted to the white house electronically. So basically anyone that can get in the situation room can see this stuff, and theres no control over it. The cia is not there, the National Security agency is not there to monitor this stuff, and normally you cant see it at all, but once it gets into the white house, its gone. And this is going to make the Intelligence Agency very reluctant to send on to the white house very secret stuff. I mean, i would be. We mentioned, we reported that the president s Senior Adviser, his soninlaw jared kushner, still does not have full security clearance, he has interim security clearance. Thats been the case for more than a year now. The administration points to paperwork errors in filling out the forms, bureaucratic decisions. What do you make of that . I dont believe it, wolf, not for a minute. There is a problem. The fbi will bend over backwards to clear these people into the white house, and they do it very quickly. Interim clearances just dont count. If youre in the federal government and youre having the same sort of problems, they will sideline you. Theyll send you down to the library. You will lose access immediately if you cant clear a security, you know, Background Investigation like this. So, again, this is very, very unusual, and it worries me. Bob baer, thanks so much for joining us. Thank you. As north korea hits the world stage at the olympics, the u. S. Suddenly warming up to the possibility of direct talks with kim jonguns regime. Youre going to hear why. And israel says a downed iranian drone was a copy of an american drone that iran intercepted years ago. What this says potentially for americas spy games. Mileage warranty, or it isnt. For those who never settle, its either mercedesbenz certified preowned, or it isnt. The mercedesbenz certified preowned sales event. Now through february 28th. Only at your authorized mercedesbenz dealer. When you can squeeze one in wbetween friday and monday at hilton . N theres a vacation at the end of every week. Whatever type of weekender you are, dont let another weekend pass you by. Get the lowest price when you book at hilton. Com alright, i brought in high protein to help get us moving. And help you feel more strength and energy in just two weeks ill take that. Yeeeeeah ensure high protein. With 16 grams of protein and 4 grams of sugar. Ensure. Always be you. Hereand you look amazinglylook comfortable. When your vneck looks more like a uneck. , thats when you know, its halfwashed, add downy to keep your collars from stretching, unlike detergent alone, downy conditions to smooth and strengthen fibers. So next time dont halfwash it. Downy and its done. Proud partner of the olympic winter games. Kim jonguns personal attention to visit north korea is causing a diplomatic dilemma for the south korean president. Now the president moon jae inmust figure out how to navigate the way forward on how south korea would react to a meeting with the north korea dictator. Were joined by pyeongchang, the site of the winter olympic games. Will, was kim jonguns sisters visit a diplomatic win or a diplomatic loss . How was it received . Well, if youre kim jongun, it was definitely a diplomatic win. He sent his telegenic younger sister kim jong to tong chang. They had photooptic games, handshakes. If your south koreas president , it was also a win because he ran on the platform of engaging with north korea, and hes now had the diplomatic meeting with kim and he may be heading to north korea in a couple months. The Vice President of the United States brought otto warmbier. He did not make a step forward. Vice president pence had some discussions and said the u. S. Can endorse this engagement as long as certain conditions are met. If max pressure continues, no money is being paid to the north koreans. Theyre being put in a box here, wolf. Lets talk about these developments. Were joined by josh rogan and belle wong. Josh, you spent a week with Vice President pence. You interviewed him on the way back. He is now seemingly open to the idea of the u. S. And north korea engaging in direct talks. Thats right, wolf. What mike pence told me is that in principle, the Trump Administration has always been willing to talk to north korea. What they feared was the south koreans would move ahead of them and give north korea concessions just by talking. After having two private meetings with moon jaein, one in his residence and one while watching speed skating, they came to an agreement of no concessions for talking. With that, pence gave him the green light for talking. Its a small compromise to keep the Alliance Together and allow moon to pursue his engagement with north korea, and it could lead to direct talks with the u. S. , although that doesnt mean negotiations, that doesnt mean peace, its just a