Transcripts For KPIX CBS This Morning 20170302 : vimarsana.c

Encounters between sharks and people in the state. But we begin this morning with a look at todays eye opener, your world in 90 seconds. When asked by a senator whether he had contact with the russians in any way, shape or form, he said no period. So obviously that turns out not to be accurate. Jeff sessions failed to disclose contacts with the Russian Ambassador. Democrats are intensifying their calls for sessions to recuse himself from any investigation or even to step down. If there is something there and it goes up the chain of investigation, it is clear to me that Jeff Sessions who is my dear friend, cannot make this decision about trump. Historic day on wall street. The dow broke another record. Make it rain, dow, 21,000. The president of the academy announced the two accountants responsible for the mixup will never work on the oscars again. It happened so suddenly. You could hear it. Parts of the midwest and the south are cleaning up after a spate of tornadoes. A wild scene through the streets of california. A suspect leading police on an hours long chase. Hes not going anywhere. A great white shark caught off the Huntington Beach pier part of an investigation. 8yearold noah young becoming an internet sensation for his moves on the ice. He hits it. A play that goes down in northwestern history. And all that matters. Have you ever thought you could actually run for president and actually be elected. I thought, oh, gee, i dont have the experience, i dont know enough. And now im thinking, oh. On cbs this morning. Think about how easy it would be for her to win over the audience at the debates. Shed be like, thats a very good point, President Trump. But on the other hand if you look under your seats, you get a free car, you get a free car, you get a free car. This mornings you opener is presented by toyota. Lets go places. Welcome to cbs this morning. More proof that Everybody Loves oprah. And people love cars, too. Very much. People love cars, too. Especially free ones. Especially free cars. Good morning. Charlie rose is off and recovering. Anthony mason is here with us. Hello again. Great to have you. Attorney general Jeff Sessions is under new pressure to withdraw from an investigation into russian interference with the 2016 election. The Justice Department confirms that sessions spoke with russias u. S. Ambassador twice last year while he was a u. S. Senator and an adviser to the Trump Campaign. Sessions did not reveal those conversations at his confirmation hearing even though he was asked about them. And now some Congressional Democrats are calling for the attorney general to resign. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said this Jeff Sessions lied under oath and is not fit to serve. Jeff pegues is covered the story from the beginning. Good morning. Good morning. As the nations top Law Enforcement officer, Jeff Sessions is in charge of the fbis investigation into whether trump representatives coordinated with the russians during the campaign. These new revelations are turning up the heat on him to at least step aside. Well, i have not met with any russians at any time to discuss any political campaign, and those remarks are unbelievable to me and are false, and i dont have any else to say about that. Reporter attorney general jeff session whose was a trump representative during the campaign has repeatedly resisted calls to recuse himself from the investigation into russian meddling in the election. The truth, the whole truth reporter under oath during his confirmation hearings, sessions did not disclose that he met with the Russian Ambassador twice. If there is any evidence that anyone affiliated with the Trump Campaign communicated with the russian government in the course of this campaign, what will you do . Senator franken, im not aware of any of those activities. I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign, and i did not have communications with the russians, and im unable to comment on it. But in september, sessions met in his office with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak just as federal investigators were planning to blame russia for campaign cyberattacks. In july sessions saw kislyak at an event during the Republican National convention. A spokesperson at the department of justice noticed as a member of the Armed Services Committee Last year, the senator had over 25 conversations with foreign ambassadors. It is not uncommon for members of that Senate Committee to meet with ambassadors. The democrats say sessions failure to come clean during his confirmation is disqualifying. It sounds like he did not tell the truth. And a lie is a lie is a lie, period. And so some kind of way weve got to come to grips with that. Reporter former National Security adviser mike flynn was fired last month after he misled the Vice President about his contacts with the Russian Ambassador. A white house official says calls for sessions to recuse himself are just a partisan attack from democrats. Jeff pegues, thanks. The Trump Administration strongly denies any Campaign Connections with russia, but there are new signs its preparing for a political fight on the issue. Margaret brennan is at the white house with new information. Margaret, good morning. Reporter good morning. White house lawyers told President Trumps aides this week to preserve emails and other materials relevant to on going probes into russian contacts with trump associates. A Senior Administration official down played the significance of the order telling me that the white house is simply taking proactive steps and called the accusations, quote, false and politically motivated attacks. These instructions come as the Senate Intelligence Committee Also asked all u. S. Agencies to keep all materials between trump aides and russian officials. President trump has said he has no knowledge of contacts between russia and his team. But cbs news has confirmed that fbi counterintelligence is investigating. All right, margaret, thank you so much. Republicans in congress are still working on their plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care act. In a speech tuesday President Trump spelled out a series of tax credit to help americans buy insurance. Nancy cordes is on capitol hill where the president s comments are causing a feud inside the gop. Nancy, good morning. Reporter good morning. Republican leaders have begun trying to sell this plan to their gop members which is a challenging task because theyre still missing key figures and details. Theyre hashing all this out behind closed doors as they try to tramp down a rebellion from their own right flank. Senators who were briefed on the new Health Care Plan last night were instructed not to say much about whats in it. The details will matter. Its in many ways a promising start. Reporter here is what we do know. A draft of the plan replaces obamacares low income tax credits and subsidies with more modest tax credits that go to everywhere. An analysis from the Kaiser Family foundation found that a 40yearold making 20,000 a year would see his tax credit drop from an average of 4100 under obamacare to 3,000 under the gop plan. Lower income people and people older would get less help whereas younger people and wealthier people would be better off. Reporter like obamacare, the republican plan would make those tax credits refundable meaning low income americans get the money even if they pay little or no taxes. Some on the right say thats a handout and theyre threatening to vote no. I think its going to prove to be a bridge too far for a lot of people. Reporter in those closed door meetings gop leaders are arguing that any other approach would result in millions of people losing the ability to afford insurance, and republicans getting the blame. Its not going to be perfect, but this is our one chance to keep our promise to our supporters to whom we made the promise that wed repeal and replace obamacare. Reporter another big Sticking Point is what to do about obamacares huge expansion of medicaid which now covers 11 million more people than it did before. Some republicans say that is a vital safety net that needs to be retained. Others say its too expensive and needs to be scaled back. Norah, if they cant find consensus on this, the entire bill could be in trouble. Very important point nancy. Thank you so much. Dan senior was a Senior Adviser to the Romney Campaign in 2012. He joins us from washington. Good morning, dan. Good morning, norah. A spokesperson for the department of justice says sessions last year had conversations with 25 different foreign ambassadors in his job as a senator on the Armed Services committee. Why does this conversation with the Russian Ambassador matter . Well, it matters because there continues to be this web of questions about connections, conversations, potential coordination as it is alleged between the Trump Campaign and the russian government. Youre right. Any u. S. Senator i worked for a u. S. Senator who didnt serve on the Armed Services committee and didnt serve on the Foreign Relations committee and in any year he was meeting with tens of ambassadors. These are typical pro forma meetings, not a lot of substance discussed. Just kind of box checking. I think that the Trump Administration has to get to the bottom of how theyre going to explain all this communication between the Trump Campaign and the russian government during the course of the campaign. I do not think its as big a deal as others do. But as it relates to attorney general sessions, to lie to congress, you have to willfully know that you are actually misleading congress, and the material youre discussing has to be material, has to be extremely relevant to the focus of any kind of investigation. In this case i actually think then senator sessions had no idea that meeting with one ambassador over another was materially significant. It appears that he just theres no way for him to have known this was in the context, his meeting was in the context of questions swirling about around any kind of investigation about the campaigns connections to the government. Dan, theres pressure even in some cases coming from the right on this. Richard painter, the former white house ethics lawyer for bush said misleading the senate and sworn testimony is a good way to go to jail. How does the Trump Administration respond to this situation with sessions at this point . I think youve got to break this into packages into two different tracks. One track is should he resign . Based on what i know so far, it looks ludicrous he should resign. I think democrats calling for resignation is overreaching. The other question which i think is going to become the focus of a serious debate is whether or not he should recuse himself from anything related to an investigation about russia. He may be under pressure from that. I think some republicans whats the threshold for that, dan . Its quite ambiguous. It really is. Its whether or not they believe they can raise serious doubts about his ability to oversee an investigative body that will be dealing with these allegations by the campaigns ties to russia. Let me make one other quick point here. One of the challenges here is theres complete opacity about who all these representatives were from the russian government apparently operating on behalf of putin or associates of putin. You all covered the Trump Campaign. Theres confusion over who the representatives were of the Trump Campaign. Who was actually speaking to whom is something we dont know yet. Dan senor, thanks so much. In our next half hour well talk to anthony fox about President Trumps trillion dollar infrastructure program, part of our series issues that matter. The Dow Jones Industrial average opened above 21,000 for the nirs time this morning. But the bluechip average lost ground just after the opening bell. Here is a live look at trading going on right this minute t. Dow gained 303 points to close at 21,115. Investigators are very optimistic about the improving economy and business friendly policies promised by President Trump. Recovery efforts are under way this morning after deadly storms swept across the nations midsection. Drone video shows the devastation in one illinois community. The violent weather is blamed for at least five deaths. At least 27 tornadoes were reported from the south to the midwest. More than 100 homes have been destroyed. Mark strassmann is in chattanooga, tennessee, where the storms left a trail of damage. Mark, good morning. Reporter good morning. On streets like this the storm system that barreled through here was quick but crushing. That tree fell on top of that house, right into the living room. Here is the good news, the woman who was home wasnt hurt at all. Up and down the tennessee valley, they face quite a cleanup. Reporter the storm stretched hundreds of miles whipping through the south and parts of the east coast. Hail slammed alabama, heavy rains flooded parts of ohio. Strong winds blew the roof off this car dealership in North Carolina and toppled trees in tennessee crushing this mobile home and injuring a young boy inside. Parts of the midwest are still cleaning up after the storm system roared throughhe area tuesday night. More than 100 homes in perryville, missouri, were damaged with many destroyed. Community was on the ground for up to 15 miles. From above, you can see the scope of the damage in ottawa, illinois, about 80 miles outside of chicago. In the small nearby village, dozens of hopes were also damaged, some leveled. All the windows are busted out, theres debris everywhere in the house. The only room that didnt get touched, by the grace of god, my room and my daughters room. The rest of them are sorry. Reporter tornadoes packed winds of 155 miles an hour. One person was killed by a fallen tree limb, more than a dozen others were injured. Illinois governor bruce runner toured the devastation on wednesday. This could have been much, much worse. Now we tke sure we help the Community Recover quickly. Well have the state resources here to help with the cleanup. Reporter recovery will come slowly. That side of the street has power. This side of the street is still dark. The white house is talking to state and local officials about getting help to everyone who needs it. They need a lot of help. Mark, thank you so much. The vatican faces new fallout this morning over the clergy sex abuse scandal. A Founding Member of a Commission Set up three years ago to protect minors from abuse in the Catholic Church has now quit. She accuses the vatican of stonewalling. Seth doane is in rome outside vatican city with how the controversy is putting a harsh light on church insiders. Reporter this is a very public blow to the vatican. At the core, a woman who was a victim of Church Sex Abuse who says theres a cultural resistance to change at the vatic vatican. It was better for me to come out and speak about it. These men, they thrive on silence and coverup. Reporter mary collins who was sexually abused by a priest as a teenager tired of what she called constant setbacks in her work on a panel set up by pope francis to protect minors from sex abuse. We spoke with her this morning at her home in dublin, ireland. To find theres still a group of men in this level in the church who do not see Child Protection as a priority, that do not get it in 2017 is just unacceptable. Reporter in her resignation letter, collins wrote she believes the pope is sincere in is efforts, but the resistance by some members of the vat ka curia has been shameful. Sometimes i think the pope does make mistakes, hes badly advised. Youre dependent in that position on advice from those around you. Reporter monsignor anthony fig raid dough is a cbs consulant. Theyll hear the Catholic Church is still not serious about dealing with this issue of sex abuse. Very, very serious. Perhaps more than any other organization in the world, the Catholic Church has taken this on board. Reporter boston Cardinal Sean omalley who heads the Commission Said in a statement, we will certainly listen carefully to all that mary wishes to share with us about her concerns. The only other sex abuse victim on the panel, Peter Saunders was critical of it and forced out last year. Recently the pope has been criticized for being too lenient on at l