And federal immigration authorities is playing out in texas. Sreenivasan all that and more on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by and by the alfred p. Sloan foundation. Supporting science, technology, and improved Economic Performance and Financial Literacy in the 21st century. Supported by the rockefeller foundation. Promoting the wellbeing of humanity around the world by building resilience and inclusive economies. More at rockefellerfoundation. Org Carnegie Corporation of new york. Supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of International Peace and security. At carnegie. Org. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Woodruff after days of setbacks a cabinet nominee dropping out, a resigned National Security adviser, and a Court Rejection of his travel ban President Trump went on the offensive today. At a 77 minute long News Conference, he rejected charges of ties between his campaign and russia, blasted the Intelligence Community for leaks, and repeatedly attacked the news media. The president said he inherited a mess at home and abroad but dismissed the notion of a white house in turmoil. I turn on the tv, open the newspapers and i see stories of chaos. Chaos. Yet it is the exact opposite. This administration is running like a finetuned machine, despite the fact that i cant get my cabinet approved. Let me list to you some of the things that weve done in just a short period of time. I just got here. And i got here with no cabinet. Again, each of these actions is a promise i made to the American People. Ill go over just some of them and we have a lot happening next week and in the weeks, in the weeks coming. Weve withdrawn from the job killing disaster known as Trans Pacific partnership. Were going to make trade deals but were going to have one on one deals, bilateral. Weve undertaken the most substantial Border Security measures in a generation to keep our nation and our tax dollars safe. And are now in the process of beginning to build a promised wall on the southern border, met the price is going to come down just like it has on Everything Else ive negotiated for the government. And we are going to have a wall that works, not gonna have a wall like they have now which is either nonexistent or a joke. Weve begun preparing to repeal and replace obamacare. Obamacare is a disaster, folks. It is a disaster. I know you can say, oh, obamacare. I mean, they fill up our rallies with people that you wonder how they get there, but they are not the Republican People our that representatives are representing. So weve begun preparing to repeal and replace obamacare, and are deep in the midst of negotiations on a very historic tax reform to bring our jobs back, to bring our jobs back to this country. Big league. Its already happening. I have kept my promise to the American People by nominating a justice of the United States supreme court, judge neil gorsuch, who is from my list of 20, and who will be a true defender of our laws and our constitution, highly respected, should get the votes from the democrats. You may not see that. But hell get there one way or the other. This last month has represented an unprecedented degree of action on behalf of the great citizens of our country. Again, i say it. There has never been a presidency thats done so much in such a short period of time. And we have not even started the big work yet. That starts early next week. Sreenivasan the president also faced repeated questions about russian contacts with officials in his campaign and about firing National Security adviser mike flynn. The Washington Post reported this evening flynn denied to the f. B. I. Last month, that he discussed lifting sanctions, with the Russian Ambassador. But, intercepted communications indicate he did. Mike flynn is a fine person. And i asked for his resignation. He respectfully gave it. He is a man who there was a certain amount of information given to Vice President pence whos with us today and i was not happy with the way that information was given. He didnt have to do that because what he did wasnt wrong. What he did in terms of the information he saw. What was wrong was the way that other people including yourselves in this room were given that information. Because that was classified information that as given illegally. Thats the real problem. Ive talked to all of the folks in the vary yowtion agencies, and ive actually called the Justice Department to look into the leaks. Those are criminal leaks. Theyre put out by people either in agencies. I think youll see it stopping because now we have our people in. Again, we dont have our people in because we cant get them approved by the senate. Did you discuss sanctions with the Russian Ambassador. No, i didnt. No, i didnt. Prior to your no, i didnt. Inauguration. No, i fired him because of what he said to mike pence. Very simple. Mike was doing his job. He was calling countries and his counterparts. So, it certainly would have been ok with me if he did it. I would have directed him to do it if i thought he wasnt doing it. I didnt direct him, but i would have directed him because thats his job. I can tell you, 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, which was terrific. But so did many other leaders. Almost all other leaders from almost all other countries. So thats the extent. Russia is fake news. Russia. This is fake news put out by the media. The false reporting by the media, by you people, the false, horrible, fake reporting makes it much harder to make a deal with russia. And probably putin said, you know, hes sitting behind his desk, hes saying, you know, i see whats going on in the United States, they follow it closely, its going to be impossible for President Trump to ever get along with russia because of all the pressure hes got with this fake story. Okay. Is putin testing you do you believe sir . No, i dont think so. I think putin probably assumes he cant make a deal with me anymore because politically it would be unpopular for a politician to make a decision. I cant believe im saying im a politician, but i guess thats what i am now. It would be much easier for me to be tough on russia, but then were not going to make a deal. Now, i dont know that were going to make a deal. I dont know. We might. We might not. But it would be much easier for me to be so tough the tougher i am on russia, the better. But you know what . I want to do the right thing for the American People. And to be honest, secondarily, i want to do the right thing for the world. Can you say whether you are aware whether anyone who advised your campaign had contact with russia during the course of the election, a yes or no answer . I told you general flynn was. During the election . Nobody i know of. Youre not aware of any contacted during the course of the election . How many times do you i have to answer this question . Can you just say yes or no . Russia is a ruse. I know you have to get up and ask a question. Its so important. Russia is a ruse. I have nothing to do with russia. Havent made a phone call to russia in years. Dont speak to people from russia. Not that i wouldnt. I just have nobody to speak to. I spoke to putin twice. He called me on the election. I told you this. And he called me on the inauguration, a few days ago. We had a very good talk, especially the second one, lasted for a pretty long period of time. Im sure you probably get it because it was classified. So im sure everybody in this room perhaps has it. But we had a very, very good talk. I have nothing to do with russia. To the best of my knowledge no person that i deal with does. Woodruff mr. Trump also defended his ban on travelers from seven mostly muslim nations. Its been blocked in federal court. Today, the Justice Department announced the order will be rescinded. The president said a new one is coming, and he addressed the fate of immigrant children, shielded from deportation under the daca program. Let me tell you about the travel ban. We had a very smooth rollout of the travel ban. But we had a bad court. Got a bad decision. We had a court thats been overturned. Again, may be wrong. Me, a lot. Its 80 of the we had a bad decision. Were going to keep going with that decision. Were going to put in a new executive order next week some time. But we had a bad decision. Now, what i wanted to do was do the exact same executive order, but said one thing. I said this to my people. Give them a onemonth period of time. But general kelly, now secretary kelly, said if you do that, all these people will come in and the bad ones. You do agree there are bad people out there, right . That not everybody thats like you. You have some bad people out there. Kelly said you cant do that. And he was right. As soon as he said it i said wow, never thought of it. I said how about one week . He said no good. You got to do it immediately because if you do it immediately they dont have time to come in. Now nobody ever reports that. But thats why we did it quickly. Can you give us more details on the executive order you plan for next week . Even its broad outlines. Its a very fair question. Will it be focused on specific countries . In addition, on the daca program for immigration what is your plan . Do you plan to continue that program or to end it . Were going to show great heart. Daca is a very, very difficult subject for me, i will tell you. For me its one of the most difficult subjects i have because you have these incredible kids in many cases, not in all cases. In some of the cases theyre having daca and theyre gang members and theyre drug dealers too. But you have some absolutely incredible kids, i would say mostly. They were brought here in such a way, its a very tough subject. We are going to deal with daca with heart. I have to deal with a lot of politicians dont forget and i have to convince them, that what im saying is, is right and i appreciate your understanding on that but the daca situation is a very very, its a very difficult thing for me because you know, i love these kids. I love kids. I have kids and grandkids and i find it very, very hard doing what the law says exactly to do and you know, the law is rough. Im not talking about new laws, im talking about existing law is very rough. Its very, very rough. As far as the new order, the new order is going to be very much tailored to the what i consider to be a very bad decision but we can tailor the order to that decision and just about everything and in some ways more, but were tailoring it now to the decision. We have some of the best lawyers in the country working on it and the new executive order is being tailored to the decision we got down from the court. Okay . Sreenivasan on russia and other topics, the president s scorn of News Coverage was on full display. He insisted news organizations are giving a skewed, negative view of his actions and are woefully out of touch with the country. Many of our nations reporters and folks will not tell you the truth, and will not treat the wonderful people of our country with the respect that they deserve. And i hope Going Forward we can be a little bit a little bit different, and maybe get along a little bit better, if thats possible. Maybe its not, and thats okay, too. Unfortunately, much of the media in washington, d. C. , along with new york, los angeles in particular, speaks not for the people, but for the special interests and for those profiting off a very, very obviously broken system. The press has become so dishonest that if we dont talk about, we are doing a tremendous disservice to the American People. Tremendous disservice. We have to talk to find out whats going on, because the press honestly is out of control. The level of dishonesty is out of control. And ill tell you something, ill be honest, because i sort of enjoy this back and forth that i guess i have all my life but ive never seen more Dishonest Media than frankly, the political media. I thought the Financial Media was much better, much more honest. But i will say that, i never get phone calls from the media. How did they write a story like you said the news is fake. I guess i dont understand. If the information coming from those leaks is real, then how can the stories be. The reporting is fake. I just want to ask. You know what it is . Heres the thing, the public, they read newspaper, 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 truth or when youre not. I just hear many, many untruthful things. I tell you what else i see, i see the word tone. You know the word tone . The tone is such hatred. Im really not a bad person, by the way. No, but the tone is such i do get good ratings, you have to admit that the tone is such hatred. Well, you look at your show that goes on at 10 00 in the evening. You just take a look at that show. That is a constant hit. The panel is almost always exclusive antitrump. The good news is he doesnt have good ratings. But the panel is almost exclusive antitrump. And the hatred and venom coming from his mouth; the hatred coming from other people on your network. Remember i used to give you a News Conference every time i made a speech, which is like every day. Tomorrow they will say donald trump rants and raves at the press. Im not ranting and raving. Im just telling you. But but im not ranting and raving. I love this. Im having a good time doing it. But tomorrow, the headlines are going to be, donald trump rants and raves. Look, i want to see an honest press. When i started off today by saying that its so important to the public to get an honest press. The press the public doesnt believe you people anymore. Now, maybe i had something to do with that. Dont know. But they dont believe you. If you were straight and really told it like it is, as Howard Cosell used to say, right . Of course, he had some questions also. But if you were straight, i would be your biggest booster. I would be your biggest fan in the world, including bad stories about me. But if you go as an example, youre cnn, i mean its story after story after story is bad. I won. I won. Woodruff throughout the he said this is going to be a bad question before calling on reporter april ryan of american urban radio networks. When you say the inner cities are you going to include the c. B. C. Mr. President in your conversations with your urban agenda, your inner city agenda as well as. Am i going to include . Are you going to include the Congressional Black Caucus and the congressional hispanic caucus. Are you going to set up the meeting . Do you want to set up the meeting . No, no, no. Are they friends of yours . Im just a reporter. No, set up the meeting. I know some of them but im sure. Lets go set up a meeting. I would love to meet with the Congressional Black Caucus. I think its great. The Congressional Black Caucus i think its great. I actually thought i had a meeting with congressman cummings and he was all excited. And then he said oh i cant move it might be bad for my political. I cant have that meeting. I was all set to have that meeting. You know we called him and called him. And he was all set. I spoke to him on the phone. Very nice guy. I hear he wanted that meeting with you as well. He wanted it. Sreenivasan for the record the Congressional Black Caucus says it has been asking to meet with the president , but never received a response. That leads us to our final highlight an exchange where mr. Trump was called out for making another false statement. We got 306 because people came out and voted like theyve never seen before so thats the way it goes. I guess it was the Biggest Electoral College win since Ronald Reagan. Very simply you said today that you have the biggest electoral margin since Ronald Reagan with 304 or 306 electoral votes. In fact president obama got 365 in 2008 well im talking about republicans. The president president 332. And george w. Bush 426 when he won as president. So why should Americans Trust you well now i was given that information. I dont know. I was just given that. We had a very, very big margin. I guess to answer my question, why should Americans Trust you when you accuse the information they receive as being fake when you are providing information that is fake. Well i dont know i was given that information. Ive actually ive seen that information around but it was a very substantial victory. Do you agree with that . Youre the president. Okay, thank you. Sreenivasan and our own Lisa Desjardins joins us from the white house. Sreenivasan what do you think he said about Michael Flynn that he had a replacement in mind. We do have some news. We cant get two minutes today without more news. Cbs and the Financial Times are reporting that