Taking down a syrian war jet. It is a big dale and we have it covered with our team on the ground across the globe. The story of the sevilcivilio helped catch the guy. Thats right. Look, the british prime minis r minister, the london mayor are both calling this a terrorist attack. The British Police are saying that they are investigating this this as a suspected terrorist attack. But this one is different because in this case, im just going to step out of the way and let the camera give you a live shot of the scene here. In this case, a van drove into a group of muslim worshippers as they were leaving a mosque. Targeting specifically muslims and that is what the police are investigating. The british Prime Minister has been talking about it. This is what she had to say. This morning, our country woke to news of another terrorist attack on the streets of our capital city. The second this month and every bit as sickening as those which have come before. Today we come together as we have done before to condemn this act and to state, once again, that hatred and evil of this kind will never succeed. This attack is really making people here think. Two things, hallie, that really stands out. It appears just prior to the attack, a man had collapsed. A group of people were around helping him. So, good samaritans, if you like. And that they were themselves then hit in this attack. Thats one part and then afterwards, this man appears to have been, according to witnesses, waving and looking, a group from the mosque and actually protected him from the rest of the crowd and waited for the police to arrive for him to pea arre be arrested. Then preventing this man from facing some kind of a street retribution. Inead, aing the rule of law was seeing to be played out in the right way, hallie. Saying a lot for the kind of community this was and making people think about what all this means. Hallie . Keir, thank you very much. The white house is confirming that u. S. Counterterror officials have been in touch. Also coming out of the white house this morning a cleanup in the way after the president s lawyer blitzed the sunday shows insisting the president was not under investigation except for the two times where the attorneys said the president was. Theres been no notification to any of us that the president is any other investigation and as i said james comey said on three separate occasions that the president was not under investigation. Heres where this was manufactured if you want to call it manufactured. It was manufactured from the Washington Post. All the president did was respond to the Washington Post through social media platforms. One of the president s attorneys. The president tweeted friday, i am being investigated. The president s attorneys say hes not being investigated. Kind of sounds like a contradiction but Kellyanne Conway is saying it is not. Did not contradict the president s tweets, he explained it. Thats not all shes saying. Kristen welker is at the white house and Thomas Dupree and with me kelsey snell and National Political reporter jonathan swan. Kristen, i want to start with you. Threats explain where all this goes and the pushback now today from Top White House advisors. Well, first, to emphasize our reporting, hallie. Washington post was first to announce and nbc news confirmed that Robert Mueller is looking into whether the president obstructed justice. So, that is what our reporting has been. Now, as you pointed out over the weekend, a lot of mixed messaging. The president s outside counsel insisting he is not under investigation. Stressing that he hasnt been alerted about any investigation. By the way, he wouldnt necessarily be alerted about an investigation at this point in time because the investigation is still in its early stages. The broader strategy here, though, hallie, is striking. The president , the white house effectively trying to under mine the entire russia probe. President trump over the weekend referring to it as a witchhunt. A number of times. Of course, that echoes comments we heard last week and in the past from this president and his top advisors echoing that sentiment. Take a listen to what Kellyanne Conway had to say a short time ago. We are starting tawaso wastes of millions of taxpayer dollar. Let the investigation go forward. Now, of course, what is also striking, hallie. The president tweeted that he is under investigation. So, thats where this mixed messaging really becomes complicate you have some of the president s top surrogates expressing concern, frankly, about his tweets and about all of this mixed messaging and giving democrats an opening to pounce. One top democrat over the weekend saying the white house was deploying a scorched earth strategy to try to discredit the special counsel. Now, we are going to get the chance to ask the press Secretary Sean Spicer about all of this later today. But, hallie, its worth noting. This will not be an oncamera briefing. We will not use any of the audio. The last time we were able to question the press secretary on camera was a week ago last monday. Chris and i will see you for that gaggle, as they call it at the white house, later this afternoon. Thank you very much, kristen welker. So, the president might not necessarily know hes under investigation. What is the protocol here . You know this. Do you tell somebody when youre looking into him . At this point i would say it is unusual to tell him. He has a point when he says, i have not been told. He is absolutely telling the truth on that. If we have not, the white house has not formally been notified. Now, the question is, what is the white house doing right now . I think what theyre doing right now is they are lawyering up and assembling a strong team of defense lawyers, which i think makes sense because, honestly, even if the president has not been formally targeted and target the investigation, if you wait until the spence counsel says, hey, youre under investigation, its probably too late. A clash of the titans here. He has pulled on heavy hitters over the last 72 hours or so. Bob mueller has heavy hitters on his team, too. I think so. Right now you see the special counsel assembling his team and trump is bringing in his lawyers. I think what is very interesting is this plays out to see the white house engagement with the special counsel. We have seen the white house is starting to call into question the special counsel legitimacy and who he is putting on his staff. Even though this is very early in the process, we can already see the strategies from both sides beginning to take shape. Explain why this is so important because its not about the noise whether he is on this sunday show, there is something actually significant here which is the continued discussion over the russia inquiry. This is not what republicans anywhere else in washington want the conversation to be about. You cover congress. They want to be talking about health care and talking about infrastructure and anything else. But thats not what the president has been doing here. Every time he tweets. Every time we get a story like the one we saw last week about the investigation, it takes the focus away and makes it much harder to make a case to people that this is a govern coalition here. When you go into this week looking for a policy win. Looking to go ahead of recess, jonathan, to figure out a way republicans can go back and sa look at everything wevedone. Doesnt seem like the constant tweets and discussion on the russia probe helps. I dont expect this will change this fundmental dynamic because the most telling part of the interview is when he said unlike james comey, i believe in the client attorney relationship. And, well, im not sure that trump saw comeys anything but an employee. You know, that is the key thing. It is very clear to me that he thought that comey worked for him and not respenting of those boundaries is something that he is not going to really change. And that we can see play out. Tom, thank you for joining us. I want you two to stick around because were talking about another Significant Development in a story line you need to know about. A big escalation in a major conflict overseas. Russia today is now saying it is going to cut ties with the u. S. On the fight in syria. And that it might target u. S. Planes in certain parts of the country. Hans nickels is standing by at the white house. You are well placed to walk us through what moscow is saying and how this all unfolded. These threats from the Defense Ministry in moscow seem pretty real. Whats your take . In the past russia has said that the socalled deconfliction line is closed when they have continued tahave phone calls. This is basically a hot line between two air force colonels making sure that russian jets and coalition jets, many of which are u. S. Jets dont have any problems when theyre both fighting isis over syria. What happened today the escalation all in response to the u. S. Shooting down a Syrian Regime plane. Just earlier this month, they shot down a Syrian Regime or a regimebacked militia drone. The fact that this was an s u22 fighter aircraft. That is a significant escalation. They did warn the russians ahead of time saying, hey, were going to do this. Let the syrians know. Get out of that area. Stop attacking our allied forces, the sdf. The Syrian Democratic forces. The Partner Forces that are going against isis. Hallie, without getting too much into the weeds, the significant aspect of this russian warning is saying that theyre going to take out and treat as targets any plane west of the euphrates river. You know, every morning we get strike updates from the pentagon, and they have a bunch of towns. One thing with this war we have gotten better on our geography in syria. A lot of the towns that the u. S. Takes strikes on overnight are west of the euphrates river. A couple months ago they did a helicopter insertion of coalition troops. That was on the southwest side of the river. So, if this russia threat is real and the deconfliction line is, in fact, dead. And the russians arent picking up their end of the phone line, this is a serious matter and it could make a very, very complicated part of the world even more complicated. Hallie . A couple ifs in what you jt said. The deconfliction lines shut down, when do they turn into reality or not reality . When are we going to know . We will have to press all our sources and also in qatar where they run the deconfliction lin. They run a lot of the air Forward Command center for this. In the past, i should just stress when the russians have publicly said that the deconfliction line is no longer operative, you had hedges from the u. S. Side. So, theyll say things like we are still deconflicting, which could mean youre having conversations. Youre just not technically doing it on the hotline. News this morning afghanistan and can you summarize what it is . They need to have a strategy. They dont have one yet. Until they have a final strategy, the troop numbers are almost rounding. The big numbers is what you do about pakistan. How aggressively do you go after the extremist elements that are in pakistan and have cross border raids. That is a much bigger question. Hasnt been decided much bigger than the troop levels matter. Hallie . Hans nichols, thank you for that reporting. Appreciate it. We come coming up plenty more to followen eon the politi front as we gear up for the final full day of campaigning in georgia. Democrats want to win there, but not going to be easy in that really red district. Were getting the peach state prediction from the chairman of the national committee, next. vo when i brought jake home, i wanted him to eat healthy. So i feed jake purina cat chow naturals indoor, a nutritious formula with no artificial flavors. Made specifically for indoor cats. Purina cat chow. Nutrition to build better lives. Whuuuuuat . Rtgage offer from the bank today. You never just get one offer. Go to lendingtree. Com and shop multiple loan offers for free free . Yeah. Could save thousands. You should probably buy me dinner. No. Go to lendingtree. Com for a new home loan or refinance. Receive up to five free offers and choose the loan thats right for you. Our average customer could lower their monthly bills by over three hundred dollars. Go to lendingtree. Com right now. Welcome to holiday inn whether for big meetings or little getaways, there are always smiles ahead at holiday inn. So, your new prescription does have oh, like what . Ects. Youre gonna have dizziness, nausea, and sweaty eyelids. And in certain cases chronic flatulence. No sooooo gassy girl. So gassy. If youre boyz ii men, you make anything sound good. Its what you do. If you want to save 15 percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. Its what you do. Next next i know some of you out there some of you, some republicans may even be turned off by our president. And i dont think you are. Im thought. That was sunny purdue. Former governor of georgia, which is where tomorrow the sixth district is holding its special Congressional Election between former state secretary karen handle. It is close and it is closely watched. Even from the oval office in a race a lot of folks think is a referendum on the president s First Six Months in office. Joining me now to talk about it, republican congressman of ohio who also happens to be the chairman of the National Republican commiee and kelsey and jonathan are back with us, too. Thank you for joining us. Good morning. The president is swetweeting this morning about all of this. Is this race a referendum on donald trump . I dont think so. Special election in georgia. Its about what the people of georgia want. And in georgia isix proven she can get things done and somebody who lives in the district over somebody who spent 30 million to puff up a resume, including exaggerating about his National Security experience. I think karen handle is going to win tomorrow. But its clearly a close race. And you think it has nothing to do with the guy who is sitting in the oval office then . I think its about a lot more than that. I think the people of georgia have a lot of things that theyre going to focus on. But the big thing theyre going to focus on is who they want to represent them. Thats what this race is about. But different people can be motivated by Different Things. But this race is about who is going to represent georgia 6. So, a new ad thats i dont know how to say it, raising eyebrows in the district. Getting a lot of people upset, frankly. Let me play you the first ten seconds of this thing. Hang on. Now the unhinged left is endorsing and applauding shooting republicans. When will it stop . It wont if john wins on tuesday. The ad itself showing congressman scalise on a stretcher there. In part, i think the shooting is going to win the election for us. Because moderates and independents in this district are tires of leftwing extremism. Moderates and independents out there want to give them a chance. Democrats have never given this president a chance. Tying in anyway the baseball shooting last week to this race. In your view, appropriate . I think its inappropriate. I think its disgusting. And i think anybody who would polites is this shooting should be ashamed of themselves. Its happening on the left and the right and i think they all should stop it. There are leftwing folks over the weekend that tweeted things that insinuated steve scalise, that is disgusting. This ad is also disgusting and i think anybody that would pol politsize this should be ashamed of themselves and i hope nobody does that any more. When he says the shooting is going to win the election for us. You disagree. I dont think this election is about that. I think, you know, i think anybody that would i dont think the chairman is politicizing the shooting. But i dont think that the shooting is appropriate to po t politicize. He is a father and a husband. Some people tweeted things over the weekend inappropriate and he was in critical condition. And that is shameful. And we should note the congressman has been upgraded to serious condition. I want to send thoughts and prayers he has been upgraded and we are all praying for steve scalise, but i hope folks will quit politicizing this shooting. Another big headline in this georgia race, something you know much about. And that is the eyeballs popping size of money. The post reports in a closed door meeting with lawmakers, you felt good about your chances here but also warned about how much money the nrcc has to be spending here. It doesnt seem sustainable, frankly. How do you look ahead to 2018 . You cant spend 30 million or 40 million on every race, right . So, the left has spent 30 million in this race. The right has spent 20 million on this race. Weve been outspent by 10 million and this race they still werent able tapo put this race away. They seem happy with moral victories and were focused on real victories. Youre right, we cant spend that sum of money on every race and we wont spend that sum of money on every race. But this race has taken on sort of an outsized impact because it is the only race that democrats seem to be focusing on. We had four special elections. As of tomorrow, we won two of them. There are two tomorrow and theyre not focusing on south carolina, at all. Just as a perspective, hallie. 50 million in the georgia race. All in both sides. 800,000 all in both sides in south carolina. So, i guess the lesson here is run in south carolina. And when you look at the amount of money you have to spend, though. You acknowledge you cant do that for every race in 2015. Are you concerned about the fundraising aspect as we look ahead to the midterms . We have been outraising our counterparts on the other side every month for the first four months. They did outraise us in may, but we outraised them by about 10 million net so far this year. And, so, i feel comfortable with where things are. But they cant spend 30 million in every race either and thats what makes me feel comfortable about the Playing Field going forward. In fact, there is no wayor them to replicate whats happened in georgia 6 because, you know, there are 435 seats up with 70 competitive seats. And they dont have 3. 5 billion to spend on this election cycle. Congressman, thank you very much for joining us. I have a feeling this is not the last time well see you on this program over the next year or so. Thank you, sir. I want to get