officials in the united states of america? i want to go to cnn's senior white house reporter jeff zeleny. do white house officials realize how horrified americans are today, democrats, republicans, independents, by the president seemingly siding with putin against americans on the question of an attack by russia on the united states? >> reporter: jake, it certainly is settling into them and shortly after the news conference i heard from a senior white house official who was asking me how bad is this? that's gone really to be the theme of the day. senior u.s. official, separate official, i was speaking with earlier said this was not the plan. the president was going to talk about election meddling and then pivot to other matters. that certainly didn't happen as we know. the president is about two and a half hours or so into the flight back to washington. already trying to do some explaining. of course, he sent out a message a few minutes ago. he says this. he said, as i have said and many