Transcripts For CNNW At This Hour With Kate Bolduan 20170306

But first, what to expect with the president s revised travel ban, again, expected this hour. Let me bring in cnn justice reporter laura jared. What are we going to hear this hour, laura . Reporter the most significant changes we expect to see, kate, are that green card holders and those with existing visas will be excluded from the travel ban. White house councilor Kellyanne Conway announced this morning that iraq is no longer on the list of banned countries. Thats right, a new executive order today, ainsley, thats correct. It has an Effective Date of march 16th. And there are the legal permanent residents who were always excluded from it, thats made much more clear now. If you have travel docs, if you are a legal permanent resident, you are not covered under this particular executive action. Also iraq is no longer on the list based on their enhanced screening and reporting measures. And so, you know, i think people will see six or seven major points about this executive order that do clarify who is covered. Also Syrian Refugees are treated the way all refugees are. Reporter so a couple of quick take aways. Conway is confirming what we heard from Homeland Security secretary john kelly last month, remember when he talked about a phasein period to avoid some of the chaos we saw around the country last time around. Thats what shes referring there with the march 16th date, that will be important to remember. Some might wonder why iraq in particular was removed from this list. Were learning more this morning that the decision was made after extensive lobbying from the Iraqi Government at the highest levels, according to a senior u. S. Official. And that country has agreed to provide more detail about how it will screen travelers, kate. Laura, thanks so much. That phasedin approach, a lot of folks will have something to say about that, because that seems to run counter to what we originally heard from the administration, that it was an Urgent National priority. I want to head back over to the white house and talk about the president s claim that he was wire tapped. President trump calls it mccarthyism and a new low worthy of a congressional investigation and that he can prove hes right. Critics call it baseless and a defecti deflection from bigger issues like russia and the Justice Department hasnt said anything at all about it yet and thats what folks are waiting for. Cnns White House Correspondent sara murray, are you hearing clarification from the white house of what the president is talking about . Reporter kate, if the president can prove that he is correct that president obama ordered a wiretap of his phones when he was president elect or when he was a candidate, they are certainly not offering up any evidence to prove that. We have asked a number of white house officials today what evidence they have that that occurred. So far, they have presented none. The president himself appears to have gotten this notion from a breitbart article that was circulating that, again, isnt based on any evidence that weve been able to prove. Its worth noting that former Senior Intelligence officials have denied the fact that anything like this happened. They pointed out that the president himself, president obama at the time, would not have had the authority to order Something Like this. The former director of national intelligence, james clapper, was on tv over the weekend, saying essentially this didnt happen, i have no knowledge of this. But over the weekend, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer made an appeal, he sent a note out to reporters saying they are asking congressional intelligence committees to look into this, into whether the Obama White House abused their investigative powers. But kate, as of right now, no evidence of this sort of grenade that President Trump threw out there, no evidence that that actually happened. And this does seem to be something that could be knowable, a wiretap would have a paper trail. And the president seems like he would be in the unique position and the only one in power to figure it out before he would even get it from a breitbart article. Sara, well talk to you in a bit. The president s tweet about wiretaps seems to imply, seems to imply a lot of its and maybes here that the fbi may have broken the law. White house Spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked about that this morning. We now know that the fbi director has told the Justice Department that trumps explosive claims are inaccurate. Does President Trump accept the fbi directors denial . You know, i dont think he does, george. Thats basically the latest we have from the white house. Joining me now is New York Times correspondent michael sher, michael, great to see you. You guys were the first to report that the fbi has pushed for doj to reject the president s claim. From your reporting, what bothers the fbi most here . Hey, kate. Theres really two things that comey and the fbi were worried about. One was the thing that you mentioned at the top, which is that it seems to suggest that the fbi might have been complicit in participating in some sort of illegal wiretapping scheme and obviously they want to push back against that. On the other side, theres also the possibility that if the American Public believes there were extensive wiretappings of a president ial candidate and eventually president elect, it raises the expectations that there is some big explosive story that the fbi is sitting on. If the fbi and the fbi director know that there are no such wiretaps, they want to make sure the record is set straight so that the American Public doesnt sort of sit here waiting for a big explosive story to come thats just not going to come. Do you get the sense that the fbi has to Say Something one way or another if the Justice Department doesnt . I mean, look. Were in uncharted territory here. To say the least. Every day were in uncharted territory. But normally the fbi is very si circumspect and doesnt talk about ongoing investigations, especially ongoing investigations of high profile people like the president or his advisers. So normally i would say, jeez, this is something were not going to hear about for a long time. But were in a place where the fbi director has made it clear through the reports in our paper and others overnight that he wants it out there. And so the question is, does the Justice Department resist that . If so, what does the white house do . Ultimately, does comey come out and either go to the hill and speak to the intelligence committees or does he do Something Like he did with the clinton case several months back and actually hold a press conference . All of those things are possible. I think, you know, all of us here in washington are waiting to figure out whats actually going to happen today and in the days ahead. And real quick, michael, not to get into what can be very complicated when youre talking about fisa warrants and all of that, is this information, what the president is charged, is it knowable . Yes . Shouldnt there be a paper trail . I mean, absolutely. Its ultimately knowable to the people and institutions that either, you know, approved them, which would in most cases be a court somewhere, or its the intelligence communities that have the information. And ultimately the president of the United States has the ability to know. And if he wants to release that. Michael shear, great reporting as always, thank you. Sure. Joining me now, former deputy secretary of state and former Deputy National security adviser under president obama tony blanken, now a cnn Global Affairs analyst, thanks for coming on. Good to be with you, kate. I heard you talking this morning, you said in your former post as National Security adviser you would not know whether or not there was a wiretap of trump tower. Do you leave open the possibility, tony, that it could have happened . No. It is virtually impossible to believe. Lets be precise what the it is. What could not have happened is president obama ordering or instructing such a wiretap. That is simply impossible, because the president doesnt do that. Any wiretap would have to come from a request by the Justice Department or the fbi. Getting a warrant from the fisa court, to get the warrant, you have to show probable cause that either a crime was committed or the target of the wiretap was a foreign ejecagent. One of the most puzzling things about this is why President Trump would want to put a spotlight on this because if there was a wiretap, it doesnt reflect well on his or his associates. If there wasnt, hes made an outrageous allegation against president obama. If an allegation had been made like this when you were in the white house, what would the conversation be right now . Again, as i keep hammering home, this all seems the truth here seems knowable, it seems that the president is in a unique position to know how to get a straight answer on this before even going public. Well, you know, its awkward in the sentence that in the normal course of business, and we recognize that we dont seem to be in the normal course of, by course of business, the white house stays out of these investigations. The laws put in place after watergate to prevent the president from abusing his power make it clear that the white house has no business talking to the Justice Department or the fbi about these investigations. On one level, you wouldnt be able to find out, you shouldnt be able to find out. But what we do need to know is what is the basis for the president making this accusation. And as far as we can tell, it seems to be things that he read in, shall we say, not the mainstream media. And this is whats really troubling to me. Weve gotten to the point where it seems that the president has become the leading consumer and purveyor of fake news or conspiracy theories. The president is supposed to be setting the standard in our country, not diminishing it. If theres something to know, the president is in a unique position, again, to have this knowledge and to disseminate the knowledge. Everything youre hearing from anyone speaking on his behalf right now is all couched with a lot of ifs and possibilities. If it exists, i dont think there needs to be an investigation. But regardless, what do you make of the silence coming from the Justice Department so far . Again, the Justice Department is in an awkward place because its not the normal practice to comment on any investigation. If there is one, it cant really comment on it or shouldnt at any event. And, you know, if there isnt one, maybe thats something they can clarify and well see if they do in the days ahead. Do you think that the fbi director or the attorney general has to Say Something . Again, it comes back to, in an ordinary time, if theres an investigation of any kind thats ongoing, they really shouldnt. But if there isnt, maybe they can clarify it that way. Again, this is no ordinary time. And whats also very, very troubling about this, kate, is that it really goes to the president s credibility. We now have over the years the president accusing president obama of not being born in the United States, and we know what he spent five years doing with that. Not so long ago he accused him of being the founder of the islamic state. Now hes accusing him of ordering a wiretap that he couldnt have possibly ordered and never would have. That undermines the credibility of the person for whom credibility is the most important currency, starting with the American People but also with our partners, allies, and for that matter, adversaries around the world. This is really dangerous territory. And i hope that the white house, the president , can clarify where they got this information that was the basis for this charge. It seems that pressure, at least on the clarification front, the pressure is mounting by the minute. Tony blinken, thank you so much. So frustration, anger, and a whole lot of expletives. Sources saying theyve never seen President Trump that upset. New details about turmoil inside the white house, whats behind it and what happens now. And just minutes from now, President Trumps revised travel ban, the big announcement is happening this hour. Well bring it to you live. Thats ahead. Company three years in a row. Mor wow. Really. Lets see how quickly you can read through all their awards. Oh gosh. 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The president complained the staff were getting in their own way, allowing missteps to stop their momentum after his speech to congress. Some sources say chief of staff Reince Priebus is taking the brunt of the president s anger. Joining me is host of notiinsi politics john king. John, all this reporting that hes just furious over how last week played out. What are you hearing thats happening inside the white house . Ro reporter kate, this also gives us a glimpse into the president s state of mind. He believes, we are told, and youre right, he lashed out friday at his staff in an obviously Office Meeting in the white house. When he got to florida, he lashed out some more. He routinely at night picks up the phone and calls old friends outside of government and tells them he thinks his staff is getting in their own way. He believes the leaks are part of a broader effort to undermine his presidency. Some friends say he seems to be a little paranoid, other friends say there are leaks to support this. Hes in this mood and at a key moment in his presidency. Key moments are coming in obamacare, key debates on tax reform, and hes consumed by this, partly at his staff, partly at the leaks, and partly by the sense, he believes, kate, and the ceo of newsmax went on the record over this, he says im as mad as ive ever seen him. And this affects the conduct of the administration, the president s senior staff is all looking over their shoulder because they know the boss is really mad. It also impacts republicans in general, and republicans that are having to answer questions and face questions about this latest tweet and this highly charged allegation against his predecessor. You have republican after republican answering to them, none saying theyve seen the evidence, some leaving open the possibility that it should be investigated by the intelligence committees. What kind of a bind does this all put republicans in . Reporter theres an interesting dynamic in washington. Most republicans you talk to, they say they try to avoid all this drama around the president. They want to focus on the nuts and bolts of repealing and replacing obamacare. How can you . Reporter exactly. Very difficult internal republican feuds on tax reform. They want to ignore all this. Senators and people around town have specifically assigned aides to tell them, i need to know what the president has tweeted, i need to know when i walk outside what im going to be asked. When you approach republican senators they put their hand up, no, please, they dont want to talk about it. Its part of the dynamic in washington. You hear a lot of talk that they wish the president would, a, get over his twitter habit. What they say is, keep our heads down, do our work, and hopefully the president will recalibrate himself. But most of them have given up hope, they think the drama will be constant and they need to figure out how to do their jobs. The drama or big news continuing, at this hour well hear about this revised travel ban. Will that help the president get back to where he wants to be . Reporter the president did not get an Approval Rating bounce, thats a disappointment to a white house. However, some of his policies do remain more popular than the president himself. If the president can be focused on policy. The travel ban is quite controversial, it will end up back in court. But still, when hes focusing on policy hes on safer ground, certainly his base is with him on some issues like the economy, he has a bigger base than on other issues like the travel ban. The most interesting thing youre about to see, kate, this travel ban is a signature issue from the trump campaign. Because of the state of play in town at the moment, the president of the United States will not be at the event. That speaks volumes. That says quite a bit. Great to see you, john, thanks so much. Joining me now to continue the conversation is cnn political commentator and democratic strategist paul begala as well as cochair of women vote trump. Great to see you, guys. Amy, on the president s allegation against president obama, that he ordered a wiretap against trump leading up to the election, at this point, the only people, if youre really looking at this, the only people backing up the president wholeheartedly are his white house staff and even they, if you listen to their statements, they couch every statement with ifs, maybe, it could be, its possible. Does it trouble you that no one else has seen the evidence yet . No, it doesnt trouble me, kate. I dont think the president would have made that allegation if he didnt have some information indicating that. I think back to the irs, targeting tea party and conservatives. And when the president said theres not a smidgen of corruption going on there, and to this day no ones been held accountable. I think we need to wait and hear what they pull the forward, the evidence. Im sure a while find out. There were two fisa warrants that they want to court in june and then again in october, according to several publications, and in june it was to investigate four trump staffers and they were told to narrow directly relating you have the reporting about these fisa applications . This is according to the guardian and New York Times reported this as well. And so they went back in october and they were granted the permission to do it. That has to do with looking at into questionable banking transactions. It doesnt matter. The thing is, whether its phone, it could be voice over ip. I dont know whether its computers, phone, whatever it is. They were granted access in october. And the fisa warrants can be made public, and i encourage them, they should be put out there for the public to see. And i think that congress should review all the daily briefings. But the point is that i dont think, and i think most people, i was at an event last night with 300 people, most people are not focused on this out here in the country. They want the president to do what he was elected to do and that is repealing and replacing obamaca obamacare, tax reform. Amy, i would think people would want the president to focus on his work, not making some would say wild accusations of his predecessor wiretapping him. That has nothing to do with his agenda right now. Paul, come in and comment. First, amy makes the point, makes the argument that the president wouldnt say this if it wasnt based in some fact or truth. I would like to believe that. But this is a guy who told us that rafael cruz, ted cruzs father, the senator from texas, who himself is a christian minister, was somehow complicit in the kennedy assassination. This is a guy who told us president obama wasnt born in america, that he was born in kenya or something. Hes subscribed to every batty conspiracy theory. Im trying to clean up my language for daytime tv. Every batty conspiracy theory. I still remain hopeful that theres a strategy here, that perhaps the president is trying to throw us off the scent of, you know, Jeff Sessions certainly misled the senate, we dont really want to jump to conclusions that it was perjury, but he misled the senate, he made a big mistake. Then he had to recuse himself. Now twothirds of people say we need a special prosecutor, independent counsel in the russia case. Were not talking about Jeff Sessions anymore. But hes throwing us on to the scent because his tweet wasnt about attacking the cast of hamilton or meryl streep, which he often does to distract us. It was about this russia case. The president can declassify anything he wants. If in fact there were fisa warrants, he could declassify them. He could show us that president obama was trying to wiretap him. He has not done that. Its because its not there. But what we need is a credible, independent special prosecutor. Twothirds of the American People want to get to the bottom of how russia helped elect donald trump. Thats the real story. When you get to the issue of credibility, amy, some what paul is talking about was years ago, preelection. But just postelection, you have the president who has offered up bold claims without evidence or with evidence that directly comes out that directly contradicts him. 3 to 5 million illegal votes in the election, the biggest electoral vote since reagan, dont even get me started about crowd size at the inauguration. When it comes that is just since he was elected. So amy, why should americans believe him on this one . Kate, no offense to you guys, but you know what, the American People are with the president. The ones that elected him are with him. And i dont question that at all. All this negativity that day in and day out, its always something negative, its always a story. Amy, he brought this up. He brought this up. He raised this on saturday. And if we didnt talk about it, you would wonder why we werent talking about it. No one went after the administration about the irs. Please, lets talk about this tweet on saturday. I am telling you this, that the American People have faith in him and trust him. And they want him to do what he said he was going to do. The media didnt elect donald trump. The people across the country did. What is being talked about in the dc new york bubble is completely different than what soccer moms and baseball parents are talking about in the country. They care about feeding their families and having Health Insurance for their families. Thats what they care about. If there was a wiretap, im sure we will get to the bottom of it. I think it will be put out there that we will get some clarification on it. And the real problem is that the media is demanding it right now. One thing weve seen is donald trump operates on donald trump time. And he doesnt necessarily go to the media, hell go around the media through twitter or whatever. Im sure when hes ready to put that out there, we will hear from it. Youre sure that youre going to see evidence of it . Amy, i dont disagree with what you said, that the American People deserve for the president to be focused on their pocketbooks, the economy, regulation, all of the things youre talking about, tax reform. We could nauseam. But we should be talking about this, right . I didnt want to believe that the irs was targeting conservatives either. Amy, im not questioning that. Im talking about this one. Im talking about today. Im talking about a very serious charge coming from President Trump against his predecessor. If i ignored this story today, you should be lighting your hair on fire that i was ignoring the story today. I would think you would want to talk about this today. Kate, there were six agencies, i believe, that were part of this investigation with the fisa warrant. I think the information will come out. But i think its going to be but our reporting is that the fbi wants the Justice Department to refute the president s claim because the fbi says its false. Its interesting because wasnt it about two weeks ago that the fbi and cia, the intelligence world, didnt get into refuting or propping up stories that thats what happened when reince made that statement and they didnt want to get involved with it, now everybodys calling on him to do it. Theres double standard continuously. Thats why we need an independent investigation. Heres what we know. We know that russia hacked the democrats. We know that putin wanted hillary to lose because he feared her. With he know he favored donald trump. We know donald trump took remarkably prorussian positions, even having his aides change the republican platform to make it more prorussian. We know that trump aides were in close touch with russia. Cnn says Constant Contact with russia. And we dont know that there was any collusion. But we know all of those things. The russians hacked, they tried to tilt the election toward trump. By the way, amy, hillary won the popular vote overwhelmingly. He was able to sneak in with the help of his friend vladimir putin. Dont even go there, paul. Stop needling that. This is a crisis in our democracy. Im just saying, we can talk about this very highly charged, wild accusation that we have yet to see any evidence. I would be the first to report it if there were any evidence. Guys, we have to leave it. Weve gone over a million minutes already. Amy, paul, please come back, lets continue this discussion. Thank you very much. Okay. We do have breaking newsive to get to. President trump has just signed his new travel ban. Hes just signed this new ban, this executive order. One country jumps off, has dropped off the list of banned nations. Why . The live announcement just moments ago. Well bring it to you. Deartheres no other way to say this. Its over. Ive found a permanent escape from monotony. Together, we are perfectly balanced. Our senses awake. Our hearts racing as one. I know this is sudden, but they say. 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It is about to be revealed publicly any moment now. The original ban sparked protests nationwide and around the globe. The first one was of course struck down by a federal court. Its caught up in the court system as we speak. Youre looking at the department of Homeland Security in washington where it is all going to be laid out shortly. We expect to see shortly secretary of Homeland Security john kelly. The secretary of state rex ti till tillerson. And attorney general Jeff Sessions. Were not to expect the president himself, were told. As we wait for that, let me bring in the panel. Jeffrey toobin, what you know about the revised ban, will this one pass legal muster . Its certainly considerably watered down. It has a better chance. It only applies to six countries. It apparently takes out the exception for religious minorities who have a better chance of getting in, that is to say christians. And it explains the basis for including these six countries in a way that defines them other than by their muslim majority nature, that they are countries which are uniquely chaotic and have no legal system in place that would allow substantial vetting. Those are designed, i think, to address the problems that the courts found with this case. Certainly the aclu and the other groups who are challenging it will continue to challenge it. But this is a loss more defensible than the original executive order. The legal aspect aside, does this fix all the problems with the ban politically . I think its going to fix a lot of them. First of all, the president will find a lot of support on the hill vocally, open, public support. Republicans have always supported the underlying policy behind the travel ban. They didnt like the nature of it as a religious test. And when the president rushed it out initially, they didnt have a chance to understand it. It was slipshod. You had things in there such as green card holders being included. You had translators that have helped our troops on the battle front being included. This was something republicans couldnt support. But they have said they have felt long before Trump Took Office that there are certain countries because of rule of law and such that you cant do proper vetting or at least need to rethink how you vet. So i think this will go a lot smoother for the administration. If i could add, the new order makes clear that green card holders and people who have visas now are not affected by the executive order, which is also one of the reasons the chaotic nature of the first one was so evident. Let me bring in chief political analyst Gloria Borger right now. Gloria, as i laid out at the very top, were going to hear from, were told, the secretary of state, the secretary of Homeland Security, and the attorney general. Were not going to see the president. And from all that weve seen, it looks like theyre standing right there right now, we didnt see the president sign this thing. You know what, lets go there. Lets listen in. Good morning. Thank you for joining us. The executive order signed by the president earlier today protecting the nation from foreign terrorist entry into the United States is a vital measure for strengthening our National Security. It is the president s solemn duty to protect the American People. And with this order, President Trump is exercising his rightful authority to keep our people safe. As threats to our security continue to evolve and change, common sense dictates that we continually reevaluate and recess the systems we rely upon to protect our country. While no system can be made completely infallible, the American People can have high confidence we are identifying ways to improve the vetting process and thus keep terrorists from entering our country. To our allies and partners around the world, please understand this order is part of our ongoing efforts to eliminate vulnerabilities that radical islamist terrorists can and will exploit for destructive ends. The state department will coordinate with other federal agencies and implement these temporary restrictions in an orderly manner. Our embassies and consulates around the world will play an Important Role in making sure our nation is as secure as it can be. The state department will implement the provisions in this order that allow for the admission of refugees when it is determined they did not pose a risk to the security or welfare of the United States. Upon the president s initial executive order issued on january the 27th, the state departments Consular Affairs and Diplomatic Security offices immediately undertook a review in coordination with the department of Homeland Security to identify additional measures that would strengthen our vetting of those entering the United States from seven named countries. These early efforts were concentrated on iraq. Iraq is an important ally in the fight to defeat isis. With their brave soldiers fighting in close coordination with americas men and women in uniform. This intense review over the past month identified multiple security measures that the state department and the government of iraq will be implementing to achieve our shared objective of preventing those with criminal or terroristic intent from reaching the United States. I want to express my appreciation to Prime Minister a al abadi of iraq for implementing these actions. The United States welcomes this kind of close cooperation with countries in every region of the world who share our commitment to National Security. This revised order will bolster the security of the United States and her allies. Now, weve spent the morning briefing the congress, the press, and we will continue to talk with Key Stakeholders this afternoon. Experts from the department of Homeland Security, the department of justice, and the state department hosted an hourlong call with the media on this topic this morning. Our collective teams will continue throughout the day to follow up with the congress, the media, and stakeholders to answer your questions. I will now turn it to the attorney general for his comments. Thank you, mr. Secretary, and good morning to all of you. One of the Justice Departments Top Priorities is to protect the United States from threats to our National Security. Therefore i want to discuss two points. First, the National Security basis of this order, and second, the department of justices role in defending the lawful orders of the president of the United States. First, as President Trump noted in his address to congress, the majority of people convicted in our courts for terrorism related offenses since 9 11 came here from iran. We also know many people seeking to support or commit terroristic acts willenter through our refugee program. Today people who came here as refugees according to the fbi are under an fbi investigation today for potential terrorismrelated activities. Like every nation, the United States has a right to control who enters our country, and to keep out those who would do us harm. This executive order seeks to protect the American People as well as lawful immigrants by putting in place an enhanced screening and vetting process for visitors from six countries. Three of these nations are state sponsors of terrorism. The other three have served as safe havens for terrorist countries, countries where governments have lost control of their territory to terrorist groups like isil or al qaeda and its affiliates. This increases the risk that people are admitted here from these countries may belong to terrorist groups or may have been radicalized by them. We cannot compromise our nations security by allowing visitors entry when their own governments are unable or unwilling to provide the information we need to vet them responsibly or when those governments actively support terrorism. This executive order responsibly provides a needed pause so we can carefully review how we scrutinize people coming here from these countries of concern. Second, the department of justice believes that this executive order, just as the First Executive order, is a lawful and proper exercise of president ial authority. This department of justice will defend and enforce lawful orders of the president consistent with the Core Principles of our constitution. The executive is empowered under the constitution and by congress to make National Security judgments and to enforce our immigration policies in order to safeguard the American Public. Terrorism is clearly a danger for america and our people. The president gets briefings on these dangers and emerging threats on a regular basis. The federal investigative agencies, the intelligence community, the department of state, the department of Homeland Security, and the United States military report to the president. Knowing the president would best possess such extensive information, our funds wisely gave the executive branch the authority and the duty to protect the nation. This executive order is a proper exercise of that power. Now i will turn things over to our able secretary john kelly of the department of Homeland Security. John . Thank you, mr. Attorney general. Well, like the secretary of state and the attorney general, i welcome you here today. My comments will be relatively brief. Last week the department of Homeland Security celebrated its 14th anniversary, first opening its doors on 1 march 2003. This secretariat was established in response to the devastating attacks of september 11th when Foreign Terrorists turned a beautiful but ordinary day into a nightmare. Those attacks taught us that we could not take our nations security for granted, that Homeland Security must be our top priority, and that we needed to overcome our collective inability to connect the dots of intelligence and arrange them into a more comprehensive picture of the threats posed to america and our way of life. Much as changed over the past 14 years, both in the world that is more dangerous and at dhs which is much better. The fact remains that we are not immune to terrorist threats and that our enemies often use our own freedoms and generosity against us. Todays executive order which President Trump signed this morning will make america more secure and address long overdue concerns about the security of our immigration system. We must undertake a rigorous review and are undertaking a rigorous review of our immigration vetting programs to increase our confidence in the decisions we make relative to visitors and immigrants that travel to the United States. We cannot risk the prospect of malevolent actors using our immigration system to take american lives. This executive order is prospective in nature. Its focus is on preventing entry of foreign nationals from the six designated countries. Importantly it is important to note that nothing in this executive order prevents persons with current authorization to enter our homeland. Unregulated, unvetted travel is not a universal privilege, especially when National Security is at stake. The white house worked closely with the department of homeland securi security, department of justice, and department of state to create an order that addresses previous concerns and protects the homeland and every one of our citizens. The men and women of the department of Homeland Security, like their brothers and sisters throughout law enforcement, are decent men and women of character and conscience. They are no less so than the governors of our states and territories. Of our senators and members of congress. Of our city mayors and advocacy groups. These men and women are sworn to enforce the laws as passed by the United States congress and would be in violation of the law in their sworn oaths in they did not do so. We do not make the law but are sworn to enforce it. We have no other option. We are going to work closely to implement and enforce it hue manly, respectfully, and with professionalism. But we will i want to thank the president for his support on this issue and for his steadfast again, as preeflt mentioned, i have spent much of the day today on the phone with members of congress, the leadership, explaining the ins and outs, and i did the same thing last week. There should be no surprises whether its in the media or on capitol hill. Thanks very much, and thanks for your time. Is this an acknowledgment that the first order was flawed in many ways . Have you spoken it did not appear that they did not take any questions on their way out. A lot to talk about as the administration is now laying out the revised travel ban coming from the president. It will be phased in starting on march 16th. Its a narrower version, to say the very least, of the original ban. Let me bring in Gloria Borger first on this. You see that playing out there at department of Homeland Security. Just as theyre speaking, the white house releases a picture of the president signing that executive order with none of the fanfare that weve seen when he signed other executive orders. Whats your take on this . Well, thats because this is a doover, and what they are effectively saying is that we made some mistakes in the First Executive order that were trying to fix. I dont know that mr. Trump is known for admitting mistakes. Now we have a much narrower version with a tenday implementation taking out one of the countrys, iraq, because they say that they have enacted multiple security measures to insure that they should not be on this list. We do not have any idea what those security measures are. We do know that we fight along side them as Rex Tillerson said in the war against isis. We know that theyre not prioritizing religious minorities here. There is one statement that the administration is saying, that the fbi has reported approximately 300 persons who entered the u. S. As refugees who are currently subjects of counterterrorism investigations. We dont know anything more than that about this, although on a background call, they did acknowledge that some of these people have been radicalized while they were in the United States. You know, so overall this is gloria, do we know what has come from the nations on this list . We dont even know that. We dont even know that. What we see here is an administration that is trying to offer no surprises, that is trying to walk back a great deal of the policy that they offered the first time around, and that is clearly trying to pass cord muster. Clearly. Gloria, stand by with me. Im going to go overseas and go to iraq and go to ben ing with. I want to welcome our viewers from the United States and around the world. Ben, an important part of this revised travel ban is the fact that iraq is no longer on the list of nations that are going to be facing this temporary ban. The secretary of state speaking directly to that at length. Whats the reaction you expect to hear from iraqis on this one . Especially when you hear that the Prime Minister seemed to have a heavy hand in making the case for iraq to be taken off that list. A. Well, even before this announcement was made, it was the leaks coming out of washington all indicated that iraq would be removed from that list of seven, and we received in advance in a statement from the Iraqi Foreign ministry describing it as a step in the right direction that will bolster the alliance between washington and baghdad. Particularly in the area of terrorism. We heard secretary tillerson there talking about the fact that iraq is indeed an important ally in that fight. He was praising the brave soldiers, and he foektsed on the Prime Ministers important input in this, and, therefore, the iraqis who were extremely upset to be included on this list given that there are more than 5,000 u. S. Military personnel in iraq right now providing support in the war against terrorism, they will be very happy to see this. In fact, it was just back in january very soon after the first order went into effect the Iraqi Parliament voted in favor of reciprocal measures against u. S. Citizens. In fact, i was lining up at passport control in baghdad to get into the country when they voted, but it was a symbolic vote. It didnt actually go into effect, but it certainly reflected the level of consternation many iraqis felt when they were included. Their country was included in that list. Kate. All right. Stand by with me, ben, as well as arwa damon standing by for us. Arwa, you spents a lot of time in iraq and also in syria and another important element in the change in this travel ban is that Syrian Refugees are no longer going to be facing an indefinite ban, i think, because thats probably the best way to put it. Theyre no longer going to be treated any differently than any other refugees. There will be 120 day ban on refugees coming in. Whats the impact on the ground . Whats the impact that you see this happening . Look, at the end of the day this is a watered down version of what was already out there, and yes, for syrians, for example, who are so desperate to cling to any little bit of hope, assuming they were going to go to the United States, perhaps this will give them that for now. At the end of the day they wont know whats happening after this 120 day period, and then its more about the broader image that this is creating of the United States. At the end of the day so many people do view this as being discriminatory. Effectively telling entire populations we dont really want you here, we dont really trust you, so were going to look a bit further into your background. Pop layings of countries that have been ravaged by war. Countries that are suffering things like famine, extreme poverty, and no matter what happens, at the end of the day the impression that america has now created at least trumps america, its not the same impression that people used to have of the United States, and it is still going to continue to create a lot of uncertainty because you also have a change in atmosphere in america itself. You do, yes, have a good segment of the population, the american population, that is trueing yin welcome in immigrants and reaching out and upholding the american values, but you also have a lot of immigrants, when you do spoke to them now, that tell you that their lives in america, they already feel as if theyre becoming more difficult. People are now hesitating a bit more to go to the United States. Added to all of this, just briefly, ask anyone who has tried to get a visa for america, and they will tell you it is already a very tough process. Shes live in istanbul, turkey, for us. I want to get your final thought on this. Some of the details, the big details of this leaked out, but now just your take kind of on how this played out today. The announcement coming from the three secretaries and then making the case. Theyre filling their role very well. Tillerson, this is going to be ruled out. Theyre no longer on the list. Attorney general sessions, this is lawful, and we will defend it. The dhs secretary saying theres a need to protect americans. President is at the white house. He is not the one talking about this. I think that this is the way republicans hoped things would operate under President Trump from this regard. He is a businessman. He has operated companies that have had to deal with profit and loss and bottom lines. You cant just get things wrong forever even though his Business Career was sometimes spotty, and i think they were slooes hoping for organization from him. This is the first time we have seen something major from the white house. Not just the first one, but in terms of executive orders and pieces of legislation that was orderly and disciplined and ran according to how government is supposed to operate, and i think for republicans on the hill watching this today and then i mentioned them because they need he needs them to stand up for his policies and to help him. I think this is going to make them feel good that maybe the white house can get its act together over time. Gloria, final thought from you on this one. Does this get does this get the president back on track with his agenda i say . Well, you know, it may am calm republicans down. I dont think its going to calm democrats down at all, and i do think it raises some additional questions about did the iraqis really change their security measures, or did the Administration Just realize that, in fact, there are allies in the fight against terror and they should not have been on this list originally, and, you know, there are also questions about what happens with the syrians and so i think, you know, while its clearly better, lots of questions left. Yeah. If it was an urge ebt National Security priority and thats why they had to roll it out so fast so the bad guys couldnt rush in, what does it mean now that its being phased in, skps theyre giving this lead in to it. Guys, its great to see you. A lot of news happening this hour. Well continue throughout the day. Thank you for joining us at this hour. Inside politics with john king. John king will pick it up right now. This is cnn breaking news. Welcome to inside politics im john king. Thank you for sharing your day with us. A day of busy breaking news in the nations capital. Take two of the Trump Administrations controversial travel ban. Six nations on it this time, not seven. The United States and is had aides standing by the president s stunning allegation over the weekend that president Obama Wiretapped the president ial campaign. A lot to discuss in the hour ahead. We begin with the brand new revised Trump Administration travel ban