Transcripts For CNNW New Day 20170329

Probe put on hold as ak indication of stalling. Here is the odd thing. All meetings have been cancelled. We apparently will not do anything until the meeting occurs. Reporter nunes saying the investigation will move forward. Only after a private briefing with the fbi director and head of the nsa which has not been scheduled. The chairman under jscrutiny fo the hearing. Its evidence of a coverup. There is no rational explanation for the cancellation of the meeting. Reporter the white house fighting back that it sought to prevent yates from testifying. I hope she testifies. If they choose to move forward, great. We have no problem. Reporter that is after the Washington Post published letters showing the testimony could violate president ial privilege on the same day that nunes canceled the hearing. Should devin nunes recuse himself from the russia investigation and do you know the source of his information . No and no. Reporter Republican Leadership standing by the house investigation despite criticism. With Congress Member walter jones becoming the first republican suggesting nunes step aside. If the president puts russian salad dressing on his salad tonight, somehow that is a russian connection. It seems like you are hell bent on trying to ensure whatever image you want to tell about the white house stays stop shaking your head again. Reporter all as the president continues to deflect. Tweeting about Hillary Clinton and trying to shift the focus back to the legislation priorities after a bruising defeat on repealing obamacare. I know we will make a deal on health care. That is an easy one. Reporter we are expecting a press conference this afternoon from the Senate Intelligence committee. They have made clear they want to speak with Jared Kushner. They want to talk to him privately, but under oath. He may get a better idea. Thank you, sara. Lets discuss with the panel. Mark preston and errol lewis and we have jackie kucinich. The entve interviews were cance. It is unclear about sally yates. If she was being blocked from giving her testimony by the white house or if they went silent and let her hang out there not knowing if they were giving her approval or needed approval. Where are we with this, mark . Sean spicer said he hopes she testifies. Door is open. Whether it is before the house or before the Senate Remains to be seen. With the house in disarray, it looks like the senate will have to step up and very well might and probably will. They will have a News Conference later today. To talk about the next steps. Here is what spicer said about it. I hope she testifies. I look forward to it. Lets be honest. The hearing was never notified. If they choose to move forward, great. We have most problem with her testifying. They have timing issues here. This was a little bit of a convaluted process. Yates attorney went to the white house and there is a question of privileged communication. The attorney informed the white house that some of the testimony would contradict other things came out. Agreement that silence would equal acceptance. They heard nothing. Nunes canceled the testimony. Interesting timing at the least. Absolutely. We dont know the white house called him and said cut her afternoon. We dont know that. You are right. The timing is strange. When you add it to the other events with nunes going to the white house and all of that we have been talking about for past couple days, it raises questions. Whenever sean spicer goes to the podium and says the story is not true, im inclined to believe that. Errol, why is sally yates testimony vital . You have to go back. When the president put out the wiretap allegation, that is a Justice Department issue. They have to investigate it. The question is what was known at the time during the last administration . Sally yates could shed light on that. James comey said he went to the department of justice and asked if they knew anything about the wiretapping claim and they said no. Comey is in the middle of the active investigation. Yates is able to speak openly about what she knew about at that time. All of this is a result of his now frantic efforts to get somebody to vouch for some of the possible plausible explanation for what he said. Thats what devin nunes is trying to do. He is the man in the middle. It didnt work with comey. The Committee Said we dont want anything to do with it. He found a weak point. That point is devin nunes. You have to believe if trump had the goods on the obama administration, we would have known a long time ago. This is an effort that is going on. We will see where it winds up. Another fold in the Russian Investigation is kushner. He deserves more kudos. He will talk to them. He now says he will testify. He says he will testify. We heard from quigley about this. This is on the senate side. Here is what he had to say. Ill tell you later. The point is they have serious questions they want to ask, jackie. Him coming forward. Thats a confidence giver. They needed that. The fact he was going to just talk to them rather than testify which does matter, it does. It lends credibility to what he will say. It doesnt erase the fact that were just finding out about the meetings with the Russian Development bank under sanctions. How does he explain meeting with a guy that he had to know was going to be a little bit of a shady character to meet with . The head of the bank, you see a story history of him. Not of the good kind. He will get pressed from democrats on. He said he wasnt meeting as the capacity of the transition. You just dont take that hat off and put another on. Mark, devin nunes. There were calls from the republican side that he has somehow tainted the integrity of the committee and looking into the ties. He is standing firm. Whos whose decision is it that he steps down . We all say it is Speaker Paul Ryan who should say step aside. He has been in support of nunes. I think it is nuness decision. At some point he will say i dont want to walk through the halls of congress and be followed by reporters. We saw manu raju who gets the microphone in your face and has been doing it successfully. Nunes got up saisetupset. You keep asking questions. I think nunes ace im all in or backs out himself. What will we see on the senate side . They have been doing a favor by the house. Makes them look like they are the arc type of how to do this the right way. What do they expect . They cannot do worse. We will see studious attention paid to the formality of it of making sure they are not passing information willy nilly. They are not telling lies to the public of what they did and what they said. Im on the white house grounds as if he wandered in there. We will find a higher conversation. We will go into what you touched on with Jared Kushner. The business ties. The wiretapping claim that the president made up. Will play along until people decide. These other questions about dealing with the banks. Dealing with the oligarchs. The murderous regime that has seized public and private assets. Using murder and intimidation to keep the system in place. We have people freely doing business with them during the transition. We never saw the president s taxes and we dont know what financial ties the Trump Organization has. I expect the senate to get into that. That will be something that will make the meddling in the election look like childs play compared to the larger questions. That leads us to the new republican talking point. We heard it from President Trump and others. So did clinton. The Clinton Foundation had ties to all of the russian dark shady money as well. Why arent you talking about that . Where does that lead snus . We to talk about abraham lincolns problems too. Its comparing apples and oranges. If there are problems with the apples, okay. Deal with it. We deeltalt with it. We are dealing with the situation with a sitting president with a lot of associates questionable meetings with someone who is not our ally and people say our enemy. They would say where is the appetite of the russian connections with clinton. Is it fair to say there were investigations into the Clinton Foundation . It was there. This is old news in a lot of ways. The rauranium one. Now he is using john podesta. He is saying he is the one with the russian ties. His brother did business there. What is this about . Trump needs a villain. He needs someone to go after. This is a rinse, repeat. It is easy and it riles up his people. Most of america doesnt know who john podesta is. You know who knows him . His base. If you talk to him, you get a nice promo for your show. Thank you. Stick around. Battle lines drawn over judge gorsuch. Hoping for a smooth confirmation, but the gop has to be prepared for the Nuclear Option if they cannot get 60 votes. Cnns Suzanne Malveaux is live on capitol hill. Reporter alisyn, it is game on now. We heard Mitch Mcconnell throwing down the gauntlet. Saying the committee will vote on gorsuch and that will set the stage for the full senate next friday. Not only predicting the vote will happen, but he will get confirmed. This is setting the stage for a democrat and republican to take their positions. Democrats say they are committed now to filibustering this nomination. 27 democrats are committed to this. Two say they are not. The republicans need 60 votes to break that filibuster. They have 52 in the senate. Majority. They need 8 democrats to go along with them. They are targeting a dozen democrats and some of those red states. They believe they are vulnerable. If that doesnt work, they are prepared to use the Nuclear Option from a 6 0 vote to a 51. They want to make sure gorsuch gets an up or down vote. It will be an uphill climb to get the 60 votes. If a judge cant meet a nominee cant meet the vote standard, you dont change the rules. No Supreme Court justice has been stopped with a filibuster. That is what the democratic leader announced they will do. We are optimistic they will not be successful. The pr cane mpaign is in ful swing. Chuck grassley and others will make their case for judge gorsuch. Suzanne, thank you. No one is looking good in that situation. The democrats set the standard. They say they reserve Supreme Court nominations when they use the Nuclear Option. This is lager head. Hillary clinton out of the woods. Literally and figuratively. Back in the spotlight since the First Time Since the election defeat. She is getting political. What she said next. Featuring egos patented, 56 the 1 rated,volt,power mower. Arc lithium battery technology, it delivers the cuttingtorque of gas. The ego mowers durable construction makes mowing in difficult conditions easy. The selfpropelled model makes it effortless. And it folds flat in seconds for easy storage. The ego power mower. Exclusively at the home depot and ego authorized dealers. I got it. I gotcha baby. vo its being there when youre needed most. Love is knowing. Hes the one. vo . It was meant to be. And love always keeps you safe. Were fine. vo love is why we built a car you can trust. Now and for a long time to come. The allnew Subaru Impreza sedan and fivedoor. A car you can love no matter what road youre on. The Subaru Impreza. More than a car, its a subaru. But theyre different. D kind its nice to remove artificial ingredients. Kind never had to. Weve used real ingredients, whole nuts, and Natural Flavors from the very beginning. Give kind a try. Well, what are you doing o take care otomorrow 10am . But. Staff meeting. 3 45 . Tai chi. 6 30 . Sams baseball practice. You are busy. Wouldnt it be great if you had investments that worked as hard as you do . Yeah. Introducing essential portfolios the automated investing solution. With sleep number, theres an adjustment for that. Tilt your tormentor and put those snores to sleep. Does your bed do that . Right now, save 400 on our most popular mattresses. Only at a sleep number store. Im on it. Ar does weathertech go to protect your vehicle . Weathertech. Made right, in america former democratic nominee Hillary Clinton back in the spotlight over too many women facing sexism in a speech. Take a listen. April ryan, a respected journalist with unriled integrity was doing her job in the White House Press room this afternoon. She was patronized and cut off. Maxine waters was taunted with a joke about her hair. Too many women, especially women of color, have had a lifetime of practice taking precisely these indignities in stride. Why should we have to . And any woman who thinks this couldnt be directed at her is living in a dream world. All right. Lets bring back our panel. Mark preston and errol louis and jackie kucinich. She was giving a speech on the floor and bill oreilly was listening. Fighting for the democracy. We are fighting for america. Were saying to those who say theyre patriotic, but turn a blind eye to the destruction about to cause this country. You are not as patriotic as we are. What does that mean, bill . We have been listening all morning. I did not hear a word she says. I was looking at the james brown wig. If we have a picture of james brown. The same one. I have to defend her on that. You are all wrong. I have to defend her on that. You cant go after a womans looks. I think she is very attractive. I didnt say she wasnt attractive. He wound up apologizing to the National Business insider. He didnt mean it like that. The point was made. She is welcome on the show. That is a horrible thing to say. But, bring it back to Hillary Clinton. She is wearing her black leather and ready to rumble. Is that allowed . Black leather . She is going punk rock. Jackie, what does this mean for her appearance back on the stage . Is this the beginning of something . Its hard to say with Hillary Clinton. You hear all rumors of how shes coming back. This very much was in line with the Hillary Clinton that we knew before when she was on the speaking circuit and before she ran for president. Talking about women empowerment. That is her comfort zone. It does make sense she is coming out on this particular issue because it is something that she knows about. She is frankly good at talking about it. Does it mean something bigger . Do we know what is happening . We dont know what is happening with her. I would say this. People get mad at me for saying it. There is something to be said that democrats should look at the next generation of leaders. We did the debate for the dnc chair. Dana and i baited them with questions if hillary is the past for future. They didnt want to talk it. To be critical of her. You are saying that youth im saying there is a voice for her and she is a leader in many ways and president obama. The fact of the masttter is the Democratic Party to build, they need a new leader. There is a vacuum there. This is the big news of the day. Anybody else could have found a way to get in front of the camera and Say Something pithy and see who will lead the democratic progress ive side in america. Tom perez didnt do it. Let me Say Something about the comment by bill oreilly. I teach journalism. Tons of people out there waiting to get a break. For fox news to promote that garbage and leave it out there. It is not just discouraging, but it adds a lot of fuel to people who are really going to change this business over the next few years. Ten years from now, we will tell our kids and students what it used to be like in the bad old days with this racist garbage on television. You have sean spicer. He is getting pick up for the comment of russian dressing leading to connections with trump and russia if the president uses russian dressing. He said something else. You have russian. You have wiretapping. We dont have that. On capitol hill. I get it. I have said it from the day that i got here until whenever. There is no connection. Youve got russia. If the president puts russian salad dressing on his salad tonight, that is a russian connection. The facts are every person who has been brief oed on this subjt has come away with the same conclusion. Im sorry that disgusts you. You are shaking your head. At some point, april, you have to take no for an answer with respect to whether or not there is collusion. He had some nerve saying everyone who heard these questions come to the same conclusion. James comey add militamitted th an open investigation. You have this whole deception play with nunes. Without context for spicer to say that. Then, ee errol, he tells april stop shaking her head. He will get personal. Thats his style. Shes the last person to try that with. They is an institution. She is a straight shooter. She is shaking her head saying i dont believe you. For the reasons you just suggested. He says things from the podium that are not believable. Reporters are there to challenge him. It gets intense. Sean spicer will have to figure out somebody else to beat up on. This is the same week he called a reporter from politico an idiot. There needs to be professionalism injected. You dont see it as a racist issue or female issue . Decor decorum . It seems respect has gone out the window at this point. Its too bad. This is not a race issue or gender issue. I have known him for a million years. It is a respect issue. He lost it with the fork in the road. He said the russian dressing thing. He should have made a joke of it and try to go down that road. He went down the other road and it got nasty. We have april ryan on our program in the 8 00 hour. She can tell us her impressions of that exchange with sean spicer. Thank you. Up next, more than 100 civilians killed in mosul by an air strike. What the Top Commander is saying about the u. S. Role and why he believes isis may also have blood on its hands here. We will give you the facts and you can decide. With even though im here. Its almost like the Virtual Reality of business communications. No, its reality. Introducing intuitive, one touch video calling from vonage. Call now and get amazon chime at no additional cost. Sfx engine revving silence President Trump addressing the war on terror at a white house reception last night. The president telling a group of senators the u. S. Is quote doing very well in iraq. And quote soldiers are fighting like never before. End quote. The president made no mention of the u. S. Led air strike that killed more than 100 civilians in mosul. A top u. S. Commander said that air strike caused their deaths, but isis may have put the victims in harms way. The british Prime Minister forcefully submitting the request to leave the eu. The twoyear withdraw process is set to begin when mays letter is submitted to the council. Scotland could throw a Monkey Wrench into the plan. Your future and Online Privacy is in President Trumps hands. The gop led house voting to repeal the privacy protections. Opponents say if the measure is overturned, broadband providers can collect and sell user data without permission. It is intended to give consumers more control over personal information online. Severe storms rocking the texas panhandle and working east. We have cnn meteorologist chad myers with the forecast. Oklahoma was on watch. Now it moves. It moves into missouri and arkansas. We had 14 tornadoes yesterday. Some on the ground for some time. It moves farther east today as we would expect. Thats how storms do. They move from west to east along with the jet stream. We will get them again in east texas, arkansas, louisiana and maybe up to st. Louis or memphis later on this afternoon. Now nothing really popping by 4 00. You look up and say it is sunny. No, that isnt great. That sun is the heat for the storms. That energy will pop up by 6 00. Storms severe. Some rotate. Some will have storms on the ground. Keep your noaa Weather Radio on hand if you have one. Storms continue tomorrow. Thank you, chad. On friday, as you know, the Health Care Deal was dead. Last night, President Trump said he is resurrecting the health care fight. What does the Freedom Caucus think about that . Well ask one of the founders of the Freedom Caucus. Congress member jim jordan when he joins us next. E trades powerful trading tools, give you access to indepth analysis, and a team of experienced traders ready to help if you need it. Its like having the power of a trading floor, wherever you are. Its your trade. E trade like paperless, multicar, and safe driver, that help them save on their car insurance. Any questions . Yeah. How do you go to the bathroom . Great. Any insurancerelated questions . Mmhmm. Do you have a girlfriend . Uh, im actually focusing on my career right now, saving people nearly 600 when they switch, so. Wheres your belly button . [ sighs ] ive got to start booking better gigs. I know that were all going to make a deal on health care. Thats an easy one. I have no doubt that will happen quickly. I think its going to happen. That was President Trump telling a Bipartisan Group of senators that the battle over health care is not over despite saying it was last week. So when will we see another attempt to repeal and replace obamacare . Lets discuss this and more with republican Congress Member jim jordan of ohio. He is the Founding Member of the Freedom Caucus. Good morning, Congress Member. Good morning. Good to be with you. Great to have you. Is there a new deal . Thats what we are working on. We want to put together a plan to lower premiums and one that more than 17 of the country approves of. We never stopped achieving that goal. Are you working with the president on this . We had a number of meetings with the white house last week and leading up to last week. Are you back at the drawing board with the president . We are back at the drawing board with every member of congress and republican. I personal talked to the white house this week. We are working with everyone we can to get accomplished what the American People sent us here to accomplish. How does that work, Congress Member . You in the Freedom Caucus are getting the blame for it falling apart last time. What is the new deal going to look like that makes everybody happy . We have been focused on the regulations that drive up the cost of premiums. Cbo said the premiums would increase over the plan last week. Lets do all we can to lower premiums for the American People. We focused on it. We talked about the essential coverage mandated and every plan. We talked about the Community Rating that is real important to get rid of that regulations and bring back affordable insurance. As you know, your colleague, ted poe quit the Freedom Caucus last week because he felt you were too entrenched and i intransigent about finding caucus. I think every member is entitled to their opinion and voting card. Ted is a good friend. I serve on the judiciary committee. We had people come and go the couple years. That is part of the legislative process. What i do know is what we told the American People. I know the legislation that was brought forward was not a full relate peel of obamacare and not lower premiums and it not unite the party or country. It only had the support of 17 of the country. Lets change that and put together a bill that the American People expect us to put together that they sent us here to accomplish. Lets focus on that. Quit blaming everyone. Quit saying lets get back to work and put together a piece of legislation we can be proud of. Congress member ted poe did not get the impression that you are interested in uniting with your colleagues. In fact, he felt you are an impediment. You are the caucus of no. Let me play to you what Congress Member poe said. I have the feelings that they would vote no against the Ten Commandments if it came up for a vote. It is easy to say no, im not going to support that. What do we have . We have a situation where we are not making positive changes in the country. Whats your response . Alisyn, a little bit of difference between the Ten Commandments and piece of legislation that only 17 of the country approves of. Look at the four corners of the document and the legislation. It did not repeal obamacare fully. It did not lower premiums. It wasnt supported by the republican party. Every conservative organization opposed it. There was a big difference with the Ten Commandments and a piece of legislation. Lets fix the legislation. Lets do what the president said. Let accomplish what we were sent here to accomplish. That continues to be our focus. We are hard at work. You feel confident that moderate republicans and some democrats will like your prop e propos proposal . I think we had a good c conference yesterday with the members talking about ways to move forward and accomplish what we kpacampaigned on. Im an american. You have to be an optimist. We can accomplish what the voters sent us here to do. Congress member, i want to move on to iraq. The tragic air strike in mosul that ended up killing civilians. Many of them women and children. I want to play for you what President Trump said. We are doing well in iraq. Our soldiers are fighting and fighting like never before. The results are very, very good. I dont know. Congress member, that struck many as insensitive. He did not talk about the air strike that killed civilians. The fight were in against these terrorists and enemy all over the world is serious and real and difficult. Obviously when you have tragedies like these things, they happen. You are concerned about it. What i know is we have to stay on the offense and do the best we can to deal with the terrorist threat. I have not all of the full reports. I cant comment more than that. Personally, do you think the president should address the fact that the air strike went awry . Again, alisyn, i have not seen the details of what took place and what happened in the situation. You know that civilians were killed. It is always tragi tragic wh those things happen. I want to see the details before i comment on what took place. When the president says our soldiers are fighting like never before. What does that mean . The american solder why fighting to come forward for america. The thanks we owe the veteran and the soldiers on active duty to serve and protect us. That is what he is getting at that. There are few confusing things in his statement because we technically ended combat missions in iraq. Again, i want to see what took place in what you are referring to. Congress member, thank you. Thank you. We have details on jared c b kushn kushners meeting with the russian bank with ties to vladimir putin. Why would he take this meeting . Next. Lease a 2017 lincoln mkx for 369 a month. Only at your lincoln dealer. You need one of these. You wouldnt put up with an umbrella that covers you part way, so when it comes to pain relievers, why put up with just part of a day . Aleve, live whole not part. Tell you what, ill give it to you for half off. Boycott averted. The womens hockey team agrees to a fouryear deal with usa hockey. That means they will play in the championships. Coy wire has more in the bleacher report. Good morning, chris. The women looking to be treated as equals to the mens team. We know they were hoping for 68,000 a year in salary. Some reports were they made 1,500 for u. S. Hockey. They were seeking benefits that the men have access to. The women liked the deal they saw and we will now see them defend the gold medal as they take on canada in the first round of the ihf. Big win for team usa. South carolina mens basketball is in the final four for the First Time Ever thanks to the leader coach frank martin who just may be the most interesting man in the world. Francisco jose martin. He worked at dairy queen at age 12. He worked as a bouncer in college until he was shot at. He said he would focus on hoops. He is a tough dude. He hasnt forgotten the lessons like always know your surroundings. I dont know who you are. Okay. Some of you guys are brand new to the party here. Back of my bouncing days, i knew who you were. I wont let you through the door if i hadnt seen you before. Alisyn, i have a flight to phoenix tonight. Coach martin will know who i am. Im not messing around. Thats readable from the audience. Thank you very much. Did Jared Kushner know he was meeting with a known spy and putin crony when he met with a russian banker . Details next. Make it detect whaey dont. Stop, stop, stop sorry. You make it sense whats coming. Watch, watch, watch mom. Relax im relaxed. You make it for 16year olds. Whoawhoawhoa and the parents who worry about them. You saw him, right . Going further to help make drivers, better drivers. Dont freak out on me. Thats ford. And thats how you become americas bestselling brand. All right. We now know that President Trumps soninlaw Jared Kushner met with putins crony banker. Lets discuss with cnn contributor and editor at daily beast. Michael weis. I love the graphic behind you. More and more people keep getting added. I cannot get an answer. In reading your piece, if you did any research, it is impossible to avoid who he is. Lets start with this. Should kushner have known he was not meeting in the name of gorka . Absolutely. Anybody should have said to him not only was this guy appointed chairman of the bank because he came from a quote controversial background. Vladimir putin said he has a Security Portfolio behind him. Absolutely. Beyond that. You dont have to go far from here in new york city to understand two years ago the Deputy Representative in new york the bank were talking about. Bdp. Was arrested for being a russian spy and cultivating assets in manhattan. On the web site, this guy is still listed as Deputy Representative. He is serving 30 months in an ohio prison. You can google your way through. You dont need an expertise or read into a classified briefing. Russia is not making it easier to explain. They say we didnt know about a meeting with the bank. Oh, and the meeting that they had was with Jared Kushner, head of kushner development. That is a stateowned bank. Meeting with the bank and leaving aside the kgb you are still meeting with russian officials. They would know. They are trying to add to the intrigue which is what they do despite the Trump Administration. Michael weiss is the adviser. He hears the Russian Ambassador he hears kushner take a meeting. What do you say . I say dont do it because the bank is under sanctions regime. Number two, if you are going to do it, we need to have a serious conversation of what you disclose. By the way, there is no thing as an exspy in russia. The idea is you do not want to unwitnessi unwittingly disclose information. They are not going to come up and say tell me classified secrets. It is about loosening you up and teasing information out of you. Somebody like Jared Kushner could let something slip. He was on the Transition Team at the time he met with the banker. We dont know if he met with them once or several times because he wont say. The bank says this is part of our traveling road show. Again, thats pr. People want to dismiss meetings as just proforma. People meet with russian officials all the time. There is nothing wrong with that unless you can show the meeting had some malintent behind it. What questions would you have for kushner . Did he know the guys back ground and what was discussed in the meeting . This is what did Michael Flynn in. If he says sanctions came up, but i made no promises. You can say that, but why were you meeting with the bank . Financial institutions in russia are not just financial institutions. U. S. Treasury designated veb. You say taking the meeting with the bank alone was a mistake. Yeah. You dont care what happened as a result of the meeting . If you absolutely want to do it, or you felt you had to do it, again, be for the cothcomin disclose the information. The fact it is leaking in the media goes to the notion that the Trump Administration has something to hide. This is meeting than meeting with the Russian Ambassador. Yes. Thank you, michael. Thanks to you. Our International Viewers for watching. Cnn newsroom is next. For u. S. Viewers, we have headlines. What do you say . Lets get after it. The investigation has ground to a halt. They asked you to cancel the hearing. Nothing has been canceled. Evidence of a coverup. What it says we dont want that testimony. The reality is, hold on. At some point, report the facts. I have confidence in devin nunes. I think senators get their way, this is the First Successful filibuster. If nominee cant meet the 60 vote standard, you dont change the rule. You change the standard. Nobody ever told me that politics would be so much fun. This is new day with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. Welcome to new day. Up first, the russia investigation grinding to a halt because of the political infighting. The panels chairman refusing to step down. Devin nunes. The white house deny it is