Supreme court. The obsession with covering everything he says on twitter and very little what he does as president thats his preferred message of communication. The administration attempting to down play the importance of the president s tweets. The policy of the social media, chris. It is social media. It is not social media. It is his words. His thoughts. It is not a policy. It is social media. After tauting twitter as an essential part of the president s strategy for months. Donald trumps Social Media Platform is a powerful way for him to connect with the people. Also education kalating his fight with londons mayor, accusing him of offering a pathetic excuse when he advised london residents not to be alarmed by increased security in the city. Offering the scathing response when asked about mr. Trumps planned visit to the u. K. His policies go against
everything we stand for. Apparently on message when he tweeted out there was a big meeting today with the Republican Leadership concerning tax cuts and health care. Said they are all pushing hard, must get it right. We are expecting sean spicer at the Podium Briefing Today and that is that meeting with congressional leaders is apparently the most important thing going on as far as we know right now. Back to you. All right, joe. Appreciate it. The president tweeting again about something very serious and it matters. During my recent trip to the middle east i stated there can be no longer funding of radical ideology. Leaders pointed to qatar. Look. What does this mean . We have angus king. Senator, always good to see you. What do you make of this . Why is the president going out of his way to undermine the white houses own message . Well, i dont think hes going out of his way to purposefully undermine it. I think hes being himself and communicating that the danger is that hes making policy almost inadvertently. I had been governor 20 years ago about a month when a friend said you have to be careful when you are having lunch or walking down the hall, you can verbally make policy. When you are the president , you cant just say what is on your mind at that particular moment and i think this is you know, this is a significant problem for the administration to then say, dont mind what this man is saying over here, you know, wizard of oz, dont Pay Attention to the main behind the curtain, that doesnt fas the straight face test. For months they told us we
are wrong for saying the travel ban is a ban. He then tweets again and again and again in an odd context, you know, in a moment of crisis for london where you would think a president would be reaching out and be conciliatory, and he says it is a ban. It has always been a ban. I want it to be a ban and i want it to be the original ban, which is something that could have a little bit of bearing on the case before the Supreme Court. Kellyanne conways husband has already pointed out that thats a compromise of the case because what the courts have been looking at is what is this really. Is this the president s exercise of his authority to limit immigration, or is it an intentional act to try to keep certain people out of the country for religious reasons . And his his comments, his extracurricular comments, if you will, have already been used in the court proceedings. So, you know, youre right. And i think it goes to the issue of realizing the power of the presidency. You can make an offhand comment that the market will fall 500 points or there will be a conflict that will arise. It is not you give up it seems to me when you become president you give up the right to be offhanded about your comments and just say whatever is on your mind at that moment. The consequences, the results are just too significant. They absolutely matter. And the suggestion they are just tweets is absurd. You can see it again and again. Look at the comey situation you will be facing. Youre one of the senators who will get to ask questions of the former fbi director on thursday. The president s tweets about comey were fundamental in our understanding of what went on there with his firing, just as it is when he went on record with a journalist and talked about it. What do you want to ask of comey . One of the advantages of being more or less junior on the committee is i get to listen to the other questions and mr. Comeys answers before i have to formulate mine. I want to get to the bottom of what were the circumstances surrounding the firing, what were the circumstances surrounding these various meetings going back to after the inauguration and was he asked to be loyal and was he asked to somehow put a tamper on part of the investigation. These are very important questions. But i have some other questions, too, that frankly, i am going to wait until the hearing to share with mr. Comey. You dont want to give us a little bit of an advance, is thats okay, senator. Do you have any particular curiously about that paragraph that stuck out in everybodys minds that the president had drafted from the white house where he thanked comey or at least recognized comey for telling him on three separate occasions that he was not part
of investigation. Do you want to know if that ever happened . Absolutely. That paragraph you refer to was in the letter where he fired comey. By the way, the last line of that letter is good luck with your future endeavors or Something Like that. It was sort of strange. But absolutely, did you reassure the president. And this is a very, very important part of this investigation. We were concerned that perhaps director comeys testimony would be not suppressed isnt the right word, but pushed to the side somewhat by the mueller investigation, but Director Mueller is not going to constrain mr. Comey from speaking to us fully and i think thats good news. We should get a full accounting from jim comey on thursday. Thats an important development. So as far as you know, the former director is not being
held in any way by the Special Counsel in what he can talk to you. Do you expect comey to refuse to discuss any topic . Well, i do expect that he wont discuss the Russian Investigation itself. In other words, the investigation that mueller is now in charge of. What it was like or what he knew when he left. Ill be surprised if he does that. But as far as from the inauguration on and his interactions with the president , that appears to be absolutely fair game and its very important material for us to have. Senator, we anticipate your questions. It is going to be a big day. We are starting new day an hour early and we have special coverage starting at 9 00. The testimony is supposed be at 10 00. Who do you believe has the nicer tie on this morning, you or me . Well, i think the deal is were both promoting maine lobsters this morning. Full disclosures, this is from the senator, this tie. There is a Little Lobster trap at the bottom of it. I commented i liked the senator tie and in italian fashion he sent me it. Did you coordinate your outfit this is morning before you came on the air . No. I knew the senator was coming on. I wore this to ingratiate myself to him. I want you to see on my tie, each lobster has an american flag. Thats an american lobster. I do not have flags on mine, which is now making me feel inadequate. Senator, i like your shirt. The shirts are from l. L. Bean. Hey thats a maine company. Oh, it is . I didnt notice. Senator, thank you very much. Great to see you. Thank you. Good to be with you. President trump digging in, defending his use of twitter as members of his own administration say his tweets dont mean anything. Who should we listen to . Him. Listen to the president. Kind never had to. We choose real ingredients like almonds, peanuts and a drizzle of dark chocolate. Give kind a try. The beswith neutrogena® beach . Beach defense® sunscreen. Helioplex™ powered, uva uvb strong. Beach strength protection for the whole family. For the best day in the sun. Neutrogena®. At crowne plaza we know Business Travel isnt just business. Theres this. a bit of this. Why not . Your hotel should make it easy to do all the things you do. Which is what we do. Crowne plaza. Were all business, mostly. They hate i can get the honest and unfiltered message out. Thats different than the message his administration was sending out yesterday. Its not policy. It is social media, chris. It is not social media. It is his words, his thoughts. It is not policy. It is not an Executive Order. It is social policy. Please understand the difference. I think you need an understanding here. I know what policy is. You are a journalist. Are you saying we shouldnt listen what the president says . You shouldnt obsess about it for 12 minutes, chris. This obsession of covering what he does on twitter and not as a president. Lets obsess about it a little bit more and try to get the answers. Lets bring in our panel. We have Chris Cillizza and David Gregory and april ryan. April, we know you had a very Interesting Exchange in the white we will get to momentarily. Okay. David gregory, yes, the
president s words matter. Obviously he is the president of the free world. Whatever he says matters. However, he says lots of Different Things on twitter. How are we to know which ones are official . Here is what Chris Collins, congressman Chris Collins tried to thread this needle to help us understand which ones to Pay Attention to. Listen to this. Its social media. It is not social media. It is his words, his thoughts. It is not policy. It is not an Executive Order. It is social media. Please understand the difference. You take them seriously because they are our president s thoughts. However, the nuances at the end, there will be a certain filter they go through when they become official policy. Okay. David, you heard them both say they are not official policy. Well, this doesnt have to be a debate. I mean, the president is speaking in an unfilgters way. He is providing remarkable transparency on the part of any president to really let us into what he thinks, what position he stakes out. For all of his advisors, i just, you know, kind of dismiss all that. They are in an impossible position. They are allowing themselves to be sent out. He is the president of the United States, words matter. He should care about the office of the president and what that means on the world stage. He doesnt care about that, so he can offend the mayor of london right after the attack and Inaccurately Quote Him from the aftermath of the attack or he can essentially undercut his own administration on the issue of the travel ban. All of these things i think just undermine his potential effectiveness. He is a leader who wants to either respond to crisis or advance a legislative agenda. He is not doing either very well because hes only creating more
discord within his administration. He himself is erratic, so we dont know where he ultimately will land. But what hes saying is absolutely what he thinks and thats the bottom line. And that is the utility in it, Chris Cillizza, this idea that he can be all over the place. Yeah, and very often we dont get any access to that with our leaders. We dont see the vagaries and the iterations and tbecause the get filtered. So doesnt every single tweet, every iteration, every twist matter . Yes. In fact, i would argue it matters more than many of the statements we get. So davids point certainly out of his staff and out of official such as they are president ial statements. I watched that Chris Collins interview with wonderment and amazement because basically what
Chris Collins did in that interview is make the exact case for why we should pay a ton of attention to Donald Trumps tweets. He essentially said, this isnt like an official statement thats filtered through a bunch of people. This is just the president talking. The president said the same thing. Thats the point. Hes talking about us. The irony is nobody wants him to tweet more than we do. I want him to tweet every second, you know . Yeah. This is him breaking with he has been i guarantee you, look, chris, i know how the media works. There is no one in the media who says, man, i hope Donald Trump Tweets less. That is not a thing that happens. Then the people who tell him to tweet less are people on his staff. So, look, again, i would urge people if you have not watched that Chris Collins interview, go back and watch it because it is the tortured logic of trying to explain something that is unexplainable. Why hes his tweets are
basically the most authentic representation of him but also not official policy because they havent been filtered six ways to sunday. Thats right. So, april, there you are on the front lines, right at the White House Press room every day trying to make sense of all of this, trying to figure out what to Pay Attention to, what to prioritize, what to take seriously and literally whatnot to and trying to get answers and what is your experience like when you make these points to whoever it is and you have to listen to them do these verbal gymnastics. It is tough. It is very tough because logic says one thing and theyre saying another. And you use the operative trying to make sense, trying is the operative word. But then you have the president of the United States going to chris and david, who made excellent points. He comes and just upsets the apple cart with what they are trying to do. He is the leader of the free
world. He is the president of the United States. And words matter. His words matter. Theyre archived. He shakes markets. He changes policy. Whatever he thinks and we watch on twitter, we take that more so as fact than what they are saying at that podium because he is their leader. He is their boss. He is the leader of the free world and what he is thinking is actually coming out. Then you hear it just does not come together or mary that well. There also seems to be a window, david, into this Deepening Discord that the president has with those around him. The reporting in the times this morning about how he feels about Jeff Sessions and whether he recused and obviously it Wasnt An Accident he talks so much about the travel ban in the context of the doj doing the wrong thing. But for him to, with a clear mind, according to his tweets this morning, go out there and contradict what he knows what his surrogates are saying, that
tells us something also, doesnt it . It tells us a lot. President ial leadership has a singular aspect to it, right, that there is an aspect of leadership that comes from the top, that comes from the president. But government is very much a team effort. Thats why you have a team of advisors who help you wade through information, work through complicated issues and reach a decision thats the best decision that you can possibly make under the circumstances. In this case, we have evidence here and the tweeting is just symptomatic of it, of a president who is simply not listening. So when he says that social media is not policy, he has a point. What matters is not where you start, but where you finish. But we dont know where the president is going to finish and what we often know is that wherever he starts is where he himself would like to finish and may well finish if hes not listening to the advice around him. And the tweet gave us a better reckoning of what he
wants out of the Executive Order on travel than the official position. He says he want it is original. But we dont know where it will finish, to davids point. Thats not what the Supreme Court will decide on. The Supreme Court is going to rule on the constitutionality of the order before it, which is the second one. Right. But if the president , he started the muslim ban. He called it that, said he wanted it. He wanted the final word. He says he didnt want that. Of course hes the final word. The Supreme Court is the final word. Thats of the legality of the order. What that order is is up to the president. He signs it and drafts it. Thats why it is called an Executive Order. Panel, well spare you having to weigh in on all of this. Thank you very much. New details about Terror Attacks on london. We know the identities of all three attackers. One of them was known to british authorities. In what context . Live ahead. I guess i was born with a crayon in my hand. I feel like i am ready to take on the day. I dont have aches and pains from the previous days training and i feel like myself. I wake up feeling stronger. A better surfer. A better me. Now through june 11th, save 600 when you buy select tempurpedic Adjustable Mattress sets. Find your exclusive retailer at tempurpedic. Com. Live at the market scene with the latest. Have what you learned . Reporter so we know now who these third attacker is. He is 22yearold, an Italian National of mor rock can decent. He was living in east london. They say he was not on their radar or A Person Of Interest. However, italian Authorities Say he was A Person Of Interest to the Italian Police because he had been stopped a couple of years ago carrying a oneway ticket to istanbul. They have listen to believe perhaps he was trying to travel to syria. This raising questions about how it is or why, rather, italian authorities were not kbh communicating with other authorities here. One of the attackers was very well known to london authorities, a well known local Extremist Group that has been
disbanded. He was even in ai document that aired recently. Some questions as to why some of these people werent on their radar, particularly the british man in question. Chris . Once again showing the difficulty of that volume of cases that they have there to look at. In the wake of that attack, President Trump is renewing his criticism of the mayor of london. But what is the president doing to fight terror here at home . Lets discuss with cnn Counter Terrorism analyst phillip mud, former u. S. Ambassador at large and state Department Coordinator for Counter Terrorism, daniel benjamin. That is one heck of a title you got going there. So when we look at the talk, the talk is tauf, phillip mud, from the president about terror. He beat the drum during the campaign. He does so now. It is why he says he needs a travel ban and wants to revert to a version of it that seemed to target muslims from select countries. But in terms of policy, activity on the ground, what do we know about how this administration is dealing with terror versus the last one . We know a lot, chris. I remember watching the president say last year when it was on the campaign trail, i have a secret plan, and i think we know what the secret plan is, which is doing a lot of what the old guy did, which is President Obama. If you look at the areas of engagement, there is a couple of characteristics. You have to support local militaries in places like afghanistan and iraq. This president has done that, as President Obama did. You have to maintain drone warfare. You have to support Law Enforcement and intelligence in the United States. Id say thats a mixed message from the president in light of what he did from former fbi
director comey. There is one area and dan can speak to this as well as i can that is different. That is, who do you pick as allies Around The World . This president has said if there is a dictator Around The World, for example, the president of egypt who will fight extremism, i will favor that dictator at the expense of language about democracy. That is an area where President Trump has been clear. Daniel, your take . Right. I think phil has it exactly right about the continue yties. And by implication, supporting repressi repression, which as we know is a big driver of radicalization. So backing someone like general all see see in egypt is going to come back to haunt us. The other difference is the president has shown us completely with saudi arabia and the gulf arabs and say sectarian
strife is okay. Lets fight iran. Thats another major driver of extremism. 40,000 people went to fight in syria and ara iraq. And part of the reason is they went is they wanted to kill shia. Out of that comes a lot of radicalization. What is your gut sense on whether or not the perception of trump makes americans safer . My clear perception is that it is not making America Safer, as phil and everyone else in the business knows, it is vitally important to maintain the trust of muslim communities, especially at home but also abro abroad. Those are communities at home that provide us with Something Like 40 of our information on Radicalization Subjects and if those people are alienated, are intimidated or isolated, they
are going to clam up. And the muslim travel ban, the talk about a national registry, things like that, all of those are having a Chilling Effect and could be dangerous over the long time. So i dont think thats going to help us. Your reaction to the push back from the president s surrogates when they say, hey, if the travel ban for a muslim ban, they would have included indonesia on there. So you really dont have any case to make that this is about muslims. I am confused from two aspects of this, chris. One is if you say on the campaign trail, im going to institute a muslim ban and days in office the ban that you institute now called by the president of the United States as a ban targets countries that are solely muslim majority, you have to say, well, i assume the president is doing what he said. The second piece of a confusion is what the trump folks are saying. If they want to make America Safer and you look at the case in the u. K. Of someone out of
mor rocco in this case and a resident in italy, you look at origins of this extremism. None of these are on the list. I look at this and say how is this supposed to help . I cant figure out the answer to that question. It mirrored what obama has done when he targeted travel on not identity. Gentlem gentlemen, thank you very much for making important things. Hillary clinton may have lost the 2016 election, but powerful women are still breaking barriers in washington, d. C. And dana bash speaks with longtime senator and badass woman of washington, Dianne Feinstein. With mailing a classified report to a news outlet. President trump defending his use of twitter this morning. His tweet undercutting white house aids trying to defend him and his agenda. Police have identified the third terrorist. One of the attackers was known to british intelligence, but was not under active surveillance somethe gunman in mondays deadly Workplace Shooting targeted his victims. Police say a 45yearold army vet killed five former colleagues before takes his own life. He was recently fired by his employer. Wonder woman number one at the box office, Making History or technically herstory. That is the biggest opening for a female directed film. The director will be on new day tomorrow morning. Very exciting. She is a badass woman. She is. Which leads to our next segment. Im going to say that word as often as i can. Speaking of wonder woman, go ahead, tell us about this next segment. The segue that was working here, senator Dianne Feinstein is opening up about her distinguished career and how unimaginable tragedy put her on a trail blazing path. Take a look. I became mayor as a product of assassination of the mayor being killed and the first openly guy public official being killed by a friend and colleague of mine. Very tumultuous time. For when dana bash joins her in a new series called badass women of washington. There you go. You said it. 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. If you love something set it free. See you around, giulia
decided, lets just call it that. It stuck. And we spoke with seven women across the political and generational spec rtrum for the series. Dianne feinstein has a story that will make you say, wow, she is a badass. Probably fair to say most women graduating from stamford in the 1950s were focussed on finding a husband and having a familiar hi. You wanted to go into politics. Did people think you were crazy . Yeah. The first time out, something must be wrong with her. She must have a bad marriage. Why is she doing this . People said that to you . Oh, yeah. Being a woman in our society even today is difficult. You know it in the press area. I know it in the political area. 47 years ago, feinstein won a local election that eventually led her here. The chair of the president of the Board Of Supervisors in san francis francisco. There are a lot of people that didnt think it was right for her to take this seat because
she was a woman. She ran for mayor twice in the 1970s but lost both times. And then tragedy put her in the job. I became mayor as a product of assassination of the mayor being killed and the first openly Guy Pub Hilic Official Bg killed by a friend and colleague of mine. One of the first openly guy elected officials in america was shot and killed. I have seen reports that said that you think maybe i could have stopped it. I was a friend of dans. And i tried to some extent to mentor him and, oh, i never really talk about this. Dan had resigned and then wanted the seat back and, so, he had an appointment with the mayor, and he walked into the office and he shot him a number of times. The door to the Office Opened and he came in. I heard the door slam. I heard the shots. I smell eed it. He wisinged by. I walked down the line of supervisors office. It was the first person i had ever seen shot to death. Both the mayor and supervisor had been shot and killed. The suspect is supervisor dan white. That was the most painful look at division. I tried to bring people together. Feinstein became acting mayor and then was elected in her own right. When you were mayor and there
was a fire. I had a radio in my room, my bedroom. When a building would burn and everybody was out on the sidewalk, i went and introduced them to the red cross. Politics was not gender neutral like a time that a Developer Bet her if she b finished a project on time, she would have to wear a bathing suit. She kept that and hundreds of other mow men toes in a special room inside her San Francisco home. There are a lot of stories here. In 1984 he was in the running to be walter mondales running meat. They thought i was going to get it. This was going to be the cover. Didnt happen that way. Why didnt you ever run for president . I dont know. I felt i would never be elected. See, look how hard it is. Look at hillary. Look at what shes gone through. Yeah. You have done hard before. Yeah, ive done hard before, but it is not a bad thing being in the senate. And shes done a lot that shes proud of. High on the list is gun control. Let me tell you, ive seen assassination. Ive seen killing. I know what these guns can do. And she wracked up a lot more firsts as a woman. First female member of the Senate Judiciary committee and first female chair of the Intelligence Committee and ill never forget that moment in 2014 when she denied President Obama, the leader of her own party by going to the senate floor and releasing a torture report obama did not want public. It was an investigation she oversaw and she wanted the public to see it. History will judge us by our commitment to a just society governed by law and the willingness to face an ugly
truth and say never again. There was some flak. Well, yeah. One of your colleagues from california, republican congressman, said you were as much a traitor to this country as edward snowden. Well, he had a bad day. It is not always easy. It is hard. People watching this looking at you will be shocked to know that you are the oldest serving u. S. Senator. Dont rub it in. Im not. Its the opposite. Its what im meant to do. And as long as the old bean holds up. Im from the generation where we dropped under our desks. Were people out there saying i want to be Dianne Feinstein. I want to do what she did. Run, but prepare yourself. And so many times talented young women go for the top first. You cant do that. Start young, earn your spurs. You dont drop out. You take defeat after defeat after defeat. But you keep going. And i really believe that. Yeah, okay. She qualifies as a badass woman. I didnt know a lot of that stuff and she admitted she doesnt often talk about some of these, obviously the more painful details. Absolutely. You can see where she had to take a breath and pace herself. I have covered her for a long time. Shes talked about it a little bit after the new town masker when she was trying to revive the gun ban. She is going to be 84 later this month. Oh, my gosh. And you really would never know it. And she is somebody who is a mentor to a lot of women. There are now 21 women in the senator. Shes a mentor to women in the senator across party lines. Speaking about across party
lines, you spoke to lots of women about this. You spoke to democrats, republicans, you spoke to military women. Yes, exactly. Another one were highlighting today elaine chow, transportation secretary who talks about the fact she came here on a cargo ship from taiwan at age 8. Her story, really honest conversation about a lot of things, including never having children. I cant wait to watch that and the entire badass series. Great to have you here. You can watch the full series. How many times can i say the word . One more. Jersey girl. Totally. Cnn news room with badass pop lpy harlow and john berman picks up after this break