Transcripts For CNNW Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer 20170724

Warfare as mr. Trump slams members of his own party for failing to have his back. We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. Im wolf blitzer. Youre in the situation room. Announcer this is cnn breaking news. Breaking this hour, President Trump is about to speak live in West Virginia, looking at live pictures on a day when the russia investigation may have hit closer to home than ever. His soninlaw and Senior Advisor Jared Kushner becoming the first member of mr. Trumps inner circle to be questioned in the senates russia investigation. Kushner declaring he did not collude with any Foreign Government or know of anyone else in the trumped campaign who did. He spoke publicly after his twohour session with the Senate Intelligence committee staffers, and he released the lengthy written statement offering new details about his russia meetings and insisting he did nothing improper. Also breaking, the president warns Senate Republicans there is still time to, quote, do the right thing and support the partys promise to repeal and replace obamacare. Mr. Trump delivering prepared remarks on the eve of a senate vote on whether to move forward with some form of health care legislation. And as tensions escalate between the president and the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, mr. Trumps new Communications Director tells cnn that the two men need to speak to determine the future of their relationship. The president is publicly slamming sessions once again, calling him beleaguered in a new tweet and asking why he isnt investigating Hillary Clinton. This hour ill talk about those stories and more with congressman Gregory Meeks. Hes a democrat on the Foreign Affairs committee. Then our correspondents and specialists are also standing by. First, lets go to our senior congressional reporter manu raju, hes up on capitol hill. Manu, tonight the president says he is very proud of his soninlaw. So, what did we learn from Jared Kushner today . Reporter well, wolf, tonight Jared Kushner revealing four interactions that he had with russians during the Campaign Season and during the transition. He said he did nothing wrong, but tonight Senate Members of the Senate Intelligence committee are telling me that they have more questions and some are threatening to call back Jared Kushner for a second round of questioning. All of my actions were proper. Let me be very clear. I did not collude with russia nor do i know of anyone else in the campaign who did so. Reporter Jared Kushner, the president s soninlaw and Senior Advisor, tried today to put to rest mounting questions about his interactions with russian officials that are now a key part of investigations into russia meddling in the elections. Kushner spent more than two hours behind closed doors with staff of the Senate Intelligence committee and released an 111page statement providing new insight into four meetings with russians last year. The record and documents i have voluntarily provided will show that all of my actions were proper and occurred in the normal course of events of a very unique campaign. Reporter kushner revealed his role in a june 2016 meeting at trump tower with russians at the invitation of his brotherinlaw donald trump, jr. , a meeting now under investigation since trump junior was promised dirt on the clinton campaign. After being told the russian government wanted his father to win the presidency. While kushner said, quote, i did not read trump juniors email exchange ahead of the meeting, he did acknowledge trump junior contacted him twice about it and he dismissed the brief meeting as irrelevant, with no discussion of Campaign Issues. Saying he emailed his assistant ten minutes after walking into the room saying, quote, can you please call me on my cell . Need excuse to get out of meeting. Kushner also confirmed sitting down during the transition with Russian Ambassador sergey kislyak, along with trumps former National Security advisor michael flynn, who is also under skrult any scrutiny in the rush probe. They discussed whether the clear line could be set up to transmit Sensitive Information between moscow and washington to discuss the war in syria. But he said the idea was tabled until after the inauguration. Kushner said in his statement he did not discuss easing russia sanctions in meetings with kislyak and with the head of a russian bank last december. But some members of the Senate Intelligence committee who did not participate in todays session also want a chance to question him. You want to personally question him . Yes, i want to be there. I have questions. We all have questions to ask. Reporter yet some senators are holding their fire. I want to read the transcripts first when they become available and go from there. I think thats what youll see most members say. Reporter at the white house the president continued to focus on the russia investigation, this time taking aim at his own attorney general, Jeff Sessions, calling him beleaguered and questioning why he isnt looking into crooked hillarys crimes and russia relations. This after the Washington Post citing classified intelligence reported that kislyak told his superiors he spoke with sessions about Campaign Issues last year. Something the attorney general continues to deny. The president told the New York Times last week he would have picked a different attorney general if he had known sessions would recuse himself from the russia investigation. Today, trump offered this reaction when asked if sessions should resign. Mr. President , should Jeff Sessions resign . [ laughter ] reporter now, wolf, another Senate Judiciary committee signalled an interest no talking to paul manafort, trumps former Campaign Chairman as well as trumps oldest son donald trump, jr. They cut a deal to have a private interview before any Public Session as well to get records ahead of this private interview. Now, i just spoke with chairman Chuck Grassley of the committee and the top democrat Diane Feinstein who cut that deal with manafort and donald trump, jr. And both are signaling there well could be a Public Session. Feinstein saying there will absolutely be a public hearing with those two men. She expects that after the recess. Grassley would not rule that out, but they do expect documents back from those two individuals within the next two weeks, wolf he yeah, so the early est that public hearing could take place is in september after labor day. Thanks very much manu raju for that report. We are learning more about President Trumps very tense relationship with his attorney general. Lets bring in our senior White House Correspondent jeff zeleny. Jeff, the president clearly still fuming at Jeff Sessions. Reporter wolf, he is still fuming at his attorney general. Important to point out this is one of the longest and most loyal supporters, but this is how much these relations have broken down, would have. Jeff sessions, the attorney general, was at the white house today. He was in the west wing of the white house today for other meetings. He did not meet with the president. They have not yet spoken since that the New York Times explosive interview last week. And i am told actually a long time before that interview, they simply have not been speaking to each other. He was in the west wing for other senior staff metings, meeting with the white House Counsel don mcgahn. You get the sense that the president does not want his attorney general to stick around. But the Communications Director, Anthony Scaramucci, new Communications Director, he told our sara murray today, this afternoon, this, wolf, a very interesting comment from him. He said they need to sit down face to face and have a reconciliation and a discussion of his future. That the president would be the one who would initiate that meeting and as of now, wolf, he has not invited his attorney general in to talk about all this. Now, the reason they are feuding, the reason the president is disappointed in him is because the attorney general recused himself back four months ago from this entire russian investigation. The president was unhappy was upset about that and has continued to just fume over that, we are told, over these past four months. Of course, that recusal ultimately led to the firing of the fbi director which ultimately led to the special prosecutor, wolf. So, one thing led to another here, but it is that decision to recuse himself that is still separating these two men who were very close not that long ago. Its also very interesting, jeff, youre familiar with this. Rudy giuliani a longtime supporter of donald trump during the campaign, his name surfaced, one report saying he might be the next attorney general. But giuliani defended sessions saying he did the right thing in recusing himself, right . Reporter he did, would have. That was so interesting. Rudy giuliani was flying here to washington and cnn caught up with him at the airport actually and asked him about this. And he said, look, he thinks the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, did the right thing by recusing himself. There have been reports and rumors about who would replace Jeff Sessions. That, of course, is the question here. In this climate, could you get another attorney general confirmed here. Rudy giulianis name is often bandied about for this. But the reality is, wolf, interestingly today, he said he thinks Jeff Sessions did the right thing. Interesting, if Jeff Sessions were to resign, rod rosen stein the Deputy Attorney general would be acting attorney general until the new candidate could be confirmed. Jeff zeleny, thanks very much. Lets get to the other breaking news we are following on health care and the president s 11th hour bid to get his Republican Party in line. With a crucial procedural vote just hours away, mr. Trump is urging Senate Republicans to, quote, do the right thing. Lets go to you aour congressio correspondent phil mattingly. What are you hearing . Reporter there will be a vote tomorrow, Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell making that very clear. What we dont know is the final product senators will be entering to debate on tomorrow and perhaps more importantly whether they have the votes at all and that is exactly why you saw the president today give his best effort to turn the screws on wary senators. There is still time to do the right thing. Reporter tonight President Trump amping up the pressure on republican senators in a lastditch effort to save the Obamacare Repeal efforts. So far senators have not done their job in ending the obamacare nightmare. They now have a chance, however, to hopefully, hopefully fix what has been so badly broken for such a long time. Reporter telling voters to hold every senator accountable just 24 hours before possible vote to start debate on the bill. But after months of congressional complaints that not enough was being done. Any senator who votes against starting debate is telling america that you are fine with the obamacare nightmare, which is what it is. Reporter this after tweeting if the senate failed to move forward, quote, the repercussions will be far greater than any of them understand. The president traveling to West Virginia where he will be joined by senator shelley, a key hold out on the bill. Over the weekend, vicepresident mike pence visited ohio, another key hold out, senator rob portman. Senate gop leaders are pushing toward a tuesday vote, even no compromise measure in place. There is general confusion among members about what the next steps would be and no clarity about whether they have the votes at all. I know many of us have waited literally years for this moment to finally arrive. And at long last it has. I would urge every colleague to join me. Reporter Republican Leaders are launching a pressure play of their own to wrangle l hold outs. People have campaigned, republicans over the years, to repeal and replace obamacare. This is our chance and i think its hard to believe somebody who has run and won election could go home and face the voters again and say, im not willing to debate it on the floor. Reporter as one gop aide told cnn, forcing the vote serves to smoke members out on their positions and dare to sink an issue they campaigned on for seven years and making clear that even a failed vote this week may not kill the process overall. What will happen if and when that were to occur is well go back to the drawing board and well get a bill up. We are going to vote to repeal and replace obamacare. The question is not a question of if, its a question of when. Reporter and, wolf, at this very moment, vicepresident mike pence is on capitol hill meeting with Mitch Mcconnell strategizing on the way forward tomorrow. Heres how it will work. Senate republicans will meet behind closed doors for their regular tuesday lunch. They will Start Talking about what the amendment process would be Going Forward if they are able to get the votes to proceed on the bill. But again, the big question now is without some final agreed upon product in place for the end of that amendment process, are senators willing to take that jump into what senator bob corker just called a wild west type of scenario, one former gop leadership aide, wolf, characterized it like this. Its like asking a member to jump out of a plane with a 50 50 chance their parachute is actually packed except this would be more like a 10 90 type of scenario. Thats what members are dealing with now and thats why leadership is really ramping up that pressure along with the president ahead of tomorrows vote. Wolf . Well see how they do during the vote tomorrow. Phil mattingly on the hill, thank you very much. Lets get some more on all of this with congressman Gregory Meeks, a democrat on the foreign a 235i affairs. Congressman, thank you for being with me. Thank you, would have. Do you believe he would have disclosed publicly the four meetings he had with various russians if had not been for the news media reports . He confirmed, yes, on april 27th he met with the Russian Ambassador kislyak. On june 9th at that trump tower meeting in, no, he met with the russian lawyer, natalia veselnitskaya. Once again, on december 1st met with kislyak, the Russian Ambassador. Then on december 13th he met with the russian banker sergey gor could have who has close ties to vladimir putin. He confirmed all of this even though some of the Trump Associates were calling all those reports earlier fake news. Well, thats exactly the problem, wolf. I dont believe there could be other meetings. I guess hes going to try to reveal now because he knows the facts will come out. The fake news is no longer what he can hold himself on. And thats the problem with the Trump Administration and those that are in it, whether its kushner, whether its donald trump, jr. , whether its the attorney general, whether its the former campaign manager. They all had previously claimed they had nothing to do with russia, and they never met with anyone or never had any dialogue or conversations. And as investigations continue, then it is revealed that, in fact, they did. So, what and why did they not speak up then to tell the truth then, and now because they are compelled to theyve got to talk about the meeting. And, so, we have to figure out, i would love to have them under oath so that we can really understand what the substance of the dialogue and conversation was. Its one thing, under oath, of course, important, but if you lie to congressional investigators or to the fbi for that matter, thats a crime as well, even though he wasnt sworn in. He wasnt under oath. If he was lying during the two plus hours he was answering questions from the Senate Intelligence committee investigators, thats a crime. I agree with you. And i want to know if there is anything else that was left out. And thats why i think there should be more intense questioning. In the fact of the matter is staffers said they do have additional questions as well as i think that he should go before the committees, the Intelligence Committee on both the senate and the house and answer questions under oath for a much longer period of time than just the two hours. I recall, you know, the under oath testimony of Hillary Clinton where she stood there for over 12 hours and took and gave on a consistent basis. I think there are questions here, and i think the republican senator should demand that they have the opportunity to question. Curious to get your reaction to this feud thats going on, the attack by the president on his attorney general Jeff Sessions, the latest development. He tweeted this. So, why arent the committees and investigators and, of course, our beleaguered a. G. Attorney general, looking into crooked hillarys crimes and russia relations . What is the message the president is sending the attorney general of the United States . Well, i think the message is hes telling the attorney general to step down, that he has no confidence in him and he wants to go. And i think, guess what, the attorney general should step down just because of his own integrity. You know, it seems clear to me that this president does not care about the United States of america. What this president cares about is donald trump and what he would like to have is a regime in the similar fashion that mr. Putin has and mr. Erdogan has where he is an authoritarian and everyone just pledges their allegiance to him, not to the constitution, not to what the righting there to do for this country. It always comes back to him and loyalty to him, and not about loyalty to those are strong words in that comparison youre drawing between the president of the United States and the leader of russia and the leader of turkey. Well, listen, you can listen to his own words even the campaign rafr. He praised putin. He said he was a stronger president because of his tactics and stance. If you listen to his words each time and the individuals that were fired, any time he says anything remotely against him, its always about him. Even in the testimony today by kushner, he started talking about the president. It was clear that he knew the president was listening. So, he was saying things to appease the president. When you look at the testimony of all of the staffers sitting at the table in the white house not too long ago where they all went around praising the president , that seemed to me just like something that would happen with those individuals who are serving mr. Putin. Another tweet. A colleague of yours adam schiff, ranking democrat of the house Intelligence Committee, a man i assume you know well. The tweeted this about adam schiff. Sleazy adam schiff, the totally biased congressman looking into, quote, russia, close quote, spends all of his time on television pushing the dem loss excuse. What was your reaction to that tweet from the president of the United States, slamming add amd schiff . Im astonished because again, what the president is doing, to me, is demeaning the office of the presidency. This is not something that a president , any president , should be doing. He is demeaning the office, as well as i said, trying to be one of absolute authority. And, so, it concerns me that we have a president who is not putting the country first. He only looks at himself. That is a disturbing position for us to be in in the United States of america. And our allies are looking at that and they are questioning whats going on here. And he puts russia in quotes because he still isnt convinced that russia was indeed meddling in the u. S. President ial election despite all of the Intelligence Community top chiefs over the past few days, including people he named, saying theres no doubt about that. Stand by. We have a lot more to discuss, including a vote coming up in the house on sanctions and other issues. Well take a quick break. Well be right back. When youve got. Nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea heres pepto bismol ah. Nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea. Im leaving you, wesley. But why . You havent noticed me in two years. I was in a coma. Well, i still deserve appreciation. Who was there for you when you had amnesia . You know i cant remember that. Stop this madness. If its appreciation you want you should both get snapshot from progressive. It rewards good drivers with big discounts on car insurance. 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Ask your doctor about nonprescription ibgard. Were back with democratic congressman Gregory Meeks of new york. We are awaiting remarks by President Trump after his soninlaw and Senior Advisor Jared Kushner was questioned today about his russia contacts by senate investigators. Looking at live pictures coming in from West Virginia right there. Well have live coverage of the president s remarks. Stand by for that. But i want to bring back congressman meeks. I want to get your reaction to this extraordinary exchange that the new white house Communications Director, Anthony Scaramucci had with our jake tapper yesterday on state of the union. Watch this. Theres a lot of disinformation out there, you know. Somebody said to me yesterday, i wont tell you who, that if the russians actually hacked the situation and spilled out those emails, you will would have never seen it. You would have never had any evidence of that. Meaning their super confident in their deception skills and hacking. My point is all of the information isnt on the table yet. Wait a minute, anthony, anthony, youre making a lot of assertions here. I dont know who this anonymous person said if the russians had actually done it we wouldnt have been able to detect it. It is the how about it was the president , jake. I talked to him yesterday. He called me from air force one and he basically said to me, hey, you know, maybe they did it, maybe they didnt do it. Whats your reaction . Incredulous. Im almost, you know look. Every major Intelligence Agency that was involved in investigating this came back and said, without question, there was no doubt in their mind that russia got involved in our political system. Just about every democrat and republican other than the president now understands and admits that russia was involved. And for the president of the United States, and now his new Communications Director, to try to say that russia may not have been involved in this matter is incredulous. And again, it just shows that the president is not focused on the best issues or the best concern for the United States of america. He should be concerned about russia getting involved in elections in 2018 and in 2020 and another reason why an independent commission needs to be brought up and put into service so that we can find out what they did and how to prevent it from happening in 2018 and 2020. I was at the Aspen Security Forum out in colorado the last few days. The president s National Director of intelligence dan coates said theres no question the russians were involved. The cia director mike pompeo nominated by the president said theres no doubt. The director of the National Security agency admiral mike rogers, all said publicly no doubt the russians did it. But now the president is still saying hes not convinced. Its pretty startling when you think about that. It is unbelievable. And i think that thats why my republican colleagues need to step up to the plate also and join hands with us with an independent commission because the integrity of our democratic process is at stake. And clearly the president of the United States has no interest in the integrity of our democratic process, and thats why he continues saying what hes saying. Is there going to be a vote on these russian sanctions, north korea also added to the list, iran on the sanctions list, is there going to be a vote over this . It passed overwhelmingly 982 in the senate. The white house doesnt like it because it limits the president s ability to ease sanctions on russia. I think there should be a vote this week before we leave. And i think, again, it will be an overwhelming vote in the house. I think that if you talk to members of democrats as well as republicans, you know, given the president s position on russia not me not looking into their involvement, we dont trust him. So, therefore, congress has to step in to make sure that those sanctions are not removed. When you look at russia still being involved in ukraine and the actions theyve done there, the democratic process, we cannot allow someone youll vote for this legislation . I will vote for it. Congressman Gregory Meeks, thanks for coming in. Good to be with you, wolf. Just ahead, Jared Kushner now confirming some key meetings with russian officials did happen even as he denies he did anything wrong. Let me be very clear. I did not collude with russia nor do i know of anyone else in the campaign who did so. Buried just under the surface, the answer to it all. We want to need each other. All right. Lets go to glenn jean, West Virginia. The president has just started speaking before 30,000 boy scouts. Lets listen in. Tremendous group, boy, you have a lot of people here. The press will say its about 200 people. [ laughter ] it looks like about 45,000 people. You set a record today. [cheering and applauding] you set a record. Thats a great honor, believe me. Tonight we put aside all of the policy fights in washington, d. C. Youve been hearing about with the fake news and all of that. Were going to put that [cheering and applauding] were going to put that aside. And instead were going to talk about success, about how all of you amazing young scouts can achieve your dreams, what to think of what ive been thinking about. You want to achieve your dreams. I said, who the hell wants to speak about politics when im in front of the boy scouts, right . [cheering and applauding] there are many great honors that come with the job of being president of the United States. But looking out at this incredible gathering of mostly young patriots, mostly young, im especially proud to speak to you as the honorary president of the boy scouts of america. [cheering and applauding] [ chanting usa ] you are the young people of character and integrity who will serve as leaders of our communities and uphold the sacred values of our nation. I want to thank boy scouts president randall stephenson, chief scout executive michael serbal. Chairman ralph de la vega, and the thousands of volunteers who have made this a lifechanging experience for all of you. And when they asked me to be here, i said absolutely yes. [cheering and applauding] finally, and we cant forget these people. I especially want to salute the moms and the dads and troop leaders who are here tonight. Thank you for making scouting possible. Thank you, mom and dad, troop leaders. [cheering and applauding] when you volunteer for the boy scouts, you are not only shaping young lives, you are shaping the future of america. [cheering and applauding] the United States has no better citizens than its boy scouts. [cheering and applauding] no better. The values, traditions and skills you learn here will serve you throughout your lives. And just as importantly, they will serve your families, your cities, and in the future and in the president will serve your country. [cheering and applauding] the scouts believe in putting america first. [cheering and applauding] you know, i go to washington and i see all these politicians, and i see the swamp and its not a good place. In fact, today i said, we ought to change it from the word swamp to the word ses pool or perhaps to the word sewer, but its not good. Not good. [cheering and applauding] and i see whats going on. And believe me, id much rather be with you. That i can tell you. [cheering and applauding] ill tell you, the reason that i love this and the reason that i really wanted to be here is because as president , i rely on former boy scouts every single day, and so do the american people. Its amazing how many boy scouts we have at the highest level of our great government. Many of my top advisors in the white house were scouts. Ten members of my cabinet were scouts. Can you believe that . Ten. [cheering and applauding] secretary of state Rex Tillerson is not only a boy scout, hes your former national president. [cheering and applauding] the vicepresident of the United States, mike pence good guy was a scout and it meant so much to him. [ applause ] some of you here tonight might even have camped out in this yard when mike was the governor of indiana, but the scouting was very, very important. And, by the way, where are our indiana scouts tonight . [cheering and applauding] i wonder if the Television Cameras will follow you. They dont like doing that when they see these massive crowds. They dont like doing it. Hi, folks. [cheering and applauding] a lot of love in this big, beautiful place. Lot of love. And a lot of love for our country. Theres a lot of love for our country. Secretary of the interior ryan zinke is here tonight. Come here, ryan. [cheering and applauding] ryan is an eagle scout from big sky country in montana. [cheering and applauding] pretty good. And, by the way, he is doing a fantastic job. He makes sure that we leave our National Parks and federal lands better than we found them, in the best scouting tradition. So, thank you very much, ryan. [cheering and applauding] secretary of Energy Rick Perry of texas, an eagle scout from the great state. [cheering and applauding] the first time he came to the National Jamboree was 1964. He was very young then. [ laughter ] and rick told me just a little while ago it totally changed his life. So, rick, thank you very much for being here and were doing, were doing a lot with energy. [cheering and applauding] and very soon, rick, we will be an energy exporter. Isnt that nice . An energy exporter. [cheering and applauding] in other words, well be selling our energy instead of buying it from everybody all over the globe, so, thats good. [cheering and applauding] we will be energy dominant, and ill tell you what. The folks at West Virginia who were so nice to me, boy, have we kept our promise. We are going on and on. So, we love West Virginia. We want to thank you. Wheres West Virginia, by the way . [cheering and applauding] thank you. Secretary tom price is also here today. Dr. Price still lives, the scout, helping to keep millions of americans strong and healthy as our secretary of health and human services. And hes doing a great job, and hopefully hes going to get the votes tomorrow to start our path toward killing this horrible thing known as obamacare thats really hurting us. [cheering and applauding] [ chanting usa ] by the way, youre going to get the votes . He better get em. He better get em. Oh, he better. Otherwise ill say, tom, youre fired. Ill get somebody. [ laughter ] he better get senator capino to vote for it. He has to get the other senators to vote for it. Its time. After seven years of saying repeal and replace obamacare, we have a chance to now do it. They better do it. Hopefully theyll do it. As we can see just by looking at our government, in america scouts lead the way. And another thing ive noticed, and ive noticed it all my life, there is a tremendous spirit with being a scout, more so than almost anything i can think of. So, whatever is going on, keep doing it. Its incredible to watch. Believe me. [cheering and applauding] each of these leaders will tell you that their road to american and you have to understand. They are american success and they are a great, great story, was paved with the patriotic American Values and traditions they learned in the boy scouts. And some day many years from now, when you look back on all of the adventures in your lives, you will be able to say the same. I got my start as a scout, just like these incredibly great people that are doing such a good job for our country. So, thats going to happen. [cheering and applauding] boy scout values are American Values, and great boy scouts become great, great americans. [ applause ] as the scout law says, a scout is trustworthy, loyal we could use some more loyalty, i will tell you that. [ chanting ] that was good. Very good. That was very impressive. Youve heard that before. But here you learn the rewards of hard work and perseverance. Never, ever give up, never quit. Persevere. Never, ever quit. You learn the satisfaction of building a roaring campfire, reaching a mountain summit or earning a merit badge after mastering a certain skill. Theres no better feeling than an achievement that youve earned with your own sweat, tears, resolve, hard work. Theres nothing like it. Do you agree with that . [cheering and applauding] im waving to people back there so small, i cant even see them. Man, this is a lot of people. Turn those cameras back there, please. That is so incredible. By the way, what do you think the chances are that this incredible massive crowd, record setting, is going to be shown on television tonight . 1 or zero . The fake media will say, President Trump you know what this is. President trump spoke before a small crowd of boy scouts today. Thats some that is some crowd. Fake media, fake news. Thank you. And im honored by that, by the way. All of these people that cant even see you, thank you. I hope you can hear. Through scouting, you also learn to believe in yourself, so important, to have confidence in your ability, and to take responsibility for your own life. When you face new challenges, and you will have plenty of them, develop talents you never thought possible, and lead your teammates through daring trials, you discover you can handle anything. And you learn it by being a scout. Its great. [cheering and applauding] you can do anything. You can be anything you want to be. But in order to succeed, you must find out what you love to do. You have to find your passion. No matter what they tell you, if you dont i love you, too. I dont know, nice guy. [ applause ] hey, what am i going to do . He sounds like a nice person. He, he, he, he. Thank you. I do, i do love you. [ chanting we love trump ] by the way, just a question. Did president obama ever come to a jamboree . [ booing ] and well be back. Well be back. The answer is no, but well be back. [ applause ] in life, in order to be successful and you people are well on the road to success you have to find out what makes you excited, what makes you want to get up each morning and go to work. You have to find it. If you love what you do and dedicate yourself to your work, then you will gain momentum. And, look, you have to. You need the word momentum. You will gain that momentum. And each success will create another success. The word momentum. Ill tell y ill tell you a story thats very interesting for me. When i was young, there was a man named william le vito wn. Anybody ever hear of le vito wn . He was a successful man. He was a home builder. He became an unbelievable success. And got more and more successful and he built homes. And at night hed go to these major sites with teams of people and hed scour the sites for nails and sawdust and small pieces of wood and so when the workers came in, the sites would be spotless and clean and he did it properly and he did this for 20 years and then he was offered a lot of money for his company and he sold his company for a tremendous amount of money at the time especially. This is a long time ago. Sold his company for a tremendous amount of money. He went out and bought a big yacht and he had a very interesting life. I wont go any more be that that because youre boy scouts. Im not going to tell you what he did. Should i tell you . Should i tell you . Youre boy scouts but you know life. You know life. Look at you. Who would think that this is the boy scouts, right . So he had a very, very interesting life. And the company that bought his company was a big conglomerate and they didnt know anything about building homes or picking up the nails and the sawdust and scrap of wood. This is a big conglomerate based in new york city and after about a tenyear period, they were losing a lot with it. It didnt mean anything to them and they couldnt sell it so they called william and said, would you like to buy back your company . And he said yes, i would. He so badly wanted it. He got bored with this life of yachts and sailing and all of the things he did in the south of france and other places. You wont get bored, right . You know, truthfully, youre workers. Youll get bored, too. Believe me. Of course, having a few good years like that isnt so bad. But what happened is he bought back his company and bought empty land and worked hard on starting to develop and in the end he failed and he failed badly. Lost all of his money. He went personally bankrupt. And he was now much older and i saw him at a cocktail party. And it was very sad because the hottest people in new york were at this party. It was the party of steve ross was one of the people that he discovered, founded time warner. He had a lot of successful people at the party. I was doing well so i got invited to the party. I was very young. I go in but im in the real estate business and i see 100 people, some of whom i recognize and they are big in the entertainment business and i see sitting in the corner was a little old man who was all by himself, nobody was talking to him. I immediately recognized that that man was the once great William Levitt of levitt town. I went over and talked to him more than i wanted to talk to the hollywood and showbiz and Dm Communications people. I said, mr. Levitt, im donald trump. He said, i know. I said, how are you doing . He said, not well. Not well at all. And i knew that but he said, not well at all. He explained what was happening and how bad its been and how hard its been. And i said what exactly happened . Why did this happen to you and he said, donald, i lost my momentum. I lost my momentum. A word you never hear when youre talking about success when some of these guys are on television giving you things about how youre going to be successful and the only thing they ever did was a book and a tape. But i tell you, ill tell you, it was very sad and i never forgot that moment and i thought about it. And its exactly true. He lost his momentum. Meaning, he took this period of time off, long, years. And then when he got back, he didnt have that same momentum. In life, i always tell people, you have to know whether you continue to have the momentum. And if you dont have it, thats okay. Because youre going to go on and learn things and do great. But the big thing, never quit, never give up, do something you love. When you do something you love as a scout, i see that you love it. But when you do something that you love, youll never fail. What youre going to do is give it a shot again and again and again. Youre ultimately going to be successful. And remember this, youre not working. Because when youre doing something that you love, like i do, of course, i love my business but this is a little bit different. Who thought this was going to happen . Were having a good time. Were doing a good job. But when you do something that you love, its not work. So you work 24 7, you work all of the time and at the end of the year, youre not really working. You dont think of it as work. When youre forced to do something that you really dont like, thats called work and its hard work and as much as you can, do something that you love, work hard and never, ever give up and youre going to be tremendously successful. Tremendously successful. Now, with that, i have to tell you, our economys doing great. Our stock market has picked up since the election. November 8. Will we remember that date . What a date. Do you remember that famous night on television, november 8, where they said these dishonest people, where they said there is no path to victory for donald trump. They forgot about the forgotten people. By the way, theyre not for getting about the forgotten people anymore. Theyre going crazy trying to figure it out but i told them far too late. Its far too late. But do you remember that incredible night with the maps and the republicans are red and the democrats are blue and that map was so red it was unbelievable and they didnt know what to say. And you know, we have a tremendous disadvantage in the electoral college. Popular vote is much easier. We have because new york, california, illinois, you have to practically run the east coast and we did. We won florida, we won south carolina, north korea, pennsylvania. We won and won. So when they said there is no way to victory, there is no way to 270 you know, i went to maine four times because its one vote and we won, but we won. One vote. I went there because i kept hearing were 269 and wisconsin came in many, many years. Michigan came in so and we worked hard there. You know, my opponent didnt work hard there because she was told she was told she was going to win michigan and then i said, wait a minute, the car industry is going to move to mexico. Why are they allowing it to go there . You see how they are coming back to michigan and ohio and they are starting to come back in. And we go to wisconsin and now wisconsin hadnt been won in many, many years by a republican. But we go to wisconsin and we had tremendous crowds and id leave these massive crowds and say, why are we going to lose this state . The polls. Thats also fake news. They are fake polls. But the polls are saying, but we won wisconsin. So i have to tell you, what we did, in all fairness, is an unbelievable tribute to you and all of the other millions and millions of people that came out and voted for make America Great again. All right. Were going to continue monitoring donald trump speaking before 35,000 boy scouts at the boy scouts jamboree in West Virginia, delivering surprisingly a rather political speech going through a lot of the issues, the policy issues that he has been promoting lately. Were going to continue to monitor it. Unfortunately, thats all of the time that we have here in the situation room. Im wolf blitzer in the situation room. Erin Burnett Outfront starts right now. Outfront next, attorney general Jeff Sessions heads to the white house for a meeting but not with the president. Is the president trying to force sessions to resign . Plus, an allegation of fullthroated denial and then an admission. Is this the alltoo familiar cycle of the trump team . Plus, john mccain battling brain cancer. His Senate Colleagues say hes trying to get back to vote on the health care legislation. Sanjay gupta with more on how risky that trip might be. Lets go outfront. Good evening. Im jake tapper in for erin burnett. Pushing Jeff Sessions to the brick. Is the president trying to force his attorney general to quit . Sessions, who has not spoken with the