Transcripts For CNNW The Lead With Jake Tapper 20170221

Already on shaky ground. Did Vladimir Putin sabotage it before it even started . Announcer this is cnn breaking news. Welcome to the lead, everyone. Im jake tapper. Were going to begin with breaking news, update to a story weve been covering on cnn. Shots fired inside a hospital in houston texas. Police say all patients and employees there are safe and that there are no reports of injuries at this time. S. W. A. T. Teams are on the scene at ben taub hospital. Were seeing patients being lined up outside, some being wheeled out on stretchers. Well be keeping a close eye on this story and we will bring you, of course, any updates. Now lets turn to the politics lead. The Trump Administration poised to implement sweeping changes to the way the United States handles undocumented immigrants. New guidelines released by the department of Homeland Security today suggests the administration wants to greatly increase the number of undocumented immigrants who are detained and deported while also expanding the powers of local Law Enforcement to crack down on illegal immigration. The white house says its merely upholding the laws on the books and it emphasizes its focus for now is on those who have committed other crimes here in the u. S. Although cnn is learning there is broad leeway about what crimes would be considered significant enough to trigger deportation. The white house says the president plans to keep in place for now the Dreamer Program for undocumented immigrants who were brought into the country as children. The directives about enhanced enforcement tactics come as President Trump pledges to stick together a divided country on a visit to the Smithsonian Museum of africanamerican history and culture he die nouns the a spring of bomb threats to the Jewish Community Centers Across the u. S. Cnn White House Correspondent sara murray joins me now. Sara, pressure has been mounting on President Trump to address and condemn the bomb threats. Hes had multiple at bats for the easy pitch of, sir, will you condemn violent bigotry . Thats right. And its a unclear whether it was just his personal unease or being frustrated with the question or what took him so long, but today he leapt at this opportunity and repeatedly denounced antisemitism. Now, sean spicer, the White House Press secretary, was asked exactly what trump would do about this as president. He said it will be over the course of years that the president proves to voters indeed and in actions they can trust him to be president for all people. President trump denouncing antisemitism today in his strongest terms yet. Thank you. This, too, is a meaningful reminder of why we have to fight bigotry, intolerance, and hatred in all of its very ugly forms. The antisi met i can threats targeting our Jewish Community and Community Centers are horrible and are painful and a very sad reminder of the work that still must be done to root out hate and prejudice and evil. Reporter trump delivering his remarks after touring the National Museum of africanamerican history and culture. Its a privilege to be here today. This museum is a beautiful tribute to so Many American heroes. Reporter his comments condemning bigotry come on the heels of a spate of bomb threats and vandalism against jewish sites across the country. On monday those incidents drew sharp condemnation from the president s daughter, ivanka trump, who is an orthodox ju. She tweeted, america is a nation built on the principle of religious tolerance. We must protect our houses of worship and religious centers. But the president has faced criticism for his tepid response to antisemitic in the u. S. He snapped at one of the reporters who asked about them. Not a fair question. Okay, sit down. So, heres the story, folks. Number one, i am the least antisemitic person you have seen in your entire life. Number two, racism, the least racist person. Reporter for some the president s response is too little too late. The Anne Frank Center calling it a band aid and asterisk of condee essential. Before trumps comments this morning, Hillary Clinton called him out for failing to condemn the threats sooner, tweeting, jcc threats cemetery des krags and online attacks are so troubling and they need to be stopped. Everyone must speak out starting with potus. Trumps call for tolerance come as his administration is outlining plans for stepped up enforcement of immigration laws, including a possible expansion of detentions and deportations. That as the administration insists it will continue defending its travel ban in court. In the meantime, the white house is also working on a new executive order limiting immigration. The next step achieves the president s goal of protecting the country and does so in a way that recognizes the concerns that the court had. Reporter the new order expected later this week is likely to impact the same seven majority muslim countries, but it will be more narrowly tailored to prevent court challenges. For instance, by making clear it does not apply to green card holder. Meanwhile trump is getting rave reviews from some on both sides of the aisle for his choice of Lieutenant General hr mcmaster as his new National Security advisor. There are so many good people to choose from and hes one of them. Reporter now, john mccain who has relished being a critic of the Trump Administration heaped praise on this pick as well. Thank you so much. A few years ago i interviewed the president s new National Security advisor about the future of war and we got some insight into how he views the current Threat Landscape and what the u. S. Should be doing differently and better to combat those threats. For anyone wondering what general mcmaster might think about President Trumps ideas that the u. S. Should be willing to torture terrorists and to kilterists families . Well, mcmaster would seem to oppose such moves. He thinks quite a bit about the need for moral and ethical preparation for u. S. Service members. Here is what he told me in the audience at a new America Foundation forum. Restrictions on the use of force are super i am important obviously. We have to do this from a jon stewart milieux till tearian perspective, that every time you take action in a way that is against your values, you might as well be working for the enemy, right . But also from a recognition of our values and that we cant violate our values or we may have lost already. Make no mistake general mcmaster is one who would be willing to pursue not a more aggressive posture against isis. We are engaged in righteous causes right now, okay. And i think its okay for us to want to win against these, you know, these mesoginistic murderers. We out to be una barbed about it. He has described recent war plans as narcissistic saying the pentagon has tended to define war as what the u. S. Would like it to do and how it would want the war to go. But general mcmaster has been around and remembers a lot of predictions that did not turn out so well. What typically you hear when we neglect continuities in the nature of war is really, really the next war will be fundamentally different from all wars that have gone before it. Remember, future wars, were going to be fast, cheap, efficient, we were going to conduct something called rapid decisive operations which is sort of like the George Kost Anz a approach, do some military things and leave. The language was hubris tick in large measure because we didnt give agency to the enemy. Humility is not necessarily a word that come to mind frequently when discussing this white house, but the new National Security advisor is someone who has talked quite a bit about the need for the u. S. To show humility and learn from its mistakes. I want to bring in republican congressman devin nguyenes of california. Congressman, thanks for joining me. We appreciate t. Some great footage you have of the interview of general mcmaster. Hes an interesting guy. Let talk about him. General mcmaster, it seems that he will be likely to advise President Trump to take a tougher stance on russia than i suspect general flynn would have. Is that fair, do you think . Well, i think there is a lot of innuendo about general flynn out there. General flynn is a russia hawk. I think the big decision the Trump Administration will have to make is whether do they see china as the bigger problem or russia as the bigger problem. Because i think people see it as you cant fight both of them at the same time and you cant be against both of them at the same time. Now, you know, ive had my reservations about dealing with putin and the russians. I think hes a totally dishonest actor. But i think that mcmaster at the end of the day is going to give very sound advice and hell be a strong voice of reason and hes an intellectual heavy weight in the white house that i think anyone having him around is going to be very thankful for. You said you dont think general flynns phone call with the Russian Ambassador was cause for dismissal. Yesterday vicepresident pence in brussels said that he was disappointed when he learned that general flynn had given him inaccurate information about the call. He said the proper decision for President Trump to ask general flynn to resign. Do you disagree with the vicepresident . Well, look, its not my place to do that, jake. This is the president s decision. Clearly the vicepresident , you know, he stated very clearly that he supported the president s decision. And at the end of the day, im not president of the United States. So, but i dont believe for a second that general flynn talking to the Russian Ambassador broke any laws. And, in fact, its exactly what he should have been doing and i think the record in the long run will show that he was trying to improve relations between our two countries. I want to ask you about this story that cnn reported and also the New York Times reported because there is a discrepancy here between what you and other members of congress say and what we are told. Multiple former intelligence and Law Enforcement officials tell cnn and other outlets they were in constant communication during the campaign with russians known to u. S. Intelligence. You say that is not what you are being told. How help explain this discrepancy to us. Well, first, jake, if i may, i believe the first time that i went out and sounded the alarm about the problems that were having with russia and it being the biggest intelligence failure since 9 11. Months ago. Not only that, but it was on your show. I think it was on your show last spring, i was begging anyone to pay attention. And at that time the Obama Administration ignored it. The ic under the direction of the Obama Administration, largely ignored it. Why . Because they were in the middle of doing an iranian deal. They wanted to try to get the russians to side with them in syria to try to get assad out of power. And, so, i was warning, asking anyone to come forward with information that would help us to begin to understand this russia threat. And many members of the House Intelligence Committee have spent a lot of time over in Eastern Europe and looking at the russia through, including at the time now director pompeo who is very familiar with the russia threat. So, with all that said, what im most interested in are facts. So, i just cant go on a witch hunt against american citizens just because they appear in a New York Times story. Ive asked the appropriate authorities, any time one of these stories pops up in the news, we try to get it to the intelligence agencies and say, do you have anything on this . Until somebody can show me who are they contacting, what phone numbers are they calling, id love to have it because ive been a lone voice in the wilderness here since almost a year ago being on your show, call for somebody to do something about the russia problem. One last question for you, sir. Today the department of Homeland Security released some guidelines for the president s upcoming executive orders on i am grapgs. They suggest that the Trump Administration clearly wants to take a much more aggressive approach when it come to detaining and deporting many more undocumented immigrants with a folks us, of course, on those who have committed other crimes since coming to the u. S. You live in california. You have a plurality, youre a Founding Member of the hispanic conference. Do you have any concerns . Are you hearing of any concerns about these plans . Well, i do have a lot of concerns about this. Most importantly is that can d. H. S. Effectively implement a plan and follow through on it that only goes after those people who are here illegally that have committed crimes. If they can, im all for it. And i can tell you that were kind of at a stand still in this country with immigration reform, and i do believe that we need to have a Strong Security at the border. And i do believe that we need to kick all these bad guys out and gang members and drug dealers and Everything Else because they are plaguing many communities here in california. The tight rope that the administration will have to walk will be what do they do with the people that are here . What do they do with the young people, someone who was two years old when they were brought to this country. Thats going to be difficult. Today i noticed i noticed that they did make some announcement on daca, that they werent going to go after children, which i think is important. And they werent going to do mass round ups which i think is important. So, look, im all for going out and executing the plan to get rid of bad people. And i want them out. The challenge for them will be can they actually can they actually do it. Chairman devin nunez, always a pleasure to have you on. Thank you so much. Thank you. Constituents greeting members of congress with some tough questions, especially about immigration as the nation waits for the president to issue his revised kpelktive order. That story next. Boost® simply complete. Its intelligent nutrition made with only 9 ingredients, plus 25 vitamins and minerals and 10 grams of protein. And look where life can take you boost®. Be up for it. ™ today, unlimited gets the network it deserves. Verizon. mic thuds uh, sorry. Its unlimited without compromising reliability, on the largest, most advanced 4g lte network in america. thud uh. Sorry, last thing. Its just 45 per line. Forty. Five. cheering and applause and that is all the microphones that i have. vo unlimited on verizon. 4 lines, just 45 per line. Im not a customer, but im calling about that credit scorecard. Give it. Sure its free for everyone. Oh well thats nice and checking your score wont hurt your credit. Oh im so proud of you. Well thank you. Free at at discover. Com creditscorecard, even if youre not a customer. Imy moderate to severeng crohns disease. I didnt think there was anything else to talk about. But then i realized there was. So, i finally broke the silence with my doctor about what i was experiencing. He said humira is for people like me who have tried other medications but still experience the symptoms of moderate to severe crohns disease. In clinical studies, the majority of patients on humira saw significant symptom relief. And many achieved remission. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. Before treatment, get tested for tb. Tell your doctor if youve been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if youve had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flulike symptoms or sores. Dont start humira if you have an infection. If youre still just managing your symptoms, talk with your gastroenterologist about humira. With humira, remission is possible. Welcome back to the lead. Angry constituents and testy exchanges are becoming somewhat commonplace at congressional town halls this season. This morning protesters lined the streets of lawrence berg, kentucky before Senate Leader Mitch Mcconnell arrived. An immigrant confronted senator Chuck Grassley as he awaits word on immigration order from President Trump now. She joins me from new york. Would you agree the energy were seeing at these town halls, is it semiorganized . It seems a lot to be completely organic. Lets start by breaking that up. Tl lets start with the energy. I want you to take a look at this video clip to get a sense of the grassroots energy. This is senator joni erns. She had to cut her town hall short after 45 minutes. She answered one single question on obamacare. The room was furious, it never calmed down. So, she simply had to walk out. Thats a very different situation from what we saw last night. We attended congressman Scott Taylors town hall. He took a number of questions. He did have an exchange, yeah, there was booing, yeah, there was yell. Yeah, there were thumbs down. But it was a bit more of a town hall for matt. This sort of rage that youre talking about, that semiorganized effort, so, where does it come from . Well, it actually started shortly after the election. There were three congressional former congressional staffers on the democratic side, as young congressional staffers during the obama era, they saw the tea Party Tactics work against them. They took those tactics, wrote it down, put up something called the indivisible guide online. It went viral. Has since been downloaded 1. 7 million times and we have been in a number of cities, ive talked to these people, they are volunteers. They simply have taken this as a manual and theyve shown up at these town halls. And it allows you or prepares you to have exchanges like the one you just mentioned, the one with the man from afghanistan, the immigrant who says he is having a hard time getting asylum. Heres what he told senator grassley saying who is going to take care of me. I was with the United States armed forces back in afghanistan. I get shot. I didnt shot because of my mom and dad. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. [ applause ] senator, answer his question. Im going down the list and when were done with that list no, answer the question. Answer the question. Senator grassley did wrap that up by saying, jake, hes going to try to do everything he can. Jake . All right, thank you so much. A new bomb threat at a Jewish Community center even as President Trump publicly denounces antisemitism now there are calls for the new attorney general to get involved. Stay with us. What do you get when you combine an h r block tax pro, with the deduction finding superpower of ibm watson . Ah you get more money. Thats what you could get. H r block with watson. Get your taxes won. Welcome back to the lead. Lets dive a little deeper into the National Lead now. This recent spike in antisemitic incidents. Another Jewish Center in san diego made a second call to police in less than a month after a bomb threat today. This is one of 70 recent bomb threats to Jewish Community centers which often operate preschools, gyms, family programs. The threats come in waves. 16 in january, 11 more, now a center in st. Louis has been vandalized. They are calling on Jeff Sessions to create a special task force to investigate why the outbreak of these cases. Lets bring in cnns brynn gingras. When you look at just the bomb threats, most are happening on the same day. Is there any evidence yet that one person or one organization might be responsible . Well, really at this point its unclear if its one person or several people. We do know there are some similarities for the threats that were called into jccs. The person on the line is using masking technology to disguise their voices. One caller was described as sounding like an older woman, then the one today in san diego, that threat was actually sent via email. The dozens of threats have all been false alarms so there is some good news, but they certainly changed security measures at centers all across the country. And really the habits of the people who visit them. Police scoured the scene at the san diego Jewish Community center today as the bomb threat forced evacuations for the second time this year. Police say the center received an email late last night indicating an explosive was inside, but none was found. Knowing that they were evacuating the building and searching for possible bombs is obviously very disconcerting when youre sending a child to this. Reporter it is just the latest in a recent rash of disruptive false alarms targeting the Jewish Community. Somebody, it seem like, has put together some sort of concerted effort. Reporter 70 reported threats have affected 54 Jewish Community centers in 27 states this year alone, and its only february. Well, we do see that there is an unprecedented number of these threats taking place. We look forward to all elements of government taking this and making this a strong priority for them. Reporter 11 jccs reported threats of violence just yesterday. Raising concerns about the future. Just incredibly depressing. I guess its, you know, this is the age we live in, but its really sad. Im afraid that eventually someone will take the next step. Reporter and vandals are proving Community Centers arent the only target. The level of tension in the Jewish Community is pretty high. Reporter over the weekend at least 100 gravesites were des crated at this Historic Jewish cemetery in st. Louis, missouri. Police would not say whether it was considered a hate crime. There is a difference here between intent and impact, right . The intent may be one this can. The impact is huge on the Jewish Community, right . This is where your loved ones come to be safe in perpetuity. Reporter earlier this month a chicago area sin going was vandalized and dee faced with swastikas while in new york pronazi graffiti was removed from subway cars by writers using Hand Sanitizer and tissue. Both incidents part of a disturbing trend. You do have to persevere and not let this influence you and recognize it for what it is. It is an attempt to intimidate. Reporter and earlier today sara murray talked about this in your show. The president addressed this recent spike. Deflecting the question several times, having opportunities to talk about it, today President Trump called the antisemitic events horrible and they have to stop. In the White House Briefing Secretary Sean Spicer said the president will continue to work to unify the country and speak out against these hate crimes. Jake . Thank you so much. Turning back to politics, today is the first day on the job for scott pruitt tasked with running the Environmental Protection agency. He addressed employees this afternoon as he moves forward with an Ambitious Program including rolling back obama era regulations. Rinne, what did pruitt have to say . It was interesting to see him standing before the employees of the agency that he sued at least 12 times. But he set the tone. There was a roomful of about 75 epa employees and he set the tone that there was a new sheriff in town. There would be no over regulation, there would be no over reach. Actually, we have some sound from him as he spoke to those epa employees today. I believe that we as an agency and we as a nation can be both pro energy and jobs and pro environment. That we dont have to choose between the two. So, in that sound bite there, you heard he took a bit of a reassuring tone as well for anyone concerned that if anyone who says that there is going to be a roll back of regulations could mean that the environment is forgotten. Hes saying there that you can do two things at once. You can roll back regulation and keep the environment in mind as well. He also told the employees that he planned to listen, learn and lead. Whats on the top of the agenda for him . So, we know where pruitt as well as trump stands on overall regulations and we do expect the epa will reflect that stance. In speaking with environmentalists and even conservative think tanks today, both sides agree these are the rules that are most vulnerable under the Trump Administration. The clean power plan, which really has an emphasis on greenhouse gases, emissions from power plants. Of course, thats the cornerstone of the Climate Change initiative under the Obama Administration. We expect that to be rolled back. Also, you see there the waters of the United States rule. That is a rule that essentially gives the federal government Broad Authority to police the streams and waterways of the United States to make sure that they are not polluted. Farmers, for example, dont like that because they say it restricts what sort of activities they can do on their own land. And the third one that you saw there, jake, the moratorium on leasing federal land for coal mining. Obviously that direct contradiction if youre trying to curb Carbon Emissions to go ahead and lease federal land for coal mining would be problematic. That moratorium was put in place under the Obama Administration. We expect to see that being relaxed under the Trump Administration as well. All right. Rene marsh, youre going to have to cover over the next four to eight years. Ahead of the white houses travel ban. What those guidelines mean for undocumented immigrants. That story next. People when they thought they should start saving for retirement. Then we asked some older people when they actually did start saving. This gap between when we should start saving and when we actually do is one of the reasons why too many of us arent prepared for retirement. Just start as early as you can. Its going to pay off in the future. If we all start saving a little more today, well all be better prepared tomorrow. Prudential. Bring your challenges. But theyre different. 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Sticking with our politics lead today the department of Homeland Security laid out the Trump Administrations plans for enforcement of immigration laws. It explains how they plan to act on the executive orders including hiring 10,000 new immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Building that wall along the southern border, creating more detention facilities for undocumented immigrants and designating a new office in the department to help victims of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants. Taking all of the fund previously used to advocate for undocumented immigrants. For now the Trump Administration says it will leave intact the obama era protections for immigrants who were brought into this country illegally while they were children. These individuals known as dreamers. D. H. S. Says the policy mostly enforces existing laws and will not lead to mass round ups of undocumented immigrants. Lets bring in my panel to talk about it. Mary catherine, sean spicer today said the goal is not mass deportation, but it certainly looks like there is going to be a lot more people deported than in previous administrations. Obama, by the way, got hammered for deporting too many people according to advocates. It does certainly sound like the number of people eligible for deportation would go up and that they are making plans for how to staff up to make that happen. First of all, a little bit of progress on the idea there are guidance memos for how this might baby steps, yes. I think like all things trump youre going to get a mixed bag in this. Youre going to get more enforcement which is partly what people voted for. Right. And frankly people who commit fraud that is a crime in this country in addition to being here illegally. Making an argument against that is perilous for democrats. What he said at the press conference which was largely missed about the dreamers which was quite sang win and seemed to suggest that he was not going to work on deporting them. So, again, its very trump. Its hot and cold at the same time. Its mass deportation. Im sorry. It is mass deportation. Unless people decide to not act on if i. C. E. Decides theyre not going to act ton this, in the executive order they talk about depp yu advertising local Law Enforcement officials. If all these people are suddenly going to not follow through with this, i guess its not mass deportation. It talks about this is one of the criteria. Under obama you had basically if you were a serious criminal that posed a threat to society, then you would get deported. If you were somebody who is basically not threatening anybody, you wouldnt. Here, one of the areas is anyone who has committed acts that could constitute a chargeable criminal offense. Well, unlawful entry into the country is a criminal offense. Yeah. Any undocumented immigrant who is basically just a functioning member of society who came here because they wanted a job and to support their family who have children and grandparents here are targets to be deported. It was beyond that initial defense. Thats not what it says. Even today sean spice he said anyone who is in this country illegally is liable. There is also the time and space issues under the Obama Administration that guideline became if you were within 100 miles of the border, if it was within two weeks of your arrival here. Those guidelines are scrapped now. I believe theyre moving to a twoyear time line for this to apply to you, it could be anywhere in the country. Wasnt theres two things i think are worth keeping an eye on politically outside of these specific issues and one has to do with the number, 10,000 new hires. That is really important in term of the president attempting to build support within that Law Enforcement community. This is job creation measure that is going to have to be paid for. The other is mexico. Part of these guidelines go to the idea that Central Americans who are caught kicked back to mexico pending their hearings, none of that has worked out. It has to be negotiated with mexico. As far as being politically perilous on the conservative side of this, if you are going to engage in mass deportation, and hire 10,000 agents, the federal government is not good at doing things it says it is going to do, you run into the same problem with the serious criminals still here because the agency are not doing theyre not focusing on the thing most important. The only people here not going to report any crimes, theyre not going to talk to the police. That makes everybody less safe. If you are now an undocumented immigrant and something happens to you, there is no way in the world you are going to talk to a Police Officer who now may be deputized to deport you. They have something in there about prosecuting deporting parents who pay smuggler to bring their children from central america. This is sick, im sorry. These are children that are fleeing for their lives. These are parents in horrible situations where they have decided this is the worst thing that i could out of all my options, this is the best decision thats better than having my child maybe being killed by a gang member. The least worst option. Theyre going to prosecute them and deport them for trying to save their childrens lives. It is a new day. Voters did vote for it as you said. I want to share some video. There was a rigo t in sweden wih all the focus on President Trumps clumsily delivered comments that never happened. He was referring to a segment on fox news. There were immigrants to blame for this riot in stockholm. And i think its interesting just because the truth of the matter is that if you read about whats going on in sweden, immigrants and its not a surprise there arent a lot of jobs for them and obviously poorer communities tend to commit more crimes. There is an increased level of crime. Maybe not as bad as some are depicting it, but assaults are up, rains are up. This is according to Police Statistics in sweden. Right. I think there is a practice that i try every day which is hold two ideas in my head in the same time. President trump should be vastly more careful with the way he says these things. And also lets not pretend that there is no problem at all in sweden because that drives the people who are listening to trump to not believe us because there are problems with assimilation. There are problems with unaccompanied minors, many of whom because there is an open door are not as minor as they say they are and trying to figure out how to get those folk into Society Without being brought into sex slave rings and all sorts of stuff because there is no one being held accountable for where they are and what theyre doing. This is another example of the old adage words matter. There is some congrut the way the president has handled this. He is dipping into their problem. They are aware of how serious those issues r. President trump when it comes to issues like the middle east or russia has said repeatedly its foreign us to impose our ideals on other countries. But when you go and make statements that are going to obviously cause a massive news event in that other country, what youre doing is having an impact on the other country. Kristen, mar go, mary catherine, thanks for being here. Tune in for the Leadership Debate moderated by Cnns Chris Cuomo and cnns dana bash. Who is going to lead that party out of the wilderness . Is Vladimir Putin targeting the ukraine . What the russian president did next. Showing the softer side of the white house, is there a political purpose behind the first daughters Instagram Account . Dear predictable, theres no other way to say this. Its over. Ive found a permanent escape from monotony. Together, we are perfectly balanced, our senses awake, our hearts racing as one. I know this is sudden, but they say if you love something. Set it free. See you around, giulia i realize that ah, that 100k is notwell, a 103fortune. Yeah, 103. Well, let me ask you guys. How long did it take you two to save that . A long time. Then its a fortune. Well, im sure you talk to people all the time who think 100k is just pocket change. Right now were just talking to you. I told you we had a fortune. Yes, you did. Getting closer to your investment goals starts with a conversation. Schedule a complimentary goal Planning Session today. 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This all of course comes as russian president Vladimir Putin just issued an executive order recognizing the travel documents issued by separatist authorities in eastern ukraine. Cnns Nick Payton Walsh is on the ground in the ukrainian capital in kiev. Thousands have been killed in the nearly three years of violence in that country. Where do things stand on the ground right now . Reporter still pretty horrific, jake, for the civilians who are trapped on the front lines there. We were a few weeks ago on both sides and regular shelling makes getting water, food a difficult task. I should say the osc monitors who have been trying to keep a handle on this conflict the past months or years here reported in the last 24 hours slight reduction in the number of explosions they hear. Were talking about this going from 700 to about maybe 400 or so. These numbers are quite meaningless frankly to those of you at home, but it means one thing. We see violence go up and down here depending on which day of the week you are looking at but it never really stops. There is never really the cease fire all sides say they are trying to get behind. One fatal thing, jake, it undermines confidence in the political process here. It is evident from everyone you speak to hatred on both sides of the line between separatists and ukrainian is growing. That simply has been amplified i think its fair to say by the kremlins executive order over the weekend. On one hand they were talking about imposing this cease fire or trying to get behind it, they were also at the same time recognizing documents issued by the separatist de facto authorities in those rebelheld separatist areas, parts of eastern ukraine. That means you have a driving license, divorce document, passport from those separatist authorities russia will recognize it. You can get into russia perhaps on that separatist passport. Some say thats one step towards potentially recognizing those separatist territories by moscow, and it had one important effect here. Ukrainian hard liners, Ukrainian Security officials in kiev where im standing says russia doesnt want anything more to do with the socalled minsk agreements, the peace deal supposed to try to quiet violence down. Ukraine officials talking about the need to take part of the separatist area in months ahead. It is highly volatile here. In the new geopolitical world, jake, with an uncertain white house vision for the ukrainian conflict, many are worried we may see full blown conflict as they try to cease initiative. Jake . Stay safe. Thank you so much. Showing the softer side of donald trump, how first daughter ivanka is trying to soften the image of her father from camelot to tweetalot. Today, unlimited gets the network it deserves. Verizon. mic thuds uh, sorry. Its unlimited without compromising reliability, on the largest, most advanced 4g lte network in america. thud uh. Sorry, last thing. Its just 45 per line. Forty. Five. cheering and applause and that is all the microphones that i have. vo unlimited on verizon. 4 lines, just 45 per line. Were back with more on our politics lead today as President Trump visited the National Museum of africanamerican history and culture. Ivanka trump was by his side. Its a now familiar scene as the first daughter made the move to washington with her family and her father. President trump himself confirmed ivanka will be helping first lady with her initiative. Her most Important Role right now might be humanizing her dad. Here with me is cnn reporter kate bennett. Thanks for joining us. Appreciate it. Before the president or any other member of the trump family reacted, ivanka tweeted out, we must protect our hougses of worship and religious centers. Her father, critics have said, was rather slow to issue such a statement, but the daughter clearly seemed to pave the way for him a little bit. Its not that unusual for ivanka to take these hard issues and tweet about them and be humanize these issues. Also shes orthodox jewish. She married jared kushner, she converted. Shes raising her kids orthodox it sounds like. Its not unusual. It may help her dad give that push saying, you should do this, too, as we saw this morning. Also remember when he was feud ing with nordstrom for cancelling her line of clothing and shoes, he said she is always trying to get me to do the right thing. Yes. Thats been her role really from the beginning. You can look back as far as the campaign and she really sort of helped to be that surrogate who, you know, fostered this nice guy image that we dont get to see. And shes still doing that in many ways. Take a look at this picture of ivanka trump giving quite some access, some comedian joke, take your daughter to workday. There she is flanked by the Prime Minister of canada and her father. They talked a lot about womens issues. Is she having any major effect on poll sni this is the bizarre part because she has no official role yet she is at the resolute desk with the major leader of a world country and her father. There is nothing official, yet she is sort of official. She is the one were seeing at the press conferences. Shes the one were seeing with her dad when they toured boeing. So, i think she is pushing the ball forward. I think she is going to help out. He said that last week, that he was going to help melania, mrs. Trump. We havent gotten that title, we havent gotten an office, we dont know exactly what the role is going to be. Its very interesting. Quickly, there is obviously a lot of documentation going on about her family kind of warming her fathers image a little. Agreed. Its a very humanizing thing to do. Who doesnt love to see the cute kids smooshed up against the glass. Its the role were not good seeing him in. Ivanka does a good job telling that story at a time he needs a little of that warm and fuzzy. Shes also sort of blowing the lid off what life is like for kid inside the white house. We never saw this with the obamas kids. They were very private, young. Were getting a glimpse inside this world thanks in part to ivanka and her, i think she has 6 1 2 million followers on her social media. Very impressive. Kate bennett, thank you so much. Finally from us today. And watch, the mood is tense. Tense indeed, brian, because its time to say byebye to bao bao. The giant panda is returning to her ancestral home. Bao bao boarded the Panda Express in a crate compliments of fedex. She will have 55 pounds of bamboo. She what set to make the move. Most captive giant pandas are on lone from the government of china. They are sent to participate in a cooperative breeding program. The national zoo first received a state gift of two pandas in 1972 as a gesture of good will and has participate ed in socalled panda diplomacy ever since. Thats it for the lead. Jake tapper here turning it over to wolf blitzer in the situation room. Happening now. Immigration shift, the Trump Administration comes out with a blueprint for cracking down on illegal immigration. It says the objective is not mass deportation, but says a Million People could go. What about the dreamers who came to america as children . It shaz to stop. After bomb threats the des krags of the jewish cemetery, President Trump finally responds to criticism and condemns antisemitism calling it horrible and saying it must stop. Did he go far enough