day 130 for president trump, here it is in 60 seconds. the morning started with president trump s tweet about germany. we have a massive trade deficit with germany. very bad for u.s. 20 minutes later, news breaks, a white house shake up. that shake up has begun here in the west wing. we just confirmed the communications director who has only been there three months. people in the administration 2e7 tend to leave on their own volition. under intense scrutiny and dodging reporter questions. he left his home, no comment from president trump s son-in-law and senior advisor jared kushner. trump s personal attorney michael cohen has received requests for information from the house and senate intelligence committees. and this afternoon sean spicer had his first official on-camera press breaching since may 15. whether the president knew at the time that jared kushner was seeking to establish back channel communications at the russian embassy to the russian
to the issue of the russia probe, i m wondering, sean, if you can tell us when the president knew whether the president knew at the time that jared kushner was seeking to establish back channel communications at the russian embassy to the russian government, and if he didn t know at the time, when did he find out? i think that assumes a lot and i would just say that mr. kushner s attorney has said that mr. kushner s volunteered to share with congress what he knows about these meetings and he will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry. has the president discussed this though? i m not getting into what the president did or did not discuss. your question assumes a lot of facts that aren t substantiated by anything but anonymous sources that are so far being leaked out. does he approve of that action? you re asking if he approves of an action that is not a confirmed action. that being said, i think secretary kelly and general mcmaster have both d
nan inaugurated. they should not be subverting the policy of the us government. we took actions, the obama administration took actions in late december to punish russia for meddling in our elections. we kicked out intelligence offer certificates, removed two of their compounds. removed code data from their hakz. if the trump team was having these back channel communications with the russians saying, don t worry about this, we ll take care o all of it, your sanctions will be removed, that s a big problem. i m very anxious to see what the facts are because there is intrigue and that spectrum is quite wide at this point. anyway, we don t know which end we re on. thank you both. ahead, it s not just the media. trump now in a bitter duel with german chancellor angela merkel. she took a swipe yesterday at a campaign beer fest in germany. i ll tell you what she said, how the president responded and what the house today is saying about it. back at home, the white house, the president has a n
communicate in a discreet manner. they both discussed in general terms, they are an important part of diplomacy. do you dispute that that happened? your question presupposes facts that have not been confirmed. spicer s defense was stunning. it s a phrase we have used before, but he said the president is frustrated. he didn t offer counter narrative or explanation for why the channel had to exist. i am wondering if you can tell us whether the president knew at the time that jared kushner was seeking to eabli back channel communications to the russian government and if he didn t know at the time, when did he find out? that assumes a lot and mr. kushner s attorney said he volunteered to share what he knows about the meetings. did the president discuss it? i m not going to get into it.
if he was a target, then that means essentially that the feds have some evidence of a crime. but he did not get a target letter, so that means they don t have any evidence. so they just want to talk to him and see where this investigation goes. look, it s not a crime to talk to the russian ambassador. people think he s the bogeyman. it looked, he has been in washington for ten years. it s his job to meet with government officials to try and influence them in terms of policy. that s what our ambassador does in moscow. so this isn t terribly unusual. jon: what about the so-called back channel communications between jared kushner and the russians? again, not that unusual. we have historically had frequent back channel medications. it notably, the two sets of back channel medications that defused the cuban missile crisis back in 1962. it s even the washington post posted a sidebar story over the weekend saying that such back