Thats not the only issue on which the administration is mounting a defense. In three tweets this morning, President Trump continuing to use the word spy to describe an informant and reupping his claims the fbi improperly surveilled his 2016 campaign. Its been nothing but backlash today for the trump administration, one day after those two highly sensitive briefings with top intelligence officials on the possible informant. Why is that . Because of the unexpected presence of President Trumps chief of staff, john kelly and white house lawyer emmitt flood at those briefings. Heres press secretary Sarah Huckabee sanders. If you look at my comments i said no one is expected to attend the briefing. Thats still correct. What changed . This is what Sarah Huckabee sanders said on tuesday. No one from the white house staff will attend. You said that no one from the white house staff will attend the meeting on thursday. Does that mean chief of staff kelly would not anti, also. He was in charge of
rushing to trial? or do they want this to drag on? delay, delay, delay. especially in a case like this where passions are high and there is a lot of attention. that s also why this bail decision is so important. because if he had been in rikers island for the months prior to trial he would be telling his attorneys i can t stand this. get me to trial. now he will be in a relatively comfortable apartment and which will certainly be cramped and frustrating to him because he can t live his normal life. but he will be eating normal food and he will be sleeping in a normal bed. he will be able to see people. he will not be pressing his lawyers to go as fast as he would be if he were in rikers island. he does have some excellent attorneys. benjamin braffman. if you were to ask people in the know in new york city, who is the best trial lawyer in new york city, i think ben braffman would get more votes than anyone else.
this hour, concerns that there are potential targets at risk by cutting homeland security funds. i m wolf blitzer and you re in the situation room. we begin with deadly new clashes today in syria as security forces try to break up anti-government protests in a number of cities. human rights activists say that at least 34 people were killed. they say to end the crackdown or get out of the way. here is arwa damon. reporter: wolf, when we see the images coming out of syria, the path that the regime continues to take seems pretty clear. they are aiming to clear. a voice yells off camera. this is video said to be from the city of hopes, which has seen many protests in recent weeks. it was posted to youtube. cnn cannot verify its authenticity or when it was shot. but one opposition activist told cnn on friday that the security forces fired straight in crowds of demonstrators and the syrian human rights information link reported a mounting death poll throughout the day. a simila