Raise the risk of terrorism . Returning to devastation, families trying to get back to homes that no longer exist as thousands more homes are threatened by california deadly wildfires. Why is the governor calling this The New Normal . Im wolf blitzer. You are in the situation room. [ Music Playing [ Music Playing ] Breaking News the white house is scrambling to diffuse the impact of a stung twitter rant from President Trump that called on Jeff Sessions to stop the russia investigation. Quote, right now. The white house claims the president was stating an penalties, not issuing an order to halt Robert Muellers probe. But the tweet is raising disturbing, very serious new questions about whether President Trump is openly trying to obstruct justice. Ill speak with congressman Joachim Castro of the intelligence and Foreign Affairs
president s penalties. Its ridiculous all of the corruption an dishonesty thats gone on with the launching of the witch hunt. The president is not obstructing. He
our correspondent rene marsh has been working the sources. what are you learning? this would be an absolute major change tore people that travel by air also for how tsa uses its resources. the question is, why now? it is unclear, but what is clear is for nearly two decades tsa has trended towards more enhanced security measures. we do know with this proposal cost savings is certainly a component tsa is considering allowing thousands of passengers to board commercial airplanes across the united states without being screened. that s according to internal documents obtained by cnn the documents from june and july outline and elimination of security screening at small and medium size airports that operate commercial planes with 60 seats or fewer. tsa s recent cost analysis estimates the move could save $115 million that can be used to
off really this whole chain of events and robert muler appointed after comey was fired. if you recall what he told the former fbi director, very similar in some ways in what he has said today. that is that i hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting flynn go. and that was a significant part certainly for if former fbi director when he basically wrote those memos and his interpretation of those comments made him believe that the president was trying to obstruct justice that he was telling him in an indirect way to end the investigation. what do we know? there seems to be a tiny movement today on whether or not the president will or will not sit down for an interview with robert mueller s team? so guiliani spoke a little time ago he said they finally did get a letter from special counsel s team, remember he was on cnn days ago saying they had not heard from the special counsel. he said they did get a letter
cnn, tsa said, quote, this is not a new issue. the regulations that establish tsa does not require screening below a certain level. so every year is quote the year that tss will reconsidering screening. cnn asked tsa to point us to that regulation the agency has not responded. 20 tsa employees recently met to evaluate the cost saving proposal that could mean less hassle for thousands of passengers the group determined the plan could increase vulnerabilities at airports. overall the rick is low. the real question is, will the public accept this? also will congress accept this? the group also determined the policy change would affect ability 10,000 passengers daily. tsa did say this is something they consider ever years ago but two senior tsa officials tell us the level of activity around this particular proposal this year, a working group doing risk assessment and cost analysis,
bolster security at large airports. i think it s stunning this is even being seriously considered. reporter: the proposal does not list which airports could be impacted but says screening would be eliminated at more than 150. tsa currently screens passengers at 440 airports. according to proposal, passengers and luggage arriveing from these smaller airports would be screened within they arrived at major once. their operating theory is attached with small aircraft would not be as potential for terrorist the potential for loss of life can be less than they could achieve with larger planes. national security experts disagree. isis attacks in anyway, big or small against anybody can you go after. so the opportunity to go after a 50-person passenger jet or aircraft is going to be very attractive to the group in terms of its messaging. reporter: in an e-mail to