week. a lot of attention has been focused on the swift passage of that bill in the house on wednesday, the senate late last night. large bipartisan majorities. all that s been happening, special counsel jack smith has been barreling ahead with his investigation of the ex president, now the leading contender for the republican nomination in 2024. earlier this week we learned that smith had obtained a key new piece of evidence in the case of donald trump s handling of classified documents. he s now in possession of an audio recording in which trump acknowledges he held on to classified pentagon documents about a potential attack on iran. on that recording from july 2021 meeting at his bedminster, new jersey golf club. trump began railing about his handpicked chairman of the joint chiefs of staff general mark milley who was described in media counts at the time is having guarded against trump s strike in iran in the final days of his presidency newtown s reports the ex president began ref
whose government is accused of undermining women s rights, lgbt rights, controlling the media and much more. cnn s ben wedeman is live in budapest. ben. reporter: john, despite all of that even the critics of the prime minister here concede that over the last 12 years some of his policies have managed to help improve the lot of many hungriness, yet despite that of late as the economy has begun to falter viktor orban has resorted to rhetoric reminiscent to some of his darkest days in this country s history. you could call it a meeting of like minds, video from his official donald trump tuesday at his bedminster, new jersey, golf club. on his way to this week s
new york times. joining me now to discuss, angela rye, alice stewart, david swerdlick. good evening to both of you. look at my dream team there. hello, hello, hello. hi, don. hi. david, i m going to start with understood. westerhout shared these details during a recent off-the-record dinner with reporters staying at hotels near the president s bedminster, new jersey, property. at least that s what the times is reporting. is it unusual for the president s personal assistant to be involved in that? so i have not interacted directly with this personal assistant. i would say yes, don. some white house staffers or some staffers of any elected official are there to talk policy, to talk politics, sometimes with reporters, sometimes in off-the-record settings. a personal assistant or a staff secretary, a scheduler, a body man is there as almost an extension of the principal, in this case, the president of the united states or his immediate family members. so it would be unusual, and i
administration, has abruptly left the white house a source is telling cnn. madeleine westerhout, whose office was right in front of the oval office, is leaving after sharing personal information about the trump family and oval office operations. the story first reported by the new york times. joining me now to discuss, angela rye, alice stewart, david swerdlick. good evening to both of you. look at my dream team there. hello, hello, hello. hi, don. hi. david, i m going to start with understood. westerhout shared these details during a recent off-the-record dinner with reporters staying at hotels near the president s bedminster, new jersey, property. at least that s what the times is reporting. is it unusual for the president s personal assistant to be involved in that? so i have not interacted directly with this personal assistant. i would say yes, don. some white house staffers or some staffers of any elected official are there to talk policy, to talk politics, sometimes wit
president s bedminster, new jersey residence. what s the reaction to these developments? reporter: we have a rhetorical response. they are weighing additional sanctions easily. we haven t had anything officially in terms of how they will mediate this dispute as it relates to oil tankers. you heard from the president before he left yesterday was more of the same and that is that iran is hurting economically. ultimately going to work out fine because donald trump is negotiating all this. at the same time iran is in big trouble. now talking about having rand paul potentially serve as sort of interlocker, some sort of mediator. rand paul is on the dovish side of things. john bolton the president s national security adviser is very much hawkish on this. to the extent president trump is listening more to ran paul and less to his national security