doesn t understand the degree to which people are trying to restrain him or he just doesn t want to acknowledge it. throughout his career he s never backtracked, apologized. he doesn t have a reverse gear. i don t expect him to back off. if i can just make one more point about the author of this article. they said towards the end, the author, he or she, said that the country has been brought low to the president s level, not true. 66 million people voted not for president donald trump. those people haven t been brought low by him. those people at the beginning saw what this op ed writer now apparently sees. you know, the writer wanted his or her name not to be mentioned in the new york times nearly almost unprecedented agreed with that to protect this writer because presumably if this individual s name was out there, he or she would be fired. that s right, wolf. and so the president, of course, could use that to his advantage.
today. you mentioned that history were george w. bush would commute that sentence and that was over the strenuous objections of dick cheney, a man who had many, many purchases of influence over the white house, one more line trammelled here by president trump tonight. presidential historian jon meach meacham, thank you for making time for us. thank you. i want to turn to congressman adam schiff, democrat of california. thank you as well. a busy time for all. i want to broaden our lens with you and ask about all of this news, the russia subpoenas, part of the original reason we were going to have you on, but that is something the white house is responding to. then there are all these things the white house is jamming into the system, this pardon, the ousting of a very prominent and controversial aide, sebastian gorka, which we have more on later, and the announcement of the transgender policy. as someone who works with
one more thing, this ban is written to last for 90 days only to allow the administration to look at the vetting procedures. by next october when the court hears this case, it could all be moot. and terry, there was a lot of speculation that justice kennedy might be announcing a retirement today. what happened there? reporter: well, he is the crucial swing vote. there was great anticipation and anxiety over whether he would retire. in the end, he decided not to, and like every supreme court justice, nobody quite knows why, tom. terry moran at the supreme court. thanks very much. president trump going on the offense about russia s meddling in the u.s. election, turning against his predecessor. blaming president obama, saying he did nothing about it. accusing obama of collusion and obstruction for political reasons. here s abc s chief white house correspondent, jonathan karl. reporter: for president trump tonight, a warm embrace from the prime minister of india. but the presiden
theme of a bombshell new book by bob woodward. the book means nothing. it s a work of fiction. reporter: president trump tonight, trying to downplay and discredit bob woodward s new book, which offers a devastating portrait of deep dysfunction inside his white house. in the oval office, the president settling on one word again and again to describe the explosive book. fiction. fiction. fiction. fiction. fiction. fiction. it s fiction. it s more fiction. reporter: but behind the scenes, cnn has learned he s enraged and on a mission to find out who cooperated with woodward for his book. fear, trump in the white house. it s his own west wing witch hunt, with one official telling cnn, he wants to know who talked to woodward. but now there s another mystery sure to outrage the president. the official who wrote this anonymously in the times. the dilemma, which he does not fully grasp, is that many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within
fair, but we ll see what happens. reporter: inside the tense west wing today, the president made clear he was keeping track of which current and former officials issued denials. already, general mattis came out very, very strongly. he was insulted by the remarks that were attributed to him. reporter: in the book, woodward said that the president had the understanding of a fifth or sixth grader during a discussion about north korea. mattis denied that account. general john kelly, the same exact thing. he was insulted by what they said. he couldn t believe what they said. reporter: and kelly is portrayed as describing the president as unhinged and an idiot. he, too, denied it. yet there was notable silence from other former officials. white house chief of staff, reince priebus, chief economic adviser, gary cohn, and rob porter. all of whom were depicted in the book as trying to protect the nation from the president. and the new york times is failing. reporter: while the p