behavior. a third woman who was also involved with porter though not married to him is reportedly working for the trump administration. he shaent been named publicly but multiple news outlegs described her going to white house counsel don mcgahn directly to discuss she is concerns about porter. her own concerns about porter and what she knew about his ep wives and their accusations against him, as well. we should note that rob porter denies the allegations and calls them simply not true. this is not just a salacious and dark story about the departure of yet another high level trump white house employee. this is also a security story that matters to all of us because this is a security story about how donald trump is running this government. white house employees don t get handed security clearances as perks, right in the fbi has to clear you for one. after this rigorous background check process. and there are all sorts of ways to fail that process.
look, mike pence is the sane, responsible face of this administration. it would be crazy for republicans not to be saying he might be a safer alternative for us in 18 and 20 looking forward. there are other republicans who may be challenging the president for ideological reasons. there s such a degree of chaos and uncertainty, of course people are playing out different contingencies. this is politics, folks. karoun, what do you make of the legitimacy of this tweet from the president that goes to the poll numbers. the trump base is far bigger and stronger than ever before despite some phony fake news. russian collusion story, record stock market, border security, military strength, jobs we re still waiting he s taking a breath and going at it again. he s obviously watching the show
thinks the facts are. he said he would not fire mueller without cause. any attempt to fire mueller has to go through whoever the acting a.g. is. trump can only order the a.g. to fire him. rosenstein has basically said i m not going to be swayed by politics. karoun, i m sad to inform you the president did not give you a derry sive nickname this morning or said it s complete balderdash. he did say the fake news, russian security story, supreme court pick, deregulation and so much more had driven the trump base even closer together. will never change. we give the president the final word on that. alex, john, karoun, thank you very much. we re following breaking news this morning as well. cnn has learned a police officer in clinton, missouri, was shot and killed in the line of duty. it reportedly happened during a traffic stop late last night. authorities are looking for the suspect who the highway patrol
are positioning themselves to run for president in 2020 just in case president trump decides not to run. the vice president denies the story and calls it offensive. secretary of state rex tillerson is ramping up the pressure on north korea. e s calling on the kim jong-un regime to cough off the missile tests. north korea is vowing to retaliate against the u.s. over the latest round of sanctions. we have it all covered. let s start with joe johns live from bridgewater, new jersey. joe? reporter: good morning, brianna. presidents often refer to their time off as working vacations, but this time the white house is undergoing some renovations. it comes at a time while the administration and the white house are trying to repair their policy prescriptions also at a time the president and the white house is trying to knock down
are absolutely happening and the vice president s overreaction is sort of revealing in an unintended way. you re saying this is a statement when the story came out from the vice president, today s article in the new york times is disgraceful and offensive to me, my family and our entire. the allegations in this article are categorically false and represent the latest attempt by the media to divide this administration. whatever fake news may come our way, our entire team will continue to focus our our efforts to advance his agenda and see him re-elected in 2020. any suggestion otherwise is laughable and absurd. that has all the greatest hits in it, whatever fake news may come our way. i think that s churchill. mike pence is a man without ambition, whose only ambition is life is to serve the president.