from they misconduct allegations being used in partisan attacks? this weekend, you had a guy on the republican side and a guy on the democrat side. we re hearing claims on both sides of the aisle about misconduct. unfortunately these cases are happening with such frequency that we are starting to see a bipartisan standard emerge as to how parties deal with these situations and that does involve campaigns or political organizations coming under pressure to return or donate contributions that they ve received from accused figures for the democrats that happened with harvey weinstein, now with republicans. we re seeing gop members and organizations come under pressure to return the donations they got from steve win. but in the particular case of wynn, the pain, i think, is more long-term for the republican party. it wasn t just that wynn was a deep pocketed donor, but that he had a very powerful fund-raising prowess. that s why he was the rnc s
robert costa, there was a lot of backlash in the wake of the harvey weinstein scandal for hillary clinton to return the money that she received from m him. what is the potential ramifications of this steve wynn scandal? it s major because of that context and talking to republican national committee members over the weekend, they were pushing on friday when the story broke to have some kind of move against wynn but when the president controls not only the white house but he controls the rnc so they were waiting for a decision to talk to rana mcdaniel on saturday, it was then he chose to step down under some pressure and you see the republicans made a huge effort against harvey weinstein when that story broke and now they re in the position of having to give back donations from their top fund-raiser. steve wynn was the number one fund-raiser at the republican national committee.
casino tycoons who ve known each other for 34 years. ultimately, with president trump hand picking wynn to be the finance chairman for the rnc and now on saturday, again, a white house official telling cnn that the president backs his resignation, in part to limit any kind of political damage that could hit the rnc or the white house. boris sanchez, cnn, at the white house. joining us from london is an associate professor of international relations, and a familiar face here at newsroom. leslie, thanks for joining us. thank you. let s begin with steve wynn. a titan in business from vegas, d.c., now out as leader, picked by donald trump, in the republican national committee. how does this look? well it clearly doesn t look good for the republican party. it doesn t look good for the president to have had somebody who became so close to him, wasn t always a supporter, but was on his inaugural committee, gave a lot of money to the republicans, to the campaign, to
resigned as finance chair of the republican national committee amid sexual misconduct allegations. president donald trump hand picked wynn for that position. officials say mr. trump supports the resignation. wynn denies the allegations. afghanistan has declared sunday a national day of mourning after saturday s bombing in kabul. police say 103 people are now confirmed dead in that blast which came from an ambulance packed with explosives. a spokesman for the taliban claims that group is responsible. a spanish court has ruled that former catalan leader puj month can only become leader again if he is physically present at parliament. he s been living in brussels since october and is wanted in spain for spear heading the catalonia independence movement. roger federer is working on what could become his 20th grand slam title. play is under way in the australian open men s final.
here in the united states and around the world. you are watching cnn newsroom. we re live in atlanta. i m natalie allen. and i m george howell with the headlines we re following this hour. u.s. casino mogul steve wynn has resigned as the finance chair of the republican national committee amid sexual misconduct allegations. u.s. president donald trump hand picked wynn for the position, but officials say mr. trump supports the resignation. wynn denies those allegations. afghanistan has declared sunday a national day of mourning after saturday s bombing in kabul. authorities say at least 95 people were killed in the blast which came from an ambulance packed with explosives. a spokesman for the taliban claims the group is responsible. russian police raid the offices of a prominent kremlin creditic. alexei navalny calls for protests after what he calls