He was defending a trip he took to wimbledon which the inspector general, hes one of many cabinet members here, who is doing some unauthorized and expensive flights. But he also says that he was actually being railroaded by other members of this administration who had strong disagreements with him on the privatization of some medical services at the va. This is how he explained it this morning to npr. As you said, there are Many Political appointees in the va that believe that we are moving in the wrong direction or werent moving fast enough towards privatizing the va. As ive always said, i think that its essential for National Security and for the country that we honor our commitment by having a strong va. I was not against reforming va, but i was against privatization, and i think that it was really the political appointees that were trying to undermine our efforts at va. So this really speaks, brianna, to the level of dysfunction that has, indeed, been rising month by month in this administration. There has been a push and pull over a variety of things, but the va is certainly squarely in the middle of that. I remember last summer being at an event here at the white house where the president said he would never have to say those words youre fired that he said to david shulkin, but indeed yesterday he said just that. More surprisingly was his decision to appoint his personal physician, dr. Ronnie jackson, to head up the agency. It certainly speaks to the small agency of advisers hes surrounded himself with. He wants someone hes comfortable with as he looks to reshape his presidency. Dr. Jackson became most known when he walked into the White House Briefing room and said this about the president s health. There is no indication whatsoever that he has any cognitive issues. The president is very sharp, hes very articulate. A lot of energy and a lot of stamina. Hes 71 years old. He can drive if he wants to without glasses. He washes his hands frequently. He uses purell. The president s health is excellent because his Overall Health is excellent. He has incredible genes. I think hell remain fit for this term and maybe even another term if hes elected. Certainly all of that was music to the president s ears. Important to point out that dr. Jackson also was the physician for president obama but has indeed become very close to this president. And it was a surprise to virtually everyone here when he was tapped for that importance. Hell have to go through confirmation hearings which will take weeks, even months, to come. But a few minutes ago, the other side standing now, when the president was leaving, he walked out of the oval office and spent a few moments with hope hicks. Arguably one of his closest advisers and aide, she was the trump whisperer, if you will. She sat only steps from the oval office. She is one of the many people who decided to leave this administration. Shortly after that, we asked the question many questions about the va, about Stormy Daniels and about ohio. After all these weeks, he would not answer any questions. He smiled, waved, and climbed on air force i. What are we expecting in ohio, jeff . Reporter we are expecting the president to talk about that infrastructure plan. Its basically a stalled infrastructure plan. We dont expect the house and senate to do anything as far as big pieces of legislation. But he is pitching the infrastructure plan, talking about bridges, highways, other things there. But its actually a pretty rare event for the president and hes not traveled near as much as his predecessor. Hell be going to ohio in the cleveland area, and then before dinnertime, hell be in maralago. Hell be spending the easter weekend there, brianna. Jeff zeleny at the white house, thank you so much. Joining me to discuss is amy cleburne. The president chose Ronnie Jackson in large part because he performs well on television. I think you probably saw or maybe you could hear his appearance there earlier near the white house. It was almost like an audition, in a way, for the kind of style the president really likes. Hes also served for decades as an able physician. We do not want to take away from that at all. But are you concerned about something some people are wondering, even people who reserve judgment on it, he doesnt have any Management Experience. Brianna, i have to push back on you a little bit. I wouldnt say he was appointed because he performs well on television, i would say hes spent the last year and several months every day with the president of the united states. One of the president s Top Priorities was reorganizing and getting more and better care for our veterans, taking care of our veterans. Shulkin is an obama holdover. Hes been there. The president thinks things through as a businessman and it has not happened as fast as i think he would like. Then you have this whole scandal with his european trip. And i think the president said its time to go. Amy, amy. Hes a holdover as a physician. This is managing the second largest bureaucracy after the pentagon. I was talking about shulkin being a holdover. Oh, shulkin, okay. I see. The doctor is a holdover, too, and he has spent every single day with the president since hes been in office, and he knows what the president wants and expects. Im sure theyve had many conversations about it. And brianna, at the end of the day, the Va Administration is not working the way the president wants. He wants him to be a disruptor and the president is making changes. He wants the cabinet he wants. What about the lack of Management Experience . Speak to that. Reporter somebody that had the Management Experience has not been doing a good job. So, as i said, the president was elected to be a disruptor, to change things. He is putting our Veterans First and switching things up. Thats exactly what he was elected to do. Scott, i wonder what you think, because something that stuck out to us was the chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans AffairsJohnny Isaacson and his response. He said, i look forward to meeting admiral jackson and learning more about him. Thats not a ringing endorsement. You can tell hes not criticizing the appointment, but what is so clear in that statement is that there is some concern, because Johnny Isaacson knows how important this position is. Thats right. I think the challenge here is both how to succeed in Donald Trumps cabinet and how to help effectively manage that bureaucracy and how to effectively manage that agency. I think any issues with secretary shulkin aside, the questions for members, democrat and republican, are clearly going to be, how is the doctor as a manager, how will he do running this giant bureaucracy, running this giant organization that is attempting to help our veterans . How do you expect this contest to play out . Will it be a lot of focus on that, then . Youll see the doctor trying to woo individual members, and that will in part dictate his fate. I think youll get a sense from members by their reaction based on those individual meetings. Following that, youll really get a sense. But i think the fact youre seeing hesitation not just from senator isaacson, but a host of republicans and middle of the road folks mean they just want to learn more. That can go either way. Amy, cnn is reporting in the middle of all these big cabinet changes were seeing, the president s outside advisers have said to him, you dont necessarily need a Communications Director or a chief of staff. What do you think about that . Im going to leave it up to the president. As i said, we elected him to be a disruptor. When things are not working as he wants, as he expects them, i expect him to make changes that will work. Thats what he wants to be successful at. Remember, this is a man who gave up his private life to do this. Hes not receiving any pay. Hes doing it for the better of america. He wants to make America Great again. We know the president does not like to fail. So i trust in him that hes doing the right thing and he will make the right decisions that benefits all of america, because thats why hes doing what hes doing, brianna. Its like me receiving a question, scott, of do journalists or news anchors deliver the news . Can you imagine a president that doesnt have a Comms Director or chief of staff . Its very illustrative of how the president organizes his world. Your senior staff director and other staff help you do your job better. They help amplify your voice, they help run your team. Hes running how many cabinet agencies and how many employees across the country . It is a remarkable endeavor and you need smart folks alongside you to help you do it. Amy, im so sorry, were out of time. I wanted hes not focused too much on the titles, is what i was going to say. Thank you, both of you, we appreciate it. Coming up, a new report that may be of special interest to special counsel robert mueller. The trump your discussed pardons of Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort. Well have details ahead. Plus protests in sacramento over steph son clark. He was the black man killed by police in his backyard. They are seeing police executed him. Well be back. What would our Founding Fathers want us to do about this president . Im tom steyer, and when those patriots wrote the constitution here in philadelphia, they had just repelled an invading foreign power. So they created the commander in chief to protect us from enemy attack. The Justice Department just indicted 13 russians for sabotaging our elections. An electronic attack on america that the chief investigator called warfare. So what did this president do . Nothing. And is he doing anything to prevent a future attack . The head of the fbi says no. This president has failed his most important responsibility protecting our country. The first question is why . What is in his and his familys business dealings with russia that he is so determined to hide, that hed betray our country . And the second question is why is he still president . Join us today. We have to do something. Nobody at the white house will say that it happened. Sources tell us constantly that it did. Conversations about the president possibly pardoning his two top aides, Paul Manafort or Michael Flynn. Why is that a problem . Because those two men are guilty of business propositions overseas. And if they were, the president would have no leverage over them and they would be more inclined to cooperate. Cnn analyst and writer at politico. If you were back in your old job as special agent and you knew the president contacted a person of special interest and suggested to them the possibility of a pardon, you would think what . I would think its potentially problematic. Brianna, we have to remember the pardon power is one of the few unfettered powers in the constitution. If the president actually pardons someone, then going into his motives and all of that is an uphill battle. Because he really has broad discretion to do that. However, holding out a pardon as almost a bargaining chip to perhaps influence how someone behaves or even gets some kind of benefit in return is an entirely different story. That starts to look like an act of obstruction or potentially witness tampering or even bribery if there is an explicit or implicit quid pro quo. The fact he floated this out there will be of interest to mueller, at the very least that it provides evidence that the president is worried about what these people might have to say. And rachel, it was so interesting to hear Sarah Sanders in how she dealt with this topic. She was very careful of the words she chose. She said parties are not currently under consideration. So shes speaking specifically to this moment in time only, which isnt really what the question is. What does that tell you . That perhaps they were talking about this a little earlier. At least, thats what the reporting clearly shows from the New York Times. I think its interesting. Theres clearly two points of thought on this, and that is the president has the ability to do this. He has absolute power, and even if he was doing it, to try to keep staffers from talking about their russia contacts, he can do it. But the other piece of this is the pardon power does not go to obstruct an investigation, and i think the white house denying they ever had any of these contacts shows they think the latter might be the interpretation ultimately used. They are very much trying to downplay this. They are denying it 100 , and i think that is significant because if they did think the president had absolute power, they would say, were considering this, we have the option to do this, but clearly that is not the case. Back in december the president was asked whether he would pardon Michael Flynn. Heres what he said. I dont want to talk about pardons of Michael Flynn yet. Well see what happens. Lets see. I can say this. When you look at whats gone on with the fbi and the Justice Department, people are very, very angry. Lets keep in mind, when he said that, that was after flynn had pleaded guilty, it was while he was cooperating with the special counsel. Now knowing what we know from this New York Times report, what do you think about those comments . Well, they could be trying to give a signal, an overture, that perhaps flynn might hear. Again, its a little less direct of a bargaining kind of action, but i think it could be sending that signal. But remember, brianna, that the president s pardon power only extends to federal crimes, crimes against the united states. So to the extent that any of these people could potentially be charged with state crimes, the president cant do anything about that. Thats within the purview of the governor. And also if these people are pardoned, they no longer have the right to invoke the fifth. They are in no danger of being incriminated. So mueller in some ways can compel them to testify more broadly than they might otherwise. Rachel, in other news, the attorney general Jeff Sessions is on the cover of Time Magazine declaring, quote, no one is above the law, defending his decision to recuse himself from the russian probe. How is his boss going to react to this . Not well. You say that so definitively. The timing is interesting, too, because heads are rolling left and right and people have said sessions is on the chopping block here, too. Sessions recused himself almost a year ago now, and he is still trying to defend himself because the president is still ticked at him over this, and he clearly feels he needs to try to justify. I just think its interesting. Maybe hes doing this preemptively, maybe he knows something we dont in terms of if hes next to go. But yes, im sure trump will not take that well at all. Or maybe hes afraid hell get the tweet. I mean the ax. The tweetax, right . Next, the family of Stephon Clark prepares to lay the young man to rest this afternoon in sacramento. 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Comcast, building americas largest gigspeed network. While tension grows in sacramento over the shooting death of an unarmed black man, Stephon Clark, his family is preparing for his funeral in just a few hours. Clark was shot and killed by police in his grandmothers backyard nearly two weeks ago. Police said he had a gun in his hand, but later they only found a cell phone. The clark family attorney is responding to that claim. It is less than 17 seconds from the moment that they interact with him until they make the decision to execute him. Now, its so problematic because they are barking orders, but it doesnt seem like they give him any time to comply with their orders. Cnns dan simon joins us now from sacramento. Dan, i assume this is going to be a big turnout expected for this funeral today. Reporter a huge turnout, brianna. People are now beginning to arrive at the church behind me for this Memorial Service expected to get underway in about an hour and a half from now. We expect reverend al sharpton to actually deliver the eulogy. In terms of the overall investigation, brianna, no real updates, but for the first time we are now getting a sense as to what the Police Officers are saying about all of this. And through a statement from the Police Officers association, the two officers involved maintain that they were basically under threat. They say that Stephon Clark got into what was described as a shooting stance. So the officers feared for their lives and then fired their guns, remember, some 20 times. Of course, Stephon Clark was not armed as they thought he was. He was only holding a cell phon