Decision today. Cnn has learned his list is down to just two or three contenders. Lets figure this out. Jeff zeleny is live at the white house. Where is the smart money . Reporter good morning. The president as we know is completed with his interviews. A white house official saying this morning that the president has talked to all of the potential contenders he wants to speak with. The smart money is that the president is nearing a decision, if hasnt already made it. He is not going to reveal that exact decision, because he wants to keep suspension for this building, and leave opt possibility something could come out. The vetting for Supreme Court justices is taking place in the public eye as well. You see the six potential contenders. The ones on the left, kavanaugh, a federal Appeals Court judge, and coney barrett, on the bench on the seventh circuit in chicago, those two are among the leading contenders. We do not know if theyre the only finalists. Were not calling them finalists. They have been described to us as leading contenders. Raymond kethledge is in the mix as well there. We know the president is narrowing this decision by talking to a variety of people. Im told he will spend time on the phone this morning here at the white house. He will fly to montana this afternoon for a Campaign Rally there. Thats a lot of phone time for him before flying to new jersey tonight. He has a lot of time alone with his advisers, with all the information about these potential contenders. He is close to making up his mind. Were not going to find out the answer to that until monday evening. We say that now. Until a saturday tweet. Just kidding. Jeff, the president thanks for ruining my weekend. I would never want to do that to you. But its going to happen. The president makes the final call, of course. It sounds like everyone and anyone is trying to have a say in this. Reporter thats definitely true. The president essentially has an open door policy with senators and other activists. By that i mean, he loves to take phone calls. He takes phone calls from a variety of people, perhaps the person driving the truck behind me here. He really is hearing from a lot of conservative activists, from senators and the lobbying campaign is really hitting a fever pitch now. They know that they are trying to get his attention. Its taking place on the media. We know he watches cable television. He reads conservative media. Theres a slew of people endorsing some contenders, sort of dismissing others. Its unclear how much this outside campaign is affecting the inside one. If you have an opinion on the Supreme Court justice and you want to make that case known to the president , today is the day to make that known. Im told he actually is getting phone calls from donors, from activists and from members of congress as well. And truck drivers. Its great to see you. From one mystery to another. A different one. A couple in southern england poisoned and fighting for their lives. They were exposed to the same military grade nerve agent that nearly killed a former russian spy and his daughter back in march. That attack in march happened just ten miles away from where this couple was found. Police are searching for a connection. The British Government is pointing the finger at russia once again. Listen to this. Its the actions of the russian government that this that continue to undermine our security and that of the international community. Its completely unacceptable for our people to be either deliberate or accidental targets or for our streets, passion pare dumping grounds for poison. Nic robertson is on the scene. Whats the latest you are hearing . Reporter well, the idea at the moment seep seems to be fo on that these were accidental victims of the attack on the rush the former Russian Military secret agent and his daughter back in march. The connection is there. Its the same agent. Not perhaps the same batch. But the two locations, here in amesbury why the couple were picked up by ambulance, just ale miles away where the attack took place in march. Right now, there are five different locations that are being secure and searched by police. Three here in amesbury and two in salisbury. The couple are in Critical Condition in hospital were in salisbury. The British Government says russia needs to provide more information. Russia saying it wasnt involved in the attack in march and not this attack either. The two people in Critical Condition. According to the British Government, not intended targets. The focus seems to be at the moment, until we get more information, on a possibility of some piece of discarded nerve agent, discarded back in march, that wasnt picked up, that was found by this couple over the weekend, somehow contaminated them and landed them desperately ill in hospital. Amazing. So many questions here. I appreciate it. Joining me to figure this out, phil ingram, an expert on chemical and biological weapons. Thanks for coming in. Not a problem. Your first thought is, are these people, of course, connected . Are these people connected to the former russian spy . Nic is laying out, right now the going theory is that they are accidental victims. They dont see any connection. How could they come in contact with this poison then . I dont see there being any connection. I think its nic is right, its an accidental contaminat n contamination. They have come across the wouldbe assassinations have discarded either the container that they used to carry the agent down to salisbury in or some of the protective clothing or they spilled something on a piece of equipment that they touched. A professional assassin using a nerve agent to try and kill somebody, then throwing it out or spilling it or discarding their clothing, does that seem sloppy . Does that seem logical . It does, because i dont think they were trying to kill them. It was the byproduct. The main reason for the attack was sending a message. It happened 14 days before the president ial elections in russia. Putin was very concerned that he wasnt going to get the majority than he had beforehand. There was a lot of dissenters. This was a clear message to them and a clear message domestically that he is not willing to suffer anyone who will go against him. If we take that as the motive, the assassins werent concerned it wouldnt point back to russia. The reason why they were chosen is because they were based in salisbury. They had the traitor connection to russia, so thats a legitimate target in putins eyes. The connection with the uk defense and Technical Laboratory looking at biological warfare, one of the leading laboratories, gave them deniability. The russians put out false information and false news. Again, so much is not known about this most recent poisoning. If its the same nerve agent but not the same batch, what does that mean . The british home secretary today in Parliament Said he couldnt confirm that it was the same batch. It might not be chemically possible to do that. He hasnt said its not same batch. The chances of there being two different nerve agents in a small english city which is quintessentially beautiful within three months of each other is highly unlikely. I think theres a greater chance we will win the u. S. National lottery, the Uk National Lottery and australian National Lottery this weekend. The fact that they are both agents is a good enough link to link the two together. Got you. Could this nerve agent be laying around in a discarded piece of clothing for four months with no one knowing about it until now and still be this powerful . It could. The thing is that its designed to do two things. Its a very persistent agent. It doesnt degrade under normal conditions. Its designed to be around for months. Militarily, there is an area denial weapon, a chemical minefield. The second thing that there is with it is it only requires small amounts. It will not degrade. It will stay in the ground. Its designed to be persistent and designed to affect people long after its been laid. Bringing no comfort to these people in Critical Condition in hospital right now. Thanks for coming in. I appreciate it. Thank you. Terrifying. Overseas and under pressure, secretary of state mike pompeo, he is en route to meet kim jongun. Any real signs of progress from getting rid of north koreas nukes . The federal government is not providing updates on children separated from their parents. How many are detained or how many have been reunited. They are now using dna testing, they say, to bring families back together. Why . This is your wakeup call. If you have moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis, month after month, the clock is ticking on irreversible joint damage. 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And north korean officials have met since the summit. My understanding is that the u. S. Ambassador to the philippines delivered a letter from President Trump to kim jong jongun. They are trying to get this process going with north korea in terms of getting them to declare their nuclear sites, talk about a timetable for denuclearization. I spoke with the secretary last week. He was saying, he is not going to put a time line on it as long as he sees progress. He is not going to cut off negotiations by a certain point. I think even the secretary knows that he is under the gun to start delivering the kind of results that President Trump is touting from the summit. Theres a lot of question, we are not hearing tough rhetoric from the u. S. About moving forward, they are being very patient. Theres some questions about whether the u. S. Is softening its approach. Secretary just left this morning for north korea. His spokesman telling reporters, nothing could be further from the truth and the secretary will try to advance this agreement and start a process of north korea dismantling its Nuclear Program. Lets see what comes from it. Great to see you, elise. Thank you. Could u. S. Relations with latin america be in jeopardy . President trump floated the idea of invading venezuela during private talks last summer and discussed the possibility with other latin american leaders. Venezuelas president is displeased to say the leaf. Jeremy diamond is skrojoining m with the reporting. Reporter Senior Administration official told me that the president essentially floated this idea during a meeting with some of his Top National Security advisers as they were discussing the idea of additional sanctions against venezuela. The president appeared to have asked, well what about the possibility of invading the country . That was something the president was asking if it could be a p potentially viral route. The official stressed there was no plan concrete plan at any point for any kind of military action against venezuela and compared this to the president simply thinking out loud. What is clear is that the president was thinking about this notion not just in that meeting but in subsequent days and the subsequent month. The next day after this meeting, he was at bedminster with Foreign Policy advisers and this is what he said. Im not going to rule out a military option. We have troops all over the world, in places that are very far away. Venezuela is not far away. The people are suffering and theyre dieing. We have many options for venezuela, including a possible military option. Reporter you hear him the day after that meeting talking about a possible military option against venezuela. The president continued to raise that possibility in meetings with latin american leaders, all of whom were adamant with the president that they did not want this, the president s own National Security advisers warned him such an option could backfire. It does emphasize the nature in which the president has talked about these military options and the way that some of his Foreign Policy aides have had to try to dissuade him not only with v venezuela but with north korea as well. In january, the president sought to evacuate military families from there, the president s advisers were worried could signal a wartime footing from the u. S. And could put the u. S. And north korea on the brifrnk war. Joining me, jeffrey prescott, former senior director of president owe b obamas nati security council. I want to ask you about north korea. We have to talk about this. To this point, there hasnt been any concrete progress towards denuclearization that has been made public. The only thing we have seen is the contrary. In your view, what does mike pompeo need to get out of these meetings . You are right, he does have a very tall agenda. The agenda is long because of the gap between President Trumps rhetoric and the actions of the north korean leader. We have not seen any concrete steps toward dismantling north Koreas Nuclear program. We have seen reports that the north koreans may be expanding their facilities. There may be secret facilitys secret facilities we dont know about. Theres work pompeo needs to tackle to bridge the gap if its possible between trumps rhetoric about this being solved and what we see on the ground in north korea. If the measure of a good deal to the Trump Administration is getting one thats better than the iran deal, which the president pulled out of, what does that deal need to look like . I think at the end of the day, we have to ask ourselves the question, does north korea still have Nuclear Weapons and the ability to deliver them to the United States. Thats the bottom line security concern that we should have. There are a lot of steps we need to take to get from here to there. First one could be getting north koreans to declare and list all of the facilities, all of the sites, stockpile that they have. It doesnt seem like pompeo has been able to get that out of his two prior trips to north korea so far. I think we need to look for concrete actions on the north korean side before we declare Mission Accomplished here. John bolton over the weekend said they have a plan to denuclearize north korea in a year. Does that seem fiezabeasible to . I think its a very tall order. First of all, we have to see some evidence of intent on the north korean side to go down that road. Im putting the cart before the horse on this. Regardless. Its a very complicated matter. North korea may have up to 60 Nuclear Weapons. They have the ability to produce six more a year at least. There are a number of facilities we dont know about. A lot of their infrastructure is underground and hidden away. Its probably likely that we dont have complete visibility into the entire program. First you have to know whats there. Then you have to begin a painstaking process of beginning to account for it and dismantle it. We have seen very little indication that north korea is willing to go there. Its useful to contract the iran nuclear deal. There iran had to ship out 97 of its enriched uranium material before they got sanction relief. They had inspectors all over the country. They had to have lock down their program so they could not if they wanted to create a single nuclear weapon. North korea is a much more complicated problem given the stockpile they have. On venezuela, did president obama ever think out loud about potentially invading the country . Its certainly not. Its one tlihing to think out. Its another to spill into public or talk about it in public as you just were demonstrating through the clip of President Trump essentially voicing these thoughts. Frankly, i think theres little better gift you could give to the regime than to turn the focus on the United States as the external threat to them rather than on the dysfunctional politics and the poor leadership that maduro brought to the country. This is an example where the region wants to see a change and put pressure on venezuela. Its hard for them to do that when the United States seems like its the outside aggressor. I need to take on something