this is cnn breaking news. >> hello and welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm john vause live in los angeles where it is just turned 11:00 here on the west coast. u.s. president donald trump is now in beijing, the third stop on his asia tour, which have some said will call for delicate diplomacy as he pushes china to do more to end north korea's nuclear program. hours earlier at south korea's national assembly, the president condemned north korea's oppressive regime, while praising seoul's accomplishments over the past seven decades. he said america does not seek conflict with north korea, but will not run from it either. and he issued another stark warning to kim jong-un. >> today, i hope i speak not only for our countries, but for all civilized nations, when i say to the north, do not underestimate us. and do not try us. >> joining us now is cnn's matt rivers in beijing and paula hancocks in seoul. paula, let's start with that speech. many lawmakers in south korea were nervous that donald trump's remarks would raise pepgss wite with pyongyang, but this teamed to be a typical speech from a u.s. president, met with a standing ovation. >> reporter: that's right, yes. 35 minutes, a standing ovation at the end. to be fair, he had a stand ovation when he came in, as well. it's a slightly different tact than we've been seeing from the u.s. president, that's for sure. there were no direct threats to totally destroy north korea. there were no personal insults against the north korean leader. but really, the very blunt criticism and insults that he was leveling at the country may actually annoy north korea even further, pointing out this stark contrast between the north and the south, talking about the south's successes and talking about the north koreans human rights abuses, the gulags, the fact that they had a devastating famine in the 1990s, the fact that kim jong-un is more concerned about pumping money into a nuclear missile program than feeding his own people. now, all of this is based on fact, but it was put forward in a very forceful way, almost an emotional way, almost putting himself on the moral high ground. and then questioning how others could let this happen, how other countries could support such a regime. so certainly it was a fairly strong speech, john. >> it was a strong speech, and part of that speech was calling on china to do more. so matt, over to you in beijing. we heard this a lot from this administration in washington, this demand for china to do more to end the nuclear threat coming from north korea. and donald trump actually arrive there is in beijing with congress back in washington, moving closer to approving sanctions, which will specifically target chinese banks and companies which do business with the north. so that gives these some teeth to that demand, i guess. >> reporter: yeah. and what the chinese are going to say to donald trump is they don't believe those so-called secondary sanctions are the way forward. they believe the only way to solve this ongoing crisis is through bilateral negotiation between the united states and north korea. that said, the chinese would say that they've already signed on to some of the toughest sanctions ever imposed against north korea. those sanctions couldn't go forward without their approval, so china says they're doing enough already, but that brings us to this stalemate that's existed between the united states and china throughout the entirety of donald trump's presidency. the trump administration's tune on china has not changed. they want china to use their economic leverage to force north korea to stop developing nuclear weapons, and china says we're not willing to do anything to cut off trade that could cause the kim jong-un regime to collapse. they say it would make things worse. in reality, it also has a lot to do with their geopolitical strategy, as north korea has a buffer state there. but we're at a stalemate. it will be interesting to see if either leader can be forced to move in the other direction. >> is it a blue sky day there? >> reporter: you know, yes, it is. it's a blue sky day. it's cloudy now, but no pollution today. >> amazing what they can do when they want to. matt there in beijing and paula in seoul. a lot more on this now. our political panelist joins us now. okay. so the u.s. president is giving a standing ovation, paula hancocks said it went for 35 minutes. there was extended applause throughout the speech. so the south koreans liked what they heard or are they just relieved he didn't insult kim jong-un and start a war or something? >> i think it's problem the latter. the fact is we haven't had a tweet storm regarding north korea in a couple of days. >> twitter is blocked in china, but he should be able to get access. >> i'm sure the president of the united states will have access. >> but that is a real danger in these negotiations is that the president, you know, gets up in the middle of the night and reads something, gets upset and tweets. >> absolutely. and i think that's a big question like is he going to do something to really create a disastrous scenario for his china trip. but look, i think with this speech tonight, he's setting himself up for failure, because he's trying to intensify the pressure on russia and china. but they just increased sanctions. on a personal level, i support tougher sanctions, but we haven't seen any indication that china is willing to do anything more than what they've already done. so that's the big question. if he comes back without any deliverables on that front, is he going to look like a weaker president than he did going into this trip? >> okay. john, one thing which the president does deserve credit for was highlighting the appalling human rights abuses of the north korean regime. it has been a long time since a u.s. president went into that much detail like president trump did. >> he said north korea is hell. but north korea is worse than hell. north korea, they have nothing. those people are eating tree bark, and that's a thing, too, that most of our allies or all of them can sign onto. the countries that he's visiting right now, even china and russia. if they're honest about it, they have to admit the human rights atrocities going on in north korea need to be condemned with them and the united nations. >> it's a problem though, if you call out north korea's human rights abuses, you have to do that everywhere around the world where abuses are going on. >> right now, north korea is the problem. we have what's on our plate, and right now north korea is firing missiles off into the ocean over our allies. so we have to take care of this now before it becomes a disaster. >> the tone from the president's speech in seoul a few hours ago, it was tough, but at least there's this talk of diplomacy, of trying to find a way out of this. the problem is, the north koreans have made it clear they will never give up their nuclear program. it seems the president is learning what other presidents have learned over the years. >> well, it's a hard lesson to learn, too. the reality is, he's stuck between a rock and a hard place. i do think he has some leverage with the chinese. we trade a lot with them. and trump made a big campaign plank that he was going to change the trade relationship. so that is on the table and can be negotiated. so i think there's some significant leverage with the chinese. i think it's ironic that for him to influence the north koreans, he has to turn to the chinese and the russians, with all the concerns about russian collusion with the trump administration, you would think he could just pick up the phone and ask vladamir putin to do what he wants. >> you'd think. before the president made that address in seoul to the national assembly, officials in pyongyang said we will ever more strongly reforge the played blade of our treasured sword of rig shouse and open up a new era of prosperity with that treasured sword. which means they're not giving up their nuclear weapons. so michael, in the past, the goal of diplomacy and talks has been essentially to put limits on north korea's nuclear program. is the president here making some sort of big opening play and he's willing to walk it back or do you think that's it? >> i think he would count progress, if he could get the ballistic missiles off the table, i think that would be progress, because our national security threat and the jeez are affected by those. i think if you were to get some restraints on him, if you got some external verification and control on those facilities, i think any form of real progress, substantive, verifiable progress is something he'll be shooting for. in an ideal world, we get them to give up that their nuclear weapons. if you enlist the russians and the chinese as your allies, the north koreans may not have any choice. >> i would like all of you to stay with us. it's been a big night in the u.s. as far as lelections and democrats have been riding an anti-donald trump wave in virginia and new jersey. cnn is preventing ralph northam will defeat ed gillespie. >> in new jersey, democrat phil murphy will move into the governor's mansion, replacig the very unpopular republican governor chris christie. exit polls show the president's approval rating there at 36%. >> with donald trump in the white house, jeff sessions as attorney general, polluters running the epa, zell lots heading the department of education, and steve bannon holding republicans in congress hostage, governors will have never mattered more. >> okay, back to the panel now. so let's focus on that race in virginia, because that was the big one. that was the bellwether, if you like. so dave, tell me how this is the start of the anti-trump wave, how this is all about the democrats retaking the lower house, the house of reps at the midterms and john, you can follow up why he's completely wrong and gillespie never embraced donald trump and it's all his fault. >> it's clear this was a referendum against the president. any republican running across the country, top of the ticket, bottom of the country, you're running on donald trump's coat tails. and the fact is, this is a significant win. it was a nine-point shellacking as president obama said back in 2010. democrats won at the top of the ball londoned a the lieutenant governor's race, picked up four seats in the state assembly in virginia. and so i think if you read the tea leaves, this could be the beginning of a potential blue wave we'll see in 2018 elections, and i think you're seeing historic low approval ratings with the president. 33%, which is unprecedented for a president in their first year. so look, it's still early, of course. if you look at the generic balance for congress, democrats are leading by double digits. >> in regard to the tweet, what is the saying, success has a thousand fathers and failure is an orphan. i think we saw a little bit of that play itself out. all politics is local. this is a blue state, a state that's been voting democrat. they have a popular democratic governor. governors in the state of virginia are only allowed to one for one term. this is the lieutenant governor running for the second term of the terry mccauliff administration. the surprising thing is the republicans had a chance. every possible advantage was going to the democrats. i would add this point to the national perspective. donald trump's numbers aren't good right now, that's true. but they never were good. they weren't good for the campaign. he beat hillary clinton. and the democrats right now have numbers that are in the toilet. they've had their lowest number as a party. so i don't think you can take too much from this race outside of the fact that in virginia, the democrats are on their way out. >> so michael, what's the reality? break it down. >> i get to play referee here. i think it's a little of both. i think the virginia democratic party did a fantastic job organizing. they had a tough primary. they brought the party together. i think that's a lesson going into the midterms. it's not about running against russia or trump but creating a positive message of unity. that's worked for them. at the same time, there's a hangover from last year's election. a lot of the workers in washington, d.c. live in northern virginia. they woke up a year ago and said what happened? this time they made sure it wouldn't happen again and they worked hard to locali iziz iziz organize locally. i know they had a shot at taking over the house of delegates, as well, which would be remarkable. that would be 17 seats they would have to flip. >> okay. towards the end, a few weeks ago, ed gillespie the republican, tried some trump tactics hitting on immigration. running ads like this. >> ms-13 is a mess. but ralph northam let dangerous immigrants back on the street, increasing the threat. ralph northam's policies are dangerous. >> northam also had his own controversies, as well. an outside democratic group aired this commercial once or twice, but it was roundly criticized. ♪ >> run! >> is this what donald trump and ed gillespie mean by the american dream? >> yes, running immigrant children down in a pickup truck, it was awful. the people in washington, d.c. has to be relieved this is over, because these ads were horrendous. but does this mean republicans look at this and say hey, maybe we need to change strategy here? >> come on, on the catiness scale, this is not a blip. we had a presidential election where they were doing everything but throwing chardonnay in each other's faces. in a country where we have a president whose approval rating is in the 30s and a democratic party whose approval rating is in the 30s, any issue that flips 50-50 is a winner. the exit polling, they asked people about the confederate statues and it turns out the vast majority of virginians wanted to keep them up. i don't think the cultural issues are winners for the democrats, particularly in states even like virginia that are as blue as that state. >> dave? >> i don't think the cultural issues clearly, according to the election results today are winning issues for republicans. you know, republicans in virginia campaigned on exploiting racial stereotypes. you know, the republicans sent out mail pieces embracing donald trump's call where nfl players ought to stand up for the pledge of allegiance. and i think the reality is, these aren't winning issues for republicans. you've got to be talking about a time when there's so much chaos across the country because washington is not getting anything done, what americans are looking for is real collaboration. people are going to get stuff done and move forward. donald trump's brand is the embodiment of divisiveness and chaos. >> the republicans didn't put out the ad running over a child. >> very quickly, michael, one of the exit polls i saw, the people who voted for northam the democrat, i think 35%, the top issue for them was health care. and that seems to be a very big issue. could that be a big issue moving forward? >> it's going to be. whatever shape the health care system ends up in is going to sway a lot of votes. this is an area where congress should have bipartisan initiatives to deal with some of the problems. everybody agrees the system is broken. this is where hopefully some of those theoretical moderates can come together. i think president trump at this point is desperate enough for a win that he will sign legislation, if they get it to him. the challenge is getting it to him. one of the messages for this campaign going forward, especially for republicans after virginia, has to be they need to produce some things that they can run on, and right now they don't have much on their mate that they can say we have accomplished. if they don't have that, it may turn out worse than they thought. >> just on that note, it was interesting when donald trump was in seoul, he mentioned neil gorsuch being appointed to the supreme court. not a lot to talk about, i guess. dave, john, michael, thanks for being with us. we ale take a break. when we come back, the texas church shooter had a well known history with domestic violence, but yet he was legally able to buy guns. and a new gun before the u.s. house calls for examining a link between domestic violence and mass shootings. we'll look at the chilling numbers in just a moment. work keeps me busy. so i've asked chase sapphire reserve cardmembers to find my next vacation. rome, show me something. i'm having breakfast at the pantheon. what an amazing view... of your finger. ♪ ♪ look at this view. your finger! isn't that incredible. your finger! and check this one out! oh it's so amazing! move your finger! three times points on travel and restaurants on every continent. sapphire reserve, from chase. make more of what's yours. willy davis, who has alzheimer's. i 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dermatologist about otezla today. otezla. show more of you. when i met my team at ctca, they put together a comprehensive plan, that gave me an opportunity to accomplish my goals, and my dreams. learn more at cancercenter.com welcome back, everybody. the violent past of the texas church shooter should have prevented him from legally purchasing a firearm. according to a police report, he also escaped from a mental health facility five years ago. he passed background checks because the air force failed to report he had been convicted of domestic assault. for more on that, wendy walsh joins us now. thank you for coming by. as all these details emerge about the shooter here, we hear about his violent history, it's becoming clear that he's fitting this pattern, this example of a connection between domestic violence and mass shootings. so explain a little bit more about that. >> the numbers are interesting. it's more than 50% of mass shooters have also engaged in domestic violence at some point in their life. that doesn't suggest causality. in other words, if you commit domestic violence, you're going to commit a mass shooting. however, it does show some correlation. i would say looking at it psychologically, we're talking about somebody with, you know, some major personality disorder, some early life trauma. and where our psychosis plays out first is in our most intimate relationships. it's almost like you've heard the saying, we saved the most sadistic parts of our personalities for the ones we love the most. and even in healthy relationships that is true, but it doesn't turn into violence. so the question is, can we use this, this knowledge that we have, to prevent mass shootings in the future? >> let's look at some of the numbers. they looked at mass shootings in the u.s. where four or more people were killed between 2009 and 2016, a total of 161 shootings, leaving more than 800 people dead, and they found in at least 54% of the mass shootings, the perpetrator shot a current or former intimate partner or family member. these mass shootings resulted in 420 victims being killed, 40% of woman were children. the numbers tell a really compelling story here. but what we still don't have is this direct link between domestic violence and mass shootings. how they are linked, if you like. >> well, psychologically, you could go to simply say that is the practice ground. that is the intimate place where, in the privacy of one's home, somebody with a major anger and rage issue, and potentially a chemical problem, neuro chemistry problem, that's where they begin, and that's where it begins. so is the root to stopping mass shootings beginning with intimate partner violence? i think yes. >> the canary in the coal mine. >> i think domestic violence is the canary in the coal mine when it comes to mass shootings. this is our first line of knowledge that something's off. now, i also think domestic violence is highly underreported. one in four american women will suffer domestic violence in their lifetime. and much of it goes unreported. even if charges are dropped. so if we are talking about potential gun regulation, do we say everybody convicted of domestic violence or it's been reported on them? >> all of this is worth looking at. this country seems paralyzed by this at the moment. when you throw a gun into the mix, there's one study out there that found the chance s a woman will be shot and killed increases fivefold. >> and if a woman owns a gun herself for her own protection, there's much more chance that gun will be used against her rather than to protect her. so we look at the data, but i think convincing people that legislative change needs to happen isn't really about the facts. it's more about changing people's idea. i think we need more people on the right, more conservative people, more validaters from law enforcement, from the military, trusted people to come forward and say, look, police officers say getting a call for a domestic violence call is the most dangerous situation they can be put in, and they know that, right? so why don't we start at the beginning and get the guns out of the hands of domestic violence perpetrators. >> with that in mind, paul ryan was asked about do we need to tighten laws on gun owners. he said this guy shouldn't have passed a background check. >> this man should not have gotten a gun, because he was a domestic abuser. we have laws that say you're not supposed to own a gun if you were a domestic abuser. that's why we got all these questions with the air force right now, which is how did this slip through the cracks? how is this person convicted of domestic abuse by the air force, how did he get a gun? because the laws we have right now on the books say a person like this should not have gotten a gun. >> and that's true, because he was married to the woman he was abusing. what if it's the girlfriend loophole, what if the woman abused drops the charges down from a felony to a mismean nor? >> is the air force's criminal database shared with gun background things? there's the loophole there. there is something called the boyfriend loophole. if you're married to the woman, if you have children with the woman, then, and you've been convicted, then you cannot own a gun. but if you just dated and decided to shoot someone, it's okay, you can get another gun. the boyfriend loophole, we have to close that one up. >> wendy, good to see you. thank you so much. the u.s. president is in china where he's set to attend a history making dinner where he's in the city where many of the emperors once lived. all of that just ahead. welcome back, everybody. you're watching cnn newsroom live from los angeles, i'm john vause. donald trump, the u.s. president, has arrived in beijing, the third stop of a 12-day tour of asia. right now, he's actually in the forbidden city, and he will be there for some time. this is where the communist party leadership will wine and dine the u.s. president. a rare honor apparently never bestowed before on a u.s. president. a sign of essentially how much the communist government there wants to woo donald trump. they are rolling out all the stops on this visit. it is a two-night stair there in beijing. of course, the biggest issue, donald trump would like to have resolved by the time he leaves will be pushing china to do more to rein the north koreans and their nuclear missile programs. and if that happens, it will be a major accomplishment. most believe it will not. donald trump was in seoul, south korea addressing the national assembly there, and he did call out north korea. he did issue a very blunt warning say don't test us, but he also offered the hope diplomacy and said he wanted china and russia, among others, to do more. to rein the north koreans. for more on this, cnn's matt rivers is live in beijing. and daniel lynch is in hong kong from the university of southern california. daniel, just first to you. there's the wining and the dining. there's all the pomp and circumstance here. that does not necessarily mean that donald trump is going to get his way. >> no. and i think that pomp and circumstance actually cuts both ways. on the one hand, it's designed to appeal to trump's ego and to show him, i think you used the term last show to impress him. so he's made the ride in from the airport, into the center of beijing. he's traveled down those broad boulevards with the tall buildings. he's a president that is impressed by tall and strong buildings, and i think it communicates that china has risen again, and i think now taking him to the forbidden city where he'll have dipper, will resonate with xi jinping's promise to the nation, that he will restore china to centrality. i think president trump and anyone will get the message that china is a great country and is back when they make that trip and have dinner in the forbidden city. >> matt, to you in beijing. it's very hard for people outside of china to understand how special this is, having the u.s. president inside the forbidden city. i remember back in 2007, starbucks got run out of the forbidden city because it seemed to be too american. so this is something which xi jinping is doing, essentially because he can right now. >> reporter: yeah. you know, that's exactly right. xi jinping has consolidated power in a way no chinese leader has since the founder of the communist china. so xi jinping, in days past for example, when he first took over in 2012, there's no way he would have been able to do this, if only because domestically he would have gotten a lot of criticism. the forbidden city is an essential part of chinese culture, and to bring a foreign leader in there, to show that kind of respect would have met with a lot of pushback. and it's also a symbol of some difficult times in china's past, during the later years of the imperial system here, the forbidden city was for some time an example of how china couldn't stand up to the world's power. but now xi jinping has really said this is my country. i'm going to do what i want to do here. and there is a lot of symbolism with him taking donald trump inside the forbidden city. he's say thing is what i can do, and who's going to stop me now, because my name and my thoughts are etched into the chinese communist party's constitution. >> just a few hours earlier, donald trump was in seoul and he had this personal message, sort of an insult if you like, to kim jong-un. listen to this. >> i also have come here to this peninsula to deliver a message directly to the leader of the north korean dictatorship. the weapons you are acquiring are not making you safer, they are putting your regime in grave danger. every step you take down this dark path increases the peril you face. north korea is not the paradise your grandfather envisioned. it is a hell that no person deserves. >> daniel, to you. that always seems sort of worse than calling him rocket man. >> it does in a way. i think it's also an interesting statement in so far as it will appeal to beijing. for decades, the chinese leaders have been trying to encourage north korea to pursue the same kind of reform that china has pursued so successfully. north korea always refuses. so to say that north korea is not the paradise that kim jong-un's grand father expected, chinese leaders will say you're right, it's not. by making reference to kim il-sung, i think that's kind of a shoutout to china, as well as an insult to north korea. >> there's so much going on, you know, you can read into this, because it is all nuanced. it's diplomacy, it's china, it's north korea. but daniel, thank you for smaning some of it. and matt, thank you for keeping us updated with the president's visit there. with that, we'll take a short break here. more on donald trump's warning to kim jong-un. that warning he dlicherred frde south korea's national assembly. what does north korea think about all this in? that in a moment. manolo! you're 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things that were once a given. going to college... buying a home... and not being in debt for it for the rest of our lives. but we're only as strong as our community. who inspires and pushes us to go further than we could ever go alone. sofi. get there sooner. and i am a senior public safety my namspecialist for pg&e. my job is to help educate our first responders on how to deal with natural gas and electric emergencies. everyday when we go to work we want everyone to work safely and come home safely. i live right here in auburn, i absolutely love this community. once i moved here i didn't want to live anywhere else. i love that people in this community are willing to come together to make a difference for other people's lives. together, we're building a better california. just a few hours ago in seoul, the u.s. president warned north korea's kim jong-un do not underestimate us, and do not try us. cnn's will ripley has north korea's reaction in this exclusive report. >> reporter: i spoke with north korean officials here in pyongyang just after president trump gave that speech at the national assembly in seoul. and they reiterated a comment they gave just about an hour before he spoke, trying to down play the significance and the impact of trump's words saying "we don't care about what that mad dog may utter, we've heard enough." the north koreans saying the president's words will not affect any plans for upcoming military tests. they say those plans are already in place, and the words of the u.s. are toing to provoke them. they say there will be more nuclear tests and launches happeni in happening. they said president trump is pushing the korean peninsula to all-out conflict. they said this is the closest the peninsula has been to war since 1953. that's a strong statement, considering there have been many moments where tensions have been high. but it goes to show you how seriously right now the north korean government takes the rhetoric and the actions perhaps even more importantly of the trump administration, because as we speak, there are three u.s. aircraft carriers in the waters off the korean peninsula. there's a ballistic missile submarine preparing to engage in large-scale military exercises, the exercises that always infuriate this government and provoke them to engage in a response on their own. so will north korea follow through on a nuclear test or a missile launch? president trump is here in asia, so we'll have to watch and wait. okay, f. donald trump raised in his speech, the thee aircraft carriers, he referred to them as the most beautiful f-18s and f-35s. that's a message to north korea and china. >> it says here we are, we're serious. there's a defensive aspect. the president of the united states is just a few miles from somebody that he eex es chanxch harsh words with. >> donald trump has drawn so many red lines, it's like a crayon gone crazy. and he drew a lot more red lines now. if he wasn't backed into a corner before, he is now. >> he made a statement that he's going to try to change the status quo. the trend that north korea is on is a threat to the united states. as president, he's trying to reverse that. whether he's successful or not is going to depend a lot on the chinese and russians. >> the problem is that chinese and russian interests when it comes to north korea, are completely opposed to u.s. interests. >> absolutely in the case of russia. in the case of china, we have some leverage with all the trade and issues that trump has raised in terms of the bilateral relationship to put pressure on. >> the president raised this -- made this call for all peace loving nations to come together. that's a multinational strategy. like playing 3-d chess. some say this is a president who likes playing checkers or hungry, hungry hippo. this is not his thing, right? >> i think that the multilateral sanctions at the u.n. were a first step. he'll leverage those as far as he can. but he'll cut some bilateral deals with the chinese to put nor pressure on the north koreans. >> the issue, though, for china is that they are willing to go as far as they have to, to keep washington happy. just enough to that the regime never collapses. and that's kind of what we've seen play out time and time again. >> the issue is the nuclear weapons. i think that trump would be happy enough without regime change, as long as there was a sense that the nuclear weapons were off the table. >> in the past, when there's been this diplomacy between the six party talks for example, the united states, north korea, and a few other countries, china, japan, russia. those talks were aimed at getting a freeze on the nuclear program, freezing the nuclear program. donald trump made this demand of de-nuclearization before talks can get off the ground. that seems to be a non-starter. >> it'sing negotiating position. he'll be satisfied with progress. if you have the chinese controlling the weapons, that might satisfy him. >> it's like an iran nuclear deal. don't mention the nuclear deal in iran. michael, thank you so much. we'll take a short break. when we come back, with last year's cyber attack on the democratic party an inside job or the result of russian interference? more from washington in just a moment. ♪when you've got...♪ ♪...nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea!♪ ♪nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea!♪ here's pepto bismol! ah. ♪nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea!♪ hi, i'm the internet! you knoarmless bowling.lt? ahhhhhhhh! you know what's easy? building your website with godaddy. get your domain today and get a free trial of gocentral. build a better website in under an hour. to find smarter solutions. to offer more precise and less invasive treatment options than before. like advanced genomic testing and immunotherapy. see how we're fighting to outsmart cancer at cancercenter.com/outsmart the energy conscious whopeople among usle? say small actions can add up to something... humongous. a little thing here. a little thing there. starts to feel like a badge maybe millions can wear. who are all these caretakers, advocates too? turns out, it's californians it's me and it's you. don't stop now, it's easy to add to the routine. join energy upgrade california and do your thing. we are back everyone, 6:00 to the top of the hour, we are learning more about an unusual request that the president made to his assistant. he asked for him to meet with a conspiracy theorist, that felt that last year's cyber attack was an inside job rather than something carried on out by russians. >> reporter: multiple sources tell cnn that mike pompeo met at the president's urging, with one of the deniers of russian interference with elections. he met with william bennie, a former national security agency employee, that theorized that thousands of the democratic committee e-mails was actually an inside job, carried on out not by russia by by a dnc employee. the meeting lasted an hour, and they said that the president told me i should talk to you. regarding the meeting the cia refused on to comment. but it said that the director "stands by and has always stood by the january 17 intelligence community assessment that russia interfered in the 2016ity presidential election." the president himself has repeatedly questioned russia's involvement. both during the campaign. >> i don't think anybody knows it was russia that broke in to the dnc, she is saying russia, russia, russia. >> reporter: and since his election as well. >> if you don't catch a hacker, in the act, okay, it's hard to say who did the hacking. with had that being said, i will go along with russia. could have been china, could have been a lot of different groups. >> reporter: in october a clarification was prompted by the cia, when it was said that the russian medali-- russian me did not affect the outcome. >> the assessment is that the russian meddling that took place did not affect the outcome of the election. >> reporter: a statement was released by the cia saying the intelligence assessment with regard to russian meddling has not changed and the director did not intend to suggest that it had. >> you are watching cnn newsroom, for viewers in the u.s., the news started with "early start" after a break, for everyone else, the news will start with rosemary church. you are watching cnn. you nervous? ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ work keeps me busy. so i've asked chase sapphire reserve cardmembers to find my next vacation. rome, show me something. i'm having breakfast at the pantheon. what an amazing view... of your finger. ♪ ♪ look at this view. your finger! isn't that incredible. your finger! and check this one out! oh it's so amazing! move your finger! three times points on travel and restaurants on every continent. sapphire reserve, from chase. make more of what's yours. i enjoy the fresher things in life.o. fresh towels. fresh soaps. and of course, tripadvisor's 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