Happened in niger. There are so many questions that really havent been answer said. This might wind up to be mr. Trumps benghazi. To equate this to benghazi is a little too soon. This is new day with chris cuomo and alisyn cammara rcamer. Heres our starting line. Defense secretary james mattis is demanding answers about the ambush in niger that killed four u. S. Soldiers two weeks ago. Senator john mccain says the Trump Administration is not being up front about the investigation. Cnn has new reporting on what happened and we will share with you. Attorney general Jeff Sessions was in the hot seat, refusing to discuss his private conversations with President Trump. There were Heated Exchanges that we will play for you. And a stunning admission from session back seat russias election interference. Also, this bipartisan plan that seemed to be some traction, progress on Health Care Stuck dead in its tracks by President Trump. He initially supported the bill. Theyre not sure why the bill has now stalled. We will take you through it. Lets begin with joe johns live at the white house. Joe . Reporter good morning, chris. President trump and the family of a fallen soldier intensifying the war of words over the language the president used in that now controversial con condolence call. I didnt say what that congresswoman said. Didnt say it at all. Reporter President Trump defending his conversation with the widow of u. S. Army argument la david johnson. We had a very nice conversation with the woman, with the wife who sounded like a lovely woman. Reporter insisting democratic congresswoman Frederica Wilson fabricated her account of what he said and vowed he has proof. I did hear him say im sure i knew what he was signing up for, but it still hurts. She was crying. She broke down. And she said, he didnt even know his name. Reporter wilson Standing Firm with Sergeant Johnsons grieving mother backing the story, telling the Washington Post that the president disrespected her son. The White House Press secretary admitting the president did not record the call and stopping short of denying the president s words but said chief of staff john kelly was with the president when he called the widow. He thought that the president did the best job he could under those circumstances to offer condolences on behalf of the country. Reporter she said kelly is is disgusted by comments. He used the death of his chief of staff son to try to bolster the argument. Mr. Trump has his own way of on dealing with things that i see as inconsistent with what some of his predecessors have done, how they have treated it. Reporter multiple white house officials tell cnn kelly did tell mr. Trump president obama never called him after his son died. Kelly was caught off guard by the president using that information publicly. The controversy growing after mr. Trump insisting he called all the families killed during his presidency. My policy is ive called every one of them. Reporter but the widow of Army Sergeant hunter said she never received the call. I never received the call. My husband died for our country and i dont want that to be in vain. He was again very genuine, generally thankful for my son and service. I didnt feel like it was force or scripted or Something Like to do. Incident was just like talking to a friend. Reporter the Washington Post reports President Trump offered 25,000 to baldridges father but it never came. It mailed the check on wednesday only after the story was published. The white house offered few real answers about why it took so long for the president to issue a Public Statement after the deaths of those soldiers in niger. A National SecurityCouncil Statement was drafted, but the white house decided not to release it, opting instead for the press secretary to make a statement here at the white house. Back to you, chris. Ill take it, joe. We have that initial statement we will read to everyone. Meanwhile, defense secretary mattis is demanding to know what happened in that deadly ambush in niger that killed the four u. S. Soldiers. Senator john mccain said the Trump Administration is not being up front about this investigation. Barbara starr is live at the pentagon with more. What did you learn, barbara . Reporter good morning, alis alisyn. Well, what we know right now is this is going to be a tough issue for the pentagon and the president to explain. Three things. This was an isis attack. Isis. This was an intelligence failure. The intelligence said it was unlikely they would run into trouble. Those troops walked into an ambush of 50 isis fighters. When firefight broke out, french airplanes flew overhead to try and help. But u. S. Officials are telling us in niger, that government did not give permission for offensive air operations. In other words, there was no authority for the aircraft to even drop bombs. So those u. S. Troops were on the ground with essentially no kinetic help. No bombs were able to drop to help them. Where does it all go from here . Were still learning new details. A private aircraft flew into the battle field after the fighting stopped and helped evacuate the dead and the wounded. This raising the essential question, what happened when they lifted off . Why did they not know or did they know they had left a man behind, sergeant la david johnson. He was left behind. He was not evacuated. We do not know if he was alive nor a brief period of time on the ground. His body was found 48 hours later. There are so many questions. But for American Military families, perhaps the essential question, why was a man left behind . Chris, alisyn. Barbara starr, thank you very much for continue to go dig on this. Lets discuss with our panel phillip mudd and diplomatic analyst john kirby. John, let me start with you. We have been on this ever since we found out about it. The point of interest is never how is he dealing with the families. That is part of the moral agency with the president. It has to be done the right way, respectfully and truthfully. This started where we should be focused right now. What happened there . Why didnt he talk about it for so long . Is and how do you get to the bottom of Something Like this . What insight do you have right here . Back to the statements that he didnt talk for 12 days, i think that is abominable. I understand in the day or two after when they were still trying to find Sergeant Johnson they wanted to be careful about what they put out publicly. That makes perfect sense to me. But not to put out a condolence statement is and that is why we got to this bickering between the congresswoman and the president. As to the mission itself, they are investigating this, as they always doment when you have deaths like this as a result of an operation, they will get down to every little detail. Clearly it looks like the guys were surprised in some way and they were not prepared for the eventualities that happened in this mission. I can assure you they will look at every little detail. When theyre doing the investigation, they will be be transparent about it. They will be accountable for what happened and rye to carry the Lessons Learned forward. We hope so. Phil, let us read he to everyone that initial statement that it turns out was not complete or a little bit erroneous. Here it is. This is the one prepared just a day after that says melania and i are heartbroken at the news that three u. S. Service members were killed in niger. Obviously, be there was a fourth. They didnt have all the information yet our administration and our entire nation are deeply grateful for their sacrifice, for their service, and for their patriotism. Again, it makes sense why that didnt go out. It wasnt complete. But then they did get the information about sergeant zone son. Then what should they have done. The press secretary gave condolences. Is this breaking the protocol . I think it is s. And i think the explanation is pretty straightforward when you get to the bottom of it. There is awe difference between protecting yourself politically. My judgment is the reason they delayed the announcement is they are afraid of the painful questions about what happened. They didnt know four people had died, that he thought three had. I think trying to figure out what happened before they put out a statement so they could have some sort of explanation. The problem here is youve got two different issues. Number one, regardless of the embarrassment, regardless of the fact that we might not have had everything about the operation in niger, the president has a responsibility when people representing america overseas have died to offer condolences. That is separate from the question of whether Sarah Sanders has a perfect explanation from the podium and the white house about what happened in the operation. So i think the white house was conflating the two. Were not going to talk until we know what happened because were afraid we dont have answers for the questions. You have to talk about the families. They lost a person in this fight and its not a political issue. Look, and theres no question, john. Politically its better i know this sounds perverse. But it is is better for the president being engaging in this war of words with the democratic congresswoman about what he said, what he didnt say, who is better to the troops, me or obama. This is better for his base. It is a distraction. The families need to be respected. We know that. It will come down to style were points if nothing else. I keep getting contacted by men and women in the military. They are concerned that people dont understand what why were in niger. You guys put them there in the Obama Administration, and that number was increased. These types of missions often dont get any attention or get written off as being support and advisers as if our men and women arent in harms way. This is their concern were going to lose blood and treasure and people dont know what were there or what were doing. Why is this so necessary we had to have our people on the ground in harms way and they were e taken out by eyes dismiss. This is a foreign internal tkeud mission, f. I. D. They are partnering with local forces to improve their cape beabilities to defense their own citizens. In this case most likely in a counterterrorism way. Whether they knew isis was on the ground or not, that will all come out in the investigation. We knew in the Obama Administration that al qaeda and isis affiliated organizations were looking for places to go to metastasize their caliphate as they shrink in iraq and syria. Thats what the mission was about. You recall, chris, and you and i talked about this, about them expanding inside africa for this very purpose. Thats what this is all about. And i agree with the troops and the veterans concerned about which they understand these missions and know where their troops are. Thats exact lu right. I think thats why the would you say should have at the president ial level issued a report right out of the gate. And i think senator mccain is right when he said we need to get more answers from the Senate Armed Services committee side. What i would expect and what i would hope you would see soon is some briefing to members on the hill even, were even much if its closed doors, about the purpose of this mission. As you point out, there are two separate issues, the etiquette and the protocol of calling families, whether the president has done it as off as he said and why he brought up his predecessor and what happened in this mission. So the pentagon and the white house have not been terribly forth coming with what went wrong with this mission. But cnn does have sources. A defense official has shared some information that i will read. It was a green beretled mission. They just finished a meeting with local leaders. And the our soldiers were walking back to their vehicles when they started taking gunfire. And there was some feeling that in fact, some of the locals may have detained them. Maybe some of the locals were in on it. Maybe it was awe setup. Either way they got separated and were extremely vulnerable. Why dont we even have that information . The question is like why the secrecy . Why isnt the pentagon and the white house forth coming . Why is cnn having to go to these unnamed sources . We have invited the white house and the pentagon on to speak about it. But theyre not doing so. Good. I would do the same thing the pentagon and white house are doing. I would force cnn to figure out what happened out there for one simple reason. We saw it in benghaziing, we saw it in las vegas. Somebody speaks, whether its the sheriff in las vegas or about benghazi, the government says well give it to you immediately. Lets correct it. Were half a world away in niger and theyre still trying to figure out whats going on. If youre in the pentagon and white house, they are saying we will not talk because we will get eaten alive. I would do the same thing, i wouldnt speak until i know whats going on. There is a difference between not speaking until you know whats going on and knowing whats going on and not speaking. I dont think they know whats going. These basic details. If were able to find out whats going in in this basic way, they knew too, phil. If were able to find out, they knew too. How it went wrong, sure, they will have to finesse it over time. They didnt talk bit. Thats part of our job. Fellows, thank you for your perspective. As we learn more, we will come back to you about it. There were fireworks for attorney general Jeff Sessions watch this. Mr. Chairman, i dont have to sit in here and listen to his youre the one who without having a chance to respond. Give me a break. All right. What triggered that Heated Exchange next. Its the allnew chevy equinox. This feels like a luxury suv. Your cars here. Bummer. Do we have to take that one back . Boo. Wahwah. Can i take this one home . 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He sparred democratic senator al franken over testimony at his confirmation hearing when sessions said he had not met with russian officials during the president ial campaign when in fact, he had. Listen to this. Thats very different not being able to recall what youve discussed with him is very different than saying i have never had communications with the russians. The ambassador from russia is russian. I conducted no improper discussions with russians as any time regarding a campaign or any other item facing this country. Mr. Chairman, i dont have to sit in here and listen to his youre the one without having a chance to respond. Give me a break. All right. Lets bring in our cnn political analysts. Great to see both of you. It seems like Jeff Sessions didnt want to fully reveal some things. And is he obligated to, john . What did we get yesterday . So theyre invoking executive privilege. The possibility that the president might invoke it, i cant speak. It is the equivalent of taking the fifth if you work for the president. The president has to actually invoke it. This is not the first time we have seen somebody preserve the ability of the executive. Sometimes it is is noted that the executive said to them, this is going to be sensitive stuff. Be careful going forward. It is not the first time we have seen someone do it. This being the second meeting the a. G. Has had on the hill. The senator saying dont do this again. You are stonewalling by sealing off all communication. And hes a form member of the committee. This is stretching that standard, i think. Do we know if members of this committee went to the executive, went to the white house and said, are you going to exert privilege on this . We want to know before our conversations in. We know they wrote a letter to sessions. But meanwhile, karoun, he did Say Something chilling and that was his concern on of russian meddling. Not that there is nothing to here. That he is concerned. Listen to this moment. Do you think were doing enough to prepare for future interference by russia and other foreign adversaries in the space . Probably not. Were not. And the matter is so complex that for most of us were not able to fully grasp the technical dangers that are out there. What was it about that moment, karoun . There isnt much political debate on that point. Republicans, Administration Officials, people heading up the investigations in various probes of allegations of russian meddling, everybody agrees that the country has to step up its awareness, potential defenses, at least its ability to be on guard against this happening again especially as with head into the 2018 campaign season. The thing that has proven to be awe problem, though, sometimes its tossed about as an either or. Focus on what we should be doing for the future of russian meddling, dont focus on these questions for trump. Sit both. Both have to proceed along at the same time given the allegations that are out there given the probes ongoing and the role that sessions played in this whole puzzle. Right. What you heard in that exchange was the absence of urgency on the part of sessions. Sort of, on