This is cnn breaking news. Breaking news tonight. New details of the ambush that killed four american soldiers in niger. Joint chiefs chairman general Joseph Dunford just held a lengththy News Conference amid growing demands for more information. D dunford said an investigation is continuing but he revealed for the first time that the u. S. Troops were returning to their base when they were attacked by whats believed to be a local isis affiliate. And he said it was an hour into the firefight before the American Forces asked for additional help. Dunford could not answer why the body of Sergeant La David Johnson was found two days later a mile from the scene of the ambush. Johnsons widow is speak bing out publicly about the controversial condolence call she received from President Trump which she and her family describe as insensitive. She says the president stumbled on her husbands name, and suggested he only knew it because he had a report in front of him. She says that made her cry and made her very angry. And cnn has learned that the head of the Environmental Protection agency, scott pruitt, is getting increased roundtheclock security at a cost of millions of dollars in response to multiple Death Threats. That comes as the agency faces sharp budget cuts, and pruitt faces crying questions about rollbacks of Environmental Protections and meetings with a fossil fuel industry. Were covering all of that much more this hour with our guests including the top democrat in the House Oversight and government reform committee, congressman Elijah Cummings and correspondents and specialists are also standing by. Lets begin with the widow of the u. S. Soldier killed in niger speaking out about the president s controversial condolence call to her. Jim acosta is joining us. There are two very different accounts of that call. Reporter two very different accounts, wolf, no regrets from the president today but the white house appears to be putting the brakes on anymore comments on the deaths of those four soldiers in niger. Today President Trump was asked repeatedly about his handling of the soldiers deaths as well as his treatment of a gold star mother, but unlike last week, there was near total silence from the president. Can you tell the public what happened in niger . Reporter it was an uncharacteristically silent President Trump avoiding questions all day long on the widow of la david johnson, the Army Sergeant killed along with three other Service Members in niger earlier this month. Do you regret that Myesha Johnson reporter the questions are not going away. In part because the sergeants widow Myesha Johnson shared with abc that the president said her late husband knew what he was signing up for in a phone call. The president said that he knew what he signed up for but it hurts, anyway. And i was it made me cry because i was very angry at the tone in his voiceremembered my husbands name, he told me he had my husbands report in front of him and thats when he actually said la david. I heard him stumbling on trying to remember my husband name. And that hurt me the most because if my husband is out here fighting for our country, and he risks his life for our country, why cant you remember his name . Reporter shortly after the interview, the president took the unusual step of correcting the widow tweeting, i had a very respectful conversation with the widow of Sergeant La David Johnson and spoke his name from the beginning without hesitation. The widow also backed congresswoman Frederica Wilson who was in the car with her when the call came in. Whatever miss wilson said was not fabricated. What she said was 100 correct. It was Master Sergeant neil, me, my aunt, my uncle, and the driver and miss wilson in a car. The phone was on speakerphone. Why would we fabbricate somethig like that . Reporter the president and congresswoman wilson are still the it on twitter with mr. Trump trying to capitalize politically on the exchange, tweeting, wacky congresswoman wilson is the gift that keeps on giving for the republican party. A disaster for dems. You watch her in action and vote republican. Wilson firing back, niger is President Trumps benghazi, he needs to own it. Wilson also hitting back at white house chief of staff john kelly who erroneously stated she took credit during a speech for funding an fbi in florida, something she didnt do, tweeting general kelly owes the nation an apology, when he lied about me, he lied to the american public. The near silence in the controversy stands in stark c p contrast with the scene in the loez gua rose garden. You look at president obama and other president s, most of them didnt make calls. A lot of them didnt make calls. Reporter add to that roll call is reporting the white house scrambled to obtain Contact Information for families of fallen Service Members after the president told fox radio he almost always makes those calls. I have called, i believe, everybody, but certainly ill use the word, virtually everybody. Reporter its another textbook example of the president throwing the white house off message. This weeks agenda item overshadowed, tax reform. People want to see it and i call it tax cuts. It is tax reform also, but i call it tax cuts. Reporter now white house officials confirm the west wing did attempt to expedite condolence letters to families of Fallen Soldiers of the president s remarks in the rose garden last week. The official said during this process a discovery was made there were, quote, bureaucratic reasons for why some of the letters had not gone out to families sooner and most of those cases, this official said, letters and contacts were delayed because the Service Member killed in action had been involved in what they called multiple casualties incidences. This official said the white house directed that the condolence letters then be september out, wolf. Thats the explanation for the white house tonight as for why the letters were rushed out last week. Interesting. Thanks very much, jim acosta at the white house. Lets get more on the breaking news about the ambush of troops in niger. Jim sciutto was joining us, at the News Conference at the pentagon with the joint chiefs chairman that ended a while ago. Jim, new details, still, though, many questions unanswered. Reporter general dunford will to take all the hard questions and where he could answer, willing to answer including confirming that this unit was on its way back to its operating base when it came under attack. It was not freelancing, not following another mission outside of its original orders, but on many other basic questions, including whether the evacuating forces took the simple step of taking a head count to make sure everyone was accounted for. Still no answer there. Tonight, the u. S. Military is offering new details on the ambush in niger that left four american soldiers dead. Know many basic questions remain unanswered. U. S. Forces accompanied that niger unit on a Reconnaissance Mission to gather information. Assessment by our leaders on the ground at that time was that contact with the enemy was unlikely. Midmorning on october 4th, the patrol began to take fire as they were returning to their operating base. Reporter according to general dunford, troops first requested air support a full hour after initial contact with the enemy. Approximately 50 isisaffiliated fighters. My judgment would be that that unit thought they could handle the situation without Additional Support and so what well find out in the investigation exactly why it took an hour for them to call. Reporter a u. S. Drone already in the air reached their position within minutes. French mirage jets responded next arriving about two hours after initial contact. Though none conducted air strikes. To fight the impression the pentagon has not been forthcoming, dunford vowed transparency with victims families and the public. I think we do owe the families and the American People transparency in incidents like this and we intend to deliver just that. Reporter as she said her final goodbye to her husband this weekend, the widow of Sergeant La David Johnson told abcs Good Morning America she is still waiting for answers. I dont know how he got killed, where he got killed, or anything. Reporter still unexplained, why was johnsons body recovered 48 hours after the ambush . And how did it end up nearly a mile away from the scene of the attack . I can tell you once we found out that Sergeant Johnson was missing, we brought the full weight of the u. S. Government to bear in trying to identify to try to recover his body. Reporter lawmakers are also demanding details. Americans should know whats going on in niger. Yeah, yeah. Should know what caused the deaths of four brave young americans. Reporter adding to the confusion, senators claimed over the weekend that they were unaware the u. S. Had so many troops in niger in the first place. I didnt know there was 1,000 troops in niger. You heard senator graham, didnt know we had 1,000 troops in niger. Did you . Is. No, i did not. Reporter the pentagon and the white house, however, say they did notify congress about the u. S. Mission in niger several times this year. Via briefings and letters. Today, approximately 800 u. S. Troops are deployed to niger. Most are helping build a drone base in agadez while others are supporting Embassy Operations in the capital. The military says that only, quote, a fraction are special operations forces. Advising and assisting nigers military. With the American People need to know is with a relatively small footprint, were enabling local forces to deal with these challenges before they become a threat to the American People and to help them to deal with the challenges so they dont further destabilize their local area or region. Reporter the footprint in africa probably larger than Many Americans realize. General dunford confirming today that some 6,000 u. S. Troops are in 53 countries in africa, spread out, perhaps, thinly in some places. Many of them facing, as general dunford certainly described in today, very dangerous territory. When the white house first knew something went wrong with this mission, general dunford said today the moment it was clear a soldier was missing, they let the white house know and that took place the evening of october 4th. The day after this fire fight took place. Wolf . All right, jim sciutto at the pentagon for us. Jim, thanks very much zblchl. Lets get more on all of this. Top democrat on the House Oversight and government reform committee, congressman Elijah Cummings of maryland is joining us. Thanks for joining us. A lot of issues i want to go through, but first the niger uproar. As you know after Myesha Johnson, gold star widow spoke publicly this morning, President Trump almost immediately disputed her characterization of the phone call on twitter. Shes a 24yearold mother of 2 young kids. A third one on the way. Whats your reaction to the president disputing her almost immediately . Well, first of all, this is sadly another distraction. Here we have a grieving wife with two small children and one on the way and three other members of our military who suffered death and their families are grieving, too. What are we doing . We are have a president that interjects himself into this process and just seems like its an ongoing distraction from the people that we should be lifting up right now then the other thing we need to distracted us from, is the investigations that need to take place. I saw what happened with regard to benghazi as you know. I was the Ranking Member of the benghazi select committee. And, wolf, there were nine investigations with regard to benghazi. I think we need to find out what happened, but i think the families will tell you they dont want a political football. They basically want the same things that the benghazi families wanted. Number one, they wanted no political football. Number two, they wanted to find out exactly what happened. And number three, they wanted to know what would be done to make sure it never happened again. So i think those are the things we have to really concentrate on right now, and my thoughts and my prayers are with these four grieving families. Yeah. Good point. Congressman, your colleague, Frederica Wilson, shes a close family friend, a mentor, to this grieving family down in florida. The president yesterday tweeted against her once again. Hes continuing this uproar going against her, wacky congresswoman wilson is the gift that keeps on giving for the republican party. A disaster for dems. You watch her in action and vote. You know this lawmaker from florida. Whats your reaction when you see the president really going after her, calling her wacky . Unfortunately, its hard for me to hear you, wolf, but let me just talk about congresswoman Frederica Wilson. You know, first of all, i was kind of sad, the position that general kelly took. I have lot of respect for him. As a matter of fact, i like him. And i was surprised that he interjected himself in this discussion and then basically said some very unaccurate and untrue statements about probably one of the great sheroes of our time congresswoman Frederica Wilson. If he knew a little bit about her, he would know she has carried on a mentoring program of thousands of youth since 1993 trying to help them grow up to be all that they could be. She is the same one who has spent phenomenal amount of time over the last two years trying to rescue the 300 girls that were captured by boca haram in nigeria. When i look back, wolf, i had an opportunity to take a moment and look back at the naming of the the speech about the fbi the building being named after the fbi agents. It was an excellent speech. She took no credit for getting the funds, but what she said is that she worked with the speaker and worked it out to get the kind of results she wanted with regard to the naming of the building. Yeah. And, again, let me finish. And to beat up on somebody like Frederica Wilson and for kelly, general kelly to do that, i got to tell you, it is shocking to the conscience. You know what im afraid of, you know, a lot of people look at President Trump and hear the various insulting things he says and im hoping that that is not metastasizing to general kelly because, again, i think he i find him to be an honorable man. He and i were working together on secret Service Leadership and trying to revamp the secret service and i actually told him, i have a lot of faith in confidence in him. I hope that he will take a moment and apologize as an honorable man should do. 17 of the women in the congressional black caucus, as you know, are formally asking for an apology from john kelly, the white house chief of staff, for what they call his blatant lies about congresswoman Frederica Wilson. Should kelly apologize . Yes. I think its only appropriate. I mean, it doesnt take a rocket scientist. All you have to do is look at the film of when she made the statement with regard to the Federal Building there in florida and listen to that speech very carefully. Its one of her best speeches ive heard, to be frank with you, of something of that nature. And she gave credit where credit was due to the republicans and the democrats. I dont know if you can do it any better. She took no credit for anything that she had not done. Unless unlike a lot of public officials. So, again, i think he owes her an apology and i think the other thing i think he needs to do as a chief of staff and a man, a general, one who has commanded our troops, one who has been entrusted with the lives of so many many of our yo people, i think he needs to show an example for all, that is say, you know what, after i went back and looked at the film, i was wrong and im sorry. And he needs to say that and he needs to say to his boss, the president , something that ive said many times, we need to stop President Trump needs to stop tweeting and simply start leading. Congressman, theres more we need to discuss including new information that youre developing, youre investigating, white house officials, Trump Administration officials using private email accounts for government work. Well discuss that, much more, right after a quick break. gasp singsong budget meeting sweet. If you compare last quarter to this quarter. Various mmm. Its no wonder everything seems a little better with the creamy taste of philly, made with fresh milk and real cream. Remember that accident i got in with the pole, and i had to make a claim and all that . Is that whole thing still dragging on . No, i took some pics with the app and. Filed a claim, but. You know how they send you money to cover repairs and. They took forever to pay you, right . No, i got paid right away, but. 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I want to ask about what the committee is trying to do to get some answers from the Trump Administration on the use of private email accounts for government work. Mark short, the white house legislative director, he joined me here in the situation room last week and i asked him about your investigation. Listen to this exchange i had with him. Sure. House Oversight Committee asked you to explain why some white house officials, they use their government email, but they also have private email accounts and the white house and covered employees, you wrote back to them, endeavor to comply with all relevant laws. Is that the best you could do in the explanation . I think that thats a fair because you didnt satisfy a lot of these members. Democratic members and republican members. And remember all the controversy about Hillary Clintons use of a private email server. So what is the rule right now for white house officials like you and others about using private email . Were not supposed to be doing government business on private email. I think that theres a public records act that makes that clear and i think the white house is cooperating with each and every investigation. All right, congressman, from your perspective as the Ranking Member of the House Oversight committee, is the white house fully cooperating . No, the white house has been pitiful with regard to response to our email inquiries. As a matter of fact, they have been ropeadoping and basically i think involved in a coverup. I dont use those words often. What happened is we asked ivanka trump and her husband to preserve emails after we found out through the press that there were emails that were being sent from private email servers and that is with Business Information on them. We asked them to preserve them, wolf. You know what, they did, within 24 to 48 hours, they transferred or we call it relocated all emails to the trump business organizations run by the two brothers. Well, let me just be precise, congressman, were they using private email servers or private email accounts . The accounts. They relocated the information. In other words, they did exactly what the committee asked them not to do. And let me tell you something, if this were hillary clinton, they would be going crazy. And the fact is is that they basically are sitting back and being aiders and abetters to what this Trump Administration is doing and not doing. Basically let me tell you something else, wolf, we have basically a president who is not held accountable to anything. Nothing. And the only way we can hold him accountable is there has to be a bipartisan effort. Right now when he made that statement about being able to walk down new york street and shoot somebody and people would still vote for him, i believe that he was right. I didnt believe it when he said it but now i know it. Are you concerned that some of these white house Trump Administration officials are using private email accounts but in the process theyre sharing classified information on those accounts . Thats the point. We dont know. And they and they basically when we met with them, they told us we met with some of the senior counsel to the white house, and what they said was, yeah, they are members of our administration that have confessed to using these private email accounts, were not going to tell you who they are, were not going to tell you anything about them. And if you want to find out, say, for example, about mr. Kushner, go to his lawyer. Thats what thats what the response to the congress of the United States was. And at some point, we have to stand up and be congressmen. You know, we our job is to be a check on the executive branch, but without this cooperation and working together, it will never happen. Is there a bipartisan cooperation on your committee to get the job done . I hope so. I chairman gaudi worked with me on an initial request. Thats the interesting initially we made an inquiry which was bipartisan but then when the white house basically gave us nothing, we could not get the kind of cooperation that i wanted. Im still hopeful, but i just want to do my job. A lot of people say, well, are you trying to hurt the president . No, its not about hurting the president , its about protecting a democracy. And what kind of democracy will we leave our children . Because at the rate were going, were in pretty bad shape. Congressman Elijah Cummings of maryland, thanks very much for joining us. Thank you. Just ahead, President Trump falls silent on the controversy over his controversial condolence call to a gold star widow. After almost a week, is he ready to put the issue behind him . Plus, we have details of the dramatic increase in security for the head of the Environmental Protection agency. Why is he getting so many Death Threats . 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We actually filed a claim with usaa to replace that spoiled food. And we really appreciated that. Were the webber family and we are usaa members for life. Two very zidiffering accoun of President Trumps condolence call to the wife of la david johnson. The widow says the president struggled to remember her husbands name. Leaving her angry and in tears. The president has a very different take on that conversation. Lets dig deeper with our contributors and specialists and gloria, immediately after the gold star widow was on abc this morning, speaking emotionally, very passionately, the president went on twitter and contradicted her account tweeting, i had a very respectful conversation with the widow of Sergeant La David Johnson and spoke his name from beginning without hesitation. Since then, several times during the course of today, he was shouted questions by reporters, never said anything else. Is there a new strategy the president , perhaps, is hopefully. Pursuing . Hopefully there is one. I mean, what ever possess eed a president to get in a fight with this gold star wife is beyond me, and what he could have done is to say, look, i am so sorry that you misinterpreted my intentions. My only intention was to honor your husband, to honor his service and if in any way i offended you, i apologize. And that would have put an end to it. Its a very simple thing that people do all day long in life when they offend people they didnt mean to offend. They just say, im sorry about it, and move on. But the president has no ability to admit that he made a mistake or to say hes sorry. So instead, you end up with this, you know, back and forth and back and forth that only serves to disrupt every other part of his agenda that hes trying to that hes trying to deal with. He wouldnt even have to admit he made a mistake, he could just say, im sorry you misunderstood what my intentions were, i really feel your pain and i want to express our deepest, deepest condolences. Lets figure it out, wolf, on one side you have a man who has a minor mark because of this. People watching for the past week and a half would say, you know, its a tragedy she lost her husband obviously. Maybe he made a few mistakes in the conversation with her, maybe we dont instead, he balances his image versus the grief of a woman whos lost her husband and the father to his child and he cant let it go. I agree with gloria, in government, this is easy. I mean, the issue is painful f, but the conversation is easy. She could say he landed from mars and represents green people and in the grief, youre supposed to say, the widow gets to say whatever she wants, were sorry, we respect the loss of life. Of course. And we stand with you, let it go. Ron, why cant he do that . Because i think this is there are personal reasons but i also think by now you have to say there is, in fact, a consistent political approach here and its almost as if theres a division of responsibility. The president has since taken office engage in a perpetual series of conflicts. Mostly around cultural issues, often with antagonists of color which cannot be, i think, swept under the rug here as with the khan family last summer where he, you know, kind of tried to burnishes the image of someone who does not back down from anyone. Who tells his base that he is someone who will fight for them against any potential critic or opponent. And meanwhile, on kind of the other page, the republicans in congress and the executive branch are kind of advancing the conventional republican agenda. I think his job increasingly looks to be precisely to stir up these kind of conflicts. Now, doing that with a gold star family really pushes this to the edge. In fact, you know, i would say we are so far into unchartered waters that you cant even see the shore anymore. But i think were past the point of viewing these kind of serial conflicts as some sort of coincidence. They are, in fact, i think the essence of how he views the presidency. Remember, he stirred it up with the gold star family during the campaign, the khan family. Sure. During the convention. All of us remember that. Rebecca, atlantic is reporting that they reached out to several of the gold star families whose troops, whose sons were killed in the course of the Trump Administration and they say they have just received some condolence letters that were rush shipped to them over the past week or so since this controversy erupted. One father who lost son in august, was in the collision on the u. S. S. John mccain said this. Honestly, i feel the letter is reactionary to the media Storm Brewing over how these things have been handled. Ive received letters from mccain, mattis, countless other officials before this. Its a little awkward right now to see this unfold the way it is. Right. Clearly, this shows that the administration realizes and the white house realizes that they made a mistake here. That they should have contacted these families in the first place be it by phone call or by letter, in some form or fashion, and so if were thinking about this controversy more broadly and the mistake the president made from an image and political perspective by mentioning this in the first place, then engaging in this back and forth with the widow of a fallen soldier, there is one positive thing to come of this which is that the president illuminated mistake that the white house was making. They were not making these contacts with families of Fallen Soldiers when maybe they needed to. And so maybe the positive thing that comes of this in the future is that they are sending those letters and they are making those phone calls. Certainly not the way you want to see this come to light if youre the white house. Remember, amidst all the uproar on october 17th last week, the president cede this at a radio interview. I have called, i believe, everybody but certainly ill use the word virtually everybody. We now know that wasnt true. It wasnt true and it might have been a bureaucratic snafu and he might not have known, although hes aware of how many people have been killed in action or he should be. Hes the commander in chief. So that got all of this that got all of this started. You know, the bottom line here is that because he has such a problem with the truth, you dont know what to believe and you dont know what not to believe. And so you can hear him, normally when a commander in chief speaks about Something Like this, your inclination would be to say, okay, sure, but in this particular case, and because of the history we have with this president , its very difficult to know, you know, whats true and what isnt. Yeah. Everybody, stand by. You know, wolf hold on one second, rod. Okay. Were going to get much more on this. Theres other Important News were following as well. Most of the republican tax plan still very much a mystery but the president is promising one popular tax break is here to stay. I love kiwis. Ive always had that issue with the seeds getting under my denture. Super poligrip free. It creates a seal of the dentures in my mouth. Just a few dabs is clinically proven to seal out more food particles. Try super poligrip free. I was playing golf love golf. I used to love golf. Wait, what, what happened . 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If that isnt a case for impeaching and removing a dangerous president , then what has our government become . Im tom steyer and, like you, im a citizen who knows its up to us to do something. Its why im funding this effort to raise our voices together and demand that elected officials take a stand on impeachment. A Republican Congress once impeached a president for far less. Yet, today, people in congress and his own administration know this president is a clear and present danger who is mentally unstable and armed with nuclear weapons. And they do nothing. Join us and tell your member of congress that they have a moral responsibility to stop doing whats political and start doing whats right. Our country depends on it. President trump is vowing that the republican tax reform plan being drafted right now wont change one of the most popular ways americans save for retirement. The 401 k . Lawmakers reportedly have been discussing some sharp cuts in the amount that could be invested tax free through the accounts. The president says that has governgone away. Lets bring in Congressional CorrespondentPhil Mattingly up on capitol hill. Phil, what can we expect to see in the final tax reform bill . Reporter wolf, details are sparse right now and theres a good reason for that. The 401 k issue is actually really illustrative of what occurs when the details start to comfore forth. Look at what the president tweeted this morning, tweeted out there will be no change to your 401 k . This is a great and popular middle class tax break that works and stays. Sources tell me could be considering, basically capping the amount that individuals could put in these taxdeferred savings account. Now the reason for doing this is not to eliminate the tax benefit all together. Wolf, when you get the money out at the end if you send it to another type of retirement plan, that wouldnt be taxed. What it would do by shifting it away from 401 k accounts is to essentially allow the tax revenue to come up front. Why does that matter . You have to pay for tax reform if you want tax reform the way republicans are currently pursuing it. They need revenue. There are very difficult choices and tradeoffs that need to be made. What you saw from the president this morning is essentially his effort to do away with one of nose potential options and underscores, wolf, when the details come out beyond the nine page framework we have, there will be massive lobbying fights and very, very difficult choices ahead for not just republicans, democrats if they want to figure out if they quantity to come on board. Doesnt want to cut entitlement spending as well. Theyre looking for ways to save some money. Will there be tax reform, phil, tax reform deal done before the end of the year . Reporter look, theres a reason it hasnt been done in 3031 ye31 years. Its hard. What youve seen over the past 24 hours is a great example as to why. Look at this way, last week, wol wolf, the senate made technical changes that aslrllowed for the house thats how republicans can pass tax reform in the senate with a simple majority. In order to get the house to take the senate budget, essentially House Republicans s had to give up on key budget principles. The reason why . They understood it would allow tax reform to move quicker. Their ability to recognize the political impetus to move on this, agree on tax reform, get to the finish line on tax reform was very important, perhaps, closely held ideological principles is a good sign for republicans. But as i noted, the schedule right now, obviously they want to get it done by the end of the year. They recognize how hard its going to be. Expect the house to release its bill next week. The week after that committee consideration. Then the senate will start moving as well. Theyre going to have to do it in a tight timeline if they want to get it done. Something you hear from aides in both chambers, realize the longer a tax reform bill hangs out there, the more difficult that will be. They want to move quickly. That means, wolf, they really want it done by the end of this year. They certainly do. All right. Good explanation. Phil mattingly up on the hill. You know, ron brownstein, the White House Press secretary sarah sanders, she tweeted on sunday this, she said, the average American Family would get a 4,000 raise under the president s tax cut plan. So how could any member of congress be against it . How accurate is that tweet . You know, that is based on their argument that a cut in Corporate Tax rates would trickle down into higher wages for american workers. It is very hard to find an economist who does not work for the administration who believes the effect would be anywhere near that large. Some effect . Yes. Anything like that . No. In fact, the one truly comprehensive analysis of the framework thats been put out by the Tax Policy Center concluded that half of the total tax benefit from the bill would go to the top 1 and the families who make up the bottom 60 of the income ladder would get a combined 13 of the tax bill. So, i mean, yes, cutting Corporate Taxes could lead to some improvement in wages. Could it lead to anything like that . I think youd have a very hard time finding an economist that would put their name on that assertion. Most of the experts, gloria, say the deficit would explode if all of these tax cuts went into effect, there wouldnt be any tax any cuts in social security, medicare, medicaid, 401 k s, for example. Right. The number they use is around 2 trillion over ten years or more. We dont we just dont know. And, you know, our ted barrett on the hill just filed a little bit from Senate Republicans and what they want to hear from the president tomorrow. What they want to hear is details. They want to hear what he wants in this tax bill. What really matters to him. I mean, there was disagreement, for example, today, that sort of spilled out in the open on the 401 k as you point out. What else is there that the president wants . And that will affect the bottom line of what its going to add to the deficit. And by the way, there are still republicans left, wolf, who care about the deficit, who believe that you shouldnt have a skyrocketing deficit. What are they going to do about it . These were the republicans who complained about george w. Bush and his increases in the deficit when he was president. So they need to hear some answers on that as well. The devils in the details right now. When are they going to get to those specifics . Well, i think phil really touched on that, wolf, theyre going to get to the details at the last possible minute because republicans want to work out in private some of these disagreements as with the 401 k issue that the president tweeted about earlier. They want to work out those policy disagreements before they bring this bill into the public sphere, release those details for debate, because then theyre going to want to vote as soon as possible, as soon as they release those details to be able to have a chance to get this done. All right, everybody stand by. Theres much more coming up including this. The multiple Death Threats led to a dramatic increase in security for the head of the environmental prerotection agen. New information coming into the situation room. T got off the pe with our allstate agent, and i know that we have accident forgiveness. So the incredibly minor accident that i had tonight. Four weeks without the car. Okay, yep. Good night. 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Tonight cnn has learned the agency is beefi ining the 24 7 security for pruitt hiring more agents and installing new security equipment for his office all while there are new questions tonight about whether pruitts epa policies favor industry over the health of the American People. Scott pruitt is rapidly expanding his Security Force to an unprecedented level. Cnn has learned the epas in the process of hiring and training a dozen new agents to provide 24 7 protection for pruitt. Salaries, alone, could cost 2 million. Not including training, equipment, or travel. The agency says the level of protection is dictated and determined by the level of threat. Pruitt faces four to five times more Death Threats than his predecessors, thats according to the epa inspector generals office. As security spending increases, pruitt hopes to cut the epas budget by 30 including major cuts to the agencys enforcement work and staffing. Pruitts schedule lists more than 100 meetings with the fossil fuel industry, but only five with environmental groups. Whats very clear that epa administratoor pruitt is trying to cripple the agency, hes trying to slash the agencys budget. Hes trying to keep the agency from doing its job from protecting Public Health and from protecting our environment. Its very worrisome. Reporter a former executive, nancy beck, who worked for the chemical industry, is now in charge of shaping epas rules on hazardous chemicals. The New York Times reported beck insisted the agency rewrite a rule to make it harder to track the Health Consequences of pfoa, a chemical linked to Health Problems like kidney cancer, birth defects, and immune system disorders. And last month, the epa made a reversal on whats considered safe levels of exposure to radiation. Epa guidelines now say radiation exposures of 5 to 10 rem usually result in no Harmful Health effects. Thats the equivalent of 5,000 chest xrays, according to the Public Employees for environmental responsibility. There are Many Industries that have been pushing hard to roll back these rules, some of them are in the nuclear industry, some of them are in the Hazardous Waste industry. Some of them are in the chemical industry. And scott pruitt has been meeting secretly with literally scores of these corporal executives quietly behind the scenes. Reporter but the epa is pushing back on the idea that pruitt is turning a blind eye to bad actors in industry. The agency pointing to an interview in Time Magazine where pruitt discussed his partnership with industry. I dont spend any time with polluters, i prosecute polluters. What im spending time with are stakeholders who care about outcomes. Also today the epa blocked its own scientist from speak bing about Climate Change at a conference in rhode island. The agency said they would allow the scientist to attend, but not to speak. And they wouldnt give an explanation as to why. Only saying it was not an epa conference. In addition to this, weve seen the epa website altered, removing language relating to Climate Change. Wolf, environmentalists say that this was just one more example today of the epa trying to silence the scientists. Have they explained why they got rid of all the claimant change references on their website . You know, when we reported on this, their stance has been that this is a new administration and the agency is going in a different direction and we want the website to reflect the direction that the agency is going in and thats pretty much the explanation theyve been standing be i. Rene marsh reporting for us, thanks very much for that. Thats it for me. Thanks very much for watching. Erin Burnett Outfront starts right now. Outfront next, break bing news, americas top general breaks his silence on the niger ambush that killed four american soldiers. 19 days out, why are there still many more questions than answers . Plus, trump gets in a last word to the widow of a fallen hero. Why did he use a tweet to suggest shes a liar . And trump about to declare an emergency on opioids. Dr. Sanjay gupta goes to the u. S. mexico border. And that is have trumps wall will or wont stop the drug 50 times stronger than heroin. Our special investigation. Lets go outfront. Good evening, im erin burnett. Outfront tonight, breaking news, new information on the deadliest combat loss