saying, quote, i have never hugged or kissed the man. john kelly will be leaving the end of the year, and i appreciate his service very much. that s how awful it is to work in the trump white house, by the way. john kelly spent 40 years in the marines. he did three tours in iraq. and he couldn t finish one tour with donald trump. good morning, i m victor blackwell. good morning. i m jessica dean in for kristi paul this morning. deny and distract. that s the president s playbook this weekend as he tries to shrug off the very real threat posed to his administration by the russia investigation. federal prosecutors accused the president of breaking election finance law by instructing his personal attorney, michael cohen, to pay hush money to two women he allegedly had affairs with. the president vehemently denied that. he had tweets to james comey and nato and robert blumenthal. and to the announcement that john kelly would announce his retirement from the white house
5:00 a.m. on the u.s. east coast. critics say the u.s. president is a master of deflection. after bombshell court filings that seemingly implicate him in two felonies, it could be argued the president did his best to distract and deny. first up, his chief of staff. mr. trump announced that john kelly would be stepping down from the post by the end of the year. their relationship has steadily deteriorated. still, mr. trump said that kelly did a good job, is a great guy and thanked him for his service. john kelly will be leaving at the end of the year. we ll be announcing who will be taking john s place. it may be on an interim basis. i ll be announcing that over the next day or two, but john will be leaving at the end of the year. he s been with me almost two years now between the two positions. so we re probably going to see him in a little while. but even with the special counsel probe focused specifically on the west wing, the president now faces an even bigger challeng
mudslides in several areas, including malibu. the southwest plane went off the runway while landing in the rain. continued fears about u.s.- china trade relations. this comes on the back of news that the c.f.o. of huawei, the chinese tech giant, has been arrested and faces extradition to the u.s. > a worldwide search is on to find a blood donors to help save a florida toddler with cancer. this is especially difficult because her blood type is extremely rare. i hope we find a match the answer is no baby it s cold outside yanked off the airwaves in reaction to #metoo. what s next, i saw momma kissing santa claus? i know i m going to get hammered for this, so let s just move along. glor: this is our western edition. good evening, i m jeff glor and we are going to begin tonight with america s final farewell. president bush was praised as a father, grandfather, and friend. then the 41st president took his final journey by special presidential train. thous
-including from democratic presidential candidate julian castro who reacted in retime to the new developments. last night, he seemed to he offered an apology, basically took responsibility for this. and then this morning, at least we believe if we believe these news reports, he seems to be saying that s not him in the photo. something about all of that doesn t add up. and i m not sure at this point after his apology that he should even be given the benefit of the doubt if he s saying that it s not him. a lot to get to on all this. first mike viqueira is right outside the governor s mansion. this new wrinkle here, his denial, what s happening now? what s thede tenor of things ase await his news conference? allem, it s hard to believe less than 24 hours ago, none of this hadgo been known to the public. it was published online about 4:00 in richmond and washington yesterday afternoon. since then, governor ralph northam besieged by calls, nationaleg democrats, local and
country. i ll leave some things left for the president to talk about. there are a number of policies that the democrats and republicans know need to be addressed. infrastructure is one of the easiest ones for us to look at. will the reaction of those in the room with him? for starters as we mentioned nancy pelosi will once again be center stage sitting right behind the president on that dais and the audience looking back, lawmakers who stand in stark contrast to this white house and its policies and a diverse group of democratic candidates ready to run against him. members of congress will be bringing guests, among them a transgender navy lieutenant commander, a student who survived the parkland shooting and a mother and daughter who were separated at the border last spring. let s start with our white house correspondent kaitlan collins looking ahead. we know the president won t speak for a number of hours, but the battle is already brewing between the president and senator