sean spicer: there can be a shared commitment to defeat isis. there --hink that there is a mutual level of human decency that we can expect out of everybody. i don't think that goes hand-in-hand with our national security interests. >> can you give us a sense of who the defense minister were talking to last night? sean spicer: the president was in meetings with president xi. russia called this a clear act of aggression. they said that the united states had been planning this before the chemical attack. sean spicer: i think i just gave you a very clear tick-tock of one the president was notified. that pretty much before itself. -- speaks for itself. i think this was a clear response on humanitarian purposes that have been widely praised around the globe. as i mentioned at the outset, we will have a readout of that visit. we will have further information throughout the day. i want to get back our focus. i think we are in the midst of a visit. i think we need to conclude that. thank you guys very much. >> that off-camera briefing with press secreta

sean spicer seemed to include it along with chemical weapons. you can argue was he talking about chlorine gas? >> we don't have a policy in syria. in that sense, i don't fault the administration because it is the problem from hell. it's a very difficult thing. i don't actually fault him so much for getting that so wrong yesterday as there are times -- and you're too good a republican to admit where you said, i guarantee, i bet my lives there's times you said to george w. bush, no, sir, i can't say that from the podium. no, sir. the first day, when donald trump sent him out to lie about the size of his crowd, who cares? the answer was the only thing a loyal aide says is no. no, sir, i won't say that. >> did you ever say that to bush? >> no, because i never had to. >> please. >> this is a different white house. you had to in your white house. >> give me a break. >> the point here, again, is if you want to broaden this to broad politics, there are a goop -- group of people who still can't accept the results of the election in november. the fact of

you heard sean spicer say that was cool. sean spicer a very big new england patriots fan. of course, the super bowl winning patriots are here at the white house. that ceremony set to begin at 2:30 this afternoon when president trump will honor them, but yes, wolf, several members of the team deciding to skip out a fusaiing they don't feel welcome at the white house. they're skipping out as part of their opposition to president trump. >> nice to see that gronkowski has a pretty good sense of humor sticking his head into the white house briefing. we'll have coverage of that event coming up 2:30 p.m. eastern a little bit more than half an hour or so from now. jessica, thank you very much. >>> we're following other news just coming into cnn. after a u.s. missile strike in syria, the regime announces they're moving their military aircraft. we'll have details we'll share with you right after this. your insurance company raises your rates. maybe you should've done more research on them. for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first

and this moment for sean spicer overtook that. and that's something that the president does not like. >> and the press secretary and i'm a former white house correspondent, you have to have credibility. not just with reporters on the white house beat but with the american public. the people all over the world. that's why i asked this question, david. listen to this. >> as you know, you're the press secretary for the president of the united states at the white house. this is not the first time your comments from the white house, from the lecture in there have been criticized. are you worried, sean, you have a credibility problem right now? >> no, i think this is why i'm here right now, wolf. i clearly, as i said earlier to you, to your audience, when you make a mistake, you own it. my comments today did not reflect the president's. we are a distraction and frankly it was misstated, insensitive and wrong and i wanted to make sure i clarified them as soon as possible. i appreciate you having me on. but one of the things that is impor

is this just sean spicer again a misspeak? >> i think it's the entire administration really trying to find its footing on foreign policy. these are not matters that donald trump dealt with on a daily basis by any means. when you think about the arguments that he made on the campaign trail about syria last year, you know, saying that we shouldn't be involved, we shouldn't be the world's policeman and then clearly a very emotional response to the photographs that we saw last week, i think that everyone from trump to spicer is trying to figure out how to talk about a really complex situation and i think there is a level of naivety there, which is to be expected if you haven't dealt with these issues, but they are clearly trying to get up to speed very quickly. that's why trump has brought in so many of the military generals into his inner circle trying to get the right advice on this. but certainly a level of naivety there that is probably very unsettling to the american people because we don't know where this is going. >> speaki

what i was looking at sean spicer up there and we know sean spicer, obviously. he is in the job now 82 days now and you could tell that he was getting into territory and comparisons that might not exactly be helpful and you can sort of see in the room there, april was obviously there, seems like the reporters trying to help him out to get to a place where he can clarify and make good and make some sense with this statement. but he -- he was never really able to do that and released the third statement. >> let me read that statement. >> didn't help either. >> he said i in no way trying to lessen the horrendous nature of the holocaust. any attack on innocent people is reprehencible and inexcusable. anna, as mistakes go, i mean, this was a pretty big one. so much so that sean spicer -- >> i think the word you're looking for is huge. >> yeah, shunlg. he apologized to wolf blitzer. here it is. >> i was obviously trying to make a point about the heinous acts of assad against his own people last week using chemical weapons and gas and, frankly, i mistaken used an inapp

on passover, sean spicer has engaged in holocaust denial by assed jewsller g to death, it was said in a statement. this is what sean spicer said in the news briefing. >> the alliance between russia and syria -- for decades. president clinton has supplied -- president vladimir putin has supplied syria with weapons. what you think they will pull back now? >> a couple of things. we did not use chemical weapons in world war ii. someone as terrible as adolf hitler did not use chemical weapons. you have to, if you are russia, ask yourself if this is a country that you want to align yourself with? you have previously signed an international agreement rightfully acknowledging that the use of chemical weapons should be out of bounds by every country. that you're not standing by your own word should be troubling. russia put their name on the line. at what point do they recognize that they are now getting on the wrong side of history in a really bad way will he quickly? look at the country's standing with them. iran, syria, north korea. this is not 18 you want to be on. team you want to be on. t

that is the key question to sean spicer. the other thing i think just kind of taking a step back is that now we have within the span of a week president trump, the guy who wanted to sort of pull back when it came to being engag engaged abroad dealing with syria, with strikes, and then also launching for the first time in u.s. history this mother of all bombs. it is different. he did promise on the campaign trail to go after isis, you know, to the end of the earth and that is what we are hearing from barbara's reportering the whole reason for launching this bomb was to get at isis targets they couldn't get at without it. >> we're waiting for sean spicer to come to the lectern. this is an important decision. i assume the president of the united states at least knew about it. if not personally said yes, do it. >> well, we were talking about this yesterday, wolf. president trump's recounting of his decision over a piece of chocolate cake with president xi to say go on the tomahawk missiles. my guess is, though i defer to the gen

twitter was buzzing for buzzing the president to fire sean spicer. >> sean spicer must be fired and the president must disavow the statements. the ann frank center said that sean spicer has participated in holocost denial. >> there needs to be a consequence for the spokesperson. >> reporter: later in the day sean spicer said he has learned to think before he speaks. >> i mistakenly used an insensitive reference to the holocost. that's not what i was intended to do, especially this week, i regret using that term. >> many are calling the statement a national embarrassment. they said there is nothing left to say other than i resign. >> thank you, paul. >>> syria is at the top of the agenda for secretary of state rex tillerson who arrived in russia today. his visit comes days after president donald trump ordered a missile strike on an air field in syria. president donald trump said the air field was used to launch attacks using chemical weapons. defense secretary, general james mattis said sear yas was responsible. >> i have reviewed the intelligence and there is no -- syria was responsible

bush's '92 campaign. >> sean spicer does not have that resume. this is a guy who was at the rnc, don't get me wrong, it is a difficult job. i think he's really been thrown into the deep end here. i don't think he was prepared for the daily onslaught that he faces. >> it seems like a lot of the onslaughts may come from his boss. there is a lot of articles about his audiences and audiences of trump who makes time to watch these. >> there is a lot of pressure with that. >> to be fair, i think a lot of people who have not worked on the hill and having had all those jobs, they would not have said that today, comparing to hitler and this one is even hitler did not. it is just something that you need to work in all those places to know what to say and a positive theory here. 22 hours hour ago. there was a story on news max where headlines, assad is worse than hitler, according to the man who survived of the chemical attack in syria. >> this is something that they look at and somehow he must have seen this or heard it. >> which i believe it came from an

sean spicer as issued a statement of apology. he appeared on several networks tonight to deliver a full apology. meanwhile, president trump was asked about north korea today in an interview with maria bartiromo on fox business. it came after the ominous headline appeared "north korea state media warns of nuclear strike if provoked." the president tonight talked about the carrier battle group tonight being sent into the region. >> we are sending an armada, very powerful. we have submarines, very powerful, far more powerful than the aircraft carrier. that i can tell you. and we have the best military people on earth. and i will say this. he is doing the wrong thing. >> let's bring in this evening's panel. a lot to talk about starting with michael mcfaul, former u.s. ambassador to russia, former special assistant to president obama at the national security council and an msnbc contributor. our terrorism analyst malcolm nance, 35-year veteran of the trade, including navy intelligence, special ops and homeland security. author of the

sean spicer is the perfect spokesman for donald trump. you know that donald trump thought that that was a great line when he heard it and he thought this was a great line, too. >> hitler didn't sink to the level of using chemical weapons, what did you mean by that? >> when you come to gas, there -- he was not using the gas on his own people the same way that assad is doing. i mean, there was clearly -- i understand -- thank you. i appreciate that. there was not -- in the -- he brought them in to the -- to the holocaust center, and i understand that, but i'm saying in the way that assad used them, he went into town, dropped them down into the middle of towns. so the use of it, i appreciate the clarification there, that was not the intent. >> he brought them into the holocaust center. do you think donald trump thought that that's what they're called, holocaust centers before sean spicer got corrected on cable news and on twitter. only when twitter and cable news went wild about what sean spicer said, only then did donald trump trump realize

that aside, it seems like sean spicer just misspoke, right? because if we now are going to intervene militarily if assad uses barrel bombs, that means that we're getting involved in a civil war at a dramatic level. the one line for trump is chemical weapons, this is just a deterrent about using sarin gas and other weapons that are banned under the chemical weapons treaty that syria did sign and they did promise to give up all their chemical weapons. so i don't see anything that suggests that they're moving the line beyond chemical weapons except for what sean spicer said. >> is there any policy toward syria as it was in the last administration? >> i'm not certain. i think it's out there as a possibility. i actually think the way they played it is great, it puts a question mark on it. it will be discussed with russia and tillerson. it was discussed with china last week. >> so you think the lack of clarity is beneficial? >> it's part of what trump does, he does not want to broadcast, this is what i have in mind. but now we have military options

here's sean spicer. let's listen in. >> i'm sure you all know i was up here earlier this morning off camera with some of your kids. it was a pleasure to be able to share a little bit of the white house experience with them and i hope they enjoyed it. i think some of you have trained them very well. i hope they enjoyed their visit and glad they got an opportunity to visit with the president and vice president today. we have a bunch to talk about today about what the president has been doing and he's got an executive order coming up so i want to try toet through it all. this morning the president welcomed the president and mrs. macri of argentina for an official visit. the president and first lady just left so we will have a read out for you shortly on that. we've got a 2:00 p.m. the president will be signing a memorandum on aluminum imports and threats to national security and we'll try to keep this briefing on time. i know secretary ross spoke about the memo that the president signed a bit yesterday, but

sean spicer really did not apologize, folks. as you said, amy, when you have to pull teeth to get an apology and it takes three attempts to pull teeth, that is what you call an apology by committee behihind the scenes. you have the white house staff looking at the public outcry saying, sean, you better clarify your apology. could not do it once or twice, took him three times pulling teeth. a national embarrassment. nermeen: what about comes consnstant refrain thatat his daughter is jewish, son-in-law is jewish, therefore -- >> it is so offensive when donald trump tries out his daughter and his son-in-law. talking points. is that what donald trump does in response to charges of anti-semitism, he trots out his token relatives who are jewish? that in itself is anti-semitic. amy: his reference to holocaust centers? >> i've never heard of that. is it a community center?r? it makes complete light of concentration camps. it shows sean spicer's ignorance . has this man never heard of the phrase "concentration camp"? if he hasn't, he has

how do they square that. >> reporter: i disagree with sean spicer on this. i think when the president said we're not going into isis, that could be -- into syria, could be interpreted by isis or by assad that this is the extent of what the u.s. will do, occasional air strikes maybe but we won't go in further. and that does tell them what to expect. that's different than from the president said on the campaign trail when we've grilled him on what he will do on various parts of the world when he's not going to tell his enemies what he's going to do. i disagree with sean spicer on that but that's how he draws it. >> take us behind the scenes a little bit. you're there at the newseum. is there anything that we can't see, small talk before or after when sean spicer got on the stage? >> reporter: i think he came in, he didn't have the bounce in his step that he typically has in the pressroom. as he left in came kellyanne conway who of course is going to be on a few minutes later. so i had a chance to talk to kelly anne. small talk. back behind the scenes, we know

spicer. >> just yesterday, three times sean spicer talked about barrel bombs as being something which could trigger another u.s. military response. at a time when the administration, nikki haley is saying one thing, rex tillerson is saying something else and then he says something about barrel bombs that he had to walk back. >> i think sean actually does a very able job of speaking for his boss, he know what is donald trump wants to sarks he represents his boss and he does that very ably, which is the job of the press secretary, the press secretary is to represent what the president wants said. he made a mistake today, but he's a fine representative of what the president says. when you have people like paul that will find any way to undermine the president by getting to his staff. >> sean spicer seemed to include it along with chemical weapons and you can argue was he talking about chlorine gas. >> we don't have a policy in syria. and that's why i almost don't fault the administration, because it is the problem from h hhell, so it's a very difficult thing. i don't fault him for gettin

sean spicer won't like the process questions. but before we go, congress may be in recess, but this week that doesn't stop things from changing. kansas republican ron estes won the special election to fill the congressional seat vacated by cia chief mike pompeo. democrats see the single-digit defeat in a dark red area as a sign of their growing movement. there's nothing more important to me than my vacation. so when i need to book a hotel room, i want someone that makes it easy to find what i want. booking.com gets it. they offer free cancellation if my plans change. visit booking.com. okinyeah. but finding life insurance... it's easier than you think. we just got term insurance. i'm just not exactly sure how much to get. just enough to pay some bills, loans, funeral cost. everyday expenses. right $50,000 is what we have. where'd you find it? aarp term life from new york life insurance company. that's what i have. it's affordable. is it easy to apply? yeah. i called up, got an application and i just had to fill it out and mail it

brian: no one is excusing sean spicer even sean spicer. he came out and took the same question over and over again from wolf blitzer, i thought is my have. cr stuck because i still use a vcr, asked the same question over and over again. someone who is on three hours a day. he is also on unscripted. i make mistakes. steve: everybody makes a mistake. brian: big picture. i wonder if he is getting briefed effectively what he should go over and not go over. i watch a lot of this stuff. it seems like is he expounding on issues he doesn't have to expand on. just stick to what the president said. answer questions, x's and o's keep it simple. i think they are dramatically under staffed in the communication division opening themselves up for problems like. this that's the parlor game of that briefing room the press wants to keep asking you questions to get you off of your talking points or what you want to be focused on. discipline is key. if you don't stay disciplined then you can get caught saying something they want you to say or in a way they wa

the white house briefing with sean spicer. we're expecting questions about the sheer number of apparent flip flops this administration has had in the last 24 to 48 hours. let's get to our reporters and analysts, our chief white house correspondent hallie jackson is in the briefing room waiting for it to start, bill neely is in moscow, steve clemens, msnbc contributor in washington, editor at large for the atlantic and the national journal fill rut ker the bureau chief for "the washington post." i want to start with halle and phil because y will be getting to work quickly on the presser. >> sure. ali, let me take the two topics one at a time. any moment if sean spicer walks in i have to duck down. starting with what courtney and colonel jack were talking about, the white house at this point not commenting about that bomb strike in afghanistan. i just got off the phone with a senior source. the expectation is potentially that we will hear from sean spicer, i'm certain he will be asked about it by the assembled reporters in the b

he's inside the briefing room getting ready to question sean spicer. the administration was involved in helping draft this new health care amendment to try and win over those house conservatives. what's the bottom line on what it does? >> well, the bottom line and this was necessary to bring in the support of that house freedom caucus, it is going to give states the ability to basically exempt themselves from some of the regulations in obamacare such as the requirement that people not be d discriminated against because of pre-existing conditions. that is making mot rad derates nervous and making it difficult to get the votes that are needed to get it through the house. that is why you see the house minority whip earlier this morning essentially issuing that threat saying democrats are not going to go along with a continuing resolution to keep the government if the house republican leadership insists on a house care vote at the same time. we are once against maybe not standing on the edge, wolf, but the edge is perhaps in sight of a government shutdown.

not a good look for sean spicer or the white house. we'll get to that and more in a second. first thank you for joining us on early start. >> eye christine romans. it is 4:00 a.m. in the east, 11:00 a.m. in moscow where secretary of state rex tillerson and russian foreign minister is getting underway. it comes as u.s. officials are accusing russia of trying to cover up syrian leader bashar al-assad's use of chemical weapons against his own people. warns of backing assad in this new interview. >> frankly, putin is backing a person that's truly an evil person, and i think it's very bad for russia. i think it's very bad for man kind. it's very bad for this world. but when you drop gas or bombs or barrel bombs -- they have these massive barrels with dynamite and they drop it in the middle of a group of people. in all fairness, you see kids no arms, no legs, no face. this is an animal. >> the latest, let's go live to cnn's paula newton in moscow. is secretary tillerson's meeting underway yet? what do we expect to come out of this? >> reporter: not as of yet, but we do expect it t

your colleague sean spicer. this is receiving criticism even from conservatives. >> everybody wants to talk about substance with it comes to the president and constant attacks on that. now we have somebody with very deep knowledge of what's going on, has the ability to look at classified information and say there is something there. i think that's worth a lot more time than we are giving it. that part of it instead of the process and the back and forth. howie: why would the white house go through this cloak and dagger routine? that fuels questions as well. >> i don't think that was the white house's play or position. it's equal access that information is open for both of those individual to see what they have done. i know adam schiff spent a significant amount of time at the white house. he was there for several hours. howie: you are saying there is no reluctance to share this information with the ranking democrat on the house intel committee? >> because there is something there we would love for him to come and

what did you hear from sean spicer? >> reporter: sean spicer articulated the timeline that the president went through starting on tuesday morning at 10:30 a.m. that led to his final decision around 4:00 on thursday afternoon when he made that decision to strike and go ahead with this. but wolf, we also learned another piece of interesting information, how the president informed his chinese counterpart that, in fact, he had ordered these military strikes in syria. now, sean spicer said in revealing this for the first time, it was after their dinner last evening that was supposed to be the focal point of this big week of foreign policy for this administration, that the u.s. president reached out to his chinese counterpart, president xi jinping, and said, look, i have made this strike against syria. he said -- spicer said this. after the dinner had concluded, the impact had already been made. it happened around 8:30 or so, that the strikes started. the president informed president xi that that was happening. this, of cours

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what was sean spicer actually trying to convey there? >> well, look, i think he was making a technical point, katy, in trying to say that this use of chemical weapons is unique. certainly a number of people would argue that hitler, by gassing his own people, did effectively the same thing. so you heard him try to walk that back there. what he was trying to do more broadly, katy -- and i think the point -- is that he was making the argument that ultimately assad must go, that he doesn't see the syrian regime, the country of syria be with being able to gain stability with assad still in power. now having said that, there remains a lot of disagreement behind the scenes about how in fact the u.s. and its allies should go about getting assad out of power and what that timeline should look like. of course, secretary of state rex tillerson continues to insist that ultimately it is up to the people of syria. but what you are seeing here i think is the complicated messaging coming out of this white house as it relates to its syria policy, katy. w

attack in syria, and would vit to be a chemical attack or a conventional weapon, and sean spicer not once, not twice, but three times he said barrel bombs would be enough. let's watch. >> the sight of people being gassed an blown away by barrel bombs, and ensures that if we see this kind of action again, we hold open the possibility of future action. when you are watching babies and children being gassed and suffer under barrel bombs, you are ip stan tainously moved to action. this president has made it very clear if those actions were to continue, further action will be definitely taken be i the united states. if you gas a baby or put a barrel bomb into innocent people, you will see a response from this president. that is unacceptable. >> so clearly that word was used by on purpose there. and again, saying it three times, but shortly after that white house briefing a senior administration official said that spicer was not drawing a line around barrel bombs, because that would be a dramatic es a chelation of thing, because it happens all of the time, and ev everyday there, and a seni

any greater know what is sean spicer should know. is shakopee spicer not very smart or very competent? in either case, he should not be the spokesperson for the president of the united states. >> there are other people, we just had ari fleischer on, a former press secretary. he is also on the board of the jewish republican committee. >> uh-huh. >> he was taking a more forgiving tone towards what sean spicer has to deal with, look, people speak extraneously, let my play for you what ari fleischer said. >> he apologized. he did the right thing to just come out and apologize, you know the notion that this is somehow nefarious or indicative of holocaust denial, i dismiss. i think that's the normal washington, somebody you don't like and when the party you don't like says something you don't like, you say the worst things about him. that's not sean and i know that for a fact. >> ari fleischer, what a crock. here's the problem. it took massive pressure to get that apology. he didn't apologize to wolf blitzer just a few minutes before. that

you said sean spicer navigated the questions. they need to navigate that carrier right back north toward the korean peninsula. and they can go 800 or 900 miles a day. it can be in position quickly, and it will be, i'm convinced, to service if necessary. >> admiral, i want to ask about gronkows gronkowski's special -- we'll see what pans out in the negotiation, but i think there is a -- >> need some help? >> i think i got this, but thank you. maybe. >> thanks,man. i'll see glow a minute. halle, do you need some help? that's a great line. >> listen, andrea, i'm wearing eagles green for a reason, but sean spicer is a patriots fan. a moment of levity in the briefing room pip think it was a surprise. sean spicer seemed to hand it will pretty well. afterwards he chuckled. i guess that is just gronk being gronk. >> sean spicer, you know, the political side of this briefing, in terms of what they're dealing with, they have jason chafetz who is retiring, some say prematurely. others who we have shown are kind of returning away from the pr

ask new comments from sean spicer that are drawing outrage on social media. rex tillerson landing in cow today armed with an ultimatum for vladimir putin. side with syria or the rest of the world. >> it is unclear whether russia failed to take this only seriously, but this distinction doesn't much matter to the dead. we can't let this happen again. >> poout b dismissing u.s. claims that bashar al assad was behind last week's chemical attacks reminding that america got it wrong on weapons of mass destruction in iraq. sean spicer misspoke when he offered another historical parallel. >> someone as despicable hitler who didn't stoop to using chemical weapons. >> it wasn't enough to stop a wave of criticism. spicer said in a statement he was not trying to lessen the horrendous nature of the holocaust. tillerson was welcomed in moscow before. poout b declaring him a friend of russia as ceo of exxonmobil. it would be an insult to president trump who declined to comment. the white house was firm. >> russia is not an island when it comes to its support of syria or lac

again today when sean spicer made one colossal error. >> what spicer said was false and kind of ignorant. >> spicer is in way over his head. >> sean spicer proved himself to be a profoundly stupid liar working for a no foundly stupid liar. the president of the united states has a spokesman he deserves. >> i mistakenly used an inappropriate reference to the holocaust and for that i apologize. howie: why did the piling on continue after his repeated apologies. united apologizes after a passenger was forcibly dragged off a plane. >> i'm not going. i am not going. i don't go. howie: why did some in the media insist on trashing the 69-year-old doctor whose face wound up bloody? i'm howard kurtz and this is "mediabuzz." it was a refrain throughout the campaign that donald trump was too soft on russia. but this week they accused him of a head-spinning shift from coziness to competitors. >> is donald trump headed for a nasty confrontation from moscow, the man who helped elect him. >> this is not consistent with what donald trump ran on except i think it was the right thing to do. >> i don't thin

let's hear one of the two times sean spicer took the podium, sean spicer on barrel bombs today. >> the sight of people being gassed and blown away by barrel bombs ensures that if we see this kind of action again we hold open the possibility of future action. if you gas a baby, if you put a barrel bomb into innocent people, i think you will see a response from this president. >> so jack, what just happened there is he named it as kind of a threshold, beyond which you may hear from the united states. i have a stat here that shows nearly 13,000 barrel bombs were dropped in the year 2016. can you for our audience define the weapon here? what is a barrel bomb? >> it's an extremely unsophisticated weapon. barrel a barrel filled with explosives or incendiary substance, and nuts and bolts and the making of shrapnel. and these things are ins unsophisticated. basically ieds, dropped on civilians usually because they don't have any anti-aircraft weapons, so the weapons are just easily hovered above them, and the weapons dropped. >> sometimes they have chlorine gas, whatever, they really are impro

that was not the intent. >> after the briefing, he issued this statement, sean spicer. quote in, no way was i trying to lessen the horrendous nature of the holocaust. i was trying to draw a distinction of the tactic of using airplanes to drop chemical weapons on population centers and any attack on that is reprehensible and inexcusable. john kirby, you were the state department spokesperson and the pentagon spokesman. what is your reaction to that? >> i cringed, i have to say. look, rule number one, you never compare hitler to anything, and it's just -- you just -- that's not smart. >> it never ends well. >> it never ends well. >> and i think, frankly, he made it worse when he tried to explain it in the briefing and then -- and in the statement. the only thing can you say is, look also, i misspoke i was wrong and apologize, and then let it go. i thought in trying to explain himself in the statement he actually only made it had worse >> what did you think, phil mudd? >> well, i agree. the explanation was worse, burks i mean, there's 100 angles to this. let me give you th

the backlash forces sean spicer into an apology and yet more misstatements. with concerns that moscow is hardening it's support for syria, the us secretary of state prepares for crisis talks with the russian government. and deep under the atlantic ocean, the richest deposits of rare minerals anywhere on earth. scientists marvel at the wonders inside an undersea mountain. hello. police in germany believe the three explosions that hit a bus carrying the borussia dortmund football team were directly targeting the club. they were planted at the roadside in the district of hoechsten, about 10km from the stadium. the team was on its way to its champions league match against monaco. one player, marc bartra, suffered a hand injury and needed surgery. jane frances kelly reports. forensic teams have spent the night examining the blast site. three devices in what police described as a targeted attack exploded as the players‘ bus left their hotel shortly after 7pm. it's believed the explosives were hidden in a hedge and were detonated as the bus passed. the vehicle had

it is another stick to beat short spice —— beat sean spicer with. it is tricky for him because he has had other podium blunders. this administration has had problems with s —— state m e nts has had problems with s —— statements on this issue before. this is an administration that comes in with a bit of a negative track record on this but no. one thing that was striking to me and you don't see it often from this administration is after this mistake, he took full responsibility and basically said he was wrong and it was a mistake and he never intended to hurt anyone. i think people will accept the apology that people will accept the apology that people do make mistakes. thank you very much. let's round—up some of the other main stories: the head of united airlines has apologised for what he now describes as "the truly horrific removal" of a passenger from a flight on sunday. ceo oscar munoz at first told staff he stood by them, but with united's stock market valuation plummeting, issued another statement saying he was disturbed by the incide

first off, sean spicer has done this before. i think there's something about being in this administration that makes you more foolish, that brings out the worst parts of your personality, and he's just the most visible sign of it. i don't think he should be fired. i think in many respects the fact he goes out every day and lies and stumbles and is incapable of explaining what the actions are of this administration reminds us of the kind of president we have. i'd rather sean spicer go out and lay an egg and make a fool of himself every day than someone like ari flooisher or gibbs who would make this administration seem legitimate. the more he fails, the more we're reminded of the next four to eight years and that's an opportunity to remember how to resist this kind of presidency and behavior. >> at this point, people know who the press secretary is. i was reading the poll in the break earlier, favorable 28%, 37% unfavorable, 36% don't know who he is. he's getting made fun of by howard stern. >> he's become a regular character on

we have to start with these comments from sean spicer. it's the second day in a row that sean spicer has made comments that are factually kind of off. we do have to ask, is it time for the white house, for sean spicer specifically to clean this up and get things right from now on? this is particularly offensive. >> i mean, from the very first day sean spicer's role as spokesman has been controversial. you might remember his very first day on the job, inauguration day, when he called all the reporters into this fiery press conference about crowd sizes and basically attacked the media for not showing the photos he wanted shown. among those in the president's close circle of friends, i know there's criticism of spicer. one person described him as demeaning to the job of spokesman. he has a lot of critics out there. he also has a lot of supporters though within the white house. a lot of people who like him and in trump's base. he is very -- you know, viewed very favorably among trump supporters as the defender of the president and as someone

sean spicer the white house briefing begins. let's watch. >> to set up for this afternoon's major event. i'm excited to announce that next monday on april 24th at 10:00 a.m. eastern time, the president will speak via video conference with the commander of the international space station peg a whitson and her fellow astronaut jack fisher. in 2008, dr. whitson became the first woman to command the international space station. and on monday, she will break the record for the most time spent in space of any american astronaut. the president joined by his daughter ivanka and nasa astronaut kate ruben will congratulate dr. whitson on this incredible accomplishment and discuss the importance of encouraging women to pursue careers in stem fields, science, technology, engineering and math. as you're all aware in addition to sign sag the nasa transition authorization act, the president recently signed the inspire women act which insures that nasa continues recruiting women for important s.t.e.m. related jobs in aerospace, an effort partic

sean spicer suggesting a barrel bomb is a red line for president trump in seyria. if if true, that's a major escalation. we'll discuss that. >>> also democrats turning on one of their own after a a hawaii congresswoman questioned whether the syrian president's responsible for last week's chemical attack. we'll debate her argument, coming up. two become one. then you're a couple. think of all you'll share... like snoring. does your bed do that? the dual adjustability of a sleep number bed allows you each to choose the firmness and comfort you want. so every couple can get the best sleep ever. does your bed do that? for a limited time find clearance prices on the cse bed. now only $1399 - save $500. only at a sleep number store or sleepnumber.com the unpredictability of a flaree may weigh on your mind. thinking about what to avoid, where to go, and how to work around your uc. that's how i thought it had to be. but then i talked to my doctor about humira, and learned humira can help get and keep uc under control... when certain medications haven't worked well enough.

so administration official said sean spicer misspoke. he is not changing policy but barr bombs would not constitute any tieype of action. this is all sort of a larger way of saying that this administration is still figuring out what its red line is and what its policy is because they know of course the obama administration is backed into a corner, boxed in if you will, about this red line here. tonight they are saying that barrel bombs alone simply would not cause the u.s. to act again, wolf. >> yeah. the syrian regime has been dropping barrel bombs for years. a lot of them. on another issue, the white house is trying to down play reports after serious feud between bannon and kushner. what's the latest? >> this something that's been plaguing this administration for most of the last 11 weeks or so. this in-fighting inside the west wing. on the syria policy it became an issue as well with bannon arguing against strikes last week. other advisers arguing for it. but this all came to head last week we are told when the president himself direc

and sean spicer said his security clearance was renewed in 2016. did he disclose that he was paid for the speech? if he didn't, that's a crime for which he could be prosecuted. >> we've heard the t word being thrown around. from everything about michael flynn's actions, i'm trying to get a sense, is this the kind of they know that falls into the category of treason? or what is it? >> i don't know if it is treason. i think he was making a buck, a foreign government, the government of russia that's hostile to the united states and failed to disclose it. and then i have even more concern that's the white house, if you take sean spicer at his word today, the fact that he got a security clearance at the beginning of 20 will 16, if you take sean spicer, they didn't -- the white house did no additional vetting before he entered the government. that's not the way it worked in the obama administration where i worked. they look at everything you've done up until the time you enter government. that raises questions not just about michael flynn but he have oth

you asked sean spicer about this today. >> reporter: yes. white house officials are offering up a new information on the vetting of michael flynn pointing out the retired general had a security clearance review last year during the obama administration. i asked white house press secretary sean spicer why flynn did not have an additional review before coming into the trump administration earlier this year. spicer said that would not be necessary comparing the security clearance process for flynn to that of white house reporters who receive their entry passes renewed every couple of years and spicer pushed back on that attack from congressman cummins. the white house is engaged in a cover-up. here's what he had to say. >> congressman cummins accuses this white house of a cover-up. you say what? >> i was taken back from his comments today because their frankly not true. the department of defense was the issuing agency for general flynn's sf 86. we referred them to the department of defense who owns and issued his security clearance and they got