officials telling "the washington post" they know from american intelligence intercepts. if true, it's also possible that the russian ambassador was boasting to his bosses. but if it wasn't a boast and the information bears out, it casts serious doubt on the credibility of jeff sessions, the highest law enforcement official in the land, who denied having any contacts with russians during the campaign about the campaign. this is what attorney general sessions said during his confirmation hearing back in january. >> if there is any evidence that anyone affiliated with the trump campaign communicated with the russian government in the course of this campaign, what will you do? >> senator franken, i'm not aware of any of those activities. i have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign, and i did not have communications with the

jeff sessions is the only person in washington, d.c. who is an appointee who actually has leverage over the president of the united states irrespective for two reasons. number one, you have the obstruction of justice issue. if he fired jeff sessions, that cloud rain down on him once again. number two, jeff sessions is well aware of his popularity and knows that to replace him would be an uphill battle. and that would leave his policy platform in limbo and unable to actually accomplish the immigration, border reform -- >> it looks like you have a little insight into general sessions' thinking. and i have not discussed this with him directly. but look, general sessions is someone who believes in president trump, not just as a leader on these issues but also the president as a leader, as a person and really bought into this whole movement that we were behind. general sessions is very loyal, and if the president were to ask him to go, then he would go. and that would be the end of the story. he wouldn't make a big stink about it. but i do t

jeff, i want to get to this big news from the "washington post" tonight. here's what the "post" is reporting. this is a quote, "some of president trump's lawyers are exploring ways to limit or undercut

this is from "the washington post" that we just got. many on our panel are just hearing for the first time. i just want to read you the opening of this report. some of president trump's lawyers are exploring ways to limit or under-cut special counsel robert s. mueller iii's investigation basing it on allegations they say he is granting pardoning of people familiar with the effort. trump has advised his attorneys about his power to pardon aides, family members and even himself in connection with the probe, according to one of those people. a second person said trump's lawyers have been discussing the president's pardoning powers amongst themselves. the article goes on to say trump's legal team declined to comment on the issue, but one adviser said the president has simply expressed a curiosity in understanding the reach of his pardoning authority as well as the limits of mueller's investigation. quote, this is not in the context of i can't wait to pardon myself, a close adviser said. it guess on to say, with the russia investigation cont

"washington post," cnn, others. it has the been those entities, that have -- that, week in. week out. given us the truth about what really happened. recently "the new york times," president's son. and, i hate to admit it, but who have often times produced this information, at a more rapid rate than of my own investigative committee in the congress has been able to do. >> congressman. appreciate you being with us. thank you very much. >> thank you, andersen. >> cnn special report on the first son, donald trump jr. now in the brightest and hottest spotlight probably in his life. s again? that's cool. feeling good in slim fit? that's cool. looking fabulous in my little black dress? that's cool. getting the body you want without surgery, needles, or downtime? that's coolsculpting. coolsculpting is the only fda-cleared non-invasive treatment that targets and freezes away stubborn fat cells. visit coolsculpting.com today and register for a chance to win a free treatment. binders, done. super-cool notebooks, done. that's mom taking care of business. but who takes care of mom? offic

>>> on a very busy day today in washington, crucial votes in congress. trump team members behind closed doors in the russia investigation. the president of the united states lashing out at his own attorney general. the fate of jeff session' job is in limbo tonight. he was determined to stay put as of a few days ago. cnn has confirmed sessions' chief of staff told rinse priebus the attorney general had no intention of stepping down. that conversation happened over the weekend. the president has criticized sessions several more times since then, right up until today. sara murray is in youngstown where the president had a rally. the president finishing up the rally a short time ago. did he mention sessions? he talked about him several times today. >> that's right. he was asked about him several times today and seems to intentionally leave him out there twisting, not getting any kind of answer about whether he wanted sessions to step aside or whether he might fire sessions. we were all waiting to see if trump would unleash on his attorney general here at thi

that was at the mayflower hotel. >> in washington. so there's an encounter there that kislyak reports on in which they discussed campaign matters. there's a second encounter in july. this is on the sidelines of the republican national convention. it's in a hotel outside the convention area. and, again, sessions gives a speech, and at the end, kislyak as a pull-aside, if you will. we're not sure how long it lasts, but it was described by intelligence officials who have seen the reporting as a substantive conversation. it wasn't, at least in kislyak's view, something superficial or cursory. then there was a third meeting which took place in sessions' senate office, which occurred in september. >> which sessions has said in the past that that was in his capacity as a senator, he held that meeting. but you don't have information about what kislyak said about that meet something. >> well, sessions did provide a little bit of a readout of that meeting in which ukraine was discussed. just to clarify, sessions initially said -- and as far as

of "the washington post" story. for his part he has financially supported her organization, the american union fund. also with us scott jennings, maria cardona and jason miller. i want to focus with you. the report about attorney general, explain what you are reporting tonight. what's the story? >> so, you know, we reported back in martha when sessions appeared before the senate judiciary committee and was asked the question about, frankly, al franken didn't ask him that question, but his answer was he didn't have any contact -- communication was the russians. we found out that that wasn't the case, that there was, you know, a meeting at the rnc on the sidelines that he had a meeting with kislyak and there was a second meeting at his office in second. we attended that they attended the same event in april where trump gave his first foreign policy speak. >> i recall. >> we are trying to figure out what were the contents of these contacts, what were they discussing. so, you know, sessions specifically said he did not

that's according to "the washington post". that sound you hear just might be the clock ticking for jeff sessions

hampton by hilton. >>> quite a day in washington. the senate barely advances the gop health care plan with senator john mccain returning days after brain surgery and vice president mike pence breaking the tie. at the white house, the president not backing down from his attack against jeff sessions. we talked about both of these issues to senator bernie sanders. here's more of that interview. >> just on a personal level, what what did you make of the speech that senator mccain gave? what was that moments like? >> well, i have known john mccain for many years and personal liam very, very fond of him. obviously i was disappointed by his vote today. but john is you know an old timer. john remembers when the senate functioned in a very different way. and when john was essentially saying is this is not working. it's not working on health care or anything else. and you know, i think it was a message to by the way, indicated he would not vote for this legislation in its present form. i think what he was saying is let's get back to regular or

that's according to the "washington post." th

does that mean expectations were different in moscow than washington? let's check in with matthew chance at the russian capital. what has been the reaction in moscow to the meeting today? >> reporter: well, it's been quite astonishing. russian officials have been reacti ining really positively this meeting. the first face-to-face meeting between president trump of the united states and president putin of russia. one senior lawmaker said the results of these talks on the sidelines of the g-20 summit, quote, this is a quote from him, they surpassed expectations and were psychological break through. i can tell you, the expectations were pretty low, to be fair. i mean, the russians had been somewhat disillusioned with the notion of president trump being able to deliver the kind of radical change in the relationship that he'd promised during his campaign and in the early days and weeks of his presidency. i say the expectations were very low that this was going to be anything other than a meeting to exchange pleasantries. in the event, 2 hours and a quarter,

a day or so later "the washington post" reports trump called cummings to talk about prescription drugs. kellyanne conway said donald trump comes to the white house with a sophisticated understanding of how the power of television, the power of imagery, the power of message all work together. randi kaye, cnn, new york. >> joining the conversation is brian stelter and michael deantonio. do you have a sense of how many hours a day he watches? you mentioned last night he has an enormous tv in a room right next to the oval office. >> in the little dining room. i don't want to put a hard number on it, but that five-hour number in aggregate doesn't sound wildly off. you can also just look at his tweets and look at the time when he's clearly watching television. >> he also tivos stuff and records it. >> there was some issue around the comey testimony where there were some staff members trying to get him to not watch it in realtime. look, his staff is really projecting out just a lot of what he is seeing and feeling, but what happens when people get very close to this president in his circle is

he's new to washington. he's clearly trying to make an impression. not just on the president, but on his staff and on the media. and to kind of come in and sweep away the chaos through shear force of will, which also happens to be the method that bannon used and trump used, it hasn't really worked that well. i think scaramucci's going to have problems if he continues along these lines. >> it appears that's his role, brought in to get the ships running. which is sort of what you would be as a steve of staff's job, i guess. >> my favorite tv metaphor is really "real housewives." it's gotten in the way of that task of cleaning up shop. in the last six days, we've heard much more about the relationship between reince priebus and anthony scaramucci than we've heard about anything else. there hasn't been restructuring in the white house. only one person has been fired in a way that everybody acknowledged was really unusual and perhaps cruel to this person who was a lower press office staffer. there is not a sense of order to this. but it is also pretty cle

jeff sessions is the only person in washington, d.c. who is an appointee that has leverage over the president of the united states for two runs. number one, you have the obstruction of justice issue. if he fired jeff sessions, that cloud rains down on him once again. number two, jeff sessions is well aware of his popularity and knows that to replace him would be an uphill battle. and that would leave his policy platform in limbo so -- >> it looks like you have insight into general sessions' thinking. but look, general sessions is someone who believes in president trump, not just as a leader on these issues but also the president as a leader, as a person and bought into this whole movement that we were behind. general sessions is very loyal, and if the president were to ask him to go, then he would go. and that would be the end of the story. but i do think that general sessions, i would not expect to see him quit under any circumstance. i think he's loyal and dedicated to the cause. and that's why i think so many folks like myself who ar

the senator from tennessee and the senator from washington. the senator from utah, the senator from oregon. they have worked well together in the past. and can work well together in the future. there is suggestions that we are interested in that come from members on the other side of the aisle. senator from maine, the senator from louisiana. so let's turn the page and work together to improve our health care system. and let's turn the page in another way. all of us were so inspire d by the speech and the life of the senator from arizona. and he asked us to go back to regular order, to bring back the senate that some of us who were here, have been here a while remember. maybe this can be a moment where we start doing that. both sides will have to give. the blame hardly falls on one side or the other. but if we can take this moment, a solemn moment, and start working this body the way it had always worked until the last decade or so, with both sides to blame for the deterioration, we will do a better job for our country. better job for this body

i just think, you know, there are gasps all over washington, i'm sure. about this, and saying exactly that, that it's inappropriate, et cetera. to be candid, i don't think he cares. i think if he feels the need to make them, he'll make them. >> can i point out, again, he is probably the world's worst poker player. "don't investigate my finances." he's the first guy that didn't release his tax returns. maybe there's something in the finances. if you had a target of an investigation saying don't look there, what would you do? >> look there. >> the problem is, the criticism of special prosecutors is their mandate is to do this and it broadens. we got from a real estate investigation of the clintons to monica. how did that happen? >> there was a lot of criticism of -- [ overlapping speakers ] >> i do think it's different. >> i sat in the west wing where he used to denounce ken starr -- >> history proved me right. >> the difference is bill clinton, under the law, did not have the chance to fire ken starr. the independent counsel law, which no longer exists, t

senator john mccain, of course he's back in washington, battling brain cancer, chairman of the armed services committee. he said, look, an announcement of this magnitude should not be done by twitter. he also said any able-bodied legal american who wants to serve their country should be able to do so. so anderson, as this goes forward here, i expect considerable pushback on capitol hill, as this is decided. this may be president trump's version of don't ask, don't tell, but it's a slightly different time from, you know, more than two decades ago here. so this is not the end of this today. i think it's the beginning of a long discussion here. >> jeff zeleny, thanks a lot. we're at all it with dana bash, is this just about politics, diversion from the russian investigation or jeff sessions or red meat to the base, because he's been criticized by folks from the base about sessions? >> it seems like it could be all of that, we don't know. he didn't make a public statement about this. but in any case, look at it both ways, either this is just something that he felt really passionate about

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you don't start putting band-aids, this is the washington problem. you don't fix a failure. you get rid of a failure for the benefit of the most americans possible. and that's the path we're on with repeal. it doesn't have to be immediate repeal. it can be repeal by a date certain and put the pressure on. it will get suddenly very bipartisan about what other alternatives might take place. once this complete failure of american health care we call obamacare has been stripped aside. and a lot of these republicans have already voted to do this in 2015, including some of the people you're hearing say no, we're not going to do this now. you're lying then instead of lying now. last point, this is a real mitch mcconnell failure. he's been caught lying to members of his own caucus about not really shrinking medicaid. let's call it what it is. it's welfare. welfare exploded under obamacare. and that is a central point that republicans for a long time have agreed to contain and shrink. >> matt, does the president have a role in this? is it a presidential failure? ken is saying it's a

that's unheard of in this time of divided washington. the president accepted the political reality here. said he would sign this bill. it does tie his hands and weaken his hands in terms of russian sanctions. if he wants to change any of this, congress has to give it its blessing here. but the president obviously knowing he cannot override the veto. tonight he'll sign the bill. >> it's a big change from a lot of talk about russia during the campaign. >>> coming up, we'll talk about the other news out of washington. the vote that tanked the obama health care repeal plan. what's next for the gop and the repeal plan? "how to win at business." step one: point decisively with the arm of your glasses. abracadabra. the stage is yours. step two: choose la quinta. the only hotel where you can redeem loyalty points for a free night-instantly and win at business. i'm leaving you, wesley. but why? you haven't noticed me in two years. i was in a coma. well, i still deserve appreciation. who was there for you when you had amnesia? you know i can't rem

trump was convinced that he needed an old washington hand, someone who knew washington to be able to guide him through the beginning of his administration. but people, including the president's own family members, jared kushner, ivanka trump, became to believe that reince priebus wasn't filling that role. so it may have been an amicable split. we saw reince priebus handle it graciously. but it was a decision by the president he wanted to go a different direction and choose a general for that role. >> priebus didn't want to address scaramucci's comments for obvious reasons. do we know how much scaramucci and his -- not just his comments but stuff he's done since he's got there in his very arrival, how much that played into priebus' departure? >> reporter: it seems like it forced everyone's hands in terms of the timing of this. we do know that general kelly's names have been in the works for a while. there have been conversations about replacing the chief of staff that have extended for months and have grown more heated in recent weeks and recent days. one of the things that was tellin

that's unheard of in this time of divided washington. the president accepted the political reality here. said he would sign this bill. it does tie his hands and weaken his hands in terms of russian sanctions. if he wants to change any of this, congress has to give it its blessing here. but the president obviously knowing he cannot override the veto. tonight he'll sign the bill. >> it's a big change from a lot of talk about russia during the campaign. >>> coming up, we'll talk about the other news out of washington. the vote that tanked the obama health care repeal plan. what's next for the gop and the repeal plan? this is crabfest at red lobster. and right now, we're serving up more delicious crab than ever. classic favorites like crab lover's dream. and new dishes like southern king crab and dueling crab legs with delicious dungeness and sweet snow crab. it's all happening at crabfest. and crabfest is only happening at red lobster. now this is seafood. ♪ it's happening, it's happening! in the modern world, you can control just about a

that's the section that gets most people into trouble in washington. it's rarely the scandal, it's often the aftermath. it's when people make false statements. they try to be too clever by half, or they omit things. people get charged under that. and as a criminal defense attorney, i have to say, a thousand to one charges are the ones that you really want least to see in an indictment, because they tend to be very easy to prove in a courtroom. having said that, most emissions on sf-86es do not result in prosecutions. it's usually administrative measures, particularly the denial of the clearance, which is unlikely, obviously, in this case. >> richard painter, what do you say to those who are saying that jared kushner shouldn't have a security clearance or it should be looked at. >> well, he has had an awful lot of contacts with the russians, and in a lot of different contexts, it seems like he has the wrong should be jjob. maybe he should be the united states ambassador to russia or the russian ambassador to the united states, i don't know. but the poin

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we're not talking about it, and guess what, no one's going to be talking about it in washington in the morning because they're going to be talking about this. when that is absolutely the message that this president needs to be sending to the industrial midwest where he shocked the world last november. i regret that, for the president, because that jobs announcement today was really amazing. now we're not talking about it. >> that's the communications director's job. >> you don't think this was a good idea? >> i think that you have to understand the consequences of these kinds of things, which is, whatever oxygen was going to be existing on the cable networks for the jobs announcement is now going to be taken up by this issue. he might say, look, it's short-term pain for long-term gain. if i can eliminate all information leaks out of this government, long-term that's the best thing for the president. >> you know that's not going to happen. >> you might say that. >> that is never, ever going to happen. ryan, is that going to happen? one can never eliminate the leaks of coming out of any

washington post reporter. along with his colleagues wrote the piece. revealing her clothes are entirely made in foreign factories. the company really didn't -- they met with you. fact they wouldn't tell you where the products are made or under what conditions. there seems like other countries even small companies even manufacturing over seas try to ensure that the workers in the factories are well treated is well paid. >> that's right. that's one of the big surprises that we found with the company. there are a lot of clothing companies that don't share which factories they work in or which countries they work in. there are a lot of countries that out source and get stuff made over seas. 97% of the thijs we buy in the u.s. every year are made over seas. this was such a level of no transparency. they said they had a code of conduct for their factories but wouldn't share anything. we were surprised to know there are companies clothing companies sort of similar to theirs that are smaller, younger. that were doing these things and sharing these things and s

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new jersey for a holiday weekend at his golf club in bed minister having provided the fireworks in washington. his feud with msnbc's joe scarborough and mika brzezinski and rage over their criticism of him lit the capital sky and sparked condemnation from republicans about what a d distraction it's been from the agenda. for more on next, sara murray is traveling with the president. what has been the white house's response to the allegations by scarborough and brazvertebrbrze? >> reporter: the president's fight with two cable news hosts over a "national enquirer" story and whether there was an attempt essentially to go after these anchors with this story, whether they reached out to the president to try to get him to kill it, the president is insisting joe juror called hscad him but there's no official comment. sarah huckabee sanders wasn't sure if the president had seen the news story that set this all off today. a lot of he said/she dade in this case but, again, sort of the broader narrative here is this in the minds of many people who are members of donald trump's own party with another day

but, you know, in washington, i'll make a baseball analogy. i know you love sports analogies. you have to string a series of hits together to score a run. after the scalise congressional shooting, the president's tone was a solid double. and now these tweets in the last 48 hours are basically like getting picked off. so we don't need hits followed by base-running blunders. we need hits, hits, hits, and then runs will score, and then everything will be fine. so if he can get a couple of these bills across and string a few hits together, then it will be fine in the midterms. but we're not there yet. >> right. i hate to use that word tone again, but the tone of the text is so against what he said on the scalise shooting, which again got bipartisan praise and, you know, people felt good about it. >> so you know what the problem is what my friend scott just laid out is that when he does hit the right tone -- and they're very few and far between, but he has done it. it is because he is scripted to do so. it is because he has been forced by some force of nature that he has got to sti

i just think, you know, there are gasps all over washington, i'm sure. g gasps about this sand saying exactly that, it's inappropriate, et cetera. to be candid, i don't think he cares. i think if he feels the need to make them, he'll make them. >> can i point out, again, he is probably the world's worst poker player. "don't investigate my finances." don't, don't do that! there is nothing there. this is a guy who wouldn't release his tax returns. the first time in 40 years a major presidential candidate didn't do so. so i don't know. maybe there is something in the personal finances, mr. mueller. mr. mueller has a lot smarter investigators working on this and jeffrey was a former prosecutor. if you had an investigation that said don't look there, what would you do? >> i would look there. >> i think so. >> the problem is, the criticism of special prosecutors is their mandate is to do this and it broadens. i mentioned. we got from a real estate investigation of the clintons to monica. how did that happen? >> did you see him go on tv and say don't look at ex

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post," and on the cocktail circuit of washington, d.c. about what is happening in the white house. you can vacuum up information in this environment without spies that will help the kremlin understand what's going on in the white house, and that's what i think the russians are doing. it's entirely predictable. >> jim sciutto, there seems to be a conflicting message from the president of the united states. on the one hand he delivered a speech in warsaw where he called on russia to stop their destabilizing activities. quite deliberately seemed not to include election meddling as a destabilizing activity. that's a mixed message to say the least. >> no question one was a scripted speech, the speech itself, and the other, when he's in the press conferences he's speaking off the cuff. i think that might be part of the explanation there. but there is clearly something about election meddling. remember, the president, it took him some time to call out russia for activity in the ukraine and elsewhere. he's gotten to that point. i'm sure his advis

there's always been a wash washington and a new york divide. so i think you may see some other people leaving. but anderson, i was struck thinking back on all this. one of the reasons i think reince priebus had such a tough job because the chief of staff's office is in the west wing corner, not far from the oval office at all. it's intended to be within a 10 second walk to the oval office, to keep an eye on who goes in, to be the ultimate gate keeper. reince priebus could not be the gate keeper because the president was talking to everyone on the phone. he had everyone else's ear. and at the end, anderson, for months i'm told, the president viewed the chief of staff as weak, someone he did not want to be in the same room with him at times. so it became untenable. in many respects it's aremazingt lashed this long . >> gloria. >> you know, i've been told that the president has been seriously considering whether he wants to keep steve bannon over at the white house, anderson. and that he has spoken -- one of the things that has saved steve bannon

we're told some of the russian diplomats have violated protocol, john, by leaving the washington, d.c., area, without notifying the state department. that's been a big concern for those in the intelligence community. russia, by the way, has similar rules in place for u.s. diplomats in russia. and another issue is an ongoing frustration with the state department over granting of visas to people the u.s. intelligence community suspects are intelligence officers. state department official would not comment specifically on the visas. john? >> all right. pamela brown. fascinating reporting and a lot of it. thank you so much. so, if the russians taking advantage of american inaction, which might in turn be affected by the continued refusal of the president to say he is certain the russians meddled in the election. today at a news conference in warsaw, the president once again hedged on the hacking. cnn's jim acosta has that on the president's latest remarks, some of which may be more comforting to western allies. jim joins us now. jim, what exactly did the president have to say about russia

i sort of walked him through how reporting 101 in washington. so i think his lesson from this is, you know, it's a trust issue. i think he's taking the wrong lesson from this and, you know, he's a big boy in a big job and when you have it on the record conversation with a reporter about something newsworthy, you should expect that it's going to be reported. just like he goes on cnn's air, it's no different. >> be off the record and not reported, you can arrange that with a reporter. >> yeah. i've had cases with people in public at a rally and understand the rules of journalism, they say oh, i didn't want to be quoted on that and you can understand a civilian and communications director for the president of the united states calls you and you do an interview with them, you report what that person says if it's newsworthy and that's what happened in this case. >> all right. ryan lizza, appreciate you coming back. i want to bring in josh green, abby phillip, jeffrey lord an r aan and errol lewis. ryan lizza didn't do anything wrong? >> no, he didn't

again, the high estimate is $8.4 million, and as "the washington post" points out, the military spends $41 million a year on viagra. as per sarah huckabee sanders' insistence this was a military decision and nothing more, keeping them honest, if that is true, why were the heads of the four branches of the military caught off guard? beyond that, there's a politics issue and perception issue that can't be ignored. politico reports the sudden transgender ban was in part an effort to save a house spending bill, a bill in jeopardy because of gop infighting over the issue of the government paying medical costs for transgender troops. and a political reporter quotes an official as saying the ban would force democrats in rust belt states to own the issue, defending transgender service members in the 2018 elections, which the white house believes would hurt those democrats. either motivation amounts to uses transgender as political pawns. and it's no coincidence the president did this when he's getting criticism from conservative supporters for bashing jeff sessions, essentially throwing red me

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they own everything right now in washington, d.c. and what we're learning is that they can't govern. they were supposed to give us something better than obamacare. that's what they told their constituency. that's what they told everyone. they haven't been able to do that. and obamacare is popular. people want to keep health care. they want protections for their pre-existing condition. and that's what we're seeing right now. as to the protesters, look, i was out there, at the capital, when the mtp was voted on, the motion to proceed. there was a protest out there. and i got to talk to everyday people who came out with their kids, who are sick. how is this going to affect their lives? this is really real. people are concerned able how they're going to live. you hear the protesters out there when ryan is talking, those are the people who are out there.

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she went right down to washington, d.c., did the same thing in washington. and the end result of that was nothing. so i think the whole thing was put-up to begin with. >> but, you know, every former intelligence officer, cia officers who worked on russia for decades say the m.o. of intelligence services, many intelligence services, but particularly the russians is to use cutouts, people not directly employed by the fsb, to make an early approach to gather information. you can't say for sure that wasn't what was happening here. nobody at this point can say for sure, correct? >> all we know, all we know, all we know is the facts that we know. and the facts that we know are she came in to discuss what? the magnitsky act. based on what was going to have opposition research in campaign, opposition research is discussed all the time, that issue comes -- never cosms into play. it was about magnitsky. wait a minute. >> go ahead. >> that's why people left the meeting in minutes. and everybody that was at the meeting that you have talked to said the same thing. it was

and as you know, republican senator shelley moore said she didn't come to washington to hurt people. would a repeal without replacement hurt people? >> no, repeal is not acceptable. of course you'd have lots of people that would lose health insurance. i don't think it would be good for the country. i don't think it would be good for the party. i don't think it would be good for anybody who is down there in congress. >> you talk to a lot of focus on capitol hill, obviously a lot of governors. do you think there are enough democrats and republicans willing to work with each other in a bipartisan way? >> i do, i do. sometimes, though, they want to ask permission from their leadership, like i need to ask. like, you know, i need to have a hall pass. do i have to ask the teacher? that's a frustrating thing for me. you know, when i was in the congress, i was offering budgets against a republican president of the united states because i didn't think he was saving enough money. i became the chairman of the budget committee. we balanced the budget. we did it on a bipartisan basis. this is not

officials telling "the washington post" they know from american intelligence intercepts. if true, it's also possible that the russian ambassador was boasting to his bosses. but if it wasn't a boast and the information bears out, it casts serious doubt on the credibility of jeff sessions, the highest law enforcement official

that president carter sent the intus trious arm and hammer to the russian embassy in washington to talk about getting some russian influence in the 1980 campaign against then former governor reagan by releasing jewish refuse knicks and the soviet union which would help carter in key states. he also pointed out president carter himself, went to debrenan to make the pitch to the soviets for walter mondale. so yeah, it's been done before. >> do you think it's appropriate? >> i honestly don't think it's that big a deal. you know, should it be publicized? sure. i said this to you the other night, if we're going to have an investigation, let's open up the whole thing, the whole can of worms about russia. the clinton foundation and hillary clinton and john podesta, let's get it all out there so everybody can see what the involvement was or was not. >> you're saying -- but saying that implies that that stuff hasn't been reported, and the fbi has had plenty of opportunity to look into any of that. and i would assume if there was any there, there would be investigations, because that was looked a

my friend paul cain at the washington post just did a story about the miles that he logs. just this year alone, anderson, 75,000 miles, to more than 15 nations across three continents. i was just talking recently to chris coons of delaware, i think it was less than two months ago, talking about the fact that kunz who is about 30 years younger than john mccain, 81 at the end of august, he had to change his own schedule because he couldn't keep up with mccain. and the way that he said that mccain is revered by leaders across the country. even and especially in vietnam. which he said was really interesting. but covering mccain, anderson, in the senate, and i covered his presidential campaign in 2008 from start to finish, he has a fighter pilot's mentality which is, you keep going and you keep going and you keep going and you don't look back, you don't worry about regrets, because we all have them, but he tries not to dwell on them but he keeps going. and that is his m.o. there's no question, you know, knowing him and the way that he likes to fight. he's probably also telling