. >> our final panel white house gardens today features speakers who worked in and around the white house. we will hear from jim adams and jim mcdaniels, secretary for the white house historical situation board of directors. like our previous panel, we will hear three short presentations and then our panelists will have a short conversation moderated by dr. chapelle. please join me in welcoming our speakers. [applause] >> thank you, it is an honor to be here today to speak with you about white house gardens. both of our other panelist our named jim and both work lted at the white house. at the end am going to let you ask questions. we are the last panel of the day and we will finish the discussion by talking about gardens that have been established and modified since the kennedy administration. so from the johnson administration on. in many different ways, the white house gardens have been inspired and used. i'm going to start off the panel by talking about some of the garden trends and movements that have inspired and influenced the development of the white house gardens and grounds. i'm

when osc did flag this unprecedented recommendation for the white house, osc only gave the white house 16 hours, that's right, just overnight to respond. the items osc flagged as problematic are ridiculous. ms. conway said that vice president biden, senator bernie sanders are two old white career politicians. she said senator warren was lying about her ethnicity and appropriating somebody else's heritage. she suggested that congressman o'rourke does not think that women running are good enough to be president. and she said that senator bernie sanders has ideas that are, quote, terrible for america. frankly, i think a lot of americans would agree with ms. conw conway's statements, but whether you agree or disagree with those statements it does not change the fact that they are ms. conway's honest opinions and she has every right to share her opinions. democrats on this committee are more than happy to use osc -- the osc report to attack ms. conway and of course the president. this is just yet another example of the committee, as i said, being used for politics. we had special counsel he

of the white house. the place where the public can get the closest to the home of the american public. this is even more true throughout the 19th century, when the public was allowed ready access to the north grounds. people weren't shy about coming for a visit, as we can see from this fantastic photo of these rather dapper gentleman lounging on the north grounds, fittingly in the shadow of the jefferson statue, that was a centerpiece of the north grounds. all of this was good so long as they respected the right to privacy, and stayed out of what was supposed to be the private south grounds. what do you think happened? before very long, folks started making themselves quite at home in the president's backyard. this trend really started with a bang during andrew jackson's first inaugural reception in 1829. more than 20,000 boisterous supporters descended on the white house, and ran through before spilling outdoors and continuing the party outside on the south grounds. to be fair, washington was still a yo

and the story about teddy roosevelt's when he came to the white house, the white house had all the offices in it at that time. the president lived there, it was a small family. he had six children and everyone had to have his or her own bedroom. so, they had to build the executive office building so that they could all have their own bedrooms. and that was when charles mckinnon came in to build the west wing with the oval office. and of course you know in the colonnade connecting the white house, the president still has to go outside every day to go to his office. there is no way through the house to do it. and at that time he also built the east wing, which as you can see here in this wonderful postcard from 1930, the east wing is a right angle because it became an official portico entrance to the white house. the east garden that we are going to be talking about is embraced, as it were, by the east wing. and if you go in october you can see that. thomas jefferson actually wanted the idea of having wings. and evidently when they were building these, they did find foundations that had been

that work with the white house. when i explained that to people. almost think of it as a foundation with an educational mission. the federal government will only appropriate money for the maintenance and upkeep of the building. if you want the state floor to have presidential trips and state services, historic artifacts that are returned to the white house all of that has to be raised privately. there is no taxpayer money used for those things. >> to have a say as to what pieces are in the white house? >> there is a group called community for the preservation of the white house it consists of a lot of the major heads of agencies like the smithsonian, chief usher of the white house, white house curator, head of the national park service and the number of presidential appointees that serve on the committee. the association works with the community for the preservation of the white house to acquire things but also for various renovation projects. for example, when first lady laura bush decided to renovate the lincoln b

, don mcgahn, white house counsel, now the white house counsel that placed mcgahn. it's bougt preventing getting witnesses to the hill and documents to the white house. that's what a lot of their focus is day in and day out. >> as we're having this conversation, president trump is tweeting about the exact issue we are talking about. we're going to get that up on the screen for you here. he says, according to the president, now the democrats have asked to see 12 more people who have already spent hours with robert mueller and spent a fortune on lawyers in so doing. how many bites at the apple do they get before working on border loopholes and asylum. bob, this is similar to what we've heard from the president in the past, trying to turn the conversation away from the special counsel investigation and focus instead on what he perceives as shortcomings for congressional democrats. >> also apples and oranges, not just a bite at the apple. federal investigators, robert mueller, special counsel's office, looking at russia interference and possible obstruction of justice.

but the white house is itself -- with the white house itself acting as the dividing line between the two halves. this arrangement might seem familiar as most american homes have lawns visible from the street and backgrounds that are -- backyards that are more secluded. this is precisely jefferson's intent -- to have the north grounds freely accessible to the public, and a south grounds reserved for the private use of the presidential household. overtime, this distinction between public and private space blurred and changed, but even now, when granted access onto the entirety of the white house grounds is restricted, it is fair to say the north grounds are the mansions of formal front lawns, and the south grounds is the more homey backyard. as for the third theme, jefferson called for plants in abundance. his vision included lots of trees, but also productive gardens for growing fruits and vegetables, and ornamental flowers and decorative plants. in keeping with the spatial division of the landscape, the plantings on the north ground would be formal and symmetrical, while those on the

chairman cummings asked the white house to produce emails of white house officials july 1st, 2019. three weeks ago. the white house, and abby wolf, attorney for ivanka trump and jared kushner are cooperating with requests from the chairman. he briefed the committee twice. chairman cummings is rushing to subpoena for headlines before august recess, choosing confrontation over cooperation. here are the facts. here are the facts. jared kushner's attorney told us he preserved all records as required by law and does not use personal email or other platforms to conduct official business. following the law. imagine that. ivanka trump inadvertently used unofficial email for official business on a few occasions but corrected her actions exactly as the law directs and provided all, every single one of those emails, to the white house for preservation. furthermore, contrary to chairman cummings' assertion, her attorney explained she forwards all emails relating official business to her official white house account. again, as you're supposed to do according to law. despite this, the chairman i

being interns at the white house. believe josh, who is now a congressman, was an intern, one of my interns. he is now a congressman. way, if you can get one of those internships, i would highly recommend that you try to go for one of those. ms. sams: we love internships. i am a first-year graduate student. i noticed your commonality between generality and specificity. things people notice in their everyday life. versus the specificity of senior and the specificity of the badger versus where you were when you knew it or other wording that made me think of friends parents who died in 911. how do you choose when is a good detail?o use a specific bothdmonds: i think you do in most speeches. you always want to have a real-life life story, an example to bring your point to life. and i think you might notice and most of the modern state of the union addresses, they have people in the gallery who represent different parts of the speech. and they asked them to stand up at the appropriate time. in most modern campaign speeches

house from speech writing in the white house in law school? thank you. speeches inspire a lot of people, so i'm curious who inspires you. >> have you ever felt that posedic posted -- an ethical dilemma to your message, and if so, what did you do in that situation? >> ok. [laughter] inspiration, you want to listen to great speeches -- franklin roosevelt and kennedy, ronald reagan, martin luther , to maket in terms of another point as well -- when we talk about authenticity and nowadays there's so much talk on theuthenticity being top of your head, it is authentic. so when martin luther king was writing these speeches and sermons, he put a lot of effort into them. when he got up there, no one said hey, throw that aside and give that some authenticity, would you? there was nothing more authentic . the presidents i mentioned were very serious about speeches, and in my own case, working with president bush, he did a lot of aliving -- add living -- d-libbing with his speeches, but it was always what he wanted to say. he always got high marks for aut

since she joined the white house in january since she joined the white house in january 2017, she has repeatedly and flagrantly abused her position of trust. in march 2017, the office of government ethics recommended that the white house discipline ms. conway for using her official position to oppose the private business during fox and friends. holding her accountable, the white house minimizes the seriousness of her violation by claiming that this was made in a "light, offhanded mander.". the committee discovered that she wasted thousands of taxpayer dollars by traveling around the country on private jets with former secretary of health and human services tom price. secretary price paid the taxpayers back then resigned. ms. conway refused to reimburse taxpayers and faced no disciplinary action at all for president trump . recently, on june 13, recently, on june 13, 2019, the independent office of special counsel which is led by henry carter, who was appointed by president trump, issued a report recommending that the president fire ms. conway for "persistent, notorious, and deliberate

chairman cummings asked the white house to produce emails of white house officials july 1st, 2019. three weeks ago. the white house, and abby wolf, attorney for ivanka trump and jared kushner are cooperating with requests from the chairman. he briefed the committee twice. chairman cummings is rushing to subpoena for head lines before august recess, choosing confrontation over cooperation. here are the facts. here are the facts. jared kushner's attorney told us he preserved all records as required by law and does not use personal email or other platforms to conduct official business. following the law. imagine that. ivanka trump inadvertently used unofficial email for official business on a few occasions but corrected her actions exactly as the law directs and provided all, every single one of those emails, to the white house for preservation. furthermore, contrary to chairman cummings' assertion, her attorney explained she forwards all emails relating official business to her official white house account. again, as you're supposed to do according to law. despite this, the chairman

administrations including multiple white house counsels. the deputy counsel to the president and associate counsel to the president, the deputy assistant to the president, the director of the white house office of security. this is a clear cut case. when not requiring to testify about advice, she gave the president or about the white houses policy decisions, let me repeat that members. we are not requiring her to testify about advice she gave the president or about the white house's policy decisions. we are requiring her to testify before congress about her multiple violations of federal law. her waste of taxpayer funds, her actions that compromised public confidence, and integrity of the federal government. this illegal activity and the ongoing efforts to cover this up mustn't be allowed to stand. this is bigger than just the hatch act or any other law. this is about holding our government to the highest standard and not allowing individuals appointed by the president to be given special treatment when they flagrantly violate the law. i mu

former white house counsel don mcgahn. the panel revealing how the white house blocked annie donaldson from answering questions, get this, 212 times. also breaking, attorney general william barr says the decision on how to add a controversial question on citizenship to the 2020 census will be made in the next day or two. we're told the strategy to comply with the president's demand remains up in the air. an executive order is among the options on the table right now. barr also is weighing in on next week's congressional testimony by robert mueller. he's accusing house democrats of force the former special counsel to appear to create, and i'm quoting him now, "some kind of public spectacle." this hour i'll talk with house judiciary committee member steve cohen and our correspondents and analysts are also standing by. first let's go to our senior white house correspondent pamela brown. pamela, there's a lot of hand wringing tonight over how to insert the president's citizenship question into the cens census. >> reporter: tha

of the white house. it became a private space for the first family to enjoy. this is very early photographs of the white house conservatory. because this large glass building here. the conservatory was steamy and exotic and overflowing with all types of hothouse plants. one 19th-century news reporter somehow did manage to get inside and describe the scene as like penetrating the luxurious fragrance of some south american island. so warm and open for us is the atmosphere." first lady lucy seen here with her children, and one of their friends in the conservatory had a tremendous amount of plans and was an avid gardener. they utilize the conservatory in a special way. after a dinner with guests, instead of serving drinks, they led tourist in the conservatory. it seems to have gone over surprisingly well with guests going away pleased with the experience. the year 1900, the single conservatory, which is can growuilding here, into one vast glass complex that ranged over much of the southwest grounds. the cons

house, there were concerns among white house officials that the rolling disclosures about acosta's involvement in this deal, which have continued since scrutiny has grown, first with that miami herald article and then with the new charges against epstein, that would only continue to create distractions for this white house. so president trump creating yet another vacancy in his cabinet, by letting acosta go as trump himself distanced himself from that social relationship that he enjoyed with jeffrey epstein years ago, brooke. >> let's back up while i have you too on director coats. why is he coming up again, potential departure? >> well, brooke, president trump has been discussing with confidants again. his frustration with his director of national intelligence, that's not new frustration for months on and off, the president has questioned whether he has the right man in that job. back in january recall that coats gave congressional testimony that contradicted what president trump was saying publicly about iran, about north korea, president trump was very angry at coats over that at the time,

joining me my colleague at the white house nbc news chief white house correspondent hallie jackson. what are your sources telling you? >> reporter: what has been a fluid situation here, we are now being told by an administration source that the president when he announces what is going to be this executive action in some form or fashion today will essentially direct his administration to seek answers to that question of citizenship in other ways. it is still going to be led, i'm told, by the commerce department. they will be running point on this. but it does indicate a little bit of a shift in tone. now, i will tell you this. two administration officials tell myself, my colleague, our colleague kelly o'donnell, that the president is not backing down from his fight to have this information to obtain this information. one official telling kelly o. it should come as no surprise that this president wants to know who is in the country legally and lawfully and we will do everything within his legal authority to know. the attorney general bill barr said monday that the administration's st

residence of the white house. all of this is coming from the president of the united states. listening to karen bass, head of the congressional black caucus. when it comes to black people in america and people of color in america, donald trump is nothing new. that's the thing we have to remember. he's nothing new. especially when i talk to people from jim crow and especially with the birtherism. >> i don't want to skip over this point, when you look at the exit polling, black women were the smallest group, none voted for donald trump. if you ask them after the election, the antidotal evidence was we all knew someone like donald trump. >> exactly. the reason biden does so well in polling, he's being supported by the black community. in his announcement he took a 2x4 to the racism of donald trump and that awakened people and said, yes, this person can beat donald trump in their mind. they know how dangerous donald trump is and they have seen the bigotism all their lives. when we say we have seen this before, it's sa

but this is the trump white house. and so thursday's social media summit is instead shaping up to be a "star wars" bar of the outright. a thinly vailed con cav on the design. platforms like facebook and twitter are not invited. instead there's a pro-trump meme creator and some banned on social media to spread toxic nonsense. it's appropriate the president is convening this meeting not to talk about rereform but to give oval office oxygen that social media is discriminating against them. >> if you look at twitter, they don't treat me right. a lot of people try to follow me. it's hard. i have so many people coming up to me. they say it's so hard. they make it hard to follow. what they're doing is wrong and possibly illegal. and a lot of things are being looked at right now. >> okay. so put that casual threat from the president aside. his twitter followers exploded from about 13 million before the election to nearly 62 million today. some suppression. what the president might be talking about is twitter's push to suspend

the white house has refused to release any information on it. they have invited these right wing trolls as the president invited them there as an antisocial media bend. >> we don't flow what it is and neither do the guests? >> they are the people who want to prepare for something like this. >> right. >> sure. >> they haven't been able to, i guess -- >> figure out -- >> they don't know what's expected of them because the white house has offered no guidance. >> there's a line between trying to preserve antimedia guidance. let's take a look at some folks invited to this. some of them, it's 12r5i7bd -- >> it's not the heritage foundation, right? >> not at all. >> some people like carp carpe dantum, a provocateur, bill mitchell has gotten it going on twitter. james o'keefe at journalists who publish deceptively edited videos. the president is giving these people a platform. >> well, one, it's the clearest -- it's the clearest example yet of the president trying to legitimize fringe political allies. he's taking them from out there and bringing them i

not going to the white house. we are not going to be invited. >> reporter: back in the us with her team doubling down on her anti-trump stands while simultaneously saying a team visit to the capital, chuck schumer and nancy pelosi, is what they want. >> we said publicly most of the team, i think everybody is with me. we don't want to go to the white house. thank you, chuck schumer for inviting us. >> reporter: for his part donald trump unequivocally congratulating women on their win, putting aside the firestorm surrounding the found never to visit the white house while adding this. >> will unify the women seem to the white house? >> we will look at that. >> we will be interested to hear what the players say about potential dc travel plans tomorrow in downtown manhattan under confetti. unless we make this a political thing, the phrase for the team comes from both sides. >> great job by them but it is unfortunate it took this political turn on both sides. my twitter feed has been going for several days about it. >>

is that a concern with the white house? >> i don't think it is a concern of the white house. i think it's a concern of others. it's not a concern that the president shared. he seems very comfortable with the acing title. he seems to like having people there who maybe give him a little bit more flexibility by not being -- not seeming to be as permanent. i think -- i have spoken to people in the white house who say even if your title isn't acting, we are all acting because the president can choose to fire you at any time. but to you question, i don't think that that's a major concern. >> any sense of congress or congressional concerns over the status of acting secretary snz. >> i think there i

this has really overshadowed the white house. and does it complicate the white house's ability to work with democrats on capitol hill to try to raise the debt limit to get a budget pass, some of these things that are must-do items when we get into the fall. so, politically speaking i think president trump is not afraid of this fight. i think he sees it's something that could politically energy his core supporters. but it's also something that makes it more difficult for administration officials. we started this weekend, i should say, covering the fact that democrats were fighting. and now we're covering the fact that democrats are very unified in their condemnation of these tweets by president trump, steve. >> yeah. and, kristen, that's a very good point. let me go back to leigh ann on capitol hill. so heading into weekend through much of last week, all of this discussion about this strife within the democratic party within the democratic caucus that was reaching the public there between this group of four congresswomen, between

plus, how the white house tonight has punished the british ambassador for candor. why joe biden apologize gud at campaign event and who decided he would not realistically be elected president. all of it on this "11th hour" on a monday begins now. >> good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. this was day 900 of the trump administration, 561 days remain in his presidential term and tonight, the trump white house has a wary eye on an explosive case that the feds announced today to the north here in new york. it's a deeply disturbing and lured sex trafficking case involving this man, 66 years old. he's a multi millionaire financer named jeffrey epstein that has ties to the president and notably his labor secretary alex acosta. more on that angle in a moment. today, federal prosecutors in the southern district of new york in effect the manhattan office of the justice department charged epstein with sex trafficking conspiracy and one count of sex trafficking. epstein has pleaded not guilty to the charges he faces up to 45 years in prison if

and the white house correspondent for the white house. admiral, this is a public dispute i haven't seen in any a decade between the diplomats and the national security advisor on what could be the most important issue right now, apart from iran perhaps. >> it's hard to imagine a scenario like this, kind of in the past where you have like steve hadley, extremely thoughtful national security advisor disputing his boss in public or tom donlin disputing barack obama. unthinkable. it's very concerning, andrea, both inside the inner agency -- and i've been in those debates and confrontation in the situation room. but normally, you resolve it in the situation room and then you walk out together. so inside the inner agency it's bad form. publicly it sends a very bad signal, both to our allies and also it encourages our opponents. kim is thinking, wow, this is terrific. president xi is looking at this thinking i've pushed president trump to a very different and strange place. so however you score the merits of should we continue to press for a ful

so that's what the white house you talked about the clarity of their message. here's the reality, again, just to remind everyone what bob mueller said on those topics, go. >> the president has repeatedly claimed that your report found there was no obstruction and that it complete and totally exonerated him. but that is not what your report said, is it? >> correct. that is not what the report said. >> and what about total exoneration? did you actually totally exonerate the president? >> no. >> now, in fact, your report expressly states that it did not exonerate the president. >> it does. >> so joyce, i want to ask you this, given that that is, you know, here's the white house line. it's an abject lie. here's mueller stating categorically that it's false. here's all of the stuff we know, what's the big message that democrats must get across on top of which i'll just add that one of the places that mueller went in the hearings that was a little surprising to people was the extent to which he cast doubt on the president's kr credibility. he got as close to calling

house. >> i would invite him right now to the white house. i just want to say that this is my honor. i didn't really expect it. we were in japan for the g20, we came over, and i said, hey, i'm over here, i want to call chairman kim, and we got to meet and stepping across that line was a great honor, a lot of progress has been made. a lot of friendships have been made and this has been in particular a great friendship, tremendous positivity. really great things are happening, and in a lot of places, but, we met and we each other from day one and that was very important. it is my honor and the chairman's honor to say we work well together. >> i want to thank chairman kim for something else. when i put out the social media notification, if he didn't show up, the press was going to make me look very bad, so you made us both look good and i appreciate it, and it's an honor to be with you, and it was an honor that you asked me to step over the line, and i was proud that you asked me to step over the line. it was great, very historic. >> before leav

white house. there is racism coming out of the white house. so where will you stand today? that is the question we face. where will we stand? will we stop and extinguish the flames of racism from the white house or will we continue to fan them? history and our children are watching. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from georgia rise? mr. collins: i yield as much time as he may consume to the gentleman from louisiana, mr. scalise. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for as much time as he may consume. mr. scalise: thank you, madam chair, madam speaker. the last vote we just saw on the house floor is beneath the dignity of the house. we have rules for a reason. just because one party is in the majority, madam speaker, doesn't mean that the rules don't apply to them. the rules aply to all of us. just as we're passing laws here that ought to apply to all people fairly across this country. the reason we have these rul

white house aides will definitely bee1 keeping an eye it. there is a lot at stake for this there is a lot at stake for this white housel- feel as though the robert mueller report really landed with a thud in washington and across the country. people aren't really reading it or talking about it. there is the potential for robert mueller to be talking about the president instructing twe people to lie, trying to stop the investigation and putting it on television as democrats really wante1 to do, could mean some political problems for the president. >> michael, the president also apparently saw fit to goe1 afte you and your colleagues there at the "washington post" in a tweet calling "the washington post" story fake, fake news, as he does from time to time. youre1 reaction to being called out there by the president of the united states like that? >> i think it's very much in keeping with his way of dealing with criticism, includinge1 criticism from those close to him and around çóhim. >> all right. we'll leave it there. jared and kim thank yo

the senior white house official tells cnn that trump was stewing and worried that a steady stream of revelations would haunt trump on the campaign trail. and acosta may not be the only one on the chopping block. a senior white house official telling cnn that the president is looking at replacing his director of national intelligence dan coates what's parking this round of speculation? it's not clear. but the president has long been unhappy with coates one of the many points of disagreement, north korea. >> we have made a lot of progress as far as denuclearization is concerned. >> we currently assess that north korea will seek to retain its wmd capabilities and is unlikely to completely give up its nuclear weapons and production capabilities. >> coates's comments were just ten days after the president's. and who can forget the very memorable moment when coates found out in realtime on camera that trump was inviting putin to visit the white house? >> okay. >> yeah. >> that's going to be special.

and we have a predator living in the white house. donald trump has predatory nature and predatory instincts. and the thing about predators you should know is that they prey on the vulnerable. they prey on those who they do not believe are strong. and the thing about predators you must most importantly know, predators are cowards. predators are cowards. and so when we look at this campaign and we look at the task before us, it will be to successfully prosecute the case against four more years of donald trump, and i am prepared to do that. >> all right. california senator kamala harris is among the 2020 democratic candidates flocking to iowa this 4th of july weekend. by a "des moines register" count there are at least 50 campaign events scheduled. and a new abc/"washington post" poll today shows former vice president joe biden continuing to bleed support, although the numbers are less dramatic than other polls we've seen this week. the poll sums up the trend like this. the post/abc poll underscores what has been the case from the time

cnn white house correspondent boris sanchez at the white house for us. so what are you hearing? >> reporter: white house officials are not commenting on this reporting in "the new york times" that the director of national intelligence dan coats is expected to step down in the coming days, but this is something that white house officials had seen coming. we had reported just a couple of weeks ago the president was having discussions who he might tap to replace dan coats. white house officials have told cnn that they got the sense from him that he was eyeing retitle. he'd already been on the job for two years, and as one white house official put it, the president never fully warmed up to dni coats. we should point out the two men have had very public disagreements on a wide array of issues. the director of national intelligence frequently contradicting statements made by president trump on everything from the objectativity of the intelligence community to foreign policy with syria and north korea, russia specifically. so it's not clear at this point that those disagreements, those

hillary vaughn at white house, says we react to that from the white house with details there. reporter: president made history stepping into north korea and north korea's leader kim jong-un, may make history by stepping here in the u.s. the president invited kim jong-un to come visit the united states after both leaders agreed to pick back up nuclear negotiations. the president says the timeline could move quickly. he says his focus is not a fast deal, it's a good deal. >> over the next two or three weeks the teams will start working to see whether or not they can do something. very big step. pretty complicated. not as complicated as people think. meantime there has been no nuclear tests. there has been no ballistic missiles. there has been, a lot of goodwill. reporter: "the new york times" reports that a nuclear freeze is on the table. national security advisor john bolton pushing back on that in response. i read "the new york times" story with curiosity. neither the nsc staff nor i discussed or heard any desire to settle for nuclear freeze by north korea. this was a reprehen

the white house has largely defied many of these demands. cummings says in fact he hasn't got a single piece of paper from the white house since he became chairman. today there is a new narrative from the white house, as donald trump may be on defense. it comes from mike pence. and from white house officials trying to backrun "the new york times." it's the president's race-baiting tirades against chairman cummings, which have obviously centered on the fact that he is black and represents a city that is known as urban black place for people. these fairly obvious facts, though, are being spun a little bit. let me explain. you have this vote last week to authorize subpoenas for work-related emails and text messages on personal devices of trump's daughter and son-in-law. and now you have this. aides said the subpoena move last week riled mr. trump and helped fuel the anger that had been on public display since saturday. where you have pence telling reporters today it goes back to chairman cummings' grilling of the homeland security chief. so wha

ordered to have the special white house counsel removed and the white house counsel refused to do that because it wasn't true. what does that get? >> this notion you can't bring an obstruction case if the obstructive conduct is at the core of the president's constitutional responsibilities to make sure that the laws are executed to oversee the executive branch. this something that doesn't come within a mile of those core responsibilities because what the special counsel found the president was trying to document, order the documentation of a lie. he was tampering with a witness and stubborning false testimony to get a record created untrue. that is clearly outside the bounds of any presidential responsibility and basis for an obstruction charge. >> i'm told that is one of the incidents known to be under scrutiny the white house was most concerned about as it awaited the conclusion of the obstruction investigation. is that a place where the president is particularly vulnerable? >> sure. i don't believe there is a straight-faced argument this is him making a decision, as they argued in m

you always have a question. >> reporter: a white house aide. >> my white house aide? what about his aides? what about mueller's aides? >> reporter: your answers were generally untruthful. what do you say to that? >> he didn't say that at all. are you untruthful when you edit -- you are untruthful. when you ask that question, you are untruthful. >> well, i am joined now by ruth marcus, deputy editorial page editor for "the washington post" and maesha taking on the president for the pbs news hour one of those who has challenged him in the clip you just heard. you were there, he was pushing back against everything and misstating what mueller said in terms of mueller's correction to the question in the afternoon when he came back and said he said is not correct. ei believe misstated what that had all l actually involved. >> exactly. from the very beginning when president trump walked out to the white house lawn, he started misleading what mueller had said and started talking about the fact that there was no defense to the report and wasn't contradicting anything that he s

he is now back at the white house. our sarah westwood is at the white house. what are you hearing there? >> reporter: well, the white house is not specifying exactly why vice president pence did not make it to that event in manchester, new hampshire. he was supposed to go early this afternoon to an opioid roundtable in new hampshire but his plane never left washington. that's according to the vice president's office. a source close to the vice president's office says that he was called back to the white house for an unspecified reason. a senior administration official says that it is not health related for either the vice president or the president, and it is not related to national security. we know that vice president pence is currently here at the white house. we don't know why or why that event was cancelled, but the vice president's office says they look forward to rescheduling the event at some time in the future. so we're still waiting for some more clarity on why exactly that event was cancelled and why exactly the white house called pence back here, b

how worried is this white house? >> first of all, i think it's very interesting that trump is trying to indicate that he's not even going to watch. before the first democratic debate, his aides floated the idea that he might live tweet. so it's interesting to see the different ways they use his interest in the television program to indicate how we're there. they're trying to make it this is the phrase he keeps repeating, another bite of the apple. the white house messaging, today we heard kellyanne conway speak saying, america, this is congress saying you're too stupid to read the report yourself. they're trying to downplay there is anything new here and say that the barr letter really set the playbook here, and that is that there's no collusion. there is no rapid response plan they've been pre viewiviewing. last week mr. mueller was supposed to testify and they were planning a program rally. the program rally was rescheduled and the president spoke about the, quote, unquote, squ squad. they are watching but they're

we are waiting for comments from the white house. cnn's bren gingras joins us. >> former president clinton, president trump, who in a 2002 interview called epstein a terrific guy. both have tried to distance themselves but epstein is behind bars right now, awaiting a bail hearing. it may be harder for others, like acosta to distance himself from past connections to this multimillionaire. >> growing calls this morning for president trump's labor secretary, alexander acosta to step down over his handling of sex abuse allegations against multimillionaire jeffrey epstein when acosta was the u.s. attorney for florida's southern district a decade ago. a newly unsealed indictment charges the hedge fund manager with operating a sex trafficking ring where he is accused of sexu sexual sexually abusing dozens of young girls in his home. epstein pled not guilty. >> he was well aware that many of his victims were minors and not surprisingly, many of the underaged girls that epstein allegedly victimized were particularly vulnerable to exploitation

blake burman there at the white house. blake. reporter: the white house held this event to celebrate the one-year anniversary for the pledge to american workers this is the campaign the white house has been pushing to get companies, organizations to provide opportunities for their employees in the name of retraining and education. the national association of manufacturers today, for example, pledging nearly 1.2 million opportunities. the white house says that brings the total to 12 million pledges over the next five years as a whole. here was president trump earlier today. >> companies stepped up to the plate and so many companies have done thousands and thousands of jobs and the training for these jobs. it is not like the old days where you go in, you do something much simpler. today with new technologies, computers, different things you have to know. this is not something you can easily step into. reporter: meantime the white house is throwing its support behind the prescription drug pricing reduction act which advanced out of