thanks, pamela. the world according to trump. journalists are the enemies of the people, but he would be honored to meet kim jong-un. "the lead" starts right now. president trump tells congress to get the quote damn health care bill passed. could this be the week, and does the president even know what's in the bill this time? for that matter, does anyone? president trump today saying he would be honored to meet where north korea's despoddic dictator and that's not the first murderous and maniacal dictator he's opened up to in the past

day. and more sexual harassment turmoil at fox. fair and balanced coming up. good afternoon, everyone, everyone. welcome to "the lead." the rules of the senate are designed to make sure that the minority party is able to exert some influence regardless of which party is in charge called the filibuster dating back to the early years of congress. it's part of the american system of checks and balances, but frustrated by his inability to pass any major legislation in congress, president trump is now starting to talk about changing those rules as he threatened during the campaign. >> the rules are the senate and some of the things you have to go through, it's really a bad thing for the country, in my opinion. they are akaric rules, and maybe at some point we'll have to take those rules on. >> taking those rules on. the white house is also now acknowledging that it has spent time and your tax dollars trying to figure out a way to change the modern legal interpretation of the first amendment to the constitution's guarantee of freedom of the press.

james madison be damned. reince priebus was asked if he wanted to pursue a change in the liebel laws as he threatened during the campaign. >> i think it's something that we looked at and how that gets executed and whether it goes anywhere is a different story. >> a desire to change the constitutional situations to protect the nation from a would-be dictator when president trump has showed outreach to a number of actual dictators, such as for instance, north korea's kim jong-un. >> at a very young age he was able to assume power. a lot of people i'm sure tried to take that power away whether his uncle or anybody else and he was able to do it so obviously he's a pretty smart cookie. >> kim jong-un had his uncle murdered. that doesn't make him a smart cookie but a murderer. the president said he would be, quote, honored to meet with kim and he's not the only brutal dictator he's reached out to over the weekend. president trump had had a very

friendly conversation with the president of the philippines, rodrigo duterte who has engaged in rampant crimes against humanity we extra judicial killings of at least 7,000 filipino citizens by police. he's personally dragged about committing some of these murders himself and have said that some journalists should be assassinated. president trump invited duterte to the white house. this is all of a piece and he called president erdogan on his recent power grab and said kind words for vladimir putin and called the despots who caused the tiananmen square massacre as strong. ronald reagan once noted how our declaration of independence, especially the notion that each and every individual is endowed by our creator with certain

unalienable rights. that's a beacon to the world. rage owen said our creed as americans is the human rights are the property of every man, woman and child on this planet and that a violation of human rights anywhere is the business of free people everywhere, unquote. whatever happened to that? the president's praise of dictators and their, quote, strength precedes his presidency but his recent expression of desire for more power seem rooted in his recent frustration over the health care bill. in an interview the president is mandating that pre-existing conditions be covered in their new reform effort. the only problem that does not appear to be in the legislation right now. cnn congressional correspondent sunlan serfati is live on capitol hill. is the president pushing them to that or he's not sure what's in

the bill? >> reporter: that certainlyrationed a lot of eyebrows about the president's own understanding of what's in the bill or how he's trying to sell this bill, especially as the white house is making a big push for the house to hold a vote this week. tonight vice president pence is making an impromptu stop hear on capitol hill meeting with some members and it comes on a day when we've seen a slew of house republicans coming out publicly against this bill, and they are faced with this new stark reality that they still don't have the votes yet. the pressure is on for republicans to deliver on health care. >> we know that when the vote gets called, we'll feel confident it will be able to pass. >> reporter: with the white house ratcheting up their push for a vote this week. >> do we have the votes for health care, i think we do. >> this is going to be a great week. we'll get health care down to the floor of the house. we're convinced we've got the votes and we'll keep moving on with our agenda. >> reporter: pressing for that vote, president trump insisting people with pre-existing conditions will not be worse

off. >> pre-existing conditions are in the bill, and i mandated it, i said it has to be. we actually have a clause that guarantees. >> reporter: that claim seemingly at odds with what's actually in the house republican bill. an amendment unveiled last week to help attract conservative lawmakers would allow states to opt out of okuma obamacare's community ratings provisions. that change alarming some house moderates whose support it is to get the bill through. >> the amount president offered does weaken protections for people with pre-existing conditions because states will be able to opt out or waive out of it, so i think that is a very big concern for many of the center right members with whom i'm affiliated with. >> reporter: republican leaders in the house are still wrangling for votes. aides saying they are closer to having the votes they need to bring the bill to a vote on the house floor and not close enough yet. the latest vote count shows a

razor thin margin with 20 house republicans voting consequence the bill meaning the gop can only afford to lose two more republican bills or else the bill will fail. the latest maneurverings over health care on health care after lawmakers reached their first bipartisan agreement under the trump administration agreeing to keep the government funded until september but the bill which increases defense spending and border security includes some major concessions from the white house, including leaving planned parenthood funding in place and gives no money for the proposed border wall along the u.s.-mexico border. >> and despite that confidence coming from the white house, speaker paul ryan won't schedule a vote until he knows he has the 216 votes needed to pass the vote and as of now there's no vote schedule so that tells us a lot on where the process is. jake. >> thanks so much. what is the white house saying about the president opening up

the possibility of direct talks to kim jong-un and inviting a leader to the white house who bragged about murdering people? that's ahead. why pause a spontaneous moment? cialis for daily use treats ed and the urinary symptoms of bph. tell your doctor about your medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, or adempas® for pulmonary hypertension, as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess. to avoid long-term injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours. if you have a sudden decrease or loss of hearing or vision, or an allergic reaction, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis. ♪ ♪

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we're back with the world lead, and the trump administration putting several options for intervention on the table to counter the escalating tensions with north korea. today president trump told bloomberg news he would be, quote, honored to meet with kim jong-un under the right circumstances and is also acknowledging the tensions with north korea telling fox news that no one is safe. >> we have 28,000 troops on the line and they are right there, and so nobody is safe. we're probably not safe over here. if he gets the long range missiles, we're not safe either. >> reporter:. >> under that looming threat the u.s. anti-defense system is now operational and critics are pouncing on president trump's invitation to the philippines

leader. duterte is a man with a stained human rights record who encouraged if not ordered thousands of extra judicial killings, a man who went hannibal lecter last week saying he with a eat the liver of a terrorist. a lot to chew on here with cnn's jeff zeleny. jeff, let's start at the top. does the white house anticipate president trump meeting with kim jong-un in actuality, and would that be soon theoretically in. >> reporter: in a word, jake, no. there's no diplomatic relations between the two countries, the u.s. and north korea at all, let alone talks between these two leaders here so that would be something aspirational at the very least here, but it certainly raised a lot of eyebrows. the president saying that, particularly his use of the word honored. with a nuclear threat looming and tensions rising, president trump declaring today he would be honored to meet with north korean leader kim jong-un.

if it would be appropriate for me to meet with him, the president telling bloomberg news, i would, absolutely. i would be honored to do it, that comment raising eyebrows after the president offered curious words of praise about kim jong-un. >> at a very young age he was able to assume power and a lot of people tried to take that power away whether it was his uncle or anybody else, and he was able to do it so obviously he's a pretty smart cookie. >> reporter: white house press secretary sean spicer sought to temper the kind words saying the conditions do not exist for the president to hold talks with north korea. >> we've got to see their provocative behavior ratcheted down immediately. there are a lot of conditions that would have to happenus to its behavior and to show signs of good faith >> reporter: the president creating controversy after extending his and to the philippine president duterte who is accused of killing thousands of his own people and he also

once called president obama and expletive. some advisers at the white house were taken aback by the cnn invitation, cnn learned. it came during a weekend phone call between trump and duterte which the white house described in the statement as a very friendly conversation. a senior administration official says the white house invitation was neither expected nor planned. democrats seized on the call saying an invitation to the white house amounted to an endorsement of the philippine leader. senator chris coons saying trump risks giving dew's actions and his human rights violations an american stamp of approval. the president said, you know, he's very popular in the philippines. he has a very high approval rating in the philippines. spicer said improved relations with the philippines were needed because of u.s. interests in the region. >> it is an opportunity for us to work with countries in that region that can help play a role in diplomatically and economically isolating north

korea. >> reporter: yet it's the latest sign of the president's affinity of strong men. president al sisi has been someone very close to me from the first time i met him. >> reporter: from inviting al sees toe the white house and pragz the leaders of russia and turkey. mr. trump's words for authoritarian leaders drawing fire. ja jake, the white house did not apologize at all for any of these comments, explaining the word honored though, saying this president was trying to show respect there, but that word still drawing attention and questions here today. jake. >> jeff zeleny at the white house with us, thanks so much. with the white house suggesting the conditions are not right for a meeting with kim jong-un right now, are there any circumstances that would be right? we'll speak to a republican member of the house foreign affairs committee coming up next. and full of nutrients.

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welcome back to "the lead." i'm jake tapper. a lot to talk about. let's bring in mo brooks, a member of the freedom caucus. thanks so much for joining us. >> my pleasure, jake. >> the president said he would

meet with kim jong-un under the right circumstances. do what you do i? will there ever be the right circumstances? >> there's an old saying you want to keep your friends close and your enemies closer. it's always a good things to improve relationships with your allies and to create relationships with your foes and in this case i don't see any harm trying to improve america's relationship with a dictator in north korea. we may strongly disagree with a lot of things that he does to his people but nonetheless if it's going to help preserve peace over the long haul both in south korea and the korean peninsula generally and with respect to the united states it's worth a shot. >> i can certainly understand the argument that there's this big nuclear threat and anything the president can do to de-escalate tensions and maybe even eliminate that nuclear threat would be a good thing, but a lot of human rights activists and democrats and republicans are concerned about the duterte invitation because, you know, the philippine strong man has ordered the extra

judicial killing of thousands of his own people and obviously his behavior is reprehensible. does he really deserve a white house invitation? >> i'm not going to get into whether it's deserved or not. bear in mind the philippines has been a longtime ally since the 1940s, and i would like for us to improve that relationship and if in meeting with the government of the philippines we are better able to improve our relationship with the philippines on the one and and perhaps upgrade the way they treat their citizens on the other hand that's a positive for both the philippines and the united states of america. now, granted with this individual and for that matter kim jong-un in north korea, it may be quite the challenge, but it's a challenge worth taking if there's a chance of improvementment. >> let's turn to domestic issues because cnn is now reporting that congressman chris smith, republican of new jersey, has decided he's a no vote on the new health care legislation. that means according to our vote count republicans are on the

verge, about two votes away from losing the vote again. you are a yes vote, a no volt last time. you're a yes vote now. will there be a vote this week and is it possible that the bill might not pass again? >> well, there were substantial changes to the bill to granite state rights that caused me to switch from a no to a yes. i don't know if it's going to come up this week or not. what we are discovering is that the more liberal wing of the republican party is fine with repealing obamacare so long as you keep all of its principle parts, and that just doesn't work, and we have to do what we can to lower the cost of premiums of all americans, and i think more weight needs to be given to that aspect of changes to obamacare, how it's denying people insurance coverage that they previously had because they can no longer afford. it all the mandates increase the price, and i hope that some of my colleagues will start focusing not just on the public policy aspect of this but also if you're going to take pure politics and electability there are far more people right now

who are struggling because of the increased cost of health care than previously who had no health care at all. >> i want to ask about one of the provision. in an interview president trump said people with pre-existing conditions will be protected. insurance companies will not be allowed to deny them coverage, but my understanding is, as you just mentioned, this new legislation would allow states to opt out and allow insurance companies to refuse to sell insurance to people with pre-existing conditions as long as there's some setup for them, pools of some sort. is the president sending a message to congress to change that provision, or did he not understand what was in the bill? >> that's not my understanding of the way the bill has been reframed. my understanding is that it will allow insurance company to require people who have higher health care costs to contribute more to the insurance pool that helps offset all these costs, thereby reducing the cost to those people who lead good lives, they are healthy, you

know, they have done the things to keep their bold health he and right now those are the people who have done things the right way that are seeing their costs skyrocketing. now in fairness, a lot of these people with pre-existing conditions, they have those conditions through no fault of their own, and i think our society under those circumstances needs to help. the challenge though is that it's a tough balancing act between the higher cost of these mandates which denies people coverage because they can't afford the health insurance policies anymore on the one and and having enough coverage to help those people who are truly in need, and it's a very complicated question, and i'm sure over the years it there will be different permutations of it both in the past as we go forward. >> republican congressman mo brooks, thanks you for your time. >> thanks. >> he says he's not running but former vice president joe biden's comments in new hampshire don't have a lot of people convinced. who else could the democrats be turning to for the 2020 campaign? that story next.

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we're back with more in our politics lead. just when you thought it was safe to watch tv again, president trump's re-election campaign is under way with a new political ad on television and online. >> america is winning, and president trump is making america great again. >> i'm donald trump and i approve this message. >> wow, the countdown to 2020 is already on. and not just on the gop side. cnn's brianna keilar is here and the rumors are already swirling about which democrats will throw their hats into the ring. >> that's right. are we going to see familiar faces of the democratic party, or are we going to see candidates who are not even on the national political scene right now? either way. this is a really difficult task, unseating a seated president who has already begun his

re-election campaign. the words that have launched a thousand campaigns. >> guys, i'm not running, okay? >> reporter: joe biden's comments in politically important new hampshire we should note are not convincing political observers that he's really out of the race in 2020. >> biden says one thing one day and another thing the next day. it meant nothing what he said yesterday, absolutely nothing. >> reporter: this was the former vice president in march. >> i think i could have won. do i regret not being president? yes. >> reporter: if biden runs, he would likely join a crowded field of democrats, some of whom may already quietly be exploring a presidential bid. >> i have a feeling that in the next election you could be swamped with candidates, but you're not going to be wasting your time. >> reporter: today president trump out with his first campaign ad, the earliest one that has ever aired in a first term. >> president trump is making america great again. >> i'm donald trump and i

approve this message. >> reporter: he's eyeing massachusetts senator elizabeth warren as a possible 2020 opponent, reupping her dig as her self-proclaimed native american air damage. >> reporter: she has loudly opposed trump. at the women's march -- >> we fight harder. we fight tough sneer on his administration picks. >> i ask leave of the senate to continue my remarks. >> reporter: and maybe on the presidential campaign trail. >> what do you say to some of your critics who think that you are doing this to help position yourself for a possible run in 2020? >> i say i'm doing my job. >> reporter: and what about hillary clinton? just last month she was rallying democrats. >> we can never stop fighting. we need to dedicate these next years, the next two year, the next four years and beyond, to supporting people and organizations that are advocating for the best of

american values. >> reporter: and privately sources say she has not completely ruled out another run. bernie sanders seems more likely to attempt one though much to the chagrin of party fund-raisers. sanders has not shared his voter contact information with them, perhaps saving it for himself, but there's a problem. how do we say this politely? >> the democratic party has to be careful that it doesn't present the image of a nursing home. some of these candidates are going to be in their upper 70s, real hailing distance of 80. younger candidates will have an opportunity to present a contrast. >> reporter: and so that gives an opening to fresher faces in the senate like cory booker or maybe kamala harris or governors like john hickenlooper and andrew cuomo, even a governor would hasn't been elected yet, and, of course, jake do not forget about oprah. >> how could i forget about oprah. >> reporter: see's indicated she may be open to running.

>> let's bring in my political panel. lets me start with you, susan. who is the leefrltd democratade democratic party? >> i think it's someone who is not a democrat and that's bernie sanders. he's the person who came closer than anybody expected including him last time and it's where the energy of the matter is right now. >> a republican friend of me, alice, told me they don't want to run against joe biden. they think he would be tough. >> because i view him as someone who really connects with the people. working class people across mesh unlike any other democrat. he is someone hillary clinton was not able to capitalize and convey to people what he was able to go through. he comes from them and can speak to them so he would be someone that's a big threat. the key for the democratic party though is harnessing their anti-trump sentiment into votes, and that's going to be a big challenge, in addition to who it is and how they do it. >> and also i think, ann, one of the things that the democratic party has to do is harness this energy into like legislation and

an agenda. i was actually surprised after the first repeal and replace bill attempt went down in flames, i was surprised that had that following monday the democrats didn't have a press conference and say here are the five changes to obamacare, here's our bill. moderate republicans, join us with us let's fix it. i don't know what president trump would have done. he probably would have signed it. >>ful argument on t-- if the ar democratic side is they can't do anything right the democrats would do well to have a further positive argument to that is and here's what we would do, here's what we want to do, what we're offering the white house and here's what we would do if he held any lever of power. their only saving gays is the republicans look worse than they do in terms of getting anything done. >> is that why they are being rather quiet when it comes to proposing alternatives? they don't have to? let the republican party shoot itself. >> being not trump has been a

pretty good formula for democrats so far but i don't think there's unity on the democratic side. if you wanted to fix the affordable care act there would be a significant contingent of democrats who would say let's go to a single-payer system and you'd be back into the debate between the left in the democratic party and the middle just like we were when the affordable care act was first being debated. >> that's interesting, and it's true. we see all the divisions right now between the republicans. you've got the moderate republicans, a lot from new jersey versus the freedom caucus members and then -- but the democrats look like a monolith but they are not. >> absolutely not, and they are standing firm on being the resistance party right now but the key to susan's point, they should have come out with something. they have to acknowledge that there are problems with obamacare. the premiums have gone up and costs have skyrocketed. some counties in the country there's only one health care choice so they would be better off instead of standing firm and do not repeal and replace

provide a couple of areas where they can provide common ground and that would go a long way to winning over support from the people who voted for trump that had been obama supporters. those are the runs they need to reach out, to obama supporters who are now for trump. they have to start peeling some of those people back. >> ann, let's game out a biden run for a second. he would have to distance himself a bit from some of the things that president obama did. >> sure. and -- and you saw him do that had a little tiny bit on behalf of hillary clinton campaigning for her in the waning months. he would have to do that had a whole lot more. he would have to do some -- clearly would have to do some fancy footwork on that and he would also i have to i think assume a mantle that he clearly didn't feel in a he had all of the tools at his disposal to assume the last time out. he started too late. he wasn't going to get the money. he wasn't going to get the

institutional party backing. i think those things would be more likely to start falling in place for him this time, but he would have to make an argument to people who supported hillary last time who he would have had to peel away that he really is going to do it and he really can win and he really is the guy this time. >> and he'll be 78 in 2020, former vice president biden, but as i think biden pointed out to me, trump will be 74. is that -- can you really have an age issue for biden at 78 if the incumbent is 74? >> you might be able to make age an issue and not age as in he's so old but is there a new generation of leadership, are we ready for something new? one thing we've found with presidential elections is we often want whatever the reverse of what we just had. so if we just had an outsider who is 74, maybe what the democrats will be looking for is somebody with some inside experience but a generation younger. >> stick around.

lots more to talk about. more fallout from the fox news channel sexual harassment situation. another top employee leaving or being shown the door from the troubled network. stay with us. go to protect your vehicle?

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we're back with our politics lead. let's dive back in with my pal. take a listen to president trump at the end of his interview with cbs news' john dickerson who brought up apparently the false claim that president trump made that president obama had him wiretapped at trump tower. take a listen. >> well, he was very nice, but after that we've had some

difficulties, so it doesn't matter. you know, words are less important to me than deeds and you saw what happened with surveillance and everybody saw what happened with surveillance. >> difficulties how? >> well, you saw what happened with surveillance, and i think that was inappropriate. >> what does that mean, sir? >> you can figure in a out yourself. >> the reason i ask because you called him sick and bad. >> you can figure it out yourself. he was very nice to me with words, but -- and when i was with him but after that there has been no relationship. >> but you stand by that claim -- >> i don't stand by anything. you can take it the way you want. i think our side has been proven very strongly and everybody is talking about it, and frankly it should be discussed. i think that is a very big surveillance of our citizens. i think it's a very big topic, and it's a top take should be number one and we should find out what the hell is going on. >> i wanted to find out though, you're the president of the united states. you said he was sick and bad. >> can you take it any way you

want. >> but i'm asking you because you don't want it to be fake news. i want to hear it from president trump >> you don't have to ask me. >> why not? >> because i have my own opinions and you can have your own opinions. >> i want to know your opinion, you're the president. united states. >> okay. that's enough. thank you. >> that's interesting. >> our side has been proven very strongly just for the record. it has not. there's no evidence that president oba president obama wire tabbed president obama but there is evidence that there was incidental surveillance. >> you've been n that situation where somebody is not answering a question and it's hard not to seem rude and you want to be persistent because that's your job. that's what john did there. it's amazing to me that president trump hasn't backed off his original tweet from however long ago it was that

president obama wiretapped trump tower during the campaign. as you say, no evidence that that's the case, but he continues to make the case, to say it's true and to indicate that maybe it's just a difference of opinion about whether it happened or not. >> there's no opinion. there's facts. there was a fisa warrant about carter page an unofficial adviser and fired by the campaign but we don't know anything else about the fisa warrant. no evidence to what president trump said. >> to this date it remains unsubstantiated and i would imagine it would continue to be that way. when you make a claim like this about the former president that he wiretapped your tower. it should be based on fact, not opinion, and this was a wild outlandish accusation and he's saying i don't stand by anything. you should jump up and down with flags if you feel so strongly about it. they walked it back a little bit from wiring tapping to surveillance of american citizens and this is a serious claim and i don't see that we're going to see any kind of evidence to back it up.

>> anne, as has been pointed out, this is the most telling quote in it, besides i don't stand by anything. he says i have my own opinions and you can have your own opinions. this is not about opinions. >> right. >> this is about facts. >> and this issue -- the whole set of questions raised by the erroneous tweets and then his refusal to back off of them did political damage at the beginning and it's continuing to do political damage weeks later, and the white house has not come up with a way to cauterize there. sean spicer has tried multiple times, and the president keeps undoing it every time spicer thinks he may have headed off -- appears to think he may have head it had off at least partway, and i think today is exactly the same thing. now this will go on, you know, reopening the whole question. i don't stand by anything. you can have your own opinion will be the thing that everybody talks about for weeks to come. >> and the thing that we do know is that there was surveillance

of russians and other foreign officials, and there were members of the trump team picked up in that surveillance which begs the question what were they doing talking to the northern initials? >> that's why we have an fbi investigation that's going to continue for months and longer than that and that's why we have five different committees on the hill investigating aspects of it as well. >> the thing also is dickerson wasn't asking about the claim from march 4th, the false tweets. he was asking about his relationship with president obama. president trump is the one that took it to surveillance and everything else like that. >> well, i think the key -- the way to cauterize the story is, look, we do have an investigation under way about russian interference in the election, whether it influenced the election and some of the surveillance. just say it's under investigation and we'll talk when it's done. >> great panel. thanks very much. blood smeared on the overhead bins and several passengers from broken bones all from unexpected turbulence.

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we're back with the money lead and another major shake-up at fox news channel as scandals continue to plague that network. today 21st century fox executive chairman rupert murdoch announced co-president bill schein is out. this is the man who replaced roger ailes after he was forced out after sexual harassment allegations. let's bring in cnn senior media and politics reporter dylan buyers. what the do we know about this resignation or firing or whatever it was? >> reporter: well, what we know is 21st century fox is calling it a resignation. there's reason to be dubious about that. obviously this comes in the wake of much public scrutiny about the fact that bill schein

continued to serve of as co-president despite who some say was an enabler of roger ailes, the former fox news chief and the alleged sexual harassment allegations against him. obviously this is a problem that fox news has been dealing with for almost a year now. they got rid of roger ailes first and then they got rid of bill o'reilly and now finally getting rid of bill schein. the statement from rupert murdoch from 21st century fox reads as follow. this is a significant day for all at fox news. bill has played a huge role in building fox news to its present position as the nation's biggest and most important cable channel in the history of the industry. no allegations that he played an enabling role for roger ailes in the alleged sexual harassment allegations against him. they are parting ways amicably. needless to say, 21st century fox has concluded that fox news cannot continue in the way it did under roger ail eds, under

bill schein for the last 21 years. >> lawsuits keep piling up and another discrimination case we're learning about today. >> yet another discrimination case, this one from diana falzone who said she was discriminated against that she wrote about a disease that she had about being infertile. fox news facing more and more lawsuits. meanwhile, they are also undergoing a federal investigation into handling of settlements against previous employees who have accused the network of wrongdoing, so it's just a litany of problems for the network right now and more and more seem to be coming out of the woodwork. >> thank you so much. >> thank you, jake. in the world lead, at least 27 passengers were injured when their plane hit severe turbulence today. some suffered broken bones and even needed surgery after the flight from moscow to bangkok.

one passenger told cnn the turbulence came out of nowhere throwing people out of their seats leaving bloodstains like this on the overhead bins. it was caused by clear sky turbulence and it's difficult to prepare for when there is good visibility and not clouds. that's why passengers were not warned to return to their seats. more in our world lead now. a u.s. service member was killed in iraq over the weekend after an improvised explosive device detonated while patrolling near mosul. he was on his way to western iraq for the assist support. he was posthumously awarded the bronze star and purple heart and meritorious service medal as we're getting yet another reminder of the horrors of the iraq war and the destruction that isis is leaving behind. hala gorani has more.

>> reporter: theismages were captured by a photographer exclusively for cnn. they show the impact of the fight against isis in ways we've seen before. as the iraqi army continues its offensive against the terrorist group in western mosul we get this bird's eye view of what have life is like for people still left there and also the unbelievable destruction that war has caused. and we should warn our viewers, they may find some of these pictures disturbing. a tender father and daughter moment in the most brutal of landscapes. their home is only half standing. the city around them obliterated. these exclusive drone pictures obtained by cnn show the scale of destruction on the front lines of western mosul. neighborhoods newly freed from isis by iraqi forces. as iraq's elite golden division rolls in its armored vehicles

isis retreats paying a heavy price. bodies of its fighters still lie where they fell. so recently recaptured is this neighborhood that the black flag of isis still flutters overhead. the streets below eerily deserted. a makeshift roadblock from where isis fought only weeks ago still standing. in the video dark smoke from burning tires and debris billows across the sky line. desperate attempts by isis to hide themselves from air strikes. here the camera captures an explosion thought to be had a more that are hitting a building, a remind their fighting rages on only meters away. after months of street-to-street battle between isis and iraqi forces and pounding from coalition air strikes, the scale of devastation in this part of mosul is difficult to take in. and these drone images, it is seems every building, every

street, every car is shattered. nothing left to support human life. so the civilians are forced to flee, clutching their children and their few belongings. who knows what future lies before them as they join the millions of other refugees running from this war, and for those who stay behind picking through the splintered remains of their lives. moments of joy still possible before they are lost again in this bleak and dusty scene. and, of course, jake, the battle for mosul is not over, not by a long shot. it started in october, but isis is still holding on to some key pockets in the western half of the city, so sadly we're going to continue to see more of these devastating images in the coming weeks. the tragedy of iraq's second largest city is not over yet. jake. >> hala gorani, thank you so much. be sure to follow me on facebook

and twitter. or follow us on facebook. that's it for "the lead. go the "i'm jake tapper. i turn you over to one mr. wolf blitzer who is right next door in "the situation room." thanks for watching. happening now. meeting with dictators. president trump says he'd be honored to meet with north korea's kim jong-un after calling in a pretty smart cookie, and he invites philippine strong arm leader rodrigo duterte to the whout white house. wh what kind of signals is he sending? alternate reality. president trump sticking to his claims that president obama wiretapped trump tower. tax and spend. president trump says he'd consider raising the gas tax to help the