mueller. >> great, michael, paul callan, gentlemen, thank you all so very much as this piece of news has dropped on this friday afternoon. i'm brooke baldwin. thank you for being with me here today. keep it right here on cnn. special coverage with jake tapper continues right now. good afternoon and welcome to "the lead." i'm jake tapper. president trump is on his way to saudi arabia, the first stop on his very international trip since taking office, and shortly after air force one left the tarmac this afternoon new explosive headlines about the russia investigation continued to break as they have for the last week or so. the "new york times" now reporting that according to a white house document president trump in the oval office told russian officials ten days ago that james comey, the fbi director, was a, quote, nut job. the paper, quoting the document, based on notes taken during the meeting in the oval office with

president trump had the president saying, quote, i just fired the head of the fbi. he was crazy, a real nult job. i faced great pressure because of russia. that's taken off. as the president heads overseas sources tell cnn some officials in the national security council are hoping upon hope that president trump will not cause any international or diplomatic incidents. the responsibility for that lies with this man, national security adviser general h.r. mcmatter of, a source knowledgeable about mcmap. er's day-to-day challenges telling cnn, quote, it can be difficult to advise the president effectively given his seemingly short attention span and propensity to be easily distracted and mcmaster's task is further complicated by fears on the nsc that president trump can be reckless with sensitive information, quote. you can't say what not to say to president trump because that will then be one of the first things he'll say, unquote.

a high stakes trip with an unpredictable president. let's start here in washington with cnn's sara murray and white house press secretary sean spicer released a statement and between the lines he's not denying that president trump said those things about james comb and the pressure. >> reporter: i'm going to read a pressure. by grandstanding and politicizing the investigation into russia's action james comey created unnecessary pressure on our ability to engage and negotiate with russia. the investigation would have always continued and obviously the termination of comey would not have ended it, so you see no denial about the "new york times" story. no pushback about the quote that they highlighted saying that this -- this move would take pressure off the president in terms of the russia investigation. of course, now we know that's not the case. the deputy attorney general named a special counsel to oversee that investigation.

these are all the things that are going to be hanging over the president and splitting his focus as he is on this foreign trip. now he, a number of his aides and allies outside the white house had hoped to sort of use this trip to turn the page, to turn away from the russia investigation and instead to focus on his presidential agenda, to focus on deals he hopes to do and tout while he's abroad in this five-nation tour, but it's pretty clear that these challenges are going to follow him right there on this trip which is going to span nine days. we know that he was a little bit angry, a little bit frustrated heading into it already. i can't imagine that headlines like this breaking here at home are going to make that situation any better for the president or his top aides who are huddled together right now on that very long haul flight to riyadh. jake? >> sara murray, thanks so much. let's go to mackey haberman from the "new york times," one of the reporters who broke this story and is joining us by the phone. meg, this is a remarkable comment from the president, not

only the inflammatory terms he uses to describe the fbi director but the fact that he would tell russian officials that there was great pressure from the russia investigation but now that's taken off. >> right. jake, and thanks for having me. you know, you see further down in our story that a government official defended the president, describing this essentially as a negotiating tactic. i think that there's two ways to read. this one is, you know, through a nefarious lens a president who is under investigation who fired his fbi director, then talked about it with the adversarial country, explaining to them what they had done to elivate the station and this is a president who has a speaking style and

believes he can negotiate his way through everything and still does not understand the full import of his words and the import of his words in different situations as a president, and, you know, i don't know what was in his head, but this is obviously going to be an explosive remark because it is an unusual thing, to say the least, for a president to do. >> maggie, the president -- the white house is not disputing the document that an american official read to you in which these quotes were contained based on contemporaneous notes taken in the oval office during the meeting. >> right, look, you saw the statement that sean spicer released which is very similar to what he gave us. the white house did not dispute the -- the quotes that we asked about, you know. people can ruled into that what they want, but the spicer statement does not contradict our reporting are. frankly, jake, i mean, the thing that's sort of remarkable, that this president which i think you

know and others know who have spoken to him, is that what he says in private is often not particularly different than what he says in public. you know, the only thing that we know is, you know, that glen frush, my colleague and i had reported when comey was fired, that the president had told people, you know, that he thought something was wrong with this guy. he had gotten very upset watching comey testify before the senate so it's not surprise and yet it's quite jarring. >> and explain to me the spin about this being a negotiated tactic because i don't fully understand it. how is the president saying he had great pressure because of russia, that pressure is off now that he fired this nut job fbi director. how is that a negotiating tactic according to this official? >> the explanation that -- the explanation that i got was that, you know, essentially he was hoping to prompt some guilt for lack of a better way of putting it with lavrov, the russian minister who was visiting him,

by saying, you know, look, you guys hacked into this -- into these democratic e-mails and it's interesting that the president did appear to say that there as opposed to what he has said publicly which is conflicting things about whether he accepts that russia did it, but you guys did this it. it's created this perception about me and the election. it's put me in a bad political position, almost as if he's trying to impart some human guilt, you know. that's just not how diplomatic negotiations are not made about personal individuals that way. they can be, but given that putin's objective by all accounts is to get one over on this president, i'm not sure how that would work. >> maggie haberman, great reporting. thanks so much. we appreciate this. >> thank you. >> cnn's jim acosta just arrived in riyadh, saudi arabia, ahead of president trump's arrival. jim, the president will be faced with yet another headline to respond to. i guess he has wi-fi up there. it could happen any moment but

he'll be asked by report remembers as soon as he lands. >> reporter: that's right, jake, and i can tell you that just talking to his senior administration official on the way over here, they have not made any plans for a press conference during this trip. we might still have a press conference, but as of this point they have nod scheduled a news conference during this president's eight or nine-day trip, and so this just sets the stage for what we see at the white house on occasion which is a reporter shouting questions during pool sprays when the president is sitting down with a foreign leader or a diplomat, and that might be what you see happening here over the next several days. now, i can tell you right now, jake, there are some armed uniform officials on the roof of my hotel. they are asking me to stop the live shot so i'll probably have to stop here in just a few moments, but obviously there's a lot at stake for the president on this trip. he's going to be hitting the centers of three major world

religious, and wh religions and the president is hoping to marshall goodwill on the part of people integral in all three of those faiths to try to accomplish some of the president's policy goals, one of them, of course, being middle east peace and taking the fight to isis and, of course, the big speech that the president has coming up this weekend to the muslim word is goi muslim world is a huge part of this and he's going say the muslim world needs to do a lot more to counter what the president refers to as radical islamic terrorism, a phrase that his predecessor barack obama wouldn't even use when he was in the white house so a lot at stake for this president, and, of course, as we've been hearing all last week and this week, this is a -- a very chaotic time for the president. he's heading into a very chaotic region of the world. a diplomatic land mine just about everywhere he's stepping over the next week or so. >> jim, just one last question and that is is the president focused enough on this trip? i know that there have been

aides who are concerned he's not devoted enough attention towards this five-stop very challenging trip, saudi arabia, jerusalem, the vatican, the g7 in sicily, the nato summit in belgium. is the he ready for it? >> reporter: well, they say he's ready for it. it's interesting when the president left the white house earlier today from what we understand, there were 50 or so staffers bidding him farewell on the south lawn of the white house. that's something you don't see. they know there's a lot riding on the trip and when you talk to officials they insist he's prepared for it. no question about it, just going by what we're hearing and seeing in the new "new york times" story it appears that the president has just been downright obsessed with russia and the former fbi director james comey over the last couple of weeks, so one has to think that has to intrude on his preparation time for this visit. now, when you talk to the leading officials and the people who work for those leading officials who are preparing for

this trip, like the secretary of state, the national security adviser, they have meticulously laid out a very, very busy schedule for this president, and, you know, it's not something that we've seen from donald trump in the past when he was a candidate. you know, pretty much the most he did during that campaign was travel out to his golf courses in scotland, so this is going to be a huge challenge for the president. there's a lot riding on this trip, and we'll see on the other end how all of it pans out. but no question about it. what is happening right now, what is breaking right now in washington is going to be following this president every step of the way. >> indeed. jim acosta in riyadh, saudi arabia. thanks very much. the former national security adviser to president george w. bush will be here to weigh in on the breaking news next. stay with us. when it comes to technology, i need someone that understands my unique needs. my dell small business advisor has gotten to know our business so well that is feels like he's a part of our team. with one phone call, he sets me up with tailored products and services. and when my advisor is focused on my tech,

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of russia. that has taken off according to a new report in the "new york times." joining me now is steven hadley also, the former national security adviser to george w. bush. thanks so much for being here. what's your reaction to the comments, president trump saying this not nice thing about the fbi director and then saying i was under great pressure because of russia and now that's taken off? >> well, look, it's hard to know. i mean, we have. you know, supposedly records of the comey has of the conversations he had with the president, the president signaled maybe he has some records of those conversations. we now have a record of a meeting in the oval office read to a "new york times" reporter. i mean, this is why we need a systematic by the book investigation to pull the facts together and be able to explain the american people what happened and if there was some criminal activity then to get to the bottom of it. we've got to find a way though to get -- president trump needs to find a way to get this behind

him because it is impairing his ability and the country's ability to focus on the real problems we've got. there is a real cost to this distraction, as serious as it is. it is still distracting the president and the congress from doing the business of the country. >> is it fair to say, do you think, that president trump is his own worst enemy when it comes to getting this out of the headlines? i mean, he is the one who fired comey? he's the one who allegedly made this comment to comb? he's the one who wasn't honest or his white house wasn't honest about the reason behind the firing, pointing to the rod rosenstein firing and the president said he had russia on his mind when he made the decision. go on and on on list and all of a sudden have you a special counsel. that wouldn't have happened a couple weeks ago if not for president trump's actions, i think it's fair to say. >> we are where we are on this and the president is who he is, and we've seen this. this behavior is not really a surprise. i think the real question is

that he needs to sit down with people in whom he has confidence and decide what he's going to do now that there is the mueller investigation, and there's really two models. there is, you know, treat it as a criminal investigation, get the best defense attorney you can and try to see if you can get your way through it. that has been tried in the past with mixed results. >> that's like the bill clinton model. >> this is in some say the nixon/clinton model and there they did it because they had something to hide. an alternative i'm somewhat familiar with was ronald reagan with the iran-contra where he appointed the tower commission and said get to the bottom of it and really cooperated with that investigation, and the findings were pretty hard on the president, that he had engaged in arms for hostages, but the president was then able to admit that. his decline in the poll stopped and he was able to rebuild the last two years of his presidency so there's a basic strategic question i think the president

has to decide about is he going to continue to fight this thing, or is he going to basically say, look, i'm going to let the system work and i'm going to cooperate and i'm going to shut down on this subject and we're just going to let the investigations go forward. he'll have to decide that question. >> it sounds like he should take the reagan model, stop talking about, it respect the pros res and let the chips fall where they may. he will have to decide. having contrasted how clinton and nixon went down and how reagan went down, i would think the latter offers the best prospect of him being able to put this behind him on get on with his presidency. >> in terms of the actual comments that "new york times" is reporting based on this white house document, sean spicer, the press secretary at the white house said, quote, by grandstanding and politicizing the russian investigation, james comey created unnecessary pressure on us and our ability to negotiate and engage with russia. first of all, that does seem to be something of a confirmation

of the quotes. >> it does. >> he's not disputing them, and second of all, what do you make of the leaking? i have been on the end of some of them. i have reported some of them. i think that some of the leaks are coming from people that are concerned about this president and his temperament and his fitness. >> i think that may be. i think -- i've never really seen the volume of the leaking that is going on, but it is not helpful and it's not constructive. look, you know, the american people elected donald trump to be president of the united states, and all of those particularly who are brought into his administration, but those people who serve in the military and our diplomatic corps, in the civiler is vicious have an obligation to try and serve this president and by doing so serve the country, so this leaking is not helpful. it is not constructive in my view, and it is not how the system works. we've now got mueller appointed.

he is -- probably the best possible person we could have in that role. let's let regular order proceed. let's let the investigation proceed. there's an ongoing investigation which he'll now lead. let's let that proceed and let's get the facts out. see where the facts take us and then decide where we need to go from here. we've got to put this -- we've got to the stop the leaking and get it into a regular order and a process that the deputy attorney general has now established >> when you served with george w. bush especially had a front row seat and also participated in an attempt to have a new relationship with russia. i've spoken with former president george w. bush about his regrets about how putin didn't end up being who he hoped -- who president bush hoped he would be. how concerned are you by what you know and what you've read about russian interference, not only in the american election in 2016, but in the french

election, what's going to come up in germany and the uk, how worried are you about democracy? >> i'm very worried about that. look, i think there was a time in probably the first bush administration when you talked to russian officials they would say, look, president putin knows that his legacy is to bring russia closer to the west, and they would talk about a democratic future. they don't talk that way, and if you listen to what putin says, he's really just trying to discredit democracy at home and abroad, and this intervention in the elections i think is less to achieve particular results than the more it is to basically undermine the process and undermine western citizens' confidence in their own processes and to basically say to the world the western system, the u.s. system isn't any better than ours and making the case in some sense for an authoritarian kind of state capitalism system, so we're back strangely in what

we thought we'd ended at the end of the cold war. we're back at an ideological struggle about two different struggles how societies order themselves. we need to recognize it and get in the debate. >> and they are using our freedoms against us in a way that we cannot do against them. >> our freedoms against us, our technology against us, and we've got to start pushing back. >> stephen hadly, always a pleasure to see you. thanks so much. >> nice to be here. >> join us tonight please at 10:00 p.m. eastern for a cnn special report "white house in crisis." they have been reporting on the russian investigation for months, breaking news on links to the trump team and the unfolding crisis in the white house. watch that this evening. lots to discuss in our break news. the "new york times" reporting president trump told russian officials that james comby is, quote, a nut job" and he was no longer under pressure and will this dog the president on his first foreign trip?

stick around.

welcome back. we're covering this breaking news out of the white house. the president's problems will probably follow him on his overseas trip. let's dive right in with my panel. guys, as you know, the "new york times" is reporting that president trump according to this white house document told russian officials in the oval office about ten days ago that fbi director james comby is a nut job and that firing him eased pressure over the russia probe. and -- and sean spicer in his statement clearly did not deny it. in fact, kind of tried to explain where the pressure came from. it seems like this will not go away even though the president is hoping that this trip will provide a reset. >> i'm troubled by the fact that donald trump seems to be giving the russians a straight story about the firing of james comey before he gave everyone else and

that's disturbing and the white house is going to come say their stock line to this investigation is there's no evidence of collusion. if you listen to talk radio, that's all they say no. evidence of collusion. i don't know what the legal standard for collusion is but donald trump having a secret meeting in the oval office to trash the leader of the fbi to the russians sounds an all of like like it it, and as a candidate donald trump could get away with lying to the public and lying to everyone without consequence, but when you lie about the firing of the fbi director, that's something that is going to mark his presidency without question. >> it does so many,/livie -- do, olivier, that the firing of the fbi director changed the equation for a lot of people, including republicans, in washington. he's working within the system, is what he is, outrageous and a disrupter, but he's operating within system but firing the head of the fbi seems to have changed the calculus. >> firing the head of the fbi

certainly has for a lot of people and that meeting in general has. if you -- >> kislyak and lavrov. >> that's right. someone described it as, you know, the opening of the ark at the end of "raiders of the lost ark" where severing coming out but you have the israelis furious with the administration for the disclosure of intelligence that the president made to the russians. you have all this stuff about the comey firing where we can dispense with the official explanation now, the original explanation that the acting attorney general had made a good solid legal rationale. >> which was ridiculous anyway. >> that stuck around for at least three hours, that was the official line. >> fair enough. >> but it has changed things and if you talk to people on capitol hill, there used to be sort of even amounts of you guys are crazy in the media, everything -- everything you right is hair on fire gone crazy. that's like what are you hearing? what's happening. tell me what's happening next. get ahead of the next bombshell and they sound a lot more wl worried. >> and yet, jackie, it's still

relatively quiet from republican officials on capitol hill in terms of their criticisms for behavior that in a democrat had done any of this, one of these actions, much less the last 15 that we've report on in the last week, you know, there would be calls for hearings and impeachment, but still i think it's pretty quiet from republicans. >> i think there's two things going on here. they don't want to talk about this stuff anymore. they want to talk about their agenda. they for now have the house and the senate and the presidency and they want to try to refocus their members on that. that said, talking to members of congress on the hill this week, the other thing is they are waiting for the other shoe to drop. they saw the appointment of the special counsel as kind of this double-edged sword. great, there's someone that's going to handle this, above board, that we can tell our constituents that is actually taking this out of even our hands, but at the same time they know that bob muler is no one to -- to sneeze at really. he's someone that's going to dig until he gets answers, and so they don't know what to say

because this is coming so fast and furious. it seems like they are really trying to find their footing and what the right thing is to say, but you're absolutely right. i think everyone has been playing this game. if this was obama or clinton, they would be screaming bloody murderer. >> it's really truly hard to imagine meeting with lavrov and kislyak in the oval office. there's this allegation from national security officials that he shared information that put at risk intelligence and perhaps even a source of intelligence and now he's trashing the fbi director, and saying, the straight story, i had great pressure because of russia, and now that's off, that's gone, and i guess, olivier, that's another indication that this is why he fired james comey because he didn't like the russia probe. that seems outrageous on its face, and i -- i mean, i can't believe that i'm not hearing

more criticism of this just from all the law and order republicans on capitol hill. >> you know, partisanship is a very strong drug and a lot of people in d.c. are hooked on it. if this is an accurate report, right, one, there's a document, right, which can be requested. >> the white house is not denying it, we should point out. >> right, right. >> they are shading it though. they are not really embracing the way the story is being told. there's a document for sure, so that presumably could find its way into the public, an -- and if this is all true, the president is essentially forthrightly acknowledging what amounts to obstruction of justice. yes, i killed the investigation by firing jim comey. >> thinking getting rild of comey would squelch this entire investigation. almost like he didn't consult anybody on this or someone didn't play it forward. that's what's so confusing. >> in terms of the republican responsible, and i totally agree republicans are trying to find a way to get a policy win to run

on in the mid-term elections but in terms of recourse, what do you do? there's already the investigations happening. we have a special counsel looking into it, and so the problem with this president, as we've known throughout the campaign is his personality. he has bad judgment. he has bad character. what the kind of policy recourse is there for that besides investigations? i truly don't know but as a republican what do you do besides pray you pass tax reform and hang on through the mid terms? >> i guess the only question i have is we heard a lot about lawlessness when president obama was wright executive actions and orders that according to some judges did go beyond his executive office role. this seems to go -- i mean, look, article two says he can fire the fbi director no, question about that, but purposefully firing a guy because he's leading an investigation into your associates that you don't like. >> we would ask for a special prosecutor to be appointed. not much can you do did, de-fund offices or agencies, but the

tools for someone who has really bad judgment besides impeachment and if you're not willing to go there what are you going to do? >> amanda, olivier, jackie, thanks very much. mothers forced to dig through the trash to find just a bite to eat for their children. protesters preparing weapons of their own to fight back against a brutal police force. how bad are things getting in venezuela? cnn went undercover to find out. stay with us. isn't it time to let the real you shine through? introducing otezla, apremilast. otezla is not an injection or a cream. it's a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. some people who took otezla saw 75% clearer skin after 4 months. and otezla's prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. don't take otezla if you are allergic to any of its ingredients. otezla may increase the risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts,

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undercover as tourists in venezuela to bring you the following story. cnn's senior international correspondent nick paton walsh, joins us now. is it as bad in venezuela as it looks? >> reporter: this is so much a manmade crisis, borne of a government's desire to handle the economy in a certain way. donald trump called it a disgrace to humanity. yes, we did have to go undercover to report this because of restrictions and intimidation against the media, but, still, this is what we managed to see. venezuela's dark lurch into poverty and chaos is on display us a drive into the capital. this food truck breaking down for mere seconds before it was looted. basic food is scarce. no shortage of bleach but long lines for bread. this crisis all created by the mad policies of a government that now wants to hide the collapse, cracking down on and intimidating journalists. we had to go undercover and much

of our filming was done covertly to avoid arrest. with some poor nearing starvation, the people demand change in violent clashes. tens of lives lost. as desperation meets tear gas and police shots. you've heard of the molotov cocktail, that would be too simple for a once safe gas-rich state so this is the sewage bomb mixed with gas and ammonia for police who throw tear gas bombs at us worth $60 each. my country doesn't have food and we can't even protest peacefully. this is the daily standoff. the crowd sometimes attacks by pro-government thugs hon motorcycles who open fire indiscriminately. gunfire takes at least one life this day. that of 27-year-old miguel castillo. but it doesn't stop the daily battle to eat. virginia has been doing this for

18 months to feed her five kids. she can't find work since she had this little one but here sometimes finds what she calls meat. sometimes i find stuffed bread, rice, meat, beans, pasta. some people are conscientious and put it in clean bags leaving it out. how has oil-rich venezuela got so bad? >> most countries, it's the market that sets the price of let's say, for example, rice, but here in venezuela the government decides how much you should pay for most foodstuff but also what many people's wages actually are, and since the oil price has crashed globally they have not been able to keep one up with the other. they have basically run out of money and now for rice like this you need to find three times as many notes as these, and that's about a month's minimum wage. wherever you look, repression and hunger haunt this once proud city. jesus is a juggler, a magician

for kids' parties. beaten heavily, he says, in the day's protests and begging for food when we find him. i spend two days on the street, he says, and two days at home, and when i go home it's because i have food. before, i would get calls to do magic at birthday parties, but no, no. with the country the way it is, magic doesn't help. they mourn the dead, the anger kwai it, indignant, not belligerent. south america is looking to see if venezuela can fix its self-made cries without major bloodshed, but they are falling so far, so fast, and the ground is getting nearer. venezuela's government has repeatedly said its problems have been exaggerated by hostile northern media and the drop in oil prices and actions of opposition friendly tycoons have contributed to their problems but it's still quite stag towering see how people try to live through that kind of crisis. >> thanks for that report.

appreciate it. you've heard of his multi-billion dollar ponzi scheme that left thousand americans broke and desolate. who was bernie madoff? we'll talk to the academy award winning director about the man behind the mastermind. perfec, our senses awake, our hearts racing as one. i know this is sudden, but they say: if you love something... set it free. see you around, giulia ♪ bring you more ways to helps reduce calories from sugar. with more great tasting beverages with less sugar or no sugar at all, smaller portion sizes, clear calorie labels, and signs reminding everyone to think balance before choosing their beverages. we know you care about reducing the sugar in your family's diet,

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welcome back to "the lead." in our pop culture lead it was nearly eight years ago when bernie madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison for pulling off one of the largest financial scams in history bilking thousands of investors out of billions and now that real life drama is going to hbo, cnn's sister network owned by time warner. the original movie goes inside the decades long deception with oscar winner robert de niro starring as madoff in the hbo film called "the wizard of lies." >> how do you now plead to count one? >> guilty. >> he discarded me like road

kill. >> how do you plead to count two? >> guilty. >> he took our entire life savings. >> count three? >> guilty. >> dad, how could you do this? >> count four. counterfive? >> guilty. >> have you no shame? >> guilty. guilty. >> and joining me now is one of my favorite director oscar filmmaker barry levinson who directed many things, including "wizard of oz" and "diner." here's a look at bernie madoff and his ponzi scheme. >> i'm talking about getting you $100 million. >> that's not going to do it. >> so what's it going to take? >> i have to do what's ethical. i can't let you jump the line. i'm willing to go 150 if you help me. >> 150. >> 1757. >> fully subscribe.

>> 200. >> i wish i could. >> 225? >> 250. >> 275. ♪ >> $300 million. >> how high do we have to go? if you go above 4 we might have something. >> 400. ♪ >> i can do that. >> we've got a deal. >> that's a great scene. really suggesting there there's almost a jazz to what a conman he was in terms of his skill. >> yeah. it's -- it's the thing with madoff that made him different because he wasn't the kind of hustler kind of guy who was coming at you. he was very reserved. it was like i don't know if i want to take your money was part of the con that he would do. i'm reluctant to take your

money, and he was very quiet in that regard which is a different kind of con artist and that's what made him so successful. >> was there something in particular that you and bob de niro worked on when it came to capturing that's pens? >> bob is a brilliant actor and latched on to that character and in very small ways, you know, he's able to tell you a lot, and he can do that interior type of thing very well. that's what makes him so compelling a guy. >> and one of the great performances in addition to de niro in the film is michelle pfeifer and ruth madoff remains contact with bernie madoff and she's generally known as a strong formidable woman and turning her into someone who is a little bit more differential. >> totally different than how she s.in the movie it almost seems like she gets smaller and

smaller and more and more frail, and i think she's a real surprise when you see her in the movie and very much like everything we've seen about ruth madoff, so she's sort of really took on that character. >> and it was the two sons. madoffs who ultimately turned him over to authorities here's a clip about that. >> it's a fraud. there are no investments. >> what are you talking about? of course, there are investments. >> i made them up. >> they are on every statement. >> i made them up. >> i've seen the trades. >> they are fake. all fake. basically just a big ponzi scheme. >> what's a ponzi scheme? >> i took money from some people and i gave it to others and there's nothing left. it's supposed to be 50 billion. there's absolutely nothing. it's all gone. i spoke to peter. i told him i'm going turn myself in next week. >> madoff's son mark committed suicide. andrew died of cancer. the film real seems to suggest

that they were two other victims of this. >> well, yes. i mean, you can imagine that you're brought up in this family. here's your family. he's the i -- they idolize him. he was extremely well-respected in that world and all of a sudden one day he tells you this is all a ponzi scheme and none of this is real, which was devastating to the boys and to ruth, and we work inside of that, how he destroyed his family and, of course, thousands and thousands of people who invested the in him, know, lost in some cases everything that they had. >> and your son sam wrote the script for this. was there anything from the father-son relationship that i'm sure is more positive than madoffs, was there anything that you drew on when you were writing it? >> a great situation to have to have your own son involved in it to talk about all these ymptds i don't remember how all these ideas got put together but just

the fact that we can talk about that and the dialogue can be where it doesn't sort of so confrontational and how he could operate and control his sons and this is a look at how he was able to commit this fraud. >> i'm a huge fan yours. it's a real treat for me to get to meet you. it is one of the most high-stressed jobs on the planet. air traffic controllers. one airport says technology can do a better job. its plan to replace people next. ♪ whoa that's amazing... hey, i'm the internet! i know a bunch of people who would love that. the internet loves what you're doing... ...so build a better website in under an hour with...

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briathe customer app willw if be live monday. can we at least analyze customer traffic? can we push the offer online? brian, i just had a quick question. brian? brian... legacy technology can handcuff any company. but "yes" is here. you're saying the new app will go live monday?! yeah. with help from hpe, we can finally work the way we want to. with the right mix of hybrid it, everything computes.

welcome back to "the lead." now it's time for the tech lead. digital replacement coming to one. uk's busiest airports. soon, no humans will sit in the air traffic control tower at london city airport. instead, 14 hoy-def cameras will watch planes come and go. controllers will manage operations in a village about 70 miles away. the airport says the cameras can see what humans cannot. two remote airport in sweden already have the technology, but this will be the first major airport to use it. this announcement comes just weeks after that huge cyber attack that paralyzed uk hospital officials and the uk says private backup lines should block hacks and other threats and the new system should be up and running in in 2019. follow me on facebook and 2008er @jaketapper or tweet the show @theleadcnn. on sunday morning on "state of

the union" by guests will be senators bob corker and rubio. it all starts at 9:00 a.m. eastern. i'm jake tapper. i turn you over to wolf blitzer in "the situation room." have a great restful weekend. happening now, a real nut job. the "new york times" reports president trump told russian diplomats inside the oval office that newly fired fbi chief james comey was crazy and a real nut job and that the removal of comey would relieve great pressure from the russia investigation. comey alarmed. at friend of the fired fbi director says comey told him of his concerns about trump's behavior and his attempts to avoid the president, including a failed effort to escape a public hug. answering to the house. deputy attorney general rod rosenstein who this week appointed a special counsel to lead the russia trump probe