let's begin with jessica yellin. jessica joins us from the east room where the president just wrapped up. jessica, as i said, a range of topics but his statement in the thrust of what the president seemed to want to talk about were the surveillance programs that edward snowden shined so much light on. >> reporter: he laid out a framework for more information to come from the administration in the next weeks i think with declassifying, indicating they are going to declassify some programs. today what we're learning are the broad framework that sort of allows the nsa to collect their surveillance and the legal thinking behind their justifications for the surveillance, but we're going to get a lot more detail, we're told, about exactly what the government does when they're looking through e-mails and looking through phone records, et cetera. so i think there is more information to come. that's some big news. boy, did they cover the range of topics. i was at the end of the press conference and they got through most of my

we start with jessica yellin. as we mentioned last hour, president barack obama will still be attending the g-20 summit in russia, but he won't be having these one-on-one talks with russian president vladimir putin. a major snub to russia, isn't it? >>. >> reporter: it sure is. it can only make relations between the two the men that much chillier. it's not warm to begin with. the white house says they began reviewing the summit in july and considering whether it made sense to do it or not. they have now informed russia the trip is off. clearly, it's because one important consideration was they could not come to terms on an extradition agreement for edward snowden or even some sort of wink and nod agreement whereby russia could extradite him for -- let him go to a second country which would then extradite him to the u.s. no progress there. and that was one knock against the summit. but in a statement, the white house also says some other contributing factors were a lack of progress between the two countries on issu

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jessica yellin. >> thank you, mr. president. and following on what you just said, republicans in the house might give that you choice soon to either allow the government to shut down or see obama care defunded. would you choose to let the government shut down to ensure that obama care remains funded? well, i'm not going to engage in hypotheticals. i can tell you that the american people would have difficulty standing why we would weaken our economy, shut down our government, shut down vital services, have people who are not getting paid, who then can't go to restaurants or shop for clothes or all the other things that we're doing here because republicans have determined that they don't want to see these folks get health care. again, they used to say they had a replacement. that never actually arrived, right? i've been hearing about this whole replace thing for two years. now i just doesn't hear about it because basically they don't have an agenda to provide health insurance to people at affordable rates. and the idea that you wo

i'm jessica yellin. you're in "the situation room." >>> they're rare, they're highly coveted and cnn's chris cuomo got one, an exclusive sitdown, one-on-one interview with the president of the united states, and you'll see it first thing tomorrow morning on cnn's "new day." chris joins us from syracuse right now. chris, we want to know, you've joined the president on the road, first tell us what is he doing in upstate new york? >> reporter: hey, jessica, how are you? right now he's weathering the rain that is coming through this area right now. he's spend being the next couple of days going to cities in new york and pennsylvania, trying to motivate the middle class to get behind him and help him with his agenda when he gets back and starts dealing with congress. the big ticket item is college affordability. the president's been giving speeches about it all day. he's going to give one at the high school where we are in syracuse in a while. number one, he wants colleges to work off a scorecard, a rating sy

i'm jessica yellin. you're in "the situation room." >> president obama is wrapping up his two-day bus tour through upstate new york and pennsylvania today. but not without stopping to sit down with cnns chris cuomo for an exclusive wide-ranging interview. in it the president talked about a number of criticaler use fa i facing the country including gridlock here in washington. take a look. >> let's come back home. because you could make the argument, the most per loss situation for the president of the united states exists in washington, d.c., right. you have had a very difficult legislative situation that you have had to deal with down there. >> there hasn't been a legislative session as far as i can tell. >> if you judge on the basis of past legislation. there is a lot going on. >> a lot of talk. >> a lot of talking going on. what the police islace is about days. when they get back in session, do you believe you know the way to get things done for the american people so we don't have another shutdown of

let's bring in jessica yellin. jessica, what are you learning about that? >> reporter: well, jake, one u.s. official tells me although the administration will not call events in egypt a coup, they're behaving as though that's exactly what happened and withholding assistance to the country. as you know, the white house disputes that and they're saying some money is still going to egypt. in fact, at the white house briefing today, deputy press secretary josh earnest was not specific about what kind of money is going to egypt and instead tried to talk about the larger goals with the aid and even define how aid works. here's josh ernest. >> while that broader package of assistance is under review, there are some smaller packages that have moved forward. one of the things the administration is doing is trying to preserve some -- can present the president with options. it's not like the faucet is turned on. >> we understand that. >> but it's not a faucet. >> reporter: so the faucet's not turned on because it's not a faucet. what is clear is the white house is not

. >> a lot to talk about with david gergen, chief white house correspondent jessica yellin and dana bash. jessica, we heard the president make this a promise that it's going to become more transparent. he says it was already happening before the snowden leaks. but is that really realistic? >> well, as you point out, wolf, he did say that he wanted more transparency back in may. he said that. that was right before edward snowden's first leak was in june. so his assertion is that the snowden leaks just sped up a process that was going to happen any way. well, we also have to take a bigger look at the big picture, which is did snowden actually lead to these new safeguards he put in place? we know that two democratic senators have been calling for more transparency and even reforms for more than a year now. sn when the head of the intelligence community went before congress, he's admitted now that he was less than truthful in talking about them. so that was all before snowden. would this have happened without snowden? we can't know, the train has left the station, but it does seem to have be

. >> a lot to talk about with david gergen, chief white house correspondent jessica yellin and dana bash. jessica, we heard the president make this a promise that it's going to become more transparent. he says it was already happening before the snowden leaks. but is that really realistic? >> well, as you point out, wolf, he did say that he wanted more transparency back in may. he said that. that was right before edward snowden's first leak was in june. so his assertion is that the snowden leaks just sped up a process that was going to happen any way. well, we also have to take a bigger look at the big picture, which is did snowden actually lead to these new safeguards he put in place? we know that two democratic senators have been calling for more transparency and even reforms for more than a year now. when the head of the intelligence community went before congress, he's admitted now that he was less than truthful in talking about them. so that was all before snowden. would this have happened without snowden? we can't know, the train has left the station, but it does seem to have been

. >> jessica yellin has been looking into this. they sent mccain to cairo. does the white house feel pressure to change its position on calling this a coup? >> reporter: wolf, according to the white house officials i'm talking to and administration officials, no, they don't. mccain and graham, those two senators, called it a coup from the start. so the administration simply is not surprised that they did it again. sources tell me those two senators are not pressuring administration officials to follow their lead and there's no growing chorus calling for the president to do so. then why is it that the administration has avoided calling it a coup in general? well, doing that could alienate the administration from egypt's military leadership and from the millions who have supported them in the streets. also by law, if it's a coup, the u.s. would have to cut off u.s. aid to egypt are more than $1.3 billion annually. that is spent in the u.s. and could have ripple effects in our economy, not to mention destabilizing shocks across egypt and the middle east. now, t

that's how actually, to jessica yellin's credit, she asked the question today. >> that is a complicated argument. it's got three sentences in, obama will do the one-sentence thing he did, they want to shut the government and that trumps three sentences every time. you go all the way back to the gingrich years, our argument for shutting down was a three-sentence argument and we got smacked every time. look, obama is desperate to have this because as we saw in the polls, the republicans, it's the only way he escapes on obama care. what he was doing today is addressing the democrats who are running next year scared to death over what the election is going to look like as a result of the disaffection of obama care, so he gave a brave front and tried to portray it as the republicans oppose health care for those people who don't have it. what republicans are oppose now is the unfair and completely incoherent implementation, the pass that congress gets, the fact that the unions are against it. it isn't only republicans and the fact that there are these arbitrary waivers and all the elements of

cnn's jessica yellin pressed the white house for answers. >> was the white house consulted or given a heads-up in advance? >> there was a heads-up provided by the british government, so, again, this is something we had an indication was likely to occur, but it's not something that we've requested. >> cnn senior international correspondent matthew chance is in london with more. good morning, matthew. >> absolutely astonishing news, the fact david miranda, the partner of glenn greenwald has launched his own campaign against the british state. what he wants is for his electronic devices that were seized from him at heathrow airport to be returned to him, he wants any information that was on the sort of cards that go into computers to not be copied. and if any of them have been passed on to a third country, his lawyers have said, he wants those names to be given to the authorities, as well, and to his lawyers and they can notify him, as well, for that legal challenge, as well. so the partner of glenn greenwald coming out fighting, saying he's not going to tolerate this, essentially, and h

let's go to jessica yellin. why did the president decide to outline these new surveillance programs today? >> reporter: it's because the president argues that the american public is being misinformed about nsa surveillance and he's been under pressure from both left and right to clarify what surveillance programs are in place in the u.s., how they work, and what legal framework justifies them. here's what the president had to say earlier. >> a general impression has, i think, taken hold not only among the american public but also around the world that somehow we're out there willy-nilly just sucking in information on everybody and doing what we please with it. that's not the case. >> reporter: so now his administration is going to reveal more of these programs and even, he says, work with congress to reform the one program that's been most criticized. the one that gathers phone data from hundreds of millions of americans. as you say, wolf, he acknowledged that edward snowden -- those revelations did push him to

. >> jessica yellin is our chief white house correspondent. she joins me now. jessica, we know the kremlin is saying, you know, they spoke just a short time ago. they're disappointed this summit is a no go. my question is, what does that say about where things stand between the united states and between russia and also what are the changes that these two countries will see eye to eye on anything? >> well, anything is a very broad term. we still plan to go to the olympics which will be happening in russia next year. we still have trade agreements with them. i take your broader point. it is a good one. this is a chilly relationship that has gotten much frostier in the last 24 hours. and much of that is in the u.s.'s estimation because of the decision to grant asylum to edward snowden. as you point out. but also because of the gaping differences between president obama and president putin on so many of those issues you laid out. and for the obama administration, this has to be a disappointment. because some of the major foreign policy goals the president has set o

cnn's chief white house correspondent jessica yellin is traveling right along with the president. she joins us live from phoenix where we expect the president to speak in just about ten minutes from now. jess, what are we going to be hearing from him? >> reporter: hey, brooke. we expect he'll outline plans to shut down fannie mae and freddie mac over time, the mortgage giant that backed about 80% of all u.s. mortgages. this is his fifth economic speech in his tour and it comes ahead of congressional efforts to reform those housing giants we were talking about. the gop has a proposal that could also wind down fannie mae and freddie mac but also make 30-year mortgages harder to get and more expensive. so we think the president is getting ahead of congressional fights over how to wind those giants down. he'll be insisting those 30-year mortgages are important to keep and making that a priority should be part of congress's efforts as they tackle this issue. now, part of the reason he's doing this is because the housing market, as you know, is starting to rebound. and arizona where we

. >>> i'm jessica yellin in for erin burnett. outfront tonight breaking news. making the case for war. president obama directly addressed the possibility of a strike against syria just moments ago in an interview with pbs' the news hour. >> we have not yet made a decision but the international norm against the use of chemical weapons needs to be kept in place. and nobody disputes or hardly anybody disputes that chemical weapons were used on a large scale in syria against civilian populations. we have looked at all of the evidence and we do not believe the opposition possessed nuclear weapons or chemical weapons of that sort. we do not believe that given the delivery systems using rockets that the opposition could have carried out these attacks. we have concluded that the syrian government and if so there need to be international consequences. we are consulting with allies and international community. i have no interest in open ended conflict in syria. we have to make sure that when countries break international norms that they are held accountable. i think it i

i turn you over to jessica yellin, who is filling in for wolf blitzer in "the situation room." >> and a demand for an immediate investigation into claims that the syrian government launched a chemical weapons attack on more than a thousand civilians. >> plus, disturbing new details emerging about the suspect behind the murder of a australian native. and one of the queen's prize swans

. >>> i'm jessica yellin in for erin burnett. outfront tonight breaking news. making the case for war. president obama directly addressed the possibility of a strike against syria just moments ago in an interview with pbs' the news hour. >> we have not yet made a decision but the international norm against the use of chemical weapons needs to be kept in place. and nobody disputes or hardly anybody disputes that chemical weapons were used on a large scale in syria against civilian populations. we have looked at all of the evidence and we do not believe the opposition possessed nuclear weapons or chemical weapons of that sort. we do not believe that given the delivery systems using rockets that the opposition could have carried out these attacks. we have concluded that the syrian government carried these out, and if so, there need to be international consequences. we are consulting with allies and international community. i have no interest in open ended conflict in syria. we have to make sure that when countries break international norms that they are held accou

." ♪ >> >> i'm jessica yellin in for erin burnett. >>> "outfront" tonight, breaking news, stocks dive as the drumbeat to war with syria gets louder. wall street suffered its worst day since june as the obama administration clearly laid the groundwork for a possible military strike on syria. >> there's no doubt who is responsible for this heinous use of chemical weapons in syria. the syrian regime. the president believes and i believe that those who use chemical weapons against defenseless men, women and children should and must be held accountable. >> market analyst todd schoenberger is "outfront" with us tonight. thank you for being here. how much of this market drop had to do with what you heard from the vice president and the president and the administration about oil in the region? >> quite a bit because it's a grave concern for everybody at wall street. it was top of mind when we heard about it from biden but now when we're hearing about the war drums that are beating today and we can only anticipate that president obama will be making a decision, probably by tomorrow and even by

." >>> i'm jessica yellin in for erin burnett. "outfront" tonight breaking news a senior u.s. official tells cnn's jim acosta that the u.s. could go it alone in syria after our closest ally votes against taking action. british lawmakers just voted down a proposal to strike syria. britain's prime minister says he will not go against parliament. here at home right now, top lawmakers are being briefed by the white house. the president's top national security officials are making their case against the syrian regime. will the administration be able to win enough support? our chief congressional correspondent dana bash is in washington. hi, dana. i know you have been working your sources all day. it looks from here like the mood in washington really seems to reflect the mood around the country right now on syria, it's conflicted. so, what are you learning right now? >> reporter: that's right, hi, jess. i should tell you that the conference call should be wrapping up right about now and i'm hoping to get a read on what the top lawmakers were told and whether their questions were ans

right now i turn you over to jessica yellin in for wolf blitzer in "the situation room." >> breaking news, the jury find the gunman in the fort hood shooting massacre guilty. we'll go live to fort hood, texas. >> plus, president obama's first comments on reports of terrifying chemical gas attacks in syria in an exclusive interview with cnn. details and chris cuomo about the horrific new images shocking the world. >> and the country's most dangerous job revealed. it has a death rate topping any other american profession. the details of a surprising new report just ahead. wolf blitzer is off.

." >> >> i'm jessica yellin in for erin burnett. >>> "outfront" tonight, breaking news, stocks dive as the drumbeat to war with syria gets louder. wall street suffered its worst day since june as the obama administration clearly laid the groundwork for a possible military strike on syria. >> there's no doubt who is responsible for this heinous use of chemical weapons in syria. the syrian regime. the president believes and i believe that those who use chemical weapons against defenseless men, women and children should and must be held accountable. >> market analyst todd schoenberger is "outfront" with us tonight. thank you for being here. how much of this market drop had to do with what you heard from the vice president and the president and the administration about oil in the region? >> quite a bit because it's a grave concern for everybody at wall street. it was top of mind when we heard about it from biden but now when we're hearing about the war drums that are beating today and we can only anticipate that president obama will be making a decision, probably by tomorrow and even by th

." >> >> i'm jessica yellin in for erin burnett. >>> "outfront" tonight, breaking news, stocks dive as the

jessica yellin. >> thank you, mr. president. and following on what you just said. >> uh-huh. >> republicans in the house might give you that choice soon to either allow the government to shut down or see obama care defunded. would you choose to let the government shut down to ensure that obama care remains funded? >> well, you know, i'm not going to engage in hypotheticals. i can tell you that the american people would have difficulty understanding why we would weaken our economy, shut down our government, shut down vital services, have people who are not getting paid who then can't go to restaurants or shop for clothes or all the other things that we're doing here because republicans have determined that they don't want to see these folks get health care. again, they used to say they had a replacement. that never actually arrived, right? i mean, i've been hearing about this whole replace thing for two years. now i just don't hear about it because basically they don't have an agenda to provide health insurance to people at affor

." >>> i'm jessica yellin in for erin burnett. "outfront" tonight, president obama makes his case for war. >> today we released our unclassified assessment detailing with high confidence that the syrian regime carried out a chemical weapons attack that killed well over 1,000 people including hundreds of children. this follows the horrific images that shocked us all. >> cnn has obtained new images the aftermath of another alleged chemical weapons attack in syria. and we want to warn you the video is very disturbing. seven people died and dozens were injured in the alleged attack on a school in northern syria. a doctor at a local hospital said, quote, it's like they used chemicals like napalm or something. many of the victims were covered in burns. cnn has not been able to independently confirm what happened there. cnn's senior white house correspondent jim acosta joins us now with all the latest from there. hi, jim. i know you've been working the story furiously. today the administration released its declassified intelligence asses

jessica yellin, thanks very much. >> fareed zakaria, is joining us. the president also defended his decision to go ahead and attend the g-20 summit. listen to this. >> sill won't be going to that, because the g-20 summit is the main forum where we talk about the commission -- the word economy with all the top economic powers in the world. it's not something unique to russia, it's important for us to make sure we're there. >> what do you think of his decision to snub the bilateral meeting in moscow. >> i think it's exactly right. we've got a lot of issues that have to be dealt with. the united states needs to be at the table, but any kind of special recognition strikes me as the wrong message to send, so i think the president is right form clearly a ser train. at the reminds me of -- a bit more than a year ago, and he said this at the time. listen. >> these are very -- and if he plans on doing -- he's not willing to tell the american people, that this is, without ski our number the idea that he has more flexibility in mind for russia is very, very trou

. >> let's bring in our chief white house correspondent jessica yellin. so his laptop confiscated. >> reporter: the white house officials insisted they had no involvement in what they called a british police action. today in the briefing the white house refused to condemn the action but also acknowledged that officials here did know about it before it occurred. listen to this exchange. >> reporter: can you state with authority that the u.s. government has not obtained material from the laptop the british authorities confiscated from glenn greenwald's partner or any of the personal devices they also confiscated. >> i'm just not in a position to talk to you about conversations between british and american law enforcement officials. >> so you can't rule out that the u.s. hat. >> that was provided by the british government. again, this is something that we ind but it's not something that we've requested. >> now, breen and a, the white house clard -- they were notified once miranda's name appeared on a list that he was flying on an airline and that the britt p

cnn's chief white house correspondent jessica yellin asked deputy white house press secretary josh earnest about the controversial issue in the context of a recent documentary done by our own dr. sanjay gupta. the same category as heroin, and more harmful than cocaine or meth my distinguished colleague dr. sanjay gupta has called for a reconsidering, so given the reported medical benefits, does the president believe the government should reconsider this classification? >> well, jessica, i can tell you the administration's position has clear and consistent, that while the prosecution of drug traffickers remains an important priority, the president and administration believe that targeting individual marijuana users, especially those with serious illnesses is not the best allocation of federal law enforcement resources. >> i'm not exactly sure what steps are required or what changes could be implemented into the law to have an xwa can't on marijuana research. for some reasons i suspect i'll have many tags on twitter later. >> maybe some doritos later. >>> our jessica is joining us now, a lit

our chief white house correspondent jessica yellin is joining us now. she's got a closer look. what are you seeing, jessica? >> hillary clinton is keeping the guessing game about her future alive, but anthony weiner, a former friend of the clintons, is making it a lot harder for her to keep us guessing. washington, d.c. in august, the hillary for president rumor mill is buzzing. now in the cycle, this off message answer by anthony weiner about his wife, a long-time clinton aide. >> do you know what her role in hillary's 2016 campaign will be? >> i do. >> what will it be? >> i'm not telling you. >> what? she's supposed to give a nonanswer like this. >> it's too early to handicap the race and we don't know if she's going to run. >> reporter: someone send weiner the memo. the hint came when she gave her first speech in years on a touchy issue, the supreme court's ruling on race and voting rights. >> anyone who says that racial discrimination is no longer a problem in american elections must not be paying attention. >> reporter: mrs. clinton announced she will keep giving big speec

jessica yellin is joining us now. she's got the details. >> reporter: wolf, the attorney says the nation's overcrowding problem is costing the u.s. too much money, is leading to more crime when prisoners are released and it's often the result of unfair sentencing practices. so he's making changes. a major change in the way prison sentences will be handed down, ordered by the nation's top law enforcement officer. >> it was an outsized, unnecessarily large prison population, we need to ensure that incarceration is used to punish, to deter and to rehabilitate but not merely to warehouse and to forget. >> reporter: attorney general eric holder announced the justice department will stop seeking mandatory minimum sentences for offenders accused of low-level, non-violent drug crimes like a small-time drug courier. instead they'll ask to send them to drug programs and outpatient treatment programs. >> this is a time of progress and innovation. this is our promise to forge a more just society. >> reporter: he says he's discuss

." >>> i'm jessica yellin in for erin