record high today as the president's approval ratings hit record lows. "the lead" starts right now. crisis of credibility. the white house trying again to clear up another potential disconnect as a new poll shows 62% of the american people say president trump is not honest. a harrowing close call after analysts say a missile test came crashing down near the flight path of a passenger plane. the latest from the powder keg that is north korea's nuclear program. plus, she's blaming the triumph of myth over truth. why a top official at the environmental protection agency said after 30 years, she just can't work there anymore. good afternoon, everyone. welcome to "the lead." i'm jake tapper. let's start with breaking news on our money lead. the dow close to hitting another record money-making high today. the dow is holding close to the 22,000 mark. it's up nearly 20% since

election day. president trump is one of the biggest cheerleaders of its success. let's go to cnn's allison cozsyk. >> the index hit 22,000 for the first time ever. it's a new record high. it is the dow's sixth record high in a row, and it's the 49th record high since the election. in fact, the dow is up more than 3,600 points since the election. investors have been shrugging off turmoil happening in washington and instead they're focusing on big name profits. they had beat expectations like apple last night and was actually a bump in apple stock today that pushed the dow over 22,000. apple is one of the 30 stocks in the dow, and when it moves, it can impact the entire index. what you're really seeing, jake, is a rally that's less about investors hoping president trump will deliver on massive tax cuts

and more on solid profits. jake? >> once again touting the dow's rise and the success of the overall economy. as i recall, though, alison, counter-trump dismissed rallies as a bubble. is there anything tangibly different now? >> what's different is he's the president and he believes the stock market is evidence that the economy is doing well on his watch. but as a candidate, trump was warning about the stock market rising too much. let's take a little walk down memory lane. listen to this. >> we have a stock market that is so loaded. be careful of a bubble. believe me, we're in a bubble right now. and the only thing that looks good is the stock market, but if you raise interest rates even a little bit, that's going to come crashing down. >> but now the president has become the market's cheerleader in chief. the danger, though, is the markets don't always go straight up, so the president is playing with a little bit of fire here. a little perspective for you, it's been trading almost 400

days since the s&p 500 suffered a 5% decline and that's actually the biggest winning streak since 1995 so investors are wondering how long it can rise without crashing. jake? >> if you think the president has credibility issues when it comes to contradictory claims about the stock market, welcome to questionable calls. 61% of those polled disapprove of the job president trump is doing. among a key part of the president's base, white voters with no college degree, 43% say he's doing a good job while 50% disapprove. 50% of white, non-college educated people disapprove. 71% of voters say president trump is not level-headed compared to 26% who say he is.

60% of voters say they believe president trump thinks he is above the law. 57% of the american people polled say he is abusing the powers of his office. and then there's this. a majority of the american people, 54%, say that they are embarrassed to have donald trump as their president. 26% are proud. cnn's sara murray is live for us at the white house, and sara, some of these issues may be starting to hurt the president even with his base. today he is throwing out some red meat in terms of conservative policy proposals. >> that's right, jake, and it's actually within the last few days we've seen this president in particular go out of his way to try to ensure this base of supporters, the people who put him in this white house, stay on board. today it was the administration unveiling a new immigration plan that would dramatically rewrite the way the rules of illegal immigration in this country. with his domestic agenda stalled and his approval numbers mired

in historic lows, president trump is pitching to his base. >> it's great to be here today to unveil legislation that would represent the most significant reform to our immigration system in half a century. >> reporter: trump, alongside republican senators tom cotton and david perdue, unveiling a plan designed to cut immigration to the u.s. by 50%. it aim to see remake america's legal immigration system so it's less rooted in family migration, instead creating a so-called merit-based system that grades potential immigrants on their ability to work in the u.s. trump touting a proposal wednesday as a way to protect american workers by introducing lower skilled immigration. >> among those hit the hardest in recent years have been immigrants, and very importantly, minority workers competing for jobs against brand new arrivals. and it has not been fair to our people, to our citizens, to our

workers. >> reporter: cracking down on immigration both legal and illegal was a cornerstone of president trump's potential bid. >> every time an african-american citizen or a spanish citizen or any citizen loses their job to an illegal immigrant, the rights of that american citizen have been totally violated. they're losing their jobs. >> reporter: but the legislation is already facing skepticism from some republicans as well as democrats. >> we think it's a non-starter. >> reporter: but it marks just one of the ways trump is working to shore up the base of supporters who helped get him elected. the department of justice is also preparing to steer more resources from its civil rights division toward investigating universities for affirmative action policies deemed discriminatory toward white applicants. that's according to the "new york times" which obtained an internal justice document about the plan. >> while the white house does not confirm or deny the existence of potential violations, the department of justice will always review

credible allegation of discrimination on the basis of any race. >> reporter: all of this comesing on the heels of trump's twitter announcement that transgender individuals would be barred from serving in the military. a twitter probable cauclamation yet led tie change in policy, as joint chiefs wait for word from the white house. meanwhile the administration is preparing to take a tougher line on chinese trade policies. a key campaign trail issue for then-candidate trump. >> we can't condition to allow china to rape our country, and that's what they're doing. it's the greatest theft in the history of the world. >> reporter: now, a number of these plays to shore up the base would actually require the administration to stay focused, for instance, on a single legislati legislative issue. for instance, on immigration. that's going to be tough to do while congress is also trying to do tax reform and the president wants them to go back to health

care. all of this and whatever the president decides to wake up and tweet tomorrow morning. >> the president tries to please his base one by one. his supporters are trying to push back against the legislation. we're going to read all this with one republican senator here to join us. stay with us. i have age-related maculare degeneration, amd, he told me to look at this grid every day. and we came up with a plan to help reduce my risk of progression, including preservision areds 2. my doctor said preservision areds 2 has the exact nutrient formula the national eye institute recommends to help reduce the risk of progression of moderate to advanced amd after 15 years of clinical studies. preservision areds 2. because my eyes are everything.

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when you switch to progressive. winds stirring. too treacherous for a selfie. [ camera shutter clicks ] sure, i've taken discounts to new heights with safe driver and paperless billing. but the prize at the top is worth every last breath. here we go. [ grunts ] got 'em. ahh. wait a minute. whole wheat waffles? [ crying ] why! welcome back. we're continuing our politics lead. president trump has signed the new russia sanctions bill into law, but he called it flawed, saying it encroaches on the executive branch's authority to negotiate. as president, i can make far better deals with foreign countries than congress. we're here with the senator.

the president said the bill is full of clearly constitutional provisions and takes decisions from the hands fortunate presiden -- of the president. are you worried about his commitment to this bill? >> no, i'm not worried about his commitment. it's the same as we had with president obama before, that congress put sanctions on iran and the president chose to pull those down. if we're putting sanctions in place, there is common agreement among the american people we need to do this. if the president wants to be able to pull those sanctions down, it needs to come back to congress. we all agree to put them in place, we all need to agree together to take them out. >> i know the bill also deals with iran and north korea, but russia because of the election interference and also its encroachment in crimea? >> correct. there is aggression in the whole world, but they've also pushed back from us since the election

of 2016. there is no reason to believe they affected our election, but there is also reason to believe they tried to. what's happening in ukraine, what's happening in crimea currently is a major issue. we think there needs to be a pushback on russia, and if there is not a forcible pushback, they're just going to keep going. >> what do you make of the fact that president trump disagrees with you, as far as i can tell the entire senate, house, intelligence committees, everybody who has spoken about this from the intelligence community, including his own director of national intelligence, nsa, cia, fbi, et cetera, and he doesn't accept this. he doesn't accept that russia tried to interfere in the elections. >> of late, he has made the comment that most likely it's russia. he thinks it's most likely them but it could be others that could have participated as well. i have no question that it was russia trying to engage in our election. i would be glad to show up with evidence as well as all the people around it. >> on the question of russia,

there does seem to be a question about his posture toward russia. the president has had a lot to say about republican senators, about democratic senators, about the media. i don't think he's said anything publicly about russia's retaliation for the sanctions, the insistence, the demand that the u.s. remove 755 individuals from the missions and embassies in russia. does that disappoint you? what do you make of it? >> it does disappoint me, but it also disappoints me that russia is going to respond that way. i understand they're going to respond back to sanctions. we're stinging them because of what they have done in their actions. the issue of them trying to kick out 755 people that are americans working there in russia is their way to try to do a tit for tat back and forth. it's nonsense cal, quite fravngfravn frankly. they're unhappy with us removing those facilities and we had every reason to. >> were they being used for

spies? >> there is no question they were used for spycraft and for russian spies. >> if was told a few weeks ago that the white house is considering giving them back, and he said something like, why not give cooperation and collaboration a chance? >> we give collaboration a chance. there is a place to do that in all areas. we will have to cooperate with them in syria. what's happened the last ten years in syria is the united states have pulled back from that in a vacuum. russia has run into that vacuum. we'll have to work with the russians. where we can work with them, we should, but i'm not going to help them spy on us. >> you wrote, quote, the senate should not go to a 51-vote majority for every vote because the senate is the one entity in the government where the minority view is heard and deliberation is protected. clearly you disagree with president trump who has said the

60-vote threshold should be disposed of and it should go down to 51 votes. >> he and i have had this conversation. most people don't understand there are actually two 61 votes before the 51 votes pass the bill. you need 61 people to start the debate, 61 to meet the debate and 61 to pass the vote before it goes to 51. let the party get a bill, debate the bill, if the minority isn't heard, you don't get enough amendments, then the minority can prevent it from going forward. but the majority party should always be able to get a bill and be able to debate it and the minority makes sure they get a hearing. >> what would you say to democrats, your colleagues, who would say, senator langford, you're talking about making the senate work better. last year senate republicans wouldn't even allow a hearing on a supreme court nominee?

>> sure, i understand that very well. there's never been a time in the history of the senate that we've had so few nominations work through and so little legislation that's been allowed because democrats are preventing that. typically by this point, any president has about 200 people on his staff. this president has 50. >> i honestly don't know the answer to that, but how much is that is obstructionism and how much is it is the administration not nominating people? >> they have enough people to be able to go through the process. there are quite a few people who have gone through our committee process. they're literally waiting to get to the floor. because 30 hours are required to be able to do the debate before a 51 passage, if the democrats continue to require 30 hours for each person, it will literally take 11 years for the president to get his staff. my concern is that this has not happened before and it's setting another new precedent in the senate, that every time there is a president that comes up, the president can't get his staff. and the gridlock that's happening in congress is now a gridlock that is washington, d.c.-wide. in every agency they can't

function because they don't have staff. we can't move it that way. >> one of your colleagues, senator jeff flake of arizona, was on yesterday. i want you to take a look at what he thought was happening to the republican brand because of president trump. >> we've kind of, as republicans, taken up an unfamiliar banner that, you know, is populism. and, you know, in some cases xenophobia, anti-immigration, protectionism. that's not familiar to us, and i don't think that that is a governing philosophy. >> what do you think? >> yeah, i think every person represents their own people and where they are. i represent the 4 million people of oklahoma. those are the voices that i speak for and they've sent me here to washington, d.c. to represent their voice. their president has been elected. he has a role. jeff flake has been elected and he has a role. to me it's not about republican brand, it's about trying to identify the people at home and what their basic values are and trying to coalesce those values

here. i'm not so much worried about protecting the president. i don't know if that's a party issue or not. i don't come from a political background. the values coming from my state are the values i need to articulate here. >> what do you think about his criticism, that the republican party in his view now represents are too often xenophobic and indecent ones, ones that are protectionist and not what he's used to? >> there is no question that president trump when he was elected had a very different message than the typical republican out there. he ran as a republican. in fact, there was dispute early on whether he would run as a republican, democrat or independent because of his own background on that, and i think most people in america see him as a different kind of republican with a different set of issues he's bringing up. that's fine. he's the president of the united states. he's head of our party as president of the united states, de facto in that role, but i think people also know what basic republicans' values are, dealing with people in power, dealing with opportunity for every single individual, trying to protect life at every stage

in life, trying to find ways to be able to help people achieve things they haven't been able to do before, whether it's education or whatever it may be. those are basic values that will continue to articulate. we have differences in our parties, there's no shock in that, that all people don't see the same. republicans in oklahoma don't think the same as republicans in ohio or new york or california. but we all share the same party and we're all trying to work through the differences in that. >> senator, glad to see you. thanks for coming in. we hear republicans calling for bipartisanship. are democrats open to making deals and getting some work done on capitol hill? we'll talk to dick durbin, a senator in illinois, right after this quick break. what are all these different topped & loaded meals? it's an american favorite on top of an american favorite, alice. it's like abe lincoln on top of george washington.

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merit-based immigration plan today. the white house proposed what it calls a merit-based immigration system that would effectively cut illegal immigration by 50%. he said unskilled immigration hurts american workers. what are your thoughts? >> all of these jobs filled by immigrants are jobs americans don't care to fill. picking crops out in the field, there's not a long line of americans wanting to do that. when you go to the packinghouses, the poultry processing plants, you find a lot of immigrants taking these dirty, hot, sweaty jobs and there aren't a lot of americans standing in line trying to get that opportunity. i think they're overlooking the obvious. there are some jobs immigrants will take that, quite frankly, americans won't take. >> i think senator schumer said

congress won't pass it. do you agree with him? >> there is a process and we have to get back to it. we're in this whole world of reconciliation which, to your viewers, might not mean much, but we're not going to the regular process of the senate. it's time to return to it, particularly on a subject like immigration. >> that's not how it worked with health care, there wasn't the normal hearing process. but the question still stands. if it goes through the normal process, if it emerges on the floor of the senate with basically intact as to what president trump and senators cotton and perdue announced today, will democrats do whatever they can to stop it from becoming law? >> if it goes through the regular process, it willing changed, i guarantee you. there will be things added to it, things deleted. it's what the press is all about. if it's take it or leave it, i'm

afraid the senate will leave it. so president trump signed the russian sanctions bill this morning. clearly he did it with reservation. he said, i can make far better deals than congress. is the bill going to be effective, do you think? >> this is the darndest thing i've ever seen. they said hold back, hold back, and finally they said, enough, we've got to do something when it comes to them interfering in our election. the president finally realized that the republicans and democrats limited his authority when it came to lifting these sap sanctions. it showed suspicions that both sides of the aisle had about his decisions at this point. >> that's exactly the point. also in the statement he said, quote, the bill remains seriously flawed because it encroaches on the executive

branch's authority to negotiate. you are saying, essentially, the president is right in a sense that the point of the law is to tie his hands because so many in congress from both parties, at the very least, disagree with his stance to russia. >> you got a point there. >> the "new york times" reported that the justice department is prepping to investigate and litigate race-based discrimination in colleges and universities. some say the trump administration is planning to go after affirmative action in colleges and universities. is that your understanding? >> it's not a surprise. senator jeff sessions really couldn't understand the concern about voting rights, discrimination based on race and gender and sexual orientation. he really did have some pretty strong feeddlings when it came affirmative action. they're going after discrimination against white americans. i'm not going to say every affirmative action plan is perfect, but if you're going to put a litany of the most likely discrimination in america, it isn't going to start with that. >> so you think this is coming from senator sessions, now

attorney general sessions? >> it comes on it of the department of justice, doesn't it? >> the president has discussed ending the government subsidy to insurance that helps lower paid americans pay for health care. you have called for a more bipartisan effort. what is the democrats' plan to fix obamacare now that the republican effort has stumbled? >> here's the good news. immediately after that bill, the republican repeal bill failed on the floor, senator alexander, republican of tennessee, went over to senator patty murray, democrat of washington, and said, let's sit down and put our committee to work to write the bill that's needed. in the meantime, let's figure out how to stabilize the system. i tell you, this threat from the trump to bring down our health care system to win some political victory, he's doing it at the expense of a lot of innocent americans. we should work together on a bipartisan basis to make our system stronger and make sure the premiums don't go up dramatically. >> what do you think of the president's threat to undermine the health plans of members of

congress? >> i can tell you he has a pretty good insurance plan for himself, doesn't he? what we want in congress is to make sure everybody in the country has the same health care plan we do. my wife and i buy our health insurance on the insurance exchanges created by obamacare. we go into the exchanges and buy just like every other american. that's the way it ought to be. >> oethe other thing the presidt is trying to address is the opioid epidemic across the country. he wants to declare a mass emergency because of the lethal drug overdoses in this country. you have suggested expanding access to substance treatment in medicaid. do you think you could work with the white house and the senate at all on this issue of opioid epidemic? and do you think the president should declare a national health emergency? >> i think so. i can tell you with the people dying every day because of opioid and heroin overdoses,

there is no town too small and no suburb too wealthy to be reached with this epidemic. it is a national epidemic. pharmacists produce 14 billion opioid pills every year in america. that's enough for every single adult to have a one-month prescription. that starting point is terrible. we need the drug enforcement administration to be sensitive to it and increase that production. then we need doctors assigned to it right across the board. it is a national challenge. >> all right, senator dick durbin out of illinois. nice to have you. thank you. >> thank you. north korea came very close to hitting a passenger plane testing its missile last week. is the trump administration gearing up for any sort of military action? we'll go live to the pentagon, next. stay with us. she's also in a rock band. look at her shred.

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afghanistan. the attack targeted nato troops. the pentagon has not yet released details of the mission they were on. family members are being notified before their names will be released. the attack comes as president trump is weighing what is next for u.s. troops in afghanistan. defense secretary james mattis told congress that a strategy decision would come by mid-july. today, cof course, is august 2n. cnn has learned that the icbm released last friday flew within miles of the flight path of an air france commercial jet en route from paris to tokyo with more than 300 passengers on board. every week we're getting more news about north korea's missile tests. barbara starr from the pentagon, it sounds like a terrible incident, but experts are saying it wasn't that close of a call. >> reporter: not a real close call but it is raising question

about whether these missiles flying through the air do pose a threat to commercial aviation, all of this coming as the u.s. is sending back its own message. an unarmed minute man 3 intercontinental ballistic missile flew more than 4,000 miles into the pacific after launching from vandenburg air force base in california. north korea insisting it was not a retaliation to u.s. missiles but a long-time test. the u.s. continuing to stress for a clearer message. >> if we have to use military force, we will, and i don't believe north korea will ever change until they believe america is serious about the military option. >> reporter: defense conservatives worried after secretary of state rex tillerson appeared to at least publicly

soften the u.s. tone. >> we're trying to convey to the north koreans, we are not your enemy, we are not your threat. but you are presenting an unacceptable threat to us and we have to respond. >> diplomacy is not giving in. talking to somebody is not giving in. >> reporter: the white house won't be pinned down on what might happen next. >> as i've said many times before, we're not going to broadcast our actions and we're keeping all options on the table. >> reporter: there is a growing sense that any u.s. action would be a last resort. >> you always have to apply overwhelming force to make sure that your opponent doesn't get the next move. in north korea you don't know what that next move is going to be. >> reporter: a new problem. last friday some 7 to 9 minutes before north korea's latest icbm test missile hit the water, an air france flight flew through a corridor just 2 miles from the

impact zone. by the time the missile hit, the airplane was dozens of miles away. but north korea doesn't warn when and where its launches are happening. aviation experts say it wasn't a close call for the plane being at risk of a shootdown, but it could lead to avoiding certain flight paths in asia. >> this is something that is billions and billions to one as far as probability, but again, it's not something we can just discard and say, oh, well, we don't think it's going to happen so therefore we don't need to do anything about it. it's something that still needs to be assessed. >> reporter: and what aviation analysts are saying is what needs to be assessed by commercial airlines like air france and others is whether they want to continue to fly through those same air corridors in asia or they need to start now making different plans. jake? >> barbara starr at the pentagon for us, thank you. turning to the crisis in venezuela, venezuelan president nicolas maduro is said to

welcome his new controversial legislative body which they call another, quote, sham election. the british company that supplies venezuela's voting technology says voters turning out for that election, were, quote, manipulated. leyla santiago has been covering this. leyla, what does this mean? >> reporter: it's expected to replace the national assembly that is controlled by the opposition right now. it is tasked with rewriting the constitution, and so this could give president matuduro a lot o power. this assembly would have a lot of power. it is filled with maduro supporters. as it moves forward, it is expected to be installed tomorrow. the representatives were sworn in today, installed tomorrow.

already government leaders have said they want to establish a truth commission, which would prosecute political opponents of president maduro. president maduro says that this will help the economy, that it will bring peace, but the critics not only here in venezuela but in the international community say this is a road to dictatorship. so when you ask, what does the constituent assembly mean for much of the world, it means dictatorship and instability in venezuela. for president maduro and his supporters, they claim it means peace, which we have not seen in quite some time here in caracas. >> the trump administration is now calling him dictator maduro, not president maduro. now that the u.k. company has been providing the voting technology to venezuela for more than a decade is saying the voter turnout figures were, quote, tampered with, what might that mean? >> reporter: okay, so let's take a look at the numbers. according to the government, that election that took place for the members of the

constituent assembly on sunday tallied about 8 million votes. that's what the government is claiming. but this technology company, which, by the way, jake, let me put this in perspective for you, they've been here since 2004 and have not taken issue with a single election in that time. this technology company is saying that they believe without a doubt there has been tampering with those numbers, and they believe it could affect at least -- at least -- a million votes. then there was also a report from roeuters that took a look t some internal documents and that found that by 5:30 on sunday, only 3.75 million people had voted. the polls were open until 6:00, so if that's the case, if only 3.75 million people had only voted by 5:30, that's a push to get to 8 million by the end of the day. what's the government saying?

they're saying those are irresponsible statements, and when it comes to that technology company, they're saying those were statements so irresponsible, they could seek illegal action. >> leyla santiago, thank you so much. here in the u.s. the crippling effects after a tropical storm. why the worst may not be over. and the major changes under president trump that aren't making the daily headlines, why some government workers say the administration is attacking science and the changes already made will affect every single one of us. stay with us. at panera, a salad is so much more than one thing.

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our national lead now, south florida bracing for even more rain after the remnants of tropical depression emily dumped 7 inches of rain in miami-dade tuesday. the storm left flash flooding on the roadways.

some cars were stalled out while others decide to do kayak the flooded streets instead. there is more rain today. a senior official with 30 years of service at the environmental protection agency has resigned because of the direction she believes the agency is taking under president trump. the former director of science and technology at the epa's office of water blames president trump's rollbacks as a reason for her leaving saying, the environmental field is suffering from the temporary triumph of myth and truth. this is just the latest in a series of people resigning because they're worried with the environmental protection agency. >> she has resigned partly, she says, to bring attention to what the trump administration is doing to the environment and ultimately americans' health.

her concern is echoed in a recent report by concerned scientists. the report outlines a pattern of science in the nearly 200 days of the trump administration. a series of wildfires rage out west, the most in 17 years. and cities like miami are seeing sea levels around it rise at a rate of about 1/8 of an ircnch each year. the signs are all around. the climate is changing, making difficult weather. scientist joel clemente says science is under attack. clemente specializes in climate change policy. he spoke out about climate change several times, including in june, before the united nations.

six days later he says he received this letter from the administration. >> along with 30 or 40 or 50 senior executive colleagues, i received an involuntary reassignment notice. i was reassigned to an accounting office in the department. >> reporter: do you have a background in accounting? >> i don't. i am absolutely not familiar with accounting. >> reporter: clemente made a complaint, citing the interior department rallying against him. the interior department wouldn't comment on clemente case, but it paints a picture across the government under the trump administration. in january the trump administration issued gag orders at agencies like the epa. in february congressional republicans reversed a regulation curbing coal mine waste and water waste. in march the epa announced it would reexamine vehicle admission standards intended to cut pollution. it rejected a petition to ban a

pesticide linked to brain defects in children, and it released a deadline on flash funding regarding the regulations. >> regarding climate change, the president was fairly straightforward, saying, we're not spending money on that anymore. we believe it to be a waste of your money. >> reporter: they cut ties in january with a forensic science commission. in may, scientists' terms are not renewed. >> the united states will withdraw from the paris climate accord. >> reporter: that was june. and in july, department of energy, department of interior and the epa's websites were altered to remove information on renewable energy and climate change. positions at federal agencies have gone to industry insiders and people with unrelated

experiences. well, cnn reached out to the white house, the epa and the department of interior but received no comment. we should point out that several senators have since called for an investigation by the ig's office after that individual that you saw in the piece there, mr. clemente, was reassigned at the department of interior. >> renee, how effective has the trump administration been in reshaping policy in these agencies? >> i mean, they have been very aggressive when we talk about rolling back regulations, but there have been many road blocks, namely the courts. just this week in a federal court in washington, d.c., a panel of judges said that the epa has to, they ordered the epa to enforce an obama-era pollution limit rule on the energy industry. they said, you have to enforce this rule. what the epa wanted to do was put a pause on that rule for two years while they review it. the court said that's not lawful. the intention of that rule was

to essentially make sure to monitor the emissions from oil and gas companies. they've been told by the courts they have to enforce it. >> renee marsh, thank you so much. coming up next, zeroing in on the opioid crisis. the new plan just launched to target the source of these deadly drugs. plus the plea by president trump to do even more. stay with us. i wanted to be clear. i wanted it to last. so i kept on fighting. i found something that worked. and keeps on working. now? they see me. see me. see if cosentyx could make a difference for you- cosentyx is proven to help people with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis... ...find clear skin that can last. don't use if you're allergic to cosentyx. before starting cosentyx, you should be checked for tuberculosis. an increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms. or if you have received a vaccine or plan to.

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welcome back with our national lead. president trump's commission on opioid addiction urged him on monday to declare the nation's drug crisis a national public health emergency. the commission, we're told, is still waiting for a response from president trump. meanwhile in america's heartland, the death toll continues to rise. department data shows 16,000 americans died from drug overdoses last year. that's the biggest increase in drug overdoises in the united

states ever. the justice department voted to crack down on opioid prescriptions. >> a doctor or pharmacist letting these pills walk out the door, onto the streets based on prescriptions you know are obtained under false pretenses. we're coming after you. >> to root out fraud, the justice department says they will analyze health care data and train some district attorneys to devote themselves specifically to fraud related to opioid prescriptions. 41 cases involving three baltimore police officers are set to be dismissed, baltimore state's attorney office says. there is an investigation into evidence planting after body cam footing from a january arrest was released. the video appears to show one of the officers hiding drugs, placing them in a plastic bag into a can and then partially hiding it before walking back to the sidewalk.

30 seconds later the audio begins and the officer says he's going to check the area and appears to stumble onto the drugs and the can that he had just planted. 55 cases involving the officers are still under review. one of the officers has been suspended and two others are on administrative duty pending an investigation. this is "the lead." i'm jake tapper turning it over to wolf blitzer in the situation room. happening now, immigration news. president trump backs a dramatic overhaul of the mimmigration la, supporting a law that would cut immigration to half. it sparked an intense debate in the white house briefing room. record low. the president's new approval rating falls to its lowest level yet, losing even among republicans, with a growing number of americans dissatisfied with the president's performance. will he stay the course? seriously