tv New Day CNN February 28, 2017 4:00am-5:01am PST
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obama, president bush before him, 364 days a year, we have some edadversarial relationship and then is this one night, we're all yucking it up and all sort of being cozy. and it always did strike me as a little strange given everything that was happening in the world. lot of people liked that we could forget about it for a night, but i don't know that president trump is wrong to sit this one out. >> is it it's about going back basics right now. and it's time to go back to basics for this dinner also. >> write brian, bill, thank you. >> there is something to be said by being decent enough to come and address the people that you take on. thanks to our enter new interna. for the u.s. viewers, there is a lot of news. we're look forward to a positive upbeat presentation. >> i think you'll like what and you hear. >> if past is prologue, the president will use populist rhetoric in his speech but he
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won't back it up with real action. >> year going to do more with less. >> it is a true america first budget. >> you will need to use is the special prosecutor's statute a. >> only serious crimes we have are leaks that have come out of our government. >> i think president obama is behind it, i also understand that is politics. >> this is "new day." >> good morning. welcome to your "new day." president trump just hours away from a very, very big moment. his first speech before a joint session of congress. this is his chance to start again and layout a vision for the american people. the white house says the president is going to be optimistic, he is going to offer real solutions. the question is will, can the president sell his congress and his budget and health care plans even to his own party. >> meanwhile president trump is
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blami blaming barack obama for some of the damaging leagues and for being behind the rowdy town hall, all of this as they spar the trump campaign's alleged ties to russia. let's begin with joe johns, he is live at the white house. is. >> reporter: good morning. this first address to congress, a great opportunity for president trump to rise botch the daily drama and the swirl here at the white house on and take his message directly to congress and american people. we are certainly expecting some specifics, some policy guidance, but with this president, he's been so unpredictable for so long, it's really difficult to say what to expect. >> reporter: the white house says president trump's speech will lay out an optimistic vision and bold agenda. lawmakers on both sides of the i'll looking for the president to outline specifics on the many campaign promises that got him
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elected. the president unveiling his budget outline monday which aims to boost defense spending by $54 billion is. >> we'll spend a lot more money on military. we really have to. we have no choice. and a lot of people think it's a tremendous amount of money will. actually $30 billion more than in a. >> reporter: while slashing other government departments like the epa and state department, with a big focus on cutting foreign aid. >> we're going to do more with less and make the government lean. >> reporter: democrats say the president faces a nearly impossible battle. >> the priorities they are pushing are way out of touch. >> reporter: pldresident trump' budget outline doesn't touch social security, medicaid or medicare which puts him at odds with paul ryan is. is the president also facing mounting pressure to deliver specifics on how he will repeal
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and replace mr. trump admits it complex. >> nobody knew health care could be so complicated. >> reporter: meanwhile president trump is pointing the finger at his predecessor without evidence for leaks. and for scenes like this at town halls for republican lawmakers across the country. >> i also understand that is politics. and will in terwill in herterms behind things. >> reporter: also today what could be an interesting moment given the back and forth between the president and the media. he's supposed to sit down with the anchors of the big tv networks as well as representatives of smaller and very influential networks like christian broadcasting and tell mun do. >> fascinating to see how that lunch on goes. thank you very much. meanwhile lawmakers are
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trying to figure out how to move forward with congressional investigations is of the trump campaign's alleged ties to russia. the house intelligence committee is agreeing on the scope of a probe even as the republicans and democrats differ on what has been uncovered so far. sun len serfaty has more for us. what have you learned? >> reporter: well, the investigation up here on the hill is starting to come together. you have members of the house intel committee who have now signed off on a plan to look at any contacts good the trump campaign and russian officials. but going into this, there is a big split of opinion. you have the top democrat on the committee and top republican on the committee both is leading this probe who are basically giving contradict takory views what they found so far. >> reporter: the republican chairman of the house intelligence committee says there is no evidence of contacts between president trump's campaign and russia during the 2016 race.
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>> right now i don't have is any evidence that would is -- of any phone calls. >> reporter: buft tt the top democrat damned shiv calls the verdict premature. >> we have i think will reached no conclusion, nor could we.shi verdict premature. >> we have i think will reached no conclusion, nor could we. we haven't called in a single witness or reviewed a document. >> reporter: one thing the committee agrees organization investigating any connection between trump's campaign and russian officials and leaks coming from intelligence officials. >> no one is focusing on major leaks that have occurred here. we can't run a ghoechlt like this. >> reporter: as calls grow for an independent process cute t e prosecutor. >> in we goet to a criminal referral, yes, i thinks attorney general has to recuse himself. >> reporter: darrel issa joining those saying jeff session kntd lead the probe . >> you need a special
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prosecutor. >> reporter: he says right now we have speculation and assumptions, but not declaredity and fact. any review must have the full confidence of the american is people. the president dismissing questions about a special prosecutor. is a bizarre response considering mr. trump spoke to russia president vladimir putin just a few weeks ago. >> how many people have to say that there is nothing there before you realize there is nothing there? >> reporter: white house press secretary sean spicer zealously defending the president. even leading the white house crackdown on internal leaks. sources telling cnn that the president signed off on checking aides cellphones to make certain they weren't texting reporters or using encrypted apps during an emergency meeting last week. but spicer denies the president was involved in that decision. >> i would have handled it differently than sean, but sean handled it and i'm okay with it. >> reporter: and jeff sessions for the first time speaking out about those calls for him to
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recuse himself from the russia probe, sessions telling reporters overnight i will recuse myself from anything i should recuse myself from, but not offering anymore specifics or anything more definitive than that. >> is thank you very much. the president there saying he's okay with it. our reporting is he signed off on it. so let's now discuss what is going on today and tonight with scott taylor of virginia. he serves on the house appropriations committee and is an iraq war vet. always a pleasure to have you on the show, sir. >> thanks for having me. >> so this is a huge night for the president. first address to a joibts session of congress, a chance to reset, putis oug out his vision. do you believe is he has his party including the tea party faction behind him with the budget priorities that way mind up being a kick to the deficit? >> it's an excellent question.
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i'm an a optimist, so i hope he performs well. that's good for the country. items difficu it's difficult to get everybody on the same page, but i'm optimistic that we will get something that will come out even if there is negotiation that always happens of course. so he may not have them all right now, but i think we can get something together and move forward as a country. >> big block as you know the tea party, deficit hawks, they want everything paid for. a big tax cut is addition by subtraction to the deficit. great for the taxpayers who get the tax cut, but it may not be the best fiscal move especially for a deficit hawk if it's not paid for dollar for dollar. does not wind up making money into the military or infrastructure difficult as a sell? >> as you know, i'm honored to serve the district that has the most military veterans and active duty of anyone in the nation, so it's a big issue for me because we see it first hand, issues that when lawmakers couldn't come together and we had sequestration is that hurt
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maintenance and deemployment schedules and training addrend readiness. so that being said, is i'm a bhunlg either ha budget hawk and against hadwech. we still deliver foreign aid as if it's the cold war. and 2340b even knows of our generosity. i mean we have to change how we come that. i think we can tighten the belt in a lot of different agencies as well, too. defense has taken the brunt of it over the last eight years and we have to get our maintenance and everything restored as a military. so i think we can thread the needle. army has 30% of surplus infrastructure. so that has to be on the chopping block. again, i'm a budget hawk and military hawk. i think that we can look at programs that may not address threats tomorrow that are very
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big and excess infrastructure and look for cost on savings. >> mccain says the president says he will boost our military, he's not delivering. 3%, $18.5 billion. he says it's not enough, that it's a hollow promise. do you agree with mccain? >> with all due respect to the senator who has been here longer than i have of course, and i've listened to on him as well, it's a start and something is better than 2340nothing. we have to get the national security apparatus back functioning. that being said, where i would differ with the senator is sxhktly what i said. looking at excess infrastructure that the army says they don't need and looking at programs that are -- you have to give kudo to the president. he saved a lot of money helping with the f-35 program. we have to look at those programs to say are we using our money in the best way possible and then in-you can tled tcan t needle and get the budget hawks on your side. >> another big part of fiscal planning will be health care. we just had representative
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burgess on trying to architect the plan. he would not say which seems to be a reality which is the current republican plans and there are various ones do not guarantee coverage to all americans. is that true? >> well, as you know, we've never been for universal health care. you're correct, there are different plans and there is diversity within our conference. and i think that's a good thing. this is a big deal and health care is a huge deal for families across the nation. so we should be methodical and deliberate and have vigorous debate and conversations within our own conference and with democrats to make a sure that we get it right. we're helping democrats because this is a failing law. but at the same time, we have to do something for the american people because that is leadership. >> failing is a defined term. it has problems. up prem you have premium spike, lots of things that could be addressed. but i think there is no secret why the idea of a mandate, if
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the mandate goes away, if everybody doesn't have to get coverage, the cost of health care will really sky rocket and you will have to find the money to replace it will. access to care is not a guarantee is sf coveraof covera. there seems to be dancing around that and you are not a want to straight. right now it's whether or not everybody will get coverage. you're saying no. >> i'm saying that there will be access to coverage. i'm not a dancer. you wouldn't want me dancing for sure. but things are still getting worked out. again, i think that is a good thing. and i would encourage and urge our democrat counterpart you can listen, i listened to my senator mark warner on his re-election talk about the big problems with the aca. let's get it fixed. let's work together for the american people. and if they're just saying no, no, no. that means they don't have a seat at the table which means the american people and their health care don't have a seat at
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the table. >> the reason that access is different than coverage, and you know this, is that as soon as you make that shift to access, people will lose coverage. you will have a lot of people lose coverage on the lower income levels. many ever whof whom voted for pt trump in states that turned this election. you can't bring everyone with you if you don't give care to everyone. >> what i'm saying to you is i believe that we can do it better. i think that we can reduce the cost curve which the aca clearly s sgn. in my district, vast jofrt people for the a clchlt a were worried about pre-exists conditions. we support that. i co-sponsored a bill that says we will deal with people with pre-exists conditions. my mother has a pre-exists condition. association moch sorry mom. but on the other side, most people are getting killed. premiums are skyrocketing. and their premiums are as much of as mortgage payments.
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and that's a big deal. i urge democrats to come to the table with republicans to make sure that we do the best thing for the american people. >> we can go better and we wish the best for your mother. congressman day lock thank you very mu day lock thataylo taylor, thank you very much for joining us. please stay with cnn for president trump's first address to congress tonight. the stakes are very is high. live skuncoverage begins at 8:0 p.m. two women suspected of poisoning north korea jong- ini physical murder charges. a third suspect is being investigated. south korean intelligence suggests the north korean leader ordered the assassination of his exsfrai estranged a half brother. and officials say five others have been executed by
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anti-aircraft guns for making false reports to kim jong-un. investigators are trying to determine what caused a small plane to crash in a southern california neighborhood. take a look at the surveillance video. this is the moment the plane goes down is. the plane slamming in to two houses. three of the five people on board died. amazing not all five were gone. no one on the ground was hurt. that may be the most amazing part. update now to the epic oscar screw up. pricewaterhouse coopers identifying the man is sarks brian as the accountant who hand warren beatty the wrong envelope before beatty announced the best picture winner erroneously. he said brian was tweeting back stage a just before the mistake. the company issuing a second apology monday saying we failed the academy and taking full responsibility for breaches of
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established protocol. can you imagine somebody tweeting while they were supposed to be doing their job? >> i think it depends on if that is part of your job. for him it isn't. the president. united states should have the guts to say him by name and i would. >> can you imagine the screw up if somebody is distracted tweeting while they're supposed to be doing their job? >> or that equally could apply to me by the way. >> are you kidding me? >> look is was that part of his job? our job is to communicate and interface with people. i wonder why they called him out by name. that's a good question. is would you if you were his employer? >> somebody's head had to roll. >> a good is poll question. were they right to throw is him under the bus will? so weather new for us. the eastern united states is bracing for a wild temperature swing. you have a big warm-up expected to spark severe storms. even the good news can be bad news. chad myers, why, my friend, why.
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>> because the calendar says winter, but is mother nature thinks springing. and it's just so on quarm owarm many spots. there will be severe weather this afternoon and this evening is across parts of a half of the country. temperatures will be in the 70s. even 60 in chicago. shouldn't be anywhere near that. that is the fuel to the fire that will cause a skreer weatse to upon up chicago to st. louis and some ever tof the storms wi potential for tornadoes will be after dark. look at d.c., tomorrow you go 77. and by the end of the week, 47 is. so a 30 degree temperature drop. here is the man for today. severe weather chicago, indianapolis, st. louis all the way down to little rock. that's the bufferer zone. watch out if you live there.
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west virginia august the wll th nashville tomorrow. president trumpobamacare, b items co it's complicated. we will ask the governor who just met with the president about this what he thinks is next. (vo) my name is bryan and i make dog chow in davenport, iowa. maggie's got the personality of a puppy. she likes to play fetch, go on hikes, she's a very family oriented dog. dog chow's been a part of my family's life for over 40 years. my grandfather made it and now i'm making it. as a micro-biologist i ensure that dog chow leads with high quality ingredients. my name is bryan and i'm proud to make dog chow in davenport, iowa.
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it's a complex subject. nobody knew health care could be so complicated. >> that was president trump conceding that replacing the affordable care act is complicated. the president making that statement in a meeting with governors on monday and one of 240 those governors joining us, he's of washington state and the incoming chair of the democratic governors association. governor, great to have you here. >> thanks for having me. >> we're leading the way in our state in health care and
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everywhere else. >> let's talk about health care. you met with president trump. what did you think when you heard him say a replacing the affordable care act will be more complicated than anybody knew. >> i think when you get in tint airplane and you look at the cockpit and boy, look at all these gauges, you know you have a problem. and we have a big problem here because the president trump basically has tried to tell us that whatever is coming, and we don't know what is coming, they don't know what is coming, it's confusion wrapped around chaos right now, he said that he won't take away people's coverage,ing but during this weekend what we found out is a very good analysis by neutral economists find out this will take away coverage from people, it would take away 60,000 people's health insurance is in my state. we've had 20,000 is cancer survivors get cancer treatment because of the affordable care act. and this is going to take annual people's coverage. >> did you tell the president that? >> i told that twice.
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i had two conversations and i -- >> one of the architects of the new plan. >> yes. >> and what did he say when you say there are 60,000 people in my state that will lose is coverage? >> so i showed dr. price the review done on the behalf of the national governors association. this is a bipartisan is group. and the review showed that it would take about 60,000 people's insurance and rip it away from are them in my state. and i said we are not going to allow that in my state. this is so important to our people's physical health and fiscal security. and i said can you can give us as shush rans that won't happen and he could not. and this i think this late date when they haven't voted to have any replacement is very distu disturbi disturbing. we need to say we won't yield on this. an republicans and democrats have to both give americans assurance that they won't let this travesty hurt our health care. >> democrats in congress don't
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have a big hand to play. so if in two weeks congressman price comes up with a replacement plan and it does affect your constituents, then what? >> actually democrats can have a role to play because what is happening right now, republicans are having a head-on collision with reality. for years and years, they thought they could preserve the very popular parts of the law that will protect us against discrimination based on pre-exists conditions. to allow our kids to remain on our insurance. and they thought they could do this and still save money. they still want to save the 340e money, but you can tall all this money out of health care and put it into tax cuts for the we would any. the real desire here, the effort here is not to improve health, it's to have a piggybank to give tax cuts to the wealthy. and what they have found out is you can't do that. the running into reality. but the democrats, some democrat vote probably will be needed do whatever replaces obama cacare. yes, there are improvements.
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improvements might be appropriate. but don't take away health care for americans. >> so when you met with the president and you're likening to seeing a pilot who doesn't understand all the control, you did not feel that he had his arms around any coherent plan? >> no, i have zero confidence in that. in part because the president has never addressed the real subject matter here. he continues to is shock and jive about the specifics. and at this late date not to have a plan that he can articulate is very disturk. numb ing. number two to have the architect, dr. price, be unable to assure us governors, republicans and democrats, that they would not take arm people's health insurance, that is a red warning sign and the red flags are going up bigging time on this effort. >> i want to ask you also about what we expect will be announced tomorrow and that is the new and improved trump travel ban. yours was the first state to sue the trump administration over the last travel ban that you didn't feel was constitutional. what do you expect from the new travel ban? >> well, we don't know yet.
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this is an unpredictable president. but we will stand up for our businesses so they can sell our high tech products around the globe and fight any effort too intru to intrude. we have researchers that have been prevented from moving into our country. >> so there were researchers trying to cure aids stopped at the airport and septembnt back? >> we had a researcher stopped there coming back at the university of washington to do that research. we had a world health organization keynote speaker coming to give the key note speech who was sent back is and because of our lawsuit, i'm glad washington is standing up and it has led the country in many ways and we're leegd the country again on this, we were able to get this researcher in doing great work. >> it's day 40 of the is trump presidency. so of course the chatter in washington, d.c. is already talking about 2020 and who will
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be running. are you considering a run in 2020? >> i'm committed to being governor. i've said is this. the only better job than the one i have, i love this job is would to take russell wilson's job as quarterback of the seahawks. >> governor, thanks so much. a programming note. cnn will host a town hall tomorrow with republican senators john mccain and lindsey graham. dana bash will in order rate mo. it will be on the key issues and thoughts,000 get throu s and ho them. ohio taking matters in to its own hands. is there voter fraud? they answer that question. and then they answer the more important question. how much and what can be done about it. ohio's secretary of state joins us next. jifrngs iing
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states decided to look into what is there in their own voter rolls. what did they find? joining us now secretary of state jon husted. thank you for joining us. appreciate you taking this on. is what is your headline out of the 11.5 million people in the state, almost 8 million registered voters, what did you find? >> well, we do a review every two years on noncitizen voting. and we use driver's license data. and we found 385 noncitizens on the rolls and 82 of them that voted in the most recent election. so these are the facts and we do this to try to help put them out there so people can understand the scope which i like to describe as voter fraud among noncitizens exists. it's rare. we hold people accountable. and we have ideas on how we can improve the system. >> so what did you find out
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about how? how did 385 he voting rolls? >> one of the ways you can register is using a driver's license number or social security number. we use driver's license data in ohio. this is self-reported. these are people who are here legally, they get a driver's licen license, we mactch the day if t against the stroeti ingvoting r. we don't have the ability to check on social security numbers. if the government would give us saeks be access to the last tour difo digits of stoeshl security numbers, we could improve is this. integrity of the election is important and if people are here legal illegally, you don't want them on the stroeter rolls because
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that could prevent them ever from becoming citizens. >> the idea of fraud comes up a lot. of the 385 people wrongly registered, a large number of them according to your report is volunteer is to unregister. what does that tell you, is this done by mistake by people, is it fraud that they then get exposed and want to fix themselves? >> it's a lot of reasons. there are some who clearly want to do this to impact an election and they know they're doing it illegally. other people get on there for reasons that will thwill that tt are here, they don't really understand the rules and laws. somebody asks them to register the vote. theft documentation that allows them do that. they get on the rolls illegally. so we don't want anybody to make a mistake doing something that they didn't know they were supposed do, but we also want to stop people who may have more
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nefarious intent. and why is it important? in ohio over the last four year, we've had 112 elections at the local level that have been decided by one vote or tied. so we have a lot of close elections. we want to make sure that the integrity of the elections are upheld, but we also want to have the facts so we can put it in proper context and people can feel comfortable that while it is a problem, it's not as big of a problem as they might have otherwise thought. >> and let's get to the might have otherwise thought part because i'll tell you what election wasn't close on a popular vote level was the presidential election. and it is no mystery that the number of people who voted illegally according to the president would make him even and maybe pull ahead of hillary clinton in the pop luular vote count. is there anything that you have seen in your state that implies on any level that there is widespread voter fraud. >> well, as i say, voter fraud
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exists. items ra it's rare. we have no evidence that it is wide spread. what a we like do is help put election fraud in context and also i'm going to urge as i did the obama administration, i will urge the trump administration to give us access to the database that will allow us to do this cross match based on social security numbers that way we can prevent somebody from accidentally or intentionally getting registered and voting and putting themselves will in a difficult situation in our election system. so i like to use these things ras construction difference opportunities to try to improve our election a system and 25 to help reassure people that a ohio is a place where it's easy to vote but hard to cheat. >> is 82 too many? and also interesting they should look at your report and see even with those 82, how few number of prosecutions you get and convictions you get. i think it was five overall a. but this is important work to be doing secretary of state. thank you very much for bringing to us here. appreciate it. >> thank you. so what do we really know is
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about the trump campaign's ties to russia? well, the co-author of an extensive new report is here next to break down the facts that he's uncovered. your insurance company won't replace the full value of your totaled new car. the guy says you picked the wrong insurance plan. no, i picked the wrong insurance company. with liberty mutual new car replacement™, you won't have to worry about replacing your car because you'll get the full value back including depreciation. and if you have more than one liberty mutual policy, you qualify for a multi-policy discount, saving you money on your car and home coverage. call for a free quote today. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance.
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. so as you know, congress is promising a full and fair investigation into the trump campaign's alleged russian connections. but the white house says there is nothing to investigate. so what is going on here? we have a guest who has some answers. joining us now is staff writer and co-author of an exhaustive
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new report on what exactly we know about president trump's ties to russia. thanks so much for being here. i know that you and your colleagues at the new yorker spent a glal of tigreat deal of interviewing russian officials, u.s. officials, security officials. what is the headline of what you discovered? >> i think the headline is after all of that work, after the collaboration is that spanned from washington to new york to moscow, we the american people are at the beginning of figuring out what exactly happened here and we need an investigation that is as robust frankly as the one that we dedicated to understanding what happened to us on 9/11. and it sounds like an overstatement, but let's remember the united states was attacked. 17 intelligence agencies agree. and the qui was what happenesti happened, why can and who was
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involved. and for that we need the full range of tools that the u.s. government has to get to the bottom of that question. >> third question winds up being the one with the most political recent advance city. because it's about contacts between trump associates/campaign officials/a. because it's about contacts between trump associates/campaign officials/ what they knew, what they did. how do you square your reporting from what we're hearing from 23450unun yez and sean spicer saying there nothing to see here? >> you heard of course is some congressman nun yyez that he's heard nothing about phone calls. his committee that the point has yet to receive any documents. it has yet to have any here gsz or call any witnesses according to adam schiff who is the ranking democrat on the committee. on the senate side, they are prifr have i to t might have have privy to the same a classified
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forward. some senator warner says this is the most important thing he will do in his public life. ron widen says as far as he's a concerned, there is a huge amount of information that needs to be declassified. there are limits what members ever congress can say, but they have their ways of signals to the public that this is something we should care about. and i think what you will find and you're begun to hear it calling for a special prosecutor that if you're an american sfma interested in a strong defense, it's hard to pretend as if an attack on the american democratic institution is something that we can casually dismiss. >> from your interviews and investigation, what are the red flags that jumped out at you? >> what is interesting here is that in some ways this operation and is that the right way to describe it, it's understood as an te and te irn tell againintelligence oper that knows back into the history of the cold war when there was a thing known as active members.
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it's an intelligence operation that is different than classic enp espionage. it's about seeking to alter the course of political events. and that's what happened here. the united states was susceptible to an active measures campaign partly because we were so is divided. our politics are so will polarized that as a result americans were susceptible to propaganda campaign, what we now call fake news. the united states was also the dnc and john podesta's e-mail as we know the fact that they were leaked contributed to this climate of intense polarization and as a result it did alter the mood of the american voter. how much? we need to find out. we don't know. but in an election where the difference was separated by 70,000 votes, it's hard to defend the idea that it had no impact at all. >> but quantifying the impact will be a difficult task even
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with full buy-in. do you think this there will ever be any type of revelation about a connection between is some those efforts, those nefarious hacking efforts, and people from the trump campaign or staff? >> i don't know. there is no honest answer that a person could give at this point is simply because we're at the beginning of this process. let's remember, when the united states was attacked on september 11th, they composed a commission of five democrats and five republicans that sbir viintervi 1200 people, spent years composing a report so that we would know exactly what happened here. and i think if you step out of this partisan divide and say this is not a political exercise, this is simply a question, the u.s. intelligence community has said we know that we were attacked. so how, why and what will we come to prevent it from happening again. because as one person mentioned in the course of this investigation, if we don't have a strong response now, in 2020, it will be in his words open season on the united states. and we need prevent that
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happening. >> everybody can read your thorough reporting. it's called active measures in the new yorker.sharing it with us. so did you hear about this? muhammad ali's son and former wife were detained at a florida airport for about two hours. the pair joins us live to tell us why and why it concerns them is. next. next. an unlimited data plan is only as good as the network it's on. and verizon has been ranked number one for the 7th time in a row by rootmetrics. (man) hey, uh, what's rootmetrics? it's the nation's largest independent study and it ranked verizon #1 in call, text, data, speed and reliability. (woman) do they get a trophy? not that i know of. but you get unlimited done right. (man 2) why don't they get a trophy? (man 3) they should get something. (woman 2) how about a plaque? i have to drop this. my arm's getting really tired. unlimited on verizon. 4 lines, just $45 per line.
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m ali jr. and his mother were held at an airport, and they were targeted for being phmuslim. we have muhammad ali, jr., and his mother, and their lawyer with us today. thank you for coming in. appreciate it. this is an important story, not just because of who you are but how you were treated. your name, no coincidence. we see your shirt, muhammad ali was your father and we miss him. tell us what happened.
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>> they asked me my name, and they asked how i got the name, like where did i get it, and then they asked me, what is your religion, and i thought that was odd, and i said i am muslim. >> then what happened? >> then, of course, i think he didn't believe me, so he brought me in the back room and he asked me the same questions. >> after you said you were muslim, you were separated from your mom and brought into the back room, and what did you think was happening? >> i told them, i said, this is my son, and we are traveling together. why are you separating us? right away, that sent out a red flag and they said you will meet him on the other side. >> were you asked -- >> i was unaware of what was happening and that's what made me nervous, and i am thinking
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the worst case scenario, and i am panicking. >> did they ask you what your faith was? >> oh, yes. definitely. >> you said muslim? >> yeah. >> what was their response? >> they said, okay. where did you get your name? i am married to muhammad ali. >> when you made the connection to muhammad ali, and did that change the dialogue at all? >> they said, yeah, okay, and i don't think they believed me. but i showed them a picture of me and muhammad, because a lot of the travelers were asking for autographs and sometimes i have them there with me, and they looked and said, oh, okay, okay. >> why do you think this is anything different than airport officials doing due diligence? >> they have the right to do that, and the question is are they doing it constitutionally or in accordance with our
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lawyelaws, and both of them are pulled aside, and they are muslim, and this is not a rogue agent that decided to ask questions of people, and now we are getting inundated with e-mails, people calling from all over the country and saying the same thing, and the same thing happened to me. >> they were asked about their religion? >> oh, yes. >> is it wrong? >> yes, it's a religious test. the heartbreaking thing about this we are getting e-mails from people saying, should i deny being a muslim so i can get through customs, and are we getting to the point where you have to deny your faith? >> the "sun" said they cannot discuss individual travelers.
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did you feel as though you were treated as all other passengers on your plane were? >> no, if all the people was supposed to be treated like that, then everybody on the plane would be taken to the back room and interrogated like that. >> we know it's not everybody. they have to make choices. a lot of other countries do it very overtly, and they see your name and see you and they would say i am going to target you to be a problem. what do you think of that notion, though, hey, we have a real threat, and it's muslims behind the threat, and people are afraid and that's who they are going to look at? >> we will look at it like this, i just wish the media and higher authorities would take muslim and islam off of the terrorists list, because these terrorists are not muslims. if you profile a real muslim and
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know what they believe in, you would not have suicide bombers or anybody killing anybody and you would not have anybody destroying property. that is what a muslim is. that's the real part of it. when you go beyond and start killing people and hurting people, you are definitely not even a half muslim, you are not a muslim at all. terrorism and people who are criminals, they are judged by the profile of their crimes, not their race, not their religion, because they went beyond the religious act. >> how long were you back there and how did you convince them you were here for your purposes? >> i was back there for an hour, and i told them who i was and who my father was, and it did not speed up the process. >> were you hostile?
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no, i complied with everything they wanted, and i was patient and waited. >> how did it end? >> it ended, okay, you are free to go. >> that was it, no apology or explanation of why? >> no. >> where do you go from here? >> we are trying to figure out what the profile is. what we are being told are people are asked questions like, do you pray five times a day? what sex are you associated with in the muslim religion? do you read any particular literature? so we are trying to see whether or not this is a properly struck balance between the religious freedoms we so much love and enjoy in this country and the governments need to protect us. i got that. these are the first people that will tell you they want the country protected, but we are not allowed to do that at the loss of our most base kwric fundamental rights, our religious freedom and
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expression. >> final word? >> going in there we were humble and kind and polite, and that's what we are supposed to do. be civil. and as a mother and as a citizen of the united states, i was terrified. this is the first time i never felt comfortable in my own country. if i was horrified about my own son and he is grown man, what about other people who have children who feel like they are going to be deported. >> you are raising the right issues, and the reason i asked you about the concerns, that's what is fueling the fear and people are acting out of fear. let us know where it goes from here. we appreciate it. >> thank you. love your show. we are following a lot of news this morning, so let's get right to it. this is a landmark event, a message to the world -- >> the president will address
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the americans and let them know help is finally on the way. >> nobody knew that health care could be so complicated. >> yeah, we got a clue. it's very, very complicated. >> i think president obama is behind it. >> checking staffers' phones. >> i would have handled it differently, but sean handles it his own way. >> what are the republicans in congress afraid of? >> announcer: this is "new day," with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. a picture of the statue of liberty there, and welcome to "new day." president trump hours away from laying out his vision for the american people, and the white house says he will offer real solutions and specifics. can the president sell congress on his budget and health care
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