>> welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king. to viewers in the united states and around the world, thank you for sharing your day with us. president trump about to land in las vegas where the death toll stands at 5. investigators now beginning to learn more how the shooter compiled an arsenal of firearms and planned the massacre. >> and yeah, they're learning a lot more. and that will be announced at the appropriate time. it's a very, very sad day for me personally. >> plus, knock rexity. the secretary of state disputes the latest report about his deep

frustration with the president and with the white house. the secretary of state insisting he isn't going anywhere. >> you know, it doesn't take a very sophisticated kgb officer to realize michigan, wisconsin and pennsylvania some key states would be places they can likely target the thing they were trying to achieve was breaking down the faith in institutions, breaking down faith in our democratic process and in the electoral process and oh, my heavens, they've certainly done that, haven't they? >> the congressman talking about another big event this hour. an important progress report from one of the committees investigating russian election med dilling including a sophisticated facebook ad campaign targeting states critical to trump's victory. leaders of the senate intelligence committee again, that's an update on the meddling investigation months long investigation. the republican chairman richard burr, mark warner promise to detail some of the conclusions. first though, let's get the

latest on the investigation into sunday's mass shooting on the las vegas strip. authorities still don't have a motive for wa the y stephen paddock fire opened fire on 22,000 concert goers. that might take awhile according to the fbi's deputy director. >> this individual in this attack having didn't leave the immediately accessible thumb prints you find on some attacks. we look for actual indicators of affiliation, of motive, intent and so far we're not there. >> president trump arrives any moment in las vegas which is grieving still dealing with the murders of 58 people. 500 others wounded. investigators hoping to find clues when they speak to the gunman's girlfriend who returned from the philippines last night. her sisters believe she was sent away by the gunman so she wouldn't interfere.

sara sidner joins us live now with the latest. >> we are getting more information and some pictures from inside his hoe hotel room where stephen paddock had an arsenal of weapons. we are learning that among the 23 weapons that were inside of that room, there were also stages set up and what are known as bump fire stocks. those allow you to turn a conventional weapon into an automatic weapon essentially allowing you to fire much, much faster and so much shorter of a time. we do not know though from investigators as to whether or not those bump fire stocks were actually used, but there were 12 found inside that room we're also learning about some of the equipment had he set up to try and see outside of his room. there were cameras set up outside of his room and his peephole. that was gerri rigged to try and be able to see who was coming and going towards that room on the 32nd floor of the mandalay bay. obviously this room looking like a sniper's den when you look at photos coming out of the room

where stephen paddock over days took in bags. clearly those bags had firearms in them and equipment to allow him to build those plat fors. we're also learning some of those guns coming from three different places a total of 47 guns that he owned. some of those were found in two different res debss of his. and 23 of them almost half the guns found inside the room. we don't know yet know how many were used in the massacre but this killer clearly intended to declare war on innocents at that concert. we're also learning a little bit about some of his funds and money. we understand that $100,000 was wired at some point to the philippines. we don't know who it was wired to. authors are still looking into that, but certainly that is a lot of money and we know his girlfriend was at the time is from the philippines and has made her way back over to the united states in los angeles

with the federal authorities alongside her. she is smeked expected to be qud by local authorities here in las vegas or by las vegas police. but we have heard from her family members who have talked about whether or not she knew anything about his plan to massacre so many people. >> and i know that she doesn't know anything, as well. she was sent away. she was sent away so that she will be not there to interfere with what he's planning. >> she didn't know she's going to the philippines until steve said marilou, i found you a cheap ticket to the philippines. >> reporter: again, they'll be questioned by authorities. we should talk about the many people struggling, the families of 58 people trying to deal with the loss right now and hundreds of families dealing with those

hit by bullets or trampled during this terrible, terrible time in vegas. >> sara sidner on the ground in vegas. appreciate that reporting. let's echo we should remember those still recovering and families dealing with the pain of those lost. president trump is about to land in vegas any moment from now and will meet with victims and survivors of the attack. the president before leaving the white house had morning praising first responders. >> it's a very sad thing. we're going to pay our respects and to see the police who have done really a fantastic job in a very short time. and yeah, they're learning a lot more. and that will be announced at the appropriate time. it's a very, very sad day for me personally. >> the president and the first lady there. as the president made his way to vegas, talking points distributed to white house allies made clear he does not agree with democrats who staged a morning event at the capitol who make the case this vegas massacre and the weapons used problem the need for more gun

controls. among those on the capitol steps, gabby givered shot back in her arizona district in 2011. >> stopping gun violence takes courage. now is the time to come together, be responsible. democrats, republicans, everyone. we must never stop fighting, fight, fight, fight! >> agree or des agree, the courage of congresswoman giffords is remarkable. now mary catherine hammon of the federalist, phil mattingly, kimberly atkins and dana bash. let's talk first about the president was in puerto rico yesterday. there he was there to confront his critics in addition to trying to console people. this is very different in vegas for the president, the largest mass shooting in modern american history. the president seemed to suggest he knows more about the

investigation than we do yet. what is priority one challenge number one for the president on the ground? >> i mean, this is such an incredibly gavely serious issue and you want the president to embody that seriousness and not be distracted and not go some of the directions he is wont to go on twitter. it sounds like the tone he was taking is exactly where he should be, thank you to the first responders. if he can stick to that, that's good. but this is -- i don't think those kind of personal interactions are often where he's good. this particular kind we'll see where that heads. i think that's the main thing, stay in that place. >> this is probably pretty obvious but we should take a step back and look at yesterday as a place and an area that desperately still needs and will need for a very long time federal help. federal help when it comes to money, to personnel. this is a much more traditional

visit of consoler in chief or at least the role that we have seen presidents take on since bill clinton in oklahoma city and so on. you know, it is something that he did relatively well when he gave his speech at the white house after on monday. and it's something that he's clearly trying to continue to do. he talked about in those brief remarks about how this is tough for him personally. that, of course, that's going to be true but this is the time when the country looks at him to reflect the somber mood of the country and to be that conso consolener chief. that is certainly there are going to be a lot of political debates about gun control and so forth. but on this trip, that's what it's about. >> it's about being there. it's not that complicated in the sense of be there, meet one-on-one with people. it doesn't have to be a camera

related event. president after president after president has done it after tram danz those have been some of the most important moments. people on ground aren't looking for you to solve their problems or to an wage their concerns or fears or even their sorrow. they're looking for someone to be there with them. >> that's the toughest thing for him. we know that this is a president who likes wins, who likes to brag and show what a great job is being done by him, by his federal response. he has to resist that urge. even drew criticism by talking about the mir cue lus response of police which kept more people from being killed. people were like we appreciate our police, but if 59 people are dead, i don't know how that miraculous that is. he has to watch his words and tendency to want to use superlatives and praise people. it's good to praise the heroes that we saw in las vegas but he really has 0 keep this somber. >> back here in washington, one of the interesting subplots is predictably, the gun control

debate comes back up as it does after every mass shooting. the political math has not changed. there's no indication this president or the house or senate are prepared to do it. you saw gabby giffords, it is remarkable, her recovery abactivism to get if the debate and be out in public about it, a shooting victim saying we need more controls. steve scalise, the husband republican whip just back on the job after he almost died in that baseball shooting here in washington, a very different view of the second amendment. >> inevitably questions about the second amendment are raised by what happened in las vegas. has it changed how you feel about any of that? >> i think it's a fortified it that gunmen cleared background checks. so to promote some kind of gun control i there is the wrong way to approach this and frankly what i experienced was when there was a shooter, we luckily we had capitol police there is with their own guns. >> two very compelling people with very compelling stories. again, whatever your opinion on

the gun control debate, it adds a personal element to a debate in washington that often just goes off into the partisan corners. >> i think the value of that is it's very easy to turn this debate into the nra says this and therefore, lawmakers say x or y. that is a personal, that is avid who's had a very personal experience who gives credence to the rationale for his beliefs. you can disagree with him. many people do and are completely flummoxed. you can hear it from family members who have no idea why lawmakers refuse to act on something. it's ambiguous what the something is. no question about it. this isn't just something they believe because an interest group cares about it. this is an ideological stance that members were raised with this. this is what we believe. that's why it's not just a matter of well, if the nra would say this or interest group x would say this they would change

their minds. this is something these individuals firmly believe and that's why the debate has been so muddled and doesn't have a clear pathway forward. >> look, if you have a school or classroom of first graders mowed down and massacred and that's not going to change even people who are staunchly protective of the second amendment change hair view on that have second amendment, it's hard to imagine even something as horrific as this. one thing that we are starting to learn though is the way that this killer seemed to have manipulated the gun laws and tried to figure out ways to get around the current gun laws by sort of macguyvering some parts and making guns that aren't allowed. that mites be something even the nra and supporters of gun rights might be able to figure out how to close that loophole might. >> let's turn again, we're

moments away from a big announcement on capitol hill. the chairman and co-chairman of the senate intelligence committee saying where they are so far in their months long investigation into russian election methoddling. a dramatic announcement in washington morning. nbc news the latest to report that secretary of state rex tiller on so frustrated with his.disagreements with the president and his other disagreements with others on team trump in the white house was considering resigning again. nbc saying had he considered resigning in the summertime, late july. the vice president had to intervene nbc said as part of an effort to get him to stay. secretary tillerson adding an event this morning at the state department to say never happened. >> the vice president has never had to persuade me to were as secretary of state because i have never considered leaving this post. i value the friendship and the counsel of the vice president and i admire his leadership within president trump's administration to address the

many important agendas of president trump. >> what is the signatures here? we may get into a semantical battle with the secretary of state in the sense either several of his closest friends in texas are lie or the secretary of state told them as i reported in late july that he was frustrated, fed up, that this is not what he signed up for and that instead of staying a year, he was thinking of packing it in sooner. that has changed by all accounts. he plans on staying till the end of the year. why did he have to come out today after this report? why was it so important for that statement. >> he knows who his boss is. if there's a report out there that says that he. >> he called the president a moron. >> true or not, if he wants to keep his job, he's got to the say what he said. and it is remarkable for any top official like the can of state to come out and have a press conference just about a singular report but especially this guy

because he is not one of those press friendly secretaries of state at all. >> he did not say i never used that word. he said i'm not going to talk about that petty stuff. >> denied. >> you can get past the semantics and see this is part of a pattern from the beginning of the presidency. this is a very tough work environment particularly for somebody like tillerson who is another alpha executive type. donald trump isn't always comfortable with that guy. i think he's tried to do his best to stay in a role that would make trump comfortable. look, donald trump is, the president is going to undercut you at times and that's going to be very frustrating for tillerson attempting to do this job. the report is not surprising and shows how upheaval will be the rule. >> it's not just the reporting we've heard how difficult it is to in that position. it's the public undercutting. it's the tweeting. sorry, rex, kim jong-un isn't going to listen to diplomacy type of tweeting. all of that. >> let's bring that in. you make an important point.

president undercuts people and does it at sensitive types. rex tillerson was in china meeting with chinese officials critical to the role in trying to force pyongyang to the negotiating table, to stop the missile tests, china is critical. tillerson is at the table with them,age knowledges a big announcement that the united states is in direct contact with the north koreans saying how critical it is to turn down the volume. and the president of the united states tweets i told rex tillerson our wonderful secretary of state he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with little rocket man. save your energy, rex. being nice to rocket man hasn't worked in 25 years. clinton failed, bush failed and obama failed. that's ripping the rug out from under your guy. >> it's interesting to hear when you talk to people close to the administration who want to explain what he's trying to do. good cop, bad cop theory, you get the crazy person theory and you get the we're not totally

sure what's going on here. it's difficult, it's difficult to be a cabinet secretary when you have a president that's not a traditional president. i will also note what he may or may not have said based on the nbc reporting is something you hear from a lot of people that are involved in the administration. not necessarily attacking his intellect or anything like that but frustrated with certain things happening. that's not a rarity right now. that's more of reflection of this is a very different way of doing things. a lot of individual who's served in past administrations or used to washington, used to how things work are very confused at times by what is a very complicated environment. it's not a rarity that comments like that have been made by people inside the administration. it is a rarity perhaps when a, the cabinet secretary and b has to hold a press conference afterwards and address it. >> the president tweeting out nbc news owes the country a reporting. they're reporting solid

reporting. we'll see how this plays out. we're waiting, the republican chairman and democratic rinking member of the intelligence committee moments away from a big update into the russia electioning. looking for balance in your digestive system? try align probiotic. for a non-stop, sweet treat goodness, hold on to your tiara kind of day. get 24/7 digestive support, with align. the #1 doctor recommended probiotic brand. also in kids chewables.

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any moment now, announcement in that room. the republican chairman, democratic ranking member of the senate intelligence committee coming before reporters to offer an update on their months long investigation into russian election meddling. they have key details they want to disclose. stepping into the room. let's listen. >> thank you for being here. it's a bernie sanders day arobu day around the country. >> mark and i recognize the tragedy of nevada this week and at this point i'm glad to say that it doesn't seem to have a terrorism nexus.

that's not always the outcome, but our hearts and prayers go out to all the individuals who were affected both directly and indirectly and can assure you that from an intelligence committee standpoint and the agencies they're providing as many assets to local law enforcement and to those people that are tacked with investigation of this unbelievable act. so we're here toup date you about you and the american people about the investigation into russia's meddling in the 2016 election. when we started this investigation on 23, january of this year, we had a very clear focus. we were focused on an evaluation of the ica, the intelligence community assessment of russia's involvement in our 2016 election. additionally, the investigation was to look into any collusion by either campaign during the 2016 elections. the third piece was an

assess.measses assessment of the ongoing russian measures including influence campaigns that may still exist and may be ongoing. the investigation starred with those three buckets of interest. now we're over 100 interviews later which translateses to 2to 250 plus hours of interviews. almost 100,000 pages of documents reviewed by our staff and some by members. it includes highly classified intelligence reporting. it includes e-mails, campaign documents, and technical cyber analysis products. the committee has held 11 open hearings this calendar year that have touchdo touched on russia's interference in u.s. elections.

i can say that our dedicated russia staff have worked six to seven hours a day since 23, january, to get us to the point we are today. >> six to seven days a week, excuse me. >> so far in the interview process, we have interviewed everybody who had a hand or a voice into the creation of the intelligence community assessment. we have spent nine times the amount of time that the community spent putting it together, reviewing the ica and reviewing all the supporting documents that went in it, but in addition to that the things thrown onto the cutter room flor they might not have found appropriate for the ica itself but we may have found of relevance to our investigation. we have interviewed from official of the obama administration to fully

understand what they saw, what clarity and transparency they had into russia involvement and more importantly what they did or did not do and what drove those actions. again, i'm reminded we will come out with a finding at some point and part of that hopefully will be recommendations as to changes we need to make. we've tried to think as thoroughly through this as we can. we have interviewed literally individuals from around the world. so for those of you that choose to stake out when next witness is coming, there's some that snuck through because you don't know who they are. now, it's safe to say that the inquiry has expanded slightly. initial interviews and document review generated hundreds of additional requests on our part for information. it identified many leads that expanded our initial inquiry. the volume of work done by the

staff has prepared the committee to look at some areas of our investigation that we hope will very soon reach some definite conclusion, but we're not there yet. we're not ready to close them. one of those areas is the ica itself. given that we have interviewed everybody who had a hand in the ica, i think there is general consensus among members and staff that we trust the conclusions of the ica. but we don't close our consideration of it in the unlikelihood that we find additional information through the cop pleasing of our investigation. the obama administration's response to russian interference, as i said, we have interviewed every person within the administration. they have volunteered and they have been unbelievably cooperative to come in and share

everything they knew and in most cases were interviewed for over two hours. the meeting at the may flower. let me be specific. these are not issued closes. we have not come to any final conclusions. we have interviewed seven individuals that attended the may flower event. the testimony from all swrempb consistent with each other. but we understand that with the current investigation open, there may be additional information we find that pulling that thread may give us some additional insight we don't see today. changes to the platform committee. and again, i'm addressing some things that have been written by you in this room and they may not have been on our chart but we at the time that we had to dig deeply into them. we have the committee staff has interviewed every person involved in the drafting of the campaign platform. campaign staff was attempting to implement what they believed to be guidance to be strong, to be

a strong ally on ukraine but also leave the door open for better relations with russia. i'm giving you the feedback we got from the individuals who were in the room making the decisions. again, not closed. open for the continuation. the last one i want to cover is the comey memos. this topic has been hotly debated. and the committee is satisfied that our involvement with this issue has reached a logical end as it relates to the russia investigation. now, again, this is not something that we've closed. but we have exhausted every person that we can talk to to get information that's pertinent to us relative to the russia investigation. questions that you might have surrounding comey's firing are better answered by the general counsel or by the justice department.

not the select committee of intelligence in the united states senate. there are concerns that we continue to pursue. collusion, the committee continues to look into all evidence to see if there was any hint of collusion. now, i'm not going to even discuss initial findings because we haven't any. we've got a tremendous apartment of documents still to go through. and just to put in perspective, i said we've done over 100 interviews, over 250 hours. we currently have booked for the balance of this month 25 additional interviews. that may not end up being the total but as of today, there are 25 individuals booked to meet with our staffs before the end of this month alone. pertaining to the russian investigation. we have more work to do as it reits to collusion but we're developing a clearer picture of

what happened. what i will confirm is that the russian intelligence service is determined, clever, and i recommend that every campaign and every election official take this very seriously as we move into this november's election and as we move into preparation for the 2018 election. i'm going to ask the vice chairman to cover the other areas that we're in the process of pursuing. >> thank you, richard. and i want to say at the outset again, i'm very proud of this committee. i'm proud of the way the committee has acted. i'm proud of our staff and the enormous apartment of work they've done. i know the chairman and i see many of you daily in the hallways. and know that this feels like it's taking a long time. it is taking a long time. but getting it right and getting all the facts is what we owe the american people.

and as we've seen, you know, for example, you know, stories that e"american morning"ed in the late summer around mr. trump junior's meeting or the possibilities of a trump tower moscow. you know, chairman and i would would love to find ways to close things down but we also still see -- >> i want to touch on two subjects. the first is echoing what richard's already said. the russian active measures efforts did not end on election day, 2016. they were not only geared at the united states of america. we have seen russian active measures take place in france. we've seen concerns raised in the netherlands.

we've seen concerns raised in germany. and we need to be on guard. one of the things that it particularly troubling to both of us is the fact that it's become evident that 21 state's electoral systems were not all penetrated but there was at least -- there was at least trying to open the door in these 21 states. it has been very disappointing to me and i believe the chairman, as well that it took 11 months for the department of homeland security to reveal those 21 states. and still don't know exactly why last friday was the date they chose to reveal that information. but still believe there needs to be a more aggressive whole of government approach in terms of protecting our electoral system.

remember, to make a change even in a national election doesn't require penetration into 50 states arguably in states like the chairman's and mine could be key. you could pick two or three states in two or three jurisdictions and alter an election. and i believe in a state like mine where in virginia, new jersey, in 34 days, we have elections. i'm glad to see the dhs has said they are going to up their game and particularly help those states with elections that are happening this year. but we need to make sure that there is 0 organized again whole of government approach. i know in virginia, for example, even before we discovered that we were one of the 21 states, i think the state electoral board in an abundance of caution decertified one set of machines that were touch screens that didn't have a paper ballot or a

paper trail to this. one of the things we wanted to emphasize with this briefing that this is an ongoing concern and that if states don't proactively move forward, very shortly, we'll be getting into primary seasons early on in 2018. and this is -- this is an ongoing challenge. again, i point out even after last week, wisconsin, texas and california still have some lack of clarity about whether the appropriate individuals were notified. i also want to raise an issue that the chairman and i have been working jointly on, as well. and that is the russians' use of social media platforms. social media platforms that increasingly the vast majority of us turn to for information for news in a way that is very

different. if you look, for example, in the realm of political advertising, we've seen an over 700% increase in the use of digital political advertising between 2012 and 2016. the expectation is that may double or triple again in terms of the next election cycle because of the ability to so target voters. i was concerned at first that some of these social media platform companies did not take this threat seriously enough. i believe they are recognizing that threat now. they have provided us with information. we think it's important that the three companies we've invited, google, twitter and facebook, will appear in a public hearing so that americans can again hear both about how we're going to protect i would argue three

areas. one making sure that if you see an ad that appears on a social media site, that americans can know whether the source of that ad was generated by foreign entities. two, to make sure that if you see a story that is trending and becoming more popular, whether that trending is because a series of americans are liking that story or liking that particular page, whether generated by real individuals or generated by bots or in some cases it may be false identity, falsely identified accounts, for example, facebook has indicated between 30,000, 30,000 and 50,000 such accounts were taken down in france because due to russian interference. and third, just the notion that both of us have been in politics a long time. if you have somebody running an

ad for you or against you, you ought to be able to take at least a look at that content the same way that if ads are run for or against you on tv, radio or news print, you can at least get a look at that content. this is an ongoing process. but we're seeing increasing levels of cooperation and with that, i'll turn it back over to the chairman. be happy to take questions. >> many of you have asked us, are we going to reese the facebook ads. we don't release documents provided to our committee, period. let me say it again. the senate intelligence committee does not release documents provided by witnesses, companies, whoever, whatever the classification, it's not a practice that we're going to get into. clearly, if any of the social media platforms would like to do that, we're fine with them doing it because we've already got scheduled an open hearing because we believe the american people deserve to hear firsthand. and just to remind people on

october 25th, we'll have another open hearing number 12 with michael cohen. on november 1st, we have invited the social media companies that mark mentioned to be our guest at an open hearing and we feel confident that they will take us up on it. as it relates to the steele dossier, unfortunately, the committee has hit a wall. we have on several occasions made attempts to contact mr. steele to meet with mr. steele. to include personally the vice chairman and myself as two individuals making that connection. those offers have gone unaccepted. the committee cannot really decide the credibility of the dossier without understanding

things like who paid for it. who were your sources and sub sources? we're investigating a very expansive russian network of interference in u.s. elections. and though we have been incredibly enlightened at our ability to rebid backwards the steele dossier up to a certain date, getting past that point has been somewhat impossible. and i say this because i don't think we're going to find any intelligence products that unlock ha key to pre-june of '16. my hope is that mr. steele will make a decision to meet with either mark and i or the committee or both. so that we can hear his side of it versus for us to depict in our findings what his intent or what his actions were. and i say that to you but i also

say it to chris steele. potential witnesses that we might ask to come in in the future. i strongly suggest that you come in and speak with us. if we believe that you have something valuable to bring to the committee had, if you don't voluntarily do it, il assure you today, you will be compelled to do it. i can compel you to come. i can't compel to you talk. but that will be dob in a very public way if in fact you turn down the private offer. the committee has proven to be balanced, professional, and we're willing to listen to everybody. let me say in closing for those following our investigation in the press, i want you to know that you only eglimpses of the amount of work the committee's done. we're doing much of our work behind closed doors to ensure the privacy and the protection of witnesses and sensitive

sources and methods. it's become increasingly clear that the committee has stayed focused on building the foundation to be able to finish our investigation thoroughly and in an accountable way. i'm confident today that when we started -- we chose wisely by choosing our professional staff to do this investigation and not to the talking heads all around the country that suggested we couldn't do this unless we went out and hire aid whole new group. and i think the numbers here reflect that. ultimately, we look forward to completing our work and presenting our findings to the public. i can't set a date as to when that will be. mark can't set a date as to when that can be. we will share with you when we have exhausted every thread of

intelligence, every potential witness that can contribute anything to this. i don't by any stretch of the madgemation tell you that there's been value to everybody we've met with. but if we hadn't met with them, then you would have questioned us as to why we didn't. the truth nobody in this may know everybody we've met with. we're not going to share who we interview. we're not going to share what we ask, and we're certainly not going to share what they tell us. we're not going to share the documents that we got, but when you receive 100,000 documents plus, a large group of that coming from the trump campaign alone, when you look at the country's most sensitive intelligence products, let me assure you, we're going to get the best view of what happened that anybody could possibly get

at the end of this process, we will be sure that we present to the american people our findings as best we have been able to accumulate. so with that, i'd be happy to open it for questions. chad. >> reporter: have you seen the evidence between these russian facebook ads with the trump campaign with any people? >> chad, we haven't even had our hearing with any of the social media plat fors. if you look from 10,000 feet, the subject matter of the ads was -- seems to have been 0 create chaos in every group they could possibly identify in america. from a standpoint of any involvement, let us have the opportunity to have these folks in, ask them the questions. in many cases they didn't even take advantage of some of the most technical targeting tools that exist within those social media companies. so i would defer answering your

question until we've completed the investigation. >> let me just add that, you know, i believe and i think you will see that there will be more forensics done by these companies. again, when we just look at scale, france versus the united states, for example, facebook terps of what happened, i think they've got some more work to do and i'm pleased to say i think they're out doing that work now. >> reporter: senator, the president has said repeatedly any talk of collusion is a hoax. and you have gone through all these documents, interviewed all these people. at this point, is the president right? is this a hoax? >> i'm going to let you guys quote the president and ask him questions about what he says. it's not going to be the committees. >> do you have any evidence to rule out that the president knew anything about any of these cacs that occurred between any of his associates and the russians? >> let me go back and say because i thought i was pretty

clear that the issue of collusioning is still open. that we continue to investigate both intelligence and witnesses and that we're not in a position where we will come to any type of temporary finding on that until we've completed the process. >> reporter: you say that the issue of collusion is still open. are you pursuing the question of whether whether there's a link between the ads that appeared on social media sites and the trump campaign? >> we, let me just say that, i'll let mark address it if he would like to. if there was any connection that would be pertinent to our investigation of russia's influence in the elections. we have had incredible access and cooperation by those social media companies that have been in. some of them have been interviewed twice.

at the end of the day, we'll be prepared to ask the right questions that may answer some of your questions at that open hearing. > we also have to get -- we have to get the universe first. i was concerned on the front end that the first pass was not a thorough enough pass. for example, i cited the path that went into the only ads that were produced were those that were paid for in rubles. obviously, there are various forms of payment. so i think the companies are increasingly understanding that their actions need to match their public statements that they realize how important it is to maintain the integrity of our democratic process. >> reporter: release those ads? >> i think at the end of the day, it's important that the public sees these ads. >> reporter: two questions. you talked about the level of cooperation you've gotten from obama administration officials.

can you characterize the level of cooperation and candor you've seen from trump campaign officials and those in the trump orbit in. >> trump campaign official that we have asked 0 cop in that has not -- that has not come in. is that pretty accurate? there's some individuals that may have been involved in the trump campaign that to this point we might have limited the scope of our questions. but with the full intent of them coming back when we were a little bit more and pulled a few more intelligence threads. >> when you compare what they said to you to the documents that you reviewed, do you find that they've been truthful? >> i don't think that -- i think our interviews to this point outside of the five specific areas of buckets that we knew exactly what the universe of people we wanted to talk to and knew what we were trying to find

out, that we're very much in an exploratory mode trying to piece together what people did, where they were, who they talked to, in most cases we have accessed e-mail records, text messages, phone records voluntarily. usually when you get something like that voluntarily, somebody's probably going to tell you the truth when they answer the questions, but the reason that we can't definitively answer some of your questions today is, we will take everything that our staff has put into transcripts and we will test that against every piece of intelligence and other interviews that we've done to suggest that we've done that to everybody thoroughly would be misleading you. so let us go through that process. i will assure you if somebody has come in and not been truthful with us, we will catch them on that and they will come back and that will be the subject of great intensity on our part. >> questions for both of you. based on the work done so far,

what's your assessment of what the russians did do in 2016, what they're doing now and what the potential is for the future. >> i would just say i think there is large consensus that they hacked into political files, released those files, in an effort to influence the election. we think they actively tried to at least test the vulnerabilities of 21 state's electoral systems and we feel that they used the social media firms both in terms of paid advertising and what i believe is more problematic but created false accounts and others that

would drive interest toward stories or groups and generally those stories or groups were to sow chaos and drive division in our country. and i think that the pattern that they used in america they have used in other nations around the world. and i fear sometimes if you add up all they've spent that was a decent rate of return for them. >> let me add to it, if i can. we can certifiably say that no vote totals were affected. that the tallies are accurate. the outcome of the election based upon the count of votes, they did not in any way shape or for that we've been able to find ator that. i want to reiterate something that mark said. you can't walk away from this and believe that russia is not currently active in trying to create chaos in our election

process. i assume that the same tactics that we saw in montenegro in fans, in belgium and in the united states will continue to be tested within our structure of the election process here at home. >> reporter: thank you, senator. you just noted that facebook, they say 10 million people saw their ads. there was an information campaign waged against one candidate by the russians. and, of course, they probed 21 more states perhaps than we didn't catch. can you definitively look at the american public and say that the election was not influenced in any way by this massive russian operation? >> well, let me take issue with your prep miss of your question. neither mark or i said that there was a campaign targeted against one. we're looking at both campaigns. >> that's what the ica --

>> the ica did not look at collusion confident campaigns. the ica looked at russian -- let me finish. russian involvement in the election process. we're in agreement with that. we have not come to any determination on collusion or russia's preferences. if we used solely the social media advertising that we have seen, there's no way hawk look at ha and say that that was to help the right side of the ideological chart and not the left. or vice versa. they were indiscriminate. one of the things that's most challenging to this investigation is with the exception of certain pieces that have already been discussed, it seems that the overall theme of the russian involvement in the u.s. elections was to create chaos at every level.

and i would tell you the fact that we're sitting here nine months later investigating it, they have been pretty darn successful. >> how would you rate the administration and the country's responses in terms of preventing something like this from happening in the future at -- how ready are we for virginia's election and 2018? what more needs to be done. >> i'll let mark address virginia but let me just say this. our role is not to necessarily suggest here the things we need to do. our investigation should create a road map for committees of the proper jurisdiction to follow for states to follow. mark and i made a decision to make the initiative in our authorization bill that we require in our authorization bill that there be a designated person in every state who has a security clearance to be briefed on election issues. we couldn't say secretary of state because that's not the case in every state but we felt compelled with what we had learned to make sure that just

the fact that somebody wasn't cleared at a high enough level would put a state out there not being notified. so we've made some steps in the right direction as we ethos things that we think it's appropriate for us to do, we do them. if weigh see that it's not appropriate for us to do, we will hopefully convey that in a way that presents a road map for somebody. >> are you satisfied that the administration has paid a close enough laevl of attention to this. >> and i appreciate what richard just said. i think putting this impetus in our ip tell bill, i mean, it seemed very strange to me that have somehow there was an excuse being given. we capital tell the top election official because he or she may not have a high enough clearance. i'm glad to see as of last friday dhs has changed that position but i do believe we need more and i would say that whether it's this administration or any administration, a whole

of government approach about protecting our electoral system but we need a whole of government approach for that matter, maybe a whole society approach in terms of our cyber vu vulnerabilities across the board. i came from a hearing this morning where this was consensus that the he can i fax breach where most of our personal financial information may be in the hands of rogue leapts that there wasn't appropriate cyber protections there. this is why i characterized some of this as wild wide west. this whole realm in cyber, we all need to step up our game. >> reporter: has the russian lawyer who met with donald trump, is she coming before you. >> do you think your conclusion needs to happen before the 2018 election in order to warn people or where do you think the most work needs to be done. >> i think mark and i would

agree, we've got to make our facts as it relates to russia's involvement in our election public prior to the primaries getting started in 201, which means sometime the first of the year. it's still my aspirational goal to finish the entire investigation this calendar year. don't think i've changed. but when we starred nine months ago, i saw three buckets and today, i talked about five or six. so i didn't dream them what would expand to. i can't predict what witnesses will share with us that might lead us in a different direction. >> one of the things that again i think the committee's been very good at is we're going to follow the facts. and we want to do it as quickly as possible and do it right. >> reporter: met with donald trump jr., she's offered to come in open committee.

have you reached out to her? is she one of the 25 on your list? >> how do you know we didn't already interview her. this is a question for both of you. is there any progress forward on creating legislation that would create new ruse for regulating how political -- platforms that republicans have discussed with democrats? you and senator klobuchar. >> we're working on something and that would i believe be the lightest touch possible and that light touch would focus on making sure that foreign paid for advertising doesn't penetrate our political system. and that there was an ability to at least look at the content that appears in political campaigns. the same way that similar to the rules hat rest of media already have. i want to make sure we get and we're hoping to finish that

draft in the coming days. and i can assure that one of the first people i want to share that with is my chairman because this ought to be an area where i think there would be broad bipartisan consensus. my hope from some of the comments of some of the companies i've heard at least comments that they are open to this type of disclosure. >> let me just state fact today. it is illegal today for foreign money to find its way into u.s. elections. so it's not leak we've got to rewrite some laws. yeah. >> i just want to get clarification on this. so, so far, have you not been able to verify the intelligence community's assessment that russia was weighing in on the side of donald trump? >> we peel very confident that the ica's accuracy is going to be suppo