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tv   Anderson Cooper 360  CNN  October 24, 2017 5:00pm-6:00pm PDT

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they call it make trump tweets aid again while seth meyer imagined him tweeting on a typewriter. jeanie moss. cnn, new york. >> thanks for joining us. you can watch out front any time anywhere just watch cnn go. anderson's next. we begin tonight with an extraordinary day in politics, unlike any eve seen in decades. two republican senator sounded the alarm the president's behavior's abasing the country. the day begans as it often does with a tweet storm. corker targeted the president did several interviews this morning and said the president should leave the details to tax plans to congress. the president lashed out to corker on twitter. the senator countered with
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quote, same untruth with an untruthful president #alert the daycare staff. >> nothing in he said in his tweets today were truthful. he knows that, people around him know it. i'd hope the staff over there would figure out why he's so controlling and know that everything he said today was absolutely untrue. >> is the president of the united states a liar? >> the president has great difficulty with the truth on many issues. >> let's take two of those issues from the president's tweets today. the first he wrote, quote bob corker who helped president o get a bad iran deal. keep in mind we're not privy to senator's dogcatcher prowler or lack thereof but the allegation of helping president obama with the iran deal is not true. congress should reject this deal
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and send it back to the president. when it came up for a vote senator corker voted against it. next the president tweeted, cork corker dropped out of the campaign in tennessee when i refused to endorse him. unfortunately i think world leaders are very affair much -- aware of much of what he said is untrue. people hear -- because these thing are provably untrue, factually incorrect and people know the difference. i don't know why he lowers himself to such a low low standard and debase this country in a way that he does, but he does. >> the white house would now have you believe the president's tweets are a great way to communicate with the people.
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here's what paul ryan said today. >> all this stuff you see on a daily basis on twitter this and that, forget about it. let's focus on helping people and improving people's lives. this is what we're focused on. >> let's be honest though what's happening with the president of the united states when senator corker warn about him. this is not some twitter this and that. this is the president of the united states saying untrue things continually, daily untruths, false statements, misstatements of fact, lies, call them whatever you want. it happens with regularity that they start to seem normal, it's anything but. the president's words and behavior have consequences. the leaders of other countries are well aware president says things that aren't true. is it the back and forth between the president and senator corker today. just a few hours ago senator jeff flag announced he would not
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be seeking election. he gave a review from the senate floor saying he can no longer say silent or complicit. >> we must never adjust to the president's coursens of our dialogue with the tone set at the top. we must never accept the daily sundering of our country. the attacks, threats against principles, freedoms and constitutions, the flagrant disregard for truth and decency. reckless outrageous and undignified behavior has become accused and countenance of telling it like it is, when it's reckless, outrageous and undignified. and when such behavior imnats from the top of our government it is something else, it is dangerous to a flocksy. -- democracy. i'm aware that a segment of my
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party believers anything short, complete or questioning loyalty to a president belongs to my party is suspected. if i had been critical it is not because i relish criticizing the behavior of the president of the united states. if i have been critical it is because i believe it's my obligation to do so. and as a matter and duty of conscience, the notion of one should stay silent as the norms and value that keep america strong are undermines, and as the reliance and stability of entire world are routinely threatened by a letter of thought that goes into 140 characters. a notion we should say and do nothing in the face of such behavior is a-historic and i believe profoundly misguided. >> as for white house reactions, sarah sanders were asked if history will remember this
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president for primary debasing this country. >> i think this history is going to look at this president as someone who helped defeat isis. who brought unemployment to a 16 year low. whose created over 1.7 million jobs since being elected. i think those are things people care about not some petty comments from senator corker and senator flake. >> petty comments is something this warehouse is familiar with. jeffcelely joins us now. jeff, the white house wants to play down what happened between the senator and the president. >> anderson, they do. it is a gathering storm. it is so important to take note of the full stock of this day as you were just saying. this was kprard pharr watching a narrorator from a sitting party denounce his own president. we are not talking about fights between democrats and republicans that've become
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routine, this is a fight inside a republican party. i talked with one senator today with the heart and soul of the republican party. the warehouse wants to show this is simply a one off here. they do realize the reality here there is such a narrow room forrer report. if the -- error here. if the president's agenda wants to get through they feed all the votes. senator corker is presiding over the senate/form relation committee for another 15 months or so. we sat in the room and sarah said again and again the american people voted for this president because they liked his strength. no one expected the senator to do this here. but the question is, who will repace him? will it be someone who lost the vote for the president agenda or
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someone far to the right? that is what worries the republicans in this town. >> what does the white house say about the visit to the white house? >> largely overshadowed. the timing of this was by design. the president was up on capitol hill for about an hour, 20 minutes or so talking to senate republicans. he did not mention at all this food fight going back and forth between him and senator corker. they did talk about tax renorm. this is -- reform. this is still a tough lift and harder today. whatever comment from jeff flake going out on the senate floor, will it be other republicans who find it within them to speak out against this administration. of course not many, loyalty is reviewed as an important character risk at the warehouse. the votes are so important. tax reform are the one thing
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republicans are clinging on to. there's not a exact path. joining us is maggy, jeff rogers. >> maggy have you seen a day like this? >> no. one of the take away for a lot of people today, you have two senators, bob corker and jeff flake who are saying, i'm not taking any more of this and i'm not running for re-election. two people who are freed to buck the president as hard as polk and as withdraw terms at possible because they are not at personal risk anymore. are there be a ground swell of other senators following him, including john mccain. there was been no evidence of that so far. corker has been a much slower and zlibt tifr burn. he was close with trump for a
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while and worked with the white house. their language today was very very different. corker certainly called the president unfit for office. flake clearly did. whether that leads to new criticism or rising criticism remains to be seen. >> david ks people may say this on capitol hill privately but to maggy's point, unless they plan to leave office, doesn't seem like you're going to hear a lot of people standing up and saying this. >> i think we probably will not hear from a lot of other republicans, anderson. but a some day like no other, does have significance. we now have two additional republican senators whose broken sharply with the president, cries from the heart, just a moral indignation with what they've been living with and kept silent about. the president has three people who have broken with him, corker, flake and mccain.
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he can't lose more than two on any big vote that's coming up. he also has susan collins sitting out there. his coalition to get things passed is now in some jeopardy. after giving these tough speeches it may be very very hard for senator mcconnell and others to revisit them. corker is sensitive about the size of the debt and whether tax reform bill is going to add money to the debt. he'll vote against it. he said he won't vote for one more penny than he agreed to vote to. it does give more fuel to conservative columnist who have thinking these thoughts for a long time but haven't expressed them. >> david, you said it was a day like no other. can you explain why you say that. >> well, i can't remember a time
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in american history when -- when the loyalty to the president is such a premium, senators enter broken away from a party of -- you know a president of their own party and placed his agenda and n jeopardy shlgs placed his -- placed his presidency in some jepordy. this is extraordinary, we've never had anything like this. we've had drum lks -- grum lks and dropping before at -- griping before at presidents but the language they've used. that goes beyond anything we have seen. >> chairman progressors do agree with david this isn't we haven't seen? >> i think this is very indicative of what's going on in
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politics. remember, both of these really started with personal jabs from the president to these members and then this gunfight back and forth. for both members it became personal. if you look at politicings across the country, it's mean, small, petty and personal. i worry about the health in politics in both parties by the way. if you look at what happened in democratic in las vegas they were fighting amongst themselves, just didn't get any media attention. yes, trump brings a lot of this on himself. yes, i think he weakens his position for changing big things in washington when he starts singling out his own party and going after them personally. if you look at politics in every level in this country, the social media boom has been good for communication for everybody, and it's also been really really bad and gives people permission to be this mean.
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that's why i think people are saying, this is a hard enough job as it is. it's tough, almost a way of life, you have to be in two places, away from your family a lot. can i have a bigger influence somewhere else, looking at how mean politics were getting and little focus starts to go on the things that matters in people's lives. politics in this town have gotten away from things that matter in people's life. i hope this ends soon. >> maggy, it also raises a question about where does the republican party go. what does it look like two, four, six years from now? >> what we've seen over the years now the parties in its primaries, there have been a significant am of people that have run. the president has not been committed to that agenda, and that's a problem for him, he's concerned about his base levering him. he ran a hard hard line in his
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campaign. i think the fear that you have among republican leaders, is as the president is personally pleased at today's efforts. he's pleased flake is not running. >> victory? >> he sees this as a victory. that's how he sees it in his mind. if you are a republican leader you are concerned you're going to get a lot of candidates who either can't win the states in arizona where there's been a trend and democrats have had their eye on trying to turn it into a purple state rkt they think maybe it'll be able to accelerate that, depending on who they get if kelly ward becomes the nominee. the concern is that if someone like kelly ward is the nominee they you end up with a lot of people who basically can't capture their states that could
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impact the senate majority. it's good for republicans next year. >> david, there's also a message that senator flake is sending, saying history's going to judge people harshly. and wen he looks back -- he asked the question, what did i do. a lot of critics say you're stepping aside and not remaining in the fight. >> sure, senator flake is obviously angry about the politics in his home state, his popularity's down 15%. he was the other republican likely to lose re-election. he's caught up on the political side of this. anderson, in the three cases we have here on mccain, corker and flake, what we have are three sflaerts who go beyond politics. they're worried about what's going to happen to the country. they're worried we're going to get led into war by
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miscalculation of the president. they're worried about what it's going to do to our norms and ideals here at home. that's what senator flake spent a lot of time on today. it was about the legacy that's going to come, they want to get out and away from and not support what they see are really dangerous trend for the country. >> chairman rogers, do you see any other republicans who plan to run again speaking up if they feel this same feeling? >> listen, i think republicans have been open talking about that pettiness, and sometimes those personal attacks that i think are nonsense and not fitting for the office of the presidency. but i think what i see republicans doing, remember standing up and walking away for the whole entire -- is not going to happen, nor will members walk away from the thing they tried
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to accomplish. the administration is bigger than a president. they're going to work in the national security circle. john mccain is doing a lot of that work to try to make sure the administration of this government is well-positioned in ways there is something big happens in asia. or that we have to continue this fight against isis. we need people of those stature of that interest of that knowledge base continuing to work through that. what you hope happens is the republicans in both the house and the senate start to lead up. they stay out of pettiness and start to lead up to the white house about the kind of things we can accomplish, the republicans and congress to get done. i think you saw, i know everybody was giving ryan the hard time for it. what we're trying to say is we
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are rolling up our sleeves in the tax bill and not focus on all the other things going on because we think it's important for the prosperity of america. that's what i think you're going to see republicans do in the days and week ahead. >> the problem to that though, is everything get reduced to, as ryan described it petty bickering. what we saw today was unusual. you saw bob corker -- the sequence of efforts was he went on television and criticized the president, the president was watching television and took to twitter. he has basically been making cheer he considers the president to be beyond the bounds of normalcy. that is not a petty dispute. when ryan or sarah sanders describes it that way it presence that the two side are fighting. that's not what this is. >> thank you guys very much.
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coming up how senators are playing on the hill. later corker says he's aware that much of what the president is says is untrue. i'll speak to james clapper about that ahead. knowing where you stand. it's never been easier. except when it comes to your retirement plan. but at fidelity, we're making retirement planning clearer. and it all starts with getting your fidelity retirement score. in 60 seconds, you'll know where you stand. and together, we'll help you make decisions for your plan... to keep you on track. ♪ time to think of your future it's your retirement. know where you stand. ♪ time to think of your future if you can train oxford to sit... sit you can train yourself to cook with less oil. introducing new pam spray pump
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senator bob corker says the president is debasing the president. i want to get some reaction from capitol hill. senator how are you hearing about how this came about? >> there was no question there were -- pulling down in arizona for months now. they recognize his path way, not just against the well funded and well liked democratic challenge but also in his primary it was going to be different. they weren't sure it was a path for it but there was also the personal. anderson, i think anybody that have been paying attention the last couple of months have seen the seeds of this sewn from the senator week after week. he wrote a book about this. he declined to endorse president trump, spoke about this repeatedly on air and the senator floor. there were significant problems he had with the republican problem.
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problems he laid out clearly on the senate floor. take a listen. >> it's time for our complicity and accommodation of the unacceptable to end. in this century a new phrase has entered the language to describe the accommodation of a new and un-desire bl order, that phrase about new normal. we must never adjust to the present courseness of our dialogue with a tone set at the top. >> he's made this point a lot but it's best known the senate republican senator would sit on the senate floor and make a speech like he did regarding a sitting president is unprecedented. a number of people i spoke with after the speech called it historic, there was also a somber mood as to how this came about and they were losing a colleague they liked.
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>> both senator flake and corker highly respected on the hill, what are the senators you've been talking to saying about all this? >> it's an interesting thing, you talk to republicans. there were many who gave a standing ovation on the floor not a lot. it was democrats i felt that were the most jarred but what they'd seen. take a listen, i caught up with senator corey booker, not just about the individual or the man but about the institution on the whole. >> i think this is a sign, a terrible sign. unfortunately these signs are glowing, flashing neon signs that the institution is breaking down. and a guy like that whoeds such an horrible man, a truth teller as he sees it is leaving the senate. it is a bad sign. >> he is leaving affirms that working together is not a value.
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>> anderson, somber again is probably the best way to put it. not just for senator flake but corker as well. these are reliable republican votes, but members of the u.s. senate, many of both parties felt they can work with and get things done. we've seen in such short supply in the u.s. senate, anderson. >> thank you very much. after the senator spoke on the floor he talked with tapper. james clapper joins me with more from his interview. >> you know senator corker and senator flake, have you ever seen a day like this? >> no. >> two sitting senators going after the president? >> no. >> i think you have to go back to the impeachment of nixon, not even clinton. there were democrats criticizing
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clinton's behavior but they were not going at his character the way corker and flake do. it's really dramatic, its historic. the problem is is this number going to stay small. >> i want to play something the senator said to you, because he -- the deal basement of our nation, this is what he said. >> i can only speak for myself and i don't think that we ought to normalize this kind of behavior. the president tweeting at people, even foreign leaders, opposition figures calling our democrats colleagues losers are clowns. these kind of things are things we shouldn't be okay with. it happened during campaign, some of us spoke out during the campaign. the problem is we keep waiting for a pivot that simply isn't
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happening. >> are there actually members of congress who are believing there's going to be some sort of a pivot? >> no, i don't think so. maybe hope springs eternal. i think the fact are what they are. i think people are hoping they can muster through with this type of situation. look, a lot of republicans like the energy, like the fact that president agree with them on these issues. there's not a lot of republicans worthying we're making a big deal of this, we're liberal media -- i think when it comes to the republican establishment, and republican leaders throughout the country, there's a recognition that this behavior is not normal and it would be better if he changed it but they don't expect it ever will. >> there have been conversations
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from flake today, people say look, if you really believe what he's saying, is the conclusion well, i'm going to step aside and give up or should the conclusion be i'm going to fight and run and if i go down swinging i'm going to go down swinging. >> i asked him that question, why not fight for it. he's facing a very conservative trump-like character name dr. ward who has said a lot of trump-like kind of things. he called for the senator to retire once he announced his brain diagnosis. he's held speeches on chemtrails. the republican voters of arizona won't judge too well and he said basically yes. >> let's play that. >> i think the fever will break,
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i don't know that it will break by next year. right now the vast majority of those who voted republican primaries seem to be okay with the president's policies and behavior. >> because it seems like message from him stepping down is, you know, good people who do not believe in this president should just give up. >> well, if they are in states that make it difficult i'm not going to justify his decision one way or the other. the fact is that re-election was going to be very very difficult for him. the -- the heart of the republican party in places like arizona where flake's from, or tennessee where corker's from are with trump than they are with flake or corker. sarah says the voters are with the president and not with flake or corker. the republican voters in those states are, but that's not the
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population of the nation. you see this in the polls. president trump is focused on the base and that seems to really be his only focus. that's going to mean that republicans like bob corker and jeff flake who are conservative republicans, but willing to do deals with democrats and establishment types. they're not going to farewell on this. but president trump is not winning the most minds of most americans. >> they're going to continue to be the voices out there and to the point earlier, are other people going to be joining them, that's one of things to watch. >> right. i doubt it, we'll see how many join. but here's the other thing, president trump has a allege laif agenda. and where are the senators going to be if their not with the
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president? where are they going to be if something happens with the mueller investigation or the senate house intelligent committees that require some action on their part. the president is alienating these people that are there to help him and it's zefl destructing for him. is there a worry about gop fighting. ahead. you know who likes to be in control? this guy. check it out! self-appendectomy! oh, that's really attached. that's why i rent from national. where i get the control to choose any car in the aisle i want, not some car they choose for me.
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two retired republican senators going after the president attacking his moral character. jeff flake says he won't be complacent in the trump white house, he now won't seek re-election. also had this warning for the gop. >> there's an un-dee nighing potency to a capital appeal but misunderstanding our problems and giving in to the impulse scapegoat and belittle. the impulse and scapegoat and belittle threatens turns us into
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a fearful back ward looking people. those thing also threaten to turn us into a fearful back ward looking minority party. >> joining me now two republicans, jason miller, former senior adviser to the trump campaign, and amanda. >> amanda what does this mean for the republican party? >> well, i think the president is making the department in his own image. if you look at the people who really support trump, the steve bannon's of the world, they're happy with what's going on. if you think about it, they have a reason to be. they're going to repeal jeff flake and bob corker and replace them with very arden trump supporting republicans in the form of marsha blackburn and kelly ward. these are republicans that should be able to win their states in tennessee and arizona.
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will they have difficulties, probably, especially kelly ward. but trump is getting republicans who will support him to the edge of reason rather than jeff flake and bop corker, which is worrisome but he is driving people who won't go to the limit for him and replacing them -- driving those people out of the party and getting people who will. so, trump's happy. >> jason, the president has reason to be happy, no? >> i think amanda make good points, but to i guess put my take on it. what's really important to point out here is senator flake is down by more than 20 points in a republican primary in arizona and down by 20 plus points in the democratic component for the general next year. so all the rhetoric and attacking president trump, senator flake was going to lose his own primary, and le made comments today aside from the attacks on the president where
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he admitted his positions on immigration and trade issues were out of step with the republican base. i think we need to take a step back and look at the full picture here. with regard to senator corker i think it's important we point out really who he let down today. he let down his constituents in tennessee who elected him to fight for tack cuts, but i think he also let down his fellow colleagues in the u.s. senate. this was a launch today where the president was coming in to try to work with the republican skefrlts to move with this agenda and senator corker woke up, booked himself on t.v. and wen around doing the dirty work on the dmc. many politicians turn the page at this point and forget who flake and corker are. that's what most renpublicans will be talking about. all there talk about a civil war
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is out the window. we want are republicans who are going to support trump's agenda. >> amanda, is that what you see senator corker doing? >> i think he's trying to raise all the alarm bells he can on why he thinks trump is dangerous. that doesn't make him a democrat or the member of a dmc. i hear people talk about why this is terrible for corker or flake, i do they we should pay attention to why voters are receptive to these messages trump is pushing. in many ways the republican party is dealing with the overhang of the bush administration. i know that's going way back, but if you look at three big issues. you look at am necessary city reform without border control, you look at the bail out and the war on terror that goes on endlessly. you look at terror and the war on trouble they have some hang up with these issues. that's why a steve bannon and a trump can go in and pummel these
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guys again and again because we haven't resolved these problems. while we thought there was going to be a new republican revolution after president obama's presidency ended repeating a republican party dissolution and donald trump is tearing it apart in making it in his own image where he demand parties from canada, sitting members of house. and i worry when people decide they can't get on that train and leave with and all you have is people who are willing to take trump's -- >> i have to go. we'll talk next with the former intelligence general james clapper. to another dimension! ok, guys, hear me out. switching to geico
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in sounding the alarm bells against the president, senators corker and flake are concerned about the world stage. corker warned that the president quote, purposely having breaking down relationships around the world. here more with corker with cnn's manu raju.
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>> do you trust him with access to nuclear codes? >> i -- [inaudible]. his leadership and just his stability and lack of desire to confident, misuse and understand, you know -- >> senator flake took it a step further saying on the floor of the senate says president trump's tweet threatens quote, alliances and stability of the entire world. james clapper joins me to weigh in. senator corker today saying president trump could be setting the u.s. on a path to war. do you believe that's true? >> well, certainly a possibility, and that's what concerns me about some of the president president's intempered at the same times with north korea.
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know what knows what the initial statements were for kim jong-un. kim jong-un is not surrounded by capable advisers like president trump is, he's it. what you see surrounding kim jong-un is a bunch of psycho fants, generals who follow kim around with their notebooks open taking notes about his utterances. >> who probably fear for their lives. >> well, certainly. he gets very little push back. i do worry about what his boiling point will be in the face of some of these inflammatory tweets and statements the president makes. >> and that's an john known? >> it is an unknown. it's worth remembering there's a religion of north korea, the deity is kim jong-un and his
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predecessors, his father. and of course the regime plays that to the hill with their flesk audience. >> the other thing that senator flake argued, he says our allies are looking elsewhere temporary leadership. what does the lack of u.s. leadership in the world look like to you? >> well, what it looks like to me is i think very small groups of coalition of the willing. i spent a month in australia in june and got asked a lot of questions about what are we going to do to fill this leadership void that has traditionally been filled by the united states since the end of world war ii. and as we vacate the position of leadership that causes great fear among our friends and allies. particularly such a close ally as australia.
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that's one example. >> one of the few countries that have fought with us in the vietnam war. >> actually. >> in "the washington post" recusing to go to war with north korea. he went on to say i'm starting to wonder if the country is losing its minorings. are the checks and balances we have relied on are they strong enough for the country to lose its minoring? >> for me the issue is is the country resilient to withstand on our institutions. both from external source meaning russia and internally from the president. and a lot of other part-time outside the united states have that same concern. they're concerned watching what's going on here. >> and, i mean, do you believe
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the institutions are strong enough? >> well, i'd like to think so. i -- i -- they've withstood a lot in our history. we've withstood civil war -- >> they've never been eroded is eroding trust in a number of institutions and that message is coming from the top. >> it would seem so. i will tell you, this is very hard for me as somebody who's spent 50 plus years in the intelligence community serving the commander in chief, 34 or so of that was in the military. so i always looked at the office of president in his capacity at kmachs with great reverence and respect. it's disturbing for me to be in a position of worrying about the very pillars of this country.
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>> appreciate talk to you. thank you very much. more breaking news. the clinton campaign and the democratic national committee help fund research that led to the dossier that spelled out allegations president trump had connections to russia of the that's according to a source close to the martha. we'll speak to the "washington post" reporter who broke that story today next. it's a match made in tech heaven. it's like verizon is the oil and google is the balsamic. no, actually they separate into a suspension. it's more like the google pixel 2 is the unlimited storage. and verizon is the best unlimited plan. what if it's like h2 and o? yeah. that's right. i had a feeling that would score with you guys. good meeting. (avo) when you really, really want the best get the pixel 2 for up to $300 off on google's exclusive wireless partner, verizon. what's critical thinking like? a basketball costs $14. what's team spirit worth? (cheers)
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. breaking news tonight a. source confirms to cnn the hillary clinton campaign and the democratic national committee helped fund research on that now infamous dossier that revealed trump's connections to russia. "the washington post" broke this story. we've known for some time the firm behind the dossier, fussing gps was first funded by anti-trump republicans and then democrats. now for the first time we have an idea who those democrats were and how far up this reached. white house press secretary sarah sanders responded to the story tweeting the real russia
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scandal, clinton campaign paid for the fake russia dossier then lied about it and covered it up. today in the press briefing room, sanders berated our jeff zeleny. adam, the clinton campaign and the dow dnc helped nufund this dossier? >> they were hiring research firms. as all these campaigns are doing, they need research firms. they hire at home dig into the opponents and find out what is available about their own candidate. this is a very common practice for them to engage with lawyers to act as middle men who then go out and hire research firms. that's what happened in this case. in march, the discussions begin between this lawyer representing the clinton campaign and the dnc
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and fusion gps. in april 2016 they reach an agreement and the funding starts. fusion gps hires christopher steel, the british intelligence officer, former, who is an expert on russia. and he begins to do these intel reports or these reports which he sends to his boss, the people who are paying the bills. fussing gps gives it to the lawyer who's representing the clinton campaign. that's basically what happened here. later come january, buzzfeed accomplishes the dossier. >> you report that the lawyer representing the clinton campaign and the dnc, he was the one to receive the documents. do we know how much he shared with the campaign and when? >> just based on my own contacts at the time with members of the clinton campaign, they clearly were aware that there was -- that there was this issue about these contacts between trump and
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some russians. but the details of how that information was shared is something we don't have enough information on at this point. we don't really know obviously -- based on the conversations we had today, it sounds like there was not the sharing of the actual reports that steel had written. those themselves were given to the lawyer. it doesn't pear they were given to the campaign railroad the dnc. that's the way these arrangements are structured in order to protect the campaign, to protect the candidate in case something like this in the future comes out so they're not directly involved in the research firm that's doing some of this work. >> jim, why is this information just coming to light now? the dossier came to the attention last winter and has been part of the investigation for months. >> to be clear it's been known for some time democrats funded this and republicans prior to that. but the specific information, it's possible there's a court case in the u.s. district court
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were fusion gps asked a federal judge to block efforts by devin nunes to subpoena a bank for bank records that were presumably establish payments and where the payments came from. that court case is under way right now. in fact, is judge is giving them a deadline of thursday, 3:00 p.m. to come to a settlement in that case. it's possible it's connected to that but with it's not clear why this information is out right now. >> does the intelligence community think the dossier is fake? >> no. the intelligence community has corroborated parts of the dossier, specifically meetings between trump associates and russian officials known to u.s. intelligence, some of them connected it's believed to the russian government. two, you'll remember cnn was first to report that the intelligence community considered the dossier material enough to at least make both
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then-president obama and president-elect trump aware of the existence of the dossier and furnish president-elect trump with a summary of the dossier in a briefing in january of this year before the inauguration. and three, in addition to the fact that he briefed him on that since then we know robert mueller, the special counsel turnover summer, interviewed christopher steel, the former mi6 officer of the dossier. cnn's reporting earlier this month that, in fact, the intelligence community took the dossier seriously enough to not include it in a public summary a public assessment of russian interference of the election in january, and they did not include the dossier in that because they did not want to make public information in there that had corroborated that informs. the intelligence community from a very early date took it seriously. again, to be clear, it's often