>> we will pick it up, fox news alert, big showdown on capitol hill we have been watching play out today, pair of critical hearings underway that could have a huge impact on the trump presidency. let's take a look at screen lab, fbi director james comey and nsa director mike rogers testifying for the first time about russian interference in the u.s. presidential election, was there any? screen write, hearing sticking up for neil gorsuch, president trump's nominee for the supreme court. this is tillerson, i am harris faulkner. today, meghan mccain, host of "kennedy," kennedy herself and also from fox business network, melissa francis and today's one lucky guy, sitting member of congress from the great state of wisconsin, republican, rissman sean duffy. he is outnumbered. i like it comedy like it? >> what an exciting day. >> we have spent some quality hours together already. >> more exciting than the

villanova game. >> wisconsin, great game. >> on the edge of our seats for that one peered my bracket bro, let's move on. >> hopefully you did not pick villanova. >> are not alone and that, am i? let's go with fbi director james comey peered under oath for the first time on his agency's investigation into russia's involvement potentially in the presidential election. right from the get-go, the fbi chief confirmed for the record just for his agency is investigating as the rigging democrat on intelligence adam schiff pressing the fbi chief on president trump's claim that his predecessor wiretapped trump tower, watch. >> i've been authorized by the department of justice to confirm that the fbi as part of our counterintelligence mission is investigating the russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. that includes investigating the

nature of any links between individuals associated with the trump campaign and the russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and russia's efforts. >> director comey at the present statement that obama had the wiretapped trump tower a true statement? >> with respect to the president's tweets about direct wiretapping directed at him by the prior administration, i have no information that supports these tweets and we have looked carefully inside the fbi. the department of justice has asked me to share with you that the answer is the same for the department of justice and all its components, the department has no information that supports those tweets. >> chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge. >> thank you. the fbi director took the unusual step of confirming it counterintelligence investigation and for some context, these are among the most highly sensitive and classified of investigations done by the fbi. they even have their own case

file code which is a 200 series, and they are done to blunt the spying and espionage activities of a foreign government speed also this morning the senior democrat adam schiff was connecting the dots for people at the hearing, drawing these connections, although circumstantial, between former trump campaign advisors and managers and the russian contact saying that where there is smoke, he believes there is fire, though this conflict with what we have heard publicly from former intelligence officials. >> it is also possible, maybe more than possible that they are not coincidental, not disconnected, not unrelated. >> what we also learned through the hearing today is that when we look back now to the summer of 2016, we had a situation which is probably unprecedented where we had hillary clinton, the democratic nominee under

criminal investigation by the fbi, and we now know based on this morning's hearing that trump campaign associates were also under investigation, and there's only one kind of investigation the fbi does, and that is criminal investigation. on this issue of the leaks, the nsa director testified that it is a very small inner circle, small pool of people who have the ability to unmask the name of americans who are caught up in the surveillance of foreign targets, what they call incidental collection. admiral mike rogers testified that they are only 20 people at his agency who have that authority, but that and subsequent testimony with the fbi, the leading republican was able to show that actually it is slightly larger and it is extended to former obama administration officials. >> would director brendan have access to an unmask u.s. citizens name? >> in some circumstances, yes.

>> national security advisor susan rice have access to an unmasked u.s. citizen named? >> yes, in general, any other national security advisor would as a matter of their ordinary course of their business. >> would former white house advent to make advisor penrose have access to an unmasked u.s. citizens name? >> i don't know an answer to that. >> 20 people within the nsa who can unmask these individuals then you have a wider pool who can access that information. we had a comment from a senior administration this morning to the fbi director's confirmation of the counterintelligence investigation, and they point to the fact that the senior former intelligence officials under mr. obama have all said publicly and even within the last two weeks that they have never seen any evidence of collusion between members of the trump team and russian intelligence. >> i know that was confirmed to fox news and also said today. my curiosity point now just on that segment because i know we are talking about a whole host

of things with comey in rogers, but just on the idea of their not being any evidence of collusion between the trump campaign and russian officials. where do they go from here? if you have no evidence, how is this moving forward? >> this is what jumps out at me, having followed this for well over a year. it looks like we have some parallel cracks here. we had the intelligence investigation last fall which focused specifically on russian interference, and then we have also had a parallel track which has been confirmed today by the fbi director and that this counterintelligence investigation, and that element is ongoing. so it appears to me, based on my reporting, that it is not one in the same investigation, but that it is an investigation that has multiple tracks, and one of those tracks continues to focus on whether trump associates had inappropriate contact with the

russian government officials or russian intelligence and just a final point here, based on one of the answers from director comey, it doesn't sound like there may be an independent case focused on a former security advisor michael flynn because he was asked specifically about money that he took from russian television which is the propaganda arm of the russian government, and he said i will not comment on that case. that would certainly suggest that he is his own case and there may be others as well. >> real quickly before we let you go, that is my next step in all of this is where flynn fits in the investigation. we saw one of the llama gear saying, and i quote her "there should be a criminal investigation of mike flynn" which leads me to believe that s and he has his own separate category. >> i don't want to speculate too far but based on what we heard today, it sounds like there are at least two tracks here, one with the intelligence

investigation which was publicly released to everyone at the end of last year about russian efforts to disrupt the electoral process in the country and then based on what we heard this morning, there is this counterintelligence probe, doesn't mean it is in conflict with the intelligence investigation, but it is its own entity and continues to look at whether there were inappropriate contacts between members of the trump campaign and the russian government. as i said, just to my ears, when he answered the one question about flynn, he seemed to be making the argument that there was a case about flynn and there may be separate cases about others. that is just my, sort of come experience fear listening to him based on the testimony this morning. >> we love your experienced ear, thank you very much. let's bring it out to the couch. congressman, there is so much to get to hear. let's just start there with where the investigation is and the lack of evidence for one of

those arms that catherine pointed out, they're two different directions of the investigation. >> obviously, we are listening to this live as everyone else. i have a couple things. number one, we know james clapper who worked under the obama administration before he left office said there is no evidence there was any collusion or cooperation between the trump campaign and russia. but i think there was some thing else interesting. he confirmed there was an investigation going back to july so we're multiple months into the investigation. he told us in his opening statement, this is comey, he had briefed the intelligence leadership which would include devin nunes. yesterday on "fox news sunday" devin nunes told us there's no effort it and see has heard of that there is evidence of collusion or cooperation between russia and trump. using devin nunes and that brief he got from comey that there is no evidence thus far. >> quickly, the president is tweeting, of course, and the last 2 minutes, it is on-topic

which is why i want to bring it up, only on my phone otherwise we would put on the screen for you. here it is just in the last couple minutes. "the nsa and fbi tell congress that russia did not influence electoral process" tree that was one of the things they covered very clearly. also he says more "fbi director comey refuses to deny he briefed president obama on cause made by michael flynn to russia." that speaks directly to general flynn that catherine was talking about they are taking a different look at him may be. >> i think you're right and she has a very keen ear, there could be separate investigations of michael flynn and michael flynn activity but that is separate from the fact that our national intelligence organizations were surveilling the russians, picked up michael flynn and somebody unmask his identity and released it to the media which is a felony, trey gowdy made the point very well. that is the only crime thus far

we know of that has been committed. >> that is a really important point because some of these intelligence agencies have pretty broad powers of reaching these foreign sources, grabbing the information from their conversations, text and emails and basically snaring americans in those nets. they could have easily targeted people particularly a russian diplomat who was conversing regularly with michael flynn and gotten a lot of those conversations, that is what we know from "the washington post"" it is allowed under a 2008 fisa law that is expiring this year, but it is untoward because these are warrantless searches and they are not allowed to use this technology and that apparatus to go after americans, so they can easily go after their foreign counterparts. they are not allowed to do those reversed searches, but it is curious because obviously they got that information on flynn, got those conversations then

leaked into "the washington post." >> the importance of that obviously to our national security come you don't want anything leaked but specific to fisa with the foreign information gathering p you're supposed to keep those names amassed of americans pay real learning so much hearing about this, could be corporations, individuals, anybody which is outside the purview's of scope of the fisa look at the foreign person, the dignitary or whoever it might be, why that is important too is it gets thrust into the political sphere. you saw the widening group of people that could see names in those documents. >> interesting, each side so far has the headline coming out, one side saying there is no evidence of collusion, the other side saying there is no evidence of wiretapping. it kind of reminds me when you're listening to the questioning of republicans when they went too far with all of the different hearings come you heard elijah cummings saying that flynn and manafort are both hired for their connections to russia. he goes through laying out

evidence asking questions, but then to say trump specifically, the president specifically hired them on the campaign because he was courting people who already had connections to russia, now you have got a bridge into crazy land where you lose people. i wonder when you get so political in your drug down so deeply on these things as everyone's eyes glaze over. >> that is the most valid point you're making. when i was watching this and came into work this morning, president trump had already tweeted on the hearing that was going to happen, highly political, you can read them for yourself, defending himself and his record against these wiretapping claims paid watching this, james comey, if you're republican or democrat come you have reason to distrust him going into this. watching each person asking questions, going to trey gowdy, i don't know how much this moves the needle to convince the american public one way or another. i don't know what i have gained from this other than yes president trump is under investigation for alleged ties of collusion between russia and his campaign during the election. >> for which there is no

evidence according to the officials. >> he doesn't have a job anymore. >> let's not digress on the fact that michael flynn would still be serving in the white house if there were no problem whatsoever, so we cannot take it to the exact point that nothing nefarious has ever happened whatsoever. i think a lot of us to have questions about what happened in that phone call. >> there is alec legation michael flynn did something wrong, that's not the point, he was dishonest with their president and vice president about contact with russia and because of their dishonesty, not a crime, he was released. i think trey gowdy did a great job making the point that there are political appointees like brennan and rice inside the intelligence community who potentially could have released the information. this information did not go to "the washington post" or "the new york times" to help our intelligence community. the only benefit is political to do harm to flynn and trump. >> that is why he brought up

that list of names from susan rice to director brennan, and even then roads. the point is these people could have had the information and easily compromised by giving it to "the washington post" and other media outlets. that is a crime, that is wrong, not a function of government. >> i have the list in front of me coming out loretta lynch, people who would have served at the pleasure of the former president, also people who are just in the political sphere. >> going back to what she said, if there's another investigation into flynn, that may be something we learn today to go further down the road. >> if you do care what exactly was vladimir putin, his expression globally and everything going on in syria, the tragedy is just saying those words automatically it is politicized, and there are significant global issues we should be focusing on to not go off the wayside because of what's going on. >> i want to press a little bit with you, meghan, because i've heard you say this before and it is a salient point now appeared some of this is a sum of the

good mood i've heard you say about this administration peered right you say that? >> democrats are the ultimate hypocrites when it comes to with russia, lest we forget president obama saying it is a 1980s foreign policy to ever take anything vladimir putin is doing globally seriously. he is as powerful as he is right now because of the lackadaisical attitude towards foreign policy with the democrats who all of a sudden care in 2017 in the last few months about russia and espionage is a joke. the only people who have cared history for a long time are republicans. >> what about hillary clinton's donors to the clinton foundation single-handedly funding the russian silicon valley? not to mention a clinton foundation donor and fund lawyer who was involved in the uranium one deal? >> you brought this up and we have a come of the first tweet on this of the day, it was before the hearing started at 6:35 eastern time. "james clapper and others stated that there is no evidence potus colluded with russia.

this story is fake news and everyone knows it!" so you pointed to how he got the day started, that is in fact what he said. we will of course continue to follow what is happening with the fbi director's testimony, it's been spicy so far today while we watch another big hearing that is unfolding. supreme court nominee neil gorsuch going before the senate judiciary committee today. democrats have said they are skeptical of this judge peered well they tried to block his confirmation? actually, there are quite a few who like impure that will be interesting. nice democrats. and later this week, another big issue, it will take center stage with lawmakers footing on the g.o.p. plan to repeal and replace obamacare. president trump and house speaker paul ryan now signaling they are open to compromise. can they get it to the house floor? stay close. ♪ ♪

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>> it has become appointment viewing anyway, but today especially on the heels of the fbi director saying that the president come his people on the campaign are being looked at by the fbi and that just lead back investigation has been going on since july, and any potential contacts or coordinations they may have had with russian officials. making that confirmation today at that hearing our debt will

make the white house press briefing extra interesting. sean spicer expected to hop up to the lectern at any moment. when that gets going later this afternoon, we will cover it live. as always. meghan? >> another fox news alert on the first day of senate confirmation hearings for president trump's supreme court nominee judge neil gorsuch. it's happening 13 months after antonin scalia's death left a vacancy. senators from both sides of the aisle giving opening statements beginning with the synergy sherry chairman chuck grassley and ranking democratic member dianne feinstein. >> in recent months, i've heard that now more than ever, we need a justice who is independent and who respects the separations of powers. some of my colleagues seem to agree and discover the appreciation for the need of each branch of government to define its constitutional sphere. >> our job is to do determine whether judge gorsuch is a

reasonable, mainstream conservative or is he not. our job is to assess how this nominee's decisions will the american people and whether he will protect the legal and constitutional rights of all americans, not just the wealthy and the powerful. >> to congressional correspondent mike emanuel is live on capitol hill. >> good afternoon, judge neil gorsuch appears to be in great spirits, launching this huge week regarding his future. he was all smiles when he walked by us a little bit earlier and said good morning. he did speak briefly in his confirmation hearing, not about legal stuff but introducing his family, long time assistant, and his law clerks. he knows this is a lot different when he was being considered for the tenth circuit court of appeals more than a decade ago, and earlier, leading republicans praised judge gorsuch for his glorification to sit sit on the supreme court.

>> my democratic colleagues have referred to the american bar association's rating as the gold standard for evaluating judicial nominees. the aba's unanimous well-qualified rating for judge gorsuch confirms that he has the highest level of professional qualifications including integrity, competence, and temperament. >> take you inside the hearing room were opening statements continue with the senators in this gorsuch confirmation hearing. earlier, every democrat has mentioned that judge merrick garland, president obama's last nominee, did not receive consideration last year. leading democrats sounded still festered by the outcome of the 2016 election and tried to tie judge gorsuch to president trum president trump. >> now they are arguing the senate should rubber-stamp a nominee selected by extreme interest groups and nominated by a president who lost the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes.

he has leveled personal attacks against federal judges and career prosecutors who dared to see his promised muslim ban for what it is. >> a short time ago, the south carolina senator lindsey graham noted the overwhelming confirmation for justices scalia and ginsburg years ago, he suggested they return to less partisan times, worrying that it might destroy the judiciary. see if that happens this week. >> certainly looking forward to how it all plays out, thank you. i want to go to you first, congressmen put hilarious to me in 2006 neil gorsuch easily won support for a lifetime appointment to the bench by democrats a mere 11 years ago, overwhelming democratic support. >> i know, now they say he is a big radical. i think what we you will see in the hearing process east he is a mainstream conservative jurist, he does not believe the constitution is a living breathing document so we have

judges legislating from the bench. also you have seen obama's appointees in general saying positive things, clinton appointees of said good things about him. the problem the senate democrats is going to have is the left is so enraged, and there is this movement that they will put pressure on senate democrats to obstruct. i think most americans are going to look at gorsuch and say he's a pretty common sense guy, why are democrats opposed to him? they're going to look like the extremists, gorsuch will not. >> interest income you mentioned the former solicitor general did not just say that this is a good guy. he said that if the senate is taken from anyone, gorsuch who sits on the united states court of appeals for the tenth circuit in denver should be a top on any list you put together. that is some love from a democrat. >> interesting when you heard richard blumenthal earlier today say, if he comes before us and is not part of the mainstream, than i'm really going to stand my ground and object.

what is the mainstream right no now? there is no center. it really seems like all of these hearings, all of these press conferences, everyone's statement, people are seeing them through completely different lenses on either side of the aisle peered you said they're going to realize he's a common sense guy appeared on her know about that. i think people either think he's great or insane. we've gotten to that point. >> conservatives look through the lens of people like patrick leahy, dianne feinstein, a mainstream person to them is as left as you can possibly get, so any conservative is a radical conservative in their eyes, which i'm not looking forward to the confirmation hearing because i think he is a good, decent human being who is sacrificing a lot for the betterment of this country, and what he's going to go through in the next few days we can already write what the democrats are going to say and accused him of. i think it is really disappointed we are at this place in our country. >> sorry, very quickly to your point, i think they're going to be some key issues, but what i hope is that the senators do not

engage in the kind of political grandstanding that we normally see from hearings, certainly the ones we've seen over the last two years. they really have to ask the important questions about the judiciary and judicial philosophy and not traditionally politically conservative or liberal questions because you're not going to get at the heart of what kind of jurist to this person is going to be sitting for decades on the supreme court bench. which is very important because week as we have seen with justices stevens, you could even argue roberts, they get a half of that supreme court ivory and it turns them a little bit to the left. i think you have to be very conscientious is he and originalist, to cc any sort of elasticity in the constitution? i don't think he does based on decisions he has made but one of the key issues for democrats, they're going to make the biggest issue out of his pro-life stance which he has not written any decisions on, but he has been extensively including a book being anti-euthanasia.

with the right to die, does the dovetail with the right to live philosophy? >> people do a good jobs of planting the seeds of radicalism in the left-wing media before it even begins. look at what happened with gorsuch, they have not found a smoking gun to get him, using the life issue, it is 50/50, half of america is pro-life, have is in, spitting the country, that's not a radical position. >> the people going out ski trips, running two or three times a week through the forest with him, for the parks, a lot of them were democrats. we had teresa borden last night, democrat clerk for him, and she said that they learned so much from him that our lifetime lessons, she is a fan in hopes he gets nominated. are democrats going to call each other liars? there's a tremendous amount, maybe not in number by a tremendous amount of things that are being said from some democrats that are very positive about him. yes, he's a conservative, we had a picture of a fishing trip he

had with scalia before he passed, but he has his conservative view but also a way of getting things done that democrats like. >> the fishing picture is like that, but if he has -- >> i did not mean to put that in that category. by the way, i think they took it off the screen, but they were wrapping up one of the hearings that we were watching and so that was neil gorsuch pure just to let you know again today, this was not the questioning part. this is the statements for this is the part kennedy was talking about that she was maybe concerned about. they kind of lay down and grandstand and do all of that. the questions will come tomorrow. >> it takes us away from the important philosophical positions he takes on certain supreme court decisions and even the bodywork he had in the tenth district here what does he really think, feel, and believe, and how does that inform his life as a jurist? >> this is not about the

supreme court comments about leftist grandstanding on the campus to get close on cable news, al franken i can bet would like a crystal ball that he will do something about it because it is not about this gentleman's record comments about them projecting their philosophy onto the american public by using the cameras, not about the supreme court appeared we have to move on paid fbi director james comey saying he has no information to support president trump's claims of wiretapping. as we continue to follow the house intelligence committee hearing underway, we will have the latest. plus president trump and speaker by making their final pages ahead of a crucial vote on the g.o.p. health care bill. they now say they are open to compromise. rather they can get everyone on board. ♪ liberty mutual stood with me when this guy got a flat tire in the middle of the night, so he got home safe. yeah, my dad says our insurance doesn't have that. what?! you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance.

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into play in the next little while. besides all of that, the hearings have an income you've got the news conference coming up, white house press briefing, i should say with sean spicer which is always a tune-endpoint these days but particularly today because we saw the fbi director james comey put on the record confirming that since last july, his agents have been looking at the presidents campaign team and then there by the president then candidate donald trump for any potential ties to russian officials that would not have been appropriate. so with that then coming on the record, you can bet that will be asked about and anything coming out of the gorsuch hearing as well. we will bring it to you live here on the fse, fox news channel for the cool kids. >> too big hearings today, the third big issue on tap this week is the battle over the g.o.p. plan to replace obamacare. the trump initiation and house speaker paul ryan signaling they are open to compromise on the plane ahead of thursday's expected vote in the house.

ryan says the bill is being changed to make it easier for seniors to get covered, watch. >> fine-tuning improvement to the bill to reflect people's concerns, to reflect people's improvement. here's the point. we believe we do need to add some additional assistance to people in the older cohorts. the person of the 50s and 60s as have additional healthcare cost than a person in their 20s or 30s. >> also meeting with senator ted cruz and other conservative lawmakers at the presidents bar lago resort in florida this weekend to try to gain support, and the president will be heading to louisville, kentucky, tonight for a rally to help sell the build. congressman, coming to you first because we were talking about it this morning all the hearings going on related to the russian ties or whatever taking time and focus away from healthcare. where are we on that? >> this is the first big test of the trump administration. if we don't pass drum care or repeal obamacare, tax is in jeopardy, reforming that frank

is in jeopardy but we have to look at two republican conservative groups, republican study committee, i'm a member of that, very conservative. trump met with them last week and most everyone is on board from that committee. another conservative group called the freedom caucus. this is a group who is not to yes yet. today, tomorrow, thursday, were going to have donald trump engaging with this group of people, trying to see if he can negotiate and tweak the bill to get them to yes. frankly, he is pretty good at this. >> that's what paul ryan said it, he is a closer, is that the feeling you're getting? >> and business he has been, we will see if he can do it and politics. he's going to get the group to yes, but if he doesn't, this is an outlying possibility come if he doesn't pass on thursday, come up for a vote, it will fail, but it will come back the next week or week after and that is important because those who vote no to repeal obamacare which is in essence to get obamacare in perpetuity, the pressure is going to bear on them from donald trump and from

the republican constituents and it will be huge. when it comes up the second time, it will pass. but we are going to repeal obamacare and bring in a new era of freedom and choice to the american people. >> what about what happens in the interim? you got john kasich out there, he led the governors and an open letter over the weekend about how not enough voices are at the table, they need to look out for people above the age of 50 and 60 more, doesn't do enough for the poor and so forth. are those voices going to get a chance to come in before thursday? will it be around two, what will it look like? >> all those verses are being heard right now and you heard paul ryan actually say the top end for older people was a refundable tax credit of $4,000. maybe we need to bump it up. >> more tax credit? that is speaker ryan's big solution to this? that is the ultimate issue the freedom caucus has is the tax credits. that is a subsidy pair that is socialized medicine. you can accessorize it with

anything you want, you can put a beautiful chanel earring on it, it still is going to be a hobo. >> poor people who are on medicaid, helping out the people, the working poor folks that cannot afford to buy healthcare by themselves. obamacare did it say we going to have exchanges and have gold played coverage and you were going to be mandated to buy it, so we said let's not do that, let's give refundable tax credit to allow them a little better pricing on their health care to choose what they want. >> what happened to the idea of being able to do markets across state lines? >> if this is politically problematic, states sales will never happen and that is an abomination. >> the problem is if you don't allow the refundable tax credit come you have the working poor who do not have healthcare, they're going to go to the emergency room and you're still paying anyway per let's incentivize them to buy healthcare but let's not mandate it. this is the best solution possible. the freedom caucus, by the way, this was the plane where we were

trying to repeal the bill with barack obama, they all voted for the refundable tax credit for this is the conservative option, get on board, kennedy. >> we have to go to break, we will continue to watch the big hearings on capitol hill today as democrats are facing increased pressure from liberals to make sure neil gorsuch never makes it to the supreme court. whether it could have any impact on his confirmation. ♪ on select 2017 models for these terms. experience amazing at your lexus dealer.

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nitrites or artificial mesquite preservatives.added nitrates, now it's good for us all. like introverts. extroverts. (cheering) and even bert. man you gotta' try this sandwich. who's just overt. oscar mayer deli fresh. so good! >> this is a fox news alert on day one of the confirmation hearings for president trump's supreme court nominee neil gorsuch. we are hearing opening statements from both sides of the debate, some democrats already publicly committing to hold a floor vote on his confirmation. this estimate minority lead or chuck schumer and members of his party are under pressure from progressives to block judge gorsuch. reince priebus explain the "liberal groups have pushed for minority leader chuck schumer's

caucus to take a harder line against gorsuch, publicly airing their discipline with democrats for letting the judge breezed through his hearings home of the matter how he performs, they are boa do not filing the democrats do not oppose the judge facing consequences." pretty tough talk from the left there. what do you think they are prepared to do to hang this color modern out to dry? >> tough talk in the last segment and from "politico" now. the left is energized. they are not going to allow their folks to vote in favor of judge gorsuch. my own senator tammy baldwin in wisconsin, big progressive liberal, before she knew anything about him said i'm not going to support him. they are not giving him half a chance to bid this is going to come to, what does the republican senate do? do they go with the nuclear option to take away the filibuster rule reading 50 votes which is eight democrats and just go with a simple majority? i think we're going to get to

that. >> come rissman, we have breaking news right now. been telling you about that press secretary sean spicer likely taking questions on the hearing today, let's watch together. >> provided comments one way or another stating his impeccable qualifications for the bench. as they add to the long list of jurists, politicians and elected officials from both sides of the aisle who have already given the judge their support. the present looks forward to watching judge gorsuch continue to show the senate what an extra ordinary edition he will be to the bench and is confident he will be confirmed. later in the morning, the president had a meeting with speaker ryan, circuitry of health and human services dr. tom price and dr. manual who has been intimately involved in crafting the healthcare policy since his work on obamacare. obviously, he and the president had some differing views on the best way to make healthcare affordable and accessible, but the president also strongly believes that the health and

well-being of the american people should not always be a partisan issue and he will continue to reach across the party lines and listen to voices on this issue. last week, hear from individuals and families who have suffered from the disastrous results of obamacare. he has previously spoken to healthcare policy groups, republican congressional leadership and health insurance companies. this week, he and his staff will have discussion on women in healthcare while continuing and open dialogue with members of congress. he will be hosting even more meetings and listening sessions in the coming weeks as he works with congress to bring common sense reforms to our healthcare system. the president has shown he is willing to hear from all stakeholders in the healthcare field and he will continue to listen as the process on the american healthcare act moves along and we pursue the additional legislative and administrative actions necessary. this afternoon, the president had lunch with the vice president and as we speak him he's messing with secretary of state rex tillerson. the secretary just returned from an important trip to asia.

he made it clear that america is committed to our allies japan and the republic of korea and that we expect china to increase its role in persuading north korea to move away from a nuclear weapon and ballistic muscle development and toward steps to create a better future for the north korean people. this trip set the stage for future leader level engagements between the u.s. and china. during this meeting, he will debrief the president on his trip. later this afternoon, the president will welcome the prime minister of iraq, the iraqi people have been a brave and steadfast partner in our shared fight against isis, al qaeda, and radicalism. the president will speak with the prime minister about how the partnership will help defeat isis and move into a new era in which iraq is a force for stability and peace and a prosperous middle east. after his bilateral meeting with prime minister, the president will depart the white house for louisville, kentucky, for a make america great again rally before returning to the white house later this evening. a few notes at the end before i

take some questions. yesterday, treasury secretary steven mnuchin returned from a very successful trip to europe where he stopped in the u.k. for a bilateral with the chancellor and later met with 18 of his counterparts during the g20 ministerial. this trip gave the secretary an opportunity to outline the administration's priorities on a number of issues including macroeconomic policy, financial regulation, international tax and illicit finance. during the meetings, the secretary in his counterparts presented a platform to strengthen our collective work on promoting growth and financial stability. in terms of the schedule for the rest of the week, tomorrow the president will sign ask for 22, the national aeronautics and space administration transition authorization act of 2017 in the morning and make remarks of the republican correctional committee in the evening. on wednesday as i mentioned last week, the present will meet with the congressional black caucus. there is to come the present will hold an event with truck drivers and representatives from

the trucking companies and industry on healthcare and its negative impact on their industry and livelihood. which happens to be the largest employer in 29 states. on friday, the president will hold a greek independence day celebration and we'll have further updates on those events later peered finally, i want to address the house intelligence committee hearing that is currently happening in which the fbi director in the nsa director are currently testifying in comment to the extent that i can at this time. this hearing as chairman devin nunes noted is the first of several of the house intelligence committee engaged in and the president is happy with the pursuing the facts in this. as has been previously reported, director comey confirmed the fbi is investigating russia's role in interfering with the election and let me just comment briefly on that. following this testimony, it is clear that nothing has changed. senior obama intelligence officials have gone on record to confirm there is no evidence of a trump-russia collusion. the obama cia director said so,

obama's director of national intelligence said so, and we take them at their word. however, there was some new information that came to the news that we think is not where there with the unmasking of americans identified and intelligence reports and the illegal leak of such unmasked individuals which is a federal crime. director comey to the house intelligence committee that certain political appointees in the obama administration had access to the names of unmasked u.s. citizens such as senior white house officials, senior department of justice officials, and senior intelligence officials. before president obama left office, michael flynn was unmasked and then illegally his identity was leaked out to media outlets. despite the fact that as nsa director roger said come the unmasking and revealing of individuals in dangerous -- endangers national security. not only was general flynn's identity made available, director comey refused to answer the question of whether he

briefed president obama on his phone calls and activities. director comey call these disclosures of classified information a threat to national security and said he will investigate and pursue these matters to the full extent of law. he also said the leaking classified information had become unusually active in the time frame in question. it is also important to note that both directors comey and rogers said they have no evidence that pots were a change in swing states that the president won. i think that pretty much until we get to the ending of this hearing, i don't know i want to comment too much further appeared with that, i'm glad to take a few questions. >> reporter: there's the president to have complete confidence in the cia director comey? >> reason to believe he doesn't. >> reporter: he said there is no information to support the allegations the president made against president obama, so is the president prepared to withdraw that accusation and

apologize? >> we started a hearing. it is still ongoing, then as the chairman mentioned this is one of a series of hearings that will be happening. as i noted last week, there is also a lot of interesting news coming out of that in terms of the activities that have gone on to reveal the information on american citizens that have been part of this, particularly general flynn. a lot of things that are not being covered in this hearing that are interesting that since it is ongoing, i will leave that for now, but there are a lot of areas that still need to be covered and a lot of things to be addressed. >> reporter: addressing the links and coronation possibilities between the trump campaign and the russians. given the president just this morning said that the democrats made up the russia story, why would the fbi director b investigating a story if it is simply that? >> press secretary spicer: i don't think that is what he said. >> reporter: that is what he

said, he's investigate the nature of any links of individuals associated with the trump campaign in russian government and whether there was any coordination. >> press secretary spicer: correct but investigating and having proof are two different things we look at the acting obama cia director said there is smoke but no fire, senator tom cotton not that i've seen or unaware of. look at director clapper, not to my knowledge. senator chris coons, democrat from delaware, i have no evidence of collusion. there is a point at which you continue to search for something that everybody has been briefed has not seen or found. i think it is fine to look into it but at the end of the day, they're going to come to the same conclusion everybody else has had. you can continue to look for something, but continuing to look for something that doesn't exist doesn't matter. there is a discussion, i heard some names floated around before, that were hangers on around the campaign. i think at some point, people that got thrown around at the beginning of this hearing, some of those names, the greatest amount of interaction they have

had was a cease and desist letters sent to them. >> reporter: are you talking about roger stone? >> press secretary spicer: carter pages, yes, but the greatest interaction they had with the campaign was the campaign sending them a series of deceased and desist letters. i think that when you read a lot of this activity about associates, there is a fine line between people who want to be part of something that they never had an official role and in people who actually played a role in the campaign or transition. >> reporter: some questions on the hearing today. now that we know there is an ongoing investigation by the fbi, does the president stand by his comment that he is not aware of any contact that his campaign associates had with russia during the election? >> press secretary spicer: yes. >> reporter: the second one is has anyone from the white house -- because >> press secretary spicer: can i amend? obviously just to be clear, i'm trying to think through this for a second because obviously general flynn -- are not aware of any of the time but even

general flynn was a volunteer of the campaign. obviously there has been some discussion of paul manafort who played a very limited role for a very limited amount of time, but beyond that -- hey, hold on. can you stop interrupting other people? hey, jonathan, somebody is asking a question. it is not your press briefing. julie is asking a question. please calm down. >> reporter: you are saying that president is aware of contact? >> press secretary spicer: no, nothing that has not been previously discussed. i don't want to make it look like we are not aware. >> reporter: second thing is anyone from the white house had to do interviews with the fbi as part of the investigation? >> press secretary spicer: not that i am aware of. >> reporter: you made a point of saying comey refused to say whether he briefed obama about the investigation and also the president on his official account treated the same thing today. comey made a point of saying do not draw any conclusions from pam my ability to confirm or deny anything, but you are drawing a conclusion.

>> press secretary spicer: we are pointing it out. we are making a point that it is not known. i think to everyone who was looking for a conclusion today, there's a lot more that needs to be discussed and looked at before we can jump to a conclusion about -- hold on. i think the point is that in the same token, you've got individuals that want an answer, and at the same time, there's clearly a lot of information that still has not come out or been discussed. >> reporter: are you looking forward to this investigation? >> press secretary spicer: there is a lot more to come is the answer. >> reporter: he says they are going to come to the same conclusion of everybody else. so you already know the conclusion. >> press secretary spicer: but i'm getting at is there is this media narrative that continues to talk about collusion that exist and yet every person that has been briefed, devin nunes, tom cotton, chris coons, democrat of delaware, klapper, the obama appointee, have all

said that nothing they have seen makes them believe that there was any collusion. i think there is a different between talking about an investigation into the 2016 election which we all know and any evidence of collusion. there is no evidence according to the people that have been briefed of any collusion or activity that leads them to believe that that exists. i think that is an important point that gets overlooked over and over and over again. >> reporter: they're going to come to the same conclusion of everybody else that it doesn't exist, so you already know. >> press secretary spicer: that is not what i am saying. what i am saying is if every single person -- because what the director said today is there is an ongoing investigation. my point is to say that everybody who has been briefed on the investigation, -- it doesn't -- there's an assumption because there is an investigation and must be about something. my point to you is there's an assumption on behalf of most people in the media about what that investigation must mean. my point here is that despite

the narrative that gets played over and over again with respect to what the investigation might mean in terms of collusion, every person republican and democrat that has been briefed on it has come to the same conclusion that there is no collusion and that is over. while we can talk about an investigation, big picture, holistically, the idea that so many people are trying to jump to a conclusion seems very, very misguided. >> do you expect that summit next month, that has to be taking place in early april? >> i'll try to have more of a readout afterwards. i know they're going to talk extensively about japan, south korea and beijing. i'm gonna let secretary of state brief the president before i get ahead of deciding what was