of from the campaign were in contact with russian officials. do you believe him? >> i have no idea. >> joining me now, president trump's chief of staff, reince priebus. welcome back to "meet the press," sir. >> good morning, chuck. >> let me start with the issue of mike flynn and the conversations, what was said or not said with the russian ambassador. you were on this program just before the inauguration, and here is what you told viewers at the time. >> i have talked to general flynn, none of that came up. the subject matter of sanctions or the actions taken by the obama administration did not come up in the conversation. >> so there was no challenge of american policy currently by mr. flynn with the russian ambassador. >> none. >> obviously now we know that was not true, you clearly were misled. walk me through this. when did you know you had been misled? >> sometime after january 27th.

it was -- our legal counsel got a heads-up from sally yates that something wasn't adding up with his story, to then our legal department went into a review of the situation. and sometime after that, when sally yates refused to do her job as attorney general like two days later we had to get rid of her. and then sometime after that the legal department came back and said that they didn't see anything wrong with what was actually said, but then we started thinking about whether or not michael flynn was being straight with us, and that's when we started asking a lot of questions and sort of deposing michael flynn and figuring out what he knew or what he didn't know. he maintained the fact that he never talked to the russian ambassador about sanctions, but still something wasn't adding up. and eventually we determined that he did, in fact, talk about the sanctions, even though we didn't believe that it was

illegal, the fact was it turned more or less into a conversation about whether or not he was being honest with us and the vice president. and the president asked for his resignation and we got it. >> have you read -- did you read the transcripts yourself? >> um, i can't answer that question. but i can assure you that i am fully aware of the situation, and we determined that he wasn't being straight with the vice president and others, and that's why we asked for his resignation. >> why was there more than a week -- why did more than a week go by before the vice president was informed of this issue? >> well, i think he was always aware of the issue as to whether or not he talked about sanctions. i mean, that was an ongoing conversation. he was aware of the fact that the fbi interviewed michael flynn. the legal department started reviewing the matter to get a

report on whether or not anything was actually done wrong and whether or not he in fact talked to the russian ambassador about sanctions. and at some point after we were first tipped off and got to the point of reviewing whether he was being honest or not, after we got the report back from the white house counsel, that's when we looped in -- or that's when the vice president was brought into the conversation more fully in regard to whether or not michael flynn was honest. >> waiting that long, do you -- do you regret that it looks like that the vice president is essentially not in the loop? >> no, the vice president is in the loop on everything, chuck. it happened so fast. i mean, what happened was the legal department was tipped off, they looked into the legality of it. the actual investigation was ended almost immediately, so there was no investigation. it was a matter of whether it was legal. but then when we found out that, hey, he may have talked to the rausch russian ambassador, that's when we started having conversations with the vice president as to whether or not he was being honest or not.

so i mean, it felt like it happened very quickly, and we made a determination very quickly. >> do you still believe this was an honest mistake by mr. flynn, or are you concerned it's something more nefarious? >> no, i don't think he did -- my view is -- and i am not an expert on, you know, the logan act. i can tell you that our legal department looked at it. my view is what he did wasn't illegal like many others have said, but it was the fact that he wasn't straight or honest. and i just found it hard to believe that you would have a conversation with a russian ambassador and -- and not remember it. so either way, either you don't remember or you weren't honest. either way, it was an unsustainable place to be, in the president made a decisive decision to ask for his resignation and he got it. but look, the fact of the matter is, in between all that time the president got a lot of things done. keystone, dakota. we got out of tpp, nominated neil gorsuch, we had the keystone and dakota pipeline begin. >> okay.

>> we had a hiring freeze. we had a deregulation executive order. there was so many things that were also happening to the good, chuck, that it would be nice to talk about some of the accomplishments which, in 30 days, have been remarkable. >> i want to -- i'll give you time to get to that, but ip w w to get back to mr. flynn. is one of the reasons why you ended up having to let him go -- when he was interviewed by the fbi on the 24th, before the sally yates warning, are you -- did he mislead the fbi or lie to the fbi? is that one of the -- one of the issues that came up during the deposing? >> well, that's a different issue for the fbi to answer, chuck. i am just not in a position to answer it. we've certainly talked about that issue with leadership at the fbi, but i am not in a position to talk about that with you. but listen, we have talked about this. i think we have laid it out very clearly. and now it's up to the d.o.j. and fbi to take it any further

if that's what they do. >> by the way, anybody else inside the white house been interviewed by the fbi over the last couple of months? >> not that i know of, chuck. i think the answer is no to that. i would know. >> okay. i want to go to the press conference on the issue of russia. the president never seemed to answer the question that was asked three or four times there, which is did anybody -- does he know for sure that anybody on his campaign, does he -- can he say definitively that nobody in his campaign, nobody that he has been associated with, had any contacts with any russian agents? >> no, i -- first of all, the answer is no, and we don't know of any -- any contacts with russian agents. and that gets to that "new york times" story, chuck. i mean, we have spent days talking about a story that says that our campaign had constant contacts with russian spies. and i can tell you, i have talked to the top levels of the intelligence community, and they have assured me that that "new

york times" story was grossly overstated and inaccurate and totally wrong! i know what the intelligence committees in the house and the senate were told by the fbi, and i know what i was told and what i will tell you is that story was total baloney. in fact, devin nunez, the chairman of the house intelligence committee, went on the record after he was informed by the fbi as to that story, and what did he say? he said it was total garbage. this is what we're talking about, chuck. it's not all media. it's not everyone involved in the media. it is this sort of fake news stuff that is enormously important that, when you get a front-page story of the "new york times," without a single source on the record saying that your campaign had constant contacts -- they didn't say one contact, they didn't say two contacts. it doesn't matter. we have not been informed of

even that. but to say constant contacts. then the next day, chuck, the "wall street journal" comes out and says that the president of the united states is being cut out of information by the intelligence community. then later in the day all of the main departments of the intelligence community says, that's not true. this is what we're dealing with. while we're putting in a lobbying ban, while we're freezing federal government employees, while we're getting the economy back on track, we are sitting here talking about these stories or whether steve bannon and i get along or not, which we do. i can assure people in kenosha, wisconsin, are not worried about that. they want to see jobs did money back in their pockets. that's what we're trying to do every day, chuck. >> the "associated press" has a story that the senate intelligence committee sent a letter to the white house counsel asking for a preservation of any communication, anything that could have any ties, either during, right now, in -- since you have taken office, during the transition of the campaign,

to make sure there are no -- all records are preserved regarding russia. are you aware of this letter and have you acted upon it? >> i am aware of it, and i think they're going to do their job. they have to do that. those are things that richard burr and that team have to do. that doesn't mean that there is anything there. it just means they need to do some things to satisfy their committee that they have looked into something, and then they can have meetings behind closed doors that they always do in the intel committee, and then they'll issue a report. and as long as they do their job and we -- and we cooperate with them, they'll issue a report, and the report will say there is nothing there. i know what they were told by the fbi because i have talked to the fbi. i know what they're saying. i wouldn't be on your show right now telling you that we have been assured that there is nothing to the "new york times" story if i actually wasn't assured. by the way, if i didn't actually have clearance to make this comment. i am not a sloppy guy.

i dot my is and cross my ts. i was a 14-year litigator before i became rnc chairman. >> fair enough. let me ask you a final question on the president's tweet. fake news media, failing "new york times," abc news, kristicn not my enemy. it's the enemy of the american people. let me ask the question this way. aren't you concerned that now the president of the united states does not have the moral authority to travel around the world and express the openness for a free press in other countries, a free press is being challenged in a turkey and in a russia. with the president of the united states trying to delegitimize the american press, does that not undercut his ability to spread freedom and advocate for

freedom around the world. >> many presidents have had issues with the chuck. i can assure you, the president believes in the first amendment. he believes in the free press. we don't believe everyone is lousy in the media. we don't believe everything is bad, but there are some things that are really bad. we have tried to -- he categorizes that as fake news. what we've been through over the last ten days has been unbelievable. the leaks, the fake stories, the anonymous accusations. that stuff is bad. and that's what he is referring to. i know where he is coming from on this, but i can assure you he believes in the free press, the first amendment. he loves our constitution. we just want to get this stuff back on the rails and more honest in regard to these really big accusations that are coming at us. >> i know you -- you believe all of this is press generated. do you not have a problem inside that west wing with leaks yourself? >> look, if there is a problem there, those people will have

big issues. but the truth is, is that we don't have problems in the west wing. i mean, you read of all these stories, i don't get along with bannon. we' we've gelled as a team. we get along great and are working well together. the amount of drama and spin that you read about mostly in the washington daily gossip rags is unbelievable stuff. it just isn't true. you read it every day and you wonder what alternative universe they are reporting on because it just isn't true. i think every west wing has different personalities. you had rahm emanuel. valerie jarrett. karl rove. you always have different kinds of people, but it doesn't mean you don't ultimately get along, serve the president, want to make the american people proud. that's what we're doing every day. that's what we're trying to do every day. >> reince priebus, i'll leave it there. i guess thanks for coming behind