and while it is too early to talk about what specific actions, i do think there ought to be some kind of lowest hanging fruit like, universal background checks that might not have done anything in this particular case but might prevent some future incident, particularly in terms of identifying somebody that might have mental health initials terms of their ability to obtain a firearm. i do think there are certain areas that we could and should come together in terms of action. >> brennan: what about suppressors? apparently the shooter had one on his weapon and muffled the sound so victims couldn't come and find? >> i think that that's an area there should be a legitimate debate. i felt we ought to take steps against at assault weapons, the suppressors, i would like to hear what the legitimate reason is in terms of either self defense or hunting or why a suppressor is needed but again, there may not be any single item here but we can't become in a sensical louis about the fact

here but we can't become in a sensical louis about the fact that whether it is the number of folks in virginia that are taken out by firearms or the numbers of mass shootings that have taken place already this year, the basic underlying fact is, this just doesn't happen in other nations at this rate and i think we all are in a sense, put some of our politics aside and just sort through how we can find some common action to prevent some of these actions in the future. >> you are the top democrat in the senate intelligence committee. we heard from the special counsel this week for the first time, we heard from the attorney general about the mueller report, is there any question in your find that the counterintelligence probe involving the trump campaign was not legitimate? >> absolutely not. absolutely not. this was appropriate actions taken by the fbi, taken by some of our intelligence community, as a matter of fact, if they had not acted it would have been the height of irresponsibility.

there was evidence of russian intervention, i wish candidly in many ways the obama administration had done more to get this message out and one of the things i know there was lots of back and forth on the obstruction issue, but what i hope americans would remember from the mueller presser this week was where he started his comments and ended his comments, which was that america was attacked by a foreign power and chances are they or others will be back. this is the same testimony that the fbi director christopher wray, again a trump appointee made a few weeks ago before i don't think congress and it is the height of irresponsibility that congress has not acted to make sure that our elections in 2020 are more secure. i would argue there are three things we can do next week, this week, when we come back. first we ought to go ahead and pass bipartisan election security 0 legislation to make sure for example there is a

paper ballot trail after every vote. >> there hag no floor time. >> no floor time allowed. second we need put some guardrails on social media. so there is not an ability for foreigners or other entities to create fake accounts and manipulate our whole political debate. and third, even if we accept the fact that mueller said, even though there are 140 plus connections between russians and trump officials it didn't rise to the level of conspiracy, we ought to say, on future federal elections, if there is a foreign entity trying to intervene, there ought to be affirmative obligation to report that to the fbi. >> brennan: i want to point, play for you a sound bite from jan crawford's interview with attorney general about a barr when he was talking about the president's characterization of some of the investigators. >> you don't think they committed treason? >> that is a legal matter. >> but you concerns about how they conducted the investigation? >> yes, you know, but when you are dealing with official

government contact, intent is frequently a murky issue. i am not suggesting people did what they did necessarily because of conscious nefarious motives, sometimes people can convince themselves that what they are doing is in the higher interest, the better good. they don't realize that what they are doing is really antithetical to the democratic system we have. they start feeling themselves as the guardians of the people that are more informed and sensitive than everybody else. >> brennan: is there a possibility that as the attorney general suggests all of this was borne out of a misguided sense of justice and what is wrong with raising some of the questions that he has about the standards for decision making? >> 17 u.s. intelligence agencies confirmed the fact that the russians intervened in our elections. our bipartisan committee, the last bipartisan effort on the hill looking at this issue

reaffirmed unanimously that the russians massively intervened. if we had not acted, if our intelligence committee and law enforcement has had not acted they would have been irresponsible and candid eli mr. barr that very little credibility with me and i think vast majority of candidly not just democrats but many americans because he time and again is not acting as our attorney general but as a personal advocate for donald trump. >> brennan: the attorney general is beginning this investigation, though, into the counterintelligence probe. >> yes. have at it, because facts will confirm what the intelligence community and law enforcement did was right. we as the intelligence committee have looked into the beginnings of this investigation. again, i will restate what i ent and the intelligence community had not started an investigation when they had evidence of russian interference they would have been -- it would have been the he oirresponsibility. >> brennan: sin you oversight in your committee role of the

intelligence agencies, will you receive any kind of update from the agency chiefs? i know adam chiffon the house side has asked in a letter for regular updates. are you going to get those? >> we are continuing to ask for regular update and one of the most important items we can receive and we are in the process of obtaining these documents, what was the counterintelligence evidence, not the conclusions that mueller put out but the evidence that mueller received. and for us to finish our job, we need to that evidence. >> brennan: but can you unequivocally say politics played absolutely no role in influencing the decision makers when they opened and conducting this counter-- >> i saw absolutely no evidence that politics played any role and again if law enforcement and the fbi had not opened an investigation when they had, as much evidence as they did of russian intervention, they would have been irresponsible, as a matter of fact, one of the ironies is, i believe barr and trump have repeatedly criticized the obama administration for not doing more to get the word out

before the election. >> brennan: right.ts out tt their top negotiator and other officials have either been removed or possibly executed for the failure in hanoi. can you confirm that? >> i cannot confirm it today but i will get a brief this week. >> brennan: who is briefing? >> we will get briefs from the intelligence community. but if true, it is a remarkable further evidence of how -- how draconian and extreme the kim regime is and i think again this president's notion that he has built this personal relationship with this murderer, even if these individuals hood not been murdered we know kim's i believe cousin or uncle was murdered by anti-aircraft, in a brutal, brutal way. it raises real questions whether this so-called personal connect is unis going to lead to a safer woan: r wa thank you for joining us today. >> thank you. >> brennan: we turn now to republican senator john kennedy who joins us this morning from

new orleans. good morning to you, senator.eee country did from robert mueller who said in front of the cameras if we had confidence the president clearly did not commit a crime we would have said so. are you confident the president did not commit a crime? >> here is what i have heard, mr. mueller say this week. first, i quit. no mas, done the best i can, if you are happy with it, fine, if you are not happy with it, call your priest or your minister or your psychiatrist but i am done and i don't want to testify. look at my report. i hope, i looked in his report and i see the following. number one, no collusion. so no indictment. consracy or evidence thataid amounted to ability to prosecute conspiracy. >> that's what i was going to get. that's what i was going to get to next, margaret. on the obstruction of justice, he said i am not saying the

president did it, i am not saying the president didn't do it. i am saying i am not going to bring an indictment. you can -- you can hear what you want to hear in the report, people obviously have strong feelings about this. >> brennan: but i am asking what you -- >> >> brennan: are you confident the president did not commit a crime? >> yes. >> brennan: thank you. you referenced there that you think bob mueller is done. he said he prefers not to come back and testify. but then some of the people who support the president, including his attorney rudy giuliani have said that maybe he should, in fact, giuliani was quoted by the daily beast saying if they allow congressman meadows and jordan and a few others out there they will eviscerate robert mueller. he would love to have him testify. former white house attorney john dabs said something similar.

are you swayed by that at all. do you think mueller should testify? >> no. not at this juncture. i don't think it will do any good. if he wants to, i wouldn't object. but he clearly doesn't want to and if you make him testify she going to say read my report. but the next step in this, margaret, my democratic friends have got to make a decision on impeachment. now, i think impeachment will be a sistine task and tough going in the senate, impeachment polls right up there with skimmed milk among the american people, but my advice to my democratic friends is, if you want to do itness go hard or go home. you know, if you want to do it, go to amazon online, buy spine, and do it. but go hard or go home. if you are not going to do it, then let us get back to work. >> brennan: well -- >> i hate to waste a year and a

half. >> brennan: understood, but in terms of moving on, from the mueller report, you have the attorney general say he is not ready to move on when it comes to the question of the origins of the counterintelligence probe itself, which to be clear was opened after a trump campaign aide george papadopoulos had some contact with russians discussing stolen information there hillary clinton. so do you support the attorney generals probe here into the origins of the investigation itself? >> yes. and let's look at the fact, forget the spin. and in the 2016 election, the fbi, maybe the cia and the department of justice decided to investigate both presidential candidates, secretary clinton and then nominee president trump. now, that's a pretty breathtaking. and arguably those

investigations had an impact on the election. i don't know whether they did or orn't, didn't, i don't know how you prove it but that's a pretty serious step by the fbi and the justice department. i would like to know why they did it. i do believe there were some people small handful of people at those agencies that acted on their political beliefs either for trump or for clinton or against trump or against clinton and i don't want to see it happen again. i don't see the harm in looking at the facts and, in fact, i have -- i have asked the president to look for every document that the fbi and justice department pertaining to the 2016 election and the investigations, properly redact them, and let the american people see them. the american people will figure it out if you let them see facts. >> brennan: i am going to ask you about another issue and that's the president's decision to put this five percent tariff on a broad range of mexican products to punish that country for allowing migrants across the

border. chuck grassley a fellow republican senator says this is a misuse of tariff authority and congressional intent. are you a supporter of the president's decision to do this? >> i think it was a mistake. i am not saying we don't have a crisis at the border, we clearly do. i am not saying it won't work. the president, lopez andres manuel lopez obrador already indicated she ready to talk but i am worried about the long-term ramifications we have a deal with mexico on trade, it is called and a half tax in fact we just shook hands on 0 a new deal, it is called nafta 2, when you give your word you stick to it. and i really worry about us negotiating trade deals with other countries and whether those countries will wonder, well, if we make concessions and trade hard and we reach a deal, will america stick to it?w, hav, wrong the president is going to impose these tariffs.

my experience with the president is, he is a very small man, iheo play with fire and live hand grenades and if he slaps a 25 percent tariff on mexico, it is going to containing the american economy. and i think president knows that and i don't think he will do it. >> brennan: senator kennedy, good morning to you. thank you for joining us. we will be back in one minute with west virginia senator joe manchin, so don't go away. >>

>> brennan: we are back now with west virginia senator joe manchin, she a moderate democrat pushed by bipartisan background check legislation and joins us this morning from charleston. senator, you tried and failed to get these restrictions or more background checks passed. do we need this to prevent what happened in virginia beach? >> well, h t we couldn't even get most common sense legitimate gun owners,

law-abiding to understand we are not afraid of a background checks and won't do anything wrong with our guns but there basically prevent people in getting a gun and you don't know who they are and what their background is. we couldn't even get that done, margaret. and a i am just asking my republican colleagues and friends, use some common sense and let's do things that basically will protect the public and give us some certainty we are trying to move in a common sense manner. >> brennan: i want to ask you about a trick you just took to a number of countries, a trip, and you saw what was happening in the ash tick, which american scientists say is melting faster, twice the rate than the rest of the world. what impact did you see and is the economic benefit of some of, this which the trump administration argues there is, offset this catastrophic effect for the climate?stnd, i read about it before, and heard and listened to all of the scientists. the thing of it is, if you go up

in that fragile ecosystem we have and look at the geo politics involved we met with the parliamentarians of the eight arctic nations we listened to each one of them from russia, to can at that, the u.s. and then you have finland and denmark, finland, sweden, and iceland. they all, absolutely, norway, will show you, not just tell you but show you the changes that are happening. the fish migration, the changes of that, and the melting of the ice. we were in greenland and went up to the ice shelf there and saw how it has retreated in a very short period of time. so we as humans have a responsibility to do something. i am not for elimination because that is not practical you are not going to stop the rest of the sovereign countries of the world from using the energy in their backyard but we can use it much cleaner. i was at the university in stockholm, aberdeen and saw carbon capture utilization, not sequestering, trying to pump it in the ground, but using it as

by-products and in valued assets, it is going to be unbelievable if we start working in a way that basically scientist has proven we can do it. >> brennan: you also heard, though from the trump administration that national security officials are warning that russia might have been conducting in that area low yield nuclear tests. have you seen any evidence of that? >> again, i didn't see that, what i did see and what i know, russia is spending more of their money, more of their effort and money in the ash tick region, they have a tremendous landmass that is in the arctic, they are spending more money there than they are in the entire social services for russia. it is unbelievable the commitment they have made. we have seen more activity of aircraft flying in those spaces. we see submarine activity from russia. more so than we have during the cold war. so there is a lot of activity there. that the northwest passage, that's a, that's a whole other

-- that's a game changer. we have got to be on top, and the united states has not to start getting involved and make sure we are a leader up there and not a follower because i can tell you what russia and china is doing, china is using their the arctic, to be a big ,ay into it is unbelievable and we should be alerted and we should start acting. >> well, i do want to talk to you more about that, and because you are one of three democrats who voted to confirm the attorney general, i want to hear your views on what he said this we can. >> sure. >> brennan: but we have to take a break and have those questions when we come back. >>

hey allergy muddlers... achoo! ...do your sneezes turn heads? try zyrtec... ...it starts working hard at hour one... and works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. zyrtec muddle no more. sir, you're a broker. what do you charge for online equity trades? uh, i'll look into it. (phone rings) lisa jones! lisa: (on phone) hey carl, what are you charging me for online equity trades? (nervous chuckle) lisa: and do i get my fees back if i'm not happy? like a satisfaction guarantee? ugh. schwab! lisa: oh right, i'm calling schwab. thanks, carl! wait, lisa! lisa... are you getting low costs backed by a satisfaction guarantee? if not, talk to schwab. a modern approach to wealth management. i went straight to ctca. after my mastectomy, i felt like part of my identity was being taken away.

my team made me feel whole again. cancer treatment centers of america. appointments available now. cancer treatment centers of america. plants capture co2. what if other kinds of plants captured it too? if these industrial plants had technology that captured carbon like trees we could help lower emissions. carbon capture is important technology - and experts agree. that's why we're working on ways to improve it. so plants... can be a little more... like plants. ♪ later today president trump will travel across the pond for a state visit to the united kingdom and meet with prime minister theresa may and attend a state dinner with the queen and others in the royal family, and then he will travel to norman i do 0 honor the 75th anniversary of d-day. cbs's this morning cohost anthony mason will lead the

network's coverage 0 and talk with british foreign jeremy hunt in our next half hour. don't go away. british foreign secretary jeremy hunt. >> at bp we see possibilities everywhere. >> the lights can keep on shining. thanks to our natural gas. a smart partner to renewable energy. it's always ready when needed. or... not. at bp, we see possibilities everywhere. to help the world keep advancing. wearing powerful sunscreen? yes! neutrogena® ultra sheer. unbeatable protection helps prevent early skin aging and skin cancer with a clean feel. the best for your skin. ultra

ch has many faces. e br-eye the brave, the visionaries. where challenges exist, you'll find them. at citi, we empower people who are out to change the world. because tomorrow belongs to those who welcome it with open arms. citi. welcome what's next (driver) relax, it's just a bug. that's not a bug, that's not a bug! (burke) hit and drone. seen it, covered it. at farmers, we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪

>> brennan: some of our stations are leaving us now but we will be right back with more from senator joe manchin plus our panel and a preview of president trump's trip to the united kingdom. >>

z3cbnz zi0z

y3cbny yi0y >> brennan: welcome back to "face the nation". senator joe manchin is still with us. senator, as i mentioned, you were one of three democrats who voted to confirm the attorney general bill barr for his post, and you heard in this exclusive interview with my colleague jan crawford this week, he said that some of the investigators in the russia probe may have been misguided and what they did, quote, antithetical to the democratic system. what do you make of that characterization? >> well, first of all, i have basically voted for many o president's executive decisions made as far as appointments and felt executive should put their team together. if the person is qualified and have no criminal background and

has a good experience level, barr met all of that. with that, you are saying the decisions he is making and how he is making them now in lieu of mueller's report, no one has done a more extensive report, mueller, i was on the intelligence committee tee last year and we have been delving into this for quite some time but there has been an awful lot of investigations done by honorable people who have done what they felt was the right thing. mueller making a decision he made put it out there. i always wanted to hear from mueller come before the congress and hear from him, from his own mind and his own mouth, if you will, what his intenses were and if he thought he was impeded, and could not have gone farther or did he find anything? i don't think there was any collusion, quid pro quo, but i think there was an awful lot of people who were riding it pretty high for themselves trying to put themselves in the best posion to enhance thr own cot tween e trumpai and russia t

counterintelligence probe was in some way either misguided due ti they are helping but hurting the country, i mean that's a pretty strong assertion. do you regret voting to confirm the attorney general? >> well, i will say this. if he basically takes the position that he is more the lawyer for the executive point of view and not for the people's point of view i would have made a mistake. i wanted to hear from mueller exactly but now hearing where he is coming from, it really gives me pause and concern that he is a people's attorney, he should be looking out to prevent and protect the constitution and all of us who are protected by that cons 0 constitution. >> brennan: quell he argues he is. >> and he still has to basically be appointed. >> yes he argues he s i think she wrong in that assertion that diren.ere misguided or i think bob mu reproach, think we all felt

that, he was extremely capable, honorable and did a great job w that people don't like this -- him not coming out with more of a definitive, if you will, think it was very clear he said the rules are you are not going to impeach or bring charges against a sitting president. if that's the case he has put everything out there and here is the thing i have said you have a little over 17 month to the next election. if you want to go through an impeachment we get very little done anyway. wwe will get nothing done if you two into that and there is not one republican in the senate that would vote for an impeachment so why waste your time? you have an election coming up, vote your opinion there and make your choice, that's where it should be done. >> brennan: very quickly yes or no do you support the president's tariffs on mexico? >> oh, no, no. not the way we are going here. i say mr. president, please, the 2013 major immigratoome back, please mr. president let's fix immigration and border security we need ♪ both. >> brennan: senator manchin,

thank you for joining us. and we will be right back with british foreign secretary jeremy hunt. >> trange badger staring at me... no, i can't believe how easy it was to save hundreds of dollars on my car insurance with geico. uh-huh, where's the camel? "mr. big shot's" got his own trailer. ♪ wheeeeeee! believe it! geico could save you 15% or more on car insurance. there was no hesitation, i went straight to ctca. after my mastectomy, it was maddening because i felt part of my identity was being taken away. when you're able to restore what cancer's taken away, you see that transformation firsthand knowing that she had options that she could choose, helped restore hope. my team made me feel like a whole person again.

aaappointments aleen >> brennan: president trump travels to london tonight and he will be greeted by british foreign secretary jeremy hunt, who is also vying for leadership of the country's conservative party and ultimately the title of prime minister. he joins us from london. welcome to "face the nation". we know that the president has given some interviews ahead of his arrival in the uk and he said, boris johnson one of your arrivals, he would do a very good job, he would be excellent, he made other comments. should the president be weighing in on your election? >> well, the president i have got a bit to know the president a over the past few years, good morning, margaret and we know he does the unexpected thing and it is not going to affect the warmth of the welcome we give him, because britain and america are two of the greatest friends you find anywhere on the planet. >> brennan: in that interview the president also said he likes you too. and he said that some candidates

had asked for his endorsement. >>ly take the compliments where i can get them. >> brennan: yo for an endorsement? >> no. i have whenever asked him, you know, i think my job is to represent the british government, and i think that the worst thing anyone could imagine is a foreign secretary talking about the future leadership of the country when he is there to represent the current government and the current prime minister. >> brennan: i want to ask you about your work in that, the president had made some comment about a meghan markle referring to her as nasty for comment she made about him back in 2016. >> i didn't know she was nasty. >> brennan: is any of this going to disrupt the welcome? >> i don't think it is going to disrupt the welcome at all because i think the other thing we learned from the president is that regularly we have to agree to disagree, and there is a whole list of things we don't agree with the administration on but it doesn't affect the fact that we have the most important partnership that there is in the world for freedom, democracy, the rule of law, the things that really matter, and that is what

we are celebrating. >> brennan: i want to ask you about one of the things that the uk and the us have have had some disagreement on and that's this threat pose bid iran, the uk wanted the u.s. to be a part of that international deal to freeze iran's nuclear program, obviously the president did not. >> we have never disagreed with the u.s. about the threat posed by iran, and we see the intelligence that the u.s. sees. we have a very close intelligence sharing relationship and we see the destabilization that is happening in syria, iraq, lebanon, across the middle east, the yemen as well, and so we completely agree that something has to be done to stop that, because this is one of the most fragile regions on the planet. but we do want to make sure that iran doesn't two nuclear, and we think that, go nuclear and we think if iran acquires nuclear region the other the nations in the country would follow suit and that could be very, very

dangerous, so we, we have a very honest discussion, that's why we signed up with the previous administration to the iran nuclear deal. >> brennan: is the uk supporting the u.s.'s campaign to put more pressure on 0 iran? >> we absolutely recognize we need to put more pressure on iran and we agree that the status quo, even with the lack of nuclear weapons in iran, the status quo is not sustainable when you have incredibly tense situation. >> brennan: the u.s. filed an extradition request with your government to have julian assange the founder of wikileaks here in the united states to face justice. we know you and officials raised concerns about human rights violations if she sent here. does your government take that seriously? >> julian assange is somebody who is alleged to have committed some very serious crimes. alleged to have led to people's deaths and so it is absolutely right that he faces justice, and he has no more reason to escape justice than anyone else who is alleged to have committed crimes

so i think what happened is the right thing. >> brennan: so if you do become prime minister you would not stand in the way of an extradition of assange to the united states? >> well, we would have to follow our own legal process. just it is a u.s. has to follow its own legal processes but do i think -- would i want to stand in the way of julian assange facing justice? no, i would not. >> brennan: president trump said one of the things he does want to speak to your current prime minister theresa may about is the threat posed by china and specifically this company huawei, which i know the uk has not made a decision as yet as to whether this firm would be allowed to help build out your internet 5 g network. but secretary pompeo said if you don't take this seriously the, s might not be able to share swrns anymore with the united kingdom. why hasn't the uk agreed to what the u.s. is asking? >> well, we are taking a b we are taking it seriously and we have some of the best cyber security capability in the

world. and we have never take a decision that shares our intelligence sharing ability with the united states we tonight -- and we have to look at the technical issues which are around whether buying products from a specific country could be a back door to espionage and we are looking at those very carefully. but we also have to look at the strategic issue, which is that china has been very open and they say they want to have an 80 percent market share of telecom's technology in other areas like artificial intelligence, they want a 90 percent market share by 20205. and we have to ask as western countries whether it is wise to allow one country to have such a commanding monopoly in the technologies that all of us will be depending on so those are very important discussion we continue to have. >> brennan: it sounds like you may be considering that. one of things that the president has also said he wants to bring up with prime minister may is it

seems his continued concern that the uk may have in some way or another worked with the cia or fbi regarding what he calls the russian hoax. he made these comment just last week. how does your government respond to this allegation? i know the gchq british intelligence previously denied it but the president still suspects it. >> yes. we have a very close intelligence sharing relationship, and our default is always to say, yes, to our closest ally, if america asks us to do things, you guys have done so much to defend europe and defend freedom across the world, you know, we would want to be cooperative, but we would always do so within due process and we would never do anything improper. and we don't have any secrets. so we are happy to discuss these things but one of the things that i will certainly be discussing with the president and secretary of state pompeo is

our concern about the growing strategy we seem to be seeing from russia to interfere in democratic processes in free countries. >> brennan: but do i understand you saying, though, that the uk has not yet been asked by the u.s. for help in the probe the attorney general in this country is carrying out, but you continue to deny that there was any work of the cia or fbi on the so-called russian hoax? >> margaret you will forgive me if i talk in generalities but we obviously don't talk in the media about specific requests over intelligence sharing, examine empty to say what i just said, which is that we would always try and work closely and help any with our greatest ally, because we recognize the important role you play in the word and never, of course, do anything improper or seek to interfere with another country's electoral processes. >> brennan: thank you, mr. foreign secretary, good luck with your busy visit, thank you for joining us. >> thank you, margaret. >> brennan: we will be right back. >>

>> brennan: welcome back to "face the nation". s political analyst, from senior editor at "national review" and column must for, columnist for bloomberg opinion, sarah paige

the bureau chief of usa today, jamal simmons 0 a democratic strategist and jan crawford 0 is our cbs news chief legal correspondent. and, jan, you had the interview of the week with the attorney general. and his first reaction after robert mueller spoke publicly about the report. i think a question a lot of americans have is 0, how did this go on for two years and the attorney general and the special counsel 0 had two very different ideas of what could be accomplished in this investigation? >> oh, you are talking about why the special counsel said i can't make a conclusion. >> brennan: yes. >> on whether or not he obstructed justice because of this existing office of legal counsel opinion. about indict ago sitting presidents and i think it is interesting because when special counsel met with the attorney general and his team on march 5th, they were told at that point that he was not going to reach a conclusion on whether or not a presijuhey were g too gehat analysis andi was toon

the department that there was some confusion on on behalf of the attorney general and his team about why -- they didn't really understand some of the reasoning they were hearing from the special counsel at that point why he wasn't going to make a decision on obstruction. the report was not finished at that point. they were still working on it. so they just decided to wait and see what the report said. and then when they got the report, with no conclusion in there they decided they would look at the law, analyze the facts and the law and make the decision themselves but there was a lot in that report that surprised them or 0 rather i should say that was nohe report. they also specced the special counsel to go through and identify the confidential grand they had been told tha dovea period weeks and surprise, that that information had not been identified which would have made it -- that a four became summary was released

later on would have been unnecessary. by the attorney general. >> brennan: up to this point, though, the one thing that seems agreed bonn to both so sides of the aisle has been with the exception of the president that robert mueller was very well qualified to carry all of 0 this out. why now at this point is the case essentially being made he had unfinished business or that some of the technicalities what you just laid out are calling some of this into question? >> well, i think there is some disappointment, you know, people were looking for robert mueller this man like you said who was highly regard add man of integrity, to come in and say sheer the answers, here is what we need to do, american people and let's just resolve it or move on 0 and when this seemed to be unresolved on whether or not the president obstructed justice it was unsatisfactory to a lot of pep, especially when you think about the time and money that was spent on this igat gegoort whyad andwhy en thettore job. and i think, i mean i think we

can all understand what that might have looked like, it surely would have leaked that the attorney general wasn't happy with the special counsel's report, told him to rethink it, so the justice department and the team really decided we are just going to stay out of it. this is robert mueller's work, this is his decision, and his conclusions and now we are going to take it from there. >> brennan: va mal, james comey, former fbi director tweeted about this interview that jan conducted that bill barr offers no facts and ag should not be echoing conspiracy theories, he should gather facts and show them, this is what justice is about. this seems a pushback specifically on the implication he was misguided and other investigators were. are we at the point of conspiracy theories? i mean is this a legitimate criticism? >> it does feel like we are at the point of conspiracy theory but remember the ag came out on the very first day and used barr's collusion which robert mueller said in the very beginning of his report he did not investigate collusion it wasn't a legal term he

investigated criminal conspiracies so there is some question about what really the ag is up to and who it is he is defending here section he looking out for the american people or looking out for the president? the reality is, mueller laid out a case, he listed at least 10 instances of possible obstruction of justice including the moe moes most salient of which appears to be the time when the president ordered the white house counsel to go and fire the special couple and then asked him to come up with a fake document to prove he did not order him to go guyer the special counsel. the republicans are talking about process here to keep from having to talk about the substance of the report. >> brennan: ramesh, how do you respond to that? >> both of our major political parties in 2016 ran presidential candidates under fbi investigation, and that is going to create strain on the system and we are seeing that strain continue to play out. i think that attorney general bar is barr is quite right as you said in january's jan's interview i it is a big deal whn a presidential sceament put under surveillance and it is

perfectly reasonable to ask questions about a whether as he puts it it was adequately predicated. you will notice democratic senator mark warner earlier on the show, although he was quite critical of barr said have it with respect to that investigation. go find those facts. and i think that is a reasonable position to take .. >> but, you know, you still get the impression that barr was speaking as the president's lawyer not as the country's lawyer. he adopted even a some of the most controversial things the president said including suggesting ther there were nefas reasons for the investigation to be launched at the beginning and you almost not joe manchin, one of the few democrats who voted for william barr to say he regretted that vote, he didn't quite go there but it said it gave him pause and he clearly had concerned about the point of view that the attorney general adopted in talking about is this very important issue. >> brennan: and, jan, when -- in that particular line, antithetical to our democracy the attorney general did not present to you any evidence to back that up. it is a hunch?

>> i tried. >> brennan: i know you did. >> he said at that he didn't want to go there. he said he has seen things that he believes merit investigation, whether it is the timeline and a how this investigation was launched and what was done at certain time or whether there are things afterwards, a meeting that occurred in trump tower after the election but he wouldn't confirm or deny any of that. he did make the point, though, and i think this is important to keep in mind, he -- he started his career in the cia in the 1970's. and that was in the wake of tremendous abuses by our intelligence agencies investigations into civil rights organizations and american citizens so his point to me over and over was that we have to look at these investigations into an unprecedented investigation into a presidential campaign to see if abuses occurred, what is wrong with that? so he is saying, i am a taking this again his words, i am looking into this now to make sure that it was followed properly, that rules and procedures are followed, and if not, why not?

and so again to your point, ramesh, that is very much what he said throughout the interview we are taking a look at this and the facts, maybe it was legitimate. and he said that in the interview too, that maybe it was legitimate. maybe they had to handle it with this very small group of high ranking officials at headquarters instead of the normal practice and maybe there was a reason for that. >> although it is interesting he is saying here he wants to look into whether there was spying but he did make a determination of no obstruction of us have without looking at any of the underlying evidence, only reading the report thi this thas at least what he told the senate committee that asked him. >> brennan: i want to ask you, ramesh, you wrote about that basically it might be a miscalculation by the speaker of the house not to move forward with impeachment proceedings which that pressure was added to this week with mueller's comments. >> that's right. you know, that is an interesting thing that even though mueller didn't actually tell us anything he hadn't already told us in the report, it did seem to add fuel to the calls for impeachment on the democratic side, i think nancy pelosi has made a judgment there is a presidential race coming up we are not going to

get impeachment acted on by the senate because republicans control it, and requires a two-thirds vote to remove the president, but i do wonder whether you can run a campaign which is as pelosi situate said herself yesterday whether he ex-goes corruption of this president, the wrongdoing of this president .. if you say she a wrongdoer, you say she corrupt can you not follow that up by impeachment? doesn't it really understood cut your message? if you are not willing to follow through? >> brennan: but if it ultimately fails and the speaker said this has to be ironclad what is the purpose? >> yes. well that is the debate that she is having with democrats. you know, her problem is we now have more than 50 house democrats supporting the beginning of an impeachment inquiry so that numbers continues to rise but none of those members are among the 41 house democrats who flipped republican seats in 2018 and gave the majority to democratic party in the house of representatives and that is a difficult legal marks because the lack of overlap between the democratic base being eager for

impeachment and swing vo a to impeachment want democrats to focus on issues that affect their lives and that's to the conundrum nancy pelosi faces. >> brennan: some of us were watching. >> i am chomping at the bit on this one with. >> brennan: i am a sure you are. i want to get your feedback on 0 what you saw from some of the democratic candidates out in california. >> we saw the candidates out in california, i think spoke up and ready for impeachment this is a growing thing, elizabeth warren and julian castro were with the first ones for it and now it seems to be a fire -- >> brennan: a thing to say -- >> sure it is because the democratic electorate wants it and you ask the question about what does it prove? you know, elijah cummings on air a few weeks ago said this is their watch. it is up to them and history will be looking back at the both the house and the republicans in the senate and it is not the democrats' job to resolve the republicans from their

constitutional responsibility it is the democrats' job to live up to their constitutional responsibilities if they find wrongdoing. >> brennan: does this happen? >> does what happen? impeachment? >> uh-huh. >> i would bet that there will be at least some effort to hold the president accountable, it looks like in the end it may be censure or imbeevment i don't think he gets off scott free. >> brennan: all right. well, plenty more to talk about but we have to leave it there. thank you. jan, congrats on the interview and back in a moment. >>

>> brennan: that's it for us today. for "face the nation", i am margaret brennan. we leave you this week with a tribute to the 12 victims who were killed at a virginia beach municipal building this friday. >>

captioning sponsored by cbs access.wgbh.org

(announcer) you work hard to give your children something to build on. i was always trying to think "how am i gonna get her through college?" i wanna have a mechanism in place to make sure that my daughters are well taken care of. i hope to leave my children with something to help them get set up. (announcer) don't let it get eaten away by unexpected fees and legal expenses. my husband did not have a will and everything went away. when my father passed away, he did not have a will or a trust. we're not as prepared as i had hoped we would be. (announcer) every year, tens of thousands of people lose what's rightfully theirs because the right paperwork is not in order. is your property safe? i had absolutely no guidance. i just feel like i did the best i could under the toughest circumstances.