room. i want to say that looking out here today, as crowded as this is, this is about the level of crowdedness that it felt in the emergency department that night. add in people in pain, people worrying about their loved ones, people not knowing where their loved ones are and we're trying to help them all. quickly, we got a couple of patients up to the operating room. again, our first patient, he needed to go to the operating room but he was stable. there were quickly thereafter probably four to five patients that came in that we were unable to save and then there were several that came in that needed operation almost immediately and they got taken up. i believe dr. luby stayed up in the operating room, dr. havrand

was up in the operating room and they were operating. as soon as they were done, they would move the patient to the intensive care unit and send me another one. i would walk around and try to determine just by looking at their vital signs, their wound pattern and how awake they were where they needed to go. i tried to keep everybody that needed to go to the operating room in the trauma bay. if someone was brought in from the street into the trauma bay, they were quickly assessed. if they did not have immediate life-threatening injury, they were moved elsewhere in the emergency department and cared for by our colleagues in critical care medicine. we had emts that would drop a patient off that would start putting in lines in other patients. we had, you know, environmental services would have the bay where patients would go cleaned in about 30 to 45 seconds, with sharp objects, with bloody

towels, with all kinds of stuff done. everybody was doing it safely. i just cannot say enough about how much we increased our resources to the level of need, you know, within a very short period of time. after we got that initial wave, about probably 20 to 22 patients stabilized or sent to the operating room, we had kind of, if you would call it a lull while the shooter was barricaded inside. at this point we had used basically everything in the emergency department and our suppliers got stuff from central supply, brought stuff over from arnold palmer hospital, from winnie palmer hospital such that we didn't need for anything. we had used it all, but we had it replaced basically immediately. then we got word from opd that

there would be another 20 to 25 patients continuing to come and that's when the second wave started to come and it was basically a repeat of the first. we had gotten some of those patients out of the operating room to the intensive care unit and we just kind of started doing it all over again, putting the patients that needed to go to the operating room in the trauma bay or moving people that did not out to the other parts of the emergency department. and i just can't thank my partners, my colleagues, my colleagues in nursing, respiratory therapy, environmental services, the support staff did a great job. i think it is very fortunate that this happened two blocks away. and it's very fortunate that we have the team to pull together like we do. >> do you want to talk about what kind of injuries you guys

saw. >> i'm the trauma medical director here at orlando health. so upon entering the trauma bay, as dr. smith described is somewhat what you would think of a war scene. the trauma bay was very full. we had patients in every corner. we saw the full gamut of wounds, from wounds to the extremities, wounds to the chest, wounds to the abdomen and pelvis area, as if they were shot from below, which is what has been described to me by some of the ems people. it varied in the size of the wounds from small caliber wounds to a very large caliber wound, which the larger ones left a significant amount of tissue destruction, which is something that we're not as used to seeing, something more from like a rifle, something you would expect with that. as you would expect with the

large soft tissue wounds, you also had large wounds inside cavities, whether it be the chest or the abdomen. so we had, again, the full gamut. but again we had the full team come together. we had all kinds of nursing, respiratory therapists, everybody come together. the orthopedic surgery team was even very, very helpful even in the emergency department. i had orthopedic residents come with me to help triage patients, removing tourniquets, things like that. so again we mentioned e.d., general surgery, but the ortho team was also instrumental in that as well. then they would take the patients that were maybe not as emergent after we had taken care of the critical ones and take care of the orthopedic injuries, as you heard mr. colon talk about with his. so again the full gamut of injuries. >> do you want to talk about the o.r., there's special places, as you can imagine.

>> dr. sandy, anesthesiologist that was on call. i'd like to first thank my colleague, dr. mark nakojima. i'd like to thank all of the operating room staff, the nurses and the techs. as was described earlier, the situation rapidly escalated from the first victim that came up. i'd like to personally thank the calm heroic demeanor and the professionalism that was exhibited by everyone that morning. i appreciated my surgical colleagues. we rapidly opened up the operating rooms in the face of potentially life-threatening horrific injuries. i appreciate the calm demeanor

and how things were handled and how it was triaged. we literally went from operating room to operating room. i believe we were on our 13th procedure approximately at 6:00 in the morning. i just want to just express my thanks and gratitude for what was exhibited in the operating room from every member that was there that morning. the cases continued throughout the whole day. there was never any downtime. we rapidly opened up as many operating rooms that was needed. i appreciated all the responders, from the nurses, from our nurse anesthetists and everyone. >> dr. havrand, you told a compelling story the other day about your experience going from one o.r. to the next o.r. can you explain that.

>> i'm william havron, the general surgery director here and one of the trauma surgeons. as dr. smith alluded to, i got a phone call and immediately came into the hospital. i was asked to proceed directly to the operating room. you know, as everybody said here, with a busy level one trauma center we're used to seeing gunshot wounds, we're used to seeing a multitude of injuries each and every night, but this was somewhat of a surreal experience. you know, we were just given patient after patient after patient. the o.r. would fill with a patient. we would proceed with operative intervention, whatever was needed, and then would literally walk from that operating room to another operating room and do it

again and again. >> we've been listening to the incredible effort from doctors, nurses, the entire staff at orlando regional medical center. among the first to come in contact with the victims of the massacre this weekend. we heard doctors say that they received calls to come in and not a single person refused. the first wave of injuries included between 20 and 22 people, while others were still barricaded and being held hostage inside club pulse in orlando. so we're hearing from two patients and a team of doctors who have spent the last two days helping those recover, the injured. the injuries range from, as you heard there, people who were injured as a result of the chaos to the more severe injuries of gunshot wounds. an incredible description from these doctors and these teams of nurses and others who were on site as well as from two patients. hi everyone, i'm tamron hall. we're at the msnbc world headquarters in new york. i have more breaking news for

you this hour related to the orlando terror attacks. nbc news justice department pete williams has new details to report this hour. pete what, do you have? >> tamron, nbc news has learned that the wife of omar mateen, noor, noor mateen, has told the fbi that she tried to talk him out of conducting any kind of attack. according to several officials who are familiar with what she has told the fbi, she has said that she drove him at least once to the pulse nightclub because he wanted to see it in advance and that she was with him when he bought a holster and some ammunition but that she tried to talk him out of the attack, she tried to dissuade him from it. in other words, that she had some idea of what he was planning and that she tried to talk him out of it. she is being cooperative with the fbi, we're told. she is staying with the father of omar mateen, has been staying with him in port st. lucie, florida, ever since the shooting

in orlando. the question now is whether she'll face any legal liability for the fact that she claims she knew about this in advance but didn't do anything about it. that possibility of filing criminal charges is being considered, we're told, but no decision has been made about that. it's possible that she may never be charged. but in any event she is being cooperative with authorities and obviously that she has some key information here. but the point, i guess, of this is twofold. one is that obviously he had been planning this for some time. we don't know when she claims she drove him to the pulse nightclub. there's been some reports that he was also casing or doing surveillance at other locations in orlando. i'm told investigators are not at all certain that those other visits were in fact to consider other possible sites as possible

targets. but he's certainly expressed some interest in the pulse nightclub to his wife, and officials familiar with what she has told the fbi say that she repeatedly tried to talk him out of conducting any kind of attack, tamron. >> obviously, pete, a lot to ask regarding this information, but going back to the very beginning here, your sources have said that noor mateen admits to driving her husband at least once to the club, pete? >> correct. >> and in that time did she or do we know more from your sources, if she tried to talk him out of this. do we know any more about her actions? did it go beyond trying to talk him out of it? did she make any phone calls? i guess what we're asking here again is always the question, how many people knew in advance of what happened here? >> well, that's something that's very much under investigation.

this was an obvious thing to look at because it's a question that's come up repeatedly in these terror attacks. what investigators often find is that other people around them knew or had a suspicion that something was amiss. it doesn't always result in charges. there were these questions about the wife of tam lan tsarnaev. remember they lived in a very, very small apartment and the authorities have concluded although they never found any forensic evidence that the two bombs used in the boston marathon bombings must have been built in that tiny apartment. the question was how did she not know that. her lawyer insisted that she didn't, she was never charged. the question came up again in the san bernardino bombings when bombs were being built in the home of sayed farook.

the question again how could the mother not know what was up and she was not charged. it's possible that noor mateen may not be charged either, although authorities say she has told them she did have a suspicion and she tried to talk him out of conducting any kind of attack. >> do we know, pete, from your sources when she drove her husband to pulse? >> no. >> as relates to charges, and you know better than anyone or perhaps can shed some more light, when people hear that it's possible she could not be charged here, that sounds so incredible when you look at, at least this limited amount of information but still very important that he expressed to her some sort of act he wanted to carry out and that's why she drove him to the nightclub, that he was going there to survey it or get a lay of the land there. >> if the question is what possible charges she would face? >> yes. >> well, that's not entirely

clear. there are statutes that have been used in the past when cases like this have come up. it's never a very clear thing. there's a couple that they're considering, but i have to emphasize here that they're a long way from making any kind of decision about whether to charge. it's just a possibility. one thing they're going to have to explore further is was this just sort of a gut feeling that she had? was it an explicit statement that he made? that's beyond my knowledge here. but what we have been told by several people who are familiar with what she told the fbi is that at least she had enough of a feeling or concern that he was going to do something that she tried to talk him out of it. >> and going back to her status right now, pete, is she now in the home or at least believed to be with omar mateen's father, who has also at least indicated he did not know anything or does

not know anything regarding his son's actions other than this alleged incident that took place in miami where he saw two men kissing and he took offense to it because it was in front of his family, according to his father. >> ever since the shooting, we're told, she and their son, remember mateen was married twice that i know of. i don't think he was married before that. the first marriage ended after a few months. then he married this woman, noor. she's 30 years old. they have a young son. they were living in ft. pierce, florida. but ever since the shooting, she's been staying with mateen's father. >> do we know more about her background, noor mateen, where she is from? >> she's from california. she's from california. i think they were married there. we have been unable to find any records of their marriage, any license in their marriage. florida has a very open policy

about public records. that's her in the picture that you're looking at now with her son who because of his age we're not showing his picture. i think this is from a facebook page. we've been unable to find any record of their marriage despite the florida open records law and it may be that they were married in another state or it may be as some have suggested that they were married in an islamic ceremony and it wasn't ever recorded in the civil records. >> okay, pete, thank you very much for these new details. i know you'll have much more later throughout this broadcast. let me now bring in msnbc's ayman mohyeldin who joins us from omar mateen's home in ft. pierce, florida. ayman, i know you just heard what pete reported here. now sources telling nbc news that noor mateen claims that she attempted to talk her husband out of carrying out some sort of act. at some point she drove him to this nightclub. it is not clear whether he shared his plot, his plan with

her. but we're now hearing a similar story that this did not happen with one individual, that other people potentially, in this case noor mateen, knew something. >> yeah. and in fact, tamron, over the past several days i've been trying to reach her because we know that she had been holed up with omar mateen's father not too far away from where we are. as a result of that, we were trying to get any comment from her in terms of what she may have known about this particular attack or any insight she may be able to provide about omar mateen, the state of his mind in the lead-up to this attack. the response that we are consistently getting is that she is not ready to talk. she did not want to talk. so perhaps with the news that pete williams is reporting that she is telling the fbi that she had driven omar mateen to pulse previously as well as trying to dissuade him from carrying out any type of attack, perhaps there was a reason why she did not want to talk to the media. but as we understand it here at

the home of omar mateen and his wife, it is not an active investigation scene. we know yesterday journalists have been all around the compound, today we were pushed further back. we were not able to get any insight from any of the neighbors here about omar mateen and his wife. they kept to themselves, they were relatively quiet, but at the same time here the police have left the scene or the fbi left the scene. they spent five hours on the first night after the attack, collected some evidence. the following day they ended up leaving. there was a car here parked yesterday and that was tagged by the fbi as evidence. but in terms of what we are learning and inspect terms of what we are being told that the fbi is learning from omar mateen's wife, it is going to add one more layer of this investigation that is going to be very critical. his father that we have interviewed and has spoken to the media, did not have any information or did not say that he was aware of any information that his son was planning this type of attack. in fact had he known his son

would carry something like this out, he would have turned him in to the police personally. >> ayman, the other headline this morning, the "orlando sentinel" reports four regular patrons say they have seen omar mateen at pulse previously and one man said he'd seen him there at least a dozen times. this individual, tye smith, is quoted as saying sometimes he would go over in the corner and sit and drink by himself and other times he would get so drunk he was loud and belligerent. some of omar mateen's former co-workers who turned him in as a result and he was investigated and questioned described him as someone who was temperamental and would become belligerent in confrontation. the other headline, msnbc's chris hayes had an interview with a man yesterday who said he and others recognize mateen from gay dating sites or gay dating apps, which is now part of the

big question of who is this man and what really motivated him. >> reporter: yeah, and this is what the holistic picture of omar mateen that is beginning to emerge as a result of these pieces of information that are trickling out. so when you juxtapose what we are learning from some of these men who said they saw his profile on gay dating apps, those that saw him at pulse, coupled with the fact that his ex-wife says that he was abusive, mentally unstable. his colleagues said that he had outbursts of anger that were sometimes racist in nature. the fact that he in the past had lied to his co-workers about his relationships with various extremist groups that really run the spectrum of jihadist ideology, you know, the fbi director said omar mateen at one point told his co-workers that he had some family relationships to al qaeda. he had expressed support and sympathy to hezbollah, but at the time of the 911 calls he said he supported the tsarnaev brothers and pledged allegiance to isis.

all of those groups really have very different political and religious aspirations. they are all in some way, shape or form connected to jihadist ideology but at the end of the day are very different. what is now emerging in terms of his personal beliefs, personal activities from relatives as well as colleagues, you're getting a more complete sense that perhaps omar mateen was not mentally stable and that may have been a factor in what led him to carry out this heinous crime. >> ayman mohyeldin live for us in ft. pierce, florida, thank you so much. coming up, house of chaos. [ overlapping speakers ] >> order. order. >> the moment house speaker paul ryan is shouted down by house democrats after dismissing their demands for gun control legislation to be continued. coming up, south carolina congressman james clyburn, who

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angry calls for gun legislation came almost immediately after the orlando shooting and that anger erupted in congress. [ overlapping speakers ] >> order. >> house democrats began shouting yesterday after a moment of silence to honor the victims of orlando of that massacre. frustrated by the lack of action on tighter gun regulations, they shouted "where's the bill?" [ overlapping speakers ] >> order. order.

>> democratic leader jim clyburn tried to seek recognition to ask about gun legislation only to be ruled out of order by house speaker paul ryan. >> i am really concerned that we have just today have a moment of silence and later this week, the 17th -- >> is the gentleman stating an inquiry? >> yes. mr. speaker, i am particularly interested about three pieces of legislation that have been filed in response -- >> the gentleman is not sitting in parliamentary. the clerk will report the title of the bill. the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill as amended. members will record their vote by electronic device. this is a five-minute vote. >> joining me now, congressman james clyburn. congressman, thank you so much for your time. >> well, thank you so much for having me. and thank you for making it

clear, tamron, that the moment of silence had ended before i sought recognition. thank you very much for that. >> and i know you were making that point because paul ryan's spokeswoman, ashley strong, sent out a statement that it's shameful that anyone would try to use a moment of silence honoring victims of a brutal terrorist attack to advance their own political agenda. you just made the point you did not interrupt the moment of silence. this was following that. let's talk about where you are, where the democrats are, the level of frustration that boiled over in that moment. what was going through your mind? >> well, i was thinking about the 17th, which will be friday, when the house will not be in session so we won't be able to honor that event or in some way commemorate it on the actual date. and i think that a very good way of doing that would be for us to move to close the charleston loophole. now, we all know that dylann

roof used a loophole in our law to get that firearm that killed those nine people. we ought to close it. the bill is up. the speaker won't let it come to the floor. there's a bill up saying no fly, no buy. if you're on the no-fly list, you ought not be able to buy a gun. the speaker should let that bill come to the floor for a vote. the same thing is true of people convicted of hate crimes. we ought not allow them to buy guns. this gentleman, it is now being revealed, had ra lot of hate, ad it seems that some of it was self hate. consequently this is not about isis, this is not about any kind of foreign terror, this is about guns in america and whether or not we're going to have some kind of moderation to this second amendment just as we have to the first amendment.

none of us believe that our first amendment rights are unfetterred and that's why the supreme court said you are not going to be allowed to yell "fire" in a crowded theater. the same kind of moderation ought to be on this second amendment. yes, you can buy a firearm, but let's have a reasonable background check that is completed before you're allowed to do so. >> you mentioned one of the bills that you want to see before the house that would allow the fbi right now currently, they can perform background checks on gun buyers in south carolina if the check is not denied or completed in three days, the gun seller can sell the gun to the prospective buyer. that is one of the bills you were attempting to bring attention to. why do you believe you're receiving and the democrats are receiving pushback from republicans on something that even members of the nra support, which are stricter background checks?

>> these people seem to worship at the altar of the nra. anything that they perceive as being unacceptable to any member of the nra, they do not wish to address. the fact of the matter is dylann roof may have intentionally given wrong information and it may take more than three days to catch it. we do know that there is columbia and there is west columbia. and that's what got confused when they looked into his background. did he intentionally put down the wrong city? they are only two steps apart. therefore, the gun was purchased in west columbia. as i understand, columbia was put into the record. therefore, they could not get the information they wanted within the three days. this is reasonable stuff. and we ought not worry about whether it's three days or four days or maybe even ten days to

do a background check when someone may be in need of mental health rather than the right to buy a firearm. >> the other bill considered or you want considered, fbi terror watch list bill. republican congressman patrick mchenry said of that bill that essentially this is an issue and that there are those that are playing politics with guns. his point was that this bill has the same structural flaws as it did before. the issue is us getting tough on radicalization of our people and are allowing right now the flow of immigrants into this country without sifting through whether they have any ties to terrorist organizations. at the top of the hour, speaker ryan was asked about donald trump doubling down, tripling down, whatever description you'd like to call it at this hour on his proposed ban of muslims coming into this country. here's what speaker ryan said. >> this is a war with radical islam. it's not a war with islam.

muslims are our partners. the vast, vast majority of muslims in this country and around the world are moderate, they're peaceful, they're tolerant. i do not think a muslim ban is in our country's interest. i do not think it is reflective of our principles. >> we've heard republicans say democrats, including president obama, are weak on terror. are republicans and their leaders weak on donald trump? i point this out because speaker ryan did not mention their party's nominee even my name or specifically there. >> well, you know, i have a great deal of respect and admiration for speaker ryan. i think he is a fine person. i think he is a good speaker. i would hope that the members of his conference will allow him to be a speaker of the house and not a mouthpiece for any one group of people in the house or for any one entity outside of

the house. so speaker ryan, i believe, is being tortured by so many of his members until he cannot do what he needs to do to be a good fulfilling speaker of the house. the same thing goes true for his party nominee for president. he himself has accused him of being a textbook racist and i would like to say to mr. trump and to my colleague, mr. mchenry who comes from north carolina, i'm from south carolina, and both of us remember the original name of the ku klux klan was the white knights, white christian knights. people misuse religion all the time. and because somebody is misusing muslims or that faith, we ought not be criticizing the entire

religion. we don't criticize all christians because there are a lot of people who do things that's called white supremacists as christians. and so there are renegades in every religion, renegades in every ethnic background, and let's treat them as they should be treated and not have any aspersions cast on any religion. the muslim faith, islamic faith is an honorable faith and we ought to treat it that way. >> congressman james clyburn of south carolina, sir, thank you for your time today. >> thank you. coming up, donald trump refuses to elaborate on his own remarks about president obama, suggesting the commander in chief has a secret agenda. what does trump mean by that? does the presumptive gop nominee have any proof regarding this comment? i will talk to his spokesperson from the trump campaign about

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we are back here in new york, brian williams with you with some breaking news. this comes from the pages of "the washington post" just handed to us. the headline reads "russian government hackers penetrated dnc, stole opposition research on trump." the story goes on to detail many more items from this revelation. nbc's tom costello standing by in our washington newsroom. tom, you've had a look at this. what else does it entail? >> brian, it would appear that according to several sources who have been speaking to "the washington post" russian intelligence agencies managed to get into the computer system, the servers for the democratic national committee. and the dnc, as the rnc would,

gathers information not only on their own candidates but on opposition information about who their opponents will be on the republican side. this could be a whole host, a whole variety of pieces of information. everything from where their -- on their positions on everything from nuclear arms to troop deployments to trade to intelligence, you can imagine all the information that any american political party would gather on another american political party as part of a normal campaign process. it would appear that the russian intelligence agencies, according to "the washington post" managed to permeate the dnc, managed to get into the dnc computers and gain access to information not only on democratic candidates, presumably on hillary rodham clinton, but also on republican candidates as well. and one would presume that would include mr. trump. the fbi was brought in on this, as we are told, and the belief

is that this happened about a year ago. the fbi coming on board within the past few months, alerting the dnc that there appeared to have been some irregular activities that had been detected on their computer systems and then at that point the dnc began to investigate as well. the extent is unknown, but you have what is essentially a civilian actor here, the dnc, versus a very sophisticated foreign intelligence operation in the modern day versions of the kgb, with everything that they have to bring to this fight. in other words, the entire military apparatus, the intelligence gathering apparatus, very sophisticated computer experts in russia who, according to "the washington post" were deployed in an effort to gain as much information as possible from the dnc's computer systems. we have calls out for comment from the dnc as well as to the rnc, but this would appear to be yet another attempt by a foreign

intelligence agency to hack into the american political system. last year we had hacks on the joint chiefs of staff, on the state department, on the white house, and now it would appear at least on one political party's servers. we do not know whether the rnc was also attacked. brian. >> tom costello in our newsroom. tom, thanks. over to andrea mitchell. andrea, people just coming to this story, now all of it confirmed by nbc news as well, wondering why the russians, why the dnc. >> well, first of all, the russians, the russians are the most sophisticated state actors. they have the best cyber attack mechanisms of any of the foreign cyber warfare adversaries, better than china, i am told. and the russians have been notorious. it was the russians who hacked into the joint chiefs last year, into the state department, into the white house, into the nsc. so it was the russians who were also reportedly behind the opm

mega hacking into the u.s. government. why into the dnc? that's where you would get, first of all, the playbook of the democrats as well as the playbook that the democrats had against the republicans. it would be the potential foreign policy adversaries of the russian government, whom they would be opposing. you can understand completely why this would be done. this is, of course, everything that we experienced all the way back into the watergate break-in at the dnc headquarters by the nixon white house, but here it is foreign adversaries who ramps it up. "the washington post" breaking the story and we've confirmed it all, brian. it just tells you going all the way back to when i would be sitting across the table from leon panetta when he was taking over the cia, he said cyber war was the next great front that we were not properly defended against. it has been very clear all the way back a decade ago that this is a major challenge from the north koreans to the russians to

the chinese and to other less active actors. now, that said, the u.s. is also very aggressive. as we know, the iran nuclear program was set back by a combination of u.s. and israeli combined cyber attacks on their centrifuge operations. so we are also big players in this arena. but it's clear that the u.s. government has been itself hacked and now the democratic national committee. >> andrea, like you, i recall that leon panetta warning and it's been interesting to see who has been equally excited about it and who has kind of forgotten about it. andrea mitchell is in washington waiting to go on the air in the next hour. just to let you know, as you may see in the corner of your screen, we're also awaiting remarks by the president of the united states on the orlando situation. back quickly, however, to tom costello in our newsroom with more. tom? >> nbc news has now confirmed

this reporting from "the washington post" that u.s. intelligence agencies do in fact believe it was the democratic national committee's computers that were hacked by russian intelligence agencies and sources are telling nbc news that those intelligence agencies probably realized they had been discovered because there was a series of steps taken by the dnc to remediate this, to try to immediately shore up their computer systems, to migrate their information over to safe servers, if you will, and in the process of that -- by the way, they had to do that in such a way that the russians were not realizing that the dnc was on to them. but during that process when the russian intelligence agencies were finally shut out of the information that they had been looking at, they probably realized they had been discovered. will they come back? sources say almost certainly. this is what they do. this is their -- the reason they wake up every morning is to try to permeate and penetrate their targets' computer systems.

in this case, it's the u.s. political system. >> tom costello, thank you. over to sean henry we go, former executive assistant director of the fbi. as such, a man who oversaw investigations into computer breaches. these days, however, and importantly he is the chief security officer at crowd strike. crowd strike is the firm, sean, correct me if i'm wrong, approached by the fbi, by the government as a vendor. either once this attack was discovered or in a preventative manner. either way, tell us what you know about this attack. >> brian, we were actually called by the dnc through their counsel when they saw that there was some irregularities. they were concerned about a potential breach within their environment. we came in, did our typical incident response. we deployed certain pieces of technology that we use to try to

get some visibility into the extent, the depth and breadth of this particular breach. in the course of this, working very closely with the i.t. staff of the dnc, we were able to identify with a very high degree of confidence a group that we have attributed back to the russian government targeting that dnc network. we know with certainty my time in the bureau and now at crowd strike that foreign intelligence services are constantly interested in political processes. they're interested in strategies. they're interested in foreign policy, et cetera. and the dnc and other ngos that have been targeted over the years by this very, very sophisticated group with a high degree of capability and some very, very sophisticated technology, brian. >> and if i'm the russians, what am i able to -- what am i looking for and what am i able to find and take away from the dnc?

>> when you think about the access to a network, what we do, all of us in our day-to-day lives, the type of information that we maintain on our networks. we've got corporate strategies, e-mail communications. you've got documents, word documents, excel spreadsheets, pdfs, those sorts of things that help us govern our day-to-day business life and personal life. the foreign intelligence services understand and recognize that organizations maintain this information and they are looking to get any type of advantage against, as the political process continues. to help them better develop their political strategies and to have a deep understanding of candidates, et cetera. in this particular case, this group, their level of sophistication is very, very high, very, very difficult to detect. they are able to maintain persistence for long periods of time without being uncovered. and because of that ability to

remain stealth in the environment, to gain access and then maintain that degree of stealth, they're able to look at these communications and documents for a protracted period of time, brian. >> so crowd strike is hired. crowd strike has done a reverse intervention of the dnc computers in a defensive pose. what's the first indication the russian hackers have that you're on to them? >> so in a case like this, the dnc was very responsive. they immediately recognized and had a high degree of urgency that this was important by calling us in. the key piece is moving towards remediation. how are we able to quickly kind of stop the flow of intelligence that's leaving that network and move the attackers off the network and provide the organization, allow them to build a network that is free from this type of tools that the russians had put on to the network. we came in over the working with

the dnc over the last several days to help them remediate that network. when they determine that they can't get back in, that the back doors that they have put in place and the command and control channels that they have set up, that they're not able to gain access to the that's their job day in and day out to collect intelligence and they'll take every effort to reacquire visibility in that environment. >> shawn, one more moment here while we res-sitre-situate our . we confirmed by nbc news, the headline reads of russian government hacker penetrated enc. that's not all they stole and it

is not limited to that. that maybe some of the most notable information they got away with. the dnc has quickly said donors and supporters that there is no evidence. they got their financial information which would be top of mind to a lot of people reading and seeing the story on television a brief update of the small picture in the lower right hand corner in the screen. president obama is expected at that podium to talk about in general of the fight about isis and in particular, the story that had been generated following the orlando massacre. that's in ornate room at the u.s. department of treasury right next door to the white house connected to the tunnel to the white house and that might give us indication of the nature of the president's remarks.

so still photographers and media people are standing around will know when his departure becomes imminent when it gets more real. it could be some time from now before we hear from the president. we are talking importantly with shawn henry who is a former executive assistant director of the fbi. he has been an nbc news consultant for some time now and president of the firm. crowd strike was hired by the dnc when they had a problem and shawn, companies and government agencies, hired you as well? >> yeah, most of our work is through the commercial sector. there is a broad targeting of commercial intellect property and etcetera, major companies

that are intunder attack as wels organized crime groups looking for specific information, those are the types of information that we are respond to that. andrea mitchell remains to us in washington. if you are the russians, what do you want to know about donald trump and why would you want the intel being held in the computers of the opposition party? >> first of all, you want to know everything about donald trump. he's new to politics say did not have a play book on him going back and you want to know what kind of advisory he would be and how could you take advantage of him and what are his vulnerabilities and you would want the psychological profile and all the so called dirt that democrats may have assemble against him and making it a lot easier to know what kind of

intelligence do democrats have against him as a starting point when you want to develop. this is a person that could be president of the united states. you also want to know everything about hillary clinton and everything about her vulnerabilities and where do they think their weaknesses are and what she maybe planning in terms of foreign policy, is she f viewed too much of a hawk because of bernie sanders challenge to the left and what is her policy is going to be on syria and on the civil war. this is as big as it gets in terms of the russian play book against the next president of the united states because they already know everything they think they want to know about barack obama. they penetrated the joint chiefs and the state department. the state department particularly vulnerable because of its computer system, the

state department was shut down for four weeks. the entire computer system were shut down last june for four weeks because of its own vulnerabilities to as we understand it, russian hacking. the secretary of state where a laptop was found and it was believed to be a russian hack back in the' 90s before the state department were up to speed. that's when the state department upper floors were closed off to journalists such as myself unless we were escorted. the embassy, the u.s. embassy in moscow which was penetrated and had to be destroyed because the new embassy had been bugged by the russians in moscow. this is only a continuation of what had gone all the way back and the fact that vladimir putin was an old kgb man. he's surrounded by all our

intelligence by former colleague and spy masters. even his foreign minister does not have good access to him and his closest associates with his former kgb pals. you got from the very top, russian leadership wanting to know everything there is to know about the main players in american politics. >> andrea, standby, i have another question as i do for tom k costello in our news room. what interaction at all with the other computer matter that made its way in the news and several weeks and months of the hillary clinton's private server. >> sources are saying no indication at this point of the private server was hacked. as you know, that's the subject of tremendous controversy and the political of spear whether

it is appropriate or not, she said it was a mistake, no indication, that does not mean it will happen. no indication that russian intelligence agency managed to penetrate that, i would say to be more specific on what they gain access to according to sources, it would be e-mails within the dnc and between members o f the dnc as well as people outside and chat conversations that would have been going on through those dnc servers and this may have started some sort of a fishing exercise, we give these e-mails appeared to be friendly of someone we know or fwrenriends of course, there is a link inside of them and if you click you could be snared and that may have been how this whole thing began. this appears to have been a situation where people within the dnc caught, victims of fishing just like average americans are everyday.

it is a common tactic. >> shawn henry, do you have anything you can add on the hillary clinton's server front? we were not involved in that at all. we have no indication if they were targeting. tom makes a good point, certainly, there are, their interests in political candidates but there is no indication that we got all of the breach of network or specific targeting of that. >> back to andrea mitchell in washington where you are and where the rubber meets the road, you know the republican donors and the democratic donors, lets take the ladder. this is the season, they are banging pots and pans together and trying to gear up energy and enthusiasm and urgency to get on board, we need your money and this is a costly fall campaign

and the case of the presumptive nominee nominee, she did not know she will have a challenger all the way through tonight's primary in washington dc. it is been costly and long. now, those major democratic donors, are you saying that they're going to be guaranteed, everything is fine and not of your financial records have been shared and continue to give as always or are they going to get spooked or scared, look for other evidence. >> you are talking about megarich peopmeg mega rich people across the country for the dnc and the hillary clinton campaign as well. clinton has a fundraiser tonight, i believe it is from 5:00 p.m. or 7:00 p.m. tonight to wrap up the primary season after the polls close here in dc at 8:00. this is a perfect storm. so the dnc is going to reassure donors already, and the chair is

being quoted by the wall post assaying they have been on top of this and they reached out and got crowds in. they did their due diligence and quickly got on it. the hacking went on for quite sometime before it was discovered. there is going to be a lot of ways. regarding the hillary clinton's private server, there is a couple of instances where we know according to the e-mails that is were released, they were fishing episodes where people tried to get in. there is never been according to all of the information that we have so far from the state department and from the clinton camp as well as other intelligence committee, there is never been any evidence that there were actual penetration or hacking in the server. ironically, one of the defenses of the clinton folks all along had been their private server under secret service watch at home was more secured because it wa