dramatic news tonight from politico.com. this incident that happened last year, last summer of the trump campaign, it was one of the first direct signs that we had that something strange was up in the trump campaign when it came to the issue of russia. it's an incident that came to light during the republican national convention. just in the last few days, the explanations around this strange incident that happened during the convention, just in the last few days, the explanations have started to unravel. we're getting some insight into why tonight. the person reportedly under fbi scrutiny is a joint russian/ukrainian citizen. he apparently worked as a top staffer to donald trump's former campaign manager paul manafort. he worked with paul manafort in ukraine while paul manafort was managing the political fortuneses of that country's pro-vladimir putin dictator this guy who is reportedly being looked into by the fbi to meet

with paul manafort after paurt was give an senior position in the trump campaign. this same guy, now apparently being looked into by the fbi, this same guy came back to the united states again to meet with paul manafort in the late summer right around the time of the republican national convention. and at that time when we were doing our reporting on the convention and what happened on the sidelines of the convention, at that time i remember reporting then that something weird happened that had to do with russia. this one thick that happened at the rnc that stuck out like a sore thumb. it didn't make any sense in republican politics. it didn't make sense when it comes to republican politics of a normal variety.

obviously the main job is to nominate the party's candidates for president and vice president. but they also have to formalize the party's platform. and honestly nobody cares about what's in a party platform. it's not like a binding document like you have to return on those things in the party platform or promise to do them once you're elected. the only people who care about the platform are insider party animals. and last summer it was a relief to those folks, a relief to the life long republican party actist haves who live and breathe republican politics, it was a relief to them when it became clear during their convention that even though donald trump was going to be their presidential nominee, he and his campaign didn't seem to give a fig about what was in the dumb old platform. i mean, in the platform there was really aggressive anti-abortion stuff that you could imagine maybe donald trump

himself would be wobbly about. this year in the platform they put in a plank that was anti-foreign. well, okay, when your nominee is donald trump, that's nuts. donald trump himself appeared in a soft core foreign movie. remember him in the weird "playboy" thing? right? so there's all this stuff in the republican party platform from this past year that doesn't seem very trumpian and, yeah, it's the social conservative stuff but other stuff besides. stuff that doesn't comport with trump the candidate or the way he campaigned for the nomination. but party activist were psyched when it came time to work on the platform and donald trump didn't care. let the ted cruz people, let the john kasich people, whoever else, let them get excited over that platform. it's not a binding document, who cares. that itself was an interesting thing to watch at the time. presidential nominee absents himself from the party platform process. interesting. but what was way more

interesting than that, what was riveting and bizarre to watch at the time that we couldn't make heads or tails of at the time was the trump campaign's one exception on the party platform. even hope the they let this other stuff slide, that was very much not in keeping with trump and the campaign, they did decide to get up on their hind legs and fight and intercede aggressively for one specific thing in the platform. one specific part of the republican party platform, and that was a thing about russia. there was a proposed plank for the republican party platform that said ukraine should get help from the united states up to and including lethal weaponry so ukraine could fight off russian incu and you know what, the trump campaign let everything else in the platform slide. even stuff that might theoretically have bothered them but that, that ukraine and russia thing, they jumped right up on that and insists that

plank only, that one, had to be taken out, that language could not stand and it was weird at the time and there was a lot else going on in presidential politics, it was the conventions, right? but even then as the russia/trump questions continued to percolate and got more acute over time, ultimately trump the candidate did have to answer for what his campaign did with the platform at his convention. >> why did you soften the gop platform on ukraine? >> i wasn't involved in that. honestly -- >> your people were. >> yeah. i was not involved in that. i'd like to -- i'd have to take a look at it but i was not involved? >> do you know what they did? >> they softened it, i heard, but i was not involved. >> i was not involved. in addition to the candidate himself denying having anything to do with it, his campaign manager paul manafort, who had done all that work in ukraine, he also denied having anything to do with it.

>> there's been some controversy about something in the republican party platform that essentially changed the republican party's views when it comes to ukraine. how much influence did you have on changing that language, sir? >> i had none. in fact, i didn't hear of it until after our convention was over. >> where did it come from, then. everybody on the platform committee said it came from the trump campaign. if not you, who? >> it absolutely did not from the trump campaign and i don't know who everybody is but i guarantee you it was nobody on the platform. >> so nobody from the trump campaign wanted that change in the platform? >> no one. zero. >> so after the republican convention the candidate himself denies having anything to do with it. his campaign manager paul manafort denies having anything to do with it, denies that neither he nor anyone from the trump campaign had anything do with it. how did it happen? don't know, must have been fairies. now that bizarre non-explanation, those denials,

have fallen apart because now a former trump campaign official has 'fessed up about it. he's a former trump campaign official named j.d. gordon and he says as a trump campaign official at the time taking orders from the trump campaign at the time he's the one who did it. he says now that he was the one who interceded in the republican party platform to get this language that would keep russia happy and he says he did it specifically at donald trump's request. >> gordon says he was a part of the effort that was pushed by the trump campaign to put some language in the gop platform that essentially said that the republican party did not advocate for arming the ukrainians in their battle against pro-russian separatists. that was a big issue flaring up at the time of the republican convention. that effort was successful in having that language in the republican party platform. and i asked j.d. gordon, why did you advocate for that language? and he said this is the language donald trump himself wanted and

advocated for. >> this is just one thing that happened on the trump campaign. it was weird at the time. we got these denials that seemed implausible about it for months, now it's falling apart. why now? why are people from the trump campaign now admitting that, yeah, they did change that plank in the republican party platform to make it nicer to russia? why are they admitting it now after denying it for months? i don't know. but tonight as i said, this breaking news, politico is reporting that the fbi is on to this now, too because this russian citizen who worked with paul manafort reportedly visited paul manafort while he was running the trump campaign at the time and he reportedly later told people that what he came to the united states for last summer was to get that language changed in the republican party flat form on the issue of russia.

>> you can feel the pillars start to sway here a little bit. now we have an explanation for it. now we're 'fessing up. why did you deny it for so long? what's the fbi finding? why is a russian citizen involved. every week we've had a previous denial falling apart. as we reported last night, yesterday in london a man named christopher steele resurfaced after having been in hiding for his own safety for weeks. christopher steele is a former mi-6 officer, the author of the unsubstantiated dossier of alleged russian dirt on donald trump that was published by buzzfeed in january. the top democrat on the house intelligence committee told us the house intelligence committee would be very interested in obtaining testimony from christopher steele for the inquiry into the trump campaign and ties with russia. adam schiff told us last night that his committee "certainly will want to get to the bottom

of the details of that dossier and report what has been substantiated, what hasn't and find out how mr. steele based those conclusions. he told us "if it's an issue of him not wanting to appear, him not wanting to face questions from the whole committee we more than welcome his cooperation in any manner he is comfortable. if it's an issue about whether he is willing to come before the committee, i can say i am more than willing to go to him. i know there are other members of the committee who would join me in that." that's an unusual offer from the top member of the intelligence committee. i will go to you, sir, i will go to a foreign country to get your testimony. stay where you are, we can come to you. this is a guy who thinks he has safety issues. this is a guy who has been in hiding for weeks in fear for his own safety ever since he was revealed as the author of this dossier of alleged russian dirt. the reason i raise the issue of that dossier in conjunction with

this new information about the trump campaign now admitting that, yeah, they did change the republican party platform to make it more pro-russian, the reason i raised these two things together, that dossier and finally us getting an explanation on what happened with that ukraine and russia plank and the republican convention, the reason i raised these together is because one of the baseline allegations of that dossier is actually -- it appears to be about that platform change. one of the things it alleges is allegedly a quid pro quo between the trump campaign and russia. "the russian regime has been behind the apparent leak from the democratic national committee to the wikileaks platform. the reason for using wikileaks was plausible deniability. the operation has been conducted with the full knowledge and support of trump and senior members of his campaign team. in return, the trump team has agreed to sideline russian

intervention in ukraine as a campaign issue. and again i have to stress that we need to describe this dossier as an unverified dossier of russian allegations against donald trump. but everyday now, everyday i lead my show and i think i'm going to be talking about something else but everyday a new piece of it falls in place and this is just the latest one. in the last couple of weeks and days, even into tonight more pieces of it are falling into place. the trump campaign used to deny that any of its staffers, anyone related to the trump campaign had any contact with any russians during the campaign. well, no, in fact, meetings between trump campaign people and russias have led to the resignation of the national security adviser, that's led to the recusal of the attorney general of the united states. the trump campaign as of last night is not only admitting a trip to russia by one of its official foreign policy advisers during the campaign but as of

last night they're now admitting this trip was authorized by the trump campaign at the time he went to moscow. now politico.com is reporting what is basically a direct russian tie to that change in the republican party platform to benefit russia last year. if politico's reporting is accurate, the fbi is looking into a russian national who was previously suspected of ties to the russian security services and they are reportedly looking into his role in what the trump campaign now admits were its efforts to -- what is it? "sideline russian intervention in ukraine as a campaign issue." to take russian intervention in ukraine out of the republican party platform as an issue. it's everyday another piece of it gets corroborated. so we will all continue to describe this dossier from christopher steele as unfounded and unsupported and that is true when it comes to the dossier's baseline allegation that the

trump campaign not only knew about but they actively supported the russian government's attacks on hillary clinton and the russian government's hacking and intervention into our presidential election to benefit trump but even if that is as yet in itself uncorroborated and undocumented, all the supporting details are checking out. even the outrageous ones. it seems like a new one each passing day. now the author of this dossier has surfaced in britain and he's okay. about any u.s. investigation of this matter. seems like a very important question whether or not investigators are going to talk to him, whether they are going to get testimony from the author of this dossier. with each passing day more parts of the dossier get supported by the facts and previous denials

by the trump campaign, whether it's about jeff sessions, michael flynn, carter page, about the ukraine platform, whether it's about paul manafort, their previous denials are falling apart. and we are also learning more in dribs and drabs about the law enforcement investigations and counterintelligence investigations that are under way into the trump campaign in russia and we are learning more dribs and drabs everyday about what the intelligence committees in congress might be able to do in their investigations, whether or not they do it. so we're learning more about what happened. we're learning more about what bull pucky the trump campaign denials were on this stuff. we're learning more about these investigations. what we're going to talk about tonight in part is that there is up with other piece of this that is getting clearer each day and it's something jeff sessions has not recused from and the intelligence committees are not thinking about investigating it but it's starting to feel like an urgent matter and that is the

question of what happened after the campaign. that's the question of whether russian intervention into u.s. politics into high level top level u.s. politics, whether it stopped during the campaign or whether it is still happening right now inside our government. and that sort of upsetting story is next.

yesterday at the state department nbc news intrepid veteran reporter andrea mitchell became the personification of pushy persistence trying to get the new secretary of state on

the record on anything. >> again, welcome. >> reporter: mr. secretary, china said there will be consequences for the deployment now of anti-missile defenses in south korea. >> thank you. >> reporter: can you respond -- >> thank you. thank you. >> reporter: can you respond to -- >> thank you, we're leaving. >> reporter: mr. secretary, can you respond to the threats from china? >> thank you. thank you. thank you. let's go. thank you. >> reporter: mr. minister, are you sure the trump administration will be strong against vladimir putin. >> thank you, guys, we're leaving the room. thank you. andrea, press are departing the room. let's go. >> reporter: we haven't had time in here. >> i'm sorry, you need to leave. let's go. let's go, guys. >> andrea mitchell is a very

nice person but she's obviously dogged at her work and at the end of the clip you can see how frustrated she is after secretary of state rex tillerson has given absolutely no response to any questions after andrea and other reporters were pushed out of the room at the state department by state department staff. it's clear, state department staff know andrea well enough to be on a first name basis with her. they have seen her at the state department for years if not decades but the secretary of state won't say a word. won't say a word. and you see the look on andandre face there. i think part of the reason andrea seems so frustrated is this isn't a one time thing. this keeps happening. this is the second time a few days andrea has been put in this position. ii mr. secretary, can you do your job with the kind of budget cuts the president has proposed?

what does it say about the priority of diplomacy in this administration? >> thank you, everyone. >> reporter: do you think you'll have a deputity time soon, sir. >> let's go. thank you, we're done. >> reporter: when do you think you might have a deputy? >> andrea, please, let's go. andrea, come on, guys. >> this way, thank you. >> out, please. out. >> when we first played that tape a few days ago my reaction to it, you might remember, my reaction to it spontaneously was raise your children to be reporters. it's amazing tape of andrea mitchell and how she works and how hard she pushes to get information out of people in power but you know what? in addition to being an interesting thick there to see in terms of what it means to be a reporter and how hard she works, there is something very serious going on there. what andrea mitchell was asking there -- what did she say? "do you think you will have a deputy any time soon? when do you think you will have a deputy? can you do your job with the

kind of budget cut this is president has proposed. do you think you'll have a deputy?" you know what, there is no deputy to rex tillerson at the state department. and his public appearances really are just silent tableau vivant of smiling men shaking hands and not answering reporters' questions. that's it. when rex tillerson first arrived at the state department he gave a speech to employees in everybody thought he seemed nice but he hasn't held a press conference or made sustained public remarks of any kind since then and immediately after he introduced himself and said "hey there, hi there" to the state department staff, they immediately started firing all the top people at the state department. particularly the career people who hadn't been there through president obama. they were there through george w. bush before that and clinton before that and george h.w. bush before that and even reagan before that and even carter before that. i mean, as soon as tillerson was brought on board they fired four of the longest standing top career diplomats at the state

department who don't turn over with new administration. 150 years worth of experience. when one assistant deputy secretary of state said what an honored the been to be a foreign service for 40 years but now they're telling me i have to go. those are the people they cleared out, people with 20, 30, even 40 years at the state department. all the institutional memory in the building. the people who form the spine of america's foreign service in a non-partisan way. the career people, the core, these have been the headlines, right? trump administration asks top state department officials to leave. or this one, it's a bloodbath at the state department. or this one, state department carries out layoffs under rex tillerson. two more senior diplomats leaving the state department. they emptied out the whole suite

of senior foreign service officers as soon as rex tillerson got there. and after that while he was leaving on his first foreign trip they laid off a whole other round of diplomatic officials with decades of experience, the most senior people in the building. those are not obama appointees. these people who have been the institutional memory and the core of the state department for years as presidents come and go. they have cleared them out and are not replacing them and there's not a deputy for rex tillerson at the state department and state department officials are not attending meetings between the president and other foreign officials. he likes to bring his son-in-law instead. and the state department only yesterday restarted its press briefings which have continued daily since the 1950s before they stopped abruptly on the last day of the obama administration. they only restarted yesterday and they're no longer going to be daily. and when the office of management and budget announced

the state department is in for a 37% cut in its budget, 37% we haven't heard a peep from the secretary of state about that. apparently 37% cut won't be a problem. looking at that thing happening in washington, turn the telescope around and look through the other side. look through the other side in terms of what is going on in this part of washington. if you're russia, whether or not you have a personal preference about who you want to be president of the united states, if you're russia, what you want is an end to the unipolar world where the united states leads the west and you're not part of that. if you're russia especially under vladimir putin you have no desire to be part of a western alliance of free count reis, in part because you don't think it's in your interest to be a free country and you don't want to be part of something led by someone else. once upon a time around the fall of the soviet union there was a brief hope russia might end up being a member of nato.

yeah, no. under vladimir putin instead russia has decided not just to continue to define nato as its great enny the world but to set off a hooptie knockoff. russia wants the united states out of a leadership position in the world. they love being seen as a competing military power to the united states even though the russian military is in no way comparable to the mesh military other than when it comes to nuclear weapons. if you're russia, you like being seen as a military power. you don't have an issue with the united states and russia being seen as competing military powers. if you're russia, what you hate about the united states, what you hate about the u.s. government, if you want to find a specific bull's-eye for it, it's the u.s. state department. because the u.s. state department isn't military force. the u.s. state department is

mesh leadership in the world. the u.s. state department organizes the world to support international organizations, to support the post war stable world that america leads. the u.s. state department is in charge of soft power, supporting american led interests with countries around the world. the u.s. state department does support dissidents in russia and critical media in russia. the u.s. state department calls out russian elections as hillary clinton did in 2011, calls out russian elections as neither free nor fair when there's evidence that russian elections are neither free nor fair. the one existential threat vladimir putin fears in his own country after 17 years in power, the one existential threat he fears is a revolution by his own people. an arab spring type uprising by russians against him and when there have been big protest movements in russia that have threatened to rise to that level putin has raged against the u.s. state department for supporting, no, for orchestrating those

protesters. if russia did run a massive intelligence operation to affect the outcome of the u.s. presidential election, do we think they'd see that as it its own reward? that's enough? okay, now we're done? or once you've done that is it time the reap the benefits of that? donald trump never met rex tillerson, the ceo of exxon, before the presidential election. rex tillerson absolutely had met vladimir putin before the presidential election. he was considered to be the u.s. citizen closer to vladimir putin than any other. he received the order of friendship from vladimir putin personally, the highest civilian award that russia gives to non-russian citizens. somehow rex tillerson ended up as the u.s. secretary of state under donald trump who he'd never met. and under rex tillerson, the u.s. state department putin's greatest nemesis in the u.s. government, under rex tillerson, the u.s. state department has

kind of disappeared. when the state department put out its annual human rights report like it does every year, criticizing russia like it does every year, this year there was no public rollout. the secretary of state didn't even announce it, they did no public events, why stress the issue. that is usually the highest high profile thing the u.s. state department does all year. this year they just press released it. don't say a word. the more we learn about the traump campaign and ties to the russian government, the more clear it gets that american investigations into that, they need to be aggressive and independent but i want to propose that it is also becoming clear that russia didn't intervene in our election because they like the cut of donald trump's jib. the more we learn about it, it doesn't seem like it was personal. it seems like it was to get specific stuff out of the united states. actions by u.s. political figures to benefit russia. things like the republican party

taking out of its platform that ukraine should get lethal weapons to fight russia and fight off those russian incursions. they wanted change. they wanted change by u.s. political actors to benefit russia. they wanted actions taken to benefit russia and also we have to ask whether they wanted actions by u.s. political figures to weaken the parts of america that most annoy and most undermine vladimir putin. is rex tillerson secretary of state because russia needed somebody to stand by as secretary of state while the state department was hollowed out, disappeared, and muted? because that's what's happening under him. we absolutely need an investigation of trump and russia. covering the campaign and before. with each passing day it becomes more clear. but who's investigating if the russia campaign here isn't over? who's looking into whether this is still going on?

this next clip we only have in audio form, no video, just the sound. but it's hillary clinton speaking to a private audience not long after the election. >> vladimir putin himself directed the covert cyber attack against our electoral system, against our democracy, apparently because he has a personal beef against me.

in the fall of 2011 they had "parliamentary elections" which were so flawed, so illegitimate that it was embarrassing and i basically said based on independent observations and analysis this was an unfair not fry illegitimate election. >> hillary clinton at a private event in december in new york saying vladimir putin tried to influence the u.s. election because of his personal beef with her based on his time as secretary of state what she's talking thereabout is documented. during those anti-putin protests in russia, the one time he came closest to losing his grip on power in the 17 years he's been in power hillary clinton as secretary of state was out there reminding everybody who would listen that the election that just took place in russia were

in her words neither free nor fair. >> post this past election in our country hillary clinton tried to explain to her support supporters why russia did. what she just explained was the same theory of the case as this guy, ex british mi-6 officer christopher steele who resurfaced in london after going into hiding for weeks after buzzfeed published his dossier in january. the dossier asserts that there was collusion and cooperation between the trump campaign and russian intelligence about the russian attack on the u.s. election. in that dossier, the explanation for why russia did what they did in part was this. "putin motivated by fear and hatred of hillary clinton." and you know, like many things in that dossier that has started to seem less nuts over time.

when the u.s. intelligence committee released its report the u.s. intelligence agency said it, too "russia's goals were to undermine faith in the democratic process, to denigrate secretary clinton and to harm her electability and her potential presidency." the dossier, the christopher steel dossier, it alleged there were repeated contacts between members of the trump campaign and russia officials before the election. the trump administration denied that aggressively for months but we know that to be true. the dossier mentioned a meeting between trump foreign policy adviser carter page and a senior russian official in july of last year. this week the trump campaign admitted it happened but that the trip was sanctioned by the campaign at the time. last night we reported on this senior russian diplomat, mikail kalugin who was working at the russian embassy in washington,

d.c. he's accused of being the pay master who handled the money side of russia's efforts to hack the election. the dossier reports that in august he was withdrawn back to moscow after he became the target of u.s. suspicion. well, in fact, that diplomat really did get called home to moscow and now we know, based on reporting from mcclatchy, that when he did get recalled to moscow, he was under suspicion by u.s. authorities for his potential role in the russian attack on the election. so this crazy-sounding dossier keeps coming back. now after two months spent underground its author, christopher steele, is back. last night on this show the top democrat on house intelligence made news. he said he was determined his intelligence committee should talk to christopher steele, should talk to the man who compiled this dossier. we'll have more on that in a second. but you know admittedly, right, some of this, the consequence is done, right? admittedly it's done. i mean, you know what hillary clinton is doing tonight? she's posted a snapchat video. she got a new hair cut. she's posting a snapchat video for women's day, international women's day saying every issue is a women's issue so stand up

and resist and run for office. she's on snapchat, meanwhile, donald trump is president and apparently tonight he just appointed his ambassador to russia. his nominee will be jon huntsman of utah. you know, in 2012, donald trump derided jon huntsman's own presidential ambitions saying that as ambassador to china jon huntsman "gave away our country" to them. well, now apparently that's just the guy to give away our country again. this time to putin, though, this time the russia the russia connection is about the election. it's about what happened to our country with this last presidential election. i recognize the election is done, but it's also about who is running our government now and with what expectations and what debt and i'm pleased to say that one of the young hungry investigators who is very aggressively on this is our guest next from washington.

stay with us.

democratic congressman eric swalwell is a new committee member. he posted this on his web site today. it's sort of an encyclopedia. it's like a one-stop connect-the-dots reference guide lying out all the open source non-classified stuff that we as americans know right now about

the russia connection to the trump campaign. this is very handy. this is a u.s.ful thing for a member of congress to do for his or her constituents, right? if constituents have concerns about links between russia and our new president, this is a public service. congressman swallwell is an active investigation of the house. he sits on the house intelligence committee, he's the top democrat on the subcommittee that deals with the cia and he joins us from washington. good to have you with us tonight, sir. thank you for being here. >> thank you and greetings from castro valley high school trojans who are at the heart of my congressional district in the east bay. >> as a three letter athlete from the castro valley high school trojans athletic department, i am very embarrassed by you bringing that up. but thank you. let me ask about your decision to post this sort of guide for your constituents. you've posted a lot of connect-the-dots information about this russia investigation. >> a lot of work on this issue

is classified. i wanted to let my constituents know that russia is not our friend. a lot of young people think they're just a cold war adversaries but we posted a lot of atrocities in syria and ukraine. then we walked through the trump-russia ties which are growing everyday. from there we point out the different changes in positions we've seen from trump officials from jeff sessions to the platform committee's changes and the president himself and then, of course, we point out the interference campaign russia ran and lead everyone to the independent commission that i and elijah cummings for and every democrat has supported in congress. we wanted to walk them through so they understand bit by bit what the evidence is in this case so you have called, as you mentioned, for an independent commission. a 9/11 style commission to make it out of the partisan-controlled committee process and to investigate this

as a non-partisan independent thing. i think my take on this increasingly and as far as i can tell from feedback from my viewers, people who i talk to, i think a pretty widespread feeling about this investigation is that if it is conducted by the justice department, which is run by trump campaign official jeff sessions, if it is run by the intelligence committees which are run by two trump campaign officials in richard burr and your chairman in the house, there's not much confidence that those investigations will be both aggressive and independent that said, nobody seems to be biting on the republican side about your idea of for independent commission. should we be worried these won't be independent investigations? >> i'm worried because the trump team and many of my colleagues failed to show impartiality on this issue. as each day goes by we know russia is sharpening their knives. that's a finding in the

intelligence report and we know other adversaries with similar capabilities will look at what is the united states going to do? i have to give credit to one republican, walter jones, he's joined our call for an independent commission and he's put country before party before. he was the first one to speak out against the iraq war. >> one of the things i'm starting to feel like is going to become a further avenue of investigation is whether or not if there was quid pro quo between the trump campaign and the russian government. if there was, in fact, collusion or cooperation, if they knowingly interacted with russian officials who were attacking our election in this way they must have promised something, they must have offered something. there must have been a thank you they planned to deliver and that may not have been during the campaign. it may have been something they plan to deliver during the administration. is it your understanding that the intelligence investigations would extend to encompass what's going on now in the administration? whether any of those favors might be being paid back in the

way the u.s. government is being run now by president trump? >> it has to and it has to look at what the consideration may have been because all the dots here in this investigation continue to connect and the biggest question, of course, is were any of these contacts or ties that the trump team had with russia, were they working with russia as they ran the interference campaign and now what we're looking at is whether u.s. policy toward russia is also changing. that would be pretty powerful evidence that they were working with russia and that russia is now getting something in return. congressman eric swalwell, member of the house eric swalwel man who represents the town where i grew up, which is just a coincidence. sir, thank you very much for being here. i really appreciate it. >> thank you, rachel. >> all right. we'll be right back. stay with us. and the urinary symptoms of bph. tell your doctor about your medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, or adempas® for pulmonary hypertension, as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure.

do not drink alcohol in excess. to avoid long-term injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours. if you have a sudden decrease or loss of hearing or vision, or an allergic reaction, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis.

i've got the best staff, the best producers, the best researchers of anyone who works on any show on television. better than any cable show on any network, better than any news show, period. i put up the staff for this show against anyone. and one of the hallmarks of how we do our work, one of the things that has evolved in our own culture as a show is you read to the end. the headline might not be the most important thing. the 15th paragraph of whatever it is you're reading, that might not be the news right now, but it might be the lead story tomorrow night. so you better make sure you read it, remember it, maybe make a file. and because we are like that as a group, we end up as a staff sort of competing among

ourselves for, like, who can name the date of the next state senate special election and what n what state and what is the partisan breakdown of that district. or who knows the partisan split of the connecticut state legislature off the top of their head, both houses, go! we're like that. tonight we're going to deal you in on one of those stories about which we have a file. can you identify on sight the person in this picture? do not shout the answer if you happen to know. here is the clue, though. she is an underdog. she is challenging a household republican name. and all of the sudden for a very interesting reason, she is surging. this is a story you will not hear anywhere else tonight. but i have a feeling you're going hear a lot more about it a lot of other places soon. that's next.

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when it comes to winning elections, republican congressman jason chaffetz of utah is on a streak. the last four races he has won, he has won by huge margins. 46-point margin minimum. on paper these numbers do not scream vulnerable house republican. but this does. at his last town hall back home, congressman chaffetz was nearly booed off the stage. he hasn't been home since. but his stellar record in congressional races is about to face a test. this is dr. katherine allen. a family physician from salt lake city. she is fluent in french. she sings in a lady quartet group thing.

utah, i love you. she has never held public office. but like a lot of americans, she has discovered a new appetite to get off the sidelines and get involved these days. she has been sending petitions to her congressman. she has been showing up to his town halls looking for answers. after months of getting no satisfying response from their congressman jason chaffetz, dr. kathryn allen has decided she will unseat him from congress. and look at how that's working out. she started by putting up a donation page, asking people to send money her way if they thought that she would be a good contender for that congressional race next year against jason chaffetz. she is telling people. this listen, i'm a doctor, i'm putting my 30 years of medical experience front and center. health care is indeed a right. should i run against jason chaffetz? she got a little pickup on the liberal blog daily coast. but then yesterday congressman jason chaffetz himself gave her a big helping of help.

>> but access for lower income americans doesn't equal coverage. >> well, we're getting rid of the individual mandate. we're getting rid of those things that people said that they don't want. and you know what? americans have choices. and they've got to make a choice so maybe rather than getting that new iphone that they just love and they want to spend hundreds of dollars in, that maybe they should invest in their own health care. they've got to make those decisions themselves. >> maybe you should stop buying so many iphone, people with cancer. in the 36 hours since congressman chaffetz explained how we need to repeal health care because of iphones, his unlikely opponent back home has quadruple her cash on hand. she raised $80,000 in a blink. and with that kind of support, now she says she is okay, officially in the race to unseat congressman chaffetz. congressional republicans are blowing it with their plans to repeal the affordable care act. what they rolled out as legislation is very clearly doa,

dead on arrival. in some cases they may be doing the same to their own careers. that does it for us tonight. we will see you again tomorrow.. first look is up next. i think he feels very good about the product that we've put out. we are in sell mode. we want to get this done but the president has an open mind. >> well, president trump is in sell mode on the gop's health carey placement plan, lawmakers in the house have been working overnight marking up the legislation. plus, a day after meeting with the president, senator lindsey graham says he's ready to subpoena agencies for evidence of donald trump's wire tap. they're scrambling to figure out how classified hacking tools were stolen from the cia. it's sparking privacy concerns for people across the country.