this sunday, the republican memo is out and the reaction is in. >> i think it's a disgrace what's happening in our country. a lot of people should be ashamed of themselves and much worse than that. >> the president's allies say the memo proves the entire russia investigation is illegitimate and that this is just phase one. >> we are in the middle of what i call phase two of our investigation, which involves other departments, specifically the state department. >> democrats say the memo is nothing more than a smoke screen. >> this is just the latest chapter in an effort to distract attention from the russia probe and try to put the government on trial. plus, will president trump use the memo to fire the man in charge of the special counsel's investigation, rod rosenstein?

>> you still have confidence -- >> you figure that one out. >> this morning my two exclusive guests, president trump's first white house chief of staff, reince priebus, who knows how the president thinks and makes decisions. and former cia director john brennan on his concerns about the dangers of politicizing intelligence. and super bowl sunday. the nfl's big day, and its big problems with concussions, politics, and declining interest. joining me for insight and analysis are "washington post" columnist eugene robinson, amy walter, hugh hewitt, host on the salem radio network and yamiche alcindor, white house correspondent for the pbs news hour. welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press." >> announcer: from nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history, this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. good sunday morning to a lot

of people. the headline of the republican memo was that it didn't live up to the hype, but that misses the point. the hype was the point. the pre-release campaign by president trump's allies was aimed at discrediting the russia investigation no matter what the memo did or did not reveal. yesterday president trump tweeted, quote, this memo totally vindicates trump in probe, but does it? the memo does not make the case that the now famous dossier compiled by british spy christopher steele was the reason the fbi opened its investigation. nor does this memo undermine much of what we now know about the russia probe from contacts between trump family members and campaign officials with russians. to president trump's admission to lester holt of nbc news that he fired fbi director james comey because of, quote, this russia thing. in fact white house counsel don mcgahn wrote in his cover letter clearing the release of this memo for public reading, to be clear, the memorandum reflects the judgments of its congressional authors. in other words, the white house counsel is saying this is

essentially a political opinion piece. still, many see president trump using the memo either as justification or an excuse, depending on your point of view, to dismiss the man who oversees special counsel robert mueller's investigation, deputy attorney general rod rosenstein. >> are you likely to fire rosenstein? do you still have confidence in him after reading the memo? >> you figure that one out. >> president trump is not ruling out firing deputy attorney general rod rosenstein after the release of a republican memo which accuses senior law enforcement officials, including rosenstein, of abusing their surveillance powers to spy on former campaign aide, carter page, who they suspected was a russian agent. >> i think it's a disgrace what's happening in our country. a lot of people should be ashamed of themselves and much worse than that. >> "the washington post" reports that mr. trump has told aides that releasing the memo might give him justification to fire rosenstein, who oversees mueller and is the only person who could legally fire him.

the white house is pushing back. >> we fully expect rod rosenstein to continue on as the deputy attorney general. >> the memo, which has been hyped by trump allies for weeks, alleges the october 2016 application for the initial surveillance warrant relied on a dossier compiled by christopher steele, a former british intelligence operative. >> four times they took this dossier and dressed it all up like it was some legitimate intelligence, not telling the court that it was paid for by the clinton campaign. >> but democrats on the committee dispute that, saying the fbi did tell the court that steele's information was politically motivated. also, page had been on the fbi's radar since 2013 when russian spies tried to recruit him. and the memo undercuts its own case, acknowledging that it was not the steele dossier, but trump campaign advisor george papadopoulos who triggered an fbi counterintelligence investigation into russian influence in july 2016.

now the campaign by trump allies to push for the memo's release -- >> #releasethememo. call the number on your screen. tell congress. >> has turned to robert mueller. >> the special counsel must be disbanded immediately. and by the way, nobody else will say this, all charges against paul manafort and general michael flynn need to be dropped. it's that simple. >> and house intelligence committee chair devin nunes says there's more to come. >> we are in the middle of what i call phase two of our investigation, which involves other departments, specifically the state department and some of the involvement that they had in this. >> joining me now for his first interview since leaving the white house last summer is president trump's first chief of staff, reince priebus. welcome back to "meet the press." >> good morning, chuck. it's a pleasure to be back. >> all right. let me start right on an issue that happened near the end of your tenure as white house chief of staff. "the washington post" reported last month the following. trump's ire at mueller rose to

such a level that steve bannon and reince priebus grew, quote, incredibly concerned that he was going to fire mueller and sought to enlist others to intervene with the president, according to a trump advisor who requested anonymity to describe private conversations. this was the conversation where white house counsel don mcgahn said would resign if ordered to do this. what can you tell us about this event? >> first of all, there's an ongoing investigation so there's some things i can't get into, chuck. but i will tell you this, which i think is something i've talked to a couple of people about. i never felt of all the things that we went through in the west wing, i never felt that the president was going to fire the special counsel. so i never felt the level of -- the level ten that that -- >> what people heard, it's possible the president uttered the words "i want mueller fired," "i want mueller gone" but you never took it -- >> i never heard that, no. >> the sentiment was expressed?

>> i think it was very clear by the president's own words that he was concerned about the conflicts of interest that he felt that the special counsel had, and he made that very clear. perhaps someone interpreted that to mean something else. but i know the difference between fire that person, why isn't that person gone, to what i read in that "new york times" piece. so when i read that, i'm just telling you, i didn't feel that when i was there. >> did don mcgahn express that concern? >> not in particular. but i'm -- but again -- >> is this story wrong? >> i think -- i didn't think it was right, put it that way. i didn't believe it was accurate. >> but you're not -- but you're not ready -- you're not disputing it in total. why? >> i'm disputing it from my point of view because i never heard that. >> you never heard it, but you're not -- it's possible he did express this? >> i think he expressed his concerns with the conflicts, but

i never heard the idea or the concept that this person needed to be fired. i never felt like it was relayed to me that way either. and i would know the difference between a level ten situation as reported in that story and what was reality. it just -- to me it wasn't reality. >> do you see a president preparing to fire robert mueller right now? >> no, no. >> you don't? >> not at all. >> this is all people -- >> i think it's news. i think it's a 24/7 obsession with this issue. listen, it's a legitimate issue that the president and all of his supporters, at least the ones that go on television, reiterate in saying they want to cooperate with the special counsel. they're not going to get in the way. and i've not heard anything to the contrary of that -- of that mantra. >> you've spoken with mr. mueller. that's been widely reported and i'm not going to ask you about what you told mr. mueller. >> i cannot do. >> totally understand that. but if the president asked you,

should i go before -- should i go before robert mueller, what would you tell him? >> i'm going to let his lawyers deal with that. >> his allies say it's a perjury trap for him. >> his lawyers will deal with that. there's certain things i just don't know. even though i was chief of staff, it doesn't mean that i know every single thing that his lawyers are dealing with. i only know what i dealt with. i can just tell you i've never felt that there was some sort of collusion or some kind of obstruction situation going on in the west wing. i never felt that. if there was ever anything at all that caused me any concern, i would go to the white house counsel's office. we would talk about it and it would get resolved. >> let me ask you another event in and around that time, also, which was the report about the trump tower meeting between donald trump jr., members of the campaign team at the time, and the response to it, what the meeting was. here's what you said the meeting was the day after the report on fox news sunday. just hang on. >> it was a very short meeting.

it was a meeting apparently about russian adoption. and after about 20 minutes, the meeting ended and that was the end of it. i don't know much about it other than it seems to be on the end of the trump individuals a big nothing burger. >> all right. you were not on the air force one when that statement was dictated. >> no. >> we now learned the next day that it was not about russian adoptions at the initial meeting. we have the e-mails from donald trump jr. who told you -- who told you the adoption story? >> that's what i've always heard. i mean, i heard that from -- from members of the family. i heard that it was a nothing meeting. >> so when you were preparing to go on that show and you asked what should i know about this meeting, members of the family told you russian adoption? >> that's all i ever heard that it was about. in fact, i still believe what i said in that clip in that, in fact, it was a meeting about russian adoption and this thing called the magnitsky act that i've never heard of.

i've never it was anything but that. but again, i wasn't there. i was chairman of the rnc. >> did you feel misled reading the next day that you find out the e-mail that donald trump jr. thought the meeting was going to be about hillary clinton dirt? >> no, not really because i think in the end the people involved, at least this is my assertation. that it was about russian adoption. i don't know what the meetings were. okay? i only know what i know. i wasn't on the plane. i wasn't involved in that meeting. >> do you know if the president was involved in the drafting of the statement or not? >> i don't. i do not. >> so it was just other people informing you of this is what you should know about this meeting? >> that's right. when you go on that sunday show that morning, i think it was the only sunday show that morning that actually talked about that "new york times" article. >> and asked you about it. >> right. if you go back and look at every single sunday show, that was the only one that actually discussed

it. but look, like all of this, chuck, and i can't get too much into it, i've allowed some of this to go on just to be fair with you, but i never felt that i was involved in something nefarious the whole way through, from the beginning to the end. so you can understand the frustration of the president when he's told he's not under investigation. i think you know the story of andrew mccabe that walked into my office, shut my door and basically told me that "the new york times" story that was in the paper, that first came out in february that said there are constant contacts between the trump campaign and the russians with the door closed looked at me and said, i want you to know that this story right here is total bs. it's overstated and it's not true. this is the deputy director of the fbi. i didn't know who he was. it's the middle of february. and so, everyone is in this

world where we're being told one thing and sort of operating in this other world of constant obsession by the media. >> i understand. one more question about one more event that has been unclear, which is the michael flynn situation and the issue with sanctions. we now know a little bit more. you had said at the time, you know, you had asked mike flynn, he did not -- that he basically misled you and didn't tell you that his conversations with the russian ambassador were that. you were the recipient of e-mails from k.t. mcfarland and forwarded e-mails i think from tom bossert that did hint that a conversation that flynn had. it's very possible you didn't read these e-mails, nobody knows. did you know -- when did you know that michael flynn did speak to the russians about the sanctions issues? when did you find that out? >> well, i can't really get into all of that because some of that is classified. what i can tell you is that there was never a time from the moment that this issue came up

until the moment that we discovered that it wasn't necessarily true, there was never a time that michael flynn denied it. in other words, every time michael flynn was confronted with the question of did you or did you not talk about sanctions, he denied it and he denied it over and over and over again. >> in fact, i want to -- there is one -- in fact, the president's lawyer said the following. this is in "the new york times." mr. cobb said mr. trump did not know mr. flynn had discussed sanctions with mr. kislyak on the call. after the inauguration he said, quote, flynn specifically denied it to him in the presence of witnesses. were you one of those witnesses? >> i was -- i don't know about not -- i don't remember anything about in front of the president, but i can tell you to me, certainly, it was something that he always denied up until the end. and here's the thing, chuck. if general flynn would have simply said, wait a second, you know what? i actually did or hold on, maybe

we did talk this. or don't you remember we had an e-mail that may have hinted? none of that happened. if it did happen, then it would have simply been, okay. is what you did right or wrong? if it's wrong, what are we going to do about it? is it something that we can correct? >> you might have been willing to defend it had he been forthcoming? >> or say there was nothing wrong with it. we never got to that matrix because it was always a denial. so it necessarily didn't have to get to the point of 12 denials. >> all right. >> and i've talked about this before, which is why i'm comfortable talking about it with you right now. >> i want to ask you about the relationship you have with the president. >> you bet. >> because steve bannon shared this anecdote about you and candidate trump after the "access hollywood" tape. here it is. >> oh, yes. >> and trump went around the room and asked people the percentages he thought of still winning and what the recommendation is. reince started off and reince said you have two choices. you either drop out right now or you lose by the biggest landslide in american political history. >> an anonymous friend of the

president said this about you. trump had long questioned the depth of priebus' loyalty. the senior official described priebus' counsel that day as a quote, stain. he was never going to remove the scarlet a.h. how much did he -- i've heard this about the president not just with you, that he finds a moment that he didn't like advice, and this is with any advisor, and he brings it up all the time. is this something he'd bring up to you a lot? >> he brought it up occasionally but he also follows it up with the fact that that day and the next day i was the guy on the plane playing both the moderator and hillary clinton preparing the president for that second debate. the other thing i'd say is that no one in the room disagreed with what i was saying either. i mean, so -- it's within of those things where -- >> they're hanging it on you? >> people behind the scenes bring this issue up, but none of them spoke up and said that's wrong. i mean, the truth of the matter is i was making a point to the president. >> you thought it was that grave. >> it's a serious issue and that we had to do everything we could do to turn this campaign around,

get ready for the second debate, apologize for what happened and move forward. in fact, that's exactly what he did. he turned that second debate around and then went on a three-week, five-speech a day disciplined campaign and won the operation. and look, if i didn't believe in the president, i wouldn't have transferred the millions of more dollars that were put into his campaign and the field and data operation to boot. >> where did the condie rice/mike pence -- >> i have no idea. it's not true. others in that circle when that story came out, we all talked to each other and said this craziest thing i've ever heard of. it's one of those fake news items, you could say. >> let me ask you about immigration. the infamous autopsy report in 2013 said the following. we must embrace and champion comprehensive immigration reform. if we do not, our party's appeal will continue to shrink to its core constituencies only. march 2013. obviously, on one hand, politically republicans, house, senate, the presidency. but the problem with hispanics

is worse today for the republican party than it was in 2013. do you think the president is making a mistake by not following your advice on this? >> well, i don't know about that. i think he is following advice. i think if you look at what's happening in the economy, you look at the tax cuts, you look at unemployment, i think those things matter a lot. i actually think he is doing better. i think he did better with black voters and hispanic voters in the election. i think we can do more. i don't think anything in the autopsy is wrong. i think the president's position that he's taking on the dreamers and daca is very bold. i think he's boxed the democrats in on that issue. i think it's going to be very difficult for them to walk away from. he's giving more than i probably would have given in the same -- in the same advice to him, but i also think it's clever of him to offer far more on daca than what most republicans would have offered because i think it boxes everyone else in. so i think it's very smart. >> final question for you. paul ryan is a close friend of yours, speaker of the house. he will not say whether he's

running for re-election. why? >> i think it's something he needs to talk to his wife about in the spring and make a decision. it's what they always do and i think that's what he's going to do. but i do think that paul's view of what fundamental is getting accomplished under president trump, when you look at tax cuts, you look at isis, you look at the courts, which is a historical record, when you look at regulation and what the president has done, you take away what -- you take away what the media wants to focus in on, which is the decision-making process and some of the drama, but you actually look at what decisions are being made and the fundamentals, the president is doing a remarkable job. >> so does ryan think mission accomplished? >> my point is he's accomplishing the things that he's worked since he was 21 on. they're happening now under president trump. and as wild as that ride has been, both for paul ryan and people like myself, you cannot escape the fact that the president is doing a remarkable

job on the fundamentals of what being president is all about. >> reince priebus, former chief of staff, i'm going to leave it there. appreciate you coming on, sharing your views. hope to see you again soon. >> thank you, chuck. when we come back, i'll talk to a man who believes the politicizing of intelligence is a very serious problem, former director of the cia, john brennan. it's easy to think that all money managers are pretty much the same. but while some push high commission investment products, fisher investments avoids them. some advisers have hidden and layered fees. fisher investments never does. and while some advisers are happy to earn commissions from you whether you do well or not, fisher investments fees are structured so we do better when you do better. maybe that's why most of our clients come from other money managers. fisher investments. clearly better money management. alright, i brought in high protein to help get us moving. ...and help you feel more strength and energy in just two weeks! i'll take that. -yeeeeeah! ensure high protein. with 16 grams of protein and 4 grams of sugar.

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welcome back. in recent months former cia director john brennan has become an increasingly vocal critic of members of congress who have attacked the intelligence committee. for ib stance instance, on thursday, one day before the release of the republican memo, brennan sent out a tweet that said in part, i never witnessed the type of reckless partisan behavior i am now seeing from nunes and house republicans. absence of moral and ethical leadership in the white house is fueling this government crisis. joining us is john brennan who is making his debut as an nbc news senior national security and intelligence analyst. mr. brennan, welcome to nbc and welcome to "meet the press." >> thank you. >> let me start with the nunes

memo. we know that the fbi is an agency that made the application to fisa that the cia was not involved, but you ran the interagency task force out of the cia beginning the summer of '16, included the fbi as concerns were rising about this russian interference. what can you say about what was -- what you believe the evidence that the fbi had to get that fisa warrant and how much of the steele dossier was a part of it? >> well, we, the cia and the intelligence community, had collected a fair amount of information in the summer of 2016 about the russians were doing on multiple fronts. we want to make sure that the fbi had full access to that. >> is the papadopoulos thing come through the cia, via the five is thing, how that works? >> i'm going to get into details about how it was acquired, but the fbi has very close relationship with its british counterparts, so the fbi had visibility into a number of things that were going on involving some individuals who may have had some affiliation with the trump campaign.

and so, the intelligence that we collected was pulsed against that. i thought it would have been derelict if the fbi did not pull the threads, investigative threads, on american persons who might have been involved with russia and working on their behalf either wittingly or unwittingly. >> you have said wittingly and unwittingly a lot. how much of this do you believe is unwittingly? >> i believe there was a fair amount of naivete on the part of individuals on the trump campaign. individuals who maybe were unaware of what their obligations were or how diabolical the russians can be. in terms of cultivation of individuals to work on their behalf. >> so the trump tower meeting, for instance, with donald trump jr., gets an e-mail he thinks it's hillary clinton dirt. if it's what i think it is, it's great. he takes this meeting with the russians. is that your -- you look at something like that, is that witting or unwitting in your mind? >> i find it foolish, number

one, and also irresponsible. senior members of a political campaign, presidential campaign, they need to be aware of what it is they need to do in order to make sure they stay on the right side of the law, as well as the right side of ethics. i find it inexplicable in terms of how that meeting took place and interest on the part of the individuals very close to mr. trump who wanted to get dirt on hillary clinton from russians. >> when did you first learn of the so-called steele dossier and what christopher steele was doing? >> well, it was a -- not a very well-kept secret among press circles for several months before it came out. it was in late summer of 2016 when there were some individuals from the various u.s. news outlets who asked me about my familiarity with it. i had heard just snippets about it. i did not know what was in there. i did not see it until later in that year. i think it was in december. but i was unaware of the providence of it, as well as what was in it. and it did not play any role whatsoever in the intelligence

community assessment that was done that was presented to then president obama and then president-elect trump. >> how was the steele dossier treated? how did you treat it? you said you looked at it in december. i assume it's been looked at -- it was obviously looked at by the fbi. we've now learned they have tried to confirm some of it and have had some success. some not yet. they don't say it's unconfirmed, but that's about it. >> well, there were things in that dossier that made me wonder whether or not they were, in fact, accurate and true. and i do think it was up to the fbi to see whether or not they could verify any of it. i think jim comey has said that it contained salacious and unverified information. just because it was unverified didn't mean it wasn't true. if the russians were involved in something like that directed against individuals who are aspiring to the highest office in this land, there was an obligation on the part of the fbi to seek out the truth on it. >> i want to go to the central thesis of the nunes memo is that the fisa court was misled. misled about the origins of the

steele dossier, misled about political bias. should -- we don't -- we are learning that the fisa court was certainly alerted of some political opponent being involved in this. how much detail should the fisa judge have known and should they have known more than they did? >> it's so hard to say because we don't have access to the underlying information of the nunes memo which really clearly indicates that he was being exceptionally partisan in this. as i said in my tweet, i've had fights with the dems over the years when i was in the obama administration to include on the senate intelligence committee's report on the cia interrogation program. but i never ever saw the democrats do something like this that was so partisan, so reckless and really just laid waste to the protocols that govern committees. devin nunes over the past several months, all the way back to the spring of last year, i think, has been engaged in these tactics purely to defend, make excuses and try to protect mr. trump. >> you were pretty rough on the senate intel committee when they released the so-called torture report.

compare the two. >> dianne feinstein and i had some very, very -- >> you went on this show and said some tough things on it. >> and i thought it was a partisan, one-sided report. yet, senator feinstein kept the republican members informed and did not decide to put something out that only reflected the democratic side. the fact that devin nunes and republicans denied the ability of the minority, the democratic members of that committee to put out its report is just appalling and i think it really underscores just how partisan mr. nunes has been. he has abused the office of the chairmanship of hipsi, and i don't say that lightly. i think over the past year he has demonstrated he has engaged in these tactics purely to defend and make excuses -- >> has he brought up any legitimate issue in your mind in that memo? >> if there are issues related to the process involving fisa and if there are concerns about how forthcoming the bureau is, and i think the bureau from what

i've been able to tell was very forthcoming, this was a renewal of fisa. if he had concerns, he could have hearings. he could bring in the members of the fbi and others and to really seek what needs to be done differently, but he didn't do that. he just put out publicly one side and a very selective cherry picked memo. >> i want to get your reaction to something your successor said about his decision-making process as head of the cia. here it is. >> government's worse than the private sector because incentive systems are misaligned. i led by example. 40% of the decisions that were previously made by the director of the cia no longer are made by me. you might say, wow, that's reckless. i would tell you it was reckless to do it the other way. >> i think there are a number of senior members of this administration who follow donald trump's way of trying to denigrate and condemn everything that happened before them as a way to make them appear that

they are doing things better than ever happened previously. and so, i don't want to address what my successor says. i don't agree with some of the things that he has said, but i think it reflects a general insecurity that only if you criticize your predecessors, whether it be president obama, or the former director of the cia, are you able to make points to try to trump up your credentials. >> republican opponents of you claimed you were politicizing the cia. there's some democratic opponents of mike pompeo that believe he's politicizing the cia. what do you hear from rank and file? >> i am so confident that the rank and file of the cia are going to continue to do their mission. they have been used to this before. this partisan sniping. unfortunately, the rancor right now in washington between the democrats and republicans is at an unprecedented level. the ones i'm concerned about are the families of cia officers and fbi agents. they're the ones who sacrifice on the behalf of their loved ones. to hear people like mr. trump

and others denigrate the work that they do and make distinctions between the rank and file and senior members, i think cia officers and fbi officers know that these are institutions that i believe have been well led over the years and that really are so important and critical to keep this nation safe and secure. so i just am appalled by the things that are being said. >> john brennan, you're now adding the title of nbc news national security analyst, senior national security analyst. welcome aboard. thanks for being on "meet the press." >> thank you, chuck. when we come back, will the memo convince americans that the russian investigation is tainted or that president trump's allies will do whatever it takes to protect him? the panel is next. s will do whatever i bibs on people! lobsterfest is back at red lobster... with the most lobster dishes of the year. new dueling lobster tails has two tails that'll fight to be your favorite. one topped with creamy shrimp and scallops, the other... steamed with lemon and herbs. and no, you're not dreaming, classics like lobster lover's dream are back too,

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welcome back. the panel is here. time for me to be quiet. "washington post" columnist, eugene robinson, amy walter, national editor of the cook report. yamiche alcindor and hugh hewitt. amy walter, all right, do you feel like you know more or less about the safety of robert mueller's job?

>> i feel as confused as i think most americans do right now. i think it feels a little bit like, you know, when you're in the supermarket and there is musak in the background, it's there, it's a constant noise but you can't quite make out the song exactly. i just want to go back to something else and do a 30,000-foot view about where we are and how we got here. none of this what we're talking about right now would have been possible but for two things. one, the gradual disillusion of faith and trust in institutions that's been happening over the last 10, 15 years. some of it by their own behavior, whether it was the catholic church covering up sex abuse scandals, sports covering up doping, obviously 9/11 and the weapons of mass destruction. some of it is that people as part of the institutions, even politicians, things are rigged, things are corrupt, right? people start to believe that. and then, so donald trump didn't invent this. this has been part of it. and then, the tribalism that we only will trust what comes out of the mouths and the opinions

of people that we already identify with. so this is the culture that we live in. donald trump didn't invent it. he certainly is helping to stoke it and not heal it. but this is -- we are here at this point and it didn't come -- it's not accidental how we got here. >> yamiche, what has mattered more with this memo, what was in it for the president or the buildup? >> #releasethememo was way more important than the actual memo. when i was reading that memo i thought, okay, what was the big news here? what exactly am i reading? then when i read the cover page, it was all about public interest. it was all about this idea that they were trying to explain to the public that they needed to know this, that this was in the best -- their best interests, when in reality it was in the best interests of the president. the president saw this memo as kind of murkying the waters, and his tweets saying that this vindicates him when anybody who reads that memo realizes that that's not what's happening tells me that this memo was all about just getting the base to start talking about it.

i've been talking to family members in miami who never really talk about politics. they're like what is this memo? i don't understand what is going on. what did the fbi do? that to me is the power of this memo. you have people now questioning the institutions without really understanding what everything is about. >> hugh? >> the memo proves -- i reviewed hundreds and hundreds of fisa applications for two attorneys general. i did that job for two years. the omission of a material fact is a big deal and that -- >> you don't know there's an omission of that material fact though, hugh. we don't know that. >> i believe it is fairly -- i will rely on the fact they did not say dnc/hrc, they said political. >> political opponent. >> they said political opponent. if i'm reviewing that and tell the attorney general, by the way, this came from the dnc and the hillary clinton campaign and that's not in the memo, we go back to the fbi, there was no division of national security at that time, and we send it back and put it in. if you were a corporate executive in america and you did a quarterly earnings report that

showed income from a source and you did not describe that source as sketchy, shady or suddenly compromised, you would go to jail. people ought to think about a fisa warrant as a quarterly report and hold it to the same standard. all that said, you and i talked on the radio. they oversold it. they should have put it out there without saying anything about it and they have hurt themselves as a result. rod rosenstein is not going to get fired. the special counsel is not going to get fired but this memo does hurt the fbi with the fisa courts. >> i think it's fascinating that the co-author of the memo and the man who saw the underlying intelligence, congressman trey gowdy, has been saying this does nothing to undermine his faith in the mueller investigation. and that of course there would be a mueller investigation, a russia investigation without the dossier, without -- even without carter page, without the whole thing.

so it is -- you know, this is -- we have seen the blowing of a lot of smoke this week. the smoke will dissipate. that memo -- the investigation is going to continue. >> bob mueller has spoken. when i say the probe has not spoken, but when it has, amy, it's gotten two lying to the fbi, two flips in michael flynn and papadopoulos. major indictment against manafort. looks like rick gates might be in the -- you know, he's just doing his job and stuff is happening. >> because he has a lower profile, the attacks aren't on him personally. so when he goes to deliver the news, it's a lot different than when, say, ken starr went to deliver the news because democrats had effectively undercut him and undercut his credibility and made it about ken starr personally. >> isn't that what this is? >> this now -- right. this is undercutting the underlying evidence that's going to robert mueller. but he as a messenger is more credible than, say, somebody coming out of another institution. >> if you listen to the trump supporters, though, and people who are really in his camp,

they're going after mueller. they're saying his name. it's republicans going after republicans and republicans going after institutions that usually were conservative. so you have this weird situation where i thought it was really important that john brennan was saying that, yes, i had issues with democrats but they never did what this administration is doing and these people are doing which is really -- >> i have to disagree, yamiche. i talk to all the republicans. mcconnell, ryan. no one is calling for mueller to be fired. no one is calling for rosenstein to be fired. maybe he might have to recuse on an obstruction case because he authored the memo about comey. i don't know a single republican of stature in the party who wants mueller fired. >> of stature. >> to yamiche's point, though, it is fascinating that you see people on the left of the democratic party saying how dare anyone attack the fbi. a and you see -- >> i'm old enough to remember, right, gene? >> and people on the right on the republican party, virtually the entire republican party, saying the fbi violating our civil liberties. >> by the way, let me put up the

quick poll number to support your point here, gene. among republicans, republican favor ability in the fbi in negative territory. >> and it's gone up among democrats. >> it's astounding to me. >> and sarah sanders said from the podium, of course he's not going to fire for mueller's firing. we can imagine that you in the press would do. paul ryan and mitch mcconnell know that people would go after them so they're being smarter than just saying that. >> i want to button up something from reince priebus. he kept saying i felt. it was interesting choice of words. >> he cannot be perjured. you can't perjure yourself if you can't feel something. he's obviously feeling like he's not a target and in the clear. >> when you heard the word "felt" that's legal advice? >> yes. >> very interesting. anyway -- all of you picked up on that and i wanted the audience to hear your guys' reaction on that. when we come out of this, we're going to talk super bowl sunday a little bit and why some people say they're not following

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could make history. what's in your wallet? welcome back. data download time. as divided as we are as a country, there's still one thing that always brings americans together, the super bowl. even with the hype surrounding today's game between the eagles and patriots, data shows the nfl and football in general may have some real issues to deal with in the public eye for years to come. people say they're just not

following the nfl as closely as they used to. in a 2014 nbc news/"wall street journal" poll we had 58% saying they followed football closely versus 42 who didn't. that was a 16 point net positive difference. this year, only 49% say they follow closely while a slim majority, 51%, now say they don't. that's a minus 2 overall for football and an 18-point swing in interest in just four years. so what's driving this? well, one clue could be in who's driving this. whites have seen a 12-point drop among those who say they follow football closely while blacks and hispanics have essentially held steady. and when you dig deeper, it's white men behind this drop, a 22-point slip among white men while white women are unchanged. in a politically divided country this change in attitude looks strangely bipartisan. the drop has been steeper among republicans, 15 points, but democrats and independents have declined, as well. studies have shown there are a lot of reasons behind all of this, but two do stand out.

player protests are clearly turning off some fans as well as the safety concerns of the game, both for the game we watch and how we watch it and the game our kids play. parents who have a child at home were asked if they'd encourage them to play another sport due to concern about concussions. the percent of those who said yes was up nine points between 2014 and 2018. among just dads up it's six points. look at this one. among moms, a 13-point increase in those who would encourage their kid to not play football due to the safety issue. to be sure, the nfl still rules the roost of american sports. over 100 million people will tune in tonight, some for the game, some for the commercials, and some, of course, for justin timberlake. but the real question for the nfl will be how many tune in on sundays next fall? when we come back, end game and tonight's big game. we'll go deeper into how the political culture wars have impacted the way people feel about the nfl and the role president trump has played in that. the role

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salute our flag. and why we proudly stand for the national anthem. >> back now with end game remark during the state of the union address this week about standing for the national anthem was president trump's latest swipe at the nfl, although a little more subtle than when he was in alabama last year. the president has been highly critical of players who have refused to stand for the star-spangled banner and mr. trump has credited himself for this year's slipping nfl tv rateings. joining our panel right now from jupiter, florida on the super bowl sunday is a man who knows a thing or two about both football and politics, bryant gumbel, host of real sports and hbo. good to see you. >> how are you doing, pal? >> i'm all right. let me ask you this. you had a pretty powerful monologue after the president's initial comments when he made those remarks in alabama about what owners ought to do to players. how does the president's insertion of politics into football, how has it impacted the game in your opinion? >> well, i don't think you can

totally ignore it, but i'd like to believe that at this point people of good will recognize the protest is about police brutality and has nothing to do with the military or the flag. yeah, it has had some effect on the lessening of interest in the nfl game. i think that's part of it, but i think it's a very small part. i think there are bigger issues at work. i think number one is i think it was malcolm glad well said it would be in 25 years socially unacceptable to be a football fan. i think the concussion problem is an issue. oversaturation is an issue. morning shows and television news shows. i think the one being overlooked is the nfl product is not a very good entertainment product any more. it's become an up tate corporate link and dink and dunk league. people aren't as drawn to it as they used to be. >> brian, hugh hugh et. how many of the problems are the flipsid3 of the college game ascendancy?

i'm a bucks fan, browns fan, go bucks first. how much of it is college has its act together? >> hugh, i think you're ride. you talked about tribalism. that is evident on the football seen as you know all too well. folks in bam aren't watching usc. they'll watch auburn, same for louisiana, texas, et cetera. so i think that is part of it, too, the college game is growing. the college game is not as much of a copy cat league, not as much of a corporate league, not a stop and go league where you have to turn instant replay every other second. it is a more attractive product. you have the diminution of the nfl, sunday afternoon used to be sacrosanct. you can get it sunday night, monday night, it's not that big a deal any more. >> bryant, gene robinson. how much does viewership have to do with specific stars and specific teams? the cowboys who were supposed to be good this year who are america's team, in fact, were

pretty awful. no incentive for all those fans to watch. aaron rodgers, best quarterback in the game, went down. sorry, chuck. was injured and, again, no incentive for all those green bay fans to watch. do you think that's a factor, or is that not important? >> you know what, gene, i don't think it's as big a factor as in baseball where you need a big team, yankees or dodgers or clubs to be engaged for the nation to be engaged. but i do think if you ask the owners, they would say, yeah, people tune in to see the duel between brady and rogers. they tune in to see manning go against someone else. and the idea of tuning in to watch second string quarterbacks go at it does not move the needle very much. they've sold teams more than individuals. i'm not sure it's that big a factor. >> yamiche? >> tell me a little about the social impact of president trump has impacted how athletes feel

the pressure to speak up. i think about athletes like kareem abdul-jabbar. there was a moment where he was active. muhammad ali because he's an african-american man to speak up. do you think they want to speak up because of what is going on or something more what they would naturally already be doing that? >> that's a great question. i think when the president weighed in, it enter jewsergize african-american athletes and unified them in a way they had not been before. how much pressure they feel, i think it depends on the position of the team and the team they play for, the owner's stance. there are some owners more willing to allow the players a great deal of freedom of expression. and there are other players who aren't. let's face it. if you are a star or if you are an indispensable member of the team you have more latitude than the guy who is barely hanging on for the job minimum. >> bryant, you interviewed mike dit ka. i'm not going to play the clip because i'm low on time here. a couple years ago.

i'm sorry, we were all stunned when mike ditka said he wouldn't have his kid play football. and he was almost in tears telling you this. but he just thinks the reward isn't great enough any more. >> yeah, a little bit of context. he was coming off of talking about a teammate of his, mike pile who was the center of the bears team that he was a part of and who was in bed seriously ill with most of his problems relating to his years in football. look, i don't think what he expressed is unusual. just this past week didn't we hear justin timberlake say the same thing? it scares people. >> i expect it more from justin timberlake than mike ditka. >> i understand that. iron mike, you would think he'd love football till the day he dies. our eyes have been open to the dangers of the game. it's not going to leave you healthy and of sound mind. >> bryant, on that note i wish i could say -- we are going to end

on an up beat note. it is super bowl sunday. that's all we got for today. thanks for watching. get the pizza, the wings and at our party we're going to have to boys, too. if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." >> you can see more end game and post game sponsored by boeing on the "meet the press" facebook page. this is frank. sup! this is frank's favorite record. this is frank's dog. and this is frank's record shop. frank knowns northern soul, but how to set up a limited liability company... what's that mean? not so much. so he turned to his friends at legalzoom. yup! they hooked me up.

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and in the second half, we may just show 111 million people how you family. ♪ ♪ tonight, who are the true patriots? a clash plays out on the national stage, and also it's the super bowl. this is kasie d.c. ♪ ♪ welcome to kasie d.c. i'm kasie hunt. we are on tonight and every sunday from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. eastern time. tonight on the show, take a memo. i'm joined by congressman denny heck of the intelligence committee and chris collins who sits on oversight about what's to come. plus, i talked to the man in charge of holding the republican majority in the