this culture is very educational for people. but i think we need to stop believing victims, we need to start believing the women. >> and i think those are strong words that the white house would probably take issue with. so that is why you are here. thank you all. that does it for us. "mtp daily" starts right now. hi, chuck. >> thank you for all of that. if it is tuesday, russia could be meddling right now. is anybody in the u.s. government watching? tonight the nation's intelligence chiefs say russia is targeting the midterm elections. and the white house isn't trying to stop it. >> has the president directed you and your agency to take specific actions to confront and blunt russian influence activities? >> not as specifically drektsed by t directed by the plus. >> plus the fbi director con are

a difficults tcontradicts the w claims about what they knew and when. and some democrats are pushing further left to battle president trump. is anyone even trying to hold the middle ground? this is "mtp daily" and it starts right now. good evening. i'm chuck todd here in washington. welcome to "mtp daily." the fbi raised serious questions about the white house's time line regarding what it knew about the allegations of spousal abuse facing rob porter and when they first knew about it. you will hear how the white house is struggling to get its story straight again. and we'll dive into that in just a moment. but we'll begin with even more unbelievable testimony from our nation's intelligence chiefs today on the issue of russia. we heard from the director of national intelligence, cia chief, fbi director and the nsa

director. national security agency. with each headline seemingly more alarming than the last. starting with this warning from the nation's top spy chief. >> frankly, the united states is under attack. under attack by entities that are using cyber to penetrate virtually every major action that takes place in the united states. there should be no doubt that russia perceived that its past efforts as successful and views the 2018 u.s. midterm elections as a potential target for russian influence operations. >> so that is pretty straightforward. but surely there is no indication that russia is meddling right now, right? >> have you seen russian activity in the lead up to the 2018 election cycle? >> yes, we have seen russian activity and intentions to have

an impact on the next election cycle here. >> director coates? >> yes, we have. >> anyone else? admiral rogers? >> yes, and i think this would be a good topic to get into greater detail this afternoon. >> the this afternoon part is a closed door session with lawmakers after this public hearing was done. and in a minute we'll speak with a lawmaker who was in that closed session. so let's recheck here. we're under attack. and russian activity is under way. but surely there must be a clear government strategy in operation to fight back, right? >> we do need a u.s. government strategy and clear authorities to go achieve that strategy. >> our job is to get that right information to the policymakers and get on with it because it is just common sense. if someone is attacking you and there is no retribution or response, it will just

incentivize more contacts. so right now there are a lot of blank checks, a lot of things that we need to do. >> let me update the summary. we're under attack, russian activity is under way and there is no clear strategy to fight back. but surely the president must be directing them to come up with a strategy. right? >> has the president directed you and your agency to take specific actions to confront and blunt russian influence activities that are ongoing? >> we're taking a lot of specific efforts to blunt -- >> corrected directed by the pr? >> not specifically directed by the president. >> he has asked our agency to corporate with each of the investigations that is ongoing and do everything we can to ensure that we thoroughly understand the potential threat. >> the agency has full understanding that we are to provide whatever intelligence is relevant and make sure that that is passed on to our policymakers including the president. >> as senator reed would then

point out understanding a threat is not the same thing as combatting it. we'll speak with senator reed in a moment. but let's sum again. we're under attack. russian intent is under way. and there is no clear strategy. and president isn't asking about one. john mccain has called the meddling an act of war. so can you imagine if say a year after another act of war like 9/11 the president didn't have a strategy to fight back? despite intelligence community warnings him of another attack or an attack that is ongoing, okay now imagine that the president wasn't even asking about a strategy to fight back. joining me now is michael leiter and former director of national counter terrorism center. welcome back. >> good to be here. >> you raised i don't you are a your aye broweeyebrows in surpr. a lot let unsaid, but the

biggest fundamental problem is there is no strategy and everybody is acknowledging it. >> well, let me identify one silver lining. we talk a lot about the politicization of intelligence and i think this is a pretty good day for the intelligence community and the fbi. standing up and despite the lack of statements to this point from the white house, they stood up and said as you have noted we're under attack, we continue to be under attack, the russians are doing this, we need to do something about that. that is the good side. the bad side is it is quite clear all those that pass has been thrown to the white house and policy community, nobody has caught it yet. >> and you heard christopher wray saying we're doing some things. i saw a statement out of dni after the testimony that claims that they are participating in this task force. and i'm going what task force? and a recently created task force. and i'm like oh, it is recently

created. and we looked it up, it was some task force out there, but there still seems to be an accumulation mode. >> in fairness again to this group, as intelligence groups, it is not their job simply implement policy. so it is the state department, defense department, justice department, treasury department who have to step up and take action. >> so these guys are just sounding alarms? they did their jobs today, they sounded all the alarms? >> no, i don't think they have yet done their job because there are tools of u.s. power through the nmsa, fbi, cia, covert act and the like, that can be tools to counter this russian campaign. but they have to be directed by policymakers. let's use a really simple example. they sounded the alarm less than a month ago when the white house had to respond with potential substantials as punishment for russian involvement in the 2016

election. the administration didn't adopt any further sanctions. so that is another clear statement. you have an overwhelming majority bipartisan in the congress. do something about this. and the policy team and the white house have not moved in that direction. >> clint watts sunday said there is not ever we can do if there is not a unified message out of the federal government. and at the end of the day, when the president is not saying the same things as his intelligence heads, there is no unified message. >> i don't think there is any doubt that right now the president's general opposition to the mueller investigation has completely overwhelmed the white house's ability to speak with a single voice not about that issue of collusion, but what the russians are doing now. that has to stop. >> if you were still running the counterterrorism center, would you be classifying what russia did as a state sponsored terrorist attack? and would that matter?

>> i don't think it would matter. the fact is we are under attack. ment russians are continuing to attack us. >> but it is a bit of almost more like a terrorist attack than it is a state sponsored attack. >> it is, because they are not taking responsibility. and that means that you generally will respond with similar quiet methods or you are going to also combine the nonquiet methods, the sanctions. and right now we don't really see the administration moving on either of those fronts in a meaningful way. >> and dan coates said multiple countries. i wrote down china and russia. we know there is more than just russia that is doing the cyberattacks. what message are they taking away from essentially what is -- what appears to be a mixed message coming from the federal government about how they will stop them? >> well, for a number of years now, it is really not just the administration. we have struggled as a country to implement the cyber policies that we need not just to protect

our elections, but to protect our banks, our dams, all of these pieces. and i think the chinese and russians still see this as an area where they can operate with relative impunity. not completely, but they can do things in cyberspace that if they did in spphysical space, i russians tried stuff a balance lo ballot box, we could address them. but we don't have the same set of standards to know what the appropriate response should be. >> i'll leave it there. as always, appreciate you doing this without the partisan political perspective. coming at it from a guy who has been in the room. thank you. joining me now is democratic senator jack reed, he have one of the tougher questioners at the hearing and frankly i think asked the question that turned out to give the most alarming answer. welcome to the show, sir. >> thank you. >> did you expect anything different when you asked that

question about the president, what has the president asked you to combat this issue? >> i expected a response that the president understanding that we were in the words of both director coast oig and othets o were under attack because if you are attacked, you have to counterattack. or the attacks will go on and be more and more destructive. so i was a bit taken aback that there is no apparent response other than to listen to the information coming from the intelligence agencies. >> you heard michael leiter i'm sure, he took heart in the idea that may for all the concerns about -- that the intelligence community will produce more politicized intelligence, that at the end of the day, you know, they certainly -- they were on a different message than maybe the white house would have wanted them on. >> they were individuals of

great integrity and responsibility responding to questions as best they could in an open setting. and i think that is something very commendable. i think they displayed integrity and fidelity to their responsibilities. >> so what does this tell you? they are basically waiting to be told what the policy is, they may have ideas, but they can't necessarily implement them on their own. what did you take away from this that needs to be the next step for you? >> well, i think what they indicated was their responsibility is to provide the information to the president, very deep tailed information. their responsibility to congress, to the american people, is in an appropriate way provide information. they did that today. and then the next step lies with the president to order effective planning and take effective action to stop these penetrations as best as possible. he had the opportunity with sanctions. he chose not to do that.

but at some point unless we will allow sort of untrampled actions to our elections, we have to take steps to stop russian incur against. >> i remember if the white house didn't create bowles-simpson, they would do it on their own. there hasn't been an iraq study group or a 9/11 commission. i know senator mccain was a big one pushing for some sort of commission to try to come up with okay what do we do now. set aside the mueller part of this. more of a strategic sense. could you force the president's hand and set up your own commission at this point, is that at direction to go here if he is not going to respond on a policy front? >> well, i think we could do that. obviously we could length lakoc something like that. it would take time and we don't have a lot of time.

>> but who is doing it now? we've been sitting here 18 months with nothing. >> i understand that, but i think the most effective thing that can be done is to focus public attention as we tried to do today on the responsibility of the government led by the president to take effective actions. the other factor too, there is a lot of peace meof piece meal acg on. you have lots of sectors of state that are taking some steps, but we haven't gotten the coordinated response that we need from the federal government. that was what was evidenced today by very honorable and decent public servants saying we've done our job, but our job is not to many cases plan and execute a responsibility to this russian incursion. >> at what point should some people conclude that it is almost as if the white house wants the intervention? >> well, i don't think it is so much that they want the intervention. i just think that they do not want to dwell on russian

penetration of an election because of all of the clouds circling around 2016, the collusion you mentioned yourself, that i think is the great stumbling block. it is essentially i think prevented the president from focusing on 2018 and looking at 2018 as a challenge to him and to the country. i think he tends to listen but not to act. and that is detrimental to our democracy. >> have you changed anything of how you conduct business for fear of how the russians might come at like whether it's your campaign, your senate office? >> i think every campaign, particularly the active ones now, have taken steps to protect information, to ensure only using trusted sources to be very careful about e-mail. i think that is now a fact of life. an unfortunate one, but it is

fact of life. >> do you have the kind of financial support let's say within congress to change the way you do business on a security front or do you feel like there is more work to be done on in a front? >> i think this is such a tremendous challenge because of evolving technology that in terms of our communications as senators, that has to be worked on constantly. as campaigns. ten years ago, 20 years ago, you said not have to hire someone to be your security expert for electronic communications. now most campaigns are doing just that. and it will be evolving. the threat will not diminish, it will grow as technology yeef invol evolves. >> is there is a point of no return if the president doesn't focus attention on this and get departments focused on protecting the midterms in 2018, is there is a point evof it's t late now?

>> i think every day that goes by, we are closer to an election which if the perception is that it's been significantly influenced by outside forces, russian or otherwise, will cast doubt on our democracy. and frankly that is what the russians are trying to do. not just the russians, that is what they are trying to do, they are trying to doubt our democracy processes, trying to question the legitimacy ever what we do every two years. for our lifetime, the history of the country, we've taken a great symbol of america. we have free and fair elections that are based on the votes of the american people, not the influence of outside entities. >> jack reed, democrat from rhode island, long time ranking member on armed services. thank you sir much appreciated. up ahead, the fbi contradicts the trump administration's version of the rob porter time line. and we now know about a new security agency within the white

house in a apparently oversees all this stuff. so why does the white house keep changing its version of the story? this new day looks nothing like yesterday. trails are covered. paths aren't what they used to be. roads nowhere to be found. ( ♪ ) and it's exactly what you're looking for. ( ♪ ) when heartburn hits... and it's exactly what you're looking for. fight back fast with tums smoothies.

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welcome back. is senator bob corker rethinking his retirement? if he is, he certainly doesn't want to talk about it. >> are you reconsidering running for re-election? >> i don't have anything to talk about today. thank you. >> that is not a no. >> a bright smile on his face though. a senior adviser says it is true senator corker has been encouraged by people across tennessee and in the u.s. senate to reconsider his decision, but at this point, nothing has changed. at this point. corker is getting that question after multiple reports claim that he is reconsidering his decision to step down. including this one in politico that corker is weighing his options as the gop supposedly

frets about losing his tennessee seat. but these reports raise a lot of questions. first, is this really about concern that republicans will lose that seat or is it more about a washington establishment concern that a nonestablishment figure perhaps like a republican congresswoman named marsha blackburn might win that seat? wanted to, could corker win a gop primary begin his past statements on trump? he'd likely need an endorsement from the president if he was going to do this. and whether he'd get that and whether he'd ask for it are also questions. we'll be back with more of "mtp daily." re wrap. 3, 2, 1... not cool. freezing away fat cells with coolsculpting? now that's cool! coolsculpting safely freezes and removes fat cells with little or no downtime. and no surgery. results and patient experience may vary. some rare side effects include temporary numbness, discomfort and swelling. ask your doctor if coolsculpting is right for you and visit coolsculpting.com today...

for your chance to win a free treatment. going somewhere? whoooo. here's some advice. tripadvisor now searches more... ...than 200 booking sites - to find the hotel you want and save you up to 30%. trust this bird's words. tripadvisor. had a little incident witht kia moped in bermuda.e. oh. even with insurance, we had to dip into our 401(k) and it set us back a little bit. sometimes you don't have a choice. but it doesn't mean you guys can't get back on track. great. great. yeah. no judgment. just guidance. td ameritrade. welcome back. another major development today at the senate hearing was this, chris wray appeared to directly contradict the white house's account of what it knew about the allegation of spousal abuse facing rob porter and when. the white house said the fbi review was on goiging on. at the same time, fbi says nope,

it was quote closed. white house said they hadn't received any specific papers about a completed background check. the fbi says they did most certainly give that information to the white house. which kept him on staff and kept giving him access to sensitive information. and the fbi says it gave the white house a partial report on porter last march months earlier than the white house has reportedly claimed it first learned there was any issue. this afternoon sarah huckabee sanders was again repeatedly pressed on the time line. >> christopher wray said it was closed in january. who is telling the truth? >> both. as i said, the fbi portion was closed. the white house personnel security office who is the one that makes the recommendation forred a jude da ed a juadjudic finished their work or made a recommendation to the white house. >> and you said yesterday that you didn't get any paperwork from the fbi. chris wray says he did submit

paperwork. >> again, that would come through the white house personnel security office which had not completed their investigation and not passed that information to the white house. >> well, let's bring in the panel. elaine cooper, eugene robinson and danielle plutka. i'll start but, you have covered whout white houses and the security clearance issues. the new piece of information that sarah huckabee sanders has given us is now the white house personnel security office which tells me that what she is saying is the fbi background checks were simply suggestions. that is essentially what she's confirming, they were suggestions and they would take them into account with whatever extra vetting they were doing. which we did not know.

>> we did not. this is -- watching that press conference today, i felt it was incredibly surreal. it seems as if this white house has sort of lost the ability even to state just things that would seem completely true in any kind of a credible way. and when she starts dancing around like that, it just came across as some sort of circular where you keep going around and around an argument where she lost all credibility whatsoever. >> it feels to me that if the problem is white house staffers aren't telling each other the truth because they don't have their straight story. >> well, let's ask the white house personnel security office whatever that is. who is in a nthat thain a that ? >> i'm sure that -- i thought the white house counsel office

was the head of vetting. >> that's how houshl it comko through. but if the fbi says there is a problem, there is a problem. >> this is all highly weird for a number of reasons. i feel sorry for sarah huckabee sanders when i watch her because i think a lot of this is actually driven by incompetence and not by -- >> today screams incompetence. >> but i still don't understand. i had a security clearance. i had an interim security clearance. in my day when you had interim, you could only have up to secret. this man was the staff secretary. we've forgotten in the wife beating who told who what what his job was. he carries papers to the president of the united states. that means that every single thing that went to the president no matter what its classification was being carried by this gentleman. and what i don't understand is how. >> i mate to be crass, but if you were a foreign entity and you were looking to go after a

person that the public didn't know about but you wanted to gets a a source, it would be rob porter. the staff secretary is a vulnerable guy. >> this is why you have a background check. youie treatment right now would be fabulous. >> basically the concern was ultimately it is about are you blackmailable. >> which this is a central question at the heart of so -- >> a person with good character. and i answer two or three of these a week thousand. >> so you are being called quite a bit. >> absolutely. washington is a small town. and the fact is i'm sure that the conversation that was head between general kelly and rob was very straightforward. so i'm hearing you got a little trouble with some of your ex-wives. yeah, you know, a lot of rancor, not a pretty divorce. >> probably i'll fix it. probably said i'll take care of it. >> and nobody bothered to say hey, so punched one in the face?

>> and why do we have two? one i might be able to say okay, maybe there is a miscommunication. >> and a girlfriend. >> right, and the girlfriend. >> look, it feels like the only conclusion you can come to is that there is, whether it is because of the president's own personal character issues or the inability to recruit good people to stay, that they just -- >> i think you need both those things. >> they were desperately looking for reasons to keep him. >> and i think you need the sort of dearth of really qualified effective personnel in the white house. >> who goes in now? i mean this is -- look, i have somebody very close to the president who is petrified of this, who sits there and says look, they got the b-minus team and i'm being generous, what are they going to get now? >> that is the worry for everybody. i know lots of people, wonderful people who serve in this administration. there is a huge professional

group of people whether democrats or republicans who go in and out of administrations. but most of those who i know in this administration are not willing for serve in what they call the blast zone, a wh whiche chous. >> but this has been an issue ever since donald trump won the election. bheed l we immediately started writing all the stories about the never trump americans and will he ever forgive those people and he wasn't. he didn't want to do that. he didn't want to have to -- >> now he's forgiving people with spousal abuse over and above forgiving somebody who supported marco rubio. >> that is because that doesn't matter as much to him beating your wife doesn't hurt him as much as somebody saying something about him that he didn't like. this is a man who takes every single thing personally. >> and it hurts him over and over again but he continues to do it. >> all right. i think john kelly has hit his

trump sell-by date. if it wasn't this incident, there might be something else. how much of this do you think this is just if you look at the pattern here that goes back two years, the person in his ear only lasts about 6 to 9 months? >> well, that is true for the president. on the other hand, what we've seen is that people who appear to hit a sell-by date, if they stick around and they get over the hump, the spotlight turns away. >> tillerson. >> yeah, he's still working. >> sessions is still there. we have a betting pool about mattis. >> we did not have a betting pool about mattis. >> she just gave away a trade secret. maybe they do at aei, guys. >> and the truth is, you know, they are all still there. >> dani lost the pool. you guys will stick around. i want to go back to the russia interference story later in the hour. we'll be right back. >> tech: at safelite autoglass

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welcome back. no question about it, the left flank of the democratic party is fired up. but while some are concerned that anti-trump fire could burn

moderate democrats, others are stoking the flames. one of them, new york senator kirsten gillibrand. once a conservative democrat in upstate new york, but now that she's mulling a presidential run, her positions are rapidly moving left on things like immigration and gun rights that had garnered her an a-rating there the nra. >> i couldn't have been more wrong. i only had the lens of upstate new york. >> but you had lived in new york city for a decade. traveled abroad. >> i was wrong. >> you were against sanctuary cities, you become senator. why the flip? >> i didn't take the time to understand why these issues mattered because it wasn't right in front of me. and that was my fault. it was something that i'm embarrassed about. and i'm ashamed of. >> embarrassed and ashamed. her shift makes us wonder. is there any room left for centrists in the democratic party? she moved and she burned that bridge with that answer.

joel benneonson is joining me now. good to see you, sir. >> thank you. >> and let me start with kirsten gillibrand is not the first politician to move closer to a party's base be it republican or democrat. but what struck me is classifying the idea of having sort of center left positions and certainly what center left was in '06 inside the democratic party, being embarrassed and ashamed. well, she espoused a similar gun position as jon tester still does. she espoused a similar position as john manchin might. and can you message both ways here? >> agree with you in part and i disagree in part. i think you've hit the nail on the head that the problem isn't

that she changed these positions, and by the way her change was quite a while back. i think the nature of the answers 24though, it is not so much that there isn't room for the center, but if you are thinking about running for president and what you are saying to the american people is i didn't look beyond my own backyard to think about issues more broadly? i think that is a weakness and a real problem that will hold her back if she wants to run for president. if you think back to how barack obama introduced himself to the nation in 2004, it was by going big, about this immensely beautiful vision about not red states or blue states, but one united states of america. people want a president with vision who can see big for what this country needs, and that narrowed it down. so i don't think she is saying the positions were embarrassing. i think she was taking personal responsibility, but i think that still will be problematic if you want to run for president. >> that is interesting. and i think you're right, that presents unique challenges to her. but the reason i go bigger on

this and this question of sort of as the democratic party -- look, center of gravity is moving farther to the left. we can debate how far. but it is certainly moving there directionally. do you send a message for gun owners we're embarrassed to even have you in the party? and unfortunately, because look, whether we like it or not, the gun position we know there is nuance. most americans know there is nuance. in politics that nuance gets lost quickly. and the message that people hear is, oh, i own a gun, she is embarrassed. >> no, i don't think that is the democratic message by any stretch. i think on an issue like guns, there are responsible gun owners who agree we should have background checks completed before a person can buy a gun. that is not a radical position to responsible gun owners. and i think that look, you are right about the center of gravity maybe you moving to the left in the democratic party, but the center of gravity in

america is not. and so i think that in a lot of states and in a national election, we have to recognize as democrats that the flur ramiram i plural rality identify as moderate. and if there are govern ownareo is around background check being completed before someone like dylann roof can get his hands on a gun when he know he mos down n a church. >> and she also ended up stumbling upon another i guess new problem now and i would say for the 21st century which is it is very hard to be a regional or local member of a party without the national persona consuming you. so used to be you could be -- i

know joe man chchin wants to be west virginia democrat, but everything is nationalized now. like it is hard he to er to be massachusetts republican and somehow not stay away completely. maybe the governor of plas ma massachusetts might pull that off uniquely. but over time that is difficult to do. how do you deal with that aspect? she was trying to say hey, i was just being representative of central new york. is that such a bad thing? >> well, remember tip o'neill former speaker of the house once said all politics is local. >> and i totally disagree now. >> i think there are two things happening that will affect our politics for the long term. one is we don't really have a national conversation anymore. people are more and more consuming the media that they agree with and that is going to continue to create polarization except when we have yunique

candidates who find a way to bridge that during national elections. as for the parties themselves, i think you are going to so he a l see a lot of conversation already about 2018 is the fact that we still have these gerrymandered districts that were created in these red and purple states that will make it hard for democrats to win seats. i don't think we can confuse what happens on shows like this and others where there may be a national audience for part of the time when 80% of the time people are consuming their local news, the digital content that they agree with. it is creating divisions and polarizations that make it harder for folks in washington to compromise. and that is a long term problem that we have to come to grips with. >> that is probably the biggest problem of them all. great conversation. thank you. appreciate it. up ahead, a shocking bit of honesty from a washington politician. how is that for a tease? u. ♪ imagine if the things you bought every day... earned you miles to get to the places you really want to go.

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and the ones we love. who never stop wondering what we'll do or where we'll go next. we the people who are better together than we are alone... are unstoppable. welcome to the entirely new expedition. tonight i'm obsessed with something that handed that is astonishingly rare. a politician was openly honest about spinning. today's mick mulvaney is the director of office of management and budget. yesterday's mick mulvaney was a congressman who claimed to be a deficit talk. today he came out in favor of a budget busting deal that he admits yesterday's mulvaney would have rejected. in fact here is what he told the senate budget committee.

>> as a member of congress representing the fifth district of south carolina, i probably would have found enough shortcomings in this to vote against it, but i'm the director of the office of management and budget and my job is to try to fund the president's priorities which is exactly what we did. >> so to the omb director mulvaney, this is a good deal budget. to congressman mulvaney, budget deal very bad. we're not here to try to criticize mulmulvaney, we're gig him credit. but we're left wondering which mick mulvaney is the real mick mulvaney and isn't this the problem with congress? members can shamelessly grand stand for their constituents without worrying about the consequences. barack obama when he was a senator voted against john roberts for political purposes and then realized when he got to appoint on supreme court justices how frustrated he was that people passed political votes rather than on whether they were prepared for the job. the trouble is if enough members on either side continue to choose grand standing over

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time for the lid, the panel is back. first i want to go to russia. dan yell, what did you hear today from all these intelligence chiefs? did any of it make you concerned or frustrated? i wasn't surprised but i've been frustrated, i guess. >> i've been frustrated for a long time. what we heard today is that the russians will seek to interfere in the 2018 elections. >> they already did it. >> they have done it before. in the european election, they tried it, they'll try it in france next month. >> and in the czech republic. >> it and hungary and elsewhere. but the problem for us has been and this is not a new issue as

the secretary or the director testified. the problem is we don't try and take it back to them. we don't under president trump, we didn't under president obama and we didn't do it under president bush. >> it's like who's in charge here? >> you would expect that at this point the president of the executive branch would issue a directive or sort of direct people to look into this a little bit more aggressively. but we do -- this isn't something that's going to be very high on president trump's to do list for obvious reasons. >> but it was clear that there's not a point person, though, i mean there isn't one. it's almost like they're begging for it. >> it's like they were asking for direction. we have been told to get the information and to find this out. but what do they do? >> but this is a persistent problem. we are not competing on the global stage. >> we don't know what to do with

cyber. >> exactly. >> it came through even, i remember president obama after the sony hit with north korea. they were having a large debate, helene, and you covered a lot of that, about how to retaliate, they knew they needed to but they weren't sure how to do it. >> when it comes to retaliating against this regime, we don't know how to handle it. but we have done plenty of cyber stuff on iran. it's why north korea to this day as not achieved its nuclear ambitions is because of our cyber program. so it's not as if we don't try to do this ourselves. >> we didn't do it after the opm attack, we didn't do it after the chinese. >> i would just put an asterisk as far as we know. because, you know, we didn't

know about stucks at the time. >> my point is that you know when you talk to these sources whether i that'they're hiding sg or whether they got nothing. >> i always feel at the end of the day, as a reporter, i know 1% of all the stuff they're up to. >> particularly with you two here, what's up with israel? is b.b. netanyahu going to be prime minister nec year? >> i think bibi netanyahu is a guy who sticks around. he was prime minister before, he was charged when he was prime minister before. >> this is all about, this is

essentially what we frown upon but allow to be legal in this country, in israel when it comes to politics and political favors -- >> it is extremely low rent stuff. >> it's criminalizing the stuff that we normally would -- >> it's cigars and champagne, that's actually listed in the -- >> there's that on that side. on the other side, did he do favors? >> that's the hard part to distinguish. >> that is a serious charge. >> but it's harder to prove. but i wonder if the israeli public is becoming more aware to this. bebe's predecessor omar went down -- >> after a time. >> 19 months in jail. he actually -- >> this is what i want to get to, what we don't understand is the israeli public has a very low bar on this, they don't like it. they don't like any shenanigans. >> the other thing that works against bebe is he has been

around for a listen tiong time, second time as prime minister. he's creeping up on ben gurion as the longest running prime minister. >> you think he can survive? >> i think he can survive this pretty easily. >> there's no opposition. >> i actually agree. >> you always agree. >> all right, guys. thank you much. >> up ahead, could a dog become governor of kansas? sit, stay. we'll tell you after the break.

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well, in case you missed its, we don't know who the next governor of kansas will be, but we can safely say he or she may not be human. angus the dog is not eligible to run for state wide office. that is right, angus cannot run. angus's owner/campaign manager filed papers for him to run. but the governor says angus is not capable of fulfilling the requirements for governor. but you know who can run? teenagers are running for higher office. kansas you have it all wrong,

children and pets are not all wrong, they're your solution. dorothy and toto 2018. we're not not in kansas anymore, i mean come on, it is a ruby red state. "the beat" with ari melber starts now. >> woof woof, i'm for any race involving canines. we begin with the most important story in politics tonight. and i have to tell you, it's also the most important story in national security right now. you are looking at the array there. the top six intelligence agency leadersdo s united right now wi the message that i guess they couldn't help it. a message that undercuts donald trump's own claims all year about russia. don't call it a come back, russia, they say has been meddling and could strike again this year. >> there should be no doubt that russia