jim, you had a chance to speak exclusively to james clapper about the ban. what was his take?t's right, wolf. i've spoken with director clapper a number of times. he certainly does not shy away from sharing his honest judgments and today he very directly criticized the travel ban as both unnecessary to his knowledge, and damaging, and he also raised genuine concerns about the effects of president trump's public criticism of the u.s. intelligence community. >> almost 16 years -- >> in his first interview since stepping down, the nation's top spy until just three weeks ago told us he is aware of no intelligence necessitating the president's travel ban. and, in fact, finds the bandaging. >> does the terror threat necessitate the ban from these seven countries? >> well, i don't believe -- we in the ic, were aware of any extraordinary threats we weren't already dealing with, and we're using, i think, some very rigorous vetting processes which we constantly improved on. >> does a ban like this in your view, does it damage u.s. image, but also counter terror partnership? >> yes, i do

a few days later, former acting attorney general sally yates, cia effector, john brennan, james clapper and fbi director jim comey discussed briefing president-elect trump about all this, about the phone call. comey apparently objected to that saying it would compromise an ongoing fbi investigation into russia. that's andrea mitchell's reporting. at some point, the acting attorney general, yates, informs the white house counsel of the concerns over flynn. january 309, sally yates was fired over a different issue. that brings us to this week, yesterday. kellyanne conway saying flynn had the full confidence of the president. late last night he then resigns. i guess given that time line that i just went through, does it -- david, does it me sense to you that this is the order of events? >> well, none of this actually makes a lot of sense. i think to extend a little bit what have the congressman was just saying, the story that was being put out to the american public was misleading. but look at it from the russian perspective. the russians knew what happened in that phone call back at the e

james clapper and john brennan may also be called in.out the extent of the contacts and perhaps to find out how much the president or then candidate trump knew. a spokesperson said the access to the classified information has been suspended pending review. >>> the trump administration looking for a new labor secretary this morning. andrew puzder withdrawing his name just one day before his confirmation hearing among concerns he would not be confirmed. it is a blow to the administration. also to senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. he said puzder would be one of the best labor secretaries in history. mcconnell's wife held the job under george w. bush. it looks like puzder had a checkered past as the ceo of the company of hardees and carl's jr. his ex-wife levied charges of abuse against him decades ago. his confirmation hearing revealed he hired a housekeeper who was undocumented. puzder's company is facing labor lawsuits and a critic of obamacare. he criticized the $15 minimum wage and accuracy of the unemployment rate. now the search

. >>> so we just heard the first interview of james clapper, the former director of national intelligencece he stepped down just a few weeks ago and gave it to cnn and talking about the state of national security specifically in the context of what president trump is arguing that the u.s. now faces. live in washington with this exclusive, the timing is perfect. >> chris, you know, i have spoken to director clapper a number of times. he's a straight talker and not shy about sharing this very direct analysis. he knows something that makes this travel ban necessary. director clapper seen on the intelligence up to three weeks ago and have a listen. >> almost 16 years. >> in his first interview since stepping down the nation's top spy told us he is aware of no intelligence necessitating the president's travel ban and, in fact finds the bandaging. >> does the terror threat necessitate the ban from these 7 countries? >> well, i don't believe we were aware of any extraordinary threats that we're dealing with and we're using i think some very rigorous vetting process. >> does a ban like this in yo

i'll tell you something, president obama, james clapper, loretta lynch, they should be held accountable not only illegal, but the way they did it. >> sean: designed for the purpose of allowing their spies to do the very thing we see happening? >> yeah, they're justification to be, it will help with intelligence gathering. like i said, eight years into your administration you decide to do it? that needs to be answered. i'm curious to see what they will say. >> sean: the president is going to issue a new executive order as it relates to extreme vetting. you actually have written your own version, if you will, that you feel would withstand the constitutionality and even get an 8-0 vote if it goes from the ninth circuit to the supreme court. i am putting up on the side of the screen the changes you have suggested. explain why they need to be put in place and specifically why you think you could get get a 0 unanimous decision. >> the one circuit where the ninth circuit went after the administration -- i think the order was constitutional. but i like cases tight, if i'm going to take a case t

this change that the president put in place, signed off by james clapper on december 15th 2016, signed by loretta lynch, the attorney general, january 3rd 2017. they decide that now all ofe a sudden 16 agencies can get the raw data. what that does is it almost creates a shadow government. you have all these people that are not agreeing with the president, president trump's position. so it festers. if they had a justification for this, wonderful. why didn't they do it eight years ago, four years ago, three years ago? they wait until 17 days left.t >> sean: in other words, it makesea it that much more difficult by spreading out the information to 16 other agencies if they want to target or take away the privacy rights and illegally tapped phones, in this case, general flynn. it's going to be much harder to find the perpetrators. is that a good analysis? >> yes. what it has done, it's increase 16 for the people that have access to medications. initially, just the nsa, very small amount of people that would have had access to this type of data. with this change administratively, so a signi

number one, james clapper, director of national intelligence. outgoing lied to the american people under oath that we were not surveying hundreds of millions of americans our lephononic now the telephone companies keep the data unless there's probable cause to turn it over. >> have they obeyed? >> i doubt it. >> secondly you've got the formr director of the cia who frankly is a political hack. he's been tracking trump political the for the last several weeks. fortunately he's going to be gone. he is gone. and that has destroyed the confidence of the american peope and the intelligence agencies. the reality is that our cia and nsa according to judge richard leon who was the judge in the cases i brought, hasn't used ths massive surveillance to catch oe terrorist. the judge gave him an opportunity. come forward and show me that yu have done something. come in camera, i've got securiy clearance. they couldn't do it. the american people feel as if these intelligence agencies who are in reality more powerful thn the president because they can dig up c

the sanctions issue was not discussed, for people like john brennan, cia director at the time, james clapper, the dni, the director of national intelligence at the time, and sally yates who was deputy attorney general at the time, they knew this was basically -- that the russians thought they maybe had something lynn. by going to the white house, trump white house which is what they wanted to do but which comey initially did not want them to do, the fbi director, they were hoping to basically defuse the ability of the russians to use this leverage. >> adam, knowing there is a transcript out there, probably several, in someone's hands tonight, knowing that we have already seen leakers weaponized, the likes of which i don't think you and i have ever seen, how -- how do you go about reporting the what did donald trump know and when did he know it question? >> i don't know, i mean, that's a very good question. i don't know the answer to that. you know, certainly one would think that as national security adviser, he had permission from trump before he took the call and placed the call to kislyak

strong words from james clapper. >> strong indeed. jim sciutto, thank you very much. we're told today's news conference was president trump's idea 100%. let's bring in our white house correspondent athena jones. reporters went in expecting new cabinet announcement but the president gave them a whole lot more. >> boy, did he, wolf. this remarkable news conference did begin with that announcement that florida international law school dean, alex acosta would be the new pick to head the labor department. but it then went on for one hour, 15 minutes. it was classic trump. >> reporter: reminiscent of his tussles with reporters. he denied contacts with russian officials or himself and russia. >> speaking for myself, i own nothing in russia, i have no loans in russia, i don't have any deals in russia. >> reporter: in his first full-scale session with white house reporters, the president insisting amidst a flurry of top headlines there is no turmoil within his administration. >> this administration is running like a fine-tuned machine. >> reporter: repeating bashing his favori

i want to listen to -- need little less to say, you've heard this before, listen to james clapper and what he said about vetting. >> yeah, and so i can't sit here and offer anybody an absolute assurance that there's no risk associated with this. >> i don't put it past the likes of isil to infiltration operatives among these refugees. so that is a huge concern of ours. >> so james clapper, director of national intelligence, former, and also james comey, head of the fbi, they both said, and this is what the administration points to a lot, look, there are some holes in the vetting process. what say you? >> well, listen. if there are holes, close them. if we need to get a particular new intelligence report or document or additional period of time, then we should do that. there's no problem with that. but what we presented in evidence is the affidavit of 12 national security experts, former secretaries of state, former directors of the central intelligence agency who were appointed by george bush, former department of homeland security, who said quite categorically and directly that the wa

. >> house speaker said james clapper and former cia director john brennan told him they found no evidence of collusion, cooperation, or communication with moscow beyond michael flynn's contact with the russian ambassador. at his weekly news conference, the speaker reinforced his position. >> this has been investigated and we are investigating it and we are going to continue investigating it. >> the leadership publicly disagreed. >> as of right now, we have no evidence that we will continue to ask for evidence. >> we need to get a full debriefing on everything the fbi has looked at. what have they investigated? at this point, i'm not clear were going to get back. stick a while it is not routine for the fbi to comment on ongoing investigations, he said fbi director comey must be more transparent. >> it is insupportable for the bureau to take the position to say we can talk about that, we can't talk about this. >> jeff sessions said he would recuse himself from the russia probe if it's needed. >> bret: president trump has made no secret he intends to shake up u.s. foreign policy. we may hear

and that's a view supported by the former director of national intelligence james clapper. listen to this. >> does the terror threat necessitate the ban from these seven countries? >> i don't believe we in the ic were aware of any extraordinary threats that we weren't already dealing with. and we're using i think some very rigorous vetting processes which we constantly improved on. >> so, john, there is a sense here that maybe the administration is support of exaggerating the potential terror threat out there. >> james clapper and others had the same beliefs during the campaign. they didn't support donald trump. and they lost. donald trump is being told by his national security people that we cannot trust the process when people try to immigrate here from those countries. that these countries don't have -- they don't keep proper documents, that we can't cross-check our list with their list. so if that's what he is being told, and that's who the american people decided should lead the free world, then i go with trump. i'm not surprised that clapper is upset. >> very quickly,

the sanctions issue was not discussed, for people like john brennan, cia director at the time, james clapper, the dni, the director of national intelligence at the time, and sally yates who was deputy attorney general at the time, they knew this was basically -- that the russians thought they maybe had something on flynn. by going to the white house, trump white house which is what they wanted to do but which comey initially did not want them to do, the fbi director, they were hoping to basically defuse the ability of the russians to use this leverage. >> adam, knowing there is a transcript out there, probably several, in someone's hands tonight, knowing that we have already seen leakers weaponized, the likes of which i don't think you and i have ever seen, how -- how do you go about reporting the what did donald trump know and when did he know it question? >> i don't know, i mean, that's a very good question. i don't know the answer to that. you know, certainly one would think that as national security adviser, he had permission from trump before he took the call and placed the call to kisl

the "post" goes on to report "in the final days of the obama administration, james clapper, the director of national sbernl intelligence, john brennan, cia director at the time, shared sally yates' concerns about flynn and there's more. new reporting tonight from politico that the trump white house is reportedly searching for potential replacements for general flynn. according to their reporting, trump's adviser and son-in-law, jared kushner, is leading the search. the potential list of candidates includes names like retired general david petraeus who's scheduled to meet with the president this week. but donald trump's senior advisers are publicly sending mixed signals at the fate of the national security adviser. late this afternoon white house press secretary sean spicer released this statement. "the president is valting the situation. he's speaking to vice president pence, relative to the conversation the vice president had with general flynn and also speaking to various other people about what he considers the single-most important subject there is, our national security." so that so

reince prebus, sally yates, john bren b, and james clapper and fbi director, james comey.lked with cnn's anderson cooper. >> this came to a head on the obama administration, the last full day obama was in office. there was a depate between the intelligence community, the justice department and the fbi, you had sally yates and the deputy attorney general, wanted to go to the trump white house after the inauguration and let them know that the way pence, the vice president-elect and other administration officials in the incoming administration were mischaracterizing based on a conversation they mad with flynn, his conversation with kislyak, the russian ambassador. com comey, the fbi director, initially, opposed going to the trump white house, to let them know this conversation. after trump comes to office, sally yates, acting attorney general, makes the case again and convinces comey some time after the 23rd of january, and before the 31st, that this information needed to be passed on. so, they shared it with the white house. >> in terms of the intersects of conversations of

then director with john brennan and james clapper. we believe they were informed these conversations took place and they differed from the public accounts that mike pence and mike flynn had been talking about. this is when it came to the actual resignation letter that michael flynn submitted last night, he mentions this difference what he told the vice president-elect mike pence. he said i briefed the vice president-elect and others with incomplete information regarding my phone calls with the russian ambassador. i apologize with the president and vice president. they accepted my apology. i tendered my resignation. this comes less than a month in the tenure. making him the shortest lived national security advisor in the history of the united states. taking over is retired lieutenant general keith kell g kellogg. he is the chief of staff. decorated vietnam veteran. in terms of filling that role, a senior official told cnn several names are in the mix. general petraeus's name is coming up. he is well known for leading u.s. forces in ira

so yates and for that matter the director of the national intelligence, james clapper and james brennan, the cia director, they were about to leave the administration. this was a concern that the russians could basically use this in a meeting with flynn and try to say that if he doesn't do something to help russia in a certain instance, that somehow this information could get out -- >> and this is obviously the heart of what has concerned a lot of people who have said so why the minute that the white house was informed wasn't flynn let go. let me play for you an exchange this morning by kellyanne conway who was pressed on this by matt lauer. >> the white house was warned that general flynn had misled them and as a result he was vulnerable to blackmail and at that moment he still had the complete trust of the president? >> matt, i'm telling what the president has said, that he's accepted general flynn's resignation and he wishes him well and he's moving on. >> you're starting to make me think perhaps jeb flynn -- general flynn was not freelancing on that call and may have been making tha

i would like to submit a worldwide threat assessment by james r clapper, director of national intelligence, february 9, 2016. so we have enough here, just with this. we have enough here to do an investigation, and this is just the stuff that is unclassified that the intelligence community has put out. >> will be gentleman yield? >> yes. >> two points. number one, sources and methods are the sole jurisdiction of the intelligence community. number two, do you really think it is appropriate for this committee to investigate the specific half of the d triple c? >> absolutely. rep. chaffetz: if you are going to do an investigation of the into we will have to dive a political party's infrastructure, operations, data. i don't think that is appropriate. here's the difference -- >> you are using all my time. look, they hacked the american election. chaffetz: there is no evidence of that, and president obama says this is not possible. >> this is our own fbi, high confidence that they hacked the election. it may not have been outcome-determinative, i am not saying that. but based on the fbi, based on

sally yates, james clapper and john brennan decided to make political hay out of flinls perceived ineptitude. even for people who hate president trump and i know they are loud and angry. spying on american citizens and selectively leaking droplets to the "washington post" is wrong and bad on every level. it's the most powerful tool the american intelligence agency has, and to it's for a club is so wrong, even if the bruised bastard is the political devil. edward snowden exposed what eli lake calls. if there has been a deep state war ignited by flynn's resignation and the president want to get back at the intelligence community. he should pardon edward snowden. i heart you and i'm kennedy. is president trump and the intelligence community at war? let's ask jonah goldberg. what is your take on the deep state versus the administration? >> for me it's like the iran-iraq war. i am just sorry on one side can lose. i agree with you that what they did needs a thorough accounting. one way we can figure out what's going on, they should release the tapes that they have of the conversation. kennedy: or

but also you have people involved in the story including sally yates and john brennan and james clapper. these are people on their way out of jobs they had for several years. how much of this istles the politicization of washington? >> a lot. what this boils down to, this is a bit of a hangover from the bush and obama administration. the entire alphabet soup plus the pentagon. they are the guard dogs. they don't care who owns the house. when you have kick the guard dog enough it bites back. flynn got the keys to the house and immediately threw the dog on the front lawn and started bad mouthing him. of all the national security advicors we have had, this guy knew better. he was in the system. he knew better than to do that. kennedy: isn't this a question of who runs the country and ultimately who runs the world? isn't it a power struggle because we have an unorthodoxed president who wants to write the rules. and the agencies are saying this is the way we have always don't. and this is the way we are going to keep doing it. >> for a guy who said he doesn't need a daily briefing. they know

the former director of national intelligence james clapper shot it down as a lie.ch this. >> they did not change any vote tallies or anything of that sor sort. we had no way of gauging the impact, certainly the intelligence community cannot gauge, the choice of the electorate made. there's no way for us to gauge that. >> sean: here now with reaction, charlie hurt, dinesh d'souza. can anyone of you give me any evidence at all? because the national director of intelligence is saying it, the types of systems russia targeted -- the russians, the russians, the russians. >> no evidence at all. but i want to go with the idea because i want to translate what he is actually saying. what is actually saying is that the russians have sort of been like cops who have broken into a car, and the car were illegal drugs. those drugs were then exposed to the jury and the jury said guilty. the good jury here is the american people. the american people based on information provided by the russians it with them left to sd seizure. >> sean: but has anyone proven the russians were the hac

advisor, former cia director, intelligence officials, even the director of national intelligence, james clapper high up the information go. it's not a big pool of individuals who would have access to that information and would've made it public. >> kimberly: many people are wondering. general flynn is a man of distinguished service to this country, someone who was in charge of the intelligence agencies and a counterterrorism expert. seems to me he wouldn't say something in those one of -- in one of those conversations that would jeopardize the united states prayed he would be careful to know what would be appropriate and one wouldn't. is it your understanding there isn't going to be any prosecution on general flynn? there's no law that i am aware of that's been broken or violated, so going forward, the focus of any investigation is just who leaked this inappropriately. >> well, there is a leak but we were able to confirm tonight a story that was first reported in "the new york times." general flynn was interviewed by the fbi about his conversations and interactions with the russians. as you kno

the director of national intelligence, james clapper.hese are top -- this information is so sensitive, most likely, when i was chairman of the intel committee, i would not have been briefed on this information. >> martha: do you think they should be investigated as well? >> i think they need to get to the bottom of how this kind of information god from that level, the intelligence community, and how it made its way into the press. >> martha: very good question. thank you, pete hoekstra, julie roginsky. glad to have you with us tonight. president trump's search for a new national security advisor now begins. we learn just moments ago that he plans to have a name by weeks end. we will talk to general jack keane, whose metaphorical years as chief operating officer of the army. he will tell us who he thinks should be general flynn's replacement. plus, how is the travel ban polling with the american public? new fox news polls on that question before congressman trey doughty joy says with a powerful message for the ninth circuit that he wants

james clapper famously lied to congress under oath, and there were no repercussions. >> was he under oath when he spoke to them and -- >> but lying to the fbi is -- lying to the fbi just -- lying to the fbi is a felony, but the fbi says they're not likely to pursue charges. >> it's a felony if he were under oath and if it were indeed a lie. >> the fault he made was to be less than forth right with the president. i admire trump for actually addressing that instead of letting it drag on because, look, obama didn't get rid of the attorney general eric holder when he lied about authorizing the spying on a reporter, james rosen. i think this is good for the trump administration to show that he will address these things right off the bat. >> the thakt that the washington post has aess to classified information is something that we probably should investigate. >> on the original point. the only thing that changed between what happened and when donald trump decided that it reached an unsustainable point was these reports coming out in the washington post. he said that he would have told mich

. >> it's a marked contrast from what the former director of national intelligence james clapper told our jim schudo. this was three weeks from when he was inaugurated and became president of the united states. he said specifically there are tremendous threats to our country. we will not allow that to happen. listen to what clapper, general clapper, told jim schudo. >> we in the nic -- >> does a ban like this, does if damage u.s. image, but also counter terror partnership? >> yes. i do worry about those countries in question, with whom we do deal and who are reliable partners. >> until three weeks ago he was the director of national intelligence for about six years. privy to the most sensitive intelligence information, most highly classified. he offers a pretty different assessment than what president trump just offered. >> he said the only -- you only are president to have this type of information. several weeks ago president obama was the president. getting that daily press briefing of the threats, and you would -- one would assume that his director of national intelligence would te

stick with a former director of national intelligence james clapper issued a statement calling for a robust investigation that will me feet disparaging or disruptive of the intelligence community. most aim to put politics to one side. >> bret: president trump has overturned on obama-era regulation, or rule intended to block coal mining debris from being dumped in certain areas. made by person group watch the president sign it into law, the regulation, along with coal miners and energy company officials. >> special people, special workers. we are bringing it back fast. it's been very few days since i've been here and this is long ahead of schedule. this is about four years faster than it would've happened. it's my honor and fellows, go back to work. i think we will take them into the oval office. >> bret: critics of the regulations as it could eliminate thousands of jobs and ignore existing rules. the interior department has said it would protect streams and forests. while president trump was describing coverage of alleged russia connections with his administration as a ruse, his top

shifting topics, since you're the chairman of the senate homeland security, take a list tone what james clapper former national intelligence under president obama told my colleague jim sciutto about president trump's travel ban. >> does the terror threat necessitate the ban from these seven countries? >> well, i don't believe we are aware of any extraordinary threats we weren't already deal with. >> does a ban like this in your view, does it damage u.s. image, but also counter terror partnership? >> yes. >> your reaction, sir. do you think -- first of all, are there threats that you know of now that the homeland security apparatus and people like the director of national intelligence didn't know of before president trump took office from those seven countries? second of all, do you think the ban were to be reimplemented, makes us safer? >> well, first of all, nothing specific. but personally i think it was a reasonable precaution. when you take a look at the failed states that have been really isolated in this -- the executive order was all targeting, these governments do not have access to the

. >> also, the former director of national intelligence james clapper condemned the leaks and asked for the investigation be respectful of the intelligence community professionals who put politics to one side, martha. >> martha: catherine, thank you very much. one former cia analyst believes the intel community is withholding some information from the president. retired lieutenant colonel tony schaefer, a senior fellow at the london center for policy research, joins me now. what do you mean by that? >> i think very clearly, the leadership is now in charge for the problem is this. you have a lot of folks who are either career members of the intelligence community who are skeptical of the current situation or who were at one point political appointees who borrowed themselves into the infrastructure who are now career intelligence officers. a perfect example of this, would you all know about, not for the intelligence community, lois lerner. an appointee under the clinton administration who transition into career status. that is what we are seeing. i think you are seeing people who are embe

the sanctions issue was not discussed, for people like john brennan, cia director at the time, james clapper, the dni, the director of national intelligence at the time, and sally yates who was deputy attorney general at the time, they knew this was basically -- that the russians thought they maybe had something on flynn. by going to the white house, trump white house which is what they wanted to do but which comey initially did not want them to do, the fbi director, they were hoping to basically defuse the ability of the russians to use this leverage. >> adam, knowing there is a transcript out there, probably several, in someone's hands tonight, knowing that we have already seen leakers weaponized, the likes of which i don't think you and i have ever seen, how -- how do you go about reporting the what did donald trump know and when did he know it question? >> i don't know, i mean, that's a very good question. i don't know the answer to that. you know, certainly one would think that as national security adviser, he had permission from trump before he took the call and placed the call to kisl

news, look at somebody like former cia director john brennan, former director of intelligence james clappere names have been brought up. >> clearly, the coverage of mike flynn occurred when they were in power. it occurred in december. so they would have had access as well. when i say i was referring to the agency, career staff agency officers. of course brennan came back in as an appointee. at the pinnacle of the agency they would have been involved in the political process. clearly this was a crime motivated by political intent, to bring down mike flynn. it wasn't for money. and these are going to be people that were likely loyal to president obama, and other people that had been named, people like former deputy national security advisor ben rhodes was stated in the free washington beacon that he had created an infrastructure to push media out against flynn in washington as soon as he left. that was another story covered. once they begin this thing and they begin investigating and walking this back, i think that it is possible that these individuals that did this may not have used great tr

"the post" story conditions, "in the waning days of the obama administration, james clapper and johnnnan shared sally yates' concerns and confirmed. flynn put himself in a compromising position." a senior trump official said that the white house was aware of the matter adding, quote, we've been working on this for weeks. for weeks the trump administration has known about this. for weeks. really? joining us now is adam, "the washington post" reporter who broke this tonight. thanks for making time for us tonight. really appreciate it. >> no problem. thank you. >> obviously the headline here and the lead graph are arresting, jarring. why exactly did the acting attorney general, sally yates, conclude or surmise that the russian government might be able to blackmail mike flynn, the national security adviser? >> right. so what happened was when this intelligence first came in, which would be in late december, early january, you know, yates saw the intelligence and was concerned that flynn was potentially in violation of what is known as the logan act, a very obscure statute which would bar

discussion of sanctions, so that sets off alarm bells with the then director of national intelligence james clapper cia director john brennan, acting attorney general sally yates. they wanted to alert the incoming white house on january 19th before the swearing in, but fbi director comey was objecting at the time saying it could compromise an ongoing fbi investigation into are urussia. on january 23rd sean spicer said he assured him the night before sanctions were not discussed. sally yates at justice persuades comey it's time to let the white house know, comey withdraws any objection. at some point following that day in the following days yates informs the white house council, the trump council that the national security adviser is apparently misleading the vice president and the white house press secretary. what is not clear, who did the white house counsel tell and when? joining me is msnbc security analyst jeremy bash, who served as chief of staff to leon paneta in the defense department and the scia. there are so many different power centers in the white house so it wouldn't be clear who the w

the idea here, and what sally yates was thinking, along with, by the way, james clapper, who at the time was the dni, the director of national intelligence, john brennan, the cia director, the concern here was that the russians at some point had this information on flynn, or at least they thought they did, that they could use as leverage. and by telling the white house counsel, sally yates thought and so did clapper and brennan, that you would take away that leverage that the russians would have, that they might try at one point down the road to try to exercise. so that's really what this was. in addition to obviously sally yates and again these other officials feeling like there had been a mischaracterization of a discussion and pence not knowing the truth was something that would in the end, he would probably hold against the intelligence community for not sharing with him. >> it's just fascinating. and all of this came about because of vladimir putin's, at least the record of the phone call, is because of how vladimir putin reacted to the sanctions that the obama administration placed

president attacking the intelligence community, former director of national splenl intelligence, james clapperleaks need to be investigated, but in a way that doesn't disparage the dedicated men and women of the intelligence community. joining me now is former defense secretary, leon panetta. i want to start by asking you this new reporting that vice admiral robert harward turned down the national security adviser position. what do you make of that? >> that's cause for concern. because bob harward is a good man. worked for jim mattis. i know him. i think he's very capable at what he does. and the fact that for whatever reason he decided not to take that role raises concerns about whether or not internally there's enough support for a national security adviser to be able to do his job. >> i mean, if there is a crisis right now, that the white house has to deal with, a crisis regarding national security, are there the people in place to do that? >> well, that's what i worry about. my understanding is that there is yet to be a meeting of the national security council. we're four weeks into this n

. >>> james clapper, the former director of national intelligence, is speaking out about president trump's in an exclusive interview with cnn's jim sciutto, he says this could become a recruiting tool for extremists. >> does the terror threat necessitate the ban for these seven countries? >> i don't believe we in the ic were aware of extraordinary threats that we weren't already dealing with. we're using i think some very rigorous vetting processes, which we constantly improved on. >> now with me to discuss, let me bring in republican senator mike rounds, a member of the senate armed services committee, thank you for your time, senator. >> thank you, appreciate the opportunity. >> a lot to discuss on this busy day. he was the director of national intelligence as of just a few weeks ago. he's now saying about this travel ban, senator, it's unnecessary. clapper says he's competent in the vetting procedures already in place. why is that not good enough for you? >> i have a huge amount of respect for mr. clapper. he spoke in front of our committee a number of times. mr. comey also did, directo

james clapper just gives to jim sciutto and he said -- he was out only days ago, less than three weeks ago as the director, he saw no intelligence necessitating this specific travel ban. you're on the intelligence committee. did you see a specific threat over the past several weeks that could have resulted in, quote, a flood of terrorists, coming into the united states if the president had not immediately installed the travel ban on the seven mostly muslim countries? >> it's not just seven mostly muslim countries obviously and you tracked this very well. these are countries that are marked as state sponsors of terrorism and concern that the obama and congress had voted on previously. it's seven very specific countries. the challenge for the intelligence community is not a matter is there a specific threat. we're already at a high level of risk as a nation now. we see that from the isis threats and so on. he's trying to identify as i read his statement is there a specific credible threat coming at us now versus at a high level of risk. we're already there. >> senator, stand by for a mom

intelligence under former president barack obama, james clapper, is no fan of the trump travel ban.per tells cnn's jim sciutto that the ban was unnecessary and may have done more harm than good. listen. >> does the terror threat necessitate the ban from these seven countries? >> well, i don't believe we, the ic, were aware of any extraordinary threats that we weren't already dealing with. and we're using, i think, some very rigorous vetting processes, which we constantly improved on. >> does a ban like this in your view, does it damage u.s. image but also counterterror partnership? >> yes. i do worry about those countries in question with whom we do deal and who are reliable partners. i also worry about this creating a recruiting tool for the extremists, that they will point to this proof that there is, in fact, a war on all muslims. >> and you're confident in the vetting that the u.s. is already doing for travelers to this country? >> i am. we have improved that process as we've gone. >> many international leaders, including traditional u.s. allies have spoken out strongly against

i would like to submit a statement for the record, worldwide threat assessment by james r. clapper, june 9th, 2016. >> without objection. so ordered. >> we have enough here, just with this here, we have enough here to do an investigation and this is just the stuff that is unclassified that the intelligence community has put out there. we don't have to talk about -- >> will the gentleman yield? >> sure, i'll yield. >> two points. number one, sources and methods are the sole jurisdiction of the intelligence committee. number two, have you really thought this through? do you really think it is appropriate for this committee to investigate the specific hack of the dccc? because if you're going to do an investigation of the dccc, we're going to have to dive into a political party's infrastructure, operations, data, i don't think that's appropriate. when there is a difference -- here is the difference -- >> you know, you're using all my time here. >> look, look, they hacked the american election. that is -- >> there is no evidence of that and president obama said that. that wasn't even p

things that's concerns me is we pay a maximum amount to protect ourselves for cyberintrusion in james clapperaid the chinese not the russians that we believe hacked opm it is still not fully compliant with the use of personally identify ample information. >> where are we on that? >> for them to access the network is it chip based quick. >> yes. and that is across the board so let me ask you this in regard to people pdf on with an applicant there is us gentleman one of the top people who is turning out the best experts and the day that a graduate. >> we are very much backlog and car and committed to reducing the backlog and cut to that end we have just awarded contracts to increase our capacity and we are trying to reduce that backlog but those of also waiting for that investigation. >> i was not here for the opening of this hearing but it seems to be a tendency to be politicized and that is where some members want to go with it that is fine but the seriousness of the breach requires that then data systems are secure and one thing i may suggest is doing got a background checks while still in s

submit for the record a statement by james r. clapper, february 9th, 2016. >> no objection, so ordered. >> so we have enough here, just with this here enough to do an investigation and this is just the stuff that is unclassified that the intelligence community has put out there. we don't have to talk about -- >> will the gentleman yield? >> sure i yield. >> two points. number one, sources and method are the sole jurisdiction of the intelligence committee. number two, have you really thought this through? do you think it's appropriate for this committee to investigate the hack of the dccc. >> absolutely. >> we're going to have to dive into a political party's infrastructure data, i don't think that's appropriate. here is the difference. >> actuall y

still former director of national intelligence, james clapper says the ban may be damaging. >> i worry about this creating a recruiting tool for the extremists. that they -- that they will point to this proof that there is, in fact, a war on all muslims. >> reporter: just hours after being sworn in attorney general jeff sessions justice department said it is reviewing the decision and considering its options. meanwhile top trump aid kellyanne conway is facing accusations of violating federal ethics laws. >> go buy ivanka's stuff. >> reporter: the top republican on the oversight committee firing off a scathing bipartisan letter to the white house and the government ethics office. after conway's high-profile pitch plugging ivanka trump's fashion line on fox news. >> i'll give a free commercial go buy it today. >> oversight committee will call out wrong when we see it. >> reporter: federal rules bar government employees from using their public office for private gain. conway acknowledging the committee's letter late thursday insisting her boss has her back. >> at some point in your life y