the russian duma, 17 years in mr. putin's time at the helm have become a rubberstamp body of the presidency. so i don't see it necessarily as a legitimate representative will the russian people and i'm skeptical of prospectses for dialogue, at least until such time as things change somewhat in russia and, duma, it become as more representative body. >> host: let me pick up another part of what bob was saying from spinning field. stuart: virginia. you write about vladmir putin that he is a skilledf opportunistic risk-taker,o capable of forcing others to deal with him on his own terms. so how long will he stay as russian president?ong wi >> guest: well, how long will he live, that is the question. he is serving his third presidential term. which will end in 2018. he was eligible under the current russian constitution to serve another six-year term. by all signs he will run for re-election in 2018, to 2024. one side comment on this, if mr. trump, if president trump remains in office until 2024, this is the relationship h

you said no contacts with the russian government. as i'm sure are you aware, there are many businessmen that report back to the kremlin as part of their sickle of intelligence gathering. have you eliminated that possibility that the people that trump advisors were speaking with have connections to the russian government even if they are not officially working for the russian government? mr. nunes: we haven't eliminated anything. the only thing i want to make sure we do is before we go after american citizens and subpoena them or bring them before the legislative branch of government, that it's not just because they appeared in a news story somewhere. reporter: you are still investigating them, communications between trump campaign advisors and russians -- mr. nunes: i wouldn't limit it to trump only. or trump officials. i would say that it would be also any contacts with any political candidates, any where at any level, including in the united states or other foreign countries. reporter: are you saying there were clinton advisors spe

talked to russian agents even mr. nunes: as of right now we have no evidence but we'll continue to ask for evidence and look for evidence not only the three americans named in the story but others that have contact with russian officials. one more? reporter: are you any closer to understanding, though, why the president is so -- of valdimir putin or what he says what we do here is the same they do in russia? mr. nunes: i am perplexed by this just as when george w. bush looked into putin's eyes. if you look when president obama was caught in the hot mike saying he would have more flexibility after the election. i was perplexed by that. look, good presidents -- three presidents in a row tried to work with the russian government. i think it's a novel concept. i just don't think it's going to work but president trump has been very clear with the american people he's going to try to do that which would make him no different than the last three presidents. all right. guys, thank you very much. >> michael phelps testifies to

it's russian intelligence officers. russian intelligence officials. it's not chatting with the ambassador. it's not meet with government officials. russian intelligence officials. now i'm sympathetic to what mr. manafort said. maybe he didn't know they were intelligence officials. that needs to be investigated. the fact there's contact with them is significant. and second, it's constant, regular contact. it's not just a one phone call. according to "the new york times," this was regular contact during the presidential campaign. and as your last guest just said, robby just said, this is the same russian intelligence officials that stole data in our election from the democratic party and from mr. podesta, and then published that data in a very obvious way to effect the election. this is huge. how can people be complacent and not think it's important that a foreign government intervened in our election. we don't know that fact but we need to investigate whether there was some sort of coordination. >> we don't know what was said on these phone calls. when

and anybody connected to the russian government or russian agents.ut at this time, i want to be very careful that we can't just go on a witch hunt against icans becse they appear in a news story somewhere. >> reporter: by americans do you mean michael flynn, the former nsa? >> any american. >> reporter: are you referring to flynn? >> i think specifically there was -- i think the more important question on that was, there were three americans of which the only name i know is manafort, the other two i don't know, but they appeared in a news story, and the questions that we had ten days ago when that story broke, for many of you who attended the different press availabilities that i had, the question was whether or not we were going to investigate those americans. and at this point, here at the committee, we still don't have any evidence of them talking to russians. >> reporter: do you have all the evidence at this point that you expect to receive or would you say your still in the preliminary stages of receiving and reviewing that evidence? >> well, we

are they russian spies?> can we tell using modern electronics and data collection if somebody has talked on the phone? can we get a universal look at all communication pretty much now? how -- what percentage of communication can we nail down? >> well, not universal look at communications. we get a focussed look, target or ye oriented look. if we're going after a specific target, we'll use specific multibillion dollar systems to hone down on what we know about their communications and branch out from there and see if it interconnects with any known intelligence assets, our intelligence agencies, and this is apparently what's most likely being done right now. and it could be unwitting. they may not know they're being handled by russian intelligence officers, however, the connections that they have regarding russia should be suspect to anyone who is making those. the fsb, formerly the kgb never stopped working. >> yeah. let me get to tim. give me or after a historic -- what's been going on the last several week

tough on everybody except the russians. vladimir putin has been trying systematically to undermine nato, european union, u.s. foreign policy in the middle east. of course would be nice to have a good relationship with russia but this is a country systematically trying to in some way or another upend the western project that the united states has been upholding the last 75 years. so you don't want to be on their side on that divide. >> can we get the sean spicer sound bite we ran last segment? i want fareed's response. it's not illegal to be in contact with people in russia. we know that to be true. concern is frequency of it and because you don't know what the business ties are between donald trump's businesses and russia if there are any at all. >> seems like political story more than the legal one. logan act not invoked as i can tell. >> but multiple people. didn't have people working on behalf of the u.s. government when not authorized and not in the position yet. >> there are cases that 68 people allege the nixon campai

the russian duma during the mr. putin's ars of time at the helm really have rubberstamp body of the presidency. asi don't see it necessarily legitimate representative of the ill of the russian people and reflection of their views. so i'm quite skeptical because that, of the prospect of dialogue until such time things somewhat in russia and duma becomes more representative body. host: another part of what bob was saying from springfield, from your essay, you write vladamir putin is skilled forcing r capable of others to deal with him on his own terms. he stay as russian president? how long will he live? i think how long will he live, question.he e is now serving his third presidential term, which will 2018. he's eligible under the current to serve nstitution for another six-year term, but signs, run for 2024.ection in 2018 to so one side comment on this, is that if mr. trump, president remains in office until 024, then this is the relationship that he will have with russian leader, there is be successor in that timef

government officials but russian intelligence.clip in the "new york times" story, "the intercepts alarmed american intelligence and law enforcement agencies in part because the amount of contact that was occurring while mr. trump was speaking glowingly about russian president vladimir putin." does it seeming to you that donald trump himself is a subject of this probe? >> i think it's still to be determined. i think that's what an independent investigation would actually help us with, which i think i agree with your previous guest that this is not to be left to the political theater. this is something that we actually need to have a non-partisan effort for it. >> malcolm, one little clip from the "new york times" story said the national security agency which monitors the foreign intelligence services captured the communication as part of routine operations. how could it be possible that michael flynn, former head of dia, would not know his conversations with the russian ambassador were being monitored? >> i think with regard to the

and anybody connected to the russian government or russian agents. at this time, i want to be very careful that we cannot just go againstch hunt americans because they appear on a news story somewhere. >> michael flynn? >> any american. i think specifically there was, i think the more important question on that was, there were three americans, to which the only name i know, and the other two i don't know, but they appeared in a news story. the questions that we had 10 days ago when the story broke for many of you who attended the different press availability is that i had, the question was whether or not we were going to investigate those americans. and at this point, here at the committee, we still don't have any evidence of them talking to the russians. >> do you have all the evidence at this point that you are expecting to receive, or are you still in the preliminary stages? ofwell, we have the scoping our investigation finished. and then we are going to move into actually receiving the evidence, but as of right now, the initial inquires i have ma

connected to the russian government or russian agents, but at this time, i want to be very careful that we can't just go on a witch hunt against americans because they have appeared in a news story somewhere. >> by americans do you mean michael flynn of the nsa. >> any american? >> well, are you referring specifically to director flynn? >> well, there were three americans of which only name i know is man na forafort and the two i don't know but they appeared in a news story, and the questions that we had ten days ago when that story broke for many of you who attended the different press availabilities that i had, is the question of whether or not we were going to investigate those americans, and at this point, here at the committee, we still don't have any evidence of them talking to russians. >> and do you have all of the evidence at this point that you expect to receive or that you are are still in the preliminary stages of receiving and reviewing the evidence? >> well, we are working on, and we have the scoping of our investigation finished. and then we are going to move into actuall

russians do shows. i mean, right now they're deploying missiles in places that are naughty, that they shouldn't be doing it. >> this is the russians during the show, this is trump campaign people reaching out to russians to discuss who knows what. >> okay. so that may be true, but i think it's a nuance. i hear there are multiple communications, but i don't know it's always the case that they're initiating. i think there was just multiple communications. >> we do know it's supposedly constant contact. i don't know about you guys, but if somebody called me every day and i didn't want to talk to them, at some point i'd stop picking up my phone. when multiple campaign officials are talking to russian officials while donald trump is saying i want the russians to hack my opponent, and then the russians hack his opponent, at a certain point we don't have to put that many pieces together. there's only a few pieces that haven't been colored in by what we know. >> we saw sean spicer today, the spokesman coming ou

ambassador or other russians for that matter.let me rephrase the question. do you want to actually get ahold of that phone? >> we want to make sure that we have all of the information and, again, as you realize for these devices to work, you have to have encryption on both ends. i'm not going to get into sources and methods on this show or any time that's appropriately kept confidential. >> soinds like yunds like you hf work. we'll be watching it every step of the way. senator warner, thanks very much. >> thank you, sir. >>> there's much more breaking news we're following here in "the situation room." did bad publicity drive donald trump's decision to fire michael flynn? >>> plus the half brother of the north korean dictator kim jong-un dies suddenly reportedly under mysterious circumstances. awards than any other car brand. and they received more last year too. and the year before that... wow! and the year before that... in fact, chevy's received more j.d. power initial quality awards than any other car brand, four years in a ro

he's got a good reputation, says russian oil company, russian state-run oil company.s well-known in russia. gives speeches slamming american policy. in russia, he gets featured on russian tv. he's a big deal from the russian vantage point. even consider rex tillerson. did you know that they had never met before the campaign, never met before the election? all of a sudden rex tillerson, mr. got the russian order of friendship awarded to him by vladimir putin personally, all of a sudden he's secretary of state in the united states? how did that happen? he and trump had literally never met before trump became president-elect. the white house adamantly denies that donald trump had any dealings with paul manafort before this campaign. and they're telling us that to try to tamp down one of these scandalous news stories. but by confirming that, who was this obscure guy, a frequent conversation among russian officials, how did he run the campaign? where did he get his references from? to feel this special... ...you need to eat this special. kellogg's special k... ...made with

at the same time russian campaign aides were talking to russian official, russians were trying to influencelection. did the they know that? if they knew, did theyry to op them from doing it? did they encouragethem? did they help them? we don't know and i don't know if or how we're ever going to find out? is this just 100% a journalistic enterprise now or will our government get to the bottom of it? will our government try to get to the bottom of it? joining us now is congressman adam schiff of california, the top democrat on the house intelligence committee. congressman schiff thank you for being here. nice to have you back. >> thank you, good to be with you. >> let me ask your response to this new reporting from the "new york times." i don't know if you had a chance to review it. the headline is "trump campaign aides had repeated contacts with russian intelligence" the "new york times" citing multiple american sources saying phone records and intercepted calls show members of trump's presidential campaign had repeated contacts with russian intelligence officials. i wanted to get your respo

we have been told about the russian to russian conversation and those intercepted conversations talking about access and being able to influence and whether they were inflating that, but in terms of russians and people within the trump orbit, they could be meta data or encrypted communications which makes it more difficult to know the content. this of course is what we are pursuing and trying to figure out. >> appreciate it. thanks very much. more breaking news coming from the office of a vice president who was kept in the dark about it are for weeks. that's new information and vice president pence is focused on getting to the bottom of how he was misled. >> right, anderson. there is another mike in the middle of this. mike pence. we are told by a senior official that the vice president is focused on getting to the bottom of this. specifically the source told us he wants to know how this information got to the president on january 26th that the justice department was concerned about the phone call that michael flynn had with the russian ambassador and that information did not get to the

some carried out by the russians. there was the first ever publicly known blackout caused by ukraine into russia. this past 2016 we saw another one. my suspicion is these art development capabilities rather than full use of capabilities. for as much as our talk about operations, which are incredibly important, we should not forget that cyber weapons are now true tools of war and conflict. the question was posed in this sense of by our theory, and what leads to conflict. security is a subject near and dear to my heart, and there is a branch of theory that suggests that conflict is more likely if two things are true. one perception is the office has the advantage. everyone will say offense has the advantage of cyber. second, it is hard to tell offense from defense. i think what we have touched on with david talking about implants used for attribution, it is difficult to distinguish office and -- distinguish offensive side from a defensive side. more likely that nations will miss perceive one another when they engage in

this is part of russian intelligence. but the response is so slow that the president of the united states did not actually hear about any of this until june 2016, nine months. in an era when we talk about how cyber means we have to be able to respond quickly, have a playbook ready, be able to look at your array of options, whether sanctions or a counter cyber attack or some other form of active defense, or something else, you can't do that if you are responding this slowly, and in the interim, what did the russians do? they went beyond the dnc into the email accounts of john podesta, who in march 2016, who was the chairman of hillary clinton's campaign. we found evidence of 128 private email accounts within the clinton campaign they tried to get into. they actually only broke into two. why did they only break into two? because only two people did not in the entire group did not have two factor identification on their email. if there is a lesson for all of you in the audience here, it is so but a little bit out there, leav

ambassador or other russians for that matter.let me rephrase the question. do you want to actually get ahold of that phone? >> we want to make sure that we have all of the information and, again, as you realize for these devices to work, you have to have encryption on both ends. i'm not going to get into sources and methods on this show or any time that's appropriately kept confidential. >> soinds like y

of russian cyber meddling in the campaign. russian aggression increasingly bold harassment by moscow's military forces including war planes buzzing u.s. ships and now a russian spy ship lurking off the u.s. coast. is vladimir putin taking advantage of the chaos engulfing the trump white house? >>> president trump praises the national security advisor he fired, calling general michael flynn a wonderful man just a day after the white house says the president had lost trust in flynn and then fired him. mr. trump blasting the leaks about flynn as criminal. does he deny whether they're true? >>> and one-state, two-state, the president backs away from long-standing american mid east policy, saying he won't insist that a separate palestinian state as part of a peace agreement with israel. but he does urge israel's prime minister to hold back onset almighty construction. will benjamin netanyahu list snen i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. >> we're following breaking news. multipl

they've seen the russians do this before. the russians are making a statement. we're here, we're off your coastline, we're staying in international waters, but we're watching you, and in fact, the u.s. military is watching the russian ship. it has happened before. normally, the russians go up and down the east coast and when they get somewhere around virginia, as they come up from the south, they usually turn around and go back. now, it's as far north as connecticut. and this comes as there have been other russian provocations in recent days. it's certainly getting the attention of u.s. military. they are watch whag the russians are going. unduly upset, unduly concerned? no. but they want to make sure this nuance stays just that and doesn't become anything more. >> erin? >> barbara, thank you very much. it is the context, of course, to this, that is so crucial. "outfront" now, colin call, the former national security adviser to vice president biden. david irving, former campaign strategist for president trump, david gergen and jamie gangel, thanks to all. let me

the plan was green lighted by aides to russian president vladimir putin. >> right. it would essentially codify a russian-leaning solution to the violence in eastern ukraine. russia would withdraw troops and the annexation of crimea would be put up for referendum, which presumably would be approved, that it would be become some sort of russian-leased vessel area and that would go against the current u.s. position, at least as stated by the obama administration and the trump administration hasn't come up with identities own position yet on the future of crimea. so this is all -- it's can the conducts of private diplomacy -- >> it's also an end run around the minsk agreements. >> what are the minsk agreements? >> they apparently froze the russian conflict into place. >> let's focus on one thing, everybody here. >> nick, i want to focus on the role of the trump people playing pussy foot, or whatever you want to call, it especially the russians during the campaign. this new document that has surfaced, mike cohen is a personal lawyer in private life to donald trump said h

russian.> part is hubris or arrogance. general flynn was dia, head of defense intelligence agency. he knew that countries considered adversaries are followed and conversations intercepted. yet had conversations with russians. >> ask you john, what is logical explanation. preface it saying could be nothing. what is the logical explanation for all the coincidences or happens to be the time line of how this all played out? or is playing out. >> conventional wisdom on this. if in fact there is nothing in terms of back channel contacts with the highest levels of the trump operation, including perhaps the nominee and president himself, you have one of the most remarkable confluences of events that many of us can remember. as tim and you laid out. remarkable set of circumstances where trump, a strong economic nationalist, man of enormous pride and swagger, who at every point has deferred to the head of russia. argument for that is that he wants to, as tim's old subject, be like richard nixon and kiss

has spotted a russian spy ship. the vessel is outfitted with high-tech spying equipment and is designed to intercept signals -- intelligence so it will be interesting to see how president trump and the u.s. respond to that. thanks for being with me. i'm brooke baldwin. "the lead" starts now. >> thanks, brooke. i understand why general flynn would think lying in the white house would not be that big a deal. "the lead" starts now. the cover up cost the national security advisor his job and his reputation. as vladimir putin possibly sees an opening, deploying a missile violating an arms treaty with the u.s. >>> the sudden and mysterious death of kim jong-un's half brother after he was reportedly attacked, did his play boy life-style catch up with him or was something more sinister afoot? plus a thundering flood, homes in danger, the race to patch up part o

along with russians' brazen interference in last year's u.s. election, which ought to be of concern and is of concern in a bipartisan fashion, these actions have earned putin and his cronies harsh sanctions. no foreign power, especially one so committed to thwarting american aims, it as russia, is , ought to be, permitted to med until our democracy without -- meddle in our democracy without repercussions. this bill allows the precedence set by the iran nuclear agreement, called the jcpoa, by requiring congressional approval for any sanctions reloof provided by russia. it gives congress the responsibility to review any sanctions relief to review that relief before it can take effect. this is not a partisan issue. which is why in the senate it is -- senator graham and senator rubeo have joined with senator cardin and senator mccass kill in introducing a mirror piece of legislation. exactly the same legislation. that is why mr. rooney, mr. kinzinger, and others with whom i have talked but who are not co-sponsoring at this point in time, are carefu

was anybody on his campaign talking to the russians? >> no, no, nobody that i know of. >> so you're not aware of any contacts during the course of the election? >> look, how many times do i have to answer this question? >> can you just say yes or no on it? >> russia is a ruse. i know you have to get up and ask a question. so important. russia is a ruse. i have nothing to do with russia, haven't made a phone >> reporter: once again, president trump touted his >> we got 306 because people came out and voted like they've never seen before. so that's the way it goes. i guess it was the biggest electoral college win since ronald reagan. >> reporter: the problem, that's not even close to being true. in fact, president obama, president clinton and president george h. w. bush all won with more electoral votes than president trump. as another reporter pointed out, trump's numbers were wrong. >> i was given that information. i was given -- actually, i've seen that information around. but it was a very substantial victory. do you agree with that?

calls taking place while russian hackers were targeting u.s. political organizations with cyberattacks meant to undermine the election. >> russia, if you're listening i hope you're able to find the 30,000 e-mails that are missing. >> paul addressed those concerns in july. >> it's just absurd. >> i don't know anything about what you just said. you know it. if you do, you should expose it. i don't know what you're talk about. it's crazy. the fact that we're having this conversation is the wrong conversation. >> reports of contact between them and trump's team before the election are not based on any facts. >> well, tomorrow the new secretary of state is going to meet with his counter part in russia. the russian foreign minister in germany at a security conference. a great deal for them to talk about including new provocations from russia testing a new cruise missile, a russian spy ship off the coast of delaware. a lot going on right now, chris. >> especially when it's supposed to be a renewed friendly period according to the trump administration.

russian planes buzzing a u.s. destroyer and the black sea and then news of this russian spy ship off the u.s. coast near delaware. basically, russian aggression continues. >> yeah, what analysts will say is that russian behavior, despite president trump's positive rhetoric, has really not changed. moscow was very enthusiastic about trump at the beginning but now they may be getting a little bit nervous about how this is going to play out, they may want to have some leverage for when those two leaders do finally need to. the nuclear missile was a long time coming. the spy ship off the coast of delaware is being talked about is something to be watched but not a major concern. it is the incident with the destroyer and the black sea last week that has been deemed to be very aggressive and said to have been extremely dangerous. there were four russian aircraft that buzzed the destroyer low, without transponders, and fast. this is the first major provocation and just about a year, the first one since trump took office.

the communications were interpreted targeting russian officials and other russian nationals known to u.s. intelligence, among several trump advisers communicating with russian nationals, and then campaign manager paul manafort and michael flynn. manafort joined the campaign and was then out. flynn stayed on and resigned as trump's national security adviser last night. officials emphasize that communications between campaign staff and representatives of foreign governments are not unusual. but these stood out due to the frequency and level of those involved. adding to u.s. investigators' concerns were intercepted communications between russian officials before and after the election discussing their belief they had special access to trump. now it's unclear whether they were exaggerating that claim or not, but this all came at a time when the u.s. intelligence community was growing in confidence that russians were trying to tilt the election in donald trump's favor. this investigation, still very much under way, and the fin the the intelligence community. pamela brown, cnn, washington.

the russian community published a role of russian involvement in the election. it was striking and divided. "the new york times" called the report surprisingly detail and damning. people that work in the information and technology field, cyber, they have a different perspective and they use words that cannot be used in a family environment about what they called somewhat sloppy. so this is a question. are we dealing with a report that is surprisingly detailed and damning, or weak and sloppy? interestingly enough. this kind of the question is something thatle intelligence analysts are paid to answer. where does truth lie a mid controversy and conflicting claims and incomplete information? this is not an easy thing to do. why is that? smart people are generally not good at answering questions like this. the human mind is not designed to answer this sort of thing. we are all prone to things like confirmation bias, seeing what we expect to see in sets of information, and we are not particularly good at putting ourselves in the shoes of other people and seeing things

officials and russian officials, but intelligence information between the russians themselves that weccess to that we are not going to release because that indicates a capability. >> thank you there from la quinta, california. >> you are watching cnn newsroom. the israely prime minister heads to the white house. a shift on the israeli conflict with his meeting with the president. we will have that for you after a short break. ultra-bold, ultra-saturated. feels great. pro-look, full coverage in 14 brave new shades. go paint yourself. new infallible lip paints. from l'oreal makeup designer/paris. i'm vern, the orange money retirement rabbit, from voya. i'm the money you save for retirement. who's he? he's green money, for spending today. makes it easy to tell you apart. that, and i am better looking. i heard that. when it's time to get organized for retirement, it's time to get voya. mattress firmness? fortunately there's a bed where you both get what you want every night. enter sleep number and the ultimate sleep number event, going on now. sleepiq technology tells you how well you sle

vulnerable to blackmail from russians. according to white house press secretary sean spicer the president was informed immediately. the loss of trust was too damaging to overcome. fallout sparked about a whiplash for administration officials. last week, the president told reporters he wasn't aware of reports that flynn had discussed russian sanctions before he took office. >> what do you make of reports that general flynn, the conversation with the russians about sanctions before you were sworn in? >> i don't know about it. i haven't seen it. what report is that? >> reporter: today spicer said the president meant he had not seen a "washington post" story on a matter but said the president took immediate action after the justice department's warning. >> the president from day one, minute one, was unbelievably desis in asking for and demanding his white house counsel and their team review the situation. >> reporter: before trump assumed office spicer told reporters in mid-january the conversations between flynn and the russi

the trump campaign and russian officials. steny hoyer said meddling with american elections should not be being done by russians. that could have been said by democrats or republicans. >> that's right, the republican position for the most part was that barack obama and his administration were not tough on russia, not that they were being too tough on russia but not tough enough. and general the republican party has been much more hawkish on russia than a lot of democrats. so now it's this really interesting role reversal. certainly we're seeing from both parties some very tough talk on capitol hill. but again, what we really have to question and look at in terms of congress is what is republican leadership going to do about this? they can talk tough about russia but when it comes to applying pressure to the executive and to donald trump, that becomes a sticky political situation for them and it's not always easy. >> david, last question to you. sean spicer yesterday essentially denied that there were contacts between the trum

russians are willing to take -- no one knows where the bottom is for russians, especially when the declinend not precipitous -- they are willing to take a hit economically for a larger idea. ian: where do you think this goes? evan: the first step in figuring consequencesthe are in terms of the u.s.-russia relationship, the first step really is to understand exactly what happened here, and that is why the center of the action right now is in the intelligence and law-enforcement community, and also on the hill. the senate is beginning to realize that there are serious questions here. we are at the beginning of this inquiry, so what is going to happen, i think you are beginning to see with their allies of comments about the need for a special prosecutor, is that members of the legislative branch, in order for us to make smart choices about our own future with russia, we had to understand what happened in this election, not just who johnd the dnc and podesta's email, who is generating propaganda in an influence campaign, but also what was in fact the level of contact between russian representa

i have had no contacts from russians or intermediaries for russians, i have no russian clients, no russian communications. in all honesty, i've never been informed by the federal bureau of investigation that i was under investigation. this is a canard. i write about this extensively in my new book, i told the "new york times" this but it is curious to me that yesterday's "times" story seems to be a total recycle of a story that was written on january 20. the same three names, the same general allegation. >> you know, it's interesting you're categorical on this because paul manafort is on the record in a not categorical way. very tellingly says "i do not knowingly speak to any russian intelligence officials." he also said "it's not like these people wear badges that say i'm a russian intelligence officer." you're not saying that. you're saying something more categorical. no russian nationals, no intermediaries with russian nationals. nothing, kaput. >> no russian money, no russian communications, period. i spoke to paul manafort last night. i prefer to look at the more adamant part of his s

sanctions with russian ambassador sergey kislyak. the f.b.i.'s counterintelligence unit is leading the investigation, which is also looking at whether flynn and at least one other trump associate were in contact with russian operatives during the 2016 election. mr. trump's former campaign chairman paul manafort had business ties with russian contacts. manafort has denied having any relationship with the russian government. john mclaughlin is former acting c.i.a. director. >> if it turns out that any deals not only unprecedented but would be shocking and would be something that you would have to take active steps to ensure never happens again, and it would leave a permanent stain on this administration. >> reporter: investigators also continued to vet a 35-page dossier compiled by a former british spy who concluded that the russians had compromising information on president trump. sources familiar with the investigation say while some of the details may never be confirmed, there is increasing confidence that some aspects of the dossier are true.

russian regime's co-opting of the russian orthodox church. the catholic church in poland for example was an incredible force for good in bringing down communism specifically because polish identity was so wrapped up with the catholic church. there was a very important component. but why is the russian orthodox church so successful? the russian regime so successful, more exploration, kgb archives were open for a brief time in the 90s, became tragically clear that most of the russian orthodox priests were reporting what they heard and confessional to the kgb. a tremendous breach of ecumenical and personal trust. another interesting point is most russians, despite communism's nominal atheism and today, identify as orthodox. it is a part of their identity, more so even then a part of their faith. the russian regime is very successful, almost in some news segments harkening back to the old trinity of orthodoxy, autocracy and nation. the pillars of russian civilization. the russian regime is successful because they play on old identities and relief

i'm sure the russians have recordings of that.hink one of those spy ships might give it up and settle this business? >> that's a question question. a lot of count trips have been doing surveillance on us. we think it will continue. >> shepard: i guess so. josh, great to see you again. thank you, sir. >> thanks. >> shepard: ahead live to the white house where president trump again showed his disdain for the mainstream media. new word of who the president is expected to pick to take over for the former national security advisor, michael flynn. that and our decades old policy for a two-state solution in the middle east. that is over. a new thing today. we'll have that for you. stay with us. (alarms) where's the car? it'll be here in three...uh, four minutes. are you kidding me? no, looks like he took a wrong turn. don't worry, this guy's got like a four-star rating, we're good. his name is randy. that's like one of the most trustworthy names! ordering a getaway car with an app? are you randy? that's me! awesome! surprising. what's no

they saw people around trump that were talking to russian intelligence officials.e don't see them doing this with other countries. these are people that have, you know, that are embedded in the intelligence agency. and why is this going on and such an extensive communication here? indeed, some of these guys around trump did business in russia and in that part of the world and a lot of intelligence folks that are part of that. but, at the same time, the level of this and the extent of it was really troubling and was one part of what the fbi has been looking at as they try and understand the connections between trump world and russia, which is becoming this sort of sprawling investigation. >> joe, the words dishonesty and disinformation seem to be plaguing this white house on all levels. >> what is so fascinating, walter isaacson, the truth always comes out. it's coming out more quickly and rapidly in this administration than any other administration because there are more obvious things to get out there, but also there are many agencies who are deeply concerned and

a russian spy ship floating off the coast of delaware. russian jets buzzing a u.s. naval ship. that apparently happened last week in the black sea. the russian defense ministry denying that. and the report that russia has deployed a cruise missile in violation of a 1987 treaty. there's a lot of concern that this relationship might not be quite as smooth as they had originally anticipated from trump's statements during the campaign. >> watching from washington, clare sebastian, thank you so much. let's break it down, cnn politics digital manager zach wolf. zach, great to see you. let me get your reaction to the news that broke overnight. if you went to sleep for two hours you missed, honestly, the latest giant development the word from cnn and "the new york times" reporting that trump official has contact with russian officials during the campaign. just a basic question, zach, why should that matter to the american people? >> well, simply because, you know, for so long, there have been these talks about, you know, essentially, this idea of russia and the trump campaign has been

, or any russian contacts. nor could we. we have called no witnesses thus far, obtained no documents on any counterintelligence investigation, and we have yet to receive any testimony from you the eye on the investigation of potential links between the chart campaign and russia. so we're not in any position to reach any conclusion and i think it's very important, having been a assistant u.s. attorney for sixers, you do not begin an investigation by stating what you believe to be the conclusion. we are looking at the report that the intelligence community put out which acknowledge not only the role of russian media but also the hacking and the dumping of documents. we are not accepting even that value.at face we are investigating the underlying rock intelligence to make sure the conclusions are substantiated by rock intelligence. -- and true should be the same should be true of every aspect whether it is on hacking, collusion, fbi response when it was learned the russians were in the computers of democratic inst

/russian relationship. as the administration looks that relationship and determines the way forward, i would make five brief recommendations. first, make any change in u.s. policy conditional on russian behavior. put the onus on russia. don't give away anything for free. two, be very weary as the general noted of aligning with russia in syria. they have very little to offer. three, don't do anything without consulting our european allies first to the extent we want to engage with the russia we should do so with consultation with closest allies. four, as senator cardin also noted, let's get to the bottom of what russia did in our election through a bipartisan commission to prevent and deter these types of attempts in the future. and lastly i would suggest that the administration work with congress to address the threat of russia's very aggressive cyber behavior. i don't want to leave you with the impression this morning that i don't support engaging with russia. i do. and i think there have been many points

there were news that -- is being russian troops in order to blame ukraine later. while i have said multiple started with, ve how to make the cease-fire a we, in the one, youian federation, whatever think about you're immediate our lives, we show how orrespondents work on the line of contact. hey report live, show the destruction of the civilian infrastructureal including schools, hospitals, they show and casualties among the city civilians. expressed interest, what is happening to the west of the line? cnn, and fox news, and other news channels well and bbc, s of course. not see the same work by the western media correspondents to the west of the line of contact. them giving the same picture as our media are risking their lives, sometimes they die. wounded, and y are i asked my western colleagues, is it not recommended, due to reasons, for the western media to work to that contact?he line of i had no answer. -- for them he smm to pay verbal attention to what of destruction in the civilian infrasuckture we can to mutual bombings, shelling, from left and from the of

before flynn called the russians, after he called the russians and ever since? was trump in cahoots with flynn? or was flynn out there with these good relations with vladimir putin all by myself? explaining why flynn was fired, spicer told the white house about his conversations with the ambassador. he also said he did nothing to break the constitution. >> flynn informed the white house counsel that they wanted to give, quote, some heads up to us about some comments that may have seemed in conflict that he had sent the vice president in particular. the white house counsel informed the president immediately, the president asked him to conduct a review of whether there was a legal situation there. that was immediately determined that there wasn't. that is what the president believed at the time from what he had been told, and he was proved to be correct. the issue, pure and simple, came down to a matter of trust. >> that is not a problem that general flynn discussed sanctions with russia? >> no. i can't state it clearly enough. there was nothing in what general fl

he has been under fire for his contacts with the russian u.s. ambassador before president trump took office. >> a number of sources say flynn inappropriately discussed u.s. sanctions on moscow imposed by the obama administration. and just recently we learned that the justice department had warned him that flynn may be vulnerable to blackmail by russia. >> all right, let's go out to our senior white house correspondent, jim acosta. jim, i suppose his relationship had been tenable, or growing that way. but was it the potential idea of blackmail that was at issue, or was it because he misled mike pence, the vice president? >> i think it was that the administration had warned him a month ago, that was certainly a turning point in all of this. all of this feeling inside the white house -- it was just unacceptable that the national security adviser, now the former security adviser had misled intentionally or unintentionally, about whether or not he had contacts with the russian ambassador, or discussed the sanctions handed down by the obama administra