i want to bring in now cnn national security commentator mike rogers, former chairman of the house intelligence committee, and a former fbi special agent. good to see you, mike. thank you for coming in. >> thanks, don. >> republicans are signaling the housetion into russia could be wrapping up soon. democratic colleagues think that could be a bit premature here. one congressman said we're being shut off. what is your assessment of where this stands in a i'm not sure i believe anything that came out of the house intelligence committee these days anyway. the democrats are going to hate it, the republicans are going to love it or vice versa depending on what they come out with. i think it would be pretty hard to say that whatever document comes out from either party is accurate. so, a lot of the investigations been kicked over both to the special counselor the d.o.j. inspector general. i think we're going to get a better picture out of those investigations than we will in the committee. candidly, they haven't turned into investigations. they've turned into campaigns from both parties and they real

admiral mike rogers commands both the n.s.a. and u.s. cyber command. >> today, we face threats that have increased in sophistication, magnitude, velocity.nd volume and wa>> reporter: the interne largely created by the defense department in the late 60s mostly for research and development programs. now, like every other major institution, it depends on it for almost everything it does. as a result, the dee department's information network is now targeted by nearly 40 million malicious emails, everyday. colonel paul craft's cyber protection teams defend the network from this top secret operations center called "the j-soc." >> we do not want the enemy toho get a fo into the department of defense's networks to gain or maintain any terrain just ley would in land. >> reporter: the newshour was granted exclusive access, under conditions we not identify team members or the cyber-defense

mike rogers, paul callan, thank you very much. >> it's that time of the morning.oments from the opening bell. wall street expected to open lower. big tech fell yesterday led by a 7% drop for facebook. the two-day meeting of the federal reserve kicks off. higher rates worry investigators, of course. the other big concern on wall street, a trade war, especially with reports that president trump will impose steep tariffs on china. wall street puts that price tag at $60 billion each year. >>> we'll have the latest on the school shooting in maryland when we return. let's get started. show of hands. who wants customizable options chains? ones that make it fast and easy to analyze and take action? how about some of the lowest options fees? are you raising your hand? good then it's time for power e*trade the platform, price and service that gives you the edge you need. alright one quick game of rock, paper, scissors. 1, 2, 3, go. e*trade. the original place to invest online. let the sun shine in - and frame it beautifully - with fresh new window coverings. just call your

mike rogers in the security space.admiral mike rogers, the director of the national security agency, i thought this was a powerful statement from him saying i have not been told i needed to move out smartly on this russia issue. lots of things he can do to defend and push back. he needs special authority if they are going to go out and engage the russians in other places in that's a special authority that he would need to do that. the fact that that hasn't happened yet tells me we don't have a whole of government proo approach to push back against the russians. all of the intel chiefs said the russians have done it and will do it again. we need to get our act together, we the united states if we are going to push back on the russians in 2018. they paid no penalty for this. there is no cost, no foul for them. they will do it again because they haven't paid a penalty or a price. that's what mike rogers was talking about. i thought that was really shocking to me. >> yeah, we thank you for your service to the country and a

jim comey, mike rogers, myself, wrote that report.s was done by a group of almost 30 experts across the three agencies. and they are career expert civil servants. that's who actually wrote that report. and we at the time, and i still feel it was very solid and do i believe that again, the first objective was sow discord. the second was to hurt hillary clinton as much as they could which means helping donald trump. all the indictments which served as a book end to what we published january 6 of 2017, reinforced that. things like the internet research agency and all the propaganda that r.t. was putting out, they're not doing it on a freelance base i. it is all orchestrated. certainly putin fostered it. >> why did vladimir putin send donald trump a sealed letter in a glossy black box? stick around. whatever you're doing to stay healthy... there's something you may be missing. a key part of your wellness that you may be... overlooking. it's your eyes. that's why there's ocuvite, from bausch + lomb. as you age your eyes can lose vital nutr

i had a chance to catch up with mike rogers, the former chairman of the house intelligence committee,ed him whether he thought this approach when it came to steel tariffs and the european union was a good idea >> we tried this-t, fwsgeorge b tried this back in 2002, and the outcomes were not good there are some frustrating tariff hurdles, barriers to free trade, but tariffs in a blanket form is not the right way to do it >> you sound a bit like paul ryan, the speaker of the house, yet it seems like voices like his are not being listened to in the white house. we've seen gary cohn depart, partially because of this issue. we've seen other high profile people in congress say they don't agree with the approach what do you think it will take for the u.s. administration and this president to potentially reverse course or change course slightly on this >> one thing the president has been enjoying is a good economy in the united states we roared back in a good way peoples 401(k)s, you open up that statement and it's a good day, thank you, donald trump when you see that slipping, eroding away,

what the president is saying and what mike rogers is saying. >> i think you see the president gettingked in by public pressure. especially by the recent public indictments of russian officials for activity and social paid ya to interfere with the campaign. that forced the president a little late and reluctantly to change his tune and acknowledge there was interference in our election. we don't see the second step, which is him doing something about it. i think there's some activity at the department of homeland security. there are actions that are low level, but there's nothing like the government wide response you need. and there's nothing like the kind of public response you need really from the president himself. because it's not just a question of the government responding to deter the russians from acting again. it's also the president needs to stand up and say this is unacceptable. americans shouldn't pay attention to it. when they see russian government activity on twitter and facebook and social media feeds, they know to ignore it and don't look at just democrats telling them

mike rogers, can't ask for a better guest than you on this story.y much for joining us. >> thanks, chris. >>> erica? >> what makes him an authority on gun violence? details in the bleacher report next on steve kerr. >> announcer: closed captioning brought to you by -- no matter how the markets change... at t. rowe price... our disciplined approach remains. global markets may be uncertain... but you can feel confident in our investment experience around the world. call us or your advisor... t. rowe price. invest with confidence. the more you know the the commute is worth it.me, for all the work you pour into this place, you sure get a lot more out of it. you and that john deere tractor... so versatile, you can keep dreaming up projects all the way home. it's a longer drive. but just like a john deere, it's worth it. nothing runs like a deere. now you can own a 1e sub-compact tractor for just $99 a month. learn more at your john deere dealer. only tylenol® rapid release gels have laser drilled holes. they release medicine fast, for fast pain relief. t

mike rogers was saying, no, they don't have enough -- they haven't done enough, they're not ready, and coates is now trying to pull that back. >> yeah. good afternoon, katy. actions speak louder than words. and if you look at our actions right now, we're doing nothing. we're on our heels and we're about to fall into the ropes from russian intervention. here's what we could do. we could impose the sanctions that congress passed and counterpunch against russia. we could have an independent commission to understand the vulnerabilities and make sure that we hold responsible those who attacked us and that we know what our response should be when this happens again. we also should make sure we devote federal resources to every state and county. they're voting right now in texas, but they don't have any stress tests that have been conducted. they don't know if the russians are in their system. we've done nothing and if we're going to defend this democracy, we must do much, much more. >> let's talk about doing something. coates said the treasury is about to impose new sanctions. have you heard

. >> phil, let me ask you, this played out on capitol hill a matter of weeks ago, admiral mike rogers on whether he can disrupt russian election hacking operations when they originate. take a listen. >> if granted the authority, i don't have the day-to-day authority to do that, if granted the authority. >> you would need basically to be directed by the president through the secretary of defense -- >> yes, sir, in fact, i mentioned that in my statement. >> have you been directed to do so given the strategic let that faces the united states and the significant consequences you recognize already? >> no, i have not. >> so, simple question, has anything changed in the three weeks, that was february 27th, since we heard from admiral mike rogers there with that alarming statement in effect saying that, you know, he hasn't been given those marching orders? >> yeah, peter, not that we know of. we do know there were sanctions levied last week against russia. that's not the same thing as the authority the admiral was talking about in his testimony. the other thing that roger said in that testimo

administration this news every other minute the director of the national security agency admiral mike rogers recently told congress that the troubled ministration is not doing enough to counter russia's efforts to cyber meddle in elections that i know you know mike what do you make of that look at how the russians have been our adversaries for a long time you know i grew up in an age where you know we thought we'd go to war with russia someday that didn't happen which was great then the cold war ended but the russians have kept up their their efforts against the united states have never given up they were active during the obama years are going to be active during the trump years and we have to be vigilant we have to push back against vladimir putin and russian aggression against our allies in europe but also their attempts to meddle in our elections that's just something we can't we can't allow why do you think the president doesn't take among congress once sanctions he doesn't implement them. are you concerned about that look i think president trump has done something that you know preside

all the leaders, cia director, james clapper, the dni, and mike rogers, national security agency director presented the report, and decide they would leave and james comey would stay behind and present trump with a two-page summary of the dossier written by christopher steel, the ex-spy hired by the clinton campaign, and comey gives him the dossier. to give trump a head's up on something circling in the media. trump sees this as a black mail attempt. calls it a shake down when comey leaves the room. he believe that is comey has done this for the purpose of letting them know they have something on him and may use it against him. to the extent that mccabe was comey's loim deputy, the number two in the fbi, all the hostility trump felt for comey he felt for mccabe. >> they tried to link the investigation to the dossier that your book devils into. i pray that if acting attorney general rosenstein will follow the brilliant and corerageous example of the fbi, and the professional responsibility, and jeff sessions bring an end to russian collusion investigation, featured by mccabe boss james com

if you are talking about nsa director mike rogers, he testified this week our government was taking steps to counter russian interference but probably not enough. when mueller indicted 13 russians for interfering in the 2016 election, a lot of cases went back to 2014 and obama simply failed to act, thinking as long as it benefited you, hillary why do you care? if you are worried about putin bragging against putin's military might. no one should understand that better than you. remember? >> to just be grossly generalistic. you could put half of trump supporters into what i would call the baskets of deplorables. right? the racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, islamophobic, you name it. unfortunately there are people like that. and he has lifted them up. and by the way, putin himself wasn't much happy with you when you interfered in his election. you and the democrats used russia as an excuse for not winning. so putin unites his country by going after the common enemy. hillary, who do you think you are kidding? you are the one who did the reset button with russia. on rain shower comrade i

of national intelligence doing perhaps a little bit of clean up after last week's statement by mike rogersho suggested that the white house did not give them additional go ahead to disrupt any russian interference with the 2008 mid term. here's the president. watch. >> are you worried about russians trying to meddle in the mid-term elections? >> no, because we are counter it very strongly. we have strong back up systems. it's old fashions but it's always good to have a paperback up system. it's called paper. >> martha: election day is just 8 months away until the mid-terms. ed henry joins us live from washington. >> democrats have complained for over a year that president trump won't admit russia interfered in the 2016 campaign. he said it and it's still not good enough. at this news conference with the swedish prime minister. the president admitted russia meddled in the last application -- election but there was no evidence they influenced. she claimed cyber experts told her they can't say if voting machines were hacked. when press she admitted she doesn't have evidence. democrats jumped

>> we have to do it because, for example, mike rogers, admiral mike rogers, the outgoing chief of theional security agency said he doesn't have enough resources or direction to do what needs to do in cyber. we also are doing quite a lot. for example, the trump administration, unlike obama, is selling antitank missiles to ukraine. who thought? but what i'm missing here is a very strong international leadership to work with our allies. with the europeans, with the japanese, with south koreans. and to impose sanctions where it really hurts. bone boip right. >> finances, technology, oil and gas exports. eboni: let's talk about oil and gas. our very own stuart varney yesterday on this program on fox business talked about how russia is a petra state. he made some suggestions one of which is the u.s. putting some natural gas into europe and basically squeezing out that russian influence around that issue. your take on that? >> well, traditionally, republicans do not want to interfere in the markets. and, you know, tell the oil industry or the gas industry. >> eboni: but if it's a national se

the failure to tell admiral mike rogers to give him the authority of the u.s. cyber command to respond and confront russia on these attacks. now we find that the state department has $120 million and spends zero, this is a broader pattern that i think is explicable unless if there is another part of the puzzle that we don't see. >> pj, intel chiefs are warning about russia and folks are wondering if this had anything to do with the president reluctant or acknowledgment or responding. tillerson wants to do a careful review. what do you think of this? >> i think there are three things going on here. the fact that the president is not leading a conversation about helping us protect the integrity of our electoral process, that's presidential malpractice. secondly, he has not learned from the experience of george w. bush and barack obama both who made a significant effort to do business with vladimir putin and by the end of their respective terms were disabused that there could be cooperations. i don't mind the fact that president trump has tested that waters but no

i want to thank admiral mike rogers for his 36 years of commissioned service to our nation. admiral rogers lead cyber during a time of incredible transformation and rapid growth. i thank him and his wife dana for all they have done in service to our nation. for the past ten years, i've the privilege to lead, plan, and execute joint and army cyber organizations. i've seen growth in the cyber capacity and capabilities within the department of defense. from the stand up our cyber mission force to the daily operation conducted by joint task force. we're rapidly maturing our cyber forces. when i first started working cyber operations, these operations were often just concepts. and when conducted performed ad hoc by technical specialists on loan from other organizations. today this is not the case. now i'm a mature and highly capable cyber force in the fight conducting daily operations against adversaries, and strengthening the combat power of u.s. forces around the world. the swift growth represents tremendous opportunity. if confirmed, i plan to continue this impressive progress.

and it comes only two days after nsa director, admiral mike rogers, revealed president trump hasn't directly told him to combat russian hacking. >> have you been directed to do so, given the strategic threat that faces the united states and the significant consequences you recognize already? >> no, i have not. >> you need direct authority of -- >> there are some things i have the authority to do. >> and we should note, tomorrow is expected to be another busy day for paul manafort, he's back in federal court on the charges that were filed against him. he was arrested just last week in virginia. he pled guilty to charges including money laundering. robert mueller's team said if these judges follow sentencing guidelines, mueller could face eight to ten years in prison if convicted on all the charges in virginia and 15 to 20 if convicted on all the charges filed in washington. paul manafort is 68 years old. let's turn to our lead-off panel. carol lee is here with us. nbc news national political reporter. she is the co-author of our exclusive nbc news report from just last night on robert mueller

this was not done by gjim clapper, and mike rogers. are professional civil servants career officers in the intelligence committee. i don't know how he knows what i read or what i was exposed to 14 or 15 months ago and to say i didn't read anything. i reviewed this reporting in depth with john brennan, the director of the cia at the time. it was a compilation of not just one reporting stream but a compilation of information drawn from all sources. but let's just, for the sake -- >> sorry, when he says he went to the cia and read the raw intelligence there, you are saying his access was only to cia information that would have been at langley? >> that is what he said. he may have gone to nsa or fbi, or gained access to that information, i don't know. i believe the staff did a scrubbing which was was heavily footnoted at the time. and here we are 14 months later. and republicans, some republicans on the committee are taking exception to the conclusion we drew. which one was the russians sought discord and discontent because of the animus p

director mike rogers admitted the president has not directed hmm to disrupt election meddling by thens. and robert mueller dropped some cases against richard gates. hope hicks told lawmakers she tells white law lies for the president. and while we're at it on wednesday hope hicks resigned as communications director for the president. paul manafort pleaded not guilty to mueller's superseding indictment in washington, d.c. president trump called his attorneys general handling of fisa abuse allegations disgraceful and then jeff sessions pushed back himself in a rare statement. that same day "the washington post" said mueller was examining efforts to oust sessions in july. and a few hours later axios obtained this fet owe of sessions having a public dinner with rod rose yonstein. nbc news reported mueller is asking witnesses if trump knew about the hacked democratic e-mails before they were released. and if wednesday wasn't busy enough, the "new york times" reported jared kushner's business got loans from companies after they had met at the white house. then there was thursday. that woul

as you know mike rogers is the nsa director. he also has the cyber command.t is to help them do anything about it. how troubling is that. >> it is the inability or refusal to could wanter what nt russians are doing. he is responsible for defending this country. it is very important when we face these kinds of threats to our national security by an adversary like russia that the president of the united states sapsd stands up, makes very clear that the united states will not stand for these kinds of attacks and will do everything necessary to make sure it never happens again. his failure to issue an order that requires that we develop defenses to what the russians are doing i think goes right to the heart of his responsibilities as president of the united states. in the absence of that i think it's really important for the congress to think seriously about passing legislation that requires the administration to develop counter measures to what the russians are doing. >> you know, it's interesting, the president, i don't think he really publicly criticizes putin

. >> according to the national security agency chief admiral mike rogers, the president still hasn't ordered direct action against the russian agencies responsible for election meddling in the united states. what needs to be done? >> well, everybody's kind of doing their own thing. i think director wray when he was asked about that before the senate intelligence committee, he's doing -- the fbi is doing certain things and certainly the department of homeland security is doing certain things, what's needed is leadership which i believe can only come from the white house and specifically the commander in chief and it isn't just a government-wide effort. it needs to be society-wide so what i would hope for is the president would make it very clear and unambiguous, unequivocal statement that the -- about the very profound threat russia poses to the united states. and we can start with that and that would set the tone for what i think is needed here which is a sense of urgency across not only the government or our society. >> general clapper, thanks for joining us. >> thanks, wolf. >>> ju

if you believe mike pompeo and rex tillerson and mike rogers at the nsa that the russians are still in system and still seek to attack us, then we should fully understand what they did, who they worked w whether our response was adequate and tell the american people we're not going to let this happen. >> i want to ask you about the special counsel. my job is to try to look as fairly as possible. but there needs to be some underlying crime that they're looking at. are you familiar with what the basis is? for that? >> the basis is to distract, ari. the fisa issue has been resolved. i think most legal experts have concluded that the surveillance that kuoccurred on carter page s more than warranted. this is just an effort to undermine bob mueller. that's too bad. because russia attacked us. they're attacking our own police, this, ari would be after pearl harbor if you decided the most important thing we should be doing is to go after the air traffic controllers. that's the level of incompetence they are demonstrating by showing this focus on a specialn a special counsel. >> eric swalwell t

mike rogers about given what happened in modeling, what about the dangers to 2018, concern i believeesident putin has clearly coms little price to player. >> bingo. >> and that continue this activity. >> chris: has president trump been enough. forget 2016, let's put that in the box for a minute. has he been tough enough insane vladimir putin and the kremlin nt in the 2018 elections? >> he should be very clear about that.d to protect our critical infrastructure and he should never miss an opportunity to makear how much we are committed to that. i think writ towards russia for a long time has been a little bit naive and i think writ large has been bringing it together into a very coherent they put out there that needs to be more aggressive in looking ae russian threat, recognizing that vladimir putin is not backing ad it's going to take a unified national response from ourview,m our relationship with ukraine. from our relationship with the sanctions that you bro here. i think the trump administration has done a very good job of taking our policy, unifying around themes, backing up our

mike rogers has said he has not received a directory from the president to counter those efforts. >>recisely my point. >> we appreciate your thoughts on this. >> please don't go anywhere. how did president trump spend his first 24 hours without hope hicks by his side? almost $800 when we switched our auto and home insurance. with liberty, we could afford a real babysitter instead of your brother. hey! oh, that's my robe. is it? when you switch to liberty mutual, you could save $782 on auto and home insurance. and still get great coverage for you and your family. call for a free quote today. you could save $782 when liberty stands with you. liberty mutual insurance. they feel that they have to drink patients that i see that complain about dry mouth a lot of water. medications seem to be the number one cause for dry mouth. dry mouth can cause increased cavities, bad breath, oral irritation. i like to recommend biotene. biotene has a full array of products that replenishes the moisture in your mouth. biotene definitely works. it makes patients so much happier. [heartbeat] how much horse

mike rogers about given what happen in 2016, with russian meddling, what about the dangers to 2018?ere he is. >> my concern is i believe president clinton has come to the conclusion there is little price to pay and i can continue this activity. >>chris: has president trump been tough enough. forget 2016. let's put that in a box for a minute. has he been tough enough and saying to vladimir putin and the kremlin hands off this country and the 2018 elections? >> he should be very clear about that we need to protect our critical infrastructure. he should never miss an opportunity to make it clear. i think at large, american foreign policy toward russia for a long time has been nacve and i think the trumpet ministration at large has been bringing it together into a very coherent national security strategy they put out there. the need to be more aggressive in looking at how we are dealing with russia and recognizing that vladimir putin is not backing down. it's going to take a unified national response from our nuclear posture review. our relationship with ukraine. with the sanctions you

it included john brennan and others like mike rogers and james comey about the dossier.s soon as that became public and cnn, the rest of the media which had ignored the dossier since the summer of 2016 because they were too afraid to publish it because it was salacious, all of a sudden jumped on board and said wow! there must be something here because cnn reported about the briefing conducted between president-elect trump and obama and ran with it. it was a snowball effect and propagated the disinformation that the russians said things in the dossier about president trump. >> sean: unbelievable. let me go to you gregg jarrett. this is rod rosenstein. he in my opinion, his relationships with comey and mccabe and others must now be brought out in the daylight. rosenstein comes out tonight, ah, the special counsel is not an unguided missile. i don't believe there is any justification at this point for terminating the special counsel. why? because now they can set perjury traps? now that there is no russia-trump collusion? let's move to the finances of oh, jared kushner. lik

admiral mike rogers said he hasn't been told to do anything, and he said absent permission, an order from the president, he can't. >> have you been directed to do so given the strategic threat that faces the united states and the significant consequences you recognize already? >> no, i have not. >> so, then, how does director coats explain the difference? >> he said that he had not heard from anyone in the administration or the white house about taking any action to respond to what russia is doing to interfere in our elections. but it still sounds to me like you're saying something different. so -- >> well, the nsa, which admiral rogers directs, is one component of many agencies that are involved. dhs really has taken the lead on this. the white house has been engaged on this, the department of defense, other agencies have been engaged on this. >> we'll try to sort through this. with us this day to share their reporting skpin sightand insigh dana bash. they're trying to say admiral rogers heads the agency that has the buttons. if you're going to use cyber war to attack, counterattack

comey is there with john brennan, the cia director, james clapper, mike rogers, and they decide they'llthe main briefing about russian interference until the election, but then they'll all leave, comey will stay behind, and comey will go up to him and privately give him this two-page synopsis. why? because he wanted him to know he was out there and it could become public. >> hold on. if he thinks it's a shakedown and they're black mailing him, does that mean he thinks they actually have something or is it just that they have this report that they can issue? >> that's a really good question he does say to his aides that this is bs. but he does look at it as the fbi and the entire intelligence community sending him a signal. we have you under our thumb. the amount of paranoia here, he had just been briefed how russia had intervened in the election, subverted american democracy and he thinks the fbi wants to extort him the way j. edgar hoover did decades ago. that's his takeaway. and you can see how it formals his whole attitude to the u.s. intelligence community, to comey whom he later fi

mike rogers about given what happen in 2016, with russian meddling, what about the dangers to 2018? he is. >> my concern is i believe president clinton has come to the conclusion there is little price to pay and i can continue this activity. >>chris: has president trump been tough enough. forget 2016. let's put that in a box for a minute. has he been tough enough and saying to vladimir putin and the kremlin hands off this country and the 2018 elections? >> he should be very clear about that we need to protect our critical infrastructure. he should never miss an opportunity to make it clear. i think at large, american foreign policy toward russia for a long time has been nacve and i think the trumpet ministration at large has been bringing it together into a very coherent national security strategy they put out there. the need to be more aggressive in looking at how we are dealing with russia and recognizing that vladimir putin is not backing down. it's going to take a unified national response from our nuclear posture review. our relationship with ukraine. with the sanctions you bro

admiral mike rogers saying he isn't getting authority from the president to disrupt russia's attempts to interfere in elections. that's a partial lit. >> then throw out the gun legislation meeting today, which was a total mess. i mean, i watched that and i kind of stepped away and said, okay if you're a republican senator in a red state like even my former boss ted cruz. trump is effectively asking you to choose between him and the nra when it comes to many of these upcoming discussions. trump was all over the place. what was really disappointing to me is i think there is a lot of traction in conservative circles for the gun violence protective order where a family member could report one and say take his guns way away and have a due process element so he can have a fair hearing. and trump trashed that all over the place saying let's just take the weapons. you know, this is -- i mean and that's just one thing aside from all the internal conflicts, what you mentioned yesterday with people asking for help in regards to russia meddling in future elections. things are spiraling out of con

joining me is mike roger, former house intelligence chair. mr. chairman, thanks for being with us. the president is celebrating this meeting between kim jong-un and xi jinping overnight writing among other things, there's a good chance kim will do what's right for his people and humanity. look forward to our meeting. do you share this optimism? do you see the same progress? >> listen, i think the president had some good wins here. i think even the trade deal with south korea was an important step. it wasn't huge. it's not going to make a huge difference in the economy either way, but it's an important step, especially for automakers in the united states. so that was an important deal. that got our relations back on from economic purposes with south korea. i think the meeting in china was all about xi. he's trying to make sure that president trump understands that that's his region. he is going to dominate that region. by the way, if he wants him to come up by train, he's going to have him do that. i'm not as opted mystic although i do think conversations are important. >> the chine

here is mike rogers earlier this week. do we have it?have you been directed to do so given the strategic threat that faces the united states and the significant consequences you recognize already? >> no, i have not. >> but essentially we have not taken on the russians yet. we're watching them intrude in our elections and spread misinformation and become more sophisticated, try to achieve strategic objections that you recognize and just essentially sitting back and waiting. >> i don't know if i would characterize it as sitting back and waiting but again i apologize i i don't want to get into the classified here. it is probably fair to say we have not opted to engage in some of the same behaviors that we are seeing. >> that is another way of saying we've decided not to retaliate. and this is where i feel like the politics of this puts the president, if he had ordered a retaliation already, mueller's news would not hit with the same type of impact. >> right. what mueller said was that there had been no clear presidential director from up ab

downplaying russia's interference in 2016, even after all the warnings and recent warning from admiral mike rogers, head of one of the top agencies, the nsa, to say america has not done enough to stop another cyber attack. with us a columnist and ambassador to capitol hill and also associate professor and dean to the university of denver. david ignacious, you've got a column today, america ignores russia at its peril. that resonates with me. we've been talking about how the president has tweeted about everything but vladimir putin's since putin's state of the union, from his perspective, speech in which he threatens the u.s. expressly and implicitly with new weapons. we don't know if this new arsenal exists or how effective it is, but how could this speech be made without a single american response from a top u.s. official, especially the commander in chief? >> andrea, i have exactly the same feeling. i think that speech was important. i tend to scout, as many analysts have done, putin's bragging about his new weapons. this is something intelligence has been watching for a while. i do take serious

well, it meant nothing because every person who has come before congress, from jeff sessions to mike rogers to director pompeo has said that they've receive nod directives from the president. the state department has spent zero dollars to counter what russia is doing. all we know is that russia intends to attack us again. so they are working to obstruct our investigation. that is a work in progress that we see every day. and going back to your earlier question, this isn't -- this report and the daily beast, i'm familiar with it. i can't say too much other than the report last week about house intelligence committee members on the republican side leaking mark warner's text was concerning, and it wasn't denied by the republicans. also, we have read a number of times for the first time in "the washington examiner" witnesses who were coming before our committee when we haven't even been told. they've gotten the jump on us. so we owe to it the american people to take this investigation seriously, and if we're going to work to protect the ballot box in 2018 and 2020, we should impose the sanction

mike rogers also said that the white house has not given any orders to counter russian meddli meddling. and new reporting shows the state department has spent none of the $120 million allocated to counter russian interference. and the white house claims that the threat of new sanctions is acting as a determent. >>> joining us now from washington is white house reporter for the washington examiner sarah westwood. good to talk to you. let's begin with the late either departu departure, gary cohn. the president addressing the high turnover rate in the white house saying that he likes conflict, he likes different points of view. what do you make of cohn's departure from the white house, what are you hearing? >> i'm hearing from some of trump's populist allies the type of people who were potentially on the campaign didn't make it into the white house or continue to advise the president from the outside who are cheering cohn's departure, they always considered him a globalist, part of the group of aides who were not necessarily committed to the trump agenda. but if you are a free trader, if

we are learning, current bolt under former bush, oracle executive cats, current director of nsa mike rogers, also steven bebegan vice president of ford motors, we should note that bolton has met personally with the president several times including during oval office meeting also maintained heavy presence on fox news the past week including praising trump's decision on north korea. >> thank you very much. outfront next experts for the hour. thanks to you will an of you. sam, you worked as former security adviser for obama, for president obama. this is a major shake-up when you look at it, obviously, timing tbt and we know the president likes to spring it on people with surprise as he did this morning with rex tillerson. what does this mean, mcmaster, possible kelly. what? >> i think it could all actually be a red hearing. the president does not use his staff like other presidents have in the past. we are hearing about state department for example rex tillerson was a lame duck. he wasn't functioning as secretary of state. so his removal may not throw anything off course. could be outstanding