i hope general nakasone is prepared to do that. i would like to hear more, at least to the congress on a classified level, about what options are on the table. let's time we took this more seriously than we have to date. >> and russia also misbehaving according to treasury sanctions today on north korea. that's something you know very well, what we're doing at sea, even, there's a talk that there's a multilateral naval force. i want to talk more about this dissonance factor. this is the president talking about kim jong-un and north korea at that rally last night. >> what i did with north korea was great. i got along great with chairman kim. i got along great. i got the hostages back. didn't have to pay anything. they're not testing any more nuclear. they haven't had a test in nine months. and you know what else? they're not sending rockets over japan and they're not sending missiles over japan and they're not launching missiles anymore. they haven't launched one in nine months. >> at almost that exact moment, the secretary of state

i asked general nakasone, who is the director of cyber command and nsa director in march do you have what you need to respond if we are attacked? you have an offensive strategy. in march he said no. his predecessor under president obama said no. this week, he said yes. >> i did notice that. >> that is a big step in the right direction and the russians, the chinese, the north koreans, any of the other seven actors that principally are doing this kind of activity should listen very carefully to what general nakasone said as well as what other people said this week on this topic. >> it was a striking comment from him. that we're prepared to go on offense. senator blunt, thank you. >> good to be with you. >>> joining me from minnesota, on the other side of the aisle, democratic senator amy klobuchar of minnesota. welcome back to "meet the press." >> thanks, chuck. >> let me stick to election security there. you heard senator blunt's concerns about the bill this week. it was essentially unmarked money is sort of -- it sounded like that was many of the republicans there. what would you say

. >> paul nakasone, the new nsa director, this is the first time i've seen him in this since he replaced mike rogers. he said -- essentially he made it clear, we're prepared to start going on offense. but it was almost like i'm waiting for the order. that's what it sounded like to me. >> well, this is the problem we have is that there actually is a unit at the state department, the global engagement center, that's responsible for countering disinformation and allowing us to sow discord in other countries if we wanted to. that agency, the funding was not utilized by secretary tillerson. now the question is, is the administration going to push forward and do all these different things? because they have the tools. they absolutely have the tools. just go. >> nobody is giving the order. >> and part of it is this definitely was a pr stunt for the american people. but part of it you start wondering, was this also a pr stunt for trump. this is the briefing memo from his security team. >> or tonight he has his rally and he says, and by the way, i didn't need the russians to help me win. you know

then finally, the director of the national security agency, general paul nakasone. dan? >> as director of national intelligence, i would like the american people to know that the intelligence community and all of its agencies are postured to identify threats of all kinds against the united states. the president has specifically directed us to make the matter of election meddling and securing our election process a top priority, and we have done that and are doing that and will continue to do so. we have incorporated the lessons learned from the 2016 election and implemented a broad spectrum of actions to share more information across the federal government as well as with state and local governments and also with the public and the private sector. the intelligence community continues to be concerned about the threats of upcoming u.s. elections, both the midterms and the presidential elections of 2020. in regards to russian involvement in the midterm elections, we continue to see a pervasive messaging campaign by russia to try to weaken and divide the united states. these

i'm not sure that what we need is what paul nakasone's forces are capable of doing. but that's a government official, happened to be in uniform, saying i'm ready, i know what i need to go after, i'm going to keep you safe. that wasn't even as certain as dni dan coats could get. >> and that is a great message. we're playing a zero sum game with russia. why would they stop doing it? they have met no counterpunch, they're going to keep doing it. if the nsa goes and does an offensive cyber operation, who does that inflict casualties on inside the u.s. cyberspace system. i don't mean literal casualties, but cyber infrastructure. hacking attempts, is the fbi ready or our military ready for the blowback from this. this is cyber war that has to be coordinated from the very top and everybody is going to be on board. i wonder if these leaders are trying to coordinate with each other and, oh, by the way, don't mention it to the white house, we have to protect ourself. >> clint watts, former fbi special agent. author of "messing with the enemy." >>> up next, brand new reporting

but chris wray, paul nakasone, and dan coats, i believe do have an interest in trying to do something and did want to communicate to the american people that the government does recognize this is a problem. they're trying on flag that the russians still throughout intervening and there are some things that they are doing about it. the most interesting thing that i heard was paul na casone who commands cyber command, the nation's cyber war force said that he was prepared to go after foreign medlers in our election and he seemed to suggest that he had presidential authorization to do that. i think it is up in the air. we need to pin it down of he can't use the vast cyber arsenal at his disposal unless donald trump allows him to do that. but that was the biggest news. that cape out of what many of those people said. other things they said we already knew. yes, the russians continue to meddle in our politics. yes, dhs is reaching out to the states to try to shore up cyber security. yes, the fbi has a foreign task force and no, there is no presidential leadership. the president wasn't ther