judge jeanine: our viewers need to know that even the response by ben rhodes i thought was double speak. no president can order it. you have got to have your attorney general go in and the judge orders it. but there is no question that president obama knew if any of this is true that his administration was going after a candidate he december spiced against a woman he supported. >> you know this as a prosecutor and a judge. you can only get a fisa warrant if there is reasonable proof of criminal activity or espionage. if donald trump and others in tower are under surveillance with a fisa warrant, that's a bad place to be. judge jeanine: it doesn't have to be a crime. it's a different standard of proof. we are not just talking about a crime probable cause. someone can be an unwitting agent if someone is listening to a conversation with a foreign entity, they may not knot it. you cannot accuse based on a warrant of someone with criminal activity. >> that's the bar you have to clear to get the surveillance. what i think donald trump did this morning is disclose it because he believes other

there was quite a bit of backlash from ben rhodes and others last night. >> the ben rhodes response isust childish. these guys are repeating the same bumper sticker for the past ten years and expecting that it is somehow true. of course, it is not going to embolden terrorists. it is not going to alienate our allies, who act out of their own interest or the perceptive and of our interest, rather or not of the basis of they are offended. it is silly. i don't think that calling it radical islamic terrorism defeats radical islamic terrorism, which is much more complicated. on the other hand, lying about what it is, which is with the previous administration did and the one before it, and assiduously, clearly doesn't help for a bunch of reasons. for one, you can't think clearly unless you can articulate what you are thinking clearly. in other words, body language leads to muddy thinking. you wind up convincing yourself that richard spencer and the kkk are as much a threat to american national security as isis. that is not the case. there is value in being precise when you describe things. >>

. >> with former white house adviser ben rhodes have access to an unmasked u.s. citizen's name? >> i don't know the answer to that. >> would former attorney general loretta lynch have access to an unmasked u.s. citizen's name? >> in general, yes, as would any attorney general. >> that would include sally yates? >> same answer. >> republicans were laying out in the hearing who they think are the likely individuals who had access to this information about flynn and broke the law, leaking it to reporters "new york times" as well as "the washington post." i have to say in the context of this hearing, which is now well past its fourth hour, the testimony of the fbi director undercutting president trump's tweets about wiretapping. also confirmation of a counter intelligence investigation. i can't emphasize enough how unusual it is for this to happen. really seems to be the dominant headline, as opposed to the leaking of what was highly classified information in the flynn case. >> dana: all right. thank you very much. for more on all of this let's bring in juan williams and chris starw

among them ben rhodes, who was deputy national security advisor for president obama.e tweeted this at president trump. "no president can order a wiretap. those restrictions were put in place to protect citizens from people like you." let's bring in our senior legal analyst, former federal prosecutor jeffrey tuben, who is with us. jeff, those warrants would come from what's called the fisa court, the foreign intelligence surveillance court. how does the fisa court work, and can a president order a warrant like this one? >> well, the fisa court is unusual because we think of courts as, you know, with a plaintiff and a defendant or the government and a defendant. there's no adversary system in the fisa court. only the department of justice appears before the fisa court, and the way it works is whenever the executive branch, which is headed by the president, but certainly it's based in the department of justice, determines that national security requires a wiretap, a bug, within the united states they have to prepare a warrant with an affidavit, usually by an fbi agent, t

ben rhodes tweeted that the president can't order a wiretap. the obama administration also had a rule to never interfere with justice department investigations. california's lieutenant-governor calls president trump's claims extremely irresponsible. >> this is a profound distraction but it's also a blockbuster accusation of real historic consequence to suggest the president of the united states, the former president of the united states was directly involved in wiretapping. and he did not back that up except in 140-character tweet. that is for me highly irresponsible. >> he has offered no evidence of wiretapping. he also threatened to put a lawyer on the case. >>> now to the president's travel ban. sources tell nbc news that the president is expected to sign a revised order tomorrow. his original version is currently blocked by a federal appeals court. >>> well a deadly crash near the facebook campus in men low park just after 3:00 saturday morning. a car drove off the road on eastbound bay front expressway. the car smashed into a drainage pipe

ben rhodes tweeted no president can order a wiretap they are in place to protect people from citizens like you. >> i think he firmly believes this is a story line that has been reported pretty widely by quite a few outlets. >> i have got to stop you right there. every single article you mentioned does not back up the claim that president obama had him wiretapped. >> reporter: it's unclear what caused the tweet, but he is relying on a fox news report and breitbart. on meet the press, the former director of national intelligence we want public to denounce the claim. >> the part of national security apparatus that i oversaw as dni there was no such wiretap activity mounted gains the president-elect at the time as a candidate or against his campaign. >> reporter: the white house now wants an congressional investigation. now security experts say the president can order intelligence agencies to give him answers, sarah. kenneth moten channel 6 "action news." >> thank you. >>> chopper 6 hd was above a fiery and smoky blaze in montgomery county less than an hour ago. this is the 400 block of h

and his former deputy national security adviser ben rhodes tweeted that the president cannot order a wire tap. nbc bay area news. >> thanks. down to the president's travel ban. two senior administration sources tell kntv that the president is expected to sign a revised order on monday. >> the congressman from mexico is taken his criticism of president trump's proposed border wall to new level. take a look at this. he tweeted out videos and photos of him climbing a wall that has along the tijuana beach. he was able to scale that 30 foot wall and climb over it. it would be a simple climb down into the united states. he went on to call the president's proposed wall, a quote unnecessary and absurd. u.s. customs said it will be collecting bids from companies who are interesting and designing and building the wall. >>> and now to the incoming storm as we take you outside. we are in a microclimate weather alert with more rain on the way and colder temperatures. >> rob mayeda tracking the rain and some places it's here already. >> we're seeing mostly light rain, scattered showers right now.

and ben rhodes saying no one could order surveillance without a warrant. and eric bolling, on cashin' this with dick mulvaney, everything from budget spending to repealing and replacing obamacare. i am leland vittert. now back to forbes on fox. david: president trump giving americans a clims glimpse of what he wants to replace obamacare with this week take a listen. >> we should help americans purchase their insurance through tax credits and expanded savings accounts. now some members of his parties say those tax credits could turn into entitlements for those who don't pay taxes. when i first heard the president i was happy i could deduct my own health expenses from my own paycheck, that made me happy, didn't it make you happy? >> absolutely, david. i think that the key to remember here, we want to keep moving the ball down the field in the right direction and going towards tax credits is doing that. it's giving people more ownership over their health care dollars. they're a little too ideological. all of the replacement plans out there, most of them, at l

ben rhodes, a former top national security advisor to president obama, flatly denied mr. trump's charges, tweeting:" no president can order a wiretap. those restrictions were put in place to protect citizens from people like you." house democratic leader nancy pelosi, also in a tweet, said in part: "the deflector-in-chief is at it again." small groups of supporters of president donald trump held rallies across the nation today from palm beach, florida, near president trump's estate, to a state park near philadelphia. more than a hundred people gathered to show support at the washington monument in the nation's capital, and others rallied outside trump tower in new york city. rallies were planned in 31 states, according to the organizers' web site. the trump administration reportedly will propose a 17% cut in funding for the national oceanic and atmospheric e "washington post" says it obtained a copy of a four-page memo from the white house office of management and budget calling for sharp reductions in noaa's satellite data division and other research areas. the memo also

former obama aid ben rhodes saying no president could order surveillance without a warrant. more on this as it develops. also making news this morning. attorney general jeff sessions is agreed to submit amended testimony on his contact with russian officials during the campaign. that testimony is going to be in writing despite democrats urging that he appear in person. more on this throughout the morning as it develops. i'm leeland in washington. now back to bulls and bears. dagen: democrats and at least one republican searching for the gop obamacare replacement bill this week and slamming republicans for not making it public. sound familiar? back in 2009, republicans accused democrats of doing the exact same thing while drafting the affordable care act behind closed doors. gary b, the health care sector makes up about one sixth of the entire u.s. economy, so it is important to know what is in this bill. >> well, exactly. look, you know, you alluded to the hypocrisy. this is why approval ratings are in what? the single digits at best? i mean, it's just horrible. look, the re

who is this ben rhodes and what is from the past obama scandal? stay with us. ♪ ♪ ♪ grandma!y, look how tall you've grown. look! you brought it. thanks, mom. clayton: barack obama or staff after president where allegation. former obama speechwriter ben wrote strolling president yesterday tweeting no, president can order a wiretap. those restrictions were put in place to protect citizens from people like you. so who is then rose and what is dancerske in all of this? come executive vice president for security policy, jim hansen. good morning. obviously, deeply invested in every nuclear deal as you are talking about a few moments ago which trump has said he's going to unravel. >> is actually one of the serial fabulist to help lie to the american public. a know nothing foreign-policy person who let the d.c. journalist crowd down the garden path into helping them and obama and he lie about the iran deal and get it in. >> a "new york times" profile where penrose openly admitted he was essentially tricking reporters into believing that it would be tough on iran. they may say that? >

former obama aide ben rhodes saying no president could order surveillance without a warrant and obviously that leaves open a lot of questions. there have been a wave of u.s. air strikes in yemen, manned drones at al-qaeda, one of the most dangerous in the world. more than 30 air strikes taking out facility and heavy weapons. more on mr. trump's tweets at the top of the hour with elizabeth prann. i'm leland vittert. >> have you ever thought that different the popularity that you have we haven't broken the glass ceiling yet for women that you could actually run for president and be elected. >> i thought oh, gee, i don't have the experience, i don't know enough. now i'm thinking, oh. >> all right. >> oprah winfrey suggesting she could win if she ran for president and fellow billionaire celebrity, my friend, mark cuban on record, saying he might be able to pull it off, too. the political class-- is this what we've come to, the celebrities are the new political class. >> sure, why not? listen my husband doesn't have the billions, but he was the reality tv caucus of one until trump joined his c

and one of obama's former national security aides, ben rhodes, responded to trump "no president can order a wiretap. those restrictions were put in place to protect citizens from people like you." the president's twitter rage today did serve to keep the focus on russia, and contacts between the russian ambassador and at least five top trump advisers. and it comes a day after a democratic member of the senate intelligence committee told abc news that key wiretaps are part of the investigation although he said he has not read them. >> there are transcripts that provide very helpful, very critical insights into whether or not russian intelligence and senior russian political leaders including vladimir putin, were cooperating or colluding with the trump campaign at the highest levels to influence the outcome of our election. >> and chief investigative correspondent brian ross joins us live now. from what we know, there's a kernel of truth to what the president was saying, but he may have raised some serious legal issues. >> that's right. the fbi is investigating whether there was possible col

former obama aid ben rhodes saying no president could order surveillance without a warrant.ore on this as it develops. and next time you're the a the airport, get ready for a more thorough patdown. passengers will reportedly face more comprehensive screenings after an audit and apparently showed the tsa was not doing its job well. and airline pilots and flight attendants as well. we'll see if it works. i'm leland vittert. now back to cavuto on business. >> switching away from this current system of lower skilled immigration and instead adopting a merit-based system we will have so many more benefits, it will save countless dollars, raise workers wages and help struggling families, including immigrant families, enter the middle class. neil: all right, it's a pretty simple idea. in fact, this country was founded on it when it came to immigrants coming to our shores. you want to get here legally, you better be able to support yourself. it's merit-based immigration, either on your own or through family members or friends you have arriving here, that's not the government that's g

could ben rhodes have done this? former white house advisor under obama?e yeses. >> all of those actually were yeses. some of which he said i wasn't sure. but the question he was actually asked was it who could unmask someone. that is something the intelligence community does. they own the information. he was asked could somebody have had accessed to it. pete: disseminate information more widely than bev. >> they don't control where things are disseminated necessarily. what he was asked is could ho could have had access to it. pete: sure they do. >> we need to take a step back here. devin nunes put out pretty explosive charges without any evidence to back it up. pete: he has evidence. ainsley: how do you know that? he has the evidence. >> he hasn't said evidence yet. having said that doesn't make it true. i wish it was but it doesn't. we need to go back to principles here. he did not say anyone was collected on except for incidentally meaning they were not the target. pete: incidental collection too though if you want. >> to pete, i would be very careful b

one of obama's former national security aides, ben rhodes, responded to trump. no president can order a wiretap. those restrictions were put in place to protect citizens from people like you. it is true that under president obama, the fbi did open an investigation into whether anyone in the trump campaign was working with the russians. if there had been an fbi wiretap about russian spies, it would have been approved by a special panel of three federal judges, not the white house. this morning, he's tweeting again, at 6:32. is it true the dnc would not allow the fbi access to check server or other equipment after learning it was hacked. the president back orst and foremost, we're it can only be fbi needs tted or that there's an if in factnything wrong talking about an investigation? are readythere's nothing legally w >> if it saying that a wiretap didn't ordered one of a private alone a it does not sound like there's evidence to suggest that that occurred. what's clear is there are a lot of open questions, new questions based on yesterday's development. sohtens t

ben rhodes who tweets these restrictions, no president, they were put in place to protect us first citizens from people like you. and yet, yet, ben rose was part of this administration where the obama administration use the irs to go after conservatives and that they went after the justice department, when after reporters, and then now we have james call me saying you better say something because we never did this to the president. last week james comay says the fbi would love to help the administration but they cannot get in the position of getting and making statements on every story. everybody is talking out of both sides of their mouth. it's no wonder no wonder the american people are fed up. the question is this, brad, should the presidents have tweeted this? did he did he step on his own great story regarding his joint session speech? or was he trying to cover up on the jeff sessions issue? >> i think the president believes there is mischief afoot within the obama administration of this is an orchestrated term to discredit this president and to show that he didn't win fairly and squar

but there is an active evident coordinated by people like ben rhodes who are attacking trump's people. they are attacking the baseless smears against sebastian gorka one of our terrorism leaders. we need to take the people doing this and give them a reason to worry about their jobs and their existence and let the people who are keeping us safe get back to doing just that. charles: is there anything else james comey or anyone in a high leadership position can be doing about this? >> i am not sure james comey is doing what he could be doing anyhow. he has been a liability for a long time. i think we need a new f.b.i. director. i think donald trump might appoint a special prosecutor to dig into this and be tied to no one except the truth and root these people out and make them pay for their crimes against the country. charles: judge gorsuch's hearings began today. we'll discuss it right after the brake. brake. after the break. liberty mutual stood with me when this guy got a flat tire in the middle of the night. hold on dad... liberty did what? yeah, liberty mutual 24-hour roadside assis

all i can i can refer folks to is the statement from kevin lewis in the tweet from ben rhodes, formerting that presidents simply cannot, do not issue wiretaps on civilians. that would come with an independent panel from doj. if in fact there was a wiretapping nobody has denied that it was there it wasn't that president obama ordered it, that would be against the law. i don't know president trump looked at this to decide if there's something happening. there has been some questions about the surveillance of trump tower. what got him to set morning is anyone's guess. we can speculate there some news on breitbart.com >> elizabeth: like dan mentioned we can speculate where the source of that particular topic came from. at the same time with the tweets we did not get any evidence from the president. what are your thoughts? >> he is going to have to explain what he is talking about where you get the from. did he get it from his own government received reading it online? does he have some other information? the justice department under obama did tap journalists lines, we, we know that from f

i picture ben rhodes at wile, e coy yet that is going to bite him hard. charles: we learned that nsa that had this ability to unmask an american somehow became caught up in the surveillance of a foreign entity through a fisa warrant, that was given to a bunch of other people, fbi, the department of justice. just a whole bunch of people. some people say that was just one of key parts of this whole thing. by allowing so many folks that ability then leak that information to the press is one way of committing a sabotage against the trump administration. >> i think at highest level it is possible. if you look at from a political perspective, 8 years of very hard work going out the door, once president trump and republicans took over. i will say, it is clear that starting last summer there has been a thoughtful investigation probably based on dossier. but also based on the fact that president trump, a lot of his associates were engaging with different people in ukraine and russia. they will be picked up by the nsa, that is normal. the issue that i have with thi

heather: and then let's take a look at what ben rhodes had to say, the exact opposite.ree people with direct knowledge says he isn't he said, she said, obama did not order a wiretap, that is a fact and then another tweet, needs to be repeated, this is not, she said, he said, it's true lie. trump lied about it and not specific with proof. >> only elected official that's out there publicly claiming that the previous administration eve's drop on campaign associates to actually provide evidence. normally i would say it is all right for both the mainstream media and right-leaning sources to -- to communicate things based on what they're being told by anonymous intelligence officials but with the matter that's so sensitive and so charged as this, i really do think that there needs to be the release of concrete evidence and further contact. heather: if he releases that evidence, richard, would that hurt the investigation? is it really fair to say that he can't say something without revealing his sources and his evidence but the media constantly does that to him? >> well, he's

. >> would former white house adviser ben rhodes have access to an unmasked u.s. citizensans name?t know the ann to that. >> would former attorney general loretta lynch have access to a name. >> in general, yes. >> and that would also include sallyates if. >> >> same answer. >> did you brief president obama on -- i'll just ask you. did you brief president obama on any calls involving michael flynn? >> i'm not going to get into either that particular case, that matter, or any conversations hi with the president so i can't answer that. >> i spoke with congressman gowdy just before air time. congressman gowdy, you put a lot of focus on leaks today, the anonymous sourcing that led to news reports. can you that is os important or more important than discussed raugs's role in trying to influence the election? it's all important, which is why i asked for additional time at the end and you i went through all of the other non-leak-related matters. it all really important. i am a former criminal prosecutor so it makes sense that i would be asked to pursue the potential criminality. but i wen

. >> former spokesperson ben rhodes had tweeted out saying no president can order a wiretap seeing specifically, no president can order a wiretap, those restrictions were put in place to protect citizens from people like you. so, in no official capacity, anyone directly related to president obama has come out. people who once worked with him do have this to say. is this the beginning of a back and forth spat between the obama and trump administrations in your view? >> the question is that you know, obama, that's true, he's not in a position to order anything as president. that would have to come from the fbi submitting an affidavit for a fisa wiretap. on whoever it might be and doing this on a daily basis at the fbi and the number of counterterrorism investigations, but the idea that the sitting p president would order the fbi to do it, i think the president with any political ak u men would not do it because it would come back on him. some day, it would become public and become extremely negative on a president that did that, but the question in this case is wasn't in fact actually fisa wireta

former obama deputy national security advisor ben rhodes pushed back on the tweeting saying, "no president can order a wiretap. those restrictions were put in place to protect citizens from people like you." tough tweet there. then another one from former speechwriter john favreau who said "eye i'd be careful with borgt that obama said there was no wiretapping. statement just said that neither he nor the white house ordered it." interesting point he makes there. do you think president trump would make this kind of accusation just baseless? >> we know that he reads breitbart news, and we know he listens to conservative talk radio hosts, and we know this habeen a discussion in those circles, in those sort of right wing media circles. it's not surprising he got to this desk. he also, of course, gets intelligence briefings and talks to a lot of people within the intelligence community. he could know a lot more than we know at this point. the first one was a tough political slam. the president cannot just order a wiretap on a political opponent. it's simply -- our government is not structured t

. >> would ben rhodes have access to an unmasked u.s. citizen's name?i don't know the answer to that. >> the fbi director took the step of publicly confirming an ongoing counter intelligence investigation. he was pressed mull time times and would not confirm there's an active criminal investigation into the leaking of flynn's name or other transcripts that were intercepted by the intelligence community, shep. >> shepard: catherine, thank you. this is devin nunes live on capitol hill. let's listen. >> apologize to who? >> to the american people or about -- >> until we get to the bottom of whether or not surveillance activities were used, we don't know the answer to that. >> you spoke to comey in private a number of times be closed secure sessions. were there things that were revealed today that amplified in some way what you heard in closed session? >> yeah, two things that this is a bit of a big net to cast. a big umbrella for lack of a better term to put out with i think very little justification at this point. >> little justification for what? >> wher

where the american public goes, look, they were reading the "new york times" magazine piece where ben rhodesng to america about the iran deal, and they're like, wait a second, we had a credibility issue before, which is one of the reaps they let trump slide. >> i'm a cia guy here. everybody lost. vladimir putin lost. maybe we can gain some leverage. the president has less leverage to move on russia now than he did a couple months ago, the american people lost. the next time the president tweets, if we have a disaster, as we will, regarding terrorism on american soil, and the president says isis is responsible, people like me are going to say, i don't trust the president's kridbility. final point. the american people lose on the electoral process. they have to say were people, the republican party involved in disrupting the electoral process. he can't let that die. we need answers soon. >>> we'll take a quick break and focus on these russia questions with a pair of experts. and how sean spicer tended to refute what james comey said today on capitol hill. ves. verizon. (mic thuds) uh, sorry. i

he mentioned susan rice, ben rhodes, director brennan. there's a list of people. >> sean: when that is the issue, that's the felony reno was committed. >> that is correct. whether it's investigated, we do not know if it will go that far. >> sean: great work. you've been way ahead of the curve. we have been telling people for two weeks. thank you for being with us. kellyanne conway will join us from washington, to respond to all of this and later tonight... >> obamacare has been a complete and total catastrophe and it's getting worse and worse by the minute and yet you watch the fake media, the fake news and they try to build it up. it's a disaster. >> sean: president trump vowing obamacare will be repealed and replaced, paul ryan will join us and say that they will have the votes to make it happen. air force one just landed at joint base andrews. stay with us (vo) this is not a video game. this is not a screensaver. this is the destruction of a cancer cell by the body's own immune system, thanks to medicine that didn't exist until now. an

ben rhodes, former white house official with the obama administration, national security official, tweeting this morning no president can order a wiretap. those restrictions were put in place to protect citizens from people like you. a little bit of a jab there at president trump. now, we do know that from nbc news reporting that the justice department is investigating trump contacts, trump campaign contacts, with russians. we have not reported what the new york times and some other outlets have reported, that they're investigating contacts between the trump campaign and russian officials. it's a key and important distinction. but what could be generated in an investigation like that are information from fisa warrants. they would be monitors of communication between foreign agents and others. so typically for example that may be how we know about mike flynn and his conversations with the russian ambassador because it would be relatively standard procedure # to be monitoring the communications that the russian ambassador was having and that u.s. persons could get swept up in something like t

but the head of news and that division happened to be the brother of ben rhodes, the high-ranking official for than president obama? is that a conflict of interest? i am willing to look at my body of work and compare it with "cbs news" any day of the week. did cbs news even one time ever asked president obama about his relationship with an unrepentant terrorist where he started his political career? i did cbs's job. i did it for you, ted. did you ever delve deep into what black liberation theology is into how it motivated obama for over 20 years? the church of gd america? the church of american chickens have come home to roost? after eight years of obama, did cbs ever show the numbers on the screen there? about what a failure the obama presidency was? i put those up on the screen on a regular basis. by the way, i did mention this to you. you edited all out. did cbs ever put up all the laws hillary clinton likely violated so she could avoid congressional oversight? that they expose all the benghazi lives of hillary clinton? we did on this program. did cbs cover in great detail how members o

host: president obama's former senior adviser ben rhodes reacting to the store yesterday, tweeting this"no president could order a wiretap. " this is reporting this morning in "the dallas morning news." they write that though trump did not offer support to his claim -- let's hear from jeff in california. good morning. go ahead. caller: yes, i am tired of republicans complaining about, how come the democrats cannot give trump a chance? when obama was elected into office, the first thing republicans said is we will make him a one term president. eight years later, obstruction from republicans up until he left office. all you republicans out there who say give trump a chance, as a democrat -- host: lost you, jeff. elliott on the republican line. caller: hello. my name is elliott. i live in south carolina. i have a message for jeff. the democratic party has always been close to russia. ever since the destruction of the communist party in the 1960's. you have tell him whoa's secret government are not paid with money, but paid through psychic payment to try to undermine our government. we are

but let remember it wasn't that long ago in the last days of the obama administration that ben rhodes said -- theirs is practically in quote -- the average journalist we deal with is 27 years old and doesn't know anything. well, that's, i would argue that comes from too much blogging, too much talking, and not enough reading. too much blogging, not enough experiencing. and so blogs can be interesting, especially if they're day i tailored to something or a form of expertise where you're -- this is my blog about engine blocks or aviation or whatever it is to other hobbyists but the idea that everyone in america should sit done and say i have really important thought has turned into michigan bad. >> michael. >> well, i don't want to generalize and say blogs are good or bad. depends on who the person is or what they're writing. i want someone to challenge my viewpoint as a journalist, i'm objective reporter, but maybe i just wasn't thinking about something in a way that well enlighten me that and is extremely important. there's a new model that the "washington post" started running enough

. >> would former white house adviser ben rhodes have access to an unmasked u.s. citizen's name? >> would that include acting a.g. sally yates? >> same answer. did you brief president obama on -- i'll just ask you. did you brief president obama on any calls involving michael flynn? >> i'm not going to get into either that particular case, that matter or any conversations i had with the president. i can't answer that. >> director comey, there's been some speculation this morning on motive. i'm not all that interested in motive. first of all, it's really hard to prove. secondarily, you don't have to prove it. i guess there are a couple of reasons you would not have to unlawfully, felonously release material. you already had the information, didn't you? >> i can't answer in this particular matter. >> how about in theory? is there something in theory a reporter would have access to that the head of the fbi would not? >> it's hard to answer. i would hope not. >> i would hope not too. i would hope you had access to everything as head of the premiere law enforcement agency. so if you ha

did ben rhodes no? did loretto lynch sign off on question marketed dan pfeiffer in the middle of a campaign, you have a sitting president with the power over the intelligence community looking into an opposition candidate in the weeks leading up to an election, does that seem like something that is appropriate, with their lies told to gather in a fisa, in june for example? >> there was no attempt to get one in june. that's what they said we don't know that for a fact yet. what we do know is in october, harry reid said there's going to be some explosive evidence. >> hillary clinton tweeted a week before the election. >> people were getting away for this and we believe people were briefed on this. this is when everything started. this is what these intelligence officials are telling us, this has become highly politicized from october all the way through january with the removal of general flynn and from the nsa, this has become so politicized that they are watching this in a horror and they wanted to set

ben rhodes. people that had the power to, quote, unmask americans, that's the issue the chairman of the house intelligence committee nunes has talked about, the idea of this unmasking potentially being inappropriate or illegal. why don't we ask -- those are the people that had the authority to do it that would be political officials appointed by the president in office during this time period. liz: the liberal media saying that donald trump and his agenda that it's basically swirling the drain, his credibility is swirling the drain because of that tweet alleging wiretapping by president obama where he said it was sick and mccarthyism. do you think that, you know, what's going on now, that the media is missing the broader story about surveillance by president obama again? there is no proof that president obama did wiretap, but the idea of wiretapping in close surveillance where you can actually look into phone conversations and e-mails and computer exchanges and the like. >> and you take this broa

ben rhodes responded to the tweets. no president can order a wiretap. those restrictions were put in place to protect citizens from people like you. even a senator from the president's own party, along with u.s. intelligence officials, called trump's claims a troubling development. >> i am very worried. i'm very worried that our president is suggesting that former president has done something illegal. >> reporter: the president's twitter raids this weekend did serve to keep the focus on russia, and contacts between the kislyak and five top trumped a sprirpsz that includes two meetings with attorney general jeff sessions. leading him to recuse himself into investigations. >> i feel like i should not be involved in investigating a campaign i had no role in. >> reporter: last april, trump -- >> it's time to shake the rust of america's foreign policy. >> reporter: video june covered by abc news, reveals the russian ambassador arriving right before trump, being shown to a front row seat. until this week, the president denied when asked by cecilia vega that a

. >> it would be easy to figure out if susan rice and ben rhodes knew about this.ama knew about it. that's the political team inside the nsc. they would have been trying to do something sense trump. we will have something leading to a political scheme there. >> sean: this is going to get bigger and bigger. i bet i know the answer e too. all right, giles. we will stay on this because it's important. all right. thank you all. have a great weekend. up next tonight on this busy news nights here on hannity. >> it's clear that i would be concerned if i was the president. that's why i wanted him to know. i felt like i had a duty and obligation to tell him because as you know he has been taking a lot of heat in the news media. >> devin nunez felt he had an transition on team and up him. dave boss is i. was he one you haves of the unmask you had. tom fit ton of judicial watch. ♪ if you have moderate to severe ulcerative colitis or crohn's, and your symptoms have left you with the same view, it may be time for a different perspective. if other treatments haven't worked well

. >> would former white house adviser ben rhodes have access to an unmasked u.s. citizen's name? >> i don't know the answer to that. . liz: those leaks are a crime, both sides of the political aisle agreed that those are serious crimes. could the flint leak lead back to a obama official, senator? >> well, it's hard to say, liz. i thought that part of the presentation was very, very effective. because it just shows the wide breath of people that actually had access that could have actually done the leak. i think the most important thing that came out of that was, hey, by the way, we have a leak. there's a way and there's a reason general flynn was provided to the -- basically thrown to the press. he was caught up in something, whether they were going after the russian ambassador and he and his job as a future representative of the president was doing his job, his mistake was obviously lying to the vice president. that's number one. but the thing that was really interesting about the hearing is that you have three basically type of presenters like tray gowdy, he just wanted to get

>> look, it would be easy to figure out if susan rice and ben rhodes knew about this, because if theyarly president obama knew about it. that's the political team inside the nfc. they would've been trying to help do something against trump during the election, so i think let's figure out if they knew and we will have something leading right to a political scheme right there. >> i think he's right. >> sean: this is going to get bigger and bigger -- i agree, totally. i know the answer, too. okay, guys. wewe will stay on this because it's important. thank you, all. have a great weekend. up next, on the spacing news "hannity." >> it's clear that i would be concerned if i was the president. that's why i wanted him to know, and i felt like i had a duty ant obligation to tell him because as you know he's been taking a lot of heat in the news media. >> sean: the house until committee chairman devin nunes on this program last night explaining why he felt he had a duty to inform president trump about surveillance collected on his transition team and on him. up next, we will get reaction from da

but a former nsc spokesman for the national security council under obama ben rhodes did respond taking to twitter to say no president can order a wire tap. those restrictions were put in place to protect citizens from people like you. he's speaking directly to president trump there. in response to that tweet from the president about how he believes a good lawyer could make a good case, rhodes said that that's not the case. only a liar can do. then later he tweeted to the pundit, people who applauded the president's speech on tuesday night before a joint session of congress and called it presidential, he said dear pundits who lauded his speech, is it still presidential to call your dignified predecessor bad or sick guy? a lot going on on twitter this morning but we're still awaiting answers and proof from the white house and to learn more about what this -- these accusations are based on. fred. >> all right. athena, thank you so much. driving conversations in a lot of places. those town halls to be continue under way. right now in clemson south carolina republican senator lindsey graham