senator blumenthal: thank you. are you familiar with the lawsuit brought by state attorneys general against broadband providers for advertising or offering speeds that they have failed to deliver? mr. pai: i've seen press reports of one. i am not aware if there is a class action of some sort i should be aware of. senator blumenthal: as a former attorney general, the allegations and the complaints certainly seem to me like fraud. they are charging customers for internet speeds they fail to provide which seems a little bit like theft, stealing. would you agree? mr. pai: senator, i am not aware of those particular allegations but obviously i believe, as we made clear last week when we took action on slamming on cramming, consumers should get what they pay for and not pay what they did not ask for. senator blumenthal: section 706 of the telecommunications act requires the f.c.c. to report annually on whether broadband internet is being deployed to, quote, all americans in a responsible and timely fashion, end quote, an

browder: thank you. >> senator blumenthal? sen. blumenthal: thank you, i want to join my colleagues in thanking you today and admiring your courage and tenacity in the face of evil. i do not think there is any other way to characterize vladimir putin and what he has done, both to magnitsky and countless others in russia and around the world. i want to focus on stopping the -- following the money. when i was a federal prosecutor, we sometimes did wiretaps. we would overhear mobsters using codewords for dollars, like tomatoes and fish. in this case, adoption was referring to the thing of value, which for vladimir putin, was lifting sanctions, which meant money to him. and for the other participants in the meeting, it was referring to something of value to them, and the promise to them, made in emails was that they would have damaging information, dirt on donald trump's opponent, hillary clinton. is that a fair summary? mr. browder: absolutely, what has been described. i would caution you in believing anything that the russians either

senator blumenthal? sen. blumenthal: thank you. i could not be more delighted and proud to welcome jessica rosenworcel here today along with her family, emmett and mark. they come from a wonderful family in west hartford and she has really served with extraordinary distinction and dedication. not only at the fcc, but also with this committee. in letting be remiss this moment pass without paying tribute to two of the giants that have served on the committee, senator rockefeller and -- because she worked with them as their counsel. she has been a champion of important toy everybody on this committee on a bipartisan basis, our schools, emergency responders, everyday consumers. i have been privileged to welcome her several times to connecticut where she has championed the interests of the victims of cramming. and although the homework gap, which is the hartford current recognized a few days ago in an editorial, a term that she coined. advocateeen a tireless of public safety mode working to cc'ste the sec's 9/11 -- ffc 9/11 rules. and s

i'll talk with senator richard blumenthal. the white house is clearly on the defensive right now over this truly stunning revelation by donald trump jr. let's begin with our senior white house correspondent jim acosta. jim, take us through the e-mails and the president's rather subdued reaction. >> they are not loving it over here at the white house, wolf. the president defended his son today not in a tweet but in a sober statement read by the white house. aides to the president say he is frustrated with the russia story, but today he only has his eldest son to blame. the e-mails are astonishing. released by the president's own son, donald trump jr., the messages reveal top level officials with the trump campaign met with a russian lawyer, who an intermediary suggested was offering support from the kremlin. the e-mails first reported by the "new york times" promised, quote, very high level and sensitive information that would incriminate hillary clinton. the messages between trump jr. and an acquaintance, rob goldstone, outlin

no no no how many like max blumenthal. minutely huge for a yet says something it's a step in the right direction of how many other anchors on mainstream media on c.n.n. imus n.b.c. fox or are inviting guests like the hard left is like maxwell with all and particularly people who disagree with you that really important here. but i disagree a lot that's why he's on this program here rob what i think is really interesting i will say go ahead get real quick up before i go to robert i will say that yeah what i will say is that i believe that tucker carlson invited max blumenthal on the show because they agreed on the topics that they were chatting about you're talking. you know one of the interesting things the time putting here is that you we had the neo cons that were in the republican side on the republican now they've moved over embrace the left we have a lot of room republicans and i'm thinking of people like john mccain. and lindsey graham that are very neo con in like and they're moving it leaps ideologically to the new

what do you think about that, senator blumenthal?he believes that almost, almost, those two compounds, one in suburban maryland outside of washington, d.c., a huge estate, another one outside of new york city, another huge estate, if they are going to be returned to the russians? >> these two compounds reportedly have been involved in russian spying and intelligence activity. to return them would be absolutely a disservice to our nation and there's no way that these compounds should be returned. it would be contrary to the spirit if not the letter of the measure that we passed, because we said very explicitly that these sanctions, ongoing right now as a result of the obama executive order, should not be lifted without congress approving. and, so, i would strongly urge the president to resist these russian demands, which they have made before. you know, these talks between the state department and the deputy foreign minister started a week or a couple weeks ago, and they should be literally abandoned. >> but you know the russians are

. >> senator blumenthal. >> thank you, mr.chairman and thank you for holding this hearing, which addresses a critical important topic. for our whole nation. and sorted for anyone thinking about how to improve our immigration system. i take it all of you would agree with me that the lack of a biometric exit system is a gaping hole, a really deepening threat to our national security? >> sir, if i can venture an answer to that. which is a little bit off the bubble but i would like to express that we talked about comprehensive immigration reform as we moved engineering, and one of the things that makes it very difficult to really do anything including to feel good aboutud your national security is knowing who has, and who is left. without those two things you cannot have a guest worker program. that is viable turkey have great difficulty in being open to foreign nationals who want to come here to study or to just enjoy the country. and in terms of the security dimension of it as well it does constitute a problem. if you can't coun

blumenthal to register under fara. if the justice department thought mr. blumenthal's activities on behalf of foreign interests did not require registration, it should simply say so. particularly, when the trump administration has required lieutenant general michael flynn to retroactively register under the law and in large part because he wrote an op-ed for the hill newspaper. the administration also required paul manafort, the podesta rule, mercury llc, to register for their work on behalf of ukrainian government. recently, there's been a lot of reporting about other unregistered foreign agents attempting to influence u.s. policy. for example, a group of unregistered russian agents allegedly worked to undermine the magnitsky act. that 2012 act was passed in honor of sergei magnitsky, who uncovered massive financial fraud in russia involving corrupt russian government officials and organized crime. he was then arrested by the same corrupt officials and later died in russian prison under suspicious circumstances. the magnitsky act allows the president to s

blumenthal nor mr. kornblum have registered under fara and i'd like to know why doj has not required them to register. >> thank you, senator. unfortunately consistent with long-standing department of justice policy i can't confirm or deny or comment on particular individuals or entities or investigations or potential investigations. >> ok. you ever heard of a group called fusion gps? >> i have, sir. >> i think it's cofounder is mr. glen simpson. >> i have seen that in media reports, sir. >> has he registered under the statute fara? >> i have not searched for his name, sir, so sitting here today i don't know for sure. i think the answer is no but, again, i'm not sure. >> was anybody at the department of justice searched for his name? >> i don't know that, sir. >> is somebody looking into that? >> i can't comment on that, sir. >> general horowitz, why -- i think you testified that two decades ago enforcement of fara became less of a priority. why was that? >> well, what we saw was about two decades ago a

senator blumenthal: thank you. here's been talk about the construction of submarines, the columbia class and virginia attack class, which is required to go from 48 to 66. as you know, and the challenge as the senator mentioned is not just with the flow of materials but also the industrial base. and not only at newport news but the supply chain that defense industrial base. and i wonder if you've thought about what can be done to provide the kinds of training and skill development resources for the suppliers and contractors and all the medium and small businesses that are involved in that defense industrial base. mr. spencer: senator, i'm glad the supply chain has been brought up because we definitely hands imited supply of and backs to build things. but people many times don't focus on the actual chain itself. there are many cases out there in the private sector that we can take best practices from. off the top of my head, we did a study at the defense business board and i.b.m. when sam was there tock over when i.b

sen blumenthal: thank you.ossible alternatives going through the vote-a-rama. you are there, how do you see it playing out? sen blumenthal: simple answer, we have no idea how the senate is going to proceed. we know we will have a vote today on repeal and run, as it is called, repeal without replacement. which will go down to failure, just as the proposal last night went down to failure with nine republicans voting against it. in some ways, even more significant than the first want to proceed on that motion. so the path forward is by no means clear. what the outcome will be is even less clear. everye basic problem is one of these republican plans puts tens of millions of americans out of insurance, it costs states hundreds of billions of dollars, and it provides tax cuts for the richest while it deprives americans of basic health care. republicans have not been able to surmount that dilemma. david: your colleague john mccain came to the floor and adedeted -- and ple everybody in the senate to come together and b

chairman. >> thank you, senator blumenthal. i just have one question that builds on questions that senator blumenthal asks and i think that chairman cornyn expanded on. they, for the purposes of instructing us on things that we should do either in allocation of resources or additional authorities, and do we have an exhaustive and do we have the ability to the produce an exhaustive analysis that involves demographics, and what i'm thinking of the base, let's use the 26,000 number. if you had an idea that there was an outlier, a consistent percentage of these people were of an age group or a certain visa status or -- any number of indicators that would let you use that as a basis for prioritizing things that we would do to provide additional support for your agencies. does that data exist to drive any sort of policy formulation? mr. doherty? >> the quality of the information that we have right now that's in these divergent databases. when they come together, when you have a platform that allows you to look at that. >> when? they

senator richard blumenthal tells us next.eah, at first i thought it was just the stress of moving. [ sighs ] hey, i was using that. what, you think we own stock in the electric company? i will turn this car around right now! there's nobody back there. i was becoming my father. [ clears throat ] it's...been an adjustment, but we're making it work. you know, progressive.com makes it easy for us to get the right home insurance. [ snoring ] progressive can't protect you from becoming your parents, but we can protect your home and auto. [ chuckles ] all right. >>> in about an hour president trump will meet with french president emmanuel macron in paris and hold a joint news conference. but his trip is being somewhat overshadowed by the controversy over don junior's e-mails revealing a previously undisclosed meeting between top trump campaign members and a russian lawyer. in a new interview the president tel tells reuters that, quote, many people, unquote, would have taken that meeting if the opportunity presented itself. let's dis

blumenthal: thank you, mr. president. i appreciate my colleagues across the aisle for accommodating me for three minutes. and i ask -- the presiding officer: there is no democratic time remaining. the senator from wyoming. mr. enzi: mr. president, senator blumenthal -- the senator from connecticut -- i ask for three minutes from our time, and we'll allot that as long as we preserve the full time for the senator from wisconsin. the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut is recognized for three minutes. mr. blumenthal: and i ask the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: the senate is not in a quorum call. mr. blumenthal: thank you, mr. president. we've seen in the course of this debate some very high points and some points that i think in some ways we regretted. one of the high points for me was the return of senator mccain, and i want to join all of my colleagues in saying how heartfelt our gratitude is for his return and his eloquence here about the need for us to work together. and yet yesterday we also

late this evening i spoke with richard blumenthal who sits on the senate judiciary committee. >> senator blumenthal, do you have any understanding why we're just hearing about this other meeting that the president had with vladimir putin? >> there seems to be a pattern of reckless or willful concealment of contacts with the russians involving jared kushner, other members of the trump family, and now the president of the united states. and maybe the president was embarrassed or in some way reluctant to disclose the fact that this meeting occurred with him alone with a russian interpreter and vladimir putin. we still have no idea what was discussed exactly. and this kind of private meeting is virtually unprecedented in the diplomatic world. >> i also don't understand how the white house wouldn't think that this story would get out at some point and at least just get ahead of it or just explain -- do you think the white house owes the american people at least a readout of the meeting especially if the meeting did last a full hour as is being reported? >> a full hour meeting certainly merits

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blumenthal. today is the day that the new fbi director nominee is going to have his confirmation hearings, and i know that several democratic senators are going to ask him about whether there will be independence in this investigation which, of course, also involves the fbi. so that's one clue to watch what's going on. >> we will have them on and we will ask them about that. >> there's a lesson for both sides. for the president and the republicans, don't call it a witch hunt. it clearly isn't. the president's own son just proved that. and on the democrats' side, don't go flying down the road of how bad the implications are. let the facts lead the way. republican operatives, some are scrambling to defend donald trump jr. others are staying quiet. the plan, listen to this, is to reportedly dig up dirt on journalists who break stories about this situation. how does that sound to you? how does that sound to you? we'll discuss next. we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equa

senator blumenthal is back with me. and senator, obviously, a lot of people on capitol hill are very concerned about the messages president trump is sending about general -- special counsel rather bob mueller and his investigation and tweets and comments he has made that could be seen as setting the stage for possibly firing him, which is within the purview of his executive office. obviously, all 48 democrats and the 2 independents that caucus with you would oppose such a measure. but do you think, do you talk to republican senators that would do more than harrumph. would the majority in the senate actually have any sort of effective response if the president were to fire bob mueller? >> there would be a firestorm similar to the outcry and outrage that there was when president nixon fired special counsel archibald cox, or sought one after another for people in the department of justice to do it. and i would certainly lead, and i'm sure others would join in leading an effort to establish a special prosecutor by legislati

senator blumenthal: thank you. there's been talk about the construction of submarines, the columbia class and virginia attack class, which is required to go from 48 to 66. and the challenge as the senator mentioned is not just with the flow of materials but also the industrial base. and not only at newport news but the supply chain at the defense industrial base. and i wonder if you've thought about what can be done to provide the kinds of training and skill development resources for the suppliers and contractors and all the medium and small businesses that are involved in that defense industrial base. mr. spencer: senator, i'm glad the supply chain has been brought up because we definitely have a limited supply of hands and backs to build things. but people many times don't focus on the actual chain itself. there are many cases out there in the private sector that we can take best practices from. off the top of my head, we did a study at the defense business ibm was looking at running out of cash. they restructure

blumenthal: thank you, mr. president. i'm here, mr. president, to oppose the nomination of john bush to the united states court of appeals for the sixth circuit. i've been a member of the judiciary committee since i was sworn in as a united states senator six years ago. i participated in dozens of confirmation hearings. over time

chairman. >> i have one question that builds on some questions senator blumenthal asked. the purposes of instructing us on things we should do either in allocation of resources or additional authorities, do we have the ability to produce an exhaustive analysis that involves demographics, and what i'm thinking about is if you take a look at the base of the 426,000 member if you had an idea there was an outlier consistent percentage of the people wer were of an age groupr certain visa status or any number of indicators that would let you use that as a basis for prioritizing things that we would do to try to provide additional support for the agencies. it's in these divergent databases when they come together and you have a platform that allows you to look at that. >> we are talking about the perspective at some point in the future. we are looking good for 2018 to have these data sets put together. the ability then to look, you've heard it a million times, can we get that view it has everything that is about a particular person in one place or achievable as i am on my comput

. >> schumer, reed, booker and blumenthal. physically huddling over health care. i apologize for the quality of the pictures. we put it through a doubler to zoom in on the vignettes and we lose the high definition and it goes back to being a bit more of an oil painting than we would like. it's our only choice because these locked in camera locations we don't have a joy stick where we can zoom in on the senators at will. this is what the senate gives the television network and we are trying to make the most of the pictures we are getting while we are trying to guess what is going on. 1:19 a.m. friday morning here in new york and of course to the south in washington. on the east coast, this is the last friday of the month of july. the summer break, the vacation, the recess that is looming for the u.s. senate as we look at the capitol dome looms with added importance this summer because of the threat that the president will fire the attorney general and try to appoint a new one in what's being called a recess appointment. a common thing in washington made less common

. >> senator blumenthal, should i call on senator lee while you're getting really or are you ready? >> okay, go ahead. >> first of all, regarding the fisa court and the mitchy missy brief, the role that they play, i have long been concerned about ensuring that the fisa court, which authorizes and oversees government foreign surveillance activities under section 702 as you know and other authorities, has sufficient information about the civil liberties and privacy implications of the decisions that it makes. in 2013, i proposed legislation to establish a special advocate to assist the court in that task. and i think it's fundamental that the fisa court hear different perspectives and the weighty statute concerns in this area. in 2015, congress, as you know, passed the usa freedom act which created an institutional freedom process for participation of amicus curi to provide the fisa court with information about civil liberties and privacy concerns when the court is presented with novel or significant questions of law. the court has -- i understand appointed five amisi to fill this pur

. >> senator blumenthal. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and thank you for holding this hearing which addresses a critically important topic for our whole nation and certainly for anyone thinking about how to improve our immigration system. i take it all of then a biometric system is then a gaping hole, a really deepening threat oo our national security. >> sir, if i could venture an answer to the that, which is a little bit off the bubble, but i'd like to express we talked ubconhensive immigration reform. and to really feel good about your national security is knowing who's calm and with who lez. without those two things you can't have a great program that is viable. it does constitute a problem if you can't count people in and you don't come them out, thudon't have integrity in your system. >> i'm going to count that as a yes. say further we can pass all the great laws in the world. but if we don't know who's coming into the country and when is leaving, they're all-for-naught? correct? you're chiccing your happened. let the record show th

>> totally demoralized. >> thank you. >> senator blumenthal. >> things, just a few more questions. want to again thank you because this hearing has been one of the most important we held for the judiciary committee. i apologize for the absence of a number of our colleagues here today but i think they will be very interested in your story in your recommendations. i want to come back to yuri because i think he is a key figure for our purposes in this committee and for the investigation of potential conspiracy between the trump campaign and the russians. yuri was not just the prosecutor general in russia but a close ally and lieutenant of vladimir. >> correct. >> so when brad goldstein said to his colleagues that information was coming, in effect from yuri taiga it was like saying that i have better on the line. >> that would be the impression that a russian expert would draw from that. >> and anyone familiar with russia but no and paul manafort was familiar with russia that information from yuri was dirt coming from but and the offer of it. >> that would be the impression. >> so, wit

he was largely absent from the policy and substantive issues that had to be resolved. >> senator blumenthal, you reminded our viewers you voefted against the confirmation of john kelly to become the secretary of homeland security. but what do you think of the job he has done as secretary of homeland security over these past several months? re: he's certainly been loyal to the president. unfortunately there has been not only the travel ban, muslim travel ban that has been struck down by some of the courts, upheld in part by the united states supreme court, but created a great deal of chaos and confusion, but also even just as alarmingly, the in effect draconian sweeping changes in policy that have meant arrests and deportations of people who have been here, working hard for decades, heads of families, many of them with children who are u.s. citizens, spouses who are u.s. citizens. w50e678 seen them we've seen them in connecticut, working hard, and often given day's notice before they were going to be deported. we've worked and fought for these individuals, sometimes succeeding in obtaining s

richard blumenthal, the senator from connecticut. they are embarking on what it seems as though you are saying, professor, dangerous territory in that they are threatening our democracy with throwing around terminology like these? >> i agree with you. i wish these senators who i support, i voted for them, would read the constitution and see how treason is defined. the british used to cut off the heads of their none as because they committed treason. treason was defined broadly. so the united states government defined treason very narrow. trish: is this all for political purposes? i should point out, professor, president trump did tell reuters that he had no advance knowledge of this meeting. not that that would necessarily matter? >> it would matter politically, but it wouldn't matter legally. if the president went and called before he was president, candidate trump called vladimir putin and said, look, i'm a deal maker, do i have a deal for you. if you can give me neck negative research you have on hillary clinton i will call off th

blumenthal to register. if the justice department thought his activities on behalf of foreign interests did not require registration, it should simply say so. particularly when the trump administration has required lieutenant general michael flynn to retroactively register under the law in large part because he wrote an op-ed for the hill newspaper. the administration also required paul manafort, the podesta rule, mercury llc to register for their work on behalf of the ukrainian government. recently, there's been a lot of reporting about other unregistered foreign agents attempting to influence u.s. policy. for example, a group of unregistered russian agents allegedly worked to undermine the magnitsky act. it was passed in honor of the man who uncovered massive financial fraud in russia involving corrupt russian government officials and organized crime. he was arrested by the same corrupt officials and later died in russian prison under suspicious circumstances. the magnitsky act allows the president to sanc

bluhm en that you will -- blumenthal's, they should have said so. >> reporter: the trump tower meetingith manafort and donald trump jr., and the u.s. opposition research firm behind the unverified anti-trump dossi dossier. >> knowing who was acting for russia is vital. >> reporter: a key witness and critic of russian corruption has been put off until tomorrow, and based on his prepared remarks, bill bradder will connect the dots between fusion gps, the lawyer at the trump tower meeting, and smear campaigns by moscow, bret. >> bret: katherine, thank you. >>> a lawyer for the former top house democrats was arrested before boarding a flight monday night, say his client is devastated, but that six months of investigation into the it services performed by emron has turned up no wrongdoing according to the attorney. they pleaded not guilty on tuesday to one count of bank fraud charges, stemming from unrelated loan applicants. he say his client received green light and a daily caller story reporting authorities had seized smashed hard drives from the rental properties was false. this investig

blumenthal: thank you, mr. president. i'm here, mr. president, to oppose the nomination of john bush to the united states court of appeals for the sixth circuit. i've been a member of the judiciary committee since i was sworn in as a united states senator six years ago. i participated in dozens of confirmation hearings. over time i've become accustomed to hearing nominees attempt to dodge our questions. but i've rarely come across a nominee who was as reluctant to respond to my questions as john bush, and i've rarely felt so unsure and concerned about how a nominee would assume the responsibility of a federal judgeship if confirmed. and i should emphasize to my colleagues as well as to the people of connecticut, there is no nomination that i take more seriously than a federal judgeship, having been before numerous federal judges, district court judges, court of appeals judges and the united states supreme court on four occasions, and having seen as a law clerk as well as a practicing lawyer the normal impact and profound importance of

. >> schumer, reed, booker and blumenthal. physically huddling over health care. i apologize for the quality of the pictures. we put it through a doubler to zoom in on the vignettes and we lose the high definition and it goes back to being a bit more of an oil painting than we would like. it's our only choice because these locked in camera locations we don't have a joy stick where we can zoom in on the senators at will. this is what the senate gives the television network and we are trying to make the most of the pictures we are getting while we are trying to guess what is going on. 1:19 a.m. friday morning here in new york and of course to the south in washington. on the east coast, this is the last friday of the month of july. the summer break, the vacation, the recess that is looming for the u.s. senate as we look at the capitol dome looms with added importance this summer because of the threat that the president will fire the attorney general and try to appoint a new one in what's being called a recess appointment. a common thing in washington made less common

. >> i'm joined by richard blumenthal. andy carney, and you're all joining us now.enator blumenthal, i've been waiting for a republican to stand up, man or woman, southerner, northerner, and stand up for the constitution and our american form of government. i'm beginning to see a couple of them do that. they're standing up against this wild narcissistic manner of this president. >> i've been talking to senator graham and a number of my colleagues about exactly this topic houflt to protect the integrity and independence of the spounl. let me say very bluntly. the president of the united states firing bob mueller would be an historic admission of guilt without a scintilla of cause. to fire a special prosecutor whose career is beyond reproach, and who has engaged in absolutely nothing challengeable, would be an historic admission of guilt. this investigation will go forward. the remarks that you heard from senator graham a clear reflection of a growing sense on both sides of the aisle that there need to be efforts to protect the integrity and independence of the depart

senator warren and richard blumenthal cosigned onto a bill that would require professionals applying for federal licenses to learn about dust practices for pain management, alternative their peace, and methods for diagnosing and treating substance abuse disorder. so that legislation in the hopper. we will see what happens to it on the floor of the senate. oxnard, calm california, medical professional, go ahead. >> a few caller: a few comments. i have some patience with pain. i have some training in pain management. california once upon a time had a permit that you had to take a two day pain and end-of-life issues course, because pain was so badly managed in an opposite .ay, not enough pain medication people's pain was not being managed. i was glad to hear the comment just before there's going to be issuance of an educational outline about prescribing. so number 1 -- host: that legislation has not been passed yet, just introduced by those senators, but go ahead. i -- sorry, i just woke up. yes, there are principles that you use when someone has to be on long-term pain control. conting

max blumenthal is an author, a journalist, and a lifelong man of the left.e's become skeptical of the russian collusion narrative which he has called destructive and dangerous. last month, he took a camera too an anti-russia protest on the national mall here in washington to find out what the people who were there actually know about the topic. here's part of the conversation, an amazing conversation he had with an aggressive congressman. >> you said that roger stone hosted a show. >> roger stone hosted a series on the russian propaganda network. >> do you believe that we need roger stone -- >> that he did not host a show? that he didn't host a show. >> you can go after any details you want but i don't see why it would be your interest and support an autocratic authoritarian government which is jailing journalists and fighting freedom.or >> i think we should tell the people the truth. >> tucker: max blumenthal joins us in studio. i love that exchange because it similar to so many i've had on the show or if you call into question the facts beingr asserted you

blumenthal steamed over that, just over this.nothing approaching this. another news network even expressing horror at the site of melania trump sitting next to vladimir putin. no historical reference at all to assert another first lady once seated next to a fellow named nikita khrushchev. we would later learn john kennedy was sending secret notes to the russians through his brother bobby to solve the cuban missile crisis. not a word about this president talking to his russian counterpart, may be to prevent a future crisis. no, kennedy was brilliant and working a connection. trump is a boob and -- if this was a super secret powwow, news flash, the whole world was in on it. every world leader was in on it, including their spouses, clever. those g20 guys icing those media guys in full view of, i don't know, the world. gee, i mean g20. none other than angela merkel in on the whole thing and inviting the whole bunch. how dare they meet and talk? better to sit and not say a word. how dare the american news media it not be given a heads

>> totally demoralized. >> thank you. >> senator blumenthal? >> thanks. just a few more questions and i want to again thank you because i think this hearing has been one of the most important we have held before the judiciary committee. i apologize for the absence of a number of our colleagues here today. but i think they will be very interested in your story and your recommendation. i want to come back to uri chaika, but a i think he's a key figure for our purposes in this committee and for the investigation of potential conspiracy between the trump campaign and the russian. uri chaika was not just the prosecutor general in russia, he was a close ally and lieutenant of vladimir putin, correct? >> that's absolutely correct. >> so when rod goldstone said to his colleagues that information was coming in effect from uri chaika, it was like saying i have vladimir putin on the line, correct? >> that would be the impression. a russian expert would draw from that. >> and anybody familiar with russia would know and paul manafort was familiar with russia that info

cheering] >> we have another great champion here, the senator from the state of connecticut, senator blumenthal. [applause] so are we going to kill this bill? >> yeah! >> are we going to kill this bill? [cheering] >> we are in the fight of our lives because we are fighting for your lives. we are fighting not a health care bill. it is a new wealthcare bill. care a bill designed to for the wealth of the richest americans at the expense of our lives, the lives of working people, middle-class people, people who are at risk. and you are fighting for them. you are the ones who will make a difference. make no mistake. a stepfort is clearly toward or appeal of the affordable care act. a motion, as they call it, shell.eed to a that is not the way democracy is supposed to work. they have ne a behind closed doors come in secret, and we are here in the open. [cheerin did tell you you are the ones who will have the final say. that is the way it works in america. that is democracy. [applause] close by saying we are at a moment that you will always remember. you will remember being here. americans will rememb

. >> i heard richard blumenthal honestly wondering about a conversation he will never know. yet, if memory serves me right, he didn't say boo about another president's conversation about which he very much did know. barack obama's incredible exchange with then russian president caught off mic about waiting for a certain presidential election. >> after my election, i have more flexibility. >> i understand. you know, i don't recall mr. blumenthal steam over that, just over this. some media coverage of that, nothing approaching this. another news network even expressing saying horror at the site of melania trump sitting next to vladimir putin. no historical reference at all to a certain other first lady once seated next to a fellow. we later learned that john kennedy was sending secret notes through the russians to his brother bobby to solve the missile crisis. not a word talking to his russian counterpart maybe to prevent a future crisis? no. kennedy was brilliant working a connection. and then the media truth to power, please, save the outrage for someone who cares. if this w

. >> i would like to defer to my colleague senator blumenthal. >> good afternoon mr. wray, thank you for your willingness to serve and your family's. i want to ask you a couple of questions and hope that you can give me answers that are as straight forward as you can, given the limitations of your position. in your view, is obstruction of justice a serious crime? >> absolutely. >> is your view that lying to the fbi is a serious crime? >> absolutely. >> and both should be investigated vigorously if there's evidence that they occurred? >> yes. >> to your knowledge, is there evidence that there has been perjury or obstruction of justice in connection with the investigation into russian interference in our elections 2016? >> i don't have knowledge to that effect, senator, but i think special counsel mueller would have jurisdiction over that. >> and the reason he's investigating is that there's sufficient evidence to warrant a special counsel, as i had vadvo at the very beginning of rod rosenstein's appointment. so i view this investigation with the utmost seriousness beca