clapper? mr. clapper: that's a possibility. senator graham: what i don't get how they can have a counterintelligence investigation and you as director of intelligence not knowing of it and the f.b.i. signed on to a report that basically said there was no collusion. mr. clapper: i can only speculate why that isn't so. the evidence, if there was any, it didn't reach the evidentiary bar in terms of the level of that assessment. senator graham: are you familiar with the dosier about mr. trump compiled by some guy in england? mr. clapper: i am. senator graham: was that a credible report? mr. clapper: we didn't make a judgment on that and one reason e didn't include it in our assessment. the sources.borate lamb senator graham: are you familiar with the dosier? ms. yates: you asked me whether i was aware of any evidence of collusion and i declined to answer because answering would reveal classified information at is the same answer that director comey gave and i would like to make clear just because i say i can't answer that, you shou

so clapper's statement, he undercuts his own statement on that. and when yates was asked about it, she didn't say yes or no, she said she couldn't talk about it. >> the clapper statement is something that the trump white house has pointed to all along saying there's no there there, if james clapper didn't see anything by the time he left. >> the white house is concerned about the issue of russia, and they' trying to downplay it of course. when you hear sally yates who's not being partisan in this, she's doing her job, saying that she had information and she went directly to the white house counsel's office, not once but twice, to tell them the category 5 hurricane was happening, about the fact that flynn was trying to overturning the sanctions that obama put in place. and this could be prosecuted if there's something more that is deeper. >> there's plenty of people on that panel, ted cruz among them who believe she is being partisan. >> he brought in some extraneous issues including hillary clinton's emails. it didn't look like a partisan democrat

not paying attention to what clapper said today. see that in the press conference today with sean spicer saying clapper is being misleading. he's changing his story, but, in fact, it's the white house who is being misleading, and donald trump is hanging on to this testimony from clapper earlier on and hanging on to some comments made by grassley. this is their big defense. they are hanging on to him, but, again, it's -- they are cherry picking and it's misleading in terms of what clapper actually said and what he would actually know. >> what white house officials are saying he was the top intelligence official knit united states and he says he didn't see there's any evidence. >> they are either lying or lazy. intel 101. let me take you into it. if you're in clapper's position, what are they saying about their interactions with americans. at the fbi you're looking at witnesses and looking at phone records and determining what they were doing at that time. clapper doesn't have insight into that. that's a federal bureau investigation.

clapper? >> well, as much as i love a congressional hearing, i think there is a huesful purpose, sir, because i think the most important thing that needs to be done here is to educate the electorate as toss what the russians objective is and the tactics and techniques and procedures that they have employed and will continue to employ, and i predict it will be against all the parties, and so -- so i think education of the public is the most important thing we can do in this hearing, grudgingly though i admit it, serves that purpose to the extent that this can be shared openly. i do think as well there needs to be more done in the way of sanctions to the russians or any other government that attempts to interfere in our election process. >> i'm done. >> thank you very much. senator klobuchar. >> thank you, and we thank you both for being here again. i think senator graham then asked if you would want to come back, director clapper, and we're very glad that you're here. when i asked the questions

what clapper knew and didn't noy has a big question. clapper's statement he undercuts his own statement on that. we know yates when she was asked about it she kind of said well i can't talk about it that doesn't mean yes with doesn't mean any it's really inconclude disbelieve april that's important because the clapper statement is the something the trump white house pointed to all there is no there there james clapt kwlaper didn't see anything by the time he left. >> what i'm hearing from sources close to the white house they are concerned about the issue of russia they're trying todown play it when you hear sally yates who is not being partisan in this doing her job saying that she had information and she went directly to the white house counsel's office not once but twice to tell them the category 5 hurricane was happening about the fact that -- that flynn was trying to overkourn turn the sanctions that the president -- president obama had put in place. there are tent kals here and this could be prosecuted if indeed there is something

that's what it looks like to me. >> general clapper? >> yes. >> neither one of you did. >> that's right. >> how many people can request unmasking of american citizens? speak i don't have an exact number. i think it's fairly limited because it is normally a fairly high-level official. >> how did you know general flynn was talking to the russians? who told you? >> i can't reveal that in an open setting. what i was trying to say was often times we receive intelligence reports where the name of the american citizen is already unmasked, and it's unmasked by the intel agency because, not based on anyone's request but because the name of the citizen is essential. >> senator i cannot. >> my 4 minutes is up. >> thank you. i want to know the answer to these questions. >> thank you, chairman. there are multiple levels of security clearances, and they are issued by different agencies, correct? having one from dod doesn't necessarily make you good for all positions and all places. >> it does not. dod operates clearances at multiple levels. >> i thin

clapper? >> that's a possibility. >> what i don't get is how the fbi can have a counter intelligence investigation suggesting collusion and you as director of national intelligence not know about it and the fbi sign on to a report that basically said there was no collusion. >> i can only speculate why that is so. there wasn't -- the evidence, if there was any, didn't reach the level we were striving for in that assessment. >> okay. follow up. are you familiar with the dossier about mr. trump compiled by some guy in england? >> i am. >> did you find that to be a credible report? >> we didn't make a judgment on that. that's one reason why we did not include it in the body of our intelligence community assessment? >> you didn't find it -- >> we didn't corroborate the second or third sources. >> mrs. yates, are you familiar with the dossier? >> if i could clarify one answer before. senator graham, you may have misunderstood me. you asked me if i was aware of any evidence of collusion. i declined t

. >> general clapper, could you comment? if you had the warning from department of justice about general flynn possible will being compromised here and these important national security decisions that followed, would you have concern about that? >> well, i would hypothetically, yes. again, i was going from the government as well. >> you've had quite a career in intelligence and national security. here you have a mans that been told, the white house has been told, he could be compromised and blackmailed by the russians, continuing to make the highest decisions by our government. >> well, certainly a potential vulnerability. no question about it. >> i would say so. thank you. >> thanks, mr. chairman. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you to the witnesses for being here today. mr. clapper, you had testified as to the harms that come from leaks, the harms that come to our national security. you also testified about the importance of keeping information classified. have you ever knowingly forwarded classified information to a non

and he asked that question to clapper and he knew that clapper wasn't going to answer him and it gavet. i think it was classic lindsey graham very smartly stirring the pot because he does believe that you cannot do a russia investigation without looking at donald trump. >> including his tax returns. >> donald trump will never be fully exonerated in this, which he claims this is fake news and no really story, unless the tax returns are part of it. you can say his business interests are in fact what he says. it's done. mark down the time. >> i'm anxious to hear what sean spicer is going to be saying at this press briefing. everybody stand by. there's another story we're following. protestors in front of republican congressman daryl ice's district in the city of vista, california. they want answers after he voted for the house's health care bill. let's go to our national correspondent. she's right outside the district office. congressman isn't there but what hear you hearing from his constituents on the ground? >> we're hearing a lot. brought them out here to protest him, his health care

do you agree, director clapper? >> i certainly do, and i understand how critical leaks are and unmasking and all these ancillary issues, but to me, the transcendent issue here is the russian interference in our election process and what that means to the erosion of the fundamental fabric of our democracy. and that, to me, is a huge deal and they're going to continue to do it, and why not? it proved successful. >> thank you. >> until they pay a price. i hope which they will soon pay. senator sasse? >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you both for being here. director clapper, how likely do you think it is foreign intelligence services are trying to compromise congressional i.t. systems? >> well, i think that's -- congressional i.t. systems are a target and have been and certainly i saw examples of that during my time -- my time as dni and this is one case where we expeditiously informed the congress when we saw evidence of that, and, again, that's not just russians, there are others out there doing the same thing. >> a

director clapper's comments and president trump, why is he leaning on clapper when he said i have no knowledge of whether those -- >> i think on several occasions director clapper has said he has no knowledge of any collusion. that's it. >> he hasn't been briefed. he wouldn't know because he hasn't been briefed. >> he was dni up until january 20th. >> he was very clear today that he said nor should i have in this particular context. he made the case that he is not briefed on an fbi investigation, that that's not his purview. >> fair enough. he's the director of national intelligence. on multiple occasions prior to today he made it very clear he was unaware of any collusion. >> his one point was there was no final conclusion. >> i understand that. so the question i would then ask, kristen, why did he say what he said before? it seems -- his testimony and comments on multi-at this point multiple occasions say i have no evidence there was any collusion, right? to suddenly today shift his story, i believe the question should be asked to him. you were the director of national intelligence

clapper: "exactly."clapper says he feels the government's system of checks and balances "is eroding."the criticism follows nearly a week of backlash over the firing of now-former f-b-i director james comey.u-s ambassador nikki haley defended the move on a-b-c's "this week."nikki haley, u.s. ambassador to u.n.: "the president is the ceo of the country. he can hire and fire whoever he wants. that's his right. whether you agree with it or not, it's the truth. what he's trying to do is find his own team, figure out how he's going to do it. were there better ways he could have done that? that's for everybody else to decide." president donald trump says he might choose his replacement from a shortlist for comey before leaving for his first overseas trip as president on friday. president donald trump: "these are outstanding people that are very well-known, highest level... so, we could make a fast decision."reporter: "before the trip next week, you think possibly?"president donald trump: "even that is possible.

clapper said today. he said unless we stand up to it, defend our country from it we will yield to it and ultimately it will end us. that is the failure of the administration here. they not only didn't stand up to it. they allowed the person compromised to stay in that post. >> the president on twitter today kind of fighting the other angle, and 109 days of kind of forced or at least attempted normalization of all things russia and putin. >> we've gotten insurel newered to things the president says on twitter. he said something tonight as remarkable. he talked about this investigation as being a waste of taxpayer money. it is an investigation of people who ultimately work for him. the director of the fbi, the deputy attorney general, who he can fire. these are people conducting investigations of which the president's associates are subjects, maybe targets. the >> gentlemen, it's been a long day. it was a lot of testimony. perhaps it's unfair to ask you for a headline, but starting with you jeremy, what wa

i want you to hear what james clapper said under oath. watch. >> whether there were improper contacts between the trump campaign and russian officials you said we did not include any evidence in our report. chuck todd i understand that, does it exist? you say not to my knowledge s that still accurate? >> it is. trish: okay. you hear that? there is no evidence of any collusion between trump and russia. so why don't we hear any of that pro the media, i want to know? >>> governor of texas fighting back against sanctuary cities, suing officials in austin for refusing to enforce immigration law. will this new tactic curb illegal immigration? we're on it. >>> venezuela on the brink of civil war. you have protesters rioting. children are starving to death. this country used to be one of the very richest in latin america. it was a major exporter of food. it had all that wealth thanks to oil. well, socialism has ruined it. we'll cover venezuela. i want to get back to the top story, sally yates hearing making waves in washington. adam shapiro has m

clapper? >> that's a possibility. >> what i don't get is how the fbi can have a counterintelligence investigation suggesting collusion and you as director of national intelligence not know about it and the fbi sign on to a report that basically said there was no collusion. >> i can only speculate why that's so. there wasn't -- the evidence, if there was any didn't reach the evidentiary bar in terms of the level of confidence that we were striving for in that intelligence community assessment. >> okay. that makes perfect sense to me. follow-up on that. are you familiar with the dossier about mr. trump compiled with some guy in england? >> i am. >> did you find that to be a credible report? >> well, we didn't make a judgment on that and that's -- that's one reason why we did not include it in the body of our intelligence community assessment. >> you didn't find it credible enough to be included. >> we couldn't corroborate the sourcing particularly the third order sources. >> ms. yates, are you f

do you agree, director clapper? >> i certainly do and unmasking and all these ancillary issue but to me the transcendent issue is the russian interference in our election process and what that means to the erosion of the fundamental fabric of our democracy, and that to me is a huge deal, and they are going to do it and why not. it proved successful. >> thank you. >> until they pay a price, i hope which they will soon pay. senator sass. >> thank you both for being here. how likely to you think foreign intelligence services are trying to compromise congressional i.t. systems, director clapper? >> well, i think congressional i.t. systems have been a target and have been -- and certainly i saw examples of that during my -- my time as dni, and -- and this is one case where we expeditiously informed the congress when we saw evidence of that, and, again, that's not just russians. there are others out there doing the same thing. >> and what intel value would it provide to them? >> well, depending on the nature of the materi

clapper and we are very glad that you are here. before i ask my questions about the general fact that this ranking official is caught on tape with a foreign official saying one thing inrr private and another in public, it's different and if that's material for blackmail, andse you both said it was, can you give me examples from your experience, director clapper of when russians have used sex, live lies and videotape as blackmail. >> i don't have a lot of direct knowledge external to russia. this is a classical technique that they would use to co-opt compromise political opponents and of course the current administration was more aggressive than that where they just bought out people i have read and seen it during the soviet era. >> what about our election infrastructure. one major thing we need to do is educate the public, and i am very concerned that we have different states in different election equipment and ranking and rules and we are working on the bill. how important is it to protect the l integrity of our election. >> it's

i've ben focusing on james clapper.r said he never saw anything about collusion but he admitted he was essentially out of the loop. he didn't know about it. >> it would be interesting if he did. >> that was one argument. so he's taekeb away a huge argument by the republicans. >> thank you all. when we come back. jared kushner's sister courting. wll here's to the wildcats 'til we die... this i gotta try bendy... spendy weekenders. whatever kind of weekender you are, there's a hilton for you. book your weekend break direct at hilton.com and join the weekenders. e*trade's powerful trading tools, give you access to in-depth analysis, and a team of experienced traders ready to help if you need it. it's like having the power of a trading floor, wherever you are. it's your trade. e*trade wise man, i'm nervous about affecting my good credit score. i see you've planted an uncertainty tree. chop that thing down. the clarity you seek... lies within the creditwise app from capital one. creditwise helps you protect your credit. and

clapper, he know you're a private citizen now. but if you can help determine the pool of people who could do unmasking, we would appreciate it. when it comes to incident cloaks 2016 campaigns, i'm a little confused but i think we found least one person where that did happen. is that right? >> yes. >> do we know of any other candidate on either side of the aisle? >> i don't know. there could have been other unmasking requests. >> there's a way to find that out. >> yes. the best way would be the original collection agency. >> finally, the current deputy attorney general, do you know him? do you have confidence in him? >> yes, i do. >> thank you all. final comment? >> absolutely. >> during the last hearing we had the author of the kremlin play book as one of our witnesses. and we had the very well regarded kenne as one of our witnesses. and they both agreed that the united states is leaving itself vulnerable to this kind of influence if we continue to allow shell proliferation. so i mentioned that. chairman grassley and i are work o'

so what did clapper say? the simplest terms the white house is not telling the truth. clapper has never said he's seen no evidence. he's said he's seen no conclusive evidence. in fact, today he went on to say in an interview that he has seen evidence but it didn't rise to the same level of confidence that they had with their assessment, for instance, that russia hacked the u.s. political process, but to be clear as well and i've spoken to the director a number of times he's also said and made clear and has not see and would not see all of the evidence. that's by law because u.s. intelligence agencies cannot be involved in the investigations that involve u.s. persons, only u.s. law enforcement can, and that's the fbi and the person in charge of that investigation, the american in charge of fbi, you might remember no longer has his job. tonight the former director of national intelligence said thatty he's never ruled out evidence of collusion between trump associates and russia during the campaign, directly con

and finally, biggest story today between clapper and yates is on surveillance.htag fake news, exclamation point. here to discuss, carl higbie. there was over and over where clapper said there's no evidence that donald trump was in contact with the russians, even coming into the hearing senators like dianne feinstein saying the same exact thing, and yet you know that's not going to be the headlines. >> it's so difficult to know what to believe about this. we heard pretty much what you, i think, expected to hear today which is, as trump said, mostly what we already knew about this situation. but at the same time, james clapper is somebody who has sat there in front of congress before and literally lied to the faces of members of the u.s. senate. so it's difficult, honestly, to know what to believe from him. the sally yates situation, obviously, trump has his opinions there. this is something where the media has taken the story and run one direction with it. the truth is somewhere, i think, in between what trump wants it to be and what you'll probably read in some

i agree with general clapper. we don't need to reach into the cyber tool kit every time we're cyberattacked. but i think in our zeal, appropriate enough, to try and protect the nature of our cyber tools and our sources and our capability, we can lead some in underestimate our ability to retaliate. eventually, we're going to have to build a deterrent regime of some kind. and so we ought to be having a coherent conversation about levels of classification and how we would want to do demonstrations. fourth, i would say doctrine. this is always kind of the military in me. what is the definition of a cyber attack? i think it's time we really grappled with that. on a spectrum that runs from nuisance, defacing of websites to connectic demonstrations that kill people and destroy massive amounts of material and equipment. somewhere on that spectrum lies what we ought to think about as a cyberattack. i would argue what north korea did to sony picture s an americn corporation which included a high degree of business and econo

i actually think that that's a great question that you should ask director clapper. >> director clapper's comments and president trump, why is he leaning on clapper when he said, i have no knowledge of any collusion. >> general clapper said he has no knowledge of any collusion. that's it. that's the point. >> he said he wouldn't know because he hasn't been briefed on the investigation. >> he was in the fbi until january 20th. >> he was very clear that he said, nor should i have in this particular context. he made it clear that he's not briefed on an fbi investigation, that that's not his purview. >> fair enough. he's the director of national intelligence. on multiple occasions prior to today, he made it very clear that he was unaware of any collusion. >> but his point is he wouldn't know. there's been no final conclusion. >> so the question that i would ask, then, kristen, is why didn't he say what he asked before? his testimony and comments on multiple occasions prior to today was, i have no evidence that there was any collusion, right? so to suddenly today shift his story, i believe tha

clapper? >> that's a possibility. >> what i don't get is how the fbi can have a counter intelligence investigation suggesting collusion and you as director of nat intelligence not know about it and the fbi sign on to a report that basically said there was no collusion. >> i can only speculate why that is so. there wasn't, the evidence, if there was any, didn't reach the evidentiary bar in terms of the level of confidence that we were striving for. >> okay. that makes perfect sense to me. are you familiar with the dossier about mr. trump compiled by some guy in england? >> i am. >> did you find to be a credible report? >> well, we didn't make a judgment on that. that's one reason why we did not include it in the body of our intelligence community assessment. >> you didn't find it credible enough to be included. we couldn't corroborate the sourcing, between the second and third sources. >> are you familiar with the dossier? >> if i could try clarify one answer before as well. i think he may have

on question after question, both james clapper and sally yates hid behind classification. one would hope if this matter continues and we are certain it will, somebody somewhere will say we need to see this stuff. the american public needs to see it. whether you are talking about transcripts of what mike flynn said in his conversation with sergey kislyak, whether you're talking about requests for unmasking, all of these things are being debated without the benefit of the public seeing what is the substantive claim. >> bret: "new york times" had a piece saying mr. obama, who had fired general flynn as head of the defense intelligence agency, told president trump he would have profound concerns about mr. flynn becoming a top national security aide. it goes on to say that flynn's name came up about personnel. the concerns were largely about his mismanagement. he goes on about warning trump about flynn. here is sean spicer today. >> it's true that the president, president obama made it known he wasn't exactly a fan of general flynn. it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, gi

clapper is very careful in how he speaks. all these intel guys seem to be. and it sets up a very interesting struggle, alex, because what the president is banking on is you can't prove a crime. that's clearly where he is putting all his eggs, okay? that's the bar that's being set. is it the right bar? and is that likely to pay off politically for the president? >> chris, it is certainly not the bar that is typically set for investigations of a white house and the conduct of a president and his team. what the president is trying to do, in addition to what you just described, is he is trying to keep this on a very, very narrow question. is there explicit evidence of criminal collusion between president trump and his associates and russians or agents of the russian government? that is not how investigations work. when you have a presspecial prosecutor or a special investigation, they may start with collusion and end up with who knows what. questions of did everybody reports contacts with russian agents at the right time, did everybody disclose their approapriat

james clapper spoke and sally yates spoke.nd specifically talking about the vetting of michael flynn and the warning, why did know that at least raise a red flag in this white house about vetting him, about sally yates, about the current president who was barack obama then? why didn't that at least raise a red flag? >> i don't know. but it may have been that the president trump didn't believe what president obama said. it may have been that what president obama said wasn't accurate. i don't know. >> wasn't he get -- wouldn't he be privy to classified information from president obama and from sally yates and from the justice department? >> he being flynn? >> no, he being president-elect trump. he was getting classified briefings at the time. wouldn't they have shown in this information? >> i don't know, it depends on whether it's information or not, whether it's accurate. i don't think on the outside here we have any way of knowing those things are true. >> well, my question is and i asked someone earlier, i think it was jack k

lastly, biggest story on clapper and yates is on surveillance.

>> i just was glad that director clapper, former director clapper, and former attorney general yatesy gave one of the more interesting open hearings, and it didn't surprise me when he said that. he said it before, right? and he made it clear that when he was preparing this foreign intelligence report that he didn't have that kind of evidence. but yet, he quickly said that he is not part of the ongoing fbi investigation or any of the investigations. he can't be. he's now a private citizen. so, i think we knew that already. it's fine to bring it out there, but the point is, there are ongoing investigations from the senate intelligence committee, a bipartisan investigation, as well as an fbi investigation, and we're awaiting those results. >> all right, senator, we've got to ask about you, because you have been making some trips south across the southern border in the great state of iowa. you were at a polk county fund-raiser recently. you've got a 72% approval rating in your home state of minnesota and you've got a lot of people buzzing about 2020. is a run for president for 2020 on yo

i don't think we can read into jim clapper's answers.y when you look at his first answer, he was very deliberate. he said not in the course of the assessment. she saying there is something else i have that i don't want to say. lindsey graham says he now wants to investigate trump's business ties to russia. >> nick price, an investigation into the president's business ties takes us in a whole different direction than the information question of hacking. >> yeah, as he said, this avenue was not included in the intelligence community assessment released in january. this is something that probably would not be in intelligence channels, something more in lawsuit channels. something that if there is a special prosecutor would be right for his or her prosecution. above all else, something that we could learn a lot about if president trump was to release his tax returns. >> you worked with sally yates in the justice department. she was a career pros crew tor first nominated in 1989. there has been a lot of tweets, and implications, there was a m

clapper responded, it's difficult to do that.e know that the obama administration on multiple occasions prosecuted many people for leaking information. when he said it's difficult to do that, to what is he referring? >> julie: why would it be difficult? you're saying is difficult to do due diligence and follow law enforcement and protocol? when a criminal is accused of a crime, you investigate if you find any evidence, you then convict. you go to trial and then there is a conviction where your set free. there is no conviction here. there was no accusation. as far as the hundreds of thousands of emails that turn into a handful, that concerns me that the fbi messed that up. then it comes down to its a handful. the handful came down to huma abedin basically using her blackberry. i think that those are almost gone. plugging her blackberry into anthony weiner's laptop. how do you do that? you work for hillary clinton who was already under fire for sharing classified documents and then you're going to hand it over. >> harris: only one

both dni clapper and ms. yates both stated they had read intercepts which featured unmasked americans, in this case, president trump and some of his associates. at the same time, they admitted they never targeted either campaign, but they did see a lot of -- there were a lot of wholesale unmaskings, i believe, under the obama administration that seem rather suspicious to me. david: we should mention, by the way, both james clapper and sally yates said under oath and they were sworn in for the testimony, said under oath they did not leak any information or authorize anybody else to leak information about who was unmasked. they did say that. of course, again, we have not heard from susan rice, who would not come before the committee. scott, thank you very much. appreciate it. melissa? melissa: the white house sounding the alarm obamacare is on its last legs, wait until you hear who one of the authors of obamacare is blaming? think your large cap equity fund has exposure to energy infrastructure mlps? think agai

on the key question of whether trump advisers colluded with russia in that interference, james clapper said he had not seen evidence. yates, however, was less definitive. cnn's own reporting is that the fbi continues to investigate both communications between trump advisers and russian officials as well as possible collusion. clapper confirmed that russia collected on democratic and gop targets but only leaked on the democrats. he and yates both expect russia to continue to attack u.s. elections and both parties in u.s. elections going forward. christine and dave? >> thanks a lot, jim. yates and clapper's testimony forming the back drop for a meeting tomorrow between russian foreign minister sergey lavrov and secretary of state rex tillerson in washington. the official agenda is ukraine, syria, and other bilateral issues with russia's hack of the u.s. election likely looming over these talks. for more, we turn to cnn's matthew chance in moscow, where president putin spoke this morning at a parade marking russia's victory over the nazis in world war ii. matthew, is this the typical show

clapper had been used a lot by trump defenders. clapper was asked about this when he was leaving.evidence of collusi collusion. what do you say in your experience if there were proof, we would know it already, general, and we have not been told anything. >> i would not believe we know it already. this deserves to be played out. that's why you have the multi e multiples investigations. that is why you have the fbi on point trying to find out what if any collusion took place. chris, you bring up a great point. let me be candid and a little dark here. perhaps the only collusion required to make the russians successful was the campaign that chanted lock her up and threatened a special prosecutor to put his political opponent in jail if that campaign one. and a candidate himself who endorsed wikileaks by saying i love wikileaks. maybe that is all you needed in the political process to make the russian effort more likely to skucceed. >> general, what is now happening with north korea? now we have four americans s detained. >> i think most people believe that the kim redegime will try pr

you said something, general clapper, that i quite don't understand. is it unlawful to surveil with a fisa warrant a foreign agent in the united states? >> no, it's not, but that's another provision. >> okay. >> i'm saying -- >> i just want to make sure that there is a procedure to do that. >> there is. >> okay. senator durbin. >> just to your point, you said the word overseas. ambassador kislyak was not overseas on december 29thth, was he? >> that's correct. >> thank you, mr. chairman. let me say at the outset to sore cornyn, in your conclusion the nature of the muslim travel ban was, of course, a position that was supported by three different federal courts that stopped the enforcement of that ban and ultimately led to the president withdrawing that particular travel ban, is that not true? >> that's correct. >> thank you. i want to mention at the outset here that this is a critically important hearing had. i want to thank senator graham and senator whitehouse and bipartisan nature in this hearing. i think the testimony we receive from these witnesses

first of all clapper didn't say that. he said he couldn't comment because it would affect the investigation. trump actually made that tweet the background of his entire twitter page which sort of works symbolically. the issue that is sort of hanging over the first 109 days of the administration that they just can't shake. this came after a good day on health care as always happens with the trump administration. within 48 hours there is a russia story that sort of overshadows it. of course trump was going to weigh in. it's just a matter of what time he gets back to his phone. >> brian, matthew in the first block used the word inured, which is perfect and covers so many things over these past 109 days. we have become inured to the idea the president of our country diminishing one of the pillars of democracy. and at's going after a free press almost every day. >> well, this is the story that donald trump just can't escape. it's not going to go away. there is an investigation in the senate, the fbi is investigating the russia

clapper was very careful today. what i heard in that tape strongly sulgts the ongoing counter intelligence investigation ran into some ways this which real estate holdings by trump and his family and investments in those holdings by russians or by folks closely tied to russian leadership may have raised a legitimate concern. >> the republicans today asked about unmasking, asking about leaks, asking about the president's travel ban while democrats as you know focused on russian interference in the presidential election and michael flynn. is there a bipartisan mission here because it seemed sort of divided today. >> it was striking to me that in the opening, former director of intelligence clapper, said this is a pressing threat to america and to our democracy and demands action and a response. senator lindsey graham, republican from south carolina and ben answer is from nebraska both stood up and engaged that question and broadly speaking most republicans on the panel seemed to want to go down of what i view as the r

clapper. >> certainly didn't expect, i thought it was all done with this when i left the government. this is only the first of two hearings this week. understandably, and so serious to focus, hopefully bipartisan focus by the congress and the american people. and russian interference, in this presidential election process, and the community assessment or ica. and whatever information, and came up with an the congress and the classified form. and against the ica was produced, and classification and executive -- to what i can discuss. my direct official knowledge stopped on 20 january when my term of office was over. the ic was a coordinated project from three agencies, cia, nsa and fbi, not all 17 components of the intelligence community, those three. under my former office, only extensive intelligence reporting about many russian efforts to collect on and influence the election of the presidential election, president obama asked us to do this in december and have it completed before the end of

listen here to james clapper when this question came up. >> general clapper, during your investigation of all things russia, did you ever find a situation where a trump business interest in russia gave you concern? >> not in the course of the preparation of the intelligence community assessment. >> since? >> i'm sorry? >> at all? anytime. >> senator graham, i can't comment on that because that impacts the investigation. >> now, what does that tell us? the intelligence community assessment was the assessment published before the election where the intelligence community came forward and said i wanted to tell the american people, russia was meddling in the election and that they should have note of that. they did not get into some of the stuff that we learned later. what does jim clapper mean when he says i can't comment on that because it impacts the investigation. >> we don't know but it raised some red flags in the initial change. the follow-up with lindsey graham saying he can't touch that and now lindsey graham saying he's interested, that this sort of essentially raises to the leve

clapper said i don't know. nothing that i've seen said it exists.he point is there's clear ly a effort by russia to influence the election. mike flynn, carter page, jared kushner meetings, there's a lot of smoke there. why mott say let's have a nice wind come through here and blow that smoke out. he continues not to do that. >> kim, the president, what the president does do is tries to deflect all of this and tries to pin it on the obama white house claiming that they somehow should have better vetted michael flynn instead of him vetting michael flynn adequately for one of the top posts in the cabinet and as your reporting suggests this was an open secret about michael flynn. it didn't take a lot of dirt. this wouldn't have been heart to connect these doths. >> remember where this is coming from. donald trump has gone through several lawsuits, accused of many things. his way of dealing with it is to fire back and drive on. i'm sure he felt the say way about flynn who would have assured him everything's fine, this is more from our political opponents

i thought director clapper made an interesting point. culmination of efforts that the russians have been undertaking for 50 years. >> the underlying weakness of hillary clinton was hillary clinton and her campaign. and that's why the election was so close and vulnerable to late breaking events like the comey letter and the one thing she can't admit and she should. >> bill: thank you rich and mo. nice to see you out of the swamp. come out more often. thank you, gentlemen. >> shannon: always welcome here. democratic activists launching dramatic protests against the gop healthcare bill. are they going too far? mock funerals and more? we'll talk about that. >> bill: why today is a really big day for the piano man. play it, billy joel. ♪ ♪ there's nothing more important than your health. so if you're on medicare or will be soon, you may want more than parts a and b here's why. medicare only covers about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. you might want to consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by

clapper said they weren't able to confirm a lot of what is known as subsourcing. sources blind it the people reading it. they did confirm intelligence agencies passed information to the united states about potential meetings between trump administration officials and russians. this was part of the real flurry of information coming in last year that was causing great concern in the obama administration in the final weeks and months. >> charlie: with what knew do we know about what trump has said about the wiretapping of trump tower? did it come up today? was it mostly about general flynn when he said to the legal council in the white house or are the senators that questioned her go to other areas? >> the wiretapping didn't come up that specifically. it came up in the general category and came up in the line of questioning about unmask. the panelists did ask both yates and clapper if they had requested unmasking if they were aware of unmasking. clapper said he once requested unmasking relate to someone on the trump team and yates said no and they were asked about th

james clapper exonerated us. that's okay for his supporters. but in terms of trying to get to the bottom of what actually happened here, that is not instructive or helpful in any meaningful way. they have to shine a light here. sally yates has had her say. what is the white house's explanation of those 18 days? and you have to be open to listening to it. >> the problem is not just michael flynn. the problem is there were lots of people connected to the trump campaign who had contacts with russia. it was carter page. it was paul manafort, jeff sessions. all of them had contacts with the russians. none of it has been fully explained at this point. so it is not like there is going to be one simple explanation. >> spicer has one. it's obama did it. flynn is obama's problem. he should have done it. and if he knew so much about these other investigations, they should have done something. they didn't. it can't be that big of a job. and they gave the guy clearance in the first place. >> excuse me. i wish the president of the united states knew how the

even out of the silo to the point where clapper would know about it. clapper's suggestion.ok a whole lot different. a major shakeup could be coming. involving some very notable names. the new reporting for axios strait ahead on morning joe e. wake up skin. neutrogena® hydro boost hydrating tint. the first water gel foundation with hyaluronic acid it plumps, quenches... delivers a natural, flawless look. this is what makeup's been missing. neutrogena® this and it's also a story about people. and while we make more e-commerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country we never forget... that your business is our business. the united states postal service. priority: you ...to a new world.s... deeper than the ocean. as unfathomable as the universe. a world that doesn't exist outside you... ...but within you. where breakthrough science is replacing chemotherapy with immunotherapy. where we can now attack the causes of disease, not just the symptoms. where medicines once produced for all, are now designed to fit you. today 140,000 biopharmaceutical researchers go bodly t

james clapper, former director of national intelligence.te house and president keep citing stuff that he said to say there is no confirmation of any collusion between the trump campaign and russia. he was on msnbc today with andrea mitchell. listen to this. >> it's not surprising or out of abnormal that i would not have known about the investigation. or more importantly the content of that investigation. i don't know if it was collusion or not. i don't know if there is evidence of collusion or not. nor should i have in this particular context. >> and you were not intending to clear, to convict or clear anyone of collusion. it is just outside of your scope? >> that's correct. >> did he just poke some holes in the white house, meredith? >> i would say he destroyed the white house, narrative. >> this is not his job to follow an fbi investigation of possible solution between the trump campaign and russia. that is an fbi investigation. the fbi does not report to the director of national intelligence. he has access to lots of things but he does n