these people has said repeatedly especially in helsinki that he doesn't think this is a problem. >> dan coats was asked why the president's rhetoric on this very sensitive issue doesn't necessarily match their own rhetoric, the rhetoric we heard from coats and the others today. listen to coats. >> how do you explain the disconnect between what you are saying, his advisers and what the president has said about this issue? >> i'm not in a position to either understand fully or talk about what happened in helsinki. >> that is a pretty shocking statement from dan coats 2 1/2 weeks after helsinki and the summit between president trump and president putin. he says he is not in a position to either understand fully or talk about what happened in helsinki. >> it opens up the possibility that donald trump knows something that we don't know about russian interference because of his conversation with vladimir putin. i think that it extremely unlikely. i think the truth of the matter is dan coats is asked a great question that is fundamentally unanswerable. the u.s. intelligence community, mike pompeo, c

dan coats the director of national intelligence michael rogers the n.s.a. had as well as kirsten nielsen who is the secretary of homeland security now one by one they spoke with they all kind of seem to repeat the same kind of message this is the security chiefs making their allegations. our democracy itself is in the crosshairs paid by russia to try to weaken and divide united states threat is not going away to prevent foreign interference in our elections to prevent of russian and other foreign influence and the russians try to hack into and steal information candidates and government officials alike cyber attacks against voting infrastructure along with computer intrusions malicious cyber actors targeting elected officials that goes beyond the elections and goes to russia's intent to undermine our democratic values. now the election is more than two months away but regardless according to what they were saying the cording to their report they say russia is already meddling in the upcoming vote now the terms that were used the allegation seem to revolve a

john bolton, dan coats, christopher wray, paul, and kirstjen nielsen. you're looking at the front line of defense at america's infrastructure and the democratic process itself, or on another reading, you're looking at a five-person janitorial crew carrying the mops and brooms trying to clean up the lingering toxic spill that was donald trump's disastrous news conference had helsinki with vladimir putin. no matter how you see them, the message they delivered today was important and in some ways welcome for its candor. russia still poses a threat to the american democracy and the midterm elections and they are committed to stopping it. listen to chris wray and dan coats. >> our focus here today is simply to tell the american people we acknowledge the threat. it is real. it is continuing, and we're doing everything we can to have a legitimate election, that the american people can have trust in. >> russia attempted to interfere with the last election and continues to engage and malign, influence operations to this day. >> they stepped up their game big tim

. >> national security dan coats joined sarah sanders for today's white house press briefing. they talked about russia's americanagainst elections. this is about 45 minutes. good afternoon. since the beginning of his administration, president trump has implemented a whole of government approach to safeguard our nation's election. the president has made it clear that his administration will not tolerate foreign interference in our elections from a nation, state or dangerous actor. last year, the president signed an executive order to strengthen and review the cyber security of our nation and its critical infrastructure. last week the president chaired , a meeting of his national security council to address ongoing threats. we asked officials standing next to need to break the american people on the work he's done to protect the integrity of our actions. efforts are underway to provide cyber security for authorities to investigate, prosecute and hold accountable those who legally to interview process. i want to welcome director of national intelligence, dan coats, fbi director s

the director of national intelligence, dan coats, i'm told was not consulted on this decision. i'm also told that the cia was in the words of an official with knowledge caught off guard by this decision. has this ever happened before? a president revoking a senior official's security clearance and threatening to do that to others? >> no. not that we know of and seems to be unprecedented appears. by all accounts. you have talked to people. i have talked to people, a national security lawyer who says that there's no reasoning, no cause here. you would need cause to revoke someone's security clearance and to take such a step, right, you have to show did the person leak classified information? is the person under some kind of investigation, criminal or perhaps an internal investigation. we have nothing, nothing to suggest any of this certainly by the former cia director. so it is unprecedented, for the white house to meddle in this, to go ahead and make decisions for the sponsoring agency and here probably was the cia, to circumvent the cia, to go ahead and do this on their own and

and dan coats gave a speech where he said the system is blinking red. so yes. you're right. we can shore up our cyber defenses and we can do a lot of things on try to defend. but the russian intelligence hackers are always going to get in in some fashion. the way that you stop them is to deter them. and the only person who can do that is donald trump. >> and just briefly, to that final point. one of the issues with the obama administration and the perils that are posed, was, quote, obama's approach, the "washington post" noted, don't make things worse. obama's advisers concern any pre election response could provoke an escalation from putin. putting aside the trump piece of this, what is the problem for the pus as you put it, lives in a glass house when it comes to escalating a cyber global war? >> that was a reasonable concern by barack obama. we are the most vulnerable of any society. we are the most internet connected. and we are extremely vulnerable to russian cyber attack. and they are in our networks, including the critical infrastructure. most intelligence officials a

you heard dan coats say that he supported more sanctions on russia. and while this administration has imposed some sanctions, the president has also sat down with the leader of russia at a summit and elevated him and raised questions about whether he even believed that russia interfered in the election, standing right next to vladimir putin. that's the opposite of making russia pay a price. you know, there are a lot of experts who will tell you it's not really reasonable to expect private companies like twitter and facebook to stand up to an onslaught by a foreign intelligence agency. the russians will always be able to put bots on twitter and facebook. you have to make them pay a price, impose a cost on them. that hasn't been done by this president. >> let's listen to marco rubio. he is calling it warfare. >> it's not influence. it's not interference. it's warfare. this is information warfare. based on the russian doctrine of warfare, information warfare is a key part of it. my view is they are using platforms like facebook and twitter as a vehicle b

so, despite what the president said about putin making convincing argument, dan coats certainly isn't convinced. dana? >> dana: do you think what they did today standing up there as principles talking to the american people and to the world because, our enemies, allies, the military, serve watching you, when you are in the white house briefing room and it's live and have you principles like that in the room, do you think this will finally put an end to the questions of whether the white house believes that russia is trying to meddle in the election? >> i mean it certainly didn't leave me with any doubts when you had the director of national intelligence and the director of the fbi both saying that russia is heavily involved there are other maligned actors out there as well and sarah huckabee sanders talked about that as well though she would not say who those other actors were. i think we have pretty definitive statements two of the lords of the biggest intelligence agencies in this country that russia is heavily involved. so i don't think that leaves much wiggle room for anybody to s

here was the dni head dan coats on russia. regards to russian involvement in the midterm elections, we continue to see a pervasive messaging campaign by russia to try to weaken and divide the united states. reporter: the latest example believed to have occurred earlier this weeks when facebook announced it shut down 32 accounts which they say the accounts were set up purposefully to try to sow discord in the political process. i asked director of the fbi christopher wray if this is tip of the iceberg and a larger more elaborate scheme and if russia was behind it? he would not point the finger directly at russia in this specific case but he did say the social media companies that got heavily criticized in the lead-up to the 2016 election have made strides since. >> they're sharing information back with us based on what they find. there are things they can do on their platforms voluntarily in terms of use, things like that, that the government doesn't have a role in but in turn, we learn things from them and we can use that to h

>> so i will add to it, getting through and is dan coats even in the loop. me play you just one more little bit of sound here from dan coats on thursday. >> i'm not in a position to either understand fully or talk about what happened in helsinki. >> i'm not in a position to either understand or really talk about what happened in helsinki. that is the top intelligence official in the trump administration. that speaks, i think, to the disconnect here. remember, donald trump wanted a one-on-one meeting just translators and the two heads of state between he and vladimir putin. he got that, brooke, but unfortunately we don't really know what happened in that meeting and apparently we have that in common with the director of national intelligence, dan coats. back to you. >> chris, thank you so much. >> thank you. >>> coming up next, osama bin laden's mother speaking out for the first time since the 9/11 attacks orchestrated by her son. she is remembering what she refers to him as a good child. peter bergen, the journalist who actually interviewed bin laden himself

dan coats is the nation's top intelligence official. he needs to know these things, he needs to understand where the russians are coming from, and what potential negotiations took place between the president and the russian leader. this news conference was such a fascinating mixture of cynical spin and also earnest good government. you have john bolton stating that from the day he took office the president has been combatting russian interference. we know that's not true, officials have told us that's not true. but it is true that dan coats, chris wray, paul nakasone, are traditionally concerned about what russians are doing to interfere in our politics. they're doing things about it, in some cases, they're just not seeing leadership from the oval offi office. paul nakasone was asked whether the nsa and cyber command had been given authorization to take action and he didn't really answer. he said the guidance i've gotten from the president and the secretary of defense is not clear, we will not tolerate meddling. that's not saying whethe

so i'm not sure -- dan coats seems to be out of the loop. but i think jim is totally right.arly, it points to the fact about what a political decision this is. listen, brooke, donald trump is a master at programming the cable television screens that he watches all day. >> our conversation just changed. >> that's what he's doing right now. this is to change the subject away from paul manafort and omarosa. and this is purely donald trump manipulating the conversation, knowing that he has the ability to do that. and that is what this is geared towards. >> david, but just to that point. you know, we often talk about how the president manages the message and the media circus, et cetera. this is a decision with consequence, right? because, again, there's a reason why the intelligence community draws on former intelligence officials and their experience, and in this case, remember, these are officials who served both democratic and republican administrations. several of them -- multiple democratic and republican administrations. and there's a reason they keep those security clearan

listen to what dan coats said.e says russia is attacking the election not just in the social media sphere, but targeting particular candidates, stealing their information as they did with hillary clinton in 2016. have a listen. >> in regards to russian involvement in the midterm elections, we continue to see a pervasive messaging campaign by russia to try to weaken and divide the united states. we also know the russians try to hack into and steal information from candidates and government officials alike. >> that's of course what russians did with hillary clinton and other democrats during the 2016 campaign. what we have not seen yet, they say, are specific attacks on election systems, such as voter registration, certainly not vote counting yet. we do know in 2016 while there was no russian attack on vote counting, there were probing attacks that looked for vulnerabilities, et cetera. they haven't seen that yet on these midterm elections, but they made it clear that could change at the drop of a hat. at least to da

they're hearing that from dni dan coats. can they believe they will be secure? >> well i don't think we're going to be secure. the russians are getting more sophisticated, using vp yns. facebook has detected it, the national security agency detected it, dan coats said they're meddling and will continue to meddle and we can count on them picking up the pace. you have to believe the intelligence community. the president is sounding deranged at these rallies. i don't know what he really believes but this is not a hoax, the russians are coming after us again and americans better pay attention and they are managing, by the way, to divide us and they will continue to unless there's a strong reaction from this administration. >> the five we heard from yesterday, in some ways you could make the case they are becoming more blunt and forthright in their assessments. we are hearing stronger language from secretary nielsen than we had a few weeks ago. don coats clear on where he stands. how much do you think that could influence the president's thinking even if it's only be

jackie, i mean, the fact that the director of national intelligence dan coats did not know about this, was not consulted according to the reporting, the fact it caught the cia unaware, how much is this rooted in national security versus vengeance? >> seems like the latter rather than the former and cutting off his nose to spite his face and the reason that these individuals still retain the clearances is for the benefit of the united states and the current set of national security professionals. that's why. not just to have it and monetize it for sentimental reasons for something. there is a reason. so you don't have to have time when national security is involved. >> it is worth pointing out that michael flynn who lied to the fbi, was not on that list and president obama did not take away his security clearance even when he was out there chanting lock her up in 2016. >> right. no one is entitled to a security clearance. but let's make no mistake. what we witnessed from the white house podium today is a brazen act of intimidation. not only do they list off critics of the president, pe

john bolton, dan coats, christopher wray, paul, and kirstjen nielsen.at the front line of defense at america's infrastructure and the democratic process itself, or on another reading, you're looking at a five-person janitorial crew carrying the mops and brooms trying to clean up the lingering toxic spill that was donald trump's disastrous news conference had helsinki with vladimir putin. no matter how you see them, the message they delivered today was important and in some ways welcome for its

. >> he believes vladimir putin over dan coates. that's where we are today. >> he clarified that to say i don't understand why it weren weren't -- weren't be. but he said it was a very forceful denial. so in the con dex, it is very hard to imagine that he just missed a contraction there but i am glad you pointed that out, what do the intell chiefs, can they work around the president? >> look, we can see them collecting information about russian involvement. that is why they're out there so clearly speaking about it. it is about a bipartisan sanctions. you heard them mention yesterday by someone at the podium about operations against russia. if we under take our own u.s. government's cyber operations, he ought to be involved in those operations. has he or has he not. the other thing he has to do is speak to the american people. as you go into an election campaign, the midterms, what do they think about the difference between a nut screaming on soes social media and how to determine if they are a russian front. it should be the presid

>>> plus, dan coats speaks truth to power, again. the director of national intelligence admits he still does not know what the president told vladimir putin last month in helsinki. think about it. the director of national intelligence. and ivanka trump says that it was a low point for her when the separations of children from their family were happening under her father's administration, through her father's policy. she says it was low point. she was, felt bad about it. the big question is, will she do anything about it? besides prepared comments. with us we have national affairs analyst for nbc news and msnbc john heilemann. donny is here. donny deutsch is here. republican strategist and nbc political analyst susan del percio is here. columnist for the "washington post" david ignatius and pulitzer prize winning historian jon meacham, author of "the soul of america: the battle for our better angels." a battle we're in right now for sure. joe will be back aon monday. willie what did you think of the president? your gut watching? >> ex

dan coats the director of national intelligence as well as kirsten nielsen who is the secretary of homeland security now one by one they spoke but they all kind of seem to repeat the same kind of new. this is the security chiefs making their allegations our democracy itself is in the crosshairs paid by russia to try to weaken and divide the united states' threat is not going away to prevent foreign interference in our elections to prevent russian and other foreign influence and the russians try to hack into and steal information candidates and government officials alike cyber attacks against voting infrastructure along with computer intrusions malicious cyber actors targeting look to officials that goes beyond the elections it goes to russia's intent to undermine our democratic values we've heard the head of the n.s.a. come out and say that the u.s. government is prepared to engage in special operations to counter russian influence in the upcoming elections now dan coats the director of national intelligence he was pressed to give specifics related to allegations regarding hacking and and o

here was christopher wray and dan coats at the white house a couple of days ago. here it is. >> russia attempted to interfere with the last election and continues to engage in malign influence operations to this day. >> we continue to see a pervasive messaging campaign by russia to try to weaken and divide the united states. >> this threat is not going away. >> you're on the intelligence committee. i assume you have heard many of these same updy wi p more specificity than we have. what's your level of concern about interference in the 2018 elections based on the briefings you have been receiving? >> i chair the rules committee, senator klobuchar is my ranking democrat. >> right. >> she and i work on that committee together, so those -- which is basically the committee that would have the legislation for election security at hearings that were public on this topic. i thought the most helpful thing in terms of thinking about this year's elections that director wray had to say was we're not seeing the level of activity trying to approach the election systems themselv

. >> and nbc news is reporting that dan coats was not informed beforehand about this revoking the security clearance, had no idea. the nbc news report says an official familiar with the decision confirmed to nbc news that the director of national intelligence, dan coats, was not informed before the announcement. >> that's very unusual that we would have the intelligence community who actually are the ones that would seek to benefit to benefit from director brennan's experience not being part of this conversation. >> dan coats could have been on the phone this morning with john brennan about some previous business that occurred during john brennan's time and not known that the security clearance is being revoked. >> that's right. it is surprising that is not a decision that's coordinated through the other agencies because there may be important things he's working on that are classified that he can't talk about it. he said when you have an ongoing crisis, many of the things he worked on may be relevant and you might want his advice later on. >> and in john brennan's op ed piece today and i

there are people in there like dan coats, i know you have a lot of respect for. >> that's right. i think the question is, who does vladimir putin believe. it's vladimir putin who is coordinating these attacks on our democracy. he believes the president of the united states. it was interesting to hear john bolton say that trump -- hear the president himself say that putin was really unhappy that donald trump was president. we all know that putin said in helsinki he was pleased to have donald trump as president. the reason for that is that donald trump has not pushed back on the interference in 2016 elections or the oncoming attacks which we have seen in the case of the senator from missouri and the facebook efforts that are coming at 2018. what should we do? this is a moment when congress has to step up. that's why senator rubio and i have introduced the deter act, which would make it very clear to vladimir putin, if gets caught interfering in our elections again, there will be immediate, very harsh penalties. his economy will feel a lot of pain. he needs to know in advance that t

. >>> sources telling cnn the cia was caught off-guard by trump's decision on brennan and dan coats,ence, was not consulted. tonight coats says the president has the ultimate authority to decide who holds a security clearance. cnn counterterrorism analyst philip mudd, a veteran of the cia and the fbi. kirsten powers and republican strategist rick wilson, the author of "everything trump touches dies," set to reach number one on the "new york times" bestseller list. wow. congratulations. we are among greatness right now. >> thank you, don. >> good evening. you., on imgoing to start with so as not to get rick's head too big. listen, phil, director clapper was on with chris cuomo earlier reacting to the president's actions today. i want you to take a look. >> if the president wanted to pull mueller's security clearance, how easily could he do it? >> pretty easy. >> there's supposed to be a process. we just saw him in94 it with you guys. >> the president does have the authority to, you know, to exercise here. if he so chooses. now it's unprecedented for a president to reach down and take

that's what dan coats, director of national intelligence told us, that's what facebook's detection of these intrusions mean. i give facebook a lot of credit for detecting this continuing russian campaign, really an act of war against our country, that now the trump campaign has to act which so far it has failed to do. >> reporter: he was referencing dan coats who said all the warning lights are blinking red for the country in trying to deal and grapple with this. facebook had been pretty reluctant to get out in front of any of this. they held a conference call with reporters where they refused to say if russians were meddling. they still haven't said definitively if that's the case but there are suggestions it could be. halle? >> thank you. >>> joe, you've been reporting so much on facebook, what they've been doing. but we have some new reporting now and what else was involved in this foreign influence report that facebook did not reveal take us through it. >> that's right. the business went through some web archives to look at the ads that facebook provided yesterday, the accounts an

dan coats, is in the dark on the meeting.e secretary of state says i'm confident trump 20e8d me what happened, he's telling one but not the other? >> i obviously can't explain it. it's terrible commentary actually on this whole helsz fias fiasco. what should have happened is convene a meeting of the national security council, those directly involved, secretary of state, secretary of defense and get a very thorough debriefing on what happened maybe the president is playing favorites with secretary of state who he does have affinity with. but it's sad when the dni is cut out. and to dan's credit he's been honest and public about it. >> he has been. you mentioned president trump and now president obama in january, 2017, which in part was about that dossier. i know you personally weren't a part of that word for word but you were in that group of intelligence chiefs. federal government is now, a judge has ruled, going to have to tell buzzfeed whether you, brennan, comey, admiral rogers briefed president obama before buzzfeed publi

ouf rssia and its attack on the election and its continuing attaco that was to three weeks after dan coates had warned a public the hudson institute that the red lightsre linking and it was the ost important urgent warning since the 9/11 prewarnings about terror. we've been told, that the senate intelligence committee has ben told the russians are into our electronic grid, our infrastructure, to sayothing of the propaganda, false and malign information that was l outlined ast alleged in the mueller indictments. so the fact that the president has not led a meeting or signaled the importance of this and keepsg deny, out on the campaign trail, and contradicting them, is sending a signal it doesn't matter. i untihows that it matters to him, it's not going to ge fixed. robert: it wasn't just the president, paula. where was attorney g jeff sessions? paula: a great question. under previousin atrations the administration would be actively involved in this. from the outside from the time at trney general sessionsk over i've asked sources within the national security division, it was clear,ussia was

because it seems like john bolton knows what went down but dan coats doesn't. >> john bolton is kind of on the horns of the same dilemma. you see john bolton come out and try to, you know, rattle the saber yesterday and talk about everything they're doing to attack russian interference. in a statement last week, he put out a statement last week, calling the investigation a witch hunt. again, john bolton is in the same place that sarah sanders is. trying to say it out of one side of her mouth. but the administration is getting serious about interference in elections. out of the other side of her mouth, call the investigation a witch hunt. everyone in this administration has this problem. you cannot do both of those things at once. >> ron, how damning is it for our country that the president is not on the same page as his national security team? and what does it do to them? if you think about when gary cohn finally said enough is enough, it was when he realized he couldn't help the president on trade and tariffs. because the president was never going to listen. >> he's listening to pet

i have tremendous faith in dan coats. if he says that, i would accept that. will tell you, though, it better not be. it better not be. >> jimmy: just so i'm clear. he believes it's happening, but it better not be happening. [ laughter ] it's like we elected the riddler, it's confusing. [ laughter ] on top of all that another plot twist. according to the failing "new york times," two weeks before his inauguration trump got a full briefing from the intelligence lead there's showed unequivocally that vladimir putin personally ordered russian meddling in our election. they showed him e-mails, text messages from russian intelligence agents, which means trump has specifically known who interfered with this election the whole time. and it wasn't, as he suggested, a 400-pound guy sitting on his bed or others as he keeps saying. it was his kgbff vladimir putin. and that is hard to swallow. that would mean our president, donald j. trump, has been lying. ♪ dum dum dum but none of it is true, of course. because the media is the enemy of the american people. that's what h

we saw dan coates, we saw kirstjen nielsen. what has been the president as response so far? >> it seems there's been a mishmash what top security officials are saying about what russian interference and what the president is saying and doing. i think, you know, while it is great that they are out there warning of this, it doesn't seem like there is much effectiveness on the part of dhs and other agencies in helping states prepare for this. a lot of states have not actually used or asked for money for election security, and congress hasn't been exactly eager to give the millions of dollars necessary for this. so it looks like we're going to have a repeat, and already facebook is warning that, you know, they are worried about the interference issue. >> let's switch gears for a moment and talk about that somewhat combative press briefing that took place yesterday. sarah huckabee sanders refusing to answer if the president sees the media as the enemy of the people, something he has said clearly in the past. what's holding them back from denouncing that claim or sarah huckabee sa

we're so thankful, oh, my god, dan coats, you said something true, wow. n't asking the followup of what are you doing about it? so coats and nelson want to say, okay, the russians definitely meddled. >> but what are they going to do, challenge the president? it's their job. >> yes. >> if you're -- >> sat down with our own andrea mitchell, basically challenged the president, without directly challenging -- >> if he really didn't know. it caught him off guard. he really didn't know. >> if you're putting america first, these people have a responsibility to protect us. and we're not asking those questions. we're -- >> of the president, though. >> i think we're assuming the president won't. so if the president won't stand up, these people are the ones who have the responsibility to do it. and we're not asking tough enough questions of these people to figure out what they're doing to protect us going forward. >> well, they're in such a bind, because the issue is, if russia interfered in 2016 to help elect donald trump, then there is a chance that they're not the

here's dan coats, three weeks removed from the trump/putin meeting. he lives in washington, the president lives in washington. he's the director of national intelligence. the number one intelligence person in the country. take a listen. >> in the run-up to the helsinki summit, u.s. officials, ambassadors to nato, ambassadors to russia said the president would raise the issue of the malign activity with president putin. he didn't discuss that at least at the press conference. you're saying today that the president has directed you to make the issue of election meddling a priority. how do you explain the disconnect between what you are saying, his advisers, and what the president has said about this issue? >> i'm not in a position to either understand fully or talk about what happened at helsinki. >> lahnee, that's the director of national intelligence. >> that happens to be the truth, i guess. >> kudos to director coats. he handed it off to bolton, but the director of national intelligence doesn't feel like he can speak about what happened. >> this is

i think dan coats and others and bob wray and -- chris wray, i should say, have been very consistentut the nature of this threat. but the president of the united states has the biggest mega phone. it was the president of the united states who sat alone for two hours with vladimir putin. it was the president of the united states who stood on a platform with vladimir putin and essentially undercut his national security team and his intel team and gave credence to putin's lies. so the world sees that first. and it makes them wonder. and i think it gives putin the idea that the back door's open, come on in. >> secretary panetta, david just mentioned dan coats. last night the president said he had a great meeting with putin. the director of national intelligence, dan coats said yesterday that he is, quote, not in a position to either understand fully or talk what happened in helsinki. now either he knows and can't talk about it, but the idea that to even say he is not in position to understand what actually occurred behind closed doors is pretty stunning. >> well, you got director of nati

. >> what about what jim was reporting off the top, that dan coats wasn't at all consulted, director clapper, on any of this. this is something the white house and this president went ahead and just did. how -- help the viewer understand how profoundly stunning that is. >> well, it's unprecedented. i don't know of a case where this has ever been done in the past. i mean, access to clearances normally would be done completely by a sponsoring agency. so in john's case, the sponsoring agency is cia. and normally, if there were going to be an action taken like this, it would be done at that level. and not by the white house or not by the president himself. so this is, at least in my memory, unprecedented. >> so to your earlier point about really alarm bells on first amendment rights of folks such as yourself, mr. brennan and others who come on or tweet or what have you, and exercise their own opinions, thoughts, what can you do to fight back? >> well, you know, it doesn't really have any -- if i lose my access to classified information, it really doesn't have any immediate substantive im

by the director of national intelligence, dan coats. on that security secretary, kirstjen nielsen and fbi director, christopher wray. after the briefing, senators bob corker and dick durbin spoke to reporters. >> we meant telling us about the briefing on camera for a moment? i will be very brief. >> nothing new. i mean i think all of you are reporting on the kinds of things that agencies are doing. our ability to protect ourselves and it was really nothing that i mean i'm going to get a cup of coffee as a matter of fact. >> you believe they are doing enough because if there has been criticism they have not been taking this as seriously as they should. >> i think there are working together. in the best way that they can to make sure they are working interagency wise here, federally but also with officials throughout the country. there has been a large uptake throughout our country people wanting to work with our agencies and i really do think they are doing everything they can. i think they feel pretty good about where they are but every

you heard dan coats, we want a legitimate election.y, we know we'll have an election that is legitimate. that was disconcerting to hear. you studied this threat, you worked on it at the fbi. how serious is this threat? how concerned should we be for november? >> the biggest fear is that people don't trust institutions and elected officials and elections are at the cornerstone of our democracy. so if there is just one state that can't audit and verify through some sort of backup its vote, it tells all of our adversaries all you need to do is hack in one voter database. just try. >> one precinct. >> one precinct. you can create the conspiracy as we saw last election that your vote didn't count. >> how easy is it? >> very easy. we have seen hackers going at the hacker competitions and just since the election of 2016 go and easily break into different digital machines. and just creating this provocation -- you don't have to hit the machines. just hit a database. this is super simple. the states can't defend against this. >> the other part

national intelligence director dan coats says the u.s.t seen the same kind of robust campaign by russia interfere in the 2018 elections compared to the 2016 election. -- he just reporters in the white house briefing in efforts for future foreign and outside interference in future elections. >> our democracy it self is in the cross hairs. free and fair elections are the cornerstone of our democracy and it has become clear they are the to -- of adversaries seek to sow discord. >> even as we speak, open the spanning fbience field offices across the country. make no mistake. the scope of the threat is broad and deep. collect the national security adviser said president trump is leading unprecedented action to

we will start off with director of national intelligence dan coats, followed by director of homeland security kierstin nielsen -- kirstjen nielsen, followed by fbi director trista of the and the director national security agency, nakasone.ul not l i would like the american people to know that the intelligence community and all of the agencies are postured to identify threats of all kinds against the united states. the president has directed estimate the matter of election meddling and securing our , and wes a top priority have done that and are doing that and continue to do so. have incorporated lessons learned from the 2016 election and implemented a broad spectrum of actions to share more information across the federal government, as well as state and local governments, and also the public and private sector. the intelligence community continues to be concerned of threats against the upcoming u.s. elections, and the presidential elections in 2020. in regards to russian involvement in midterm elections, we continue to see a pervasive effort by russia to try to weaken and divide the