but the kind of kerfuffle around this concern is the reason that devin nunes is no longer overseeing the russia investigation. i'm told, erin, democrats did not approve these subpoenas. so basically, this is something that was done without the approval of the minority. the four russia investigations swurps bipartisan. they put out a statement announcing them. the three on the unmasking. it looks like they were driven by republicans and most likely devin nunes. >> so that does raise the question, right, if democrats weren't informed, weren't on board with those subpoenas when we're talking about the unmasking here, which is a serious issue, how much unilateral power does devin nunes have here when he is supposedly not involved with russian matters? >> in short, a lot. based on the committee rules, the chairman of the panel can issue any subpoena he wants on his own. now the committee rules also say the chairman is supposed to consult with democrats, the minority before he decides to move forward on any subpoena. and again, according to a senior aid on the panel, democrats were not inf

remember devin nunes? he went straight to the white house to alert the president about the illegal unmasking of trump officials. he is back in the news tonight and breaking his silence next. the texas legislature descending into a bit of chaos with lawmakers getting into a scuffle. we'll tell you what caused that. when we come back. ♪ >> there was a threat made to put a bullet and one of my colleagues heads. ♪ products that suit my needs and i get back to business. ♪ ♪ if you have moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis like me, and you're talking to your rheumatologist about a medication... ...this is humira. this is humira helping to relieve my pain... ...and protect my joints from further damage. humira has been clinically studied for over 18 years. humira works by targeting and helping to... ...block a specific source... ...of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. it's proven to help relieve pain and... ...stop further joint damage in many adults. humira can lower your ability to fight infectio

but devin nunes canceled the sally yates hearing. got himself taken off the investigation altogether. he's now under investigation by the house ethics committee for potentially having disclosed classified information. that was the house intelligence committee. then the house oversight committee. they decided they'd look into a very specific part of it. they'd look specifically into mike flynn's payments from foreign sources. and despite their very narrow focus on just that piece of it, the house oversight committee appears to have stumbled on to something unexpectedly rich. their inquiries turned up the theory that mike flynn had not disclosed his foreign payments from russia, even though he'd been told explicitly and in writing that he needed to do that. the inspector general's office announced they started an independent investigation of mike flynn. the white house remarkably -- remarkably refused to hand over any documents to the house oversight committee about mike flynn. they would not hand over a single document, a single piece

that's heavyweight advice if you get a call from devin nunes or richard burr telling you to stay away from a story, it's bs. they're the chairman in the house and senate and would be in a position to know what they're talking about on a story like this. also a big deal because these were the two guys supposedly leading two big congressional investigations into this very subject, into the white house-russia connections. the white house had them making phone calls, warning reporters off this "new york times" story, as a favor to the white house. apparently on a recommendation, improper communication from the deputy director of the fbi who told the white house chief of staff something about the fbi's investigation, said this story about what we're found and looking at, it's all bs. this is what happened right after mike flynn got fired. that was so screwed up in so many ways, so many days in this new administrationwow, that's a mess, i can't belve that happened. this thing was so screwed up. at every level. the guys making a supposedly independent investigation making phone calls to repo

could have talked to the intel committee, devin nunes. could have talked to the senate intel committee and something could've gone public. the documentation and how it was perceived, the conversations, if they happened, that's where we need to figure out the facts. >> bret: house democratic caucus chair today talking about this. >> i am for restoring faith and confidence by the american people in their government. i think we are at an all-time low right now. i think the most recent incident in terms of what the president may have said to mr. comey when he was the fbi director. it will be more than troubling right now. what i want to get to is the facts. the only way to do that mister the confidence is through an independent commission. i think the process here in terms of the house and senate intel committees is not working properly. >> bret: what about the call for an independent commission or special counsel of some sort? >> no, i think there are plenty of outlets and plenty of ways to do that. there's no evidence that there was some so

could have talked to the intel committee, devin nunes. could have talked to the senate intel committee and something could've gone public. the documentation and how it was perceived, the conversations, if they happened, that's where we need to figure out the facts. >> bret: house democratic caucus chair today talking about this. >> i am for restoring faith and confidence by the american people in their government. i think we are at an all-time low right now. i think the most recent incident in terms of what the president may have said to mr. comey when he was the fbi director. it will be more than troubling right now. what i want to get to is the facts. the only way to do that mister the confidence is through an independent commission. i think the process here in terms of the house and senate intel committees is not working properly. >> bret: what about the call for an independent commission or special counsel of some sort? >> no, i think there are plenty of outlets and plenty of ways to do that. there's no evidence that there was some so

but the parallel to this, it looks very similar to the devin nunes case where devin nunes has a conversation with the white house, comes forward to the cameras, claims that there's this great crime that's been committed, now debunked i should say again. cnn's own reporting. by democrats and republicans who've seen those same reports. it looks very similar to the nunes case. >> right. this is all rod rosenstein when in fact it's all probably president trump and using them. more reaction now from capitol hill. joining us now is senator chris coons, democrat of delaware and member of the judiciary committee. senator coons, what's your reaction to comey's firing? >> this was a simply stunning development, anderson. not just because of the timing but also because of the justification. it's striking to me that the attorney general, who had recused himself from involvement in the investigation into possible collusion between the trump campaign, the trump administration, and russia had a direct role, had a hand in this decision to fire the fbi direct director. the director who's responsible for over

devin nunes called off that next public hearing.l hasn't been rescheduled and he simultaneously gohimse l himself kicked offhat hou intelligence investigation. so he was firs then it happened aga as the house oversight committee, i think maybe unexpectedly stumbled into information about contacts between mike flynn and russian officials. their questions about flynn's contacts with foreign governments and his payments from foreign governments led to revelations the pent gone launched a new independent investigation into flynn. as soon as that happens, house oversight chairman chaffetz also decided he, too, needed to get out of dodge. congressman chaffetz first announced he was going to quit congress and then he said he needed to leave congress immediately. yesterday for surgery on an old foot injury. then on friday, as that news was publicly announced about the defense department inspector general running its own investigation, then it was a third guy, the attorney general of the united states, jeff sessions, saying that he, too, was

devin nunes saying the democrats don't want an investigation on russia. they want an independent commission? why? because they want to continue the narrative that vladimir putin and donald trump are best friends and that's the reason he won because hillary clinton would have never lost on their own. it has to be someone's fault. he says they tried to destroy the investigation. they've never been serious about it. essentially blaming the decrats on committee for just trying to use this investigation to hurt donald trump and excuse hillary clinton. what do you make of that? >> he's right that we want an independent commission. elijah cummings and i wrote legislation and two republicans have joined us to call for that. he's wrong that we see this as anything political. if hillary clinton were elected president i'd still be calling to understand what happened with russia's interference campaign. and when we saw president macron in france stand next to vladimir putin yesterday and call out russian propaganda outlets for what they did in his election, that's wh

devin nunes pulled this stunt and canceled the hearing. learned the president also told the fbi director directly to shut down the trump-russia investigation into mike flynn. the white house is denying it but the ousted fbi director says he documented it when it happened at the time. the white house also told them them to talk to reports about contacts between the trump campaign and russian intelligence sources reporting that turned out to be corroborating over and over and over again by multiple other sources even though the white house enlisted these guys running the russia investigations to please try to shut it down. we also now know the president himself and the white house chief of staff pressured the fbi director to make public statements about the trump-russia investigation to make sure the administration look better than they do on this subject. he refused to do that and then, of course, he did get fired. the president fired him. and then the next day he admitted first to the russian officials and then the next day to lester holt

know the white house has appeared to take extraordinary measures, particularly in the house and devin nunes and all that back and forth to throw in a monkey wrench. >> this white house has attacked the press, attacked the judiciary. they seem to be systematically attacking all the institutions that put checks on the power of the president. and that's very dangerous. >> thank you all for joining us. that is "all in" for this evening. director james comey found out he was fired while in the command center a at the fbi firing, the president exonerated and in a letter from the justice you will recall trump the candidate praised the fbi director back then and embraced him after taking office. the white house was caught offguard by the political backlash from this. but with some democrats in congress saying we are now in a constitutional crisis, tonight the democratic leader in the senate as you heard mentioned, chuck schumer of new york, is now demanding an independent prosecutor be named. >> if deputy attorney general rosen stein does not appoint an independent special prosecutor, every america

devin nunes is a cautionary note. yes, he is.ll use you, spit you out. you will be stripped of possibly your committee chairmanship. he doesn't care about anybody but himself. rod rosenstein is an example of that. he day traded on rod rosenstein's 27 years of hard work and tried to throw him under the bus in an instant just so he could win the next six hours of a news cycle. he tried to do the same thing with general mcmaster when he trotted general mcmaster out to give a 60-second nondenial denial. it moves beyond that. it moves beyond just embarrassing people, trading in on their honor and integrity of over 27 years. it also has legal ramifications. there are people now in this white house that are young and idealistic and came to washington, d.c. to make a difference. they don't have a lot of money. and they're having to get lawyers. they are having to hire lawyers because an investigation is moving forward and if they don't hire lawyers, they could find themselves in legal jeopardy. the same thing happened during the bush adm

devin nunes told us at the quenlgs, why doesn't silicon valley pay for that? all those rich guys there. why is that incumbent on the federal government to pay that? >> there's regional pay -- back -- >> he ran on infrastructure, we haven't seen any plan which presumably would include rail. >> there's legitimate concern by any sane person looking at the way california has run its finances, the uc system slush fund for example, can you trust california for money? i give them money for this, maybe not looking at the fine details, and will it go into some other pocket of pie in the sky project like the high speed rail project that democrats and republicans a lot of them have concerns about. >> go ahead, sean. >> well, and to further add to that, california is part of their health care put 4 million people on medi-cal. 4 million. so they are now putting -- >> it's also a very stable exchange. >> well -- let's see. when the bills come due and the fact that the federal government as it phases out or ramps down how much money we're going to give to the state of califo

we have seen devin nunes, a trump ally, struggle.e had to recuse himself from the russian investigations because of his behavior and ties to the white house warner in virginia, the ranking member and burr, the and -- northa carolina republican, are not sure how far to lean in. they want a special prosecutor. suspicion always is, once you give a special prosecutor and power, president clinton found this out, you ther know how wide investigation will become. on the other hand, if you want to eliminate suspicion, you should try to crte body of that will be credible and have some sense of senility to the investigation. bob: the unending nature of a special prosecutor looms over the white house. you have to remember, the core of what drove this was the president's desireo ve on from the russian investigation, to get the russian probes off of his plate and presidency. that is what led toom getting out there. it has been papered over by the white house. their explanation was that the deputy attorney general, rob rosenstein, hisemandum was t

blood and i put an end donald trump friends >> jon: thoughts the house intelligence committee, devin nuneselling donors at a private event, he says the democrats are looking for a scapegoat in this morning, president trump fired off a series of tweets about former campaign aide, carter page who has been scrutinized over his possible ties to russia. the president writes, so now it is reported that the democrats, who have excoriated carter page about russia, don't want him to testify. he blows away their case against him and now wants to clear his name by showing the false or misleading testimony by james comey, john brennan. witch hunt. let's talk about with simon rosenberg, rich lowry. thanks to both of you for being here. do you see a smoking gun somewhere in all of this talk about russia meddling in the election? >> i think it's why there is an investigation. i'm trying to be very deferential to the investigation. we know all the investigations are being led by republicans. attacking democrats seems a little bit odd because we are not actually couldn't control of any investigations. my h

. >> and don't forget the attorney general reaccused himself from the russia investigation, devin nunes who had to step down from the investigative part of this russia. every day there seems to be something. we're talking about classified information. the election wasn't that long ago, though it seems like ages ago. this candidate slammed hillary clinton throughout the campaign for her alleged handling of classified information for which she was never indicted for. he slammed her. watch this. >> we can't hand over our government to someone whose deepest, darkest secrets may be in the hands of our enemies. i don't think it's safe to have hillary clinton be briefed on national security because the word will get out. we can't in the oval office who doesn't understand the meaning of the word confidential or classified. >> and then he tweeted this "crooked hillary and her team were careless in their handling of sensitive highly classified information not fit." how does this compare to what hillary clinton was accused of? >> the key words are "not fit." there could be this huge dark conspirac

they minimize that but they have a process and devin nunes confirm this.ven if they knew who it was, then they unmasked these people. even though they are innocent americans that should never have been surveilled in the first place. if it's political surveillance on an opponent, what with that mean in terms of scandal to this country? >> it would be one of the biggest scandals this country has ever seen. if that is proven. t go back to 2011 when they loosened up these rules. john and i reported on this. we see an increase of this. it slowly but surely, in increase of unmasking americans. but we don't know yet, sean, is why. as well as for the senate, and for congress to ask these questions. susan rice needs to ask these questions. james clapper needs to ask these questions as well as director brennan. what were they looking at and why? if they were compiling dossiers on political opponents, that needs to be exposed. that cannot be held under the shield of classification. >> sean: you said last week we may now know who these people are that were surveilled.

we had seen some derailment earlier with the chairman of the house intelligence committee devin nunes and his midnight jaunts off to the white house. once they moved him out of the head of the investigation and moved congressman conway from texas in, you saw that investigation get back on track. and after a slow start you have seen the senate investigation on track as well. so they need to both be publicly seen as very aggressive. and also need to be very aggressive in getting the information they need so people just that they are doing the right thing. >> mika. i know you are not a politician. you should be commended for that it strikes me that these next few months are going to be the times where we are really going to see, especially among republican elected office holders those profiles in courage people keep talking about. people are going to need to take a stand if they want these investigations not only to be diligent but to seem diligent to the american people, correct? >> that's right. i think it's really important to remember what's at stake here. we are talking about the in

fact, bipartisan republican and democratic members will find a chance to look at those documents devin nunes talking about came away and said we didn't see anything improper. i understand -- >> charlie: how do you explain mike flynn thing? >> marie: which one? there are so many i can explain to you. >> charlie: the fact that he was unmasked, those transcripts were revealed. >> marie: there could be very legitimate national security briefings that mike flynn and his conversation with russian officials, turkish officials, any of these other officials was unmasked. i'm not saying that have been dori didn't, i'm saying there is zero evidence to back up the claim that this is a constitutional crisis. i want the senate to have hearings on russian interference in our election. jim comey said they are still interfering. surgeons and answer some questions. i think republicans are also using this politically. they're saying will invite her, she'll say no, then we will say she is. let's put that in the context of what russia did. >> harris: i want to go back to sanders question because i think it's a g

. >> james: congressman devin nunes. reese thank you for stopping by. we appreciate it. harvard university has an analysis on the news coverage of president trump's first 100 days. he dominated media coverage, accounting for 41% of all news stories. that's three times the amount of coverage received by previous presidents. the tone was more negative than positive on all topics covered in the study. sweden's top prosecutor has dropped a long-running rape investigation on julian assange but we are reporting tonight from london, julian assange is hardly out of the woods legally speaking. he may not even get out of the embassy where he has been held up. >> wikileaks founder julian assange, has been held up since 2012 in london. sweden dropped an investigation into and alleged 2010 rape incident. >> we did not see any possibility. >> while legal obstacles prevented them from continuing the investigation, he was not declared innocent. to admit though, he would have to return to pick up the probe. >> well today was an important victory, and an important vindication, the road is

of course, the chairman devin nunes stepped down. how are you feeling about the leadership of congressman conway? >> i have a lot of confidence in congressman conway, and i expressed to him, you know, we want to follow evidence wherever it takes us and also make sure that we reclaim our independence, credibility and ability to show progress, and, you know, he's a cpa so he knows how to work on a dead line. i hope that we can get to the american people as much information about what happened, whether any u.s. persons were responsible, and i think what americans really expect from us is an assurance that we won't find ourselves in a mess like this again. we need reforms to be put in place to prevent that. >> it sounds like the senate committee is open to issuing subpoenas. what about the house committee? >> it's always better if people come in voluntarily. yes. we will get to the truth as, you know, and as forceful if we need to. >> congressman, a lot more to talk about in the house of representatives. we'll talk about that in just a m

. >> by his own timeline, the president sent that tweet out and several weeks later, devin nunes said i have some information you should see. and he said i was right about the surveillance. even if you accept the information that this information was somehow scandalous, the president said he didn't see it until long after -- >> this has all been litigated in public for a long time. and obviously it's something that john dickerson asked him about, but the fact that he's still sticking by, he has yet to acknowledge any fault or -- >> the most generous interpretation, that the original tweet, he didn't really know what he was saying, it's horseshoes, and after he was investigating the thing, what he was really concerned about is collection under the fisa act. he didn't like the fact that the intelligence agencies could unmask people. it is the number one fool that they use to -- there has been information fed to trump supporters that 702 and the nsa are tapping your phones illegally and they can intercept anything they want. with the debate he started, sacrifices 702 this summer and repu

and some of their divisions have been very public, as you know, going back to devin nunes.ear that not only from democrats, but also republicans, the splitting along the lines. the senate probe is supposed to be the adult in the room for this. they're making something of an evident here. but the signs right now don't look good for this being a truly bipartisan effort. >> we'll be right back. ♪someday you'll let me put my way ycomb up there♪air♪ ♪'til then you're beautiful and i just stare♪ your only worry...ty customer first guarantee... will be that one... rogue... cloud. get help with hotels, free twenty-four-hour flight changes, and our price match guarantee. travelocity.® wander wisely.™ the shlike a bald penguin. how do i look? [ laughing ] show me the billboard music awards. show me top artist. show me the top hot 100 artist. they give awards for being hot and 100 years old? we'll take 2! [ laughing ] xfinity x1 gives you exclusive access to the best of the billboard music awards just by using your voice. the billboard music awards. sunday, may 21st eight seven centra

there was the attempt to get devin nunes to essentially tilt the investigation in his direction. you think of all that? do you think that's just smoke or is that fire? >> fareed, i actually put myself in the position of a foreign intelligence chief when thinking about that recently, and my answer would be along the lines you just suggested. mr. prime minister, in response to your question, it appears as if the administration is doing everything it can to either slow or discredit the various investigations with regard to russian interference in the american presidential election. so, i think that's a fair assessment as to what's going on here. fareed, i really dislike special structures, special prosecutors, independent efforts and so on that go too long, too deep, too broad, they cost too much. you lose control. they lose purpose. but i have to tell you, after the events of the past week, i really have an open mind now as to whether or not we need some sort of extraordinary structure, not just so we can get to the criminal resolution -- was there or was there not a crime -- but s

devin nunes, the head of the intelligence committee has looked at the documents and has questions abouthat. so, you know, if there are questions about it, there are significant other legal ramifications. then we have the reports this week that there was this radical jump, the significant jump in requests for unmasking. again, unmasking is an american citizen is caught up in intelligence intercepts and obviously the initial intercept may tell you who that citizen is. if there's a need to know, that person's privacy is connected. the concern is that trump vi advisors, they were caught up in and maybe members of congress was and the obama administration was using that to gather information not for national security purposes but for political purposes. >> neil: so it's perfectly fine when democrats pursuing this story and both sides say they want to get to the bottom of it, but if there's anything that possibly implicates a democratic high-ranking official as she was, national security adviser at the time, no, wouldn't they and shouldn't that if they're taken at their word as they want to b

. >> devin nunes, republican from california, seen at left, signed seven subpoenas. the other four were at the behest of adam schiff. these were said to be duplicate to have but ones already issued by the senate intelligence committee conducting a parallel probe. both president trump and the russians have denied collusion allegations freed the subpoenas instigated by adam schiff are focused on michael flynn. and michael cohen, longtime trump attorney. michael cohen has denied colluding with the kremlin. flint has sought immunity in exchange for congressional testimony. the issuance of the subpoenas was first reported by "the wall street journal" ." >> bret: james, thank you. more on this with the panel. now to the first track of the two track investigation. lawmakers tell fox we are finally going to hear from our hosted fbi chief james comey on a host of issues and we are told the testimony could come within days about what president trump said to comey about the michael flynn investigation. chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge has the stor story. >> a

we have seen house intelligence committee chairman devin nunes, a trump ally, struggle.e has struggled to keep his committee going. he had to recuse himself from the russia investigations because of his behavior and ties to the white house. yet, the senate -- mark warner in virginia, the ranking member of senate intel committee and burr, the north carolina republican -- they have a strong, working relationship, but there is some concern about how far to lean in. democrats want a special prosecutor. charlie: the suspicion always is, once you give a special prosecutor power, president clinton found this out, you never know how wide the investigation is going to become. on the other hand, if you want to eliminate all suspicion, you should try to create a body of investigation that will be credible and have some sense of finality to the investigation. bob: the unending nature of a special prosecutor looms over the white house's thinking. you have to remember, the core of what drove this was the president's desire to move on from the russian investigation, to get the russian

notably, it will be the first high-profile action for that committee since chairman devin nunes stepped aside from the investigation. we will see none of that, however. that hearing will be behind closed doors. also today, the associated press shed more light on what we're likely to hear from sally yates when she faces questions on the hill next week. the report says yates will recount in detail her january 26th warning to the trump white house about ousted national security adviser mike flynn's meeting with the then-russian ambassador, sergey kislyak. a reminder, here is how sean spicer reacted just over a month ago now when asked about yates' testimony. >> i hope she testifies. i look forward to it. if they choose to move forward, great. we have no problem with her testifying, plain and simple. >> two and a half months in, you've got this yates story today. you've got other things going on. you've got russia. you've got wiretapping. >> no, we don't have that. you -- >> on capitol hill -- >> no. i get it. i've said it from the day that i got here until whatever that there is no connect

it leecheventually led to the rl of devin nunes. it was a huge problem.when he -- he brought it up himself. he knows how problematic this is, which is why he tried to cut off the interview when he was pressed on this. >> this gets back to something we discussed earlier. we knows how problematic it is in washington. but does he understand how cat nip it is for his base out in the country? and is he playing inside/outside? >> he can't let go. that's the thing you learn from this again. there's no controversy. no slight that he's ever been subjected to. no offense he's ever taken and he never lets go. he's going to keep going on and on. >> even in an offense that's unproven. >> it doesn't matter. because he'll find ways of saying it was true. and we've so rarely heard him admit he's wrong. >> this is part of another conversation. part of the russia election meddling investigation that continue with the fbi, that continue in four or five committees up in capitol hill. the president has been told and every senior member of his national security team has public

previously scheduled appearance in front of the house intelligence committee, that was canceled by devin nunes. sparking outcry from democrats who believed he was trying to shield the white house, don, from damaging, new revelations. >> jim shud tsciutto. i appreciate that. i want to bring in michael moore, the former u.s. attorney for the middle district of georgia. good evening to you. michael, i'm going to start with you. you know sally yates. you know her well. what's your reaction to this reporting? >> i'm not surprised she's coming to testify. i think eit's been long awaited. she's protective of her department and her professional reputation and her integrity. everybody will look forward to her testimony. i agree what she will have to give will be limited. there will be other information that will be classified. i think we're going to hear everything out in the public hearing. but her information will, the same time, likely be in the area of timing. it will tell us when people knew things, the sequence of events that happen. and that will be interesting. frankly, i don't know that's goin

several new subpoenas coming from congress from it appears congressman devin nunes who recused himselfthe russia investigation. so, there are a lot of kbez about that right now. and white house press spokesman sean spicer was asked several questions about that russia investigation. he declined largely to answer saying now all of those questions should be referred to outside counsel. democrats are pushing back on allegations that they are delaying the public testimony of carter page. a former foreign policy advisor for the trump campaign. page sent a letter to the intelligence committee reiterating his eagerness to have an open meeting to address what he called false or misleading testimony about him. the president tweeted his support for page wednesday morning, once again calling the investigation a witch hunt. but adam schiff, the ranking democrat on the house intelligence committee pushed back, saying the committee intends to review documents before calling witnesses and, quote, the pace of those interviews will be dictated by the needs of the investigation and not the preferences of

look what they did, devin nunes, recused himself again.oke was there, he drags out susan rice and now both republicans and democrats are saying after that kerfuffle she did nothing wrong in her job requesting to see information about potentially who was talking or having if you will unsavory conversations with potentially with russia. but they keep distracting you all the time from what should be the focus. who knew what about russia and who's talking and who's lying. i'll say it again, if donald trump has nothing to hide, nothing to lose calling for an independent fully independent investigation, have everyone testify under oath including paul manafort and carter page and michael flynn. >> let's deal with reality. an excellent job in trying to walk away from the reality of you not being consistent. you're demanding answers on flynn, which i agree with. you should also if you actually care about truth, honesty -- no, you don't, if you did you would care about susan rice being asked questions about her corruption -- >> i'm fine with it. >>

we saw house intelligence chairman devin nunes scrambling to do the white house's bidding, an embarrassing episode that forced him eventually to recuse himself from the russia probe. then there's house oversight chairman jason chaffetz, who has largely refused to investigate the trump administration, for example, telling reporters in february the flynn situation was, quote, taking care of itself. only a week earlier, chaffetz himself had been summoned to the white house for an intimate oval office meeting with the president. i'm joined now by linda chavez. linda, do you find behavior of republicans this week surprising? >> i find it both surprising and disheartening because frankly the only way that this president is going to be stopped from doing the things he's doing, which are irrational, erratic, and dangerous, is for republicans to march up pennsylvania avenue and to say to him, stop it. you have got to stop this, mr. president. he is endangering his own agenda. he is endangering the republican party, and ultimately he's endangering the country. >> the republican leaders that have ess

devin nunes stepped down last month after an ethics committee investigation was announced.alwell sits on the house intelligence committee. good to have you back, sir. just throng that soundbite there from your colleague, how would you assess the house intelligence committee and its investigation into russian haing and e trump campaign? >> craig we're back on track and boy does it feel good to be back on track. this committee has always worked in a bipartisan fashion. that's why i've enjoyed serving on it the past three years. this is what our constituents expect from us. this is our national security and this is an attack on our sovereignty so the best thing we can do for our country and constituents is understand what happened, find out whether any u.s. persons worked with the russians and then put reforms in place to make sure we never find ourselves or our democracy attacked like that again. >> let's turn to our fuse of the day, the white house considering sending more troops to afghanistan. what's your assessment based on what you know? is that the solution? do we need

devin kn dev devin nunes didn't cook that up on his own. that scheme resulted in all of the mess on the house investigation and his ultimate recusal from the investigation, that was -- that scheme was the product of rage and concern within the white house which we're at a point now where if you read the memo from the deputy attorney general, if you hear what's coming out of the white house, clearly donald trump had had enough. the sally yates testimony and the questions about the 18 day period in which michael flynn remained as national security adviser, this is a president who i guess to put it kindly reacts intistinctively to thinks he doesn't like. this is the second time we have seen this letter. >> this letter from the deputy attorney general, you think it's part of a scheme that kind of provides cover for the president to get rid of the director? >> let me be careful here. i'm not saying the deputy attorney general was part of some scheme. i think that the white house decided that comey's behavior had been difficult. there's no disput

former house intelligence committee chair devin nunes canceled hearings in march in apparent efforts to block yate'' testimony after she and former cia head john brennan, who was slated to testify at the same hearing, informed the government they would contradict some statements that white house officials had made. former democratic presidential candidate are clinton claimed that fbi director james comey and russian hacking cost her the u.s. election during an interview tuesday. mrs. clinton: i was on the way to winning until a combination letter on october 28 and russian wikileaks raised doubts in the minds of people who were implying to vote for me -- inclined to vote for me, but got scared off. had the election mid-october 27, i would be your president. amy: that's hillary clinton, referring to the day before fbi director james comey sent a letter to lawmakers saying the fbi was once again investigating whether clinton had sent classified information from her private email server while she was secretary of state. comey is testifying to the senate judiciary committee today. in resp

as you mention, the house intelligence committee had that whole episode where devin nunes made allegationsf unmasking of names. they're regrouping, they had a change of leadership for the russia probe they're doing. the senate intelligence committee is going on even keel. you have cooperation and literally leaders of the committee putting arms around each other to endorse each other's dedication to pursuing this. while they're dependent on the intelligence community for a lot of the information they have to pore through, and getting those documents and witnesses to interview, they have this kind of renewed sense of purpose now because they know that their investigation hasn't been marred by these sorts of discussions we're having now. what does this mean about comey's firing we had a few weeks ago, what did it mean about nunes' leadership because these other things distract from the purpose of that probe. >> matthew, in the times you report that days before the firing comey asked for more resources for the russian probe. do you think the net of all this will be redoubling of efforts by the

congressman nunes and sally yates and what they told mike flynn and told the white house, devin nunes canceled that hearing and got himself kicked off that investigation entirely. whoo. and jason chaffetz, his investigation found things before disclosing about money for sources. before that happened, he announced he was quitting congress and up and left town without any warning to go get foot surgery for an old injury and said he wouldn't be back for weeks. then, right after that, the day after it was made public the department of defense inspector general was taking its own independent investigation of mike flynn and foreign payments. the day after that the attorney general of the united states, jeff sessions announced for the first time he was out of this, too, he would recuse himself from any justice department investigation that touched on mike flynn. something about the investigation into mike flynn that makes republicans turn tail and run away from these investigations. the question of mike flynn and particularly these foreign payments apparently makes republicans faint. that ma