moments ago, congressman devin nunez, the chairman of the house intelligence committee, rejecting a call for a special prosecutor into russian ties. this morning, president trump teasing a big budget announcement before a joint session of congress. >> the budget which is going to be a very big part of tomorrow night's speech is going to be, i think, a budget of great rationality, but it's going to have to do with military, safety, economic development, and things such as that. great detail tomorrow night. >> the priority for the trump white house, $54 billion increase in defense spending. the hurdle is how to pay for it all and whether congress will agree. joining me now, nbc national correspondent peter alexander and nbc capitol hill correspondent kasie hunt. peter, you've been drilling down on the budget. there's no explanation about how to pay for it, how to fit the taxes into that. we'll have more details on that. it's a clear indication of his priorities, and how is he going to justify that? so much more for defense and homeland and so much less for domestic spending and foreign aid

in fact the chair of the committee, devin nunez one of them. he says there is no evidence, congressman, of regular contact between russia and the trump campaign. theoretically you both have seen the same evidence. have you seen anything he hasn't or would you agree with him at this point, there is no evidence showing that? >> well, first of all, there is no evidence that has been even received by the committee. we are still in the process of gathering documents, examining documents apt tt the community offices no witnesses, no subpoenas, the beginning of the investigation not the end. we shouldn't be drawing any conclusion as bs about what our investigation will show conclude. >> he has not seen any evidence. you are saying he hasn't seen any evidence at all. >> we haven't seen any evidence at all. in fact we haven't had the director come testify before a committee. we haven't had, agents doing the counter intelligence investigation appear. we haven't gotten the documents related to the work they may, may not have done. part of our responsibili

in fact, devin nunez, the chairman of the house intelligence committee, went on the record after he was informed by the fbi as to that story, and what did he say? he said it was total garbage. this is what we're talking about, chuck. it's not all media. it's not everyone involved in the media. it is this sort of fake news stuff that is enormously important that, when you get a front-page story of the "new york times," without a single source on the record saying that your campaign had constant contacts -- they didn't say one contact, they didn't say two contacts. it doesn't matter. we have not been informed of even that. but to say constant contacts. then the next day, chuck, the "wall street journal" comes out and says that the president of the united states is being cut out of information by the intelligence community. then later in the day all of the main departments of the intelligence community says, that's not true. this is what we're dealing with. while we're putting in a lobbying ban, while we're freezing federal government employees, while we're getting the economy back on trac

we reported that california republican devin nunez is blaming leaks on former obama officials. we have peggy and vincent here. welcome. >> welcome. >> it's said that leaks forced out mike flynn, the president's first national security advisor. we now have h.r. mcmaster coming in to replace him. what do you think? >> a good pick. a solid pick. it will have somebody with experience, not just here in the united states but obviously globally, that knows counter insurgency, who knows how to address issues around the nation and the world especially with respect to islamic extreme that the president talks about. it's a good pick. on russia, this administration and their allies in congress have turned a very sad blind eye. when you have nunez more concerned about leaks than the fact that there may have been a relationship of some sort in which every single agency agrees between members of the trump campaign and russians, that's a problem and should be investigated. that's something that rather than focusing on leaks we should focus on the crime that may have happened. >> jon: is it any

that's chairman devin nunez. we have a statement from the communications adviser to the intelligence committee. i want to read what it says. it says chairman nunez did nothing inappropriate. he made inquiries into the allegations published by "the new york times" and couldn't find evidence to support them. so he told that to multiple reporters. and then a white house aide asked if he would speak to one more. so he spoke to that reporter as well. telling that person the same thing he told the other reporters. so devin nunez, the chairman standing by this, that there was nothing inappropriate. about him talking to reporters, of course critics disagree. brianna? >> they certainly do. we'll keep following this. athena jones, lots of news breaking this weekend at the white house. thank you. >>> i want to turn back to the news we learned just moments ago. the president deciding he is not going to attend the white house correspondents' dinner. joining me to talk about this is cnn political commentators, ryan lizza, the

calls were orchestrated by the white house, and even included senators richard burr and congressman devin nunezan of the senate and house intelligence committees. the very same chairman charged with investigating russia's involvement in the election and what, if any, ties the trump campaign had along the way. >> do we know why the white house is being at least at this point trying to get the russia connection question out of the headlines? >> that's right, richard. they are certainly making a big effort and push. we have seen them calling different types of briefings and meetings with reporters to try to clarify what they call incorrect reporting. we learned that reince priebus went ahead and discussed the matter with the deputy director of the fbi and asked the deputy director to please go out and correct the record because the white house believes that some of the contact between the trump campaign officials and the reports of the election is incorrect, and we now know that the fbi declined to do that, but it's important to note that in nbc's own reporting, we have learned that the u.s. gover

. >> reporter: congressman devin nunez, a strong supporter of president trump is rebuffing calls for special prosecutor, but says his house intelligence committee will look into the claims. weijia jiang, cbs news, the white house. >> president trump has denied any ties between his campaign and russia. he reiterated that point in a tweet on sunday calling the russia talk fake news. >>> in our bay area watch dozens of east bay residents displayed because of an early -- displaced because of an early morning fire in hayward. at least seven residents had to be rescued from their balconies. no owas seriously hurt. crews are working to restore power to the complex, which is why the residents have been displaced. >>> palo alto's effort to roll out a bike share program for the community could take another turn tonight. the proposed five-year contract would bring 10 smart bikes to 35 stations. the city is expecting to pay over a million dollars for the equipment. >>> also happening today, vallejo's planning commission will vote on the proposed cement plant. the factory would be built along the

>> reince priebus said last weekend devin nunez was saying this on the record. the white house was trying to ensure that the media had more access to information. that's what the cnn story said about reince priebus. >> were you contacted by the white house? >> i was not. >> if you had, would you have talked to the media at their request? >> chuck, i try to refrain from comment on what's happening on the arms services committee because i want to stay on the right side of the line about classified information which frankly, i wish more people in the media and more of the obama holdovers in the administration were doing. >> mike warner who is the vice chair. the intelligence committee works differently than any other committee. it is truly bipartisanly run. mike warner had concerns about this idea that the white house contacted senator burr that it could call into question about whether this will be a fair investigation. >> i think there is no doubt this will be a fair inquiry. we are well under way and it's been conducted in a bipartisan fashion and democrats and

. >> it was ruled friday that congressman devin nunez and richard burr agreed to white house requestso talk to reporters and knock down allegations of cabinet between trump aides and the russians. >>> the senate says commerce secretary wilbur ross, a billionaire investor will work quickly to review the northern trade agreement. u.s. military is conducting three investigations into the yemen trade cost a navy s.e.a.l. his life. william ryan owens was kims along with a dozen last month. his father in an interview with david martin. >> object was to go in and collect intelligence, we accomplished that. from that perspective, it was successful i could certainly see how the family would look at this from a different light. >> when owens' body was returned to the u.s., his father refused to meet with president trump. >>> there was outrage and calls for action following the fifth wave of threats to jewish centers since january. jewish centers and schools in at least a dozen state received bomb threats. no bombs were found but those were forced to evacuate. >> i was scared. yeah, it was like

shortly after that that devin nunez, the chairman of the house intelligence committee, said he understood there was no truth to these reports that officials had been in contact with people from the campaign. priebus later that day called james comey to talk about this. comey again told him the story was quote, b. s., but repeated the fbi couldn't get into issuig statements about it. priebus asked comey do you mind if i go out there. a couple of days later, here's what priebus said about reports of the new york times on fox and friends. >> what i just told you is what the highest levels of the intelligence community have told me, which is it's it is an inaccurate and grossly over stated story, and it's not true. >> so if the white house is insisting it did not pressure te fbi into anything that the fbi came forward, it simply made inquiries as to whether or not they could correct the record. there are bright lines twine the - - . we're potentially in a grey area here. we'll see what else the white house has to say. >> it ties into the narrative of media coverage. the president also talking

devin nunez, i have great confidence in him. adam chiffon the democratic side that's what they'll do and they should get to the bottom of it. >> bill: is it an easy thing to do? >> it's not. if you're looking at sources and methods you're looking at human intelligence, signals intelligence. satellite. there is a select committee set up uniquely to do that and provide that oversight. in this case i think it's best that the intel committee lead out on it. >> bill: i talked to trey gowdy, he said bill, at the moment there is no there there. is there? >> they should look at it. we're going to be looking at general flynn and his going to russia or being paid to interact with the russians even though he was not in the military, wasn't in the trump administration. that's something we're curious about. of course they should look at it and the intel committee is doing that and leading it out. >> bill: you mentioned adam schiff. he said this about the leaks and where it goes from here. >> the fact that the intelligence agencies were -- or

devin nunez is playing top obama administration officials for this.eral what do you make of that? that the prior administration or at least officials maybe still in the capacity serving in this one was and is behind all of that? >> well, i think there may be something to it. the reality is, some of these transcripts were released were released at the time that we had president-elect trump. he had not been inaugurated yesterday. clearly the obama administration had senior officials actually seeing the transcripts. very few people get to see actual transcripts of phone conversations. that's what has this administration so concerned. the president talked about it, in particular his own phone conversations with world leaders were released to the media. that is not go on. our president has to have classified conversations with world leaders. they're trying to undermine his capacity to be president of the united states. how shameful is that? >> neil: you know what worries me, i remember chuck schumer's warning to donald trump after the election. he was crit

this is republican devin nunez which is currently conducting the house investigation into russian influence into the campaign. >> we still have not even any evidence from the trump campaign or anyone and we don't have evidence of them talking to russia. the initial inquiries i've made to the appropriate agencies, i don't have any evidence. what i've been told is by many folks is that there's nothing there. >> nothing there. nunes, a member of the trump transition team, made those claims despite the fact that the intelligence committee has yet to review testimony. >> we can't have mccarthyism back in this place. we can't have the government -- the u.s. government or the congress or legislative branch of government chases down american citizens, hauling them before the congress as if there's some secret russian agents and that's what i'm concerned about here that we don't go on some witch hunt against american citizens just because they appear in a press story somewhere. >> nunes is leading the house investigation. richard burr is leading the senate investigation. nunes and burr called report

dana, the house intelligence committee chairman devin nunez is more concerned apparently with investigating flynn's ties to russia and the house oversight committee chairman jason chaffetz also said he won't be investigating what sort of pressure they are facing. won't be investigating the flynn issue specifically. what kind of pressure are they facing as a result of those comments? >> truthfully, not very much from the people who they care most about, their constituents. you know, these are republicans and pretty much across the board except for a handful in the house who are in very red districts, very -- districts that donald trump likely won with a very large margin. the question i think is the senate, which, of course, is also controlled by republicans where the republican majority leader sang a different tune today and was much more open about the idea of investigating, not just the whole idea of russian meddling in american elections, but specifically this flynn question. so, the pressure now is mounting on republicans really across the capital, but i think that those who are more su

devin nunez, the chairman of the house intelligence committee believes that more is coming. and, this is incredibly alarming. the content of these releases, of these leaks is really not alarming of the fact that they are taking place. this most secret of information be released to press or leaked to the press -- melissa: by multiple sources. by multiple sources. not just one source. there is a lot of leaks going on and i can't believe i'm going to say this, chuck schumer was prescient he said, you don't want to cross the intelligence community because they can get back at you seven ways from sunday. seems like that is what is happening. >> does seem like that's what's happening. this hasn't happened in any other administration. melissa: how does he fix it? what should he do right now? the president? >> the president? melissa: if his goal is, to right the ship, get things going anyone right direction to stop at least attacks from intelligence community, what advice would you give him starting right now? >> i would tell, mike pompeo, who is the cia director, look, you will hav

you are not really hearing much support from other republicans including devin nunez himself who believes it can be done through the house intelligence committee. today he tried to reassure the public that he was moving forward in a deliberative, bipartisan manner. he significantly tried to downplay reports of russian contacts with the trump campaign during the elections, even as his committee has just begun to look into the issue. here is how he described it it to reporters today. >> can you say categorically there were no contacts whatsoever between officials affiliated with the russian government and the trump campaign? >> not that i am aware of. we still have not seen evidence of anyone from the trump campaign or any other campaign, for that matter, that's communicated with the russian government. >> reporter: now, jake, a few hours later adam schiff, the top democrat on the committee, talked to reporters, actually raising concerns about mr. nunez's comments hoping they could discuss these things together. he disagreed that there is no evidence or nothing really to look into regarding

>> well, again, this is nothing personal about devin nunez or burr. their comments were wildly unwise and raise basic questions about whether these investigations, even though there are people on the other side of the partisan aisle on this issue, whether these investigations can be as good as they should be. so the answer is what we've been saying from the very start here which is the answer is, an outside independent commission to do this investigation of elder statesmen and stateswomen, none of whoem are involved in the political fray. >> but right now that's not happening. and it's your committee led by nunez that is investigating. do you trust him to lead this investigation? >> well, you know, look, obviously, given the comments made. those of us on the other side of the aisle are going to watch him that much more closely. but we're all participating in this investigation. to date there's no evidence that, you know, a route of inquiry has been blocked. we haven't been able to depose somebody. so, look, those comments were very unfortunate. point

. >> chairman devin nunez, always a pleasure to have you on. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> constituents greeting members of congress with some tough questions, especially about immigration as the nation waits for the president to issue his revised kpelktive order. that story next. boost® simply complete. it's intelligent nutrition made with only 9 ingredients, plus 25 vitamins and minerals and 10 grams of protein. and look where life can take you! boost®. be up for it.™ today, unlimited gets the network it deserves. verizon. (mic thuds) uh, sorry. it's unlimited without compromising reliability, on the largest, most advanced 4g lte network in america. (thud) uh... sorry, last thing. it's just $45 per line. forty. five. (cheering and applause) and that is all the microphones that i have. (vo) unlimited on verizon. 4 lines, just $45 per line. i'm not a customer, but i'm calling about that credit scorecard. give it. sure! it's free for everyone. oh! well that's nice! and checking your score won't hurt your credit. oh! i'm so proud of you. we

congressman devin nunez, who chairs the house intelligence community, also declined to hold hearings. both lawmakers drawing fire from house democrats, no surprise, including steny hoyer, minority whip. we asked jason chaffetz and nunez to come on the program. they declined. i spoke to congressman hoyer. some of your republican colleagues think michael flynn's resignation resolves this matter. jason chaffetz saying the situation is taking care of itself. you disagree, right? >> absolutely. the there oes no way his resignation takes care of this event. frankly mr. chaffetz nor mr. nunez would have thought that had this been mrs. clinton in the same position. absolutely positive of that. it is not enough to say okay the national security adviser has resigned. we have here a pattern, not just a single incident of failing to disclose to his superiors, at least that's our supposition, that's what they say, that it wasn't disclosed, that he had talked about an ongoing matter of sanctions, sanctioning behavior that was adverse to the united states of america. and in effect one could draw the

congress is back in town after an interesting week to say the least back home, and among those is devin nuneztee, along with the counterpart, charged with investigating russian meddling in last year's election, including the question of whether trump associates were in touch with russian officials or russian business people back during last year's campaign. listen to chairman nunez facing extended questioning saying best he knows right now, there's not a lot there. >> we have the scoping of our investigation finished, and then we're going to move into actually receiving the evidence, but as of right now the initial inquiries i've made to the appropriate agencies, i don't have any other evidence. as of right now i don't have any evidence that would -- of any phone calls. it doesn't mean they don't exist, but i don't have that, and what i have been told is by many -- by many folks is that there's nothing there. we're still -- we're absolutely looking into it, and i want the informati information. >> that familiar voice you may have heard. manu who hustled from capitol hill to make it. translate

. >> so congressman devin nunez obviously talking about pretty broad level of investigation if he says any contacts with any political candidates, pushing back on the suggestion that it might have been somebody in the clinton campaign talking to the russians. also we have other breaking news, the president sitting down just moments ago with ceos of major health care companies, talking about obamacare, let's listen in. >> that's very impressive. we just had a great meeting with the governors on the horrible effects obamacare has had and we're going to change it and straighten it out and we're going to be talking about it during the speech and we'll talk about it right now because i think we'll get you on and we're going to like what you here. again, thank you for being here. i want to thank also secretary tom price who is with us and who is doing a phenomenal job on a very complex subject, subject of health care. he's an advocate for the patients. tom is all about the patience. that's what he wants. he wants to have a great health care system. obamacare has been a disaster and it's only

the chairman of that committee, that is republican devin nunez of california. he warned reporters today that the proceedings should not turn into a witch hunt. he says that he knows of no evidence currently that would tie trump aids to russian agents. now his counterpart that is democrat adam schiff, he is also from california. he says the investigation has only just begun, but is premature to draw any conclusions. >> it is well premature to make any conclusion and on the basis of my discussions, i'm not prepared to draw any conclusion about the veracity or lack of veracity of any newspaper article. i think we need to do the investigation that we are charged to do. and it ought to be thorough. >> all right. let's bring in kasie hunt on capitol hill been following this. kasie, it's interesting to listen to the two top leaders on that committee, they both seem to agree, no conclusions yet, but very, very different spin from each of them on what that means. >> reporter: emerging rift here, steve. and look, the intention communities up here, they have a history and

can sort of see this viewpoint in the house, rather than the senate, from intelligence chairman devin nunez who really came out with a statement last night praising general flynn. which i think reflects a viewpoint, it's in the administration as well, it's not shared by mike pence, that the intelligence community was out to get flynn. and so, you are going to see i think pushback from republicans on that issue. >> by the way, i think that's the -- it's a very true statement. there were a lot of people trying to get flynn. in the administration as well. like, in the west wing, i mean, he was a target, which then makes -- it gets to the whole judgment. >> right, it does get back to the judgment. at some point, you're going to see republicans drink i think alating from the white use, white house on this because they have to fe the voters in the midterm. >> you guys are sticking around. we're staying on this topic. different angles. developments on this story continue to come in quickly. we learned that the senate intelligence committee will investigate conversations between mike flynn and the

meanwhile, senator john mccain called the choice outstanding and congressman devin nunez who chairs theermanent select committee on intelligence lauded him as a fresh thinker. more mhp daily just after the break. bring you more ways to p reduce calories from sugar. with more great tasting beverages with less sugar or no sugar at all, smaller portion sizes, clear calorie labels, and signs reminding everyone to think balance before choosing their beverages. we know you care about reducing the sugar in your family's diet, and we're working to support your efforts. more beverage choices. smaller portions. less sugar. balanceus.org. >>> welcome back, as we just said, president trump, today, named lieutenant general h.r. mcmaster to be new national security adds visor. russia continues to cast a shadow over the trump administration on the same day senators discussed russia with the fbi director, bipartisan leaders of the senate intelligence committee sent letters to government agencies directing them to preserve all records relevant to it's investigation on russia's interference in the 2016 e

also, at the same time, they're asking questions about house intelligence chairman devin nunez who has generally been supportive of general flynn, made a decision to resign. but he's not investigating. some point out mr. nunez was on the trump transition team. i asked his office about that. he said he will follow all the leads he can. democrats also eager to point out that another national security issue arose with republicans in the past couple of years when they investigated hillary clinton, a democrat, and they see this as somewhat hypocritical. >> woodruff: lisa desjardins, so much to follow. thank you very much. in the day's other news, tensions with russia are rising on another front. "the new york times" reports that moscow has deployed a new, ground-launched cruise missile-- ignoring u.s. complaints that it violates a 1987 treaty. the obama administration objected to the missile during its testing phase, in 2014 and 2015. 500 u.s. troops arrived in romania today as part of a mission to shore up nato allies in eastern europe. shipments of american tanks taken by train to an air

of the committees looking into the broader russia issue, but just moments ago, the congressman devin nunezairman of that committee, said those discussions between flynn and trump would not be covered by their investigation because of executive privilege. so it's not clear exactly the scope of this investigation, whether it will get into that, but on the other side of the chamber, some senate republicans are suggesting that they will go a bit further telling our colleague phil mattingly, richard bird, the chairman of the intelligence committee saying that flynn should testify in front of his committee to discuss what happened. probably happen in a classified set, but at least trying to look into that aspect. flynn's discussion with russia. so we're seeing this play out on capitol hill. but probably not as much as some democrats want, expect for more calls for that independent bipartisan investigation. >> so alice stewart, house speaker paul ryan says he doesn't want to prejudge the circumstances of the conversation between general flynn and the russian ambassador and what president trump an

you heard yesterday, actually, from devin nunez, the california republican saying that there were some concerns that he had about what the language was regarding the dhs orders of regarding deportations and such. and so, you're going to have to see how streamlined i should say the messaging is from the white house, members of congress, to the cabinet. they have learned lessons from last time around, we'll see what the implementation is like. >> chris, that's a question i've had watching this administration over the first month. how much is the chaos by design? and what i mean is take a look at this question of the immigration, the immigration ban from the executive order. in the campaign, donald trump said i'm going to ban every muslim in the world from coming in the united states. and among other criticisms of that, you heard from his critics, folks in the media saying wait until he becomes president and supporters find out how unworkable that is. but given the chaos that was stirred up by that initial executive order, all the seas of people in the street over that weekend, did that p

have you spoken to your republican colleague, the chairman of your committee, devin nunez about possiblynvestigating mike flynn and where does that stand right now? >> we have certainly spoken about the investigation that we're doing of russian covert influence operations in the united states. that's a bipartisan investigation in the committee. and i think this ought to be within the scope of what we investigate. certainly if there are contacts between flynn as a chief surrogate for the trump campaign and the kremlin during the campaign, that's well within our per view, if those contacts continued after, and indeed the subject of sanctions was raidsed and then flynn was misleading about it, that ought to be something that has to be investigated. >> but congressman, specific to this issue here regarding the conversations, the communications that may have taken place in that window after president trump was elected, but before he was inaugurated between the russian ambassador and mike flynn, do you know whether the fbi is investigating or any other inquiry taking place in that regard? >> y

short time ago the chairman of the house intelligence committee devin nunez said there was no need for special prosecutor to investigate the trump campaign ties to russia and the only serious crime was the leaks. that's contrary to what congressman darrell issa said over the weekend. let's listen to that. >> you cannot have somebody, a friend of mine, jeff sessions, who was on the campaign and who was an appointee. you're going to need to use the special prosecutor's statute and office to take not just to recuse, you can't just give it to your deputy, that's another political appoint gee. you do have to do that. >> okay, so eli, is that just posturing or is it significant? issa is calling for a special prosecutor for special investigation. nunez is not? >> politics plays into this big time. issa was reelected narrowly and as for nunez, he's the chairman of the house intelligence committee and yet you have to question the independence of that body with him in charge, given that this is the person who the white house who sean spicer the press secretary has enlisted to speech reporters to

we heard from devin nunez, the chairman of the house intelligence committee in a lengthy briefing q and a with reporters. you were up there. he was answering questions about the pending russia investigation, contacts between russia and officials in the trump campaign, the trump administration. listen to what he said. >> since the election, we've broadened the scope of that investigation to include any involvement in this -- in our elections here and, of course, any ties that there might be to any government officials at any level, so it's not just here in washington, but governors and others. if there's anything out there, any american citizens from political campaigns coordinating with the russian government, we clearly would want to know that, and we would want to investigate it. >> he also said there's no need at least yet for a special prosecutor. what stood out in your mind based on what you heard? >> well, two things. one, he effectively contradicted himself because as you heard him say there, they're broadening the investigation. part of that investigation will be contacts betwee

still, chairman devin÷ú nunez telling reporters he's been given indications from unidentified officialslligence community, that there will be nothing there. ill be no evidence that nor there have been any evidence of trump advisers speaking to russian. the initial inquiriesht i've ma, i don't have any evidence. >> are you saying the fbi has not supplied you with that evidence or the fbi has told you there is no evidenu% >> i'm not going to get into which agency. the intelligence agencies have not provided me or the committee any information about those three americans communicating÷ú with russia and -- >> are you saying that evidence does not exist, there's a difference there? >> the way it sound like to me there's no evidence of anything there. you know, obviously we would like to know if there is. >> reporter: the comments echoed byjwqbuáuáq spokesman sean spicer defending the administration aggressive effort to to refruit the story. >> i think chairman nunez over andp over and over again made i very clear that no evidence has been brought to his attention suggested that reporting was

that information about the contents of general flynn's call and also supportive of chairman devin nun nunez's call to understand where these leaks are coming from because the intelligence community has a lot of authority and supposed to be to keep america safe. if that's going to be use forward political purpose, that's something that's concerning to americans as well. >> i want to talk about the leaks in a second but get back to something you just said. you haven't seen the transcripts yet of these calls. >> no, not at all. so all we're going off of is hearsay. it would be important to know what was discussed. >> i agree with you. there's a lot of members of the public who agree. will you committee to if you get the transcripts, will you make those public? will you work to make those transcripts public? >> i can't commit to that because we may not have the authority to do it. on the oversight committee when we were doing oversight over secretary clinton's e-mail use, we were not given access to the top-secret e-mails that were uncovered there. we never reviewed them. they were always redacte

stuart: well, general flynn did step down and congressman devin nunez is with us now, republican fromrnia. has our national security just taken a hit, congressman? >> well, look, there's a lot of good men or women who can take general flynn's place. i've known him over a decade and sad to see him go. i really believe as you played in that interview that he really is one of the greatest intelligence officers in a generation. stuart: there's turmoil within the administration, it's politics, of course, but there's turmoil. do you think that extends now and hurts president trump's efforts to cut taxes and cut red tape? >> well, we'll see how this moves forward, right? i just believe that the opposition party is going to continue to attack whatever personalities that they can attack in the white house. so i am concerned about that, but hopefully after this, that we can get on to taxes and health care because these are the two main components of the president's domestic agenda and we're going to have everything that the white house has to help us pass this legislation, not only out of the h