, former dni, you know, you had john brennan, you have sally yates, you had all of them coming together and saying we've got to tell the white house about this. you know, they wanted to talk to donald trump, themselves, about it before the end of the obama administration. >> our friend indira lakshmanan, thank you for being part of our coverage tonight. >> thanks, brian. >> i'm sure we'll talk to you more as this thing develops. now to a journalist who probably gets most of the credit for the story we have been covering all evening tonight. adam entes of the "washington post" is with us by telephone. adam, i've seen no fewer than three interviews with you earlier this evening as you were describing this story, you posted this evening for the "washington post." one aspect i'd like to walk back for our view e that is how was the now former national security adviser, general flynn, said t vulnerable to blackmail? >> well, basically what happened here is he had a conversation with ambassador kislyak of the russian federation and at the end of the conversation being picked up obviously by th

, former dni, you know, you had john brennan, you have sally yates, you had all of them coming together and saying we've got to tell the white house about this. you know, they wanted to talk to donald trump, themselves, about it before the end of the obama administration. >> our friend indira lakshmanan, thank you for being part of our coverage tonight. >> thanks, brian. >> i'm sure we'll talk to you more as this thing develops. now to a journalist who probably gets most of the credit for the story we have been covering all evening tonight. adam entes of the "washington post" is with us by telephone. adam, i've seen no fewer than three interviews with you earlier this evening as you were describing this story, you posted this evening for the "washington post." one aspect i'd like to walk back for our view e that is how was the now former national security adviser, general flynn, said to be vulnerable to blackmail? >> well, basically what happened here is he had a conversation with ambassador kislyak of the russian federation and at the end of the conversation being picked up obviously b

, former dni, you know, you had john brennan, you have sally yates, you had all of them coming together and saying we've got to tell the white house about this. you know, they wanted to talk to donald trump, themselves, about it before the end of the obama administration. >> our friend indira lakshmanan, thank you for being part of our coverage tonight. >> thanks, brian. >> i'm sure we'll talk to you more as this thing develops. now to a journalist who probably gets most of the credit for the story we have been covering all evening tonight. adam entes of the "washington post" is with us by telephone. adam, i've seen no fewer than three interviews with you earlier this evening as you were describing this story, you posted this evening for the "washington post." one aspect i'd like to walk back for our view e that is how was the now former national security adviser, general flynn, said to be vulnerable to blackmail? >> well, basically what happened here is he had a conversation with ambassador kislyak of the russian federation and at the end of the conversation being picked up obviously b

then director with john brennan and james clapper. we believe they were informed these conversations took place and they differed from the public accounts that mike pence and mike flynn had been talking about. this is when it came to the actual resignation letter that michael flynn submitted last night, he mentions this difference what he told the vice president-elect mike pence. he said i briefed the vice president-elect and others with incomplete information regarding my phone calls with the russian ambassador. i apologize with the president and vice president. they accepted my apology. i tendered my resignation. this comes less than a month in the tenure. making him the shortest lived national security advisor in the history of the united states. taking over is retired lieutenant general keith kell g kellogg. he is the chief of staff. decorated vietnam veteran. in terms of filling that role, a senior official told cnn several names are in the mix. general petraeus's name is coming up. he is well known for leading u.s. forces in ira

i didn't make it personal about john brennan. i didn't attempt to go after his character.idn't attempt to call him a racist or imply something unsavory about him as a character. we do have rules on that. and even reading someone else's letter, it did appear is if they were trying to destroy a man's character. there are two sides to everything, but i think that the american public is more open to discussion or issues than they are on a character assassination. mr. lesniewski: let me take both pieces of what you said in response there. we noticed you voted against confirmation of mike pompeo to run the cia, but you voted for your colleague, senator sessions, to be the attorney general. and we will probably get into a few more subject areas, but just starting on the issue of surveillance powers and the things that led you to take the action that you did a couple of years ago, how concerned are you that the sessions justice department, the pompeo cia, the potential odni administration of dan coats are going to go back more towards the direction you have been opposed for many y

when i took a stand against the nomination of john brennan to be c.i.a. head, it was mostly about the issue of whether or not the american government could -- throw an individual on a battlefield and get support on both sides but i didn't make it personal about john brennan. i didn't attempt to go after his character. i didn't attempt to call him a racist or, you know, comply something, you know, unsavory about him as a character. e do have rules on that. it appears they were trying to to oy a destroy a man's character. there are two sides to everything. i think the american public is more open to discussions of issues than they are of character assassination. niels: let me take both pieces of what you said in response voted e noticed that you against confirmation of mike pompeo to run the c.i.a. but you voted for your colleague, senator sessions, to be the attorney general. and we'll probably get into a few more subject areas but talk about surveillance powers and the things that led you to take the action that you did a couple of years ago. w concerned

a few days later, former acting attorney general sally yates, cia effector, john brennan, james clapper and fbi director jim comey discussed briefing president-elect trump about all this, about the phone call. comey apparently objected to that saying it would compromise an ongoing fbi investigation into russia. that's andrea mitchell's reporting. at some point, the acting attorney general, yates, informs the white house counsel of the concerns over flynn. january 309, sally yates was fired over a different issue. that brings us to this week, yesterday. kellyanne conway saying flynn had the full confidence of the president. late last night he then resigns. i guess given that time line that i just went through, does it -- david, does it me sense to you that this is the order of events? >> well, none of this actually makes a lot of sense. i think to extend a little bit what have the congressman was just saying, the story that was being put out to the american public was misleading. but look at it from the russian perspective. the russians knew what happened in that phone call back at the e

james clapper and john brennan may also be called in.out the extent of the contacts and perhaps to find out how much the president or then candidate trump knew. a spokesperson said the access to the classified information has been suspended pending review. >>> the trump administration looking for a new labor secretary this morning. andrew puzder withdrawing his name just one day before his confirmation hearing among concerns he would not be confirmed. it is a blow to the administration. also to senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. he said puzder would be one of the best labor secretaries in history. mcconnell's wife held the job under george w. bush. it looks like puzder had a checkered past as the ceo of the company of hardees and carl's jr. his ex-wife levied charges of abuse against him decades ago. his confirmation hearing revealed he hired a housekeeper who was undocumented. puzder's company is facing labor lawsuits and a critic of obamacare. he criticized the $15 minimum wage and accuracy of the unemployment rate. now the search

the agency, brennan told john dickerson that the president should be careful with his words. >> one of the things i think the president needs to realize is that when he uses language, it has resonance around the world, not just with his constituent base in the united states. so being much more disciplined in terms of the language that we use, i think is something that will help our security. >> brennan went on to say he doesn't think the president's travel ban will make america significantly safer. mr. trump is expected to release a revised travel ban this week. >>> in los angeles, the ground work is being laid for safe houses that will eventually be used to protect undocumented immigrants. the effort is being spear headed by religious leaders, many worry the sanctuary that churches provide could be threatened under a trump administration. so they are creating an underground network of private homes that have fourth amendment protections. >> people who may not agree with you would look at what you are doing and say you are simply aiding and abetting the violation of federal law. >>

are you saying you think john brennan could be one leaker or setting the tone it is okay to leak?ennan set the tone for the cia that politicized it during years he was there very, very different than what someone like mike haden leon panetta did both those directors of the cia made it a professional organization served congress president administration john brennan took it down the political route. >> scott dagen mcdowell, how does president trump then handle this, because again, this is the swamp that he promised to drain that is nearly impossible to clean up. and out this is what he potentially would face four years unless he takes a tough stance does something about it. >> dagen you know more is disturbing than what happened to general phillip is actually the leaks. that is i have been thinking a lot about it isn't it scary to think our intelligence community are not looking out for best interests of our country putting politics potentially ahead of you know, the safety security of our country if we can't trust intelligence agencies then gosh who the heck are we going to trust

those are have to be a handful of individuals, john brennan, jim clapper, ben rhodes. >> martha: what is their main motivation? >> two things. first off, disrupt the incoming trump administration. that is what i have seen the left doing great i think they are committed to that. secondly, president obama by his own tweets has telegraphed the fact that he will not be on the sidelines. he is encouraging the protests. why would he have not been encouraging this behavior? >> martha: what is the president need to do to mend fences were necessary. as a necessary for him to do that? >> two things. the men and women that do the hard work of intelligence collection are doing it every day. they are completely apolitical. they are on the lines every day doing the hard work, special operations intelligence. what he needs to do is do a housecleaning of those middle level to senior level managers. he has gotten rid of all of the political appointees that aren't good. you have to go a layer below that to take them out. you have to replace those individuals, mid-level managers, who sought political be

. >> house speaker said james clapper and former cia director john brennan told him they found no evidence of collusion, cooperation, or communication with moscow beyond michael flynn's contact with the russian ambassador. at his weekly news conference, the speaker reinforced his position. >> this has been investigated and we are investigating it and we are going to continue investigating it. >> the leadership publicly disagreed. >> as of right now, we have no evidence that we will continue to ask for evidence. >> we need to get a full debriefing on everything the fbi has looked at. what have they investigated? at this point, i'm not clear were going to get back. stick a while it is not routine for the fbi to comment on ongoing investigations, he said fbi director comey must be more transparent. >> it is insupportable for the bureau to take the position to say we can talk about that, we can't talk about this. >> jeff sessions said he would recuse himself from the russia probe if it's needed. >> bret: president trump has made no secret he intends to shake up u.s. foreign policy. we may hear

once again, we have a lot to get to today and we will begin with former cia director john brennan who in addition to serving as homeland security advisor to president trump spent 25 years at the cia under both democratic and republican administrations. welcome. let's start with reports that the white house asked the chairman of the two intelligence committees to not back reports about an investigation into russian efforts to collude with the trump campaign in the election. how does that strike you, what is your reaction to that? >> i certainly don't know the conversation of the, content of the conversations they had with the media and i have and have tremendous respect for burr who is on the senate committee who will be undertaking this investigation. it is important that investigation be done in a bipartisan gags, if it is only one party leading this, it is not going to deliver the results that the american people need and deserve. so i do hope that they are very conscious of the fact that not just the concern about the content of the discussion they might have had with the media but

days of the obama administration, james clapper, the director of national sbernl intelligence, john brennan, cia director at the time, shared sally yates' concerns about flynn and there's more. new reporting tonight from politico that the trump white house is reportedly searching for potential replacements for general flynn. according to their reporting, trump's adviser and son-in-law, jared kushner, is leading the search. the potential list of candidates includes names like retired general david petraeus who's scheduled to meet with the president this week. but donald trump's senior advisers are publicly sending mixed signals at the fate of the national security adviser. late this afternoon white house press secretary sean spicer released this statement. "the president is valting the situation. he's speaking to vice president pence, relative to the conversation the vice president had with general flynn and also speaking to various other people about what he considers the single-most important subject there is, our national security." so that sounds like the president has some doubts about

director john brennan will be john dickerson's guest. on tuesday, cbs news will bring you president trump's first address to a joint session of congress. asr live coverage begins at 9:00 p.m. eastern time. car bombs, likely set off by isis, killed at least 60 people today near a town in northern atria that was liberated yesterday. isis is lashing out as it continually loses ground in its' strongholds of raqqa, in syria, and mosul in iraq. david martin is traveling with the top u.s. commander in the region. >> reporter: isis released a video purporting to show a dead hit by a drone on an iraqi armored personnel carrier. but that did not stop iraqi forces in their battle to retake mosul. they seized control of mosul's airport and entered the western half of the city, having already liberated the eastern half. after mosul, the next major objective in the war against isis is across the border in syria. we're inside syria, and an american special operations base, which is used as a hub for the campaign to liberate the isis capital of raqqa. s

kennedy: john boehner, between john boehner and john brennan, i'm kind of sick from hearing from the johns who are no longer in power. it's like the mother-in-law in the back seat telling you how to drive he where. >> it's looking grim for that. the governor, that's funny, they don't have much juice over trump as much as trump does to pull fund away from them. when you get a regular guy like trump in there that had campaign promises, obamacare is so intricately tied into so many other thing. the irs, medicaid, that you can't just yank this thing out and put something else in. he's finding out this is a lot more difficult. kennedy: oftentimes at the end of a presidency we see this kind of energy to cement a legacy. he's just trying to cement the promises he made to people as quickly as possible as though he knows the quick sand he's running on will give way and he's going to sink. >> trump said earlier today about healthcare, he said it's an unbelievably complex statement. nobody knew how complicated it was except anyone who gave it 10 seconds of thought. i almost cursed and i can't do

i put this at the feet of john brennan and john clapper. i would say the white house was involved before they left. i put this on ben rhodes. i watched the coverage very carefully. when you have nbc reporting that they talked to circumstances officials who have seen the transcript. someone is giving away sensitive method, the fact that they read a communication that was intercepted and they said they saw this information which was beyond top secret which tells me clearly someone had to have access to that. that is a key issue. who leaked that information. and to dennis' point and laura's point, the implication made by these officials was there was something sinister which i agree with sean spicer. i don't believe for a minute there was anything in there that was illegal. mike flynn is a smart guy. he knows his phone calls would be record and listened to at some time. liz: the democrat representative ad schf, a ranking member in house intelligence, he said yes, it was the leak that brought flynn down. not his lie. if it wasn't a leak no one

the former director of the characteristics a, john brennan, was in a war with president trump beforeas inaugurated. we have a lawsuit, and that lawsuit as you point out did give rise to two preliminary injunction. this was a violation of the constitution of the united states to get the tell uponnic meta data of hundreds of millions of americans. you can find at freedomwatchamerica.org. i went back to the court and said we need an emergency hearing baits' not just larry klayman *, but the president and his national security director is being violated. hopefully he will take that. we are representing general mike fine and others whose rights are being violated. this is serious. you have got sword of damocles hanging over the president's head when he knows the nsa is wiretapping everything he says. this is back to 1984, george orwell. liz: obama administration officials here? >> it could be obama administration official or anybody at the nsa. there was an inspector general's report that nsa employees were getting toib the telephone communications of their girlfriend, boyfriend and wives

but also you have people involved in the story including sally yates and john brennan and james clapper. these are people on their way out of jobs they had for several years. how much of this istles the politicization of washington? >> a lot. what this boils down to, this is a bit of a hangover from the bush and obama administration. the entire alphabet soup plus the pentagon. they are the guard dogs. they don't care who owns the house. when you have kick the guard dog enough it bites back. flynn got the keys to the house and immediately threw the dog on the front lawn and started bad mouthing him. of all the national security advicors we have had, this guy knew better. he was in the system. he knew better than to do that. kennedy: isn't this a question of who runs the country and ultimately who runs the world? isn't it a power struggle because we have an unorthodoxed president who wants to write the rules. and the agencies are saying this is the way we have always don't. and this is the way we are going to keep doing it. >> for a guy who said he doesn't need a daily briefing. they know

john brennan had a flair in my personal opinion of puts stuff out there was great political nature, andit is people who run the agencies the intelligence apparatus, in this case probably national security council that obama had, it was full of people, in my view were constant pabpath logical liars about a we host of things. maria: how do you turn this ship, when you may have career professional workers in there who follow the top guys. we know brennan was critical of president trump, and mr. clapper also very critical. i understand what you say in terms of leadership. how do you change it? >> i think, far too many people get desim -- desit name dissemin this information, it an outrage. when this happens you need to fire people, this is very harm harmful. regardless of who the president is. we need to be tough, and not look the other way. on other hand we don't need to be foolish about it we don't need to add to fake news that you know, that our onces esteem media, was good at presents real news. we need to be tough. i guess is the bottom line. maria: do you expect this will be easy to t

sally yates, james clapper and john brennan decided to make political hay out of flinls perceived ineptitude. even for people who hate president trump and i know they are loud and angry. spying on american citizens and selectively leaking droplets to the "washington post" is wrong and bad on every level. it's the most powerful tool the american intelligence agency has, and to it's for a club is so wrong, even if the bruised bastard is the political devil. edward snowden exposed what eli lake calls. if there has been a deep state war ignited by flynn's resignation and the president want to get back at the intelligence community. he should pardon edward snowden. i heart you and i'm kennedy. is president trump and the intelligence community at war? let's ask jonah goldberg. what is your take on the deep state versus the administration? >> for me it's like the iran-iraq war. i am just sorry on one side can lose. i agree with you that what they did needs a thorough accounting. one way we can figure out what's going on, they should release the tapes that they have of the conversation. kennedy: or

. >> but at the same time there are people detracting you, for example you have attacked john brennan without any evidence saying he's some sort of mole for the saudis. >> i strongly urge you to read my book, i think he gets virtually entire chapter which i make my case. >> what evidence do you have? >> evidence including interviews with some of his subordinates, read the book. >> i'm familiar with a lot of your work. talking about arabic cultures, in 98 put him in the station chief in saudi arabia. >> he refused to be sworn on a bible for his swearing in. he is fluent in the language. there are many in the intelligence community i find credible who believe he was flipped while he was there. he insisted islamic terrorism -- fund -- fundamentalism -- >> do you know how crazy that sounds that -- >> we don't know why he was picked. >> snoeps looked at these claims and found the claim is unsubstantiated from a single source who resign from the the fbi. >> if i cited -- >> why shouldn't he be afforded the same respect. >> if i cited breitbart you would challenge me, snoeps, give me a break

and john brennan is urging the president to watch his language. he told "face the nation's" john dickerson this morning, when it comes to the president, words can hurt. >> it was one of the things that the president needs to realize. when he uses language, it has resonance around the world not just here with his constituent base in the united states. so being more disciplined in terms of the language we use is something i think that will help our national security. >> reporter: we have just learned, by the way, president trump's choice for navy secretary is jumping ship. former intelligence agency officer is withdrawing his nomination over concern of privacy and business interests. >>> the feds ramp up efforts to deport undocumented imgrants. reporter -- immigrants. we got an inside look at one secret safe house. >> reporter: pounding, sanding, laying the groundwork at this secret home in los angeles. >> reporter: how many families will be -- >> it would be about three family that is we can host here. this is a living room. >> reporter: we're walke

former cia director john brennan agreed.s must be plugged but cautioned the administration from placing blame on left over obama employees. >> i think it's unhelpful to make allegations about who is responsible for these leagues and i think you have to distinguish between leaks of classified information which is against the law and leaks of discussions that might be taking place within the administration. as far as leaks of classified information, i agree they are appalling and need to be investigated. they need to stop because the impact on our systems and capabilities can be grave. information could be coming from any number of quarters. intelligence community, white house, congress. a lot of people have access to this information. >> kimberly: making a strong statement saying this has got to stop, that it can come from multiple sources. how do you think he handled it? many have been critical. >> dana: i think there's two different things happening. as i understand it, the request for the communications of the press office

. >> dickerson: we will go one-on-one with former cia director john brennan in his first television appearanceince he left the spy agency. >> you work for us. >> dickerson: angry constituents confront members of congress back home in town hall meetings, we sat down with a group of richmond, virginia area residents to get their thoughts on the new president. >> after like everybody is sitting on pins and needles and

that would enconclude everybody from john brennan, ben rhodes, a host of other people.hat is about, it is a relatively small number. you get them in for questioning. you put them in the grand jury. david: primarily, isn't not, the holdovers from the obama administration, right? >> right now that is exactly who would be the prime suspects in any investigation like this. david: all right. let's switch to what the leaks were about, that is if there was any connection between russia and the trump administration. we had darrell issa, top republican, one of the senior members of the judiciary committee speaking about whether or not the february by is sufficient to investigate what is going on there. let's play the tape what darrell issa said. >> you can not have somebody, a friend of mine, jeff sessions who was on the campaign, who was an appointee. you are will need to use the special prosecutor's statute and office to take, not just to recuse -- david: so isis says you need a special prosecutor. you say? >> that is nonsense. first of all he says use special prosecutor statu

yesterday, former cia director john brennan forcibly rebutted the white house claim that james comey had privately knocked down stories linking trump campaign associates to russian intelligence officials. >> i have tremendous respect for jim comey's competence and integrity and it's been my experience working with jim that he wouldn't do anything that was going to in any way compromise the integrity of an ongoing investigation. and that's why anybody who claims that the facts are already known in terms of what did or didn't happen between russian officials and u.s. persons during the election, i think it's speaking very prematurely. >> and there was a snag when republican congressman darrell issa broke with party leaders and called for a special prosecutor to investigate. much more on his political calculation in a bit. as for president trump, he was asked about russia again today as reporters were being led out of a meeting with health care ceos. as reporters left the report, the response said something that was overly specific and yet meaningless. >> thank you. appreciate it. presi

sunday on "face the nation," former cia director john brennan weighed in on the trump presidency in hisst interview since leaving the agency. he's discussed the impact of president trump's travel ban and the investigation into russia's role in the election. here is part of his conversation with john dickerson. >> let's start with reports that the white house asked the chairman of the two intelligence committees to knock back reports about an investigation into russian efforts to collude with the trump campaign in the election. how does that trike you? >> i certainly don't know the content of the conversations they had with the media. i have tremendous respect for senator bird, the chairman of the committee undertake thing investigation. i do think it's important that investigation be done in a bipartisan fashion. if it's only one party leading this, it's not going to deliver the results the american people need and deserve. so i hope they're conscious of the fact that not just the concern about the contempt of a discussio that they might have had with the media, but also the appearance

the director of the cia, john brennan. the director of national intelligence, james clapper.hese are top -- this information is so sensitive, most likely, when i was chairman of the intel committee, i would not have been briefed on this information. >> martha: do you think they should be investigated as well? >> i think they need to get to the bottom of how this kind of information god from that level, the intelligence community, and how it made its way into the press. >> martha: very good question. thank you, pete hoekstra, julie roginsky. glad to have you with us tonight. president trump's search for a new national security advisor now begins. we learn just moments ago that he plans to have a name by weeks end. we will talk to general jack keane, whose metaphorical years as chief operating officer of the army. he will tell us who he thinks should be general flynn's replacement. plus, how is the travel ban polling with the american public? new fox news polls on that question before congressman trey doughty joy says with a powerful message for the ninth circuit that he wants

did john brennan have political motivations?e can get back to talking about what they find and why it matters. >> jenna: the fact that mike flynn was really up against the institution of government. many folks have been in government a long time. there is also personality at play. all these questions are relative because quite frankly we don't know still so much. you say more is potentially coming. where do you think this goes from here? >> i think there's going to be more calls for a special investigation into exactly what the kremlin is attempting to do to influence our policy, what outcome they can have. more importantly, lot of people i talked to are frustrated that the administration hasn't reassured allies around the world, members of the intelligence community and conservative lawmakers that are concerned about russian influence that he wants to hold a firm line. that might be, i theurb as a tangent to this, a first step. the entire contents of this conversation, talking about rolling back russian santions. some of which

tried to get the fbi to counter the reporting that was coming out on this, and former cia director john brennanas asked about this yesterday. he served under both parties. let's all watch this. >> the white house needs to understand that the interaction with the fbi on criminal investigations is something that really they need to steer clear of. certainly when i was in the white house for four years and the cia, any engagement about an ongoing criminal engagement was ver boat tent. >> they were also asked to knock down these reports. are there legal lines when you hear that that are being crossed? >> probably not based on what we have heard because there is communication allowed. but i think mr. brennan speaks to a type of discipline or propriety that has been somewhat in absence thus far. you want to err on the side of going nowhere near it. it would be better if the white house was farther from that line. >> all right. thank you guys so much. by the way, don't forget, ari melber will be hosting nsnbc live from 5:00 to 7:00 eastern. tune in, get smart. >> we're right before the oscars. you're

the post" story conditions, "in the waning days of the obama administration, james clapper and john brennanred sally yates' concerns and confirmed. flynn put himself in a compromising position." a senior trump official said that the white house was aware of the matter adding, quote, we've been working on this for weeks. for weeks the trump administration has known about this. for weeks. really? joining us now is adam, "the washington post" reporter who broke this tonight. thanks for making time for us tonight. really appreciate it. >> no problem. thank you. >> obviously the headline here and the lead graph are arresting, jarring. why exactly did the acting attorney general, sally yates, conclude or surmise that the russian government might be able to blackmail mike flynn, the national security adviser? >> right. so what happened was when this intelligence first came in, which would be in late december, early january, you know, yates saw the intelligence and was concerned that flynn was potentially in violation of what is known as the logan act, a very obscure statute which would bar a nongo

we had a former he intelligence officer at fox news, look at somebody like former cia director john brennanrmer director of intelligence james clapper. the names have been brought up. >> clearly, the coverage of mike flynn occurred when they were in power. it occurred in december. so they would have had access as well. when i say i was referring to the agency, career staff agency officers. of course brennan came back in as an appointee. at the pinnacle of the agency they would have been involved in the political process. clearly this was a crime motivated by political intent, to bring down mike flynn. it wasn't for money. and these are going to be people that were likely loyal to president obama, and other people that had been named, people like former deputy national security advisor ben rhodes was stated in the free washington beacon that he had created an infrastructure to push media out against flynn in washington as soon as he left. that was another story covered. once they begin this thing and they begin investigating and walking this back, i think that it is possible that these indiv

. >> and john brennan who led the national counter terrorism center under president w.bed these findings as unusual. >> when you were serving in the white house, if they called you and said, we have a story, we need you to talk to some reporters? >> no, i never did that on behalf of the white house's request. the white house never made that question of me. particularly if it's an investigation that by invocation deals with members who may be associated with the individuals that currently reside in the white house. >> brennan said he welcomed the white house's investigation of leaks. meanwhile, the president weighed in on stories in the media and whether the sources from inside his administration were legitimate. >> i fully understand -- when they make stories up and create sours, because sometimes the sources don't exist, sometimes they do. i'm not saying all sources, but i believe a lot of the sources are made up, a lot of the stories are made up. i believe the stories are pure fiction they pull out of air. >> we talked earlier about the president's plan to unveil his