what i wanted to wait for, so we bring in nbc news intelligence and national security reporter ken delaney. ken, good morning to you. based off of what we're hearing from cotton and rubio there, they are taking this slowly in terms of what they understand this to be, but what have you uncovered about these claims from president trump referring back to the obama administration? >> hey, thomas. well, 24 hours after that remarkable tweet storm by the president of the united states, we still don't have clarity on whether he was simply repeating unsubstantiated reports in the conservative media or whether he was actually briefed on something that led him to believe there was secret surveillance in trump tower. and if the latter is true, just to remind folks, it wouldn't be as trump described it, that president obama order a wiretap. it would be that a federal judge found probable cause that somebody in trump tower was acting as an agent of a foreign power. so, that would be remarkable. it would be a scandal. it would also be remarkable if the president of the united states made that allegation

ken delaney is in washington to give us more on this. ken, what is devon nunez saysing now? >> now he's saying that he can't be sure that donald trump and his associates were monitored under u.s. surveillance and maybe what he saw was just foreigner to foreigner vau eer surveillance. and that happens all the time. the national security agency is listening to foreigners. some in the united states. obviously this was the presidential transition when foreign embassies would be communicating back to their capitals trying to assess what is happening with the incoming trurd. and it wouldn't be surprising at all for trump and his associates to end up in reports. the names are supposed to being blo blacked out. no nunes is raising questions on whether or not it was shared appropriately. but that is different. and trump used this to say that he felt vindicated with his bogus claim that somehow president obamordered a wiretap in his trump tower. >> why though would nunes have come out with something like this if he had not confirmed if to then walk it back three days later? it didn't

we're going to bring in national security reporter ken delaney.bout an investigation, what is that exactly mean. who is the fbi talking to? how many agents do they have on this? how long could it potentially take them? >> and the answer is look this is a counterintelligence. spy hunters, right? normally these investigations are looking for russian and chinese spies in the united states and americans who helped them. in this case, this investigation is looking at the scope of the russian campaign to interfere in the u.s. election and also, particular interest to us, whether anybody from trump world collude with or coordinated with that investigation. normally it these kinds of investigations often don't result in criminal charges beuse e fbi does not generally want to go in court and expose the sources and meths it used to get information in these kinds of things. in this case, there's a great interest, if anybody from trump world is implicated in colluding with russians. normally these investigations occur in the shadows. in terms of your question

. >> let's bring in intelligence and that is al security reporter ken delaney. . >> great to be with you. >> so ken, how significant is it that nunes categorically denying existence of a wiretap and what are the implications of that for the rest of the investigation? >> that is not terribly significant because fbi director james comey had already made that clear. we have long understood there was no wiretap. but the news of last week was that devin nunes essentially blew up the independence of the house investigations by his actions and words. what happened is he had a pair of news conferences where he said he had seen surveillance reports in a appear to have monitored, he used the phrase monitored trump and his associates at frour. and he went to the white house and handed these reports to president trump and then he had another news conference. he did this without consulting dnls on t democrats on the committee and then he acknowledged that trump may not have been monitored after all, these may have been foreigners talks to foern forei that mentioned donald tru

i'm joined now by ken delaney, tara mower, a former cia analyst, currently with the counter extremism project. and a former fbi double agent and msnbc contributor. we'll get to you about that smile. let me ask you, ken. we have a, like, in basketball, as we were kids, three on that side, three on the other, donald trump is siding up on the side of the russians, again and again, and now with wikileaks, because that all helped him get the election won. may not have won it for him, but it certainly helped in destroying hillary clinton with all the leaks of her e-mail, the e-mails at the dnc. now, with the big document dump and the information flowing about the cia and its operations, its act to hack into people's systems, he's taking the weird smile, refusing to criticize. i think any other president would have criticized wikileaks. >> yeah, i don't know what -- >> what side is he on? >> i don't know what we can read into the smile -- >> no, refusal to speak and smile. >> true. i was struck that his spokesperson didn't condemn wikileaks today. >> no, he condemned the cia and said they we

. >> i want to bring in national security intelligence and national security reporter ken delane p delaneyrd from james clapper right there, does it lay anything to rest as far as wiretapping right there? we spoke to john harwood and he said that, no, he doesn't think so. >> well, i would say this. it lays to rest the accusation of wiretapping and it doesn't lay to rest the entire matter, but let me interpret clapper because he's a pretty understated guy and i've been covering him for years and he's saying not to my knowledge, but he was the director of national intelligence when this alleged fisa order would have been put in place and he says it doesn't exist and that's good enough for me. he would have been briefed on it. we can say there was no fisa order and no wiretap of trump tower and that leads us to the conclusion that the president of the united states put the weight of his office based on a scurrilous allegation based on something he read on breitbart and that's where this will go now. questions about, mr. president, where did you get this information? when i read the tweets, i

ken delaney and susan henessey and jeremy bash. when we finish, let me return with trump watch.t's scary tonight. you're watching "hardball." tech: don't let a cracked windshield ruin your plans. trust safelite. with safelite's exclusive "on my way text"... you'll know exactly when we'll be there. giving you more time for what matters most. (team sing) safelite repair, safelite replace. oh...ncome on...och method! what's going on here? you know how ge technology allows us to fix problems before they... they slow production, yeah. well, no more catchy business acronyms. wait, we don't need to smooch? i'm sure we can smooch a solution! we just need to "hover" over the candice, problem until... just let it go... hey, sorry i'm late for team building. smoooooooch! that felt right. what's wrong with you!? he's so trusting... dearthere's no other way to say this. it's over. i've found a permanent escape from monotony. together, we are perfectly balanced. our senses awake. our hearts racing as one. i know this is sudden, but they say...if you love something set it free. see you around,

washington, intelligence and national security reporter for nbc news and its investigative unit, ken delaney. let's talk about who these people are, in particular, what kind of jobs do they typically involve that would allow them having access to this information? >> good morning. paul ryan there just used key phrase, wishistle-blower, that s the story that devin nunes got this information from a whistle-blower. that story has been exploded. we haven'tdentified the particular identification but we identified them as white house officials and nunes confirmed that. they are young aides who have access to highly classified information. they can access it via computer inside a security computer inside the white house. nunes visited them there the other night, he has said. some real questions are being raised about why they were rooting around in classified information looking at fbi intercepts involving americans. the other issue is the idea that somehow nunes obtained this independent to vindicate donald trump has been -- is completely in question now because he got the stuff from the white hou

. >> joining us now from washington is nbc's news intelligence and national security reporter ken delaney. extraordinary day yesterday. i want you to help us get perspective and clarity on this one. were the president's communications collected? explain how common this incidental collection is? >> good morning, ayman. devin nunes appears to suggest that the president's communications might have been collected. he wasn't clear about that. let me break it down. incidental collection is a term of art in the intelligence community. i means when the national security agency is listening to two foreign leaders speak about a u.s. person, that person is considered incidentally collected. also if a foreign leader or diplomat calls a u.s. person, that's considered incidental collection. the american wasn't the target of surveillance. if that surveillance becomes part of an intelligence report, the name and identity of the american is blacked out. it's very common. edward snowden revealed a lot of surveillance going on, surveillance going on in the united states. all that is pursuant to a court orde

. >> let's bring in ken delaney, an msnbc intelligence and national security reporter for us.d of confusing week from the wednesday moment with reporters to the friday moment. how do you interpret the chairman's comments here? is this a true walk-back and a contradiction of what he gave on wednesday? >> i think it is, thomas. stepping back from that, devin nunes really threw a stink bomb into the entire house intelligence committee investigation into trump/russia ties. he came out and told reporters he'd seen dozens of intelligence reports reflecting that trump and his aides were monitored by u.s. intelligence, and he did that without consulting the democrats on the committee and he went to the white house and informed president trump about this and then trump immediately said he felt somewhat vindicated over his bogus claim that obama wiretapped him. even though nunes is saying that never happened. then on friday a you said, it emerges that nunes is really only saying he's aware of reports foreigner to foreigner speaking about donald trump and his aides. and that's routine st

ken delaney, appreciate you joining me. just one day after the republican health care bill was withdrawn republican senator lindsey graham is back in his home state of california facing tough questions from his constituents. we'll go there live next. ♪ everything your family touches sticks with them. make sure the germs they bring home don't stick around. use clorox disinfecting products. because no one kills germs better than clorox. >>> welcome back. msnbc world headquarters in new york. breaking news we're following. this is new video just in. police in las vegas now say two people were shot in a bus on the vegas strip. one of them has died. this video shows a flash on the bus where a gunman is believed to be barricaded on las vegas boulevard. they were evacuated from the cosmopolitan hotel. the gunman's motive is not yet known. vice president mike pence also spoke in charleston, west virginia, this afternoon in his first public appearance since the first republican health care bill was withdrawn on friday. let's take a

nbc's ken delaney.hank you for talking to us on this saturday. >>> we told you about in columbia, south carolina, senator lirndsey graham is holding a town hall. >> judge gorsuch is one of the best people i think president trump could have chosen. i'm going to enthusiastically support him. and if the democrats try to filibuster him, they will be making a huge mistake. let me tell you a little bit about the judge. you don't want to listen? let me tell you why i think -- let me tell you why i think he's well-qualified. the american bar association gave him the highest qualified rating you could give somebody. he's been a judge for ten and a half years. he's decided 2,700 cases. he's been reversed once. and i don't think president trump could have chose a better conservative judge to replace judge scalia. and i intend to vote for him. so how many of you are glad that i voted for sotomayor? >> no! >> kagan? ali alito? roberts? well, whether you like -- here's the one thing i can tell everybody in this room.

joining me now, ken delaney. i know you have new reporting against the allegations. what you can tell us? >> that's right. justice department correspondent pete williams has spoken to a senior administration official who tells us that he andthers who are in a position to know have no idea what the president is talking about with his allegations that his communications at trump tower were wiretapped by president trump. and further, this official says that the president trump did not consult with law enforcement officials or others who might have known the facts before he engaged in that tweet storm on this this morning. the reason that is important, becauseis wong dering the president said he learned this information. was he communicating to us that he had just been briefed on a highly classified -- >> do you think that's what it is? is it possible maybe something landed on his desk and then he -- >> so the steer we're getting from this well placed source is no. apparently he was reciting what he had seen in conservative media. there is a breitbart story and other sto

we're going to ken delaney in walking on where chairman devin nunes was when he made the allegationse president being monitored during the transition. put this into context for us about why this matters. >> sure. devin nunes acknowledging to nbc news that he was in a skiff, a sensitive compartment information facility in the white house to review documents around the surveillance that he later made public. that's significant was there's a mystery of where did he get the information. who are his sources. he still hasn't said. there are sensitive facilities on capitol hill in the capitol where lawmakers regularly review information. there was no need for him to go to the white house. the fact that he was there suggests that maybe he got the information from the white house. and after all, donald trump could have ordered these reports to be placed on his desk at any time. he's the president of the united states. he supervises these intelligence agencies. democrats have been charging this, as to whether this whole thing was a ruiz. nunes announces to the world he's seen surveillance repo

joining me right now is kristin welker, ken delaney intelligence reporter and democratic congressman eric swevl also joins us. i have to go to kristin walker, it seems to me that he's complaining and still see the sun. he say that is he didn't sneak in but his staff people saw him disappear and he changed cars, didn't tell anybody where he was going and he waited about 6:30 to come up with his explanation, when you have to put your story together hours and hours before you come clean. what do you know for some sm one to get a briefing from somebody who is whistleblowing, we're being told. what do you make of the whole story? >> first of all, chris, he would need to be signed into the white house, the question is and our whole focus is who signed him into the white house. we pressed press secretary sean spicer, he said he will get back to us with an answer, so far that hasn't happened. even a member of congress just walk into the white house. now, we also pressed spicer who briefed him and if the white house was aware, they dodged questions about that. spicer did during h briefin and

joining me now, ken delaney. some serious allegations the president fired off early this morning.s there any substance to where he's getting this information from? and if so, what does he have to back it up? >> thomas, these are incredible allegations, and the answer is we don't know and we're trying to find out right now whether there is any substance behind them. the thing is there's a breitbart news story that conservative website had a story alleging that there was a fisa warrant, foreign intelligence surveillance court warrant to wiretap trump tower and we're wondering this morning is that what the president is talking about or does he actually have information? presumably he could call the fbi director and ask him. question would be if there's an investigation targeting trump associates, would the fbi director brief the president on it. so many questions here, thomas. if it's real, it would involve a foreign intelligence surveillance court warrant. that's a national security investigation, and that would allow the fbi to intercept communications. normally, those are targeted

joining me, hans nichols, ken delaney who covers intelligence and national security, msnbc contributor michael, a former u.s. ambassador to russia, and congressman jim himes who was nice enough to stick around with us as well as mychalen with our d.c. bureau. he had national security roles in the george w. bush white house. he is now managing director at beacon global strategies. hans, let's start. but i want to talk about the press briefing. wasn't contentious but reporters were repeatedly trying to get information regarding who devin nunes met. was it appropriate that he met with them and was it happening at the direction of the white house? >> and very little was portrayed in terms of knowledge or information. the main the point we heard from sean spicer was mono syllablic answer. he said it won't in any way imperil white house officials leading up to donald trump. that's the the headline i took out of it. they're continuing on green light michael flynn and perhaps signalling to michael flynn that they're not concerned about his testimony. >> what do we know about that meeting with

. >> joining me now is nbc's intel on national security correspondent ken delaney. what we heard there and how much can comey reveal tomorrow and i want to point out something that adam schiff said that wasn't in that clip since you and i talked there is circumstantial evidence in collusion, which say bit of news, isn't it? >> you're right, jacob. that is news. adam schiff is a part an democrat and he's a serious-minded former federal prosecutor with access to the nation's highest classification of secrets so i take what he says very seriously and based on our reporting at nbc news we have an idea of what he might be talking about. there is evidence that the u.s. intelligence is aware of meetings between trump associates over the summer during the campaign and russians. there are also signals intelligence, we understand, about russians talking about connections with the trump campaign. that's the kind of thing schiff might be referring to as circumstantial evidence. james clapper had said a couple of weeks ago on "meet the press" he saw no hard evidence of collusion

. >> with be ken delaney and robert dietz, former senior counselor to the cia director and former generalnsel at the nsa. ken, first to you, do you have any information, any idea who he met with, why he met there, who let him in? do you have any more information tonight? >> we have some suspects, greta, but nothing we're ready to report on the air tonight. what's important to understand, though, is that nunes says he went to the old -- the eisenhower executive office building, which is a stately old building in the white house complex to the west of the white house itself, to a secure room. now, he's sort of portraying this like he got this from a source like meeting deep throat in the parking garage but there are limited numb of people that have access to a secure room to view classified information at the white house. former white house officials have told us that any white house official could learn in five minutes who signed nunes into the white house. so it's absurd that the white house is suggesting that somehow this is difficult information to come by. in fact that used to be publi

joining me, ken delaney, nbc intelligence and national security repoer. 's going to be hard to get an answer here. i want to be fair here. investigations can go on forever. ken starr went all over the place, fishing expedition after fishing expedition. we don't live in a country like that. a police state where people are constantly being investigated. any case, if trump is on the level here, offering it as a possible, he and his people are going to say we're going to short circuit this thing, give you everything we got, answer every phone call, every document we have, make it clear we were not engaged with the russians. shou could they possibly shorten this effort and get it down to a month or so so they can get beyond it if they're innocent? is that possible theoretically? >> i don't think so, chris because this -- >> can't establish your innocence. >> right, can't prove a negative, right? >> that's a problem for somebody -- i'm trying to see it from their sides for a few minutes here. what do they have to do to prove their innocence? what can they do? >>

. >> and i want to switch briefly to nbc national security reporter ken delaney with me because we have this wikileaks press conference. this bizarre press conference, julian assange inside the ecuador embassy in london, where he is protected from being extradited for the charges against him. ken, he charged that the cyber weapons arsenal is now out there and on the black market and the cia has completely lost control. we haven't seen the arsenal of the weapons yet. what's going on here? >> if that was true, it would be huge. without actually revealing the exploits, which he says he's going to reveal, then a larger claim the entire cia hacking arsenal is in the wild, maybe in the hands of russian intelligence. the cia is not publicly denying that. it's hard to do that without confirming they have a secret cyber arsenal, but it's a huge question that we need to be asking right now, andrea. >> he's claiming it shows devastating incompetence on the part of the cia. >> it would if it were true, but some could argue just the leak of 9,000 documents calls for incompetence and hard questions a

nbc intelligence and national security correspondent kim delaney from washington and michael steele is here with us along with naveed jamali. kenwant to start with you. how unusual is it to get the chair of the intelligence committee in the house who is investigating the president and his campaign, go to the president and say, here is the evidence i found? >> well, it's unprecedented, katy. the biggest question is these are documents that came from the executive branch. they're documents president trump could have ordered on his desk at any moment. there's real question why nunes did this and his apology hasn't mull fied many democrats today. you're hearing calls in the capital for an independent committee to investigate trump collusi collusion, a like an 9/11 investigation. oneore othe politics. our colleague mark murray discovered that the republican congressional campaign committee is already raising money based on nunes' comments yesterday. they're accepting up a fund-raiser with subject line trump spy confirmed. even devin nunes says that's not what occurred. it seems like some of this was done to appeal to a certain base