and senator james langford from oklahoma.efore being elected to the senate in 2014 served in the house. and before that he ran oklahoma's largest and most famed church camp, falls creek, where basically every oklahoman has to spend a few weeks of their life. together they are leaders of the senate's bible study and the efforts to find a solution for the dreamers. they are co-chairs of the national prayer breakfast. and i want to start there perhaps with you senator, coops, welcome, senator langford. a week ago you had a bipartisan deal on the budget. you had carson wentz at the big prayer breakfast, and it looked like things were coming together. a week later we have a slaughter in florida and come lapse of the dreamers. one step forward and 100 steps backward. what is your mood after this swing of events? >> hugh, it is great to be on with you and my friend from oklahoma. this was a very hard day for me yesterday on the floor of the senate. we took up and failed to pass any of four different proposals that might have address

my guest, senator langford of oklahoma and bernie sanders from vermont. joining me for insight and analysis are nbc news correspondent halle jackson. democratic poster kornell belcher. nbc news national political reporter carol lee and cnbc's rick santelli. welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press." >> announcer: from nbc news in washington the longest-running show in television history. this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. >> good sunday morning. if you can remember as far back as tuesday the week's news cycle began with the chiefs testifying that russia is continuing to interfere with our election systems here in 2018 and president trump hasn't asked them to do anything about it. well the weakened with attorney general rod rosenstein announcing 12 russians and an ol gashing close to putin -- oligarch close to putin and support the candidacy of donald trump using social media. in between was the horror of another school shooting. 17 students and teachers dead in a high school in parkland, florida. this weeks, because there are so many, prompted this

this amendment is cosponsored by senators cornyn, tell us, langford, purdue, cotton and ernst. it is p a product of several months of hard work between these senators including the white house. since this past september, i have held more than two dozen meetings with interested senators in an attempt to craft a fair and permanent solution to daca. i've also met with the president on four separate occasions to figure out exactly what he needs to see in a legislative package so that it can be signed into law. what is the point of our working hard if we are not going to get something that will be finalized by signature from the president of the united states. i just said, i have met with the president on four separate occasions. i should have said that this group of introducers of this legislation met with the president on those four occasions. most importantly, i've been continuously listening to what my colleagues have said that they need in any immigration consensus. as a result of our conversations, the senators sponsoring this amendment have attempted to develop a simple, comm

little bit different than the one that senator langford and i have. both of those bills are aimed at this. there was concern on the left and right. if you have a hack somewhere when you have dozens of states that have not updated their election infrastructure equipment in the past decade, do you think russia does not know that? they do. i am not disclosing a secret. on andu have that going you have 10 or 12 states that do not even have backup paper ballots, so there is no way to audit afterwards. the bill says, let us get the money out to the states. let us make sure that the information is shared from homeland security. let us have auditing so that if something goes wrong, you have a way to prove it. minnesota is unique. we have had a lot of recounts and close elections. the we do that when you are trying to check out a close election is by having backup paper ballots. those other components of the bill. it is something you would like to get done. secondly, this is the honest as bill i was mentioning. we have some a well-known hearings that went on o

again, i want to thank my colleaguean senator langford and senator grassley, senator purdue, cotton, all those who have weighed in, senator cornyn to try to craft a solution that's responsive to the presence framework, responsive to some of the concerns that our friends on the other side of the aisle happen now it's time for us to act. let's do something different. let's produce a result. let's not talk about it and say we tried, let's produce a result, provide certainty for those people waiting for us to act. but secure our border and modernize our broken immigration system. if we do that, we've done a a great thing. thank you madame president. >> today we begin our immigration debate in earnest. senator mcconnell has kept his promise to bring an immigration vehicle to the floor. this week will take a series of votes on doctor, border security and other related subjects. they take a few minutes to outline where i'm at on these issues and where i see the debate heading. i made very clear, mr. madame president that i believe we need a legislative fix for daca. we cannot continue to ke

joining me now to talk more about that is senator james langford, republican of oklahoma.ator, thanks very much for being here tonight. i appreciate it. >> you bet, glad to do it, kasie. >> you, sir, and other senators in the senate have pulled together a plan that you are releasing tonight you say hits on the four pillars that the white house has laid out. is this essentially the white house plan? and can you walk us through what you're proposing? >> yeah, the best we can determine this is trying to work with the white house to determine what is a white house compromise. they listened to all voices the past many months. we're trying to form a compromise with them and pull from voices from everybody in the whole process. this outlines the four pillars the president has talked about. deals with border security, and it actually gives citizenship which some said president trump wouldn't agree to but he has been outspoken to say 1.8 million dreamers under this proposal would get citizenship in the process. it deals with some issues, though, that come up as well as. issues abou

a number of my colleagues, senator grassley, corn anyone, tillis, purdue, langford, cotton and anti, will crow dues a balanced proposal that tries to meet these requirements. support the president's proposal and my colleagueses' legislation to implement it. the secure and succeed act is fair, addresses both sides' most pressing concerns, conforming to the conditions the president has put forward. it offers a compassionate resolution for 1.8 million illegal immigrants brought to the united states as children. and in exchange this luigs delivers funding for president trump's promise to fully secure the border, reforms are approached to extended family chain migration, and reallocated arbitrary visa lottery into a more sensible merit based system this. legislation is a fair compromise that addresses the stated priorities of all sides. it's our best chance to produce a solution that can actually resolve these matters. which requires that a bill pass the senate, pass the house, and earn the president's signature. it has my support. the time for political posturing is behind us. now we hav

. >> and james langford is open to deeper background checks. axios expects another background check bill that senator john cornyn pushed last year in sutherland springs shooting. funeral for 15-year-old victim luke hoyer is today. 14-year-old alex schachter and 14-year-old jaime guttenberg and teacher scott beigel were all laid to rest yesterday. four shooting victims remain in the hospital this morning. >>> the red flags missed by the fbi are not the only warning signs now getting another look in the aftermath of the shooting. "the washington post" says problems with cruz started in middle school. they cite outbursts and drawings of stick figure was guns and threatening statements on his homework. including references to killing president obama. >> the family who took in cruz last year did not know they had a monster living under their roof. cnn's martin savidge has more. >> reporter: there is information that cnn has been able to obtain from the department of children and families. the state welfare group. they became aware of problems with n

i want to bring up quickly what republican from oklahoma senator james langford said to us reporters at the republican retreat just the other day in west virginia, where i was covering that. and he said a member of the intelligence committee, senator langford, he said, look, russia is just around the corner from 2018 midterm elections. we, at some point in our country, have to talk about how to better protect ourselves and our businesses, david, from midterm elections as well as the looming 2020 cycle. >> let me have you introduce us to devin nunes, telling bret baier he didn't have to do this, he gets tired of having to play whack-a-mole. for the record he said he was going to recuse himself from matters involving russia. here we are, squarely in those matters now. >> a dairy guy from california, wound up becoming a prolific fund-raiser for the republican party, endeared him to john boehner, who gave him the chairmanship of the house intelligence committee. along the way, he became very close to trump, fairly early in the trump campaign. nu nech nunes offered to give all the candida

i will join senator rubio and senator king, senator langford and others concerned about the failure of the u.s. government again to have an all of government strategy to deal with the cyber threat. i have no doubt in my mind that we have superior capabilities and -- but they are stove piped and i don't think we are -- the policymakers are doing a good enough job and i think it's incumbent upon us to try to provide policy guidance so you and others in the intelligence community and national security apparatus can address this threat in a way that needs to be addressed. our adversaries don't suffer from our lack of an all-government policy. they are all over that. and china, i agree with senator rubio, about their strategy and some of you have responded to that. but one of the strategies that china and other countries have adopted is to avoid some of the review measures in the committee on foreign investment in the united states when it comes to direct investment, buying those dual-use technologies, startup companies and the like and using that to gain strategic advantage against the uni

>>senator langford. >> director coats, you and i talked last year about this issue that senator king was bringing up about cyber doctrine and a point person on who that would be and defined person to give options to congress and the president to say if it is needed and warranted, this is the person, this is the entity that would make the recommendations and allow the president to make decisions on what the proper response is. has that been completed, is there a point person to give recommendations on cyber attack to the president? >>that has not yet been completed. of course, your understanding of the standup of cyber command and new director replacing admiral rogers, the decisionrelative to whether there would be separation between functions that are now nsa and cyber has yet to be made. general mattis is contemplating what the next best step is. they have involved the intelligence community in terms of making decisions in that role,but we at this point cannot point to one sort of cyberczar but various agencies throughout the federal government taking this very, very seriously, and

heard from senator cornyn, then i spoke, senator constable, senator ernst, senator tillis, senator langford now and senator perdue is one of those who is a cosponsor of the bill and would have likedut to have been here o speak but he is just now returning from his constituency. we have tried to lay out a path to giving daca kids certainty doing it from the standpoint of being a humanitarian people that were brought to this country by their parents, their parents may have broken the law and did break the law by coming over our porters without documentation but we never should hold children responsible for their parents did. this legislation takes a compassionate and reasonable approach to reforms, including pathway to citizenship for a broad population, grandfathers people waiting in line for family -based visas and expedites clearing that backlog. it helps to keep young people out of the same legal limbo in the future. this legislation is a product of compromise, the president and many conservatives have come a long ways to offer this plan and especially the part of the plan that offers cit

i spoke with senator langford, the republican on the senate intelligence committee just the other week, he's out there saying, what are we doing to better protect our institutions ahead of the midterms? that should be a nonpartisan issue. >> that's a good question. ali, real quick before i let you go, "the washington post" is reporting an intense phone call between president trump and president nieto of mexico. what are you learning about this? >> that's exactly right. that's a "washington post" report. nbc has not yet confirmed that reporting. but the post said there was a tense phone call between the mexican leader of pena nieto and president trump this week pushing off a meeting that was supposed to happen this month or in march. the two leaders have obviously had opposing views on one of the president's key campaign promises, which was building a wall along the southern border and one of the key promises he made to his supporters. that mexico was going to pay for it. that obviously hasn't come to fruition. he's promising to build the wall, but the mexico paying for it portion is st

senator langford, thank you very much.chell, we'll see you at noon on msnbc. >>> still ahead on "morning joe" the federal government's plan to increase spending in an economy that is already expanding while cutting a trillion dollars in taxes something lloyd blankfine said he would not do. in fact, he compares it to throwing lighter fluid on a fire. we'll ask him to explain that when he joins us here on set. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. don't we need that cable box to watch tv? nope. don't we need to run? nope. it just explodes in a high pitched 'yeahhh.' yeahhh! try directv now for $10 a month for 3 months. no satellite needed. >>> up next, what could be our most important conversation of the morning, keep it right here on "morning joe." experience lexus safety system plus standard. in the 2018 lexus es and es hybrid. lease the 2018 es 350 for $339 a month for 36 months. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. experience amazing another anti-wrinkle cream in no hurry to make anything happen. neutro

klobuchar has led us on so many vital issues she's cosponsored important elections with senator langford and we are happy to have her here to talk about why it's important for congress to act and why this issue should be at the forefront of all of our conversations in the democracy. senator klobuchar? further dreamers and the hope that we can stop people from being deported is a pretty good goal. and also for the work that you've done it's good to see secretary johnson i began my day with the portrait unveiling. i didn't want to believe honestly. they did a beautiful job and now i see secretary johnson who i enjoyed working with and admired. i read an interview from last week where on the topic he said 2016 is a wake-up call and before the democracy is attacked again. so i want to thank him for 15 seconds and go from there. this comes from my state. we are known as a good government state and we are proud of our election laws. from minnesota we like to be above average. it's the election day registration and have been cuttinhas beencutting edge in as and we have a lot of voter turnout in

and that is why republican senator langford and i have stepped into this void along with senator harrisut some short—term funding to help this state to bolster their election equipment, to get paper back—up audit so that in fact if you have a paper ballot, you're able to have a back—up in case there is a hack. and also that we designate people in each state that can get immediate information, classified information, from homeland security if they see hacks developing. there are 21 different states where the russians attempted to hack in. so while you and your colleagues are doing this important work in the senate, the house oversight committee has now said it is going to investigate the security clearance process for rob porter, the aide who was accused by both his wives of beating them. how concerned are you that somebody is working in the white house in this way, close to the president, who had not got security clearance and perhaps for these reasons? well, of course i'm concerned. this is a very important position and the first story was heard, that it was just taking too long which

important global conversation is adam ferris, our moderator, legislative assessment for senator james langford who covers international trade, policy and homeland security. adam will graduate from the u.s. army war college with a mavsers of strategic study in july. so congratulations, adam. the light at the end of the tunnel. some students graduating in may in the room. dale moore, executive director for public policy at the american farm bureau federation, joined afbf in 2011 as deputy direct oroff public policy and manager of the greg and trade policy team. brings 30 years of experience in public policy and communications to afbf. lisa schroeder the global director of trade for the dow chemical company. as part she has direct responsibilities for defining and making the company's global trade agenda and developing a strategy on international aspects of corporate issues. based in washington, dc, her responsibilities include trade policy and legislation, trade negotiation, and investment issues that foster growth and dow's global businesses through identification of policies facilitating marke

senator langford will be speaking after me and i wanted to get a discussion around a legal path to citizenship for a significant population of the illegal presence or a significant portion of the population and the deferred action program was implemented by president obama is what we use as a baseline for determining how we can define the population and set terms so that we can ultimately accept them into this country and they can get citizenship. the proposal that we bow alone today iss should also think senator grassley for his leadership, chairman grassley has served on the judiciary committee for three years and my first term in the senate and three years in the immigration subcommittee and under his leadership crested what the president and it's consistent with what virtually has voted for in one form or the other and it's a fourth pillar framework that first begins with a path to citizenship for someone 1.8 million daca in the state today and they were young when they came to this country and some are adults now but they this country through the decision of their parents and i for one we

joining us now for reaction is senator jim langford of oklahoma, a member of that committee. the congressman there, he hadn't heard the rumble he's concerned about releasing it, he didn't want to read it because and he can talk about it, i didn't quite follow that. i'm glad that he came on. your view on this situation because the democrats are saying republicans are anti-fbi and poisoning the whole kit and caboodle. >> 35,000 employees in the fbi, fantastic people keep us safe from terrorism and gang violence, they work exceptionally hard, but it's very clear that there are also some people that were in headquarters that we have text message of that worked in the email scandal and then were hired on to do the trump investigation by the special counsel that clearly had biases against president trump and were trying to support hillary clinton in the campaign. if there is question about that. let's not a challenge, this is a challenge to the people they are frustrated with that are at headquarters that are not following basic fbi code and procedures. >> laura: did it bother you

i will join senator rubio and senator king, senator langford and others concern about failure of u.s. government again to have an all of government strategy to deal with the cyber threat. i have no doubt in my mind we have superior capabilities, but they're stovepiped. i don't think the policy makers are doing a good enough job. i think it is incumbent on us to try to provide policy guidance so you and others in the intelligence communities and national security apparatus can address this threat in a way that needs to be addressed. our adversaries don't suffer from our lack of all of government policy. they're all over that. china i agree with senator rubio about their strategy. some of you responded to that. one of the strategies that china and other countries adopted is to avoid some of the review measures in the committee on foreign investment in the united states when it comes to direct investment, buying dual use technology startup companies and the like, and then using that to gain strategic advantage against the united states. i wonder if maybe director wray, could you address

after parkland, will anything qing, the guests, bernie sanders and oklahoma republican senator james langford>>> let's turn to the action in pyeongchang where team saus picked up a pair of silver medals, one in skiing and slope style track skiing. we'll talk to them in a moment. first, let's head to the mountains where nbc's keir simmons has the overnight highlights. >> reporter: good morning. team usa picked up more olympic medals overnight. the skiers took to the slopes. the skiers took to the ice to bring home the olympic hardware. it was all about speed and style in pyeongchang overnight. >> needs perfection here. >> reporter: first the men battling for gold in slope style skiing americans gus kenworth and nick goepper who took gold. >> reporter: with a large contingent of family and friends looking on, kenworthy who fractured his forearm failed to hit a critical jump. but goepper overcame stumbles to regain his composure, fwliping and twisting his way to a silver medal. >> goepper's last chance, one, two, three, wow. >> reporter: over at the giant slalom course veteran ted ligety was uns

secondly they should pass the bill i have with senator langford which puts what is 3% of one aircraftrier, 300 some million into helping our states to strengthen the infrastructure. we know they've tried hack 21 states. i don't know why we wouldn't want to protect ourselves from this new form of kribler warfare which is attacking our very freedom vote. our election infrastructure. i gave a speech on that. this is part of our critical infrastructure. we're asking our friends across the aisle to include some funding to protect election infrastructure. >> you passed the legislation overwhelmingly in august. it is now february. there's nothing happen. the president is delaying imposing any sanctions. it is one thing to give a speech. what if anything can you do about it? >> well, we can push to have stairs put in place. secondly, we can protect ourselves. we have a solution right in front of us, to protect our elections. and it means protecting ourselves from propaganda, abide go by the sail rules for print and radio and tv. you have disclaimers. you have to disclose the ads. the honest a

joining me is adam langford, associate professor at the university of alabama's department of criminalustice. adam has sliced and diced these numbers any way you cut it. adam, while i am sympathetic to and understand we have to pay more attention to mental health as it relates to gun ownership, the studies that you've done and others have done indicate that that's not -- that's a bright, shiny object. it is a bit of a distraction. the reason we have gun deaths and mass shootings in america is because of the number of guns we've got. >> yeah, that's right. so if you look at an individual mass shooter, certainly, there are a lot of factors that stand out. sometimes, there are mental health problems. some people talk about gender. there are a variety of other things you can look at in an individual. when you look cross nationally to explain, why does this happen more in the united states than anywhere else, mental health doesn't seem to be the explanation. i did this cross national study of 171 countries. there are more than 40 countries with higher suicide rates than us. however, we're n

. >> republican senator john langford said today that he expects special counsel robert mueller to comeout his final report in the coming days. >> ellison barber, thank you. >> for more the indictment in the presidents reaction let's bring in alan smith for senior politics reporter for the business insider. so far we have 13 tweets as of now. what is your analysis and what is most important? >> i think most important to the president here is clearly with the indictments coming out, he wanted to respond to them in relative and real-time. i think what is bothering him most is that this is continuing to look at this, it is delegitimizing his electoral win. in one of his tweets his initiative more credit for being a great candidate and that is why he won. i think it has a lot to do with what he tweets not so much on this because because there is continuing investigation is taking something whether he believes is rightly has after winning the presidential election. >> and in another tweet he said he never said that russia did not meddle in the election. but he said that he has been claiming

senatorklobuchar, langford. voting is a bipartisan, american issue. it is an issue we all need to be working to protect and we do to make sure no outside actors like russia are meddling in this very important process in our democracy. so, we are excited that dhs is engaged. theys in january that declared our election system is part of -- what is the term? critical infrastructure. it includes things like the electric grid and things like that. this is good stuff that we are working together. there needs to be >> thank you everybody. i will go to my very first question. think is ao what i challenge of fitting a square peg into a round hole. everybody on the panel has alluded to it. if you have a nationstate which is an existential threat to the united states, which russia is, attacky are trying to certain parts of our critical infrastructure or the foundation of our democracy, which is voting, that is a national security issue, obviously. who does national security? the military, homeland security, cia, so on. that is who does national security. who adm

republican senators grassley, corn and bruno, tillis, langford, cotton, ernst, rolling out an immigrationlan. it would address the young people brought to the country illegally by the parents, fun border security with a wall while ending so-called chain migration at the visa lottery. top senate leaders noted the challenge ahead but insisted they can reach a deal. >> at every critical moment in this country, we have come together to do what needed to be done. to move the ball down the field. >> it won't be easy but we are all going to try because of the gravity of the issues. and because we know this week will be a test of whether the senate can steer the ship of state through the storm he asked of waters. i believe it can. >> the house is another story. three -- emphasizing border protection. >> find an accommodation for them but no amnesty. we cannot have individuals get in the queue in front of individuals that have been legally working through this process for years. >> how are public and covers and jim jordan says it reflect what american voters want. >> what they want is border secur

. >> senator chris coons discusses his plans on immigration and republican senator james langford willnd goldman sachs ceo lloyd blankfein joins us the conversation. "morning joe" is moments away. 40 million americans are waking up to a gillette shave. and at our factory in boston, more than a thousand workers are starting their day building on over a hundred years of heritage, craftsmanship and innovation. today we're bringing you america's number one shave at lower prices every day. putting money back in the pockets of millions of americans. as one of those workers, i'm proud to bring you gillette quality for less, because nobody can beat the men and women of gillette. gillette - the best a man can get. pepsoriasis does that. it was tough getting out there on stage. i wanted to be clear. i wanted it to last. so i kept on fighting. i found something that worked. and keeps on working. now? they see me. see me. see if cosentyx could make a difference for you- cosentyx is proven to help people with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis... ...find clear skin that can last. don't use if you'

. >> senator langford on the intelligence committee said he's worried because russians are clearly making hay of this on the internet and elsewhere. ns says when american institutight, russians try to take advantage of that and that is a largecer corn here. >> woodruff: lisa desjardins reporting from the repub congressional retreat at the greenbriar in west virginia. thank you, lisa. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, 28 russian athletes who banned from the winter olympics for doping, have now been cleared by the international court of arbitration for sport. the panel ruled there was insufficient evidence.ed it also reinsteven gold medals won by russians at the 2014 sochi olympics. president vladimir putin hailed the decision as he toured a vehi.e factory in rostovondon >> ( translated hink we have to avoid euphoria on our side. we have to take it calmly. t are happy for the athletes supported t everyone was fully cleared of charges. we have things to improve on our side for sure. >> woodruff: russia is still banned from the upcoming winter games in south korea for state- sponsored dop

and at dam langford say professor of krlg at the alabama. adam, let me begin with you. what i want to ask is the debate about guns and violence are, it seems to me in america should begin with the recognition that we're just on a different planet. you know, that's why i think of the mental edge issue as a dodge because we have 20 to 30 times as much gun violence as any other advanced industrial country. it's not plausible that we have 20 to 30 times as many people with mental issues than, say, england or germany or france. you've looked at it and you've actually run correlations specifically with gun ownership. explain your findings. >> sure. i did a global study of public mass shooters over 40 years, and i looked at 171 countries. and i did test for differences in suicide rates, homicide rates, firearm ownership rates, national wealth and i was trying to explain why does the united states have so many more public mass shooters than other countries in and you're right. so when it comes to suicide rates, there are more than 40 countries around the world that have worse s

. >> senator langford. >> thank you. director coats, you and i talked about this issue as senator king was bringing up and a point person on who that would be and a defined person to give options to the president and the congress if a response is needed and warranted, this is the person, this is the entity that would make those recommendations and allow the president to make decisions on the proper response. has that been completed? is there a point person to give a response to the president? >> that has not yet been completed. of course, you're understanding of this stand-up of cyber command and the new director that will be replacing admiral rogers, tdecision relative of separation of the functions that are currently now nsa and cyber is yet to be made. general mattis will -- is contemplating what the next best step is and there's -- they have involved the intelligence community in terms of making decisions and n that role. but we at this particular point cannot point to one sort of cyber czar but various agencies thro

. >> senator langford. >> thank you. you and i talked last year about the same issue that senator king was just bringing up about cyberdoctrine and point person on who that would be and a person that would give options to the president and the congress to say if a response is needed, and is warranted, this is the person, this is the entity that would make the recommendations and allow the president to make decisions on what the proper response is. has that been completed? is there a point person to bible to give recommendations on a appropriate response to a cyberattack to the president? >> that has not yet been completed. your understanding of these stand-up of cybercommand and the new drirector replacing admiral rogers, the decision relative to whether there would be separation between the functions that are currently now nsa and cyber has yet to be made. general mattis will -- is contemplating what the next best step is. and there is -- they have involved the intelligence community in terms of making decisions and tha

senator clinton langford as well. thatis a great reminder although you hear about the political differences, you don't hear about the times we comes together -- we come together. whether it is legislation for republicans and democrats do come to agreement, but also when we share our faith together in ways like we do now. and believe me, this is a nation that was not founded in agnostic views. this was a nation founded with a deep belief in god. our founding fathers talked about it when they were preparing to draft the constitution. , whoct, thomas jefferson was the author of the constitution, if you go to the jefferson memorial right now, go read this inscription from thomas jefferson. "god who gave us life, gave us liberty. can the liberties of a nation be secured when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of god?'s " you cannot separate church and state. this idea that -- [applause] i am a catholic. we have people of all faiths. this idea that you could just check your faith at the door, peo

senate colleagues, in the senate prayer breakfast, along with my wonderful co-chair senator james langford of oklahoma, we senators gather to pray, to sing, to worship, to witness to each other about our faith journey. it is the one time in the week in an otherwise too often divided senate when we listen to each other and trust each other, when we see each other not as opponents, but as creations of our god. we share common bond as people of faith striving to live out each day as a witness to god's justice, glory and grace. so, thank you for joining us here this morning in that same spirit. on behalf of my colleagues in the senate, welcome. let me now offer a prayer for world leaders. would you please bow your heads and join me in prayer. heavenly father, i address you as the god of no country and the god of all countries. i am astounded by the infinite variety of your creation, by the range of the human person and the thousands of ways we are collected that cultures, languages, groups and nations, tells us something about who you are, lord, that you created all of us and love all of us. m

voting.ve in hope and why i did this bill with senator langford is to make sure that we understand this is not a democratic or republican issue. this is about america. inn we learn what happened 2016, that is un-american. un-american to have this russian interference which is a nice term for criminal activity, in our elections, since we know the right to free and fair elections is the very heart of our freedoms in america. , i wantyou leave today you to remember that simple concept of marco rubio himself it hit one candidate in the next time you will hit the other one. think of this in that lens. 266. that is the number of days left before the 2018 election. 256 days to go. a little more than nine months and we cannot ensure americans that our elections ushered care. -- are secure. it is on us. 2016.w what happened in intelligence reports made clear that russia used covert cyberattacks, harmful propaganda to try to play in our elections and they did. six month later on june 21, the department of homeland security confirmed russia launched cyberattacks against at least 21 state elections

i'm air ro i'm aaron from senator lane forwa -- senator langford's office. from us here in congress looking forward to trade agreements, what kind of messaging and what kind of lessons can we learn from the withdrawal looking forward? >> that's a great question. i will tell you that what immediately popped to mind, you know, back to kent's point when we looked at this, these are negotiations, which means we're not dictating, we're negotiating. we are very much aware of that. what it means fundamentally, when -- for example, when tpp started out, it was actually i think ten of us, and then canada and -- excuse me, canada and japan wanted to join the party. we, the united states, were very adamant that, well, if you are going to join the tpp, you join the game in progress. we're not going to go back to zero and start all of this over. so all of the things we've already agreed to, you've got to suck it up and get on board with those provisions because that's where we're going. so we pull out and then we come back in and it is like, "hey, guess what, we want to