senator wyden: thank you, senator mccaskill. senator mccaskill: thank you, secretary mnuchin. while i know you repeatedly said there is not specifics in the budget, the budget document is full of specifics, including a specific claim that it balances the budget. that is a very specific claim. so i only think it's fair we can continue to drill down on some of the -- kind way of putting it is anomalies that are in this budget document, just from a financial perspective. your budget assumes 3% growth, which i am not going to argue with you here but i think most conomists in the country are vociferously arguing about the notion that 3% growth is going to happen. [please stand by] but that $2 trillion pays for the tax cuts, and i see nothing in the budget where the $5 trillion of revenue we're going to lose from the tax cuts are calculated in. so either you're double counting and someone is not paying attention to how you do accounting or you just made a mistake. and i need to know which one it is. mr. mnuchin: senator, i appreciate you bringing up that question. i responded to a s

senator mccaskill said that hiring joe lieberman was a mistake. and a group of network anchors had lunch last week and the president saying in quotes to the nomination for the the app t appointment of the prosecutor prosecutor. he says we have a lot to do, all things that we discussed. that shows a very divided country. the president went on the say that he thinks it's a poor excuse for democrats having lost an election that they should have easily won. he said again, i think it shows division, shows we're not together as a country and it's a very, very negative thing. the president adding at the end "hopefully this can go away quickly because we have to show unity if we're going to do great things with respect to the rest of the world." so the president last night, i'm told, when he was first given this information, shep, by his white house counsel, stoic about the whole thing. he said okay, those are the cards we've been dealt. put on with the statement and move on with the agenda. in the nearly 24 hours that has passed, he seems to have ruminat

as senator mccaskill pointed out, it is a partially resource issue. i pointed out before, the irs sometimes simpl silver doesn't implement changes that we think would be simple. i believe you were in the room when i talk about if they shared more information with other departments, such as the education department as it relates to the american opportunities tax credit. this is a little effect towards one want to make sure what i convey to you before the end of this hearing, and this is an opportunity to do so. the irs did its own make a request to congress for what's called correctable error authority, which would allow them to come if they saw the stakes or different types of information that they have versus what the taxpayer provided, they would be able to change the taxpayers tax filing form and give the taxpayer the opportunity to contest the information it hurts the taxpayer in terms of causing more of a tax liability that they think you are entitled to. now, if the irs was given that authority, we estimate that would cost the irs approximately

senator mccaskill: ok.let me quickly because i have less than a minute left -- i'm worried about chemical weapons in north korea. reports of indicated that kim yo --g-un it has been indicated they have 5000 metric tons of chemical weapons in north korea. can you confirm that chemical weapons were used to kill kim jong-un's half-brother? dir. coats: yeah. that is something i would have to get back to you one. yeah.r mccaskill: we trained on chemical weapons, and with the proximity of semi-people in south korea and the deliverance could be in such a way that it would be -- the proximity of so many people in south korea and the deliverance could be in such a way, that it would be disastrous and i wonder if there is a way to check on the ground whether there are chemical weapons? dir. stewart: chemical weapons are assessed to be part of the north korean arsenal. ifator mccaskill: ok, there's any other information you can provide me in terms of our capabilities, defense, i would be very appreciative. thank you b

claire mccaskill already came out against them.e forget that joe lieberman as hated by the hard left of the democratic party as it is. i think he's an honorable, decent public statesman and a great guy. it's a kind of weird peg. i'm not sure the politics will work. >> bret: asking about claire mccaskill's comments, john mccain told the reporters today, joe lieberman has more experience than all of my democratic colleagues combined, so, screw them. [laughter] >> it seems like his relevance, experience in this realm was a long, long time ago. you can also take issue with the degree to which he has fresh qualifications. >> bret: i want to take a look at this foreign trip. the president leaving tomorrow, his first foreign trip, his first trip is in saudi arabia. we are going to cover it there. but mollie, he will have 54 arab and muslim leaders in the first stop. saudi arabia is want to get all of these countries to sign a pledge against extremism and terrorism. they are going to invest $350 billion in u.s. weapon systems. they will in

senator claire mccaskill joins us live. on the reports that president trump asked intel chiefs to push back on the russian probe. >>> plus president's commerce secretary marvels at the lack of protests to the president's visit to saudi arabia. >> good lord. >> we'll explain to him -- we'll be right back. a millie dresselhaus doll! happy birthday, sweetie! oh, millies. trick or treat! we're so glad to have you here. ♪ what if we treated great female scientists like they were stars? ♪ yasss queen! what if millie dresselhaus, the first woman to win the national medal of science in engineering, were as famous as any celebrity? [millie dresselhaus was seen having lunch today...] ♪ [...rumors of the new discovery...] what if we lived in a world like that? (crowd applauding) ♪ we know a place that's already working on it. ♪ tech: when your windshield trust safelite autoglass.. our exclusive trueseal technology means a strong, reliable bond. at safelite, we stand behind our work... because the ones you love, sit behind it. (parents

claire mccaskill was very forceful, no, we don't need a politician to lead to fbi. too volatile a nomination. even senator blumenthal from lieberman's home state of connecticut hedged a great deal. he wouldn't come out and say he was against it but he echoed the thought that a senator shouldn't get the nomination. the original purpose. hearing, you rebel way back last tuesday when the controversy struck james comey's firing by president trump, the original purpose was to get rod rosenstein to say whether he was coerced into writing that memo. according to the senators who came out, rosenstein wrote the memo to president trump on may 9th. but according to durbin and mccaskill, he learn that had comey would be fired on may 8. so democrats prn giving up on digging into the tick tock. >> and we'll talk about that a little later. michael flynn has been a big part of news today. a number of different stories coming out about him. run us through those. >> that's right. mike flynn continuals to cast a long shadow over this presidency. well after he's been fired. we have two

chairman johnson, mccaskill, my name is tom, i'm the chief of police in maryland. it is a community of one million people. one-third of whom were not born in this country. i'm also here representing as representatives the president of the major city chief's association, that's an association with the largest 69 police departments in the united states. and i want to thank you for this opportunity to address the committee. senator johnson, chairman johnson pointed out that in his remarks that ms13 has been around in the united states for over 40 years. they started on the west coast, ten years later, they started showing up on the east coast, and since the time that they've gotten here, ms13 has evolved into one of the most violent and murderous gangs in the world. it has progressed from a group whose members certainly in my jurisdiction, started off committing petty crimes and more initially considered as more of a juvenile delinquency issue as opposed to anything else and now they've escalated into acts of extortion, aggravated assaults, and murders. as a result, m

with that i turn it over to senator mccaskill. >> thank you, i want to thank the chairman holding this hearing. there is nothing more important than getting these criminals behind bars, nothing. and if, if we have in fact in any way allowed criminals to come into our country, then there is complete agreement, i believe on every member of this committee we need to do everything we can to apprehend them and catch them. i want to begin by recognizing the three witnesses here today, and such respect for what you do every day. i know first-hand from my time as a prosecutor that people that wear the uniform in law enforcement in this country go to work every day not thinking about themselves but thinking about what they can do to protect. what they can do to make sure families are safe in their communities and they take a great deal of risk doing some i know your job is sometimes thankless and easy norfolks to criticize you, but i just want you to know, from the depths of my person, how much i respect what you do every day. gang violence is certainly a huge problem in this country, and it's

we just heard from senator claire mccaskill. she said during -- sorry. right now we're listening to another senator. >> gained a lot of support from his decision last night to appoint bob mueller as the special counsel when it comes to this investigation of the russian interference in our election and any involvement by the trump campaign. mueller is widely respected. he is smart. he's principled. most of us who know him and have worked with him for years believe he will always put the country first. that's critical for credibility. mr. rosenstein answered a lot of questions today but also deklaind declined to answer a lot as well because of his concern to interfere with the investigation by director mueller. we left with more information but not all of the information that we were seeking. >> based on what you heard today, sir, do you believe that the deputy attorney general knew before he wrote that memo that james comey was going to be fired? >> yes. >> what was it that he said that led you to -- >> he knew it the day before. >> was he pressured into

. >> thank you, senator mccaskill. it is the tradition of this committee to swear in witness sods if you'd all rise and raise your right hand. do you swear the testimony you will give before this committee will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help you god? >> i do. >> i do. >> i do. >> please be seated. our first witness is mr. timothy sini. >> sini. >> sini, okay, sorry about that. police commissioner sini serves a a police commissioner for suffolk county in the state of new york. prior to his appointment of commissioner he served as the isn't county skpek executive for the public safety in the same jurisdiction. commissioner sini. >> thank you very much and i want to thank the chairman, all the members of the committee to provide testimony today regarding ms-13 in suffolk county new york in ways in which we can work togethering to effectively rad indicate this gang from our communities. just briefly, suffolk county is new york's fourth largest county situated some 20 miles east of new york

. >> let me just say clara mccaskill out of 100 senators my favorite senator. [laughter] >> she was my favorite senator before, but the graciousness, i can tell you how much i appreciate it. thank you, claire. secretary mnuchin, thank you for your service. we are grateful that you have taken the job you have. are you aware that we collected revenue roughly 18% of our gross domestic product? >> yes, chairman hatch made that comment at the beginning. >> are you also are where we spend a little over 21% of our gross domestic product? >> yes. >> you presented a budget and i say so the tea party folks in america can hear it that you are presenting a budget that cuts more taxes. we will now be lower particularly that economic growth you have talked about and lowered to 18% and at the same budget that spends more money. we are cutting taxes and spending more money.an is that not correct? >> again, the budget doesn'toeso model any tax changes because we didn't have them ready.an >> are you not cutting taxes in the budget? >> we are cutting taxes. >> so the distinction

senator mccaskill: yeah. we trained on chemical weapons, and with the proximity of semi-people in south korea and the deliverance could be in such a way that it would be -- the proximity of so many people in south korea and the deliverance could be in such a way, that it would be disastrous and i wonder if there is a way to check on the ground whether there are chemical weapons? dir. stewart: chemical weapons are assessed to be part of the north korean arsenal. senator mccaskill: ok, if there's any other information you can provide me in terms of our capabilities, defense, i would be very appreciative. thank you both for your service to our country. >> thank you very much. because of the pending vote, i must depart. let me ask members to be recognized in order of their appearance if the chairman does not return. we expect them to return shortly. >> ok, mr. chair. i aim going to go vote after these questions. >> ok. let me go ahead and recognize senators sullivan, senator king, then senator kaine, unless a rep

senator mccaskill, you mentioned that sometimes we have an impossible job. my last recommendation i urged congress to act to balance citizen's rights to privacy with law enforcement needs to lawfully monitor and intersect criminal activity and potential deadly plots. the expanding issue of going dark, must be addressed at the federal level to afford local law enforcement and our federal partners, the legislation and the tools they need to legally access encrypted communications that are used to coordinate criminal activities. . thank you for holding this hearing and thank you for the assistance that you provide law enforcement throughout our nation. >> thank you chief manger. >> apologize -- >> 50/50 shots. two out of three i was wrong. not unusual. senator langford has to leave, i'll yield my position to senator langford. >> mr. chairman, thank you very much. and gentlemen, thank you for being here and the preparation for this time for the incredibly compelling testimony in the issues that you bring in the complexity what have you deal with every day. and w

i just spoke with bernie sanders and asked if he could confirm senator mccaskill's assertion that rod rosenstein knew comey would be fired before he wrote his memo. >> i don't want to get into classified briefings, but senator mccaskill made that public and that is in fact true. i think what is important is that right now where we are is this investigation has got to go forward in a very nonpartisan way. the american people have got to have faith in it. i think that rosenstein made the right pick in a guy like mueller who has support from the american people, from democrats and republicans. i think it's important, chris, that we not jump the gun here, that we let the facts speak for themselves and we proceed methodically. the other concern that i have is that while we've become engaged with this investigation, which is obviously enormously important, we do not lose faith with the american people today who economically continue to hurt. and i don't want to see all of the discussions just on trump. they want to know are we going to raise the minimum wage, are we going to beat back this

. >> claire mccaskill is my favorite senator. she was my favorite senator before she did that but the graciousness, i can't tell you how much i appreciate that. >> thank you. >> thank you, claire. mr. mnuchin, thank you so much for your service. we're all grateful that you've taken the job that you have. are you aware that we collect in revenue roughly 18% of our gross domestic product? >> yes. chairman hatch made that comment at the beginning. >> and are you also aware that we spend a little over 21% of our gross domestic product? >> yes. >> and so what you've presented is a budget that -- and i'm saying this so the tea party folks in america can hear it. that you're presenting a budget that cuts more taxes, so -- we're now going to be lower than the 18%, particularly with the economic growth that you've talked about, lower than 18%, and at the same time, a budget that actually spends more money. we're cutting taxes and we're spending more money. is that not correct? >> again, the budget doesn't model in our tax changes because

democrat claire mccaskill. >> he did acknowledge that he learned comey would be removed prior to himay president trump is so frustrated with the fallout from comey's firing that he's considering a shake-up of his senior staff. >>> president trump still has a lot of staunch supporters in the heartland. dean reynolds spoke to several of them in lee county, illinois. the rural area voted for trump in the election, while hillary clinton carried the state. >> reporter: at bill and dick's barbershop in dixon, illinois guy ball was getting a haircut and weighing the news of a special counsel investigating the trump campaign. >> everybody's looking for something to dig at. they're looking -- it's a witch hunt. that's what he tweeted this morning. >> reporter: a lifelong republican, a trump supporter and an avid consumer of conservative media, ball blasted the president's critics. >> they keep saying the russians interfered in our election. how did they interfere? i mean, i never hear that talked about on tv. >> reporter: dixon sits astride the rock river, where ronald reagan was once a lifeg

claire mccaskill: they did not turn away ads selling children.er, in january, a senate homeland security subcomittee on investigations concluded that backpage knowingly facilitated online sex trafficking. among the findings, backpage has knowingly concealed evidence of criminality by systematically editing its "adult" ads. and backpage knows that it facilitates prostitution and child sex trafficking. carol: there should not be a vehicle that has made the trafficking of kids so easy, like, hey, do you want to order a pizza? sure. hey, do you want to order a kid? just as easy. lisa: a 20-year-old law has made it difficult for critics to shut backpage or any similar site down. tucked into the "communications decency act" is a short provision known as "section 230" that shields websites and internet platforms like facebook, twitter, and backpage from liability over objectionable content posted by users. emma llanso: section 230 is really one of the cornerstones of free speech online. lisa: emma llanso works with the center for democracy and technolog

senator mccaskill from missouri, senator casey from pennsylvania. pennsylvania has a rich tradition in coal mining. senator klobuchar and everyone who has spoken. mr. president, i want to thank you, too. you were an original sponsor. arkansas -- so this is truly a bipartisan -- and, mr. president, from arkansas, you understand what we all -- hardworking people. you signed onto the legislation. i want to thank you. it was a team efforts. people have been talking about all of the things and the passion that we have for different things. my passion comes from the people i was born and raised and grew up with in the coal mining town. so all i ever saw in my life was people around me that nurtured me and guided me and taught me, truly coal miner families. that's all i knew. and my little league coach was a coal miner. my boy scout coach was a coal miner. my teachers were coal miners, trying to supplement their incomes. my teammates that i played ball with through high school became coal miners. my grandfather was a coal miner. my uncle was a coal miner w

>> we're not talking about senator mccaskill here. >> going back to watergate, it is not necessary therime, but the coverup. >> yeah, congressman, you started out by giving me a compliment, so, i appreciate that -- >> and i do not take it back. >> what you're looking at here is a growing pile of circumstantial evidence that seems to clearly be pointing in the direction of an obstruction of justice. now, it hasn't all been tied together, and i think mueller, as he completes his investigation, he may or may not be able to tie it together. but any sensible person looking at this has to say, you know, it looks subs pressu s suspicious. >> what would you say about mccabe's testimony, right after the firing, has there been any -- and it was a great cross examination in the senate that said, has there been any effort to intimidate you, to reduce the investigation, to change the investigation, and he said, no, no, no. >> well, of course, he didn't know, though, that his boss, comey, was about to be fired. and that the president -- >> actually, the langsford testimony was after it. >> the russi

democrat claire mccaskill. >> he did acknowledge that he learned comey would be removed prior to him writing his memo. >> reporter: today president trump also said that former democratic senator joe lieberman is a leading candidate to head the f.b.i. scott, sources also say that president trump is so frustrated with the fallout from shake-up of his senior staff. >> pelley: margaret brennan, thanks. the special counsel appointed to investigate is former f.b.i. director robert mueller, who worked under both republican and democratic administrations. mueller will act in the role of a prosecutor with the power to issue subpoenas and empanel his own grand jury. jeff pegues has new develops now in the russia case. >> reporter: sources say individuals connected to the trump campaign may have been coordinating with the russians as far back as april 2016. that's seven months before the presidential election. a former u.s. government official tells cbs news, "you could see the hallmarks throughout, including conversations picked up by electronic intercepts." some of the contacts appear to be b

first senator mccaskill and senator bennett. >> i have been trying to make three hearings at one time so he has been here a long time. >> you get a halo. >> claire mccaskill out of 100 senators my favorite senator. she is my favorite senator before she did that and the graciousness, i can't tell you how much i appreciate that. thank you, claire. >> uh-huh. >> mr. mnuchin, thank you so much for your service. we're all grateful that you've taken the job you have. are you aware that we collect in revenue roughly 18% of our gross domestic product? >> yes. chairman hatch made that comment at the beginning. >> are you also aware that we spend a little over 21% of our gross domestic product? >> yes. >> so what you have presented is a budget that -- i'm saying this so the tea party folks in america can hear it -- that you're presenting a budget that cuts more taxes so we're now going to be lower than 18%, particularly with the economic growth. lower than 18% and at the same time a budget that actually spends more money. we're cutting taxes and spending more money. is that not correct. >> the

>> we would love senator mccaskill or anybody else to take a look at this. >> or a regulator. >> taxpayersre paying for this. this is predominately taxpayer reimbursed drugs. it is not just the private profit motive. we are all paying for this. that is the problem. in an environment where the government cannot negotiate drug prices, we are seeing a situation where factors are coming to inflate them. linkage is a good place for congress to start. >> the one problem that some may cite is that you are counting on either a politician or a regulator to take action. >> not at all. >> if that were the case, people could draw parallels to her life. -- herbalife. >> know because that isn't being paid for by the tax prices -- tax payers. mallinckrodt has rolled over anyway. express scripts is facing profit pressure anyway. vonnie: in a statement, the ceo claims it is misleading and not based on fact. mark: polls will remain open until 2:30 p.m. london time. we see if a run mr. president rouhani can secure a second term. vonnie: live from new york, i am vonnie quinn. mark: in london, i am mark barton

liz: yeah, sanders is joined by claire mccaskill saying to fox news, look, i'm a former prosecutor, iant to see evidence. i do not think it's time to talk about anything like that until we see the evidence. >> now, she's a smart person and she's a lawyer, and she understands that the words that are recited in the "new york times" confirm by fox news that trump spoke doesn't constitute obstruction of justice. it is hoping and wishing that flynn can be cleared by the fbi, hoping and wishing doesn't constitute an order. here's what would. liz: we don't know the context of it. you will be fired mr. comey if you don't shut down this criminal investigation. that would be attempted obstruction of justice. liz: but comey testified may 3rd, that didn't happen. there was no situation like that. >> he testified they never shut anything down for political reasons. that doesn't mean somebody didn't attempt to get him to shut it down. there's a difference. liz: you're right, everybody is suddenly a lawyer overnight. they're talking about the u.s. code section 1512, you can't impede the investigatio

. >> senator, claire mccaskill is not a big fan of joe lieberman being the fbi director. she said a politician could be considered for that job. what do you think? >> let me say this, neil. joe lieberman is a wonderful human being. he's my dear friend. okay? i think the world of joe lieberman. and i would just subscribe right now during these teams exactly what lindsey graham said. maybe it should have someone that has no political connections what over. someone comes out of the professional ranks. maybe that's where they should go. if they don't and joe lieberman is the man, i'm going to vote for him. >> neil: so if he is, even though it's not your choice of someone from a political background, you would still support whatever he wants to do? >> i know joe lieberman. there's not a finer human being than joe lieberman. okay? with that, also i agree with lindsey graham. the difficult times, we're in the challenging times, if they can find that person, if they can pull that bob mueller out of the ranks, you don't know if they're democrat or republican, that's probably what

actually there were a lot of democrats who were even carrying -- i remember for instance, senator mccaskill went and covered her as she tried to deal with her town halls that were very iffy and she had it on her ipad that she was reading the bill. so it's just -- it's different when you're talking about the shoe being on the other foot here and part of the reason why they wanted to rush this through was because, if there is no cbo score, it's a moot point any way. this is a bill that is not in this form ever going to make it to donald trump's desk. so take that victory lap before the cbo will tell you might be covering less people with preexisting conditions, you might have less benefits for older people or poorer system. >> it's awkward though an important piece of legislation like this that effects millions, the fifth of the u.s. economy, that he or she didn't actually sit down and read the actual language of the bill. there was a significant moment on the house floor, you saw it, you watched what was going on, once the bill got 217 votes, they needed 216. >> they were singing, you can he

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however, let's watch what senators mccaskill and senator durbin recall him saying today. >> he did acknowledge that he learned comey would be removed prior to him writing his memo. >> do you believe that the deputy attorney general knew before he wrote that memo that james comey would be fired? >> yes. >> he knew the day before. >> for more on all this, i'm joined by susan page, michael sheer, and of course, michelle. and also with us, chris van hollen of maryland. we'll get to you in a second. i don't know where to start with this denial. first, it is a witch hunt, under the auspices put together by the deputy attorney general who a couple days ago he was saying was like god to him. he was the ultimate approver. >> we don't ever know how precisely donald trump is explaining. he did say he can only speak for himself when he talks about, there was no collusion with the campaign. i don't believe he said that before. i think that may be a hedge. we do see signs that others in his campaign including michael flynn may have been having quite a bit of contact with the russians. >> that's the paydirt,

claire mccaskill says the job should not go to a former politician but others are on board. >> i thinknate anyone who has run for office. i spent a lot of time in law enforcement. this is a time where we need a law enforcement professional that's never campaigned for a presidential candidate, never campaigned for office, never worn a party label to head the fbi. >> joe lieberman is an absolutely wonderful human being. he is my dear friend, okay? and maybe it should have someone that has no political connections whatsoever. someone comes out of the professional ranks, maybe that's where they should go. let me be clear, if they don't, if joe lieberman is the man, i'll vote for him. >> renting are lining up behind the former vice presidential nominee with susan collins lieberman a person of, quote, unquestionable integrity. lindsey graham saying the pick would do both the country and the fbi a good service. >>> special counsel takes over the justice department's russia investigation, president trump's campaign says it saw a spike in donations from supporters on the day robert mueller was

7 million let the people decide after a to confirm the next justice with joe donnelly and claire mccaskill. any senator that signs up for the strategy will pay a heavy price. to conclude, i have been involved in the appointment of david is an inherent part of the process but having massive amounts of dark money overwhelmingly it is a dangerous imbalance and threatens the national treasure of the independent judiciary. thank you. [applause] i was wondering what caused the firearm, but the cause and effect are off and it's only fair that i get the opportunity to respond to a. a. we have had the groups and the confirmation. i think having more information about these things it is clear that they had a chance to make their voices known about the vacancy on the court, and they clearly wanted the next president to not be terry -- beat hillary clinton. i was glad to see them agree to set the rule of law first and these are walls i can say for people we are advocating it should apply to both ends of the spectrum so i would say it should be the same whether it is democratic or republican. >> we hav

. >> senator claire mccaskill said that the deputy attorney general knew that director comey would be fired before the deputy attorney general wrote that memo to the president. >> he did acknowledge that he learned comey would be removed prior to him writing his memo. >> joining us now, indira lakshmanan. eugene robinson, pulitzer prize opinion writer for "the washington post" and msnbc political analyst. and ken vogel, chief investigative reporter for politico. gene, i want to go to you first at "the washington post." i just picture people running through the hallways with the latest. here we go. it is, to put it mildly, an exciting time. but let's start. let's start with the best case scenario for the president on one issue, which is this new report indicating that the president is calling up the fbi director and saying to him when are you going to tell people that i'm not under investigation? and the best case scenario for that conversation, which professionals recognize shouldn't have taken place, but it relates to a transition report that indicated during the transition there was

claire mccaskill minutes after cornyn told us that spoke for a lot of democratic senators who said, they want someone without a political background and seen as neutral with a law enforcement background. while it's likely that if this nomination of joe lieberman were to come to pass, perhaps in the next couple hours, he would be confirmed by the senate. remember they only need 50 votes or 51 votes and they have 52 senators. it's unlikely that he would get perhaps half of the democrats in the senate to go along. why? simple her rasy. 2008 he backed john mccain over bieb barack obama and criticized barack obama, the democratic nominee back then and there is a tradition in the senate, stephanie, of almost unanimous support for fbi directors when it comes for a confirmation vote. jim comey, four years ago, 93-1. before that the fbi director, robert mueller, 100-1. even going back to louie free, they didn't bother to vote. they waved their hands over it in the senate, a voice vote for confirmation. this would be a departure from the bipartisan almost nonpartisan confirmation process for an fb

. >> claire mccaskill, your democratic colleague from missouri, said rosenstein knew comey would be firedn may 8th, and that's before he drafted the memo justifying the firing on may 9th. what did you make of that when he said that? >> well, i think they have released his exact words. i think what was clear is that mr. rosenstein understood that the president had come to a preliminary decision that he was going to fire the fbi director before that memo was received. the president has acknowledged that in his tweets after this all came -- became news. so, i mean, it is clear to me that mr. rosenstein's memo was not the reason for the firing of the director. that was clear to me from the information i received before today. >> president trump noted just a few minutes ago that he thought that his firing of the fbi director was going to be a popular decision because so many democrats had criticized comey, a few had even called for his resignation. he does have a point. a lot of people who are saying very harsh things about the president relying on director comey's words were attacked by -- th

we would love senator mccaskill or anybody else to take a look at it. taxpayers are paying for this. this is now predominantly taxpayer reimburse drug. it's not just the private profit motive, we are all paying for this. in an environment where the government cannot negotiate drug prices, were seen a situation where factors are coming to inflate them. forlinkage is a good place congress to start. eric: the one problem some people may site is that you are counting on either a politician or a regulator to take action. if that were the case, people could drop parallels to herbal life. herbalife is not being paid for by the taxpayers, that's a private deal. is facing profit pressure anyway. they have seen problems well before me highlighting this relationship. eric: what is it worth? >> there's a billion dollars of debt here. the operating income over the most recent quarter annualized is under $300 million. eric: so put a value on it. is zero.nk it if it goes the way we think it will, then the stock will be worth nothing. model.e business value stock maven

vulnerable senators of an election in 28 michael donnelly and claire mccaskill to decide senate are following the projectionist agendas the terry sobrino, chief counsel of the judicial races network. in vulnerable senator send the directions that -- strategy will be racing to the. i personally have been involved in advised that judicial limits. it should the politics is an inherent great of course it is. but having massive dark money to direct corporations -- overwhelmingly on -- in one ideological direction, create interest in balance and threatens our national treasure of our independent judiciary. thank you. [applause] i was wondering what caused the fire alarm, it was this person's comments. [laughter] >> if you want to call the dark money, call it what you will. we had people involved in supreme court confirmations dating back to robert bork. >> we have questions -- 10 minutes for questions. wait for the microphone please. >> my question is for miss severino. in light of what you just said about treating residents equally come i'm wondering when the president trump's term you believe tha

. >> i guess the most interesting thing was the statements from mccaskill where she said that rosensteinw that comey would be removed. it raises questions about how this was reverse engineered. if rosenstein, if the white house used the memo as the rationale for it, why, rosenstein, why did he stay around? does he feel like he's been used in this process? it raises all the new questions. if you read between lines on what some of the senators were saying, it seemed like mueller may be looking at the firing as part of this. and the other thing we were talking about, with mueller coming on, it looks like it will limit what congress can do. mueller may try tohut all that down because it could jeopardize his investigation. that means we may not see comey testify. >> a lot of people have said, if the latter chance happens, that that isn't a tragedy. it cuts down on noise, confusion, partisanship. and i'm going to interrupt my own question because dick durbin is at the microphones. >> gained a lot of support from his decision last night to appoint bob mueller as the special counsel when it come

chairman. >> senator mccaskill. >> so i understand that, first of all, thank all of you.e are all hands on deck, as senator carper said on this, and this committee is doing an investigation into another piece of this which is the sales and marketing technique that have been employed by the opioid manufacturers. we are also going to be looking at the distributors in terms of that issue interlinked in our country. i want to focus in on my time here on the fact that we are having some of this that no produced in china sent to the united states -- fentanyl -- where then it is sent to mexico. are you all aware that this is commonly occurring? we have a large amount of opioids that are moving to our country in that regard. does anybody disagree with that analysis? >> if i can comment, i would share that my understanding is that much of the fentanyl coming out of china, win in its actual form, will come directly into the u.s. what we've seen, that moves from china typically into the latin, mexico, they're deluding, crating analogs and then racing heroin shipments with the fentan

to pick up on senator mccaskill and the issue of classified versus unclassified, the challenge in this case with the russian hack, so much information being an -- being classified, the american public doesn't know what is going on. when the american public doesn't know what is going on on an event of this magnitude that is a real challenge for our democracy. i was not able to hear your testimony and the questions because i was at another hearing but i know there have been a number of questions about the russian hacking and what that means. have you talked about what in the big picture that means? what is russia trying to do with the hack of our electoral system, the hack of france, germany and what they have done in many of the boston countries in eastern europe. >> on the us side, the director of an essay, we said in the intelligence community assistant three fireman bills, first was to undercut the united states and its broad intervals of democracy, send a message, it is as consistent as everybody else, not high on the hill, perfectly white and perfect structure, they have pettiness

democrat senator claire mccaskill. >> he did acknowledge he learned comey would be removed prior to him writing his memo. >> also emerging friday is a report from the "washington post" on the fbi investigation. it says the agency has identify a current white house official as a person of significant interest. the white house responded it will confirm there was no collusion between the campaign and any foreign entity. alex? >> errol barnett in our washington bureau. thanks, errol. >>> mr. trump will also visit holy sites vatican on this trip. that's followed by a nato summit in brussels. i'm wrap up with a g-7 summit in sicily. major garrett is with the president in the main capital of saudi. good morning. >> good morning. the president came with what could be best described as a few logistical difficulties. the saudis rolled out with the red carpet but forgot some of the final touches like the staircase for the president to ascend. then the staircase and red carpet did not align causing further problems, hoping it was not a metaphor for the president's first steps onto the foreign stati

thank you very much. >> thank you senator mccaskill.'m going to ask my questions and we will have another route as well. i know senator hassan has egregious stick around. we have another colic is registered for the ball i think we need to back up and talk about what this hearing is all about, and that is is it helpful, and mr. perez, i expect her and to others, but all of you, is it helped of advanced electronic didn't be able to identify these packages thatth have this poison in them, which is what we're focused on today, which is synthetic opiates that are coming into our country, killing more and more of our citizens every day? d wanted that it has electronic data and is at helpful for you to be able to stop some of this poison from coming in our communities? yes or no? >> unquestionably, mr. chairman, having advanced electronic data as we do receive for all of the types of cargoes is a key tool in our ability to manage and assess risk, to focus and target those threats that may warrant a great inspection, potential if it's a male --