that could include paul manafort, mike flynn and also sally yates, who was the acting attorney generaluntil a few few weeks ago until she was fired by president trump. she did tell the white house that mike flynn could be blackmailed by the russians. a lot there, and a lot more to come. >> thank you so much. on this continuing fallout on the connection between the trump campaign and russia. president trump waiting on all this also, met with executives of major retail chains on wednesday. he said he would have a tax overhaul proposal soon here at the bosses of these companies include target, jcpenney and gap . they came to washington to discuss their opposition to the republican border adjustment tax plan. it would raise consumer prices. aining us now is a ceo of business development and strategies company. great to see you. of trump thatake is surrounding himself with the latest fashion? guest: all the retailers in the house. one thing that they are obviously concerned about is being net importers with this new plan. if you look at it through the lens of fashion based, specifically. ba

that is precisely what the former acting attorney general sally yates and top officials did believe when they saw the transcripts of mike flynn's intercepted conversations. nbc has confirmed from officials that yates and the others wanted to tell the trump team on january 19th, the day before the inaugural when they got all their facts in order, but fbi director james comey objected. it was the following week after sean spicer said at his first briefing that flynn had repeated to him he had not discussed sanctions at all with the russians that sally yates did brief the white house counsel. what is not clear why it took so long for the white house to decide that flynn had to go. frances. >> thanks to andrea mitchell reporting. thank you. for knew lieutenant general keith kellogg will serve as the acting national security adviser. he's being considered for david pe tray he is'ses if. bob harwood is said to be at the top of the list. >>> the department of homeland security said its agents arrested some 680 undocumented immigrants in a week-long roundup over several states far below the totals of similar raids by the obama

erin will have all the up all te yates and mike will talk weather as it is 43 degrees onas a th aursdayask right after hthis.er don't go anywhere.anywhee. you're watching fox5 news morning. >> ♪♪ afoot and light-hearted i take to the open road. healthy, free, the world before me, the long brown path before me leading wherever i choose. the east and the west are mine. the north and the south are mine. all seems beautiful to me. >> ♪♪ >> 5:45 is the time right now. back now at 5:45 andis tif youo just joining us take a look ato what you're watching on yourng r screen. crews on the scene of break b news from montgomery county.gom. an armed robbery at a cvs store in the 12,300 block of georgia avenue never silveraven spring. happenedue vearround 4:15 this:s morning. officers arrested severalted people according to our annieure yu is on the scene. sce. remains unclear whether those suspects are linked to several robberies at cvs and rite-aidats stores in montgomery countyes over the past in week. e those had previously beenously b thought to be the work of just one person we'll keep youou upda

yates. discovered the conversations that they had not adhered to what flynn and vice president-elect mike pence had been saying about the russian ambassador kislyak. they had transcripts and sanctions were discussed among other issues. there was a discussion within the obama administration. then director with john brennan and james clapper. we believe they were informed these conversations took place and they differed from the public accounts that mike pence and mike flynn had been talking about. this is when it came to the actual resignation letter that michael flynn submitted last night, he mentions this difference what he told the vice president-elect mike pence. he said i briefed the vice president-elect and others with incomplete information regarding my phone calls with the russian ambassador. i apologize with the president and vice president. they accepted my apology. i tendered my resignation. this comes less than a month in the tenure. making him the shortest lived national security advisor in the history of the united states. taking over is retired lieutenant general keith kell g kell

the fact that from the time of the department of justice sally yates, 15 days before mike pence was alerted to it. and january 26th, until a couple of days ago, that you kept mike flynn as your national security advisor, involved in the briefings, and announced the position on iran. having concerns, that you told about, did you keep him for that period of time. in many way, it is unclear if we will get those answers from the president. >> pete williams is standing by, unnamed sources, so many unnamed sources talking to media outlets about the investigations into trump's election team. as well as general flynn as well. walk us through the inquiries. >> for months now, they are looking at in hillary clinton's campaign. do did the russians do this by themselves? interesting inning any contacts between people in the u.s., and the russians during that time. it has been well known, some connected to the calm pain, others, business associates, were in russia during that time. number one, that there has been nothing found in any of the investigation that includes any collusion between people in the

mike mention, sean spicer. reince prebus, sally yatesand james clapper and fbi director, james comey. adam enders talked with cnn's anderson cooper. >> this came to a head on the obama administration, the last full day obama was in office. there was a depate between the intelligence community, the justice department and the fbi, you had sally yates and the deputy attorney general, wanted to go to the trump white house after the inauguration and let them know that the way pence, the vice president-elect and other administration officials in the incoming administration were mischaracterizing based on a conversation they mad with flynn, his conversation with kislyak, the russian ambassador. com comey, the fbi director, initially, opposed going to the trump white house, to let them know this conversation. after trump comes to office, sally yates, acting attorney general, makes the case again and convinces comey some time after the 23rd of january, and before the 31st, that this information needed to be passed on. so, they shared it with the

mike flynn? >> you know, i don't know what to believe. what rereported last night was that sally yatesing attorney general at the department of justice approached the white house counsel and explained to him that they had information about flynn's conversations with the russian ambassador and he was us is september nl to russia blackmail because of those conversations. we don't know if he relaid that to the chief of staff reince priebus or anybody else in the white house. >> well, kellyanne conway has just appeared on a couple of morning shows. david, let me play for you what she's saying this morning. >> the president is very loyal, he's a very loyal person. but at night's end, mike flynn decided it was best to resign. he made that decision. >> had he not resigned the president would continue with him as national security adviser even though he misled the vice president and the administration about the con tents of that call. >> that fact is what became unsustainable actually. i think misleading the vice president was key here. i spoke to the president this morning. he asked me to spe

mike pence. acting attorney general sally yates delayed notifying the white house until after flynn was interviewed. and at that point, after the interview, fbi director james comey did not object. so that is important to note, because there was some reporting out saying that he did object. it was only the fact that he wanted the interview with flynn to happen first. >> that timeline very important, the details, filling that out, getting more and more important by the day. pamela, thank you. >>> any moment now, senator mitch mcconnell, top republican in the senate, senate majority leader, will be holding a news conference on capitol hill. cnn's senior congressional reporter manu raju is there. manu, senator mcconnell speaking before they all head for the exits for the recess. what will we hear from him? >> reporter: a mix of things, he's going to criticize democrats for slow walking a number of donald trump's nominees. and he's probably going to talk about the president himself and some of the comments the president has been making that mcconnell believes has been distracting from the agenda on cap

>> general clark, i would like for you to weigh in here, not just mike flynn's resignation, fwu point that four weeks ago, sally yatesed the white house council they could be susceptible to blackmail from russia. fo weeks have passed. >> yeah, it's very confusing to try to untangle this. people shoving every direction. you know, if mike flynn had gone back and said hey, sorry, i made a mistake and corrected it four weeks ago, he wouldn't be vulnerable to blackmail. it is vulnerable because he said something different to the white house than what was said. if that was erased, if they wanted to keep mike flynn, they could have kept mike flynn. when you look at this, what you have to realize is in the white house there are no friends. this is a power struggle. this is a personality struggle. these are people trying to get their ideas and trying to get access and leverage. that's why the leaking of hers and that's why people leave. at the beginning of an administration like this, that's exactly what you are going to see. it's not settled yet. a lot of questions here about mike flynn. deeper questions, really, about the m

why exactly did the acting attorney general, sally yates, conclude or surmise that the russian government might be able to blackmail mikenn, the national security adviser? >> right. so what happened was when this intelligence first came in, which would be in late december, early january, you know, yates saw the intelligence and was concerned that flynn was potentially in violation of what is known as the logan act, a very obscure statute which would bar a nongovernment official from trying to influence another government's policies. and so that really -- she knew that that was not something that would be pursued in court. there wouldn't be a prosecution based on the logan act. after pence, the vice president-elect and other officials started speaking publicly in defense of flynn when it emerged that these calls existed, when they started to say, i checked with you flynn and i can tell you now categorically that the issue of the election sanctions imposed by the obama administration were not discussed in his phone calls with the russian ambassador, when yates and clapper and brennan heard that, they knew because they had

you know, just remind the audience, it was acting attorney general sally yates that weeks ago alerted white house council of mikenn's conversation and we heard nothing about that. >> remember, this is republicans and democrats raising concerns here. it's lindsay gram, chuck grassley, john mccain. it's not right to suggest it is partisan. both parties have a big problem with the idea michael flynn was communicating with the russians, trying to undermine obama administration policy and they were talking to the russians during the election. i think both parties want to get to the bottom of this. listen, i understand the question of leaks is a je jit mat issue. i don't like the fact u.s. intelligence services are at war with the president of the united states. it's not good for u.s. security. the fact of the matter is, they watched as the administration was not telling the truth. for two weeks wasn't revealing the fact they knew flynn had been talking to the russians after the election. they saw it as their recourse to get that information out so the public could understand what the real story was. listen, i hope th

but the fact is yates really did want to go, and the rest of them did as well. it was only after mikeion" performance that they went back. between january 23rd and the day yates fired, that's when he went to the white house council. what we can't understand, who did the council tell and how could they have gone for all of these weeks without having taken some action. >> thomas friedman, there's so much to unpack here, so we will defer to you and let you go where you want with this. the only question i would ask you to start with is is it credible there's any way this president could not have known about this. >> conversation. >> conversation if the white house had been warned about it a month ago. >> this is a question i've been asking since i've been reading stories starting yesterday, joe. i share mika's real outrage on this issue. i don't care what he told pence. we only care what he told pence because pence went out and basically mislead the public on "face the nation." the issue what did he tell trump? did he and trump actually cook up this whole thing after the russians did not

revealed that he withheld information from vice president mike pence about his conversations with russia's ambassador to the u.s. then salary yates delayed notifying the white house after he was interviewed but there's still an on going broader fbi review of flynn and russia related dealings and republicans in the house are now appearing to investigate the full scope of the allegations. this as flynn's former position of national security advisor to the president is still open after retired vice admiral turned down the job citing family and financial reasons. >> thank you very much. president trump missing the mark with a claim about his electoral college win. up next, there are lots of instances of this. we're going to separate fact from fiction from the president's news conference. we'll get plenty about how people feel about what happened yesterday. what is true? deal with that next. >>> one of the exchanges got to what the heart of the allegation of fake is all about. when president trump says that more often than not it means he doesn't like something. here's a case in point played out in real time. you have nbc's pete alexa

mike allen publishing focusing on stanley yates, who the president fired.. this is bloomberg. ♪ francine: we are in london and new york. we need to talk about greece. the rhetoric is building. laying the groundwork for a crucial european meeting and five days. , alier we talk with a ceo high profile holder of greek bonds. he owns 10% of them. and here is his take over the agreement on the nation's debt. >> gdp is a smirky number because it isn't real. the issue is one of trust and confidence. -- is debt on the debt issue. they don't have a debt problem. the debt is one of the lowest in europe. what the challenge you have here is that greece and the imf continue to not use real numbers and tell everybody the debt isn't sustainable. and that doesn't inspire confidence. markine: joining us now is gilbert. again, still with us is robert nardelli and huw van steenis. a great piece, you everyone to check this out. talk to me about the parallels haveen the impact of would on the next level of the greek crisis? background of the talks you have the prospect of the f

and so by sally yates going to the white house and letting them know, the goal there was to kind of remove that leverage that the russians might have. >> didn't mike flynn actually, in an interview with the washington post, with your paper say that sanctions were not discussed, and then the following day call you back, call the paper back and say well, actually, i can't say for certain what was discussed? >> caller: that's right. so last wednesday in an interview, he said no, no, no. there was no discussion of this. you know, and -- >> i said flynn, not pence, obviously. >> caller: yes, flynn says no, no, no. and the next day we hear back from his spokesperson just to clarify, who revised the statement to say that flynn no longer recalls but that it might have come up in that communication. now as we also are reporting in the story, according to officials who had been briefed on the wire tap and the transcript of that wire tap, it was, sanctions was the main topic of conversation. so they're skeptical that flynn doesn't recall this. >> wow, so that bears repeating. sanctions were a main topic of conversation. it wasn't as if it was an off-handed r

mike pence. >> a report from "the washington post" today says that former deputy attorney general sally yates warned president trump and top white house officials about flint's conversation and she says flynn could be vulnerable to russia blackmail. she was later fired. >> the president has named keith kellogg, a retired lieutenant general as acting chief. he worked for oracle and earned his bachelors degree from santa clara university. >> i'm ama daetz. >> i'm dan ashley. >> the crisis at orville dam. >> so far it's holding. that's why the evacuation is in place because there is uncertainty. >> already damage and stretch to its limit and more rain on the way. >> now let's give you the very latest. the imminent threat of a breach in the spillway, a wall has diminished considerably. >> no water is flowing over the emergency spillway right now. lake levels continue to fall. the goal is to lower the lake level by 50 feet. >> all right. all of the state's national guard is an alert ready to assist if need be. let's show you a map of the 11 communities down stream, all under evacuation orders right now.

last month then acting attorney general, sally yates, alerted the white house that flynn misled officials. opening himself up to russian blackmail. >> mike pence, the vice president. this is going to make him witness number one in the fbi-led investigation and in the senate and house of representatives investigations into the russian matter. >> reporter: retired army general, keith kellogg takes over as acting adviser. the white house wants to move quickly to replace michael flynn. several folks considered are actually meeting with the president today. washington. >>> and here is what we know about possible replacements for flynn. three men on the short list. retired vice admiral robert harrward. he formed under president george w. bush, deputy commander under james mattis. the current defense secretary. then there is retired lieutenant general, keith kellogg. he was named the acting national security adviser after flynn resigned. kellogg is a vietnam vet and he was a commander in the second iraq war. and finally, a potentially controversial choice. david petraeus could be the next adviser, but he resigned from the cia in 2012 after admi

mike flynn. all of it went to a new level when it came out that sally yates had infield the administration that he was potentially vulnerable to russian blackmail. we're joined now by the reporter who broke that story. walk us through how and why sally yates, a national security official before she became acting a.g. inform the white house about this and who did she consult onhether she should even do it? >> you have flynn and the fbi and the fbi is monitoring kislyak. they write an intelligent report based on the transcript and that finds its way to yates. when news breaks that there are these calls, it later in january, mid january, you know, that's when pence, the vice president-elect at that point, goes public and he defends flynn and makes a statement that yates and other intelligence officials who had read this intelligence report roar knew to be untrue, which is pence said that flynn had told him he did not discuss the sanctions in they know that the russian ambassador, kislyak, he reports to moscow on his conversations. so moscow knew what pence was saying was not accurate. so yates and fo

president was told, and then acting attorney general sally yates said that flynn was vulnerable to russian blackmail. why did he wait to tell mike pence. and why was mike pence included in all of the foreign policy making, including being the person is not out to iran, to be put on notice, given the that there were concerns. >> as are you talking, let me interrupt. we are seeing the car pulled up. melania and donald trump awaiting to greet sara netanyahu, on the other side, of course, the prime minister. it looks like a state visit. given the pomp and ceremony to the prime minister of israel and his wife usually accorded to a state visit. this is the first time we are seeing melania trump in this role. sara netanyahu doesn't usually travel with the prime minister on working visits to and from washington. this is quite a bit of fanfare, the marine guard. the south portico. in the state visit, hundreds of people, diplomatic corp, the marine band and others, now, it is just the four of them standing there with the marine guard. it is a bit of a potamkin village feel to this. now, the picture of the four of them standing there. mela

president was told, and then acting attorney general sally yates said that flynn was vulnerable to russian blackmail. why did he wait to tell mikeke pence included in all of the foreign policy

interview attorney general sally yates told the whitehouse he misled senior officials about his communication with the russian ambassador including misleading vice president mike pence. joining me now to discuss this, margaret brennan of foreign affairs and white house correspondent for cbs news and the man that really first reported on this conversation, david ignatius, the columnist of "the washington post." thank you for being here. all three of us say we wish charlie a speedy recovery. he is doing great. he's with the blue devils and made it easier. you will be off the bench in no time charles. david, this story it just doesn't stop. and you first reported this. did mike flynn have to resign, do you think, or forced to resign because of what he said or because he became an embarrassment or both. >> i think it's both. i think the fact that there was a record, the intercepted conversation that he had and that transcript would have surfaced in the congressional investigation. and now the fact that he was interviewed by the fbi and there was that evidence. made this in the end, the whitehouse couldn't walk away from it. i think that they want to, they tried to

general sally yates told the white house she believed flynn had misled senior administration officials about his communications with the russian ambassador, including misleading vice president mikeence. joining me now is margaret brennan, the foreign affairs and white house correspondent for cbs news and the man who first report on this, david ignatius from the "washington post care post.""washington a goodwishing charlie recovery. you will be off the bench in no time. it just doesn't stop. did mike flynn have to resign or was forced to resign because of what he said or because he became an embarrassment or both? david: i think it is both. the fact that there was a record, it and intercepted conversation that he had and the transcript would have surfaced in a congressional investigation and now the fact that he was interviewed by the fbi and there was that evidence made this one that, in the end, the white house could not walk away from. i think they wanted to and tried to. al: because they've known for a couple of weeks now. david: they've known since january 26, soon after the inaugurated. there's every indication they were hoping to ride this out. in one of the stories severa

yates motivations? did john brennan have political motivations? we can get back to talking about what they find and why it matters. >> jenna: the fact that mike flynnas really up against the institution of government. many folks have been in government a long time. there is also personality at play. all these questions are relative because quite frankly we don't know still so much. you say more is potentially coming. where do you think this goes from here? >> i think there's going to be more calls for a special investigation into exactly what the kremlin is attempting to do to influence our policy, what outcome they can have. more importantly, lot of people i talked to are frustrated that the administration hasn't reassured allies around the world, members of the intelligence community and conservative lawmakers that are concerned about russian influence that he wants to hold a firm line. that might be, i theurb as a tangent to this, a first step. the entire contents of this conversation, talking about rolling back russian santions. some of which were put in place in 2014 for illegally invading another country. folks i talk to in the pentagon very

attorney general sally yates, did communicate with the white house and said she was concerned about this phone call and saying they could hold over the russians could hold something over mike flynn as a possible negotiation employee, if you would. and told that to the white house counsel paired what we can gather the white house counsel told president trump that but vice president pence, his people are saying he did learn about it until february 9. >> i think there are a lot of mysteries here. that's one of them. for all of this idea that high officials are being targeted by enemies inside and outside the administration, there's nothing new there. the reason flynn is gone is not because he was a target of political assassination. it's because he lied about something material to the vice president of the united states, left him hanging, telling a lie in public in a way that was ultimately embarrassing. you cannot do that. i have maintained from the beginning this is a cover-up without a crime. there is nothing wrong with an incoming national security advisor talking with the russians, talking about sanctions with the russians. it's not illegal. it's not improper, but you ca

mike flynn. >> vice president pence went on national television said sanctions was not discussed between general flynn in the russian and master. >> of the vice president didn't know was that sally yates gave an initial heads-up to dan mcgann. the investigation was closed and the topic didn't come up again. >> as he sits down with the vice president for dinner, president trump cannot but see pence as the man in his inner circle. he is the one person in the west wing to whom donald trump cannot say "you are fired." >> bret: and a fighter for free press and protecting press rights. the russian news agency says russian media gave more airtime to president trump in january then vladimir putin. that's apparently changing as russian officials scale back their optimism over what one top diplomat calls a post-westworld order. >> the kremlin has ordered russian state media to curtail its positive coverage of president donald trump. russian officials worry the new u.s. administration is less friendly toward russia than first thought. this is according to bloomberg. as top trump cabinet members more frequently deliver criticism of russia. >> our alliance will hold russia accountable. >> rex till

mike pence, if there is nothing there? >> i mean, go figure. also, the blaming of the media is such a cowardly act. if you're going to blame, say, a "washington post" report that sally yatesg attorney general at the time warned them that flynn was susceptible to russian blackmail, then why is that not more alarming to you the fact than the fact that it was reported? and that's the thing. these are the questions that we would love to be able to ask the president if he would call on us at some of these press events. >> i'm so glad you mentioned that. because who he is calling on is another part of the strategy that is important. charlie sykes, thanks for joining us. jamil stays. in the next segment donald trump talks about he knows how to build a wall. what about the white house walling off reality with the media strategy and what can be done about it. that's next. c'mon in, pop pop! happy birthday! i survived a heart attack. i'm doing all i can to keep from having another one. and i'm taking brilinta. for people who've been hospitalized for a heart attack. i take brilinta with a baby aspirin. no more than one hundred milligrams as it affects how well it works. brilinta hel