according to "the post" it came from intercepts between the kremlin and moskow.hat would the russian ambassador to the u.s. have to tell the russians about this presuming, i assume u.s. intelligence officials were listening in especially if russians saw an improved relationship under the trump administration as opposed to the obama administration? >> yes, you have another point in this story that sort of defies logic. the presumption is one you sort of alluded is presuming he was speaking over open communications. if he was speaking in open communications with mus cow, then i can guarantee what he said cannot be taken at face value. if he was not communicatic vons that's another matter. also kushner is not going to sit down with some russian communication system and report back to moskow. that's ridiculous because kislyak could convey that information securely back to moskow. so there's a whole lot that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. why in this interim period professor dergswits was correct, you've got this interim period. what was so urget that needed to be

officials calling it a victory for moskow. nbc reporter david wright has the latest. >> reporter: after a wild week at the white house today some of the president's own party calling him to calm down. >> i would advise him not to tweet as we go forward. >> reporter: comey was investigating collusion between the trump campaign and russia when the president fired him. he may be up to talking publicly. >> i think james comey the chance to lay out to the american public his side of the facts because how he was treated was pretty awful by this. >> reporter: the white house is fast tracking replacic comey with two days of interviews this weekend. former national intelligence james clapper says comey's firing must delight the russians. >> their first delight is so doubt and discord in this country. and the russians must be celebrating. >> reporter: former independent council kenneth star, who's investigation of the monica luwinsky scandal that led to the impeachment of president clinton says that would cause more delay. >> the invest

. >> and then steve, you're in moskow right now writing a book on rush afor americas. and is that the perspective you're seeing on the ground in russia? do average russians feel -- how do they feel about america right now. >> well, you have to remember this is probably the only country in the world where trump is actually admired and he's por troyed well in the russian press. the reason is that russian leadership thinks he could be a transformational leader who could lead the united states down a very different path. they have this view of being seeing both parties as being hostile to russia, hostile to russia at the table and trump seems be different. in addition to saying nice things about putin he doesn't seem to be terribleably committed to democracy. and doesn't stapd up as cory pointed out in her remarks for traditional values. the problem is that putin and his associates like most other foreign leaders, want an american leader who at least is stable, who is a little bit predictable and trump is not giving that to them. so they're sticking with him right now, hop

you're giving the keys to the kingdom in moskow center here. >> and also on the intelligence side, we are a country that's actually good at intelligence gathering. we share with other countries that aren't as sophisticated. so they're only as strong as we are. so the weaker we become in terms of ourcapacity to get intelligence from europe or any of our allies, those other countries become weaker. that includes a country like canada which is highly dependent on us for intelligence. so it's not just us that's going to be impacted. other countries that are sort of intelligence consumers will also be impacted by this. there's just a casualness about the sharing of this information, which it's just jaw dropping. these are the russians. i just don't know how more we can say it. >> i have this big sigh like this is unreal. it really is truly unbelievable. but i just want to know is kislyak, did he play the president? did he play by buttering him up and getting him into the oval office? >> i don't think he had to. look, president trump's twitter feed is a gold mine for any kind of hostile for

. >>> until "the washington post" secret channel to moskow story broke a few minutes ago, this was oureciding perhaps a defining moment in the presidential campaign, the fbi director at the time james copy announcing there there would be no charges against hillary clinton, then proceeding to scold her publicly about her e-mail server. many believe it weaponinized the issue and sealed secretary clinton's fate. now they believe the key piece of information was not only bogus but that he knew it was bogan. cnn's dana bash is back with us. she's got late breaking details. update our viewers now. >> well, cnn has learned and we've been reporting today that fbi director james coy knew a related piece of information was fake, but he felt he needed to take action anyway because he was concerned if the information became public, it would undermine the investigation and the justice department itself. now, this is according to multiple sources according to my colleagues. now, these concerns were a major factor in comey deciding to publicly declare that the clinton probe was over last summer witho

this reporting of the "the new york times," this is an effort for donald trump's campaigns ties to moskowd this is what this about. >> opinion, not facts yet. because of that respect within you mentioned the hill and the rank and file of the fbi, do you think the intel community will become more leaky as a result of this? >> well, you know, that's a tough issue. members of the intelligence community are rieshed by law not to leak. and that was something i always honored and mike did, too. i hope that's not the case. i would just like to see a straight up investigation led by an independent director of the fbi. and i think we need a more serious investigation in congress. i'd like to see everything done by the book, and i think that's the best thing for the country. >> quickly, mike baker of all the names floated, who do you think is the best next guy or gal to head the fbi? >> well, i think even pointed to something hoor here. it's gut tabe an independent, someone not perceived as someone associated with the trump campaign previously. and that's going to be the problem. i think it would b

they've got more to fear in moskow with isis and its success and the cadres that are getting trained in isis to could come back to haunt the russian motherland than we have. i covered the school hostage crisis where they took 1,000 people hostage and killed 188 children. they know what terrorists can do, and they want to do something about it. they want to protect their people. and we have good reasons to try no matter what's going on in this country, to beat down in little ways the walls of the cold war that are growing up that keep us from cooperating and growing relations. >> let's be relisting. none of that is a justification by donald trump taking secrets and willy-nilly sharing them with the russians. because remember the russianerize very close to the iranians, very close to the bashar al assad regime. that places at risk the united states because he is compromising american security by doing that. the russians, yes, it's true we have some area of overlap, but they're not our friends. they're people who have interfered in our election, undermined our democracy. >> i've got ano

he met yesterday with the foreign minister following the visit of secretary state tillerson to moskowi referred to that read outfor further questions on the meeting. outside of d.c. on the ongoing effort to address issues of opioid, today he will meet with officials in maine and new hampshire to discuss how the administration can best support the local initiatives to combat this tragedy. secretary zincy is in utah today visiting national monument sites and meeting with foilgtss. the secretary also took another step to advance the president's america first offshore energy strategy by reversing an obama administration action to aderholt scientific research in the outer continental shefl. and he's in detona beach fla. the university is an example of the top-notch education they continue to provide to their students, and i know the secretary is honored to be there today. there's also another nugget of big news as you guys may have been paying attention to in regard to the termination of the former fbi director comey. the president over the last several months lost confidence in director c

to give this lecture because all of a sudden your star had risen from your previous experiences in moskow. >> anderson, i have been giving speeches in moscow going back over a decade. all the top universities. >> do you ever talk to anyone in the trump campaign about lifting sanctions on russia? you said you send them policy papers. >> i have -- look, anderson, i don't talk about internal discussions or things that may have been confidential internally. >> you talked about sending policy papers. >> i had no specific conversation that i can recall. again, nothing that has anything to do with what was discussed in the hearings today. i think there's -- >> there's a number of statements that you've made that i'm just trying to pin down because you have a seemingly number of conflicting accounts. your exact role in the campaign, that's been in doubt. you said in december, long after you were let go by campaign, in a press conference in moscow to russian reporters that you had a number of meetings with donald trump. when you and i spoke last you admitted they weren't -- you weren't in any actu