mr. kushner? >> jared, welcome to "cbs this morning." your first interview on "cbs this morning." >> jared, tell us about the walk on the mall last night with your wife. >> beautiful. great company. beautiful scenery. >> keep working this way, jared. follow me. >> good work, major. anybody else in family might want to come down? we could place a call to him. are you up there? >> ivanka, if i thought i wouldn't be handcuffed, i'd like to walk up and say, hello, mr. president rn president, we're downstairs, we're downstairs. >> it is pretty special. >> we were saying, the history in the room, no matter who you are, you cannot feel blase. >> no, that's exactly right. and it doesn't wear off. the experience is really no less intense and exhilarating today as it was three months ago. so there's this history. you find yourself standing at a window and thinking how many presidents and first ladies and families had looked through that same piece of glass over the course of this building's history, and it's really -- it fills you with awe and won

mr. kushner is being looked at. those contacts between mr. kushner and mr. kislyak are being looked at by the fbi as part of their counterintelligence investigation. >> and jonathan, one of the issues facing jared kushner is why did you not disclose all of these contacts? and if the defense is, i didn't disclose them because it was just an oversight, the more contacts he has, the more of these that pile up, the less credible the oversight explanation is. >> let's not forget that at first the white house denied that there were any contacts between mr. kushner and the russians. and then that was chang to acknowledgment that there were two contacts. one during a foreign policy speech by president trump, then candidate trump last april. we were told that took place at a reception that took place during the speech. and also there was an acknowledgment by the white house of a meeting at trump tower in december between mr. kushner and mr. kislyak. but as far as these other contacts go, there was no acknowledgment. we talked to mr. kushner's attorney this evening who

mr. kushner is being looked at. those contacts between mr. kushner and mr. kislyak are being looked at by the fbi as part of their counterintelligence investigation. >> and jonathan, one of the issues facing jared kushner is why did you not disclose all of these contacts? and if the defense is -- i didn't disclose them because it was just an oversight, the more contacts he has, the more of these that pile up, the less credible the oversight explanation is. >> well, let's not forget that at first, the white house denied that there were any contacts between mr. kushner and the russians. and then that was changed to acknowledgment that there were two contacts. one during a foreign policy speech by president trump, then candidate trump last april. we're told that took place at a reception, that took place during the speech. and also, there was an acknowledgment by the white house of a meeting at trump tower between mr. kushner and mr. kislyak. but as far as these other contacts go, there was no acknowledgment. we talked to mr. kushner's attorney this evening who

mr. kushner is being looked at. the acts between mr. kushner and the -- >> one of the issues is why did you not disclose all of these contacts? if the defense is i didn't because it was just an oversight, the more contacts he has, the more of these that pile up, the less credible the oversight explanation is. >> let's not forget the white house denied contacts between mr. kushner and the russians and that was changed to acknowledgement there were two contacts, one during a foreign policy speech by candidate trump last april at a reception that took place during the speech and also an acknowledgement of a meeting at trump's house. as far as the other contacts go, there was no acknowledgement. we talked to mr. kushner's attorney this evening who said he had thousands of calls over this period of time and was unable fo recall the calls we reported about. did you ask if he would have taken calls? >> there was no acknowledgement of the calls, of those calls, so, no, we didn't because there was no acknowledgement of the call. >> yeah. >> also,

mr. kushner's attorney has said that mr. kushner's volunteered to share with congress what he knows about these meetings and he will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry. >> has the president discussed this though? >> i'm not getting into what the president did or did not discuss. your question assumes a lot of facts that aren't substantiated by anything but anonymous sources that are so far being leaked out. >> does he approve of that action? >> you're asking if he approves of an action that is not a confirmed action. that being said, i think secretary kelly and general mcmaster have both discussed that in general terms, back channels are an appropriate part of diplomacy. >> does the white house dispute that that happened? >> i'm not going to get into it. but your question presupposes facts that have not been confirmed. >> thank you, sean. the president retweeted this morning an article about that back channel that was based on an anonymous source that said that there was an effort to set up a

mr. kushner wanted to avoid monitoring by the u.s. intelligence community and they find that deeply suspicious. for that reason, they're saying, again, if this "washington post" story is accurate, this represents a new disturbing new chapter in this whole trump/russia saga. you've got to remember, this would have happened after it was well established that russia had been interfering in the election campaign to benefit the trump folks. and the obama administration was on its way to announcing sanctions against russia. the trump folks are entering office. they're having all these meetings we're now learning, many of which were undisclosed. they have reasons they said they didn't disclose them. but this is something different. it's inexplicable if true why mr. kushner would want a back channel communication and it's interesting that nobody from kushner's camp has denied the story, jacob. >> ken, break this down for me. help me understand. "the washington post" reported s kislyak was taken aback by the suggest that an american could or w

mr. kushner is under scrutiny. but that doesn't mean that he is a suspect. from nbc news reports, nbc news' report tonight, quote, investigators believe jared kushner has significant information relevant to their inquiry. that does not mean they suspect him of a crime or intend to charge him. the officials said kushner is in a different category from former trump aides paul manafort and michael flynn who are formally considered subjects of the investigation. jared kushner, they believe, has useful information. now, nbc reports tonight that it remains unclear, quote, what precisely about kushner's activities has drawn the fbi's interest. that said, nbc news had this story tonight. "the washington post" also had this story tonight, they also broke this story at basically the same time as nbc did. i can tell you exactly minute to minute who put theirs out first, but i told you, i was homesick all day, and at the time these stories broke i was like this. on the couch until my phone rang. so i don't know. actually i think i hurt myself just doing that. whoo. i can

the fbi is investigating mr kushner as part of a wider probe of alleged russian interference in the usspondent david willis reports. according to these latest reports, jared kushner, who as well as being president trump's son—in—law is also one of his closest advisers, discussed establishing a secret communications channel between the trump transition team and moscow in order to discuss syria and other policy issues. he is alleged to have met last december at trump tower in new york with the russian ambassador to the us, sergey kislyak, and mr trump's former national security adviser michael flynn to discuss the matter. general flynn was forced to resign in february after it emerged he had misled other administration officials about the extent of his contacts with ambassador kislyak. in the end, the communication channel wasn't set up. it was reported yesterday that mr kushner had a separate meeting with the head of a russian bank which has been subject to sanctions imposed by the obama administration. reuters news agency is saying he also had several telephone conversations with serge

mr. kushner's behalf. i really think peter made a good point in that president trump and kushner both have a real estate background and developers are known for just trying to skirt the law and get what they want done, accomplished no matter what. and just trying to avoid laws whenever possible. but that's just not how election law and the navigation of our foreign policy works when it comes to these tricky issues. and so, you know, from the get-go it really would have -- i feel like the trump administration would have found themselves in a much better place if they had surrounded themselves with attorneys who helped protect them from making, you know, if these are just innocent mistakes. but they're innocent -- even if they were innocent, they're mistakes that are going to be judged fairly harshly probably in the court of law if it does come to that. >> what we're really talking about is why, right, not in terms of what may happen, but i do do understand what you're saying there, elise. peter, build on wha

investigators are said to believe mr kushner might have relevant information, but that doesn't necessarilyd kushner is arguably donald trump's most trusted white house adviser, and so the fbi is now scrutinising a member of the president's innermost family circle. of interest to investigators are meetings that took place in december last year, during the presidential transition, between mr kushner and the russian ambassador to washington, and also a leading russian banker. sergei gorkov is the head of an institution that's been subject to us sanctions imposed by the obama administration following russia's annexation of crimea. jared kushner, the president's son—in—law. the person of interest has a name, and that name isjared kushner. tonight, we're learning the jared kushner is under fbi scrutiny... this does not mean that jared kushner is suspected of a crime, or that he is accused of wrongdoing, but investigators do apparently believe he has information that is relevant to their enquiry. his lawyer told the bbc that the 36—year—old has already volunteered to share with congress what he k

mr. kushner's lawyers tell fox news this. "mr. hner volunteered to share with congress about what he knows about the meetings. he will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry." catherine herridge is with us live in washington. hi, catherine. >> hi. a government source says the fbi counter intelligence investigation is looking at conversations with sergei kislyak and the trump transition team. meantime, the democratic national committee has renewed calls for the suspension of kushner's security clearance. a former justice department official with the bush administration said it's highly unlikely to happen. >> he went through the clearance process. i understand that he was not timely disclosing some of the russian contacts. but again, they were disclosed. this has already been reviewed. seems like a political dig at him. >> in the statement to fox news, kushner elawyer indicated that he's not been contacted by the fbi. that's another indicator that he's being seen as a witness to events rather than a targe

mr. kushner as the shadow secretary of state, think his portfolio is perhaps too larng. they also say his critics in the white house that kushner coming in from the new york real estate world did not realize what he didn't know and that as jeremy and so many others with deep experience are aware of is that kislyak and other foreign diplomacy are constantly surveyed. and to not recognize this in these ex kwhachanges is a stumb that could have real consequences for this president. >> matthew miller, let me try this on you, if mark met with the russian ambassador and said my mother-in-law is about to become president and i'd like to set up a line of communications, let's get this out of the normal channels, we can use your server in effect, imagine our discussion tonight. >> yeah. there would be impeachment hearings on the hill. there are seven committees that investigated benghazi. can only imagine how much would be investigating this. i any the problem with jared kushner's conduct is concealment, that's the problem over and over again. when they had the meeting with the ru

mr. kushner's attorney said mr. red to share with congress what he knows about the meetings, he will do the same if contacted and connected with any court. >> did the president discuss it. >> i am not getting into what the president did discuss. your question assumes facts that are not substantiated by anything but anonymous sources so far being leaked out. >> did he approve of action? >> you're asking if he approves of an action that is not a confirmed action. that said, i think secretary kelly, general mcmaster both discussed in general terms back channels are an appropriate part of diplomacy. >> tough job he has in the press room for sure. no secret that the white house and press had at times a combative relationship. yesterday, sean spicer pointed to a report that president trump elected not to wear translating device as example of fake news that undermines media credibility. >> friday, the president was having a great discussion at the g7. someone from the bbc and ultimately incoming reporr from "new york times"

mr. kushner's proximity. we saw mr. trump's face on the slide that was shown. nobody is fooled by this. they are trading on mr. kushner's proximity to the president. and that's wrong. >> she was talking about that president trump basically has an influence or is in the line of who decides these visas. the message seemed to be pretty clear. >> there's no ambiguity about what's happening here at all. if this were an isolated episode, that would be one thing. but what we've seen again and again with mr. kushner, with ivanka, with the president, with so many others in the white house administration, they want to hang onto their business interests in a way we've never seen in american history. it's peculiar enough you have his two closest advisors, his son-in-law and daughter, all of them with business interests that impact on american, with all of them having china ties, copyrights, conflicts, other issues. how can we know when they sit to decide whether they're going to push china to deal with the north korean missile threat, whether they're going to hold back because of their business int

mr. kushner's attorney has said that mr. kushner has volunteered to tell what he knows at these meetings. >> did the president discuss it, though? >> i'm not going to get into what the president did or did not discuss. what your question assumes is a lot of facts that are not substantiated by anything but anonymous sources that are so far being leaked out. >> does he approve of that action? >> you're asking if he approves of an action that is not a confirmed action. that being said, i think secretary kelly and general mcmaster have both discussed in general terms back channels are an appropriate part of diplomacy. >> so does the white house dispute that the -- >> i'm not going to get into it. your question presupposes facts that have not been confirmed. >> spicer's response echoed the one the boss used. quote, whenever you see the word sources say in the fake news media and they don't mention names, it is very possible that soez sources don't exist but are made up by fake news writer. #fakenewsistheenemy. the president re-twe

mr. kushner's attorney said that mr. kushner's volunteered to share with congress what he knows about the meetings and he will do the same if he's contacted and connected with any other inquiry >> fired national security vendors michael flynn agreed to give some business records under subpoena to the senate intelligence committee >>> a 14-year-old becomes the latest victims in kensington. teen killed last night on orleans street. police are investigating three other murders since the weekend. a pair of adult siblings were shot and killed on clearfield street. one was fatally stabbed on frankford avenue. police want anyone to come forward. >>> jurors in the trial of david creato will return tomorrow to resume deliberations. we're told they're having trouble reaching a verdict. creato is the camden county father accused of killing his son. in that tape, interviewed, creato was told his son had been found dead. brandon creato's body was found in a wooded area of cooper river park in october of 2015. >>> police are releasing

mr. kushner's attorney has said mr. kushner has volunteered to share with congress when he knows about these meetings and he will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry. jonathan: the white house is looking for new communication's director. he resigned today after just three months on the job. new video of the first intercept launch at california vanderburgh air force base since 2014. the pentagon says it knocked down a mock warhead over the pacific. the program has had mixed results over the years, this does not confirm the u.s. is capable of defending itself against intercontinental range missiles fired by north korea. alison: 7 on your side with a consumer alert, and new information about a credit card breach targeting chipotle. the chain revealed dozens of stores in northern virginia, maryland, and the district were hit. if you made a purchase between march 20 four and april 18, you could be impacted. the storeslist of and what you should do, visit our website, wjla.com. could you be over

mr. kushner's attorney said mr. kushner has volunteered to share with congress what this means. >> it's not inappropriate for officials to speak with foreign counterparts. what is unusual is for there to be a preparation for a back channel outside the bounds of u.s. intelligence or diplomatic channels. >> reporter: also under scrutiny whether kushner was looking for a direct line to vladamir putin as reported by the "new york times." a surge that during the transition connected kushner with a russian banker with ties to putin. the president defending his trusted advisor saying jared is doing a great job for the country. i have total confidence in him. the white house saying kushner was acting in his capacity as a transition official. mr. trump venting on twitter russian officials must be laughing at the u.s. and how the lame excuse for why the democrats lost the election has taken over the fake news. echoed by putin in a new interview calling the allegations of interference fiction invented by trump's political oppon

mr. kushner's attorney has said mr. kushner volunteered to share with congress what he knows ab these meetings. >> did the president discuss it? >> i'm not going to get into what the president did or did not discuss. what your question assumes is a lot of facts that are not substantiated by anything but anonymous sources that are so far being leaked out. >> does he approve of that action? >> you're asking if he approves of an action that is not a confirmed action. that being said, secretary kelly and general mcmaster both discussed that in general terms back channels are an appropriate part of diplomacy. >> does the white house dispute that happened? >> i'm not going to get into it. your question presupposes facts that have not been confirmed. >> thank you, sean. did the president read the article about that back channel that was based on an anonymous source that said that there was an effort to set up a back channel, that it was the russians who suggested that and that it was to talk about syria. was the president not c

mr. kushner's attorney said that mr. kushner volunteered to share what he knows. >> it's not inappropriate for officials to begin to speak with foreign counterparts. what is unusual is for there to be the preparation for a back channel outside the bounds of u.s. intelligence or diplomatic channels. >> reporter: also under scrutiny whether kushner was looking for daybreak line to vladamir putin. the search that kengted him with a russian banker with ties to putin. the president defending his trusted adviser saying jared is doing a great job for the country. i have total confidence in him. the white house saying kushner was acting as a transition official. mr. trump again venting on twitter. russian officials must be laughing at the u.s. and how a lame excuse for why the democrats lost the election. explanation echoed by putin in an interview, allegations of interference fiction invented by trump political to explain the loss. >>> now it seems one of the first major administration players is out. communications director mik

mr. kushner's attorney has said that mr. kushner's volunteered to share with congress what he knows about these meetings and he will do the same thing if he's connected with any other inquiry. >> reporter: spicer did not deny kushner tried to set up a backchannel through the russia ambassador. in fact, he pointed out that national security adviser h.r. mcmaster and homeland security secretary john kelly, both said that there's nothing inherently wrong with backchannels to foreign governments. >> you're asking if he approves of an action that is not a confirmed action. that being said, i think secretary kelly and general mcmaster have both discussed that in general terms backchannels are an appropriate part of diplomacy. >> reporter: but there's bipartisan concern on capitol hill. >> my view of it is i don't like it. i just don't. i know that some administration officials are saying, well, that's standard procedure. i don't think it is standard procedure. >> reporter: and the white house is dealing with some unintended fallout

mr. kushner's attorney said that mr. ushner's volunteered to share with congress what he knows about the meetings and he will do the same if he's contacted and connected with any other inquiry >> fired national security vendors michael flynn agreed to give some business records under subpoena to the senate intelligence committee >>> a 14-year-old becomes the latest victims in kensington. teen killed last night on orleans street. police are investigating three other murders since the weekend. a pair of adult siblings were shot and killed on clearfield street. one was fatally stabbed on frankford avenue. police want anyone to come forward. >>> jurors in the trial of david creato will return tomorrow to resume deliberations. we're told they're having trouble reaching a verdict. creato is the camden county father accused of killing his son. in that tape, interviewed, creato was told his son had been found dead. brandon creato's body was found in a wooded area of cooper river park in october of 2015. >>> police are releasing d

mr. kushner's attorney has said that mr. kushner has volunteered to share with congress what he knows about these meetings and he will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry. >> reporter: the president is in the process of forming a legal and crisis communications team to deal with the ongoing investigation. kelly o'hara for cbs news, the white house. >>> president trump also tweeted his opinion today that the u.s. senate should change to a system of majority voting to get measures on healthcare and tax cuts passed. >>> cutting words about the president from democrat nancy pelosi during an appearance at the commonwealth club. veronica de la cruz has more on what pelosi said and wouldn't say. veronica. >> reporter: liz, the house minority leader spoke on a number of issues but none got more of a response than discussion about the presidential election. she called hillary clinton's loss a blow for the country. she talked about once being the highest ranking woman politically in this country when she

mr. kushner -- >> jared has done everything to comply with the ethics rules. he wasn't involved. >> reporter: his lawyer said he sold his interest to the family trust, prior to joining the white house staff. office of government ethics. a trust that he, his wife and his children are not beneficiaries of. >> he divested a very small chunk of the business. he's still the beneficiary of the vast majority of the business. the problem has clearly not been solved. >> reporter: the kushners used the visa program to help fund a prior project, they're not alone. there were 10,000 such visas issued just last year, over three-quarters of them to the chinese. and lester, mr. kushner says he won't involve himself in talks over the controversial visa program. >> thank you. >>> in boston, police are investigating a chilling murder mystery. two doctors engaged to be married were found killed in their penthouse. the suspect was arraigned today, but what was the motive? nbc's morgan rad forth has the story. >> reporter: lying in a hospital bed with his eyes closed -- >> with re

mr. kushner said this is all a bunch of hooey. i'm making this up.but the president he's going to be under and the president is going to be under, i want the truth to come out. this is a young man under extraordinary pressure now. by the way, he's in charge of trade negotiations, middle east peace, reorganizing the entire federal government and he's got a fairly broad palette. >> when you're not a suspect in this, not a target but when you're under this kind of pressure it takes up a lot of time to prepare. >> an enormous amount of time. he has to spend a lot of time with his attorneys to prepare. i'm glad he's cooperating, he needs to. that takes a lot of time. it takes a lot of discovery. he's going to have to go through documents and e-mails and produce them. it just -- and it also -- you never have a good night's sleep. you always have this pit in your stomach. what's going to happen. because he doesn't know what other people are saying, true or false, about him. people are going to want to roll on him to hurt him to hurt the president, maybe cor

mr. kushner's feels entirely secure. the president aides said has not ruled out the possibility that his son-in-law and daughter ivanka trump who both hold white house positions would return to new york this year. mr. trump has been more open in discussing the possible departure of reince priebus, the white house chief of staff. peter, you said mr. spicer may be on the bubble. that bubble appears large and growing. >> a very big bubble. not a loot of room on it for everybody. look that's the problem. you know, this is -- nobody knows that they have job security. they are all on tender hooks. it is a little like a reality show where they vote somebody off the island and nobody is sure who is going to be there at the end of the week. reince priebus has had a tough tenure as chief of staff. the president jokes about sending him to athens to be the ambassador to greece where his family has some roots. steve bannon a few weeks ago felt like he was on the bubble but he's still there. you have to be careful making these assumpt

mr. kushner's reorganization recommendations before you begin hiring? >> no. again, the american innovation office is not intended to come in and do assessments and give recommendations. that's the executive order has asked the department to do that. so that's what we're doing. mr. kushner's office is helping us in identifying industry beste practices and strategic partners that help us advance the modernization goals. we're going. >> we're going to leave the last future minutes of the their today's white house briefing. his spokesman sean spicer. >> i missed you all tremendously. now that i realize we can do that more i'll spend more time the pentagon. move this up a little bit. appreciate your flexibility today. so the pool has enough time to cover the vice president and secretary shulkin as they welcome honor flight veterans to washington on the anniversary of ve-day. the vice president hosting more than 120 veterans of world war ii, the korean warp and vietnam wore as part of national military appreciation month and public service recognition week, highlig

mr. kushner's attorney has said that mr. kushner has volunteered to share with congress what he knows about these meetings. >> reporter: the white house did not deny kushner tried to set up secret communications only pointing to top administration officials who say back channels are an appropriate part of diplomacy, diane and kendis. >> back to covfefe, the internet is having fun with it. we'll take a look at some of the memes later on, kenneth, thanks. >>> breaking news from syria. russian missiles have hit a target or several isis targets. russia says it fired four missiles from two warships in the eastern mediterranean sea and russian defense officials say those missiles hit heavy weapons and isis fighters near the ancient city of palmyra. the russians say they alerted the u.s. about those strikes. >>> now let's take a look at today's weather. a cold front is moving through the northeast today bringing a threat of showers and even thunderstorms to western new york and pennsylvania this morning. later today, the front will

mr. kushner participated in thousands of calls in this time period.he has no recollection of those calls as described. but "the washington post" was not done. it says the senate intel committee now wants all russia-related documents, e-mails and phone records from trump's campaign, not just some of them. nbc's kristen welker has been traveling with the president. she joins me live from italy. two members of the president's team are facing questions about kushner on the record but off camera, at their insistence, we should note. what did they say? >> gary cohn and h.r. mcmaster holding that briefing. it was striking that we didn't hear from the president today during the press conference. typically, presidents hold press conferences when on a major foreign trip like this one. what did we hear from his top advisers? not a lot. they were peppered with questions but over and over again they dodged them. take a look at one exchange. >> this issue that you're talking to the general about is not one that he's spending time with on this trip. >> are you sayin

mr. kushner's attorney has said mr. kushner has volunteered to share with congress what he knows about these meetings and he will do the same if he's contacted in or connected with any other inquiry. >> did mr. president -- >> i'm not going to get into what the president did or didn't discuss . what your question assumes is facts not substantiated by anything but anonymous sources that are so far being leaked out. >> -- >> you're asking if he approved of an action that is not a confirmed action. that being said, i think secretary kelly and general mcmaster have both discussed in general terms back channels are an appropriate part of diplomacy. >> does the white house dispute -- >> i'm not going to get into it. your question presupposes facts that have not been confirmed. >> and then there is this, this morning president trump retweeting a fox news article based on anonymous sources about that alleged back channel to russia. that also came up in the spicer briefing. >> was the president not confirming that that effort tha

mr. kushner as the shadow secretary of state and think his portfolio is too large. they say his critics in the white house that kushner coming in from the new york real estate world does not realize what he didn't know. as jeremy and others with deep experience are aware of, so many foreign diplomats are constantly surveilled. for them not to recognize that in the exchanges, they think it's not only a stumble, but they could have real consequences for the president. >> matthew miller, i try never to use this construct, but let me try this one on you. if mark met with the russian ambassador and said my mother-in-law is about to welcome president and i would like to set up a line of communication and get it out of the normal channels. we can use your server, in effect. imagine our discussion tonight. >> there would be impeachment hearings on the hill. seven investigating benghazi. you can imagine how many would investigate this. the conduct is concealment. that's the problem we keep coming back to over and over again. when he had this initial meeting with the russian a

the fbi is investigating mr kushner as part of a wider investigation of russian involvement in the electionlatest reports, jared kushner, as well as being presidentjohn's son—in—law is one of his closest advisers, discussed establishing a secret communications channel between the trump transition tea m channel between the trump transition team and moscow, in order to discuss syria and other policy issues. he is alleged to have met last december with the russian ambassador to the us last december. and michael flynn to discuss the matter. general flynn was forced to resign in february after it emerged that he had misled other administration officials about the extent of his contact? with the ambassador. in the end, the communications channel was not set up. it was reported yesterday that mr kushner had a separate meeting with the head of a russian bank that has been subject to sanctions imposed by the 0bama administration. reuters news agency is saying he had several telephone from conversations with sir guy casilla yet. mr kushner is being investigated by the fbi as pa rt is being investigat

mr. kushner deserves the right to speak about this.here's so much we don't know about this, and it's very important that he be given the chance in all matter of fairness to tell his side of the story. but the story so far doesn't make much sense because as john has said, if he wanted to establish a back channel to the russians you could easily do that through the american embassy in moscow, through the state department in washington. we have a tradition in the united states and it's a very sensible one, one president at a time. when this was all happening, president obama was president of the united states. you do not want to have a situation where the incoming team is establishing a separate secret channel to the russians, our greatest adversary in the world, without the white house and state department knowing about that. the other aspect of this, which is troubling and a little bit bizarre, is that apparently the suggestion was by the united states, by the trump officials, that they use russian embassy communication facilities. that

mr. kushner participated in thousands of calls in this time period and has no recollection of the calls as described. "the washington post" reporting the senate intelligence committee wants president trump's political organization to gather and produce all russia-related documents, e-mails and phone records going back to his campaign's launch in june of 2015. president trump on the final leg of his overseas trip this morning is defending his first budget plan amid backlash from both sides of the aisle. here's part of his weekly address. >> the big thing for me is economic growth, which is not possible without safety and security. that is why our budget reverses years of cuts to our military that have made us less safe in a more dangerous world. we're going to make sure the men and women on the front lines of freedom have the tools they need to keep us safe and totally secure. >> trump also tweeting this morning, many nato countries have agreed to step up payments considerably as they should. money is beginning to pour in nato will be much stronger. joining me is nbc's ken delaney and intel

mr. kushner to avoid detection by the u.s. intelligence community.ne other thing that people are remarking about this story is that whoever leaked this story to the "washington post" was willing to disclose that the united states was monitoring the communications of the russian ambassador back to moscow. that's really unusual. and it's a damaging leak. there's no doubt about it. because that ability to intercept those communications will go away now. the russians know it exists. but whoever leaked it was so disturbed by the conduct that they were willing to allow that interception ability to go away, ari. >> you're saying something different than what some of our guests have focused on thus fare, that number one, intelligence sources are telling you the nature of the allegations in the "post" report is a game changer regarding kushner. number two, the actual sources and methods which we hear about i think from administrations in both parties, what is at risk with too much leaking, that the sources and methods here showing that line back to the kremli