not brought in from time to time and consult with an administration officials, intelligence officials on threats to the united states? >> i it is dangerous to block the information they have at the table. i think for the president and administration to minimize or attempt to minimize these individuals by simply saying they're using the security clearances for monetary purposes. i think it's unfortunatel. they have a broad reference point with the public and private sector now that they're in the private sector many of them and does a disservice to our country. you have americans deeply disi lu -- disillusioned with the process. encroachment of foreign enties upon the electoral process. to do this publicly not only hurts morale in the intelligence community but it also deepens and widens the gap of mistrust and distrust of officials in our democracy. >> let's turn to the manafort trial. is it appropriate for the president, we heard this earlier today leaving the white house, to weigh in on the trial of his former campaign chairman and offer support and say things like he's a very nice

the integrity of the official election data, and the reporting website and official data. >> i yield back the balance of my time. >> mister krebs, i would like to discuss and document russian attacks on state election systems, documents that dhs refused before the committee, you're familiar with october 2017 letter to dhs requesting these documents to ranking member cummings, correct? >> you are familiar with the official question from the record requesting these documents by it subcommittee chair. the joint subcommittee hearing and is that correct? >> yes, sir. >> in late january, they determined seeking a subpoena for these documents. ranking member cummings and five other house committee, wrote to speak to assistance obtaining these documents. and these four letters made part of the official record on today's hearing. >> without objection. >> back at the november hearing. if you will permit me to go back and i commit to you a more fulsome answer for you. in 2018, dhs provided approximately 50 pages of documents, most of which were already publicly available. this did not include a

today, the justice department official official, bruce ohr, is being pilloried. it seems like those keeping their nose to the grind stone also have to worry that they'll get the crosshairs trained on them shortly. >> an understandable concern. each of these has its own gestalt specific fact and circumstances in each of those cases. i don't have visibility into all those details. you're raising a larger important concern which is whether the department of justice has a big bull's-eye on its back and more broadly whether the constant repeated denigration of the department of justice and its leadership and the types of officials you described is part after effort to undermine the integrity and independence of one of the most important institutions in our government. that's incredibly worrisome. >> is there a fix for that? >> the fix is to raise the cost to carrying out those kinds of actions. by raising the cost to the people who could lend their voices now to expressing objections to the types of courses of action that we hear about in the offing. where republican

today, the justice department official official, bruce ohr, is being pilloried.like those keeping their nose to the grind stone also have to worry that they'll get the crosshairs trained on them shortly. >> an understandable concern. each of these has its own gestalt specific fact and circumstances in each of those cases. i don't have visibility into all those details. you're raising a larger important concern which is whether the department of justice has a big bull's-eye on its back and more broadly whether the constant repeated denigration of the department of justice and its leadership and the types of officials you described is part after effort to undermine the integrity and independence of one of the most important institutions in our government. that's incredibly worrisome. >> is there a fix for that? >> the fix is to raise the cost to carrying out those kinds of actions. by raising the cost to the people who could lend their voices now to expressing objections to the types of courses of action that we hear about in the offing. where republican members of

and official with knowledge of the matter tells me that the nation's senior most intelligence official dan coats was not consulted and the cia, quote, caught off guard by the move which is an unprecedented use of presidential authority to punish his political rivals. press secretary sarah sanders today could not explain why the president never issued a similar statement revoking the clearance of his own former national security adviser flynn who admitted to lying to the fbi. i'll speak with congressman don beyer. let's go straight to the breaking news and cnn white house correspondent kaitlan collins. this is truly a bombshell. it is unprecedented. take us through how this happened. >> reporter: well, jim, it certainly is a bombshell and there's no ignoring that the white house made this announcement on a day where they're dealing with the fallout still from that staffer omarosa's tell-all book. now, the white house announcing at the briefing and then later a letter of the president dated july 26th. three weeks ago, in three days after they first announced they were considering revokin

here's a current doj official. he's someone who had contact with christopher steele, the man who assembled the dossier, and also had contact with fusion gps. his wife also played a role with fusion gps. this is what the president had to say just today about bruce ohr. >> i think bruce ohr is a disgrace. i suspect i'll be taking it away very quickly. i think that bruce ohr is a disgrace with his wife. for him to be in the justice department and to be doing what he did, that is a disgrace. that is disqualifying for mueller. and mr. mueller has a lot of conflicts also. so you know that. >> if we love move on, these arh people who have ties to the whole michael flynn saga. if you look at susan rice, the former national security adviser, she unmasked a number of trump aides in various intelligence intercepts. one of those was michael flynn. if we move on to sally yates, she actually went to the white house and told officials at the white house that she believed mike flynn was compromised because he lied to the vice pres

concluding unequivocally that agency officials had indeed improperly accessed congressional staffers files. more recently, mr. brennan told congress the intelligence community did not make use of the so-called steele dossier in an assessment regarding the 2016 election. an assertion contradicted by at least two other senior officials in the intelligence community and all of the facts. additionally, mr. brennan has recently leveraged his status as a former high-ranking official with access to highly sensitive information to make a series of unfounded and outrageous allegations while on the internet and television about the ministration. mr. brennan's lying and recent conduct with increasing commentary and consistent with access to the nations most closely held secrets. and facilities. the very him of our adversaries, which is to so division and chaos. the larger question about the practice of former officials maintaining access to our nations most sensitive secrets long after their time in government has ended. such access is particularly inappropriate when former officials have trans

the reason why these former officials have clearances is of that current officials can consult with them. no one is consulting with john brennan. >>chris: there was a world prior to 2017 where they were consulted and the ideais you might want someone who's an expert on russia or the middle east or wherever to help you . >> the way brennan has conducted himself or closes any opportunity to cooperate with this administration. i do think he crossed a line which is a bad idea to have someone wielding some of the mostsensitive powers , immediately upon leaving his office reveal himself to be the most package political actor who's making wild and outrageous charges. if trumbull pics with this list, just arbitrarily without any process or clear standards. i do think it's a bad idea but it seems petty and it will even though he has broad powers, invite first amendment challenges. >>chris: i will turn to another big story and that is the trial of former top trump campaign chairman, paul manafort. the first prosecution by the special counsel. the jury right now, starting on monday, will do its thi

officials warning the threat is real and the u.s. could strike back in secret ways. >>> in the meantime, ivanka trump breaking with her father in a very public way. >>> a star football coach under fire now sidelined. explosive allegations he knew about alleged domestic abuse and turned a blind eye. >>> a growing disaster in some of the most popular beaches in the country, deserted at the height of summer. why tourists are staying away and businesses are suffering. >>> a sudden fire on board a packed plane, as a battery bursts into flames. passengers scrambling to get out. a frightening new reminder of the danger posed by the kind of batteries in everything from cell phones to laptops. >>> and a major milestone from apple, started in a garage by steve jobs, the visionary whose iphone changed the world now the first u.s. public company to be valued at a trillion dollars. >> announcer: this is "nbc nightly news" with lester holt. >>> good evening and thanks for being here. the country's national security chief stood shoulder to shoulder

you have these top intel officials, national security, experts and officials and you have the president. with that kind of disconnect, does that embolden russia? does it embolden vladimir putin? >> absolutely. you have -- if you look to divide the united states, you can certainly divide people along some of the social issues that we know are hot button issues. when you get divisions between the president of the united states, the commander who is responsible for national security in this country, and his senior intelligence and national security officials who are nominated by him, when you get a division like that, that for vladimir putin is just really a coup. it's a fabulous accomplishment when you get that senior level division. things are going very well for putin. i might add, these congressional delegations that we hear about where you get snores aenators a representatives going to moscow when we know they are attacking our country, that's another big win for vladimir putin. it's going really well for him in the win/loss column. >> as he is racking up the ws, for the american vote

our senior officials and-- >> where are those-- >> and the officials in the city of toronto. >> whereose 800 people going to go? >> i'm aware that plans have already been made to move those individuals into quite appropriate housing in hotels around the-- >> for how long will they be staying in hotels? >> that depends on their integration into the community and the processes that are currently underway. >> how long do you anticipate they will stay in hotels? >> again, we see a transition of those individuals out-- >> and how much will it cost to be in hotels. >> i'll refer to the officials-- >> i'm sorry? >> do you think it's reasonable to house 800 people in hotels? . do you have-- >> and people have adequate shelter as they work through the due process. >> would you characterize. >> it's difficult for them to interpret in our two officials languages if they're speaking over. >> thank you, mr. chair. >> mr. blair, would you characterize housing someone in a hotel for an indeterminate period as adequate housing? >> they are under-- they're undergoing two process and the review of thei

officials have reportedly tried to foster a new round of talks. in the meantime, what they're dealing with, what u.s. military officials are dealing with, is a president who is impatient with this process and would like to bring troops home, but he has backed a new strategy where there is no time limit on the fight. so from the u.s. military's perspective, the tough thing for them is going to be with the troops they currently have on the ground, somehow helping afghan army that is besieged and has trouble replacing the troops that are lost with new recruits. to maintain some sort of security and stability. >> and then colonel, do you see the taliban as part of the solution here and that, you know, patience coupled with that is going to be a smart strategy? >> you know, i think the reality dictates that they're going to have to be part of the strategy. they're not going away. kim's right, a lot of them are migrating over to isis because they believe isis represents that anti-western force that they once were. but if you're going to reconcile the en

hundreds of iranians angry at a state of the economy have protested and at least five cities iran's official news agency says the demonstrations were it legal and have been broken up by police iranian currency the reaal has hit record lows this week it's lost around half of its value this year is concerned bell's about the reimposition of u.s. sanctions which start next tuesday same bus ravi has more now from the capital attack iran. what we're seeing these protests break out in the main cities about five or six different provinces the biggest demonstrations in the city of isfahan and ensure rise now protests in iran have become relatively normal with the economic struggle that the country's been seeing for the past several months so dozens of people protesting in their cities in the towers in the villages is not something that generally makes the news bold what we have seen in the last forty eight hours is dozens of protesters in a few pockets around the country turning into hundreds in main cities in multiple provinces and that's really what is interesting here we also saw or have heard un

, dan coats, the nation's most senior intelligence official, and i should remind people, an officialointed by president trump, dan coats was not consulted by the white house or the president on this decision to revoke the former cia director, john brennan's clearance. remarkable. considering this is presumably an intelligence decision. and let's just be clear. that the decision to revoke clearances is normally reserved for situations in which someone abuses that clearance by, for instance, revealing classified material. this one. because when you go through that list of officials, brooke, you mentioned, john brennan, who has had it revoked already, but james clapper, james comey, sally yates. the one thing they have in common, of course, is public criticism of this president. this appears to be a political decision, not an intelligence decision. and perhaps backing that up is our reporting that the nation's senior most intelligence official, dan coats, was not consulted on this decision by the president. the other thing i would note, brooke, when you look at the officials in that lis

or former official. yet alone for the reason this president explained in this case. when you're on unchartered territory, you don't always know what will come next for us as a country, but when you're the person in the middle of unchartered attacks like this, you have to wonder what it feels like. this interview tonight with john brennan will be his first live tv interview since the president took this action. director brennan, thank you very much for being here tonight. i know you have choices about where to be. thanks for being here. >> thanks, rachel, for having me on. >> so, you were cia director from 2013 to january of 2017. >> right. >> you were president obama's counterterrorism and homeland security adviser. you were 25 years as a cia officer before that. you have been through some stressful situations in your life. how has it been the past couple days since the president singled you out for attack and punishment in this way? >> it's fine. as far as i'm concerned personally, i'm fine. it's not un

next and intel officials speaking out and coming to brennan's defense.ere's a serious virus out there that 1 in 30 boomers has, yet most don't even know it. a virus that's been almost forgotten. it's hepatitis c. hep c can hide in the body for years without symptoms. left untreated it can lead to liver damage, even liver cancer. the only way to know if you have hep c is to ask your healthcare provider for the simple blood test. if you have hep c, it can be cured. for us, it's time to get tested. it's the only way to know for sure. where we're changing withs? contemporary make-overs. then, use the ultimate power handshake, the upper hander with a double palm grab. who has the upper hand now? start winning today. book now at lq.com. i've been making blades here at gillette for 20 years. there's a lot of innovation that goes into making america's #1 shave. precision machinery and high-quality materials from around the world. nobody else even comes close. now starting at $7.99. gillette. the best a man can get. the chili pepper sweat-out. not cool. freezing

we heard that from trump administration officials.is a glimmer of hope there can be some solution. if we can see in the markets what investors think, in immediately when this announcement was made that china's secretary of commerce word come to the u.s. and meet with david malpass who is a fairly senior treasury official, we saw bounce back in stocks and currency but no huge gains for the day and i think everyone is now.ous right julie: tell us about david malpass. now. we have not heard that much from him recently and tell us what we know about the chinese official that is coming and what kind of progress they could make. sarah: david malpass is quite a senior official, he is in charge of international affairs for treasury and so he is someone that when he was appointed people put quite a lot of weight inin and thought he would be a significant advisor to steve mnuchin and they do have a close relationship. it is good to have the ear of him. from the chinese side, the official is fluent in english and has dealt with the u.s. from the

downy and it's done. >>> there are local officials election officials in florida that say that nelsonor information. >> florida officials say they asked the fbi and homeland security department about nelson's comments and say there is no proof to back up the claims. the democrat is in the middle of a tough re-election fight with republican governor rick scott. >>> new concerns inside the u.s. defense community about a russian satellite that's been acting, let's say, strangely, expert worry the strange behavior could mean the russians are planning to use the satellite as a bweapon. brian todd spoke with those tracking it. >> reporter: a soyuz blasts into space. the payload, a rocket shrouded in mystery. space and military analysts are investigating whether the satellite is the same one which a top u.s. arms control official said this week was exhibiting, quote, abnormal behavior. >> when you look at the russian catalog, the satellite and its children are the ones that jump out as the ones that are acting in an unusual way. >> reporter: the satellite's children, experts at the firm anal

i've been and i ice officials are not welcome in their place of worship. their information is shared on the internet. when i was a correspondence association which all all your members, you brought you to my appearance and calling a traitor to my own gender. as i know, as far as i'm the first press secretary in the history of the united states required secret service protection. the media continues to ratchet up the verbal assault against the president and everyone in this administration we have a role to play the media will play as well. >> if i may follow-up, excuse me. you did not say in the course of those remarks you made that the press is not the enemy of the people. are we to take it from you what you just said , we will put in) the sound in your notes section and i'm sorry that happened to you. i wish thathad not happened . but for the sake of this room, the people who are in this room, this democracy, this country, all the people around the world are watching what you are saying sarah and the united states of america, president of the united state

intelligence officials that the top intelligence officials really have no idea what went on during themir putin. we heard that reiterated yesterday by dan coates, saying he's not in a position to comment about that meets. he also said it to andrea mitchell during the aspen forum. what do you make of that? has it become an issue since our top intelligence officials are saying they don't know what happened in that meeting? >> this is what you get when you don't have note takers in the room, when it is a one-on-one, you know, meeting between trump and putin with a translator. republicans blocked an effort by democrats to actually interview the interpreter who was at that meeting to try to get her readout. so it is pretty worrying when you don't know what promises trump might have made, and i think going forward that's just not a good way to do policy. and if the head of dni, you know, the director of national intelligence, doesn't know what is going on, then you can be sure there are a lot of other officials in the government who should know what happened, they're out of the loop as well.

intelligence official being kept in the dark? >>> mueller's key witness. special counsel robert mueller wants to interview a russian pop star. he featured a trump look alike character in one of his videos and helped arrange that meeting between trump campaign officials and a russian lawyer at trump tower. could he have critical information for mueller? >>> and lavish laundering. prosecutors highlight extravagant spending by paul manafort, including a $15,000 ostrich jacket and a $10,000 karaoke machine. why did manafort suddenly, though, go broke? >>> i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." ♪ >>> this is cnn breaking news. >>> breaking news tonight, top national security and intelligence officials are warning of per vavasive and continuing russian interference in the u.s. political system. at odds with president trump's continued questioning of russian attacks on the tr2016 presidentl election. > first, let's go to our chief white house correspondent jim acosta. the white house wants to show the administration takes election interference very ser

intelligence and national security officials warn russia is still targeting u.s. elections with an eye towards dividing the country before the upcoming mid terms. does the president still think russia's interference is a hoax? >>> cnn learns that special counsel robert mueller is pushing to interview a russian oligarch and his pop star son. >>> flat broke. prosecutors reveal former trump campaign chairman paul manafort spent millions of dollars on home electronics and landscaping even as his book keeper reveals his firm had no money to pay bills. >>> and sloppy spy? she was aggressively flirtatious and boasted of ties to russian intelligence when she drank too much. is this russian spy still a valuable asset for moscow? i'm wolf blitzer and you are in the situation room. >>> this is cnn breaking news. >> the white house brings out its intel and national security chiefs in a big show it means business. the director of national intelligence says -- i'll speak with congressman of the armed  services committee and our correspondents and specialists are also standing

he's from arizona he said that he was a former top official. for the brazilian football federation and he's been sentenced to four years in jail on six counts of corruption charges but we have a report now gives us a bit more background information on that case. just say maria marine until his conviction and u.s. court in december spent a lot of time moving between his temporary digs at new york's trump tower and a federal courthouse that ended with guilty verdicts on six counts related to taking over six million dollars in bribes while handing out broadcast and marketing rights for major soccer tournaments. the former head of brazilian soccer marine was one of the qadri of men at the top of the sport's governing body. on a cold december morning mere feet as headquarters in zurich in two thousand and fifteen swiss and u.s. investigators coordinated a raid on a luxury hotel. marine and a handful of other futile powerbrokers were arrested some than extradited to the u.s. it was an exclamation point to the corruption crisis at fee for. the thief a

and shows church officials covered it up for decades. report is cardinal donald worrell the arch buyer bishop of washington, d.c. he was the archbishop 1998 to 2006. he spoke to wttg defending his handling of priests accused of abuse. >> i have tried to do my very best to deal with this whole question of allegations against a priest. now, remember, we are talking about a long spectrum of time so how we dealt with things in the late 1980s, early 19990s is different than the way we would today. >> wuerl also dismissed allegations that he and other church officials showed only disdain with victims. he met with anyone who came forward. shep? >> shepard: lauren, i mentioned that we haven't heard from the vatican, haven't heard from the pope. what have they been doing about this problem? >> well, you are absolutely right, shep. you know, a lot of criticism is directed at the vatican for not responding yet. the pope has accepted the resignation of five issue will shops from chili after detailing the reports of sex abuse there. he denounced what

it had, the official said.ctation was that the kids would go to the office of refugee resettlement, that the parents would get deported, and that no one would care. that's a currently serving administration official. admitting to a report per that's what they were counting on. that they could take kids away from their parents permanently and no one would care. they were surprised anybody definitely joining us, the deputy director of the aclu immigrants rights. thank you very much. >> thanks for having me again. >> so when we first reported on this court ordered deadline, we thought the government would have to awide by it. the government says it is abiding by it but these kids aren't eligible for reunification with their parents. >> the government has taken out certain kids and said you're not eligible because we think your parents have a serious criminal history. we completely dispute that. that's only one segment. as you said, there are 343 parents sitting in other countries waiting for their kids. the govern

one of the cia official joins me now. great to have you here. tell us what was at the forefront of your thinking when you decided to join others of the intelligence community in this letter. >> i wanted to ensure that my signature was in the letter to say unequivocally i don't think it is okay. >> tell me why that is the issue. what would happen if we applied political litmus tests to people who did the kind of work that you do. >> then it would strictly be about ideology, political party and have nothing to do with national security. i would say this if it was a letter that i had to sign saying the same thing about former president barack obama, president george bush. any press in our history. i can't imagine anyone asking about loyalty. even if he was, president trump was opposed to john brennan's actions this is not the type of actions he should be taking. this is like retaliation against a former government official and that in and of itself is extremely dangerous. that is so dangerous. that is like a dictator or autocrat. >> are you hearten

statements. >> are president trump's tweets considered official white house statements?, the president is the president of the united states. so they're considered official statements by the president of the united states. >> and no one's ever walked that back, by the way. mueller has made it clear that trump's tweets are a key part of the obstruction probe. so while others debate no one is paying attention, we know mueller is. with me now, jess mcintosh, a former aide to hillary clinton. courts have held the president's tweets are important in the immigration ban. another judge has recently ruled the president can't ban people from his twitter account because it's a matter of public record. at some point, whether you came into this election thinking the tweets were official or important, we must now that by now they are. >> they are, this president doesn't engage with us in a proper press conference the way all past presidents have. we have to communicate with him via twitter. he gets around a thousand retweets or likes. it drives the news traffic of the day. a lot of a

the president or the country's top experts and officials in this matter? >> i think in terms of the mechanics of all this, the russians influences the 2016 elections and attempting the do again in 2018, hacking our democracy. you have to go with the national security professionals here. the president's argument that this is all a hoax is a political argument. it is not one based on facts or based or any search he's done on the intelligence. we should believe as though officials said there is a serious threat from russia in this election than the last. the president yesterday again with the hoax, his crowd and base, you know at this rally and i was there last night, they want to hear that. they want to hear that what he's doing is trying to have diplomacy with russia and trying to make a better world and they want to hear that his election is credible because they all believed in it. he obviously is worried of the legitimacy over the course of time and he said both things that the russians interfered and he believed vladimir putin when he says he did not in

officials and other us persons through traditional intelligence tradecraft. criminal efforts to suppress voting and provide illegal campaign finances. to the voting infrastructure on the computer intrusions targeting elected officials and others and a whole slew of other kinds of influence both overtly and covertly manipulating news stories and spreading disinformation, leveraging economic resources and escalating divisive issues. it's important to understand this is not just an election cycle. our adversaries are trying to undermine our country on a persistent regular basis whether it's election season or not. there is a clear distinction between all one activities in the security and integrity of our election system and on the other hand, the broader influence operations designed to manipulate and influence our voters and opinions. with our partners, we are trying to counteract both threats. we have three pillars to our operational strategy. the first is our investigations and operation. for a variety of reasons which i think are obvious including operation

the city awarded its first official permits yesterday to "scoot" and "skip." they were the only companies approved.. out of the 12 that applied. this comes after complaints he city to tow >>> electric scooters will soon be rolling on the streets of san francisco. they have their first official permits for scoot and skip, the only companies approved out of the five. they were going to take away all scooters in june. since then, there was a permit process created. >> we are optimistic scooters can play a role in transportation in san francisco. specs of the biggest players in the game were not awarded permits, line, electric scooter operator in several markets said they have selected and experienced scooter operators that plan to learn on the job at the expense of the public good, others say this is not the case. >> we have a different criteria and they had the opportunity to shows their ideas. we are not penalizing anyone for anything other than not meeting our high standards. >> scoot and skip have been approved for a 12 month permit that will allow them to op

and these officials were on the front lines of that warfare. intercepting a lot of the information that is critical to us going forward. this means now that they are not able to access that information to advise our officials. secondly, there's the chilling effect that we discussed before. >> right, right. >> officials who now served but may be in the private sector, and what is that -- what kind of effect does that have on them in terms of whether they're going to be willing to speak out? >> that's exactly it. you had the voice of brennan we've heard, even just since this happened, this statement came out. even before, calling the president treasonous after helsinki. even being outspoken with omarosa. we've heard from him directly he's not going to be quiet. what about the others, these names as well on this list? that may be -- >> the one thing they seem to have in common that is they have all been critics of the president. comey, they say comey was fired, i saw a statement from jim jordan saying, all these people were fired. yes, but comey's

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these officials and officials in the congress and others and even local election officials are saying this is intensifying, this is happening now, this is affecting and tlaex will happen just a few months from now. there is no longer an abstraction or ambient threat, this is coming to bear right now and we need to watch out. so they would love to have the president back them up on this but they clearly have stopped waiting for that to happen. >> in terms of getting more bold, being blunt, dan coats -- this is not the first time in the last couple weeks but yesterday saying he doesn't know what happened, he can't weigh in on what happened in that meeting in helsinki. what does this do in terms of setting the stage for future meetings? whether it be another meeting with vladimir putin, another meeting with kim jong-un. how does it affect those moments? >> one last button up to the russia point. during the cold war we did put money into defenses at point, the abm in the 60s and star wars in the 80s. but we had the deterrence of mutually assured destruction. i remember when the president

there's a new sign tonight that white house officials waited for weeks to drop the brennan bombshell. was it specifically timed to distract from the president's ugly feud with a former aide, omarosa. >>> hitting mueller. rudy guiliani is promising to unload like a ton of bricks if the special counsel does not wrap up his russia probe within the next few weeks. is the president okay with his lawyer's threats? >>> and heading to the jury. the criminal trial of paul manafort is nearing an end, and a potentially dramatic verdict for or against the president's former campaign chairman. women it also be a verdict on the mueller investigation? >>> we want to welcome our viewers here in the united states and around the world. wolf blitzer is off today. i am jim sciutto. and you're in "the situation room". ♪ >>> and the breaking news. former cia director john brennan says americans should be, quote, gravely worried about president trump's unprecedented move to punish him for speaking out against the administration calling it abuse of power. brennan and others in the intel aren't buying that he

this is the president talking about this justice department official. this could be the test case to make the leap from stripping away clearances from former national security officials to stripping away clearances from sitting justice department officials. watch the president on this employee today. >> i think bruce ohr is a disgrace. i suspect i'll be taking it away very quickly. i think that bruce ohr is a disgrace with his wife, nellie. for him to be in the justice department and to be doing what he did, that is a disgrace. that is disqualifying for mueller. >> doesn't work for mueller, he works at the justice department. it's reminiscent of his attacks on former acting fbi director andy mccabe and his wife who ran for political office. we should point out the other people targeted for removing their clearances are andy mccabe, jim comey and sally yates. i actually don't think any of them have clearances anymore. just talk about the tactic. >> it's not a new one. donald trump is 72 years old. he's been doing this kind of stuff for about 50 years, yo

never made a law about this palestine has arabic as an official language egypt has arabic as an official language why can the world's one jewish country let's not have hebrew as it's a little joins look let's just broaden this out because even self-determination self-determination in the realm president. said the undemocratic nature of the law makes it a weapon for israel's enemy and the outgoing head of the jewish agency nathan sharansky says look the law is driving a wedge between jews in israel and those in the diaspora so even jews at home and abroad are extremely worried about this law. the even jews argument is easy to make because israel is a democracy were lots of people can express different views it's true it's hard to make the argument even palestinian arabs disagree with the palestinian government because there are people in jail it's true in israel the law was subject to a seven year debate in the knesset it won by a significant majority and polls show the stream were popular simply restates the basic values of his vote that the jewish people ok have a national home ok like

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are you being protected by officials in south africa? and there are separate allegations in a confidential report by the gistrate's commission seen by the bbc concerning alleged payments for appointments. it found the most senior magistrate received money. the report says that it appears to have a pattern of racketeering activity. he denies any wrongdoing and said he would not respond unless formal charges were laid against him. the commission and the police are investigating. corruption is a word often usedh in sfrica, but one of its veteran zulu politicians say fears it is wiping out the rhinos. >> it seems to me they want to completely eliminate them. the whole of south africa is reeks of corruption. reporter: more rhinos are killed, the mber of orphans left behind is increasing. unless demanis stopped in asia and corruption tackled here, they are heading towards extinction. rajini: starting today, u.s. moviegoers will be able to watco thing they have not seen in a quarter of century, a modern asstudio film led by an aln cast. "crazy

authorities say it went on for decades as senior church officials instead of rushing to expose it covered it up. >> the time of telling these victims to keep their truth to themselves has ended. ud allegations he racial slur by calling omarosa a dog, and she wastes no time making new explosive allegations. the white house asked to guarantee there are no tapes of trump using the "n" word said this. >> i can't guarantee anything. >>> a deadly bridge disaster. a packed span suddenly collapses in a powerful storm, cars plunging below. tonight many dead and a frantic search for survivors in the rubble. >>> a terror-attack in the heart of london, a car plowing into a crowd. >>> late word of injuries as a massive gas explosion blows a home to pieces. >>> prayers for the queen. the latest on the health of aretha franklin, ailing tonight in detroit. >>> this is "nbc nightly news" with lester holt. >>> good evening. welcome to our viewers in the west. we begin with a shameful tragedy now revealed and shocking the catholic church tonight from pennsylvania to the vatican. an explosive grand jury repo

this coming to us from a canadian official. so we're now being told talks will continue into next week per this official. this is bit of a moving target here remember the friday deadline was about getting this done before the mexican presidency changes hands later this year. so there was a political impetus to have this deal done today not necessarily a legal impetus to have it done today. that is from one foiofficial, a we're getting a lot of conflicting information at one time we're sorting this out with you guys in realtime we're about to get more details as to what exactly that is, possible now we could see these talks extended into next week. >> and we're going to hear officially from the canadian prime minister i think one of the big questions people are going to be listening for did that off-the-record leak, the president's tone, that blunt tone, sort of the insulting tone towards the canadians have anything to do this was wrapped up to snd. >> you be the president saying look, where he stands is no concessions for you.

what message does that send to current doj officials? >> i think it's very clear this is a personalized presidency. you cross him and he will go after you whether you work for him or not, whether you are the media or not, whatever. and so this is -- everything he does is a shot across the bow for other people. he goes at brennan's security clearance to warn other people. he goes at ohr to warn other people. it's a form of grotesque intimidation, but it is his stock in trade. >> it sounds nixonian. >> and it sounds although i'm not an attorney like obstruction of justice. it's obstruction of justice but it's so out in the open that it's almost hard to process how outrageous it is. like so much else about this administration. >> when you want to hide something, hide it in plain sight. >> like sending a message to paul manafort who obviously will make decisions about the second trial he has in september based on whether or not he might expect a presidential pardon. so he's doing all of these things that if we had a functional political syst

. >>> more former senior intelligence officials slam the u.s. president for his decision to revoke the security clearance of one of their own. >>> and this, the scene in southern india, rescues under way there as monsoon rains and deadly floods hammer that region. >>> and it has for months now, hasn't it. we'll take you there. welcome to our viewers here in the u.s. and all around the world. i'm natalie allen. >> and i'm george howell. "newsroom" starts right now. . >>> we begin with a cnn exclusive. we're learning new and unsettling details about the air strike that hit yemen earlier this month. >> that bomb that killed as many as 50 people, 40 of them children, was supplied by the united states. nima elbajir reports and we warn you this contains disturbing images. >> reporter: every day he visits the graveyard. today he brought their 5-year-old brother along. he is all the man has left. >> translator: people were screaming out the name of their children. i tried to tell the women it couldn't be true, but then a man ran through the crowd shouti

late today, 60 other former cia officials weighed in as well with a statement of their own. one of them is going to join us shortly. in any case, the president appears undeterred. he appears eager to go after another name on what critics are calling his own enemies list and serving justice department official named bruce. >> say it? i think bruce ohr is a disgrace. >> ever heard of bruce ohr? he is a small player in what the president would call a large experience against him. he commune waited with the author of a russian dossier this afternoon mr. trump's victory. there is no evidence that mr. ohr did anything wrong with speaking with mr. steele. none. he was associate deputy attorney general so a dossier like the he compiled would be of interest to him, but whaufr think of thetev the doj or in years past, you ought to know what president trump is doing is without precedent. the very rare exceptions. the chief executives do not get involved in who does or doesn't have security clearance. this president has and every time he talks about it, he underscores motivation for doi

as i said, he and top white house officials indicated that is possible. we don't know when or exactly who would be next on such a list. if a list is the right term for it, but it is a power the president has. what can lawmakers do? already seen senator mark warner, democrat of virginia, is saying they need to take a sort of legislative fix to protect those who have this kind of clearance from what he would view as an arbitrary use of that power. we'll see if lawmakers want to get onboard, of course, requiring republicans to be taking that action and so far the top senate intel republican richard burr has said he agrees with the president's use of this authority when it comes to john brennan. alex? >> kelly o. thank you, from new jersey for that. >>> joining me now, betsy woodruff and msnbc contributor and vivian salama from the "washington post." reach out to you first, vivien. what what does the white house look to achieve? what are they particularly looking at a growing list of intel officials rebukes directly this president's decision? >> essentially,

these are officials from bipartisan backgrounds. they are officials from democratic presidents. they are officials from republican presidents going all the way back to, i believe, george h.w. bush. then again, jennifer, we've been here before. there have been times in 2016 when a number of newspapers have released open letters from former intelligence officials or military officials or senior diplomats opposing the president, including one that had 50 top gop national security officials signing a letter warning that trump would be the most reckless president in american history. that's august 2016. what sort of effect does a letter like this have on republicans? not on the president. i know how it's going to affect the president. >> well, let me start with how absolutely unprecedented is this letter. it has cia directors going back to 1987 with director webster. it's an extraordinary letter because it's completely without regard to party, completely without regard to their position on mr. brennan. the letter clearly states that some of us have not felt it was appropriate to spea

officials and other u.s. persons through traditional intelligence trade craft, criminal efforts to suppress voting and provide illegal campaign financing, cyber attacks against voting infrastructure along with computer intrusions, targeting elected officials and others, and a whole slew of other kinds of influence like both overtly and covertly manipulating news stories, spreading disinformation, leveraging economic resource, and escalating divisive issues. but it's important to understand this is note just an election cycle threat. our adversaries are trying to undermine our country on a persistent and regular basis whether it's election season or not. there's a clear distinction between on the one hand activities that threaten the security and integrity of our election systems and on the other hand the broader threat of influence operations designed to manipulate and influence our voters and their opinions. with our partners, we're trying to counteract both threats. we have three pillars to our operational

right now upwards of 75 former intelligence officials are at odds with president trump. first, there are new names on the list of former senior intelligence officials condemning the president's decision to revoke former cia director john brennan's security clearance. that number now up to 15. that is 15 former directors and deputy directors of the cia and directors of national intelligence dating back to the reagan administration, all signing on to a statement that reads in part, quote, the president's action regarding john brennan and the threats of similar action against other former officials have nothing to do with who should and should not hold security clearances and everything to do with an attempt to stifle free speech. decisions on security clearances should be based on national security concerns and not political views. again, these are household names -- general david petraeus, judge william webster, leon panetta, james clapper, people who have served in republican and democratic administrations or both. and late today, 60 other former cia officials weighed in