he could not imagine russian guy coming to see him. as he recall, he can't remember what the meeting is about. >> russian ambassador wants to get to know people. this guy is come to see you, he is going to talk about stuff. what you did talk about. this is how the pattern becomes, there's nothing to look at here. we find out more. there's nothing to look at here. soon or later, blames leaker. it's a weird pattern. the behavior suggestions there's something there and nobody wants to answer questions. >> do you think it's possible, if it you want to end disclosure get a list of everybody who worked for him, anybody that worked for him. when you join the peace kor core, they want to know who you are. empty your pockets, tell me every time you had a meeting with the russian so we can get this over with. >> otherwise it's going to continue to drip, drip, drip. i thought his evidence was spotty in stretches. he talking about fill busting and talking about trip to russia, somehow the subject of ukraine came up. that's why the russian ambassad

the first one is direct links between the russian government and the trump campaign while the russian attack on our election was under way. to that point, there's a second beat on this story that you need to know in terms of this softening the russian language and the republican platform. there's a second beat on this you should know. back in august there was some additional reporting on this particular russian guy who used to work with paul manafort, used to work with trump's campaign manager in ukraine. we now know he traveled to the u.s. ahead of the republican convention. he may have been involved. he says he was involved in making the republican party's platform more pro-russia. that guy, that russian guy back in august when there was a lot of attention to paul manafort, to trump having a campaign manager with tons of russian ties and lots of experience working in that part of the world. at that time in august of last year, politico profiled this russian guy who was paul manafort's right hand man in hiss previous work in ukraine and one of the things they turned up about this rus

the russian ambassador is a witness in the russian hacking that we are investigating. we can meet twice. there is no way he can investigate himself. i agree with alice that there needs to be an investigation. >> one of the former fbi officials. >> often said there is no aha moment. just a drip, drip, drip. that's how it starts. >> that's true, don. if there is a special prosecutor, he will have a hart time staying with the justice department. you can't manage that kind of thing and first he wants to be. these things have a way of mushrooming. it's worth remembering tonight that i objected violently years ago. it happened. the house of representatives. he said i never had sexual relations with that woman. >> breaking news and lots of it coming this evening on cnn. we will continue to follow it. i appreciate my panel. stay with us for the breaking news. that's it for us tonight. we will see you back here tomorrow. >>> live from the george washington university in the nation's capital, this is a town hall with john mccain and lindsey graham. we want to welcome our viewers

>> when were you aware he spoke to the russian ambassador?i wasn't aware at all. >>. [ inaudible ] >> i think he probably did. >> we are waiting for attorney jeff sessions to speak. he just announced he is going to have a press conference here shortly. this is of course about accusations that he misled congress about his meetings with russian's ambassador to washington, we will be bringing that to you live, but in the meantime, you heard president trump saying he has total confidence in his attorney general and joining me now is someone calling for the former senator, colleague of his, jeff sessions to resign, richard blumenthal, joining me now, thank you, sir, and the argument we have been hearing from people supporting the attorney general is he was talking about discussing really campaign stuff with russian officials doing so as a campaign surrogate that he felt it was his role on the armed services committee. what do you say to that? >> i say whatever explanation, you ought to be giving it before the judiciary committee where he omitted o

i never had meetings with russian operatives or russian intermediaries about the trump campaign, and the idea that i was part of a, quote, continuing exchange of information during the campaign between trump surrogates and intermediaries for the russian government is totally false. >> reporter: the two meetings between sessions and the russian ambassador took place in july on the sidelines of the republican convention and then on september 8th when the russian ambassador met then-senator sessions at his office when he was a member of the senate armed services committee. at the time sessions was also a leading trump campaign surrogates. >> do you swear. >> reporter: at a sessions hearing on january 28 he denied any contacts between trump surrogates and russia. >> if there is any evidence that anyone affiliated with the trump campaign communicated with the russian government in the course of this campaign, what will you do? >> senator franken, i'm not aware of any of those activities. i have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and i did not have communications wit

the russian active measures campaign may have begun as early as 2015 when russian intelligence services launched a series of spear fishing attacks designed to penetrate the computers of a broad array of washington-based democratic and republican party organizations, think tanks and other entities. this continued at least through the winter of 2016. while first the hacking may have been intended solely for the collection of foreign intelligence, in mid-2016, the russians weaponized the stolen data and used platforms established by the intel services such as dc leaks and existing third party channels like wikileaks to dump the documents. the stolen documents were almost uniformly damaging to the candidate putin despised, hillary clinton. and by forcing her campaign to constantly respond to the daily drip of disclosures, releases greatly benefited donald trump's campaign. none of these facts is seriously in question. and they're reflected in the consensus conclusion of our intelligence agencies. we'll never know whether the russian intervention was determinative in such a close election. i

i never had meetings with russian operatives or russian intermediaries about the trump campaign. that is a question i responded to. i did not respond by referring to the two meetings, one very brief after a speech and one with two of my senior staffers, professional staffers with the russian ambassador in washingto washington. no such things were discussed. my reply to the question of senator franken was honest and correct. i recused myself in the matters that deal with the trump campaign. >> bret: attorney general jeff sessions recusing himself as this investigation continues at the justice department. the fbi, investigations in the house and senate intelligence committees about possible contact or collusion with the russians before the election with the trump campaign. pushback from republicans but we are getting word in meetings at the white house, now saying that then-nsa to be michael flynn met with ambassador sergey kislyak, also jared kushner met with the russian ambassador in that same meeting. and you are hearing about the attorney general's meeting. he was the senator b

flynn was vulnerable to russian blackmail. he resigned only after it became clear that he misled the public and the vice president about the substance of these off-the record conversations. but it doesn't just end there. the attorney general, at best, misled the judiciary committee during his confirmation hearings about his record of contact with russian officials. he testified under oath that he, quote -- quote -- did not have communications with the russians during the campaign. when it became clear that he actually met with the russian ambassador at least twice last year, including a one-on-one meeting in the final weeks of the campaign, he was forced to recuse himself from the justice department's criminal investigation into this very, very serious issue. it has been my experience that when people are caught covering up their meetings and contacts with someone, they usually have something to hide. if you have nothing to hide, there's no reason for a cover-up. the serious national security implications of the trump administ

russian tried to help trump get elected. during that same month, michael flynn met with -- on the same day the obama administration issued sanctions on russia. one day after, december 30, russian president vladimir putin announce he would not retaliate in response to u.s. sanction, "the washington post" reported on flynn's call with russian when pence learned flynn had discusses. -- just last night. today sessions recused himself from the investigation involving trump campaign. today relearned about additional between flynn and ambassador. we are joined -- i want to start with this. greg, you start. it seems, this calls for -- it seems like the trump administration acts on what we read in the newspaper. the story breaks that flynn met with the russian ambassador and having not said so. all of a sudden he has to go, attorney general recused had imsever after the story broke after he met with the russian ambassador. all of this meeting, all of this odd, evidence of some kind of collusion or only when we discovered does this ad

invasion of crimea and specifics of the russian support to separatists in the ukraine and russians continue to pressure to keep ukraine weak. >> would it help? >> if we remove sanctions? >> there's a lot at stake for russia. this is big money. big strategic implications. if they can legitimate their annexation of crimea, what's next? are we looking at new iron curtain ascending across eastern europe? you know, most in our country recognize what is at stake and how the united states as a leader of the free world is the only check on russian expansion. so back to mr. trump and his cohort, at the republican convention in july, paul manafo manafort, carter page and trump himself changed the republican party platform to no longer arm ukraine so the same month that trump denied putin's role in ukraine his team weakened the party platform on ukraine and as we have and will continue to hear, this was the same month that several individuals in the trump orbit held secret meetings with russian officials. some of which may have been on the topic of sanctions against russia for their intervention in uk

flynn lied about meeting the russian ambassador and taking money from the russian government and thirdly mr. flynn at a minimum did not disclose work as an agent of a foreign power, and that the white house did not help in this concern. so gentlemen it's clear to me that mr. flynn should be under criminal investigation and i know you cannot comment, but i believe it is my duty as a member of this committee to comment to the american people, that this, that his engagement of lying and failure to disclose really imptant information and contacts with a foreign ambassador do rise to the level of disclosure, and to me criminal intent. so i say this to say that the american people deserve to know the full extent of mr. flynn's involvement with the russians, and the extent to which it influenced the 2016 election. i believe our democracy requires it. thank you. i yield back to my ranking member. >> time's expired. i recognize myself for 15 minutes. mr. comey and mr. rogers, you both said that the russians had, they favored donald trump this election, and you made that change from the beginning

a lot of meetings with russians. specifically the russian ambassador. >> john, there's a serious case of jitters among republicans because of this. number one, they got surprised by the man who was supposed to be their friend, jeff sessions, the attorney general. two, u i don't understand there's a playbook for dealing with these things. everybody knows, the trump administration knows blaming democrats for this. yes, it makes sense. try to rally political supporters making it all political. democrats didn't invite them to the russian convention. they didn't invite him to trump tower. democrats didn't set up the meetings we are learning after the fact t. president's statement doesn't quite add up or address the facts. here is why republicans are worried. they are happy he recused himself. they think that turns the temperature down momentarily. there's a basic politics 101 playbook. bill clinton used it. if you know there's information out there that is going to kick you in the teeth at some point and other people know

persons and the russians. is it fair for me to his and we should not dismiss the possibility there was coordination or collusion between the russian efforts and in anersons as investigatory body? >> on can tell you is what we were investigating, which includes whether or with any collusion between the people of the trump -- andn association or russians. >> i yield the remaining time. >> thank you. so, with respect to the coordination to mr. comey, wanted to continue this line of questioning. can you say with any specificity coordination or contact you are looking at in your investigation, generally, when confronted with something like this? >> i cannot. >> can you discuss whether or not there was any knowledge by and thep-related person russians? >> i cannot. >> so, with respect to any whetherinvestigation, the specificity of the u.s. person or otherwise, you cannot comment on any of that? >> correct. >> can you characterize what the nation of your investigation generally -- when you do an sorttigation the sho

what your hearing from russian officials about the attorney general's meetings with the russian ambassador in the united states? >> the position here is the russian ambassador isn't doing anything wrong. this is his job in washington to meet with politicians and meet with other diplomats. if he wasn't doing that there would be something wrong. the view from here is, and we heard this from the president's spokesman today, dmitri peskov, saying there's a highly charged emotional atmosphere in washington right now. that the united states doesn't interfere in the business of other nations. that it isn't involved in this, but it needs to wait until the situation calms down and normalizes before moscow can make a judgment about what's really happening here. however, we've also heard from the spokeswoman, the foreign ministry here criticizing journalists reporting here saying that it's misinformation that it's media vandalism, even comparing the reporting of cnn in this particular case to george orwell's book 1984 saying the western media have become big brother. there's a sort of pushback two le

no confirmation there was pushing russian policy or promoting russian interests or nullifying russianlege in the report. >> you're speaking to people in moscow. what are they saying about the constant attention with putin, trump and u.s. relations? >> i think russians are frustrated with it. both people you meet on the street and russian government. kremlin for its part said it never saw the trump administration through rose tinted spectacles. never had idealistic view what they could deliver. but for many months donald trump was heralded in the russian media as savior for russia. spoke symthetically about pro russian policies on range of issues and frustration and disappointment he's not been able to deliver on any of those words he's talked about. recognizing crimea as part of russia, cooperating over terrorism. behind the frustration is a great deal of fear. already rocky relationship between washington and moscow under obama is potentially not going to change and maybe get worse in the coming years. >>> coming back, more and more unanswered questions about the russia connection. b

every living russian. the country's national narrative is impossible without it. in 1941, hitler's armies were stopped just outside the gates of moscow. in 1945, stalin's armies entered berlin. that was russia's greatest generation. generations of russians since then have been taught that their country was at its most secure then because it was protected by a buffer, the war saw pact and the soviet empire. in 1991 russians lost that buffer. the legacy of their greatest generation. with their country falling apart, russian leaders had no choice but to accept this loss. for as long as russia would remain weak. the 90s were a terrible decade for russia but a great decade for the west. for russian leaders, and many regular russians, the dominance of the west came at the expense of russia's loss in the cold war. russia would not remain weak indefinitely. its economic recovery led to a return doing much more assertive posture, on the world stage. we saw it in the crushing of georgia in 2008. in the annexation of

into the trump campaign. >> let me be clear, i never had meetings with russian operatives or russian intermediaries about the trump campaign but defending himself amid revelations he failed to disclose in his confirmation hearing that he met with the russian ambassador twice during president trump's campaign last year. >> i don't believe there's anything wrong with a united states senator meeting with an ambassador from russia. >> under oath sessions had a different answer. >> i did not have communication with the russians. >> the attorney general admits. >> i should have slowed down and i didn't meet one russian official. >> and now plans to submit a supplement. >> my response went to the question as i indicated about the continuing surrogate relationship that i firmly denied and correctly denied. i did not mention in that time that hi met with the ambassador and so i will definitely make that a part of the record. sessions first meeting last july on the side lines of the republican national convention. cnn obtained copies of then senator sessions expense report. it appears to revea

we're not like the russians.i think that's probably the wrong way to get into the question. >> malcolm nance, same questions to you. >> well, for the most part, i think that we need to understand what russia is doing strategically. i mean, they are waging a war not just, you know, cyberwar or political warfare. they're waging a war to damage liberal democracy in its entirety. and what they're doing is they have figured out using hybrid warfare. that's this global perception management game. which is actually didn't hack just the dnc. it hacked the psyche of the american people. in this election. >> but relatively low cost as weapons go. >> no cost as weapons go. and it just, you know, all you do is use the organs of the state which they've done brilliantly, and now have allies within the united states government and put those allies into office. and by doing that, they now have an axis against democracy. now they can go after france and germany and the netherlands. >> where there happen to be elections coming up.

or other russian officials?he attorney general disclose these meetings during the fbi background check for his nomination? there has been a revelation after revelation. mistruths after mistruths. stories shifting like quicksand. if they is truly no there there, why weren't they tell the truth? as ever in washington there are two narratives. this is the speaker of the house paul ryan, a senior republican, this is his take. first i will refer to the senate judiciary committee. i checked the transcript on all of that, so i can't speak to what the judiciary committee transcriptase, frankly i haven't read it. should he recuse himself, ithink frankly i haven't read it. should he recuse himself, i think he answered that question this morning. which is if he himself is subject of an investigation, of course he could, but if he's not i don't see any purpose or reason of doing this. let's bring in anthony zurcher as we a lwa ys let's bring in anthony zurcher as we always do. from washington, dc. so many elements to this s

jeff should recuse himself from all of these investigations that have russian ties or russian investigationsg on within the fbi or any other of other intel committees. i've asked point-blank. with that, i want to see what the facts are, but jeff is going to have to answer to these. the facts will take us to the truth. t . >> congressman jason chaffetz agrees with you, called for attorney general sessions to recuse himself. some of your other democratic colleagues have gone further. they think he should resign for misleading congress. >> i understand that. i wasn't in the committee hearing. i don't know. i'm not on that committee that jeff went through for the hearing. jeff is going to have to answer to this. if there's facts that bear out there's actions to be taken, we'll have to vote on those actions. i will take the am quote vote to move forward and build trust in this government. people have to have trust in what we're doing. it's not about who you vote for, who you don't vote for. it's the facts. the intel committee will take us to where the facts are. the facts whether take us to the t

the russian owned media outlet. according to the january 2017, declassified assessment report, the criticism of the united states was the last facet of the broader and to long-standing anti-u.s. messaging likely aimed at undermining viewers trust in the u.s. democratic procedures. this january assessment points out that this is a strategy that russia employed. it goes back to before the 2012 elections according to the ic assessment. so admiral rogers, am i right that the rt is essentially owned by the russian government? and how long has the intelligence community been looking at rt as an arm of the russian government? >> we are certainly aware. we have been for a period of time between the russian government and rt individuals with other things. >> how long have you known about that? mom's coming years, how long has the united states -- >> some number of years. >> and my knots right to assume that the former director of dia, the agency, mr. flynn would have been aware that rt's role as an anti-u.s. russian propagan

it matters because of the russians.use of the russian ambassador, an impressive individual, i met him myself and had it in my home, by all accounts he is a senior official in the ssb and he is considered to be notjust an ambassador but aspire. this is not a normal relationship between the united states and russia. no president since world war two has ever consider to russian leader like donald trump has cosied up to vladimir putin. a bunch of people must surely be more interested in what the administration is going to do aboutjob, bridges, immigration and national security. that is certainly true and i not comparing this to watergate but i remember during the early part of the investigation that was the argument use. investigation that was the argument use. it turned out to be pretty important, didn't it? what about the latest assertions that mike pence when governor of indiana accused of private e—mail server for state business — that will strike some echoes with allegations against hillary clinton? it is pure hypocris

the only check on russian expansion. at the republican convention in july, trump himself change the republican party platform to no longer arm ukraine. month putin denied -- this was the same month that several individuals held secret meetings with russian officials. been onwhich may have the topic of sanctions against russia. alleges trump agreed ofsideline intervention russia into ukraine. has yet a lot to be -- to be proven from the dos year, the allegations are checking out and this one seems to be as accurate as they come. in fact, there is also one pattern i want to point out. fired.r, page, fired. why? they were hired because of their russian connections. became their connections public, they were effectively couple. they were also the fall guys. after mr. quigley's line of questioning, we might know news -- can guess who's next. >> thank you for your service to our country. i think it is important as we sit here that we explain this to the american people in a way they can understand. why are we talking about all

and so russian strength, russian capability, russian essentially russian warfare capacity in this regard must be shown off, right, to humble us, to bring us down to size, so they can then dictate the size of national relations to us, get us to do what they want. because if they don't, they can almost existentially threaten us with this kind of power. if that is the russian project here, it sort of helps you to see how serious it is that any american might kol lecollude wit russian project. the fbi confirmed that they are investigating the trump campaign to see whether or not they coordinated with the russian government in this operation. the fbi would not say how many associates of the president or members of the campaign are subject of this counterintelligence and would not confirm whether the president is a subject himself of this investigation. but you're starting to see hints from the white house about some of the different directions at which they maybe would like to divert blame. asked, for example, about michael flynn today, the white house press secretary notably stopped defendin

ambassador or other russians? >> we don't have any confirmation there were any conversation between these advisers and then-candidate trump about these conversations with the russian ambassador. i want to take you back to a couple of interviews that occurred just after the republican convention one with the former campaign chairman manafort who was on meet the press and said no, the trump campaign did not seek those changes in the republican party platform even though j.d. gordon tells us he was doing that on behalf of the campaign trying to reflect the views of then-candidate donald trump. donald trump, wolf, on the same day of that paul manafort interview as on this week with george stephanopoulos and said to george that the change in the platform to be a quote, softening of the language when it comes to russia. so there you have it from the candidate himself calling it a softening of the language. he's aware of the effort, wolf even though he says he was not directly involved. >> are officials there the at the

they have ties to russian intelligence services, russian agents. would that be something of interest to you? >> people bring us information about what any think is improper unlawful activity of any kind we will evaluate it not just in this context. folks send us stuff all the time. they should keep doing that. >> do you think it's possible that the russians would not be trying to infiltrate hillary clinton's campaign, get information on hillary clinton, and try to get to people that are around that campaign or the clinton foundation? >> i'm not prepared to comment about the particular campaigns, but the russians in general are always trying to understand who the future leaders might be and what levers of influence there might be on them. >> i just hope that if information does surface about the other campaigns, not even just hillary clinton's but any other campaigns, that you would take that serious also, if the russians were trying to infiltrate those campaigns around them. >> of course we would. >> i yield to mr. conaway. >> thanks gentlemen, tha

i never had meetings with russian operatives or russian intermediaries about the trump campaign. and the idea that i was part of a, quote, continuing exchange of information during the campaign between trump surrogates and intermediaries for the russian government is totally false. >> reporter: the two meetings between sessions and the russian ambassador took place last year. first in july on the side lines of the republican convention, and then again on september 8, when the russian ambassador met then senator sessions in his office when he was a member of the senate armed services committee. at the time sessions was also a leading trump campaign surrogate. >> do you swear -- >> reporter: at sessions' hearing on january 10th, he denied any contacts between trump surrogates and russia. >> if there is any evidence that anyone affiliated with the trump campaign communicated with the russian government in the course of this campaign, what will you do? >> senator franken, i'm not aware of any of those activities. i have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign, and i

russian trade, russian imports of consumer goods, russian people are suffering after not getting adequate consumer goods. growingomy is barely less than 1% currently. vonnie: some of that has to do with oil prices, too. >> yes. oil prices. $50, $55 a barrel, at that level. the thing is, russia has not really been able to diversify its economy or its export. maybe export something else. maybe some manufactured goods, machinery, or whatever because russia has a very educated manpower. not a country, asia or africa, where it has to deal with a lot of uneducated labor force, but russia has not been able to manage that. the defendants on oil is hurting the economy. lawmakers andr, intelligence experts have said that they are concerned that russia's model of interference , which includes its selective leaking of information, attempts to control the narrative in the media, could be replicated in other countries such as the upcoming french presidential election, the first round of which takes place in april. the you believe that is possible? >> the russian leadership will interfere in some way in

the russian active measures campaign may have begun as early as 2015, when russian intelligence services launched a series of spear fishing attacks design to penetrate the computers of a broad array of washington-based democratic and republican party organizations, think tanks and other entities. this continued at least through the winter of 2016. while at first the hacking may have been intended solely for the collection of foreign intelligence, in mid-2016 the russians weaponized the stolen data and used platforms established by the intel services such as dc leaks and third party channels like wikileaks to dump the dhouchloc. the stolen documents were almost uniformly damaging to the candidate putin despised, hillary clinton. the releases greatly benefitted donald trump's campaign. none of these facts is seriously in question and they're reflected in the consensus conclusion of our intelligence agencies. we will never know whether the russian intervention was determinative in such a close election. indeed it is unknowable in a campaign in which so many small changes could have dictated

we have sessions meeting with russians and jared kushner meeting with russians after it's been determined that the russians conducted this operation against american democracy. in any account, there's not a single account in which we have sessions, kushner, michael flynn saying, you know what, we're not going to do that again. we're going to be tough as hell on you because of this. instead, they seem to be cozying up to the people who ran this campaign against the u.s. election and, of course, donald trump has said nothing about the need to prevent this from happening again. all of this is completely inexcusable and it's so much bigger than jeff sessions' lie about one particular or two particular meetings. and i hope that the house and senate intelligence committees truly do the job they're supposed to do, even though they're being led by republicans who have been reluctant to take on these inquiries. >> neera, i can't let you go without noting a couple of things. one, you were running a campaign against a candidate who led chance and his rallies of lock her up, referring to your candida

so this senior russian diplomat working at the russian embassy, he gets taken out of the embassy. he gets fwraun the embassy in washington. he gets recalled to moscow. allegedly on account of him being exposable. him being exposed for his role if in n the russian operation against our presidential election. that reference to the bengs ruse. that's the reference by which the russian government paid for this operation. they did have to pay for it, right? it's about the way they got cash to pay hackers and other operatives to do the grount labor of this russian election attack. what we know about russian efforts to elect donald trump president it did not seem to be a super labor intensive process. it wasn't like an industrial process but you need people to do the work. you need, for example, people building and running the online bots and repeaters that were giving ginned up fake viral status to negative news about hillary clinton and positive news about donald trump. so you have to involve some people and you have to pay some folks so the allegation here from the dossier was that th

the russian leader was in town celebrating the expansion of the russian gas company into the united states. president trump wrote, we should start an immediate investigation into schumer and putin, a total hypocrite. schumer tweeted he's happy to talk about his contact with mr. pew tand his associates that toopsz in 2003 in front of the press and public under oath. would you and your team do it under oath? schumer never hides anything, by the way. he's a public man. >> 2003 was a different moment in time. we had pretty good relations with russia and could spend 20 minutes going through the bad deeds putin has done. he was the first leader to call george w. bush after 9/11. there was a period we were going to cooperate on issues. it fell apart. no sense belaboring that, it's a footnote, a silly attack on schumer. putin was a different figure than he is now. >> tell me about, first of all, we know manafort, had a lot of dealings with that part of the world on the russian side. right? >> yeah. yes. advising -- >> then we have, of course his role in the campaign. we have gordon, now this other

russian hacking? is it a coincidence that the russian gas company sold a 19% share afr former british intelligence officer steele was told by russi sources that carter page was offered fees on a deal of just that size? is it a coincidence that steele as you russian sources also affirmed that russia had stolen documents hurtful to secretary clinton that it would utilize in exchange for pro-russian policies that would later come to pass? is it a coincidence that roger stone predicted that john podesta would be a victim of a private hack and have e-mails published and do so before mr. podesta himself was fully aware that his private e-mail would be exposed? is it possible that all of these events and reports are completely unrelated and nothing more than an entirely unhappy coincidence? yes, it is possible. but it is also possible, maybe more than possible, that they are not coincidental, not disconnected and not unrelated and that the russians used the same techniques to corrupt u.s. persons that they e

flynn contacted the russian ambassador again.and on january 15th, 2015, vice president-elect mike pence stated on several sunday morning shows regarding mr. flynn's conversation with the ambassador, quote, what i can confirm having spoken to him about it is that those conversations that happened to occur around the time that the united states took action to expel diplomats had nothing whatsoever to do with those sanctions. end quote. on january 26th, the acting attorney general, sally yates reportedly told, president trump's white house counsel, who immediately told president trump, that mr. flynn was vulnerable to russian blackmail because of discrepancies between vice president-elect pence's public statement and mr. flynn's actual discussions. own february 10th, president trump denied knowledge of this, telling reporters on air force one, quote, i don't know about that, end quote, in response to request hes about mr. flynn's conduct. the white house also publicly denied that mr. flynn and the russian ambassador discussed sancti

the russians have been consistent. the russians back to the soviets have been consist went their approach. in a geopolitical sense, what's bad for the u.s. is good for russia. in their eyes. i think what we've seen change over the years is there's now the technological means to intrude and interfere in internal elections processes, in ways they couldn't before. because the development of the internet. so we now have an ability to do what maybe they didn't have the ability to do back in the cold war. you also have an area of opportunity now. they see possible daylight between us and some of our partners. so i think they're methodically looking at that daylight and trying to expand it so they can bring countries back into their sphere of influence and divide our allies. mr. whitehouse: thank you. your testimony focuses really effectively and kind of captures the kremlin handbook report. with respect to russia's efforts to infiltrate, corrupt, degrade and discredit democracies. with the last election, we know we've been a

not talking -- talking to russians, need more people not fewer talking to russians. of the cardinal features of the cold war is we blamed everything on the other side and thought the world was a zero-sum game. we don't know to this day what motivates donald trump to be so contrarian and like vladimir putin so very much, not to criticize him. that's a great puzzle and we've talked about this before, we don't know whether someone gave him a lot of money, whether he had a russian girlfriend and saw the wonders of the russian soul or discovered them as crass rich guys like him and made life better or saw putin as guy hated by american establishment, everyone in washington and in his contrarian way, he wanted to cheer for him. we don't know. but it's not because they're dealing with the russians, it's because they're lying about dealing with the russians because in this cold war atmosphere to be seen with the russian is a bad thing. that's pretty stupid. >> as they say, it's always the cover-up. liz, i have to ask you seems daily oar weekly find out about another trump ca

being pro-russian about?y the way, he never was asked if he met with kislyak. he said if there was collusion, would you recuse yourself. >> he denied ever meeting kislyak. so there's that. >> hold on. michael, what did you say? >> that's not exactly what al franken asked. he asked was there any contact between the campaign and russian officials. he did not use the word collusion. >> he said if there was, would you recuse yourself. >> no, no. he asked him point-blank was there any contact and jeff sessions said no, when he had met with kislyak twice. >> do you have the tape? >> so many other sketchy characters that also happened to have met with kislyak. >> we'll be right back. an unlimited data plan is only as good as the network it's on. and verizon has been ranked number one for the 7th time in a row by rootmetrics. (man) hey, uh, what's rootmetrics? it's the nation's largest independent study and it ranked verizon #1 in call, text, data, speed and reliability. (woman) do they get a trophy? not that i know

, but i did, he said i had no meeting with the russians. the washington post interviewed 20 members of the foreign relations committee and all of them said they had never met with the russian ambassador. the first line of defense on this story was of course you met with the russian investor, he's a high ranking member of the foreign relations committee. the other members don't meet with him. they were not beating down the trail to his door.ationa that was a guy i also understand went to the republican national convention were also senator sessions met with him.ht he was deeply engaged in the trump campaign. i think he had every right and who is a major conflict or, very close to steve bmn and they have a similar ideological view, but he has to tell the truth about his connections to the russians because now it looks like there's a staph infection running all the way through the trump administration. we've got to get to the bottom of it. some people think it's just the trump and putin have an affinits their macho guys and tough guys and stro

they have ties to russian intelligence services, russian agents. would that be something of interest to you? >> people bring us information about what they think is improper, unlawful activity of any kind, we will evaluate it, not just in this folks send us stuff all the time. they should keep doing that. >> do you think that you would not get information on hillary clinton and try to get to people that are around that campaign or the clinton foundation? >> i'm not prepared to comment about the particular campaigns but russians in general are always trying to understand who the future leaders might be and what levers of influence there might be on them. >> i hope that if information does surface about the other campaigns, not even just hillary clinton's but any other campaigns, that you would take that serious also if the russians were trying to infiltrate those campaigns around them. >> of course we would. >> thanks for being here. admiral rogers, you mentioned standards earlier in the conversation. are those the same for all intelligence analysts

russian ambassador sergie kislyak. and then adam schiff will join us and ambassador michael mcfaul and rand paul who is on the mission to find out what is in the republicans, apparently, top secret new plan to replace obamacare each bringing along his own photocopier while he looked. (vo) this is not a video game. this is not a screensaver. this is the destruction of a cancer cell by the body's own immune system, thanks to medicine that didn't exist until now. and today can save your life. ♪ ♪ hei don't want one that's haded a big wreck just say, show me cars with no accidents reported find the cars you want, avoid the ones you don't plus you get a free carfax® report with every listing i like it start your used car search at carfax.com from the...i'm on...ke up... ...and on... ...and on. that's why i... ...make time for myself... ...and give my body some love... ...with aveeno® daily moisturizing lotion. its active naturals® oat formula... ...locks in moisture to improve skin wellness in just one day. i really needed

russians. i have no information about this matter. >> denying any impropriety. now saying i never met to discuss issues of the campaign. have no idea what this allegation is about. it is false. but the justice department revealing that sessions met with him last july on the sidelines of the republican national convention. >> make america great again. >> four months after sessions was named chairman of the trump campaign's national security advisory committee. sessions met again with him last september in a senate office. the white house blasting allegations by leading democrats that he mislead as partisan politics. sessions met with the ambassador in an official capacity as a member of the senate armed services committee which is entirely consistent with this testimony. sessions spokeswoman says quote there was absolutely nothing misleading about his answer. the denials from sessions and the white house are in direct conflict with what the justice department says happened. senior government sou

also in the campaign about whatever contacts they have had with russians, russian businessmen. it's very easy for the president of the united states to go to his counsel in the white house and say mr. counsel, i want you to have all of those involved in my campaign, in my white house who have been named in this, who have had anything to do with activities with the russians, with ethno russians, get their records of e-mails. let's take a real look. i want to know absolutely everything that happened here. nothing like that happened. instead, the president of the united states this evening issued a statement blaming all this on democrats and leakers, that's not going to wash. this is not going away as david axelrod said. >> no. >> and there is the appearance here of a coverup certainly among a couple people very close to donald trump. >> let me ask kirsten powers. donald trump used the word cover up several times. cover up of what exactly. it's a coverup of a meeting that could be benign. every senator and lawmaker told me they have met with ambassadors before. >> you have to cons

i never had meetings with russian o

one is russian tv, tv channels broadcasting in russian. the major narrative probably linked to baltic states but also to european union and this narrative tells about european union is economically collapsing and that was a great strategic mistake by baltic states to join to european union, and the only way how to get back to prosperity and welfare is to come back to russia and through russian economy, get to high wealth. another way is financing of ngos. while the person are not numerous and each of them are working in several ngos financed by different russian foundations and having, well, very nice names linked to protection of human rights or european research or whatever, and they are pretending to be fighting for the rights of russian speakers. allegedly developing another narrative that russian speakers, in for instance latvia, are abused and facing massive abuse of their human rights. probably the third i would mention is rather strong work in social media as spreading out different fake news, trolling, like we saw quite recently -

tonight, it became clear that he had met the russian ambassador last year

coming up, the russian perspective on jeff sessions meeting with the russian ambassador. that's next. >>> also coming up, our exclusives where hillary video. we found her today. we won't show you that video until the moment comes later in the program. anyone know where she was? i do. also coming up ruth bader ginsburg will get the last word after iman gets the subject started. where's frank? it's league night! 'saved money on motorcycle insurance with geico! goin' up the country. bowl without me. frank.' i'm going to get nachos. snack bar's closed. gah! ah, ah ah. ♪ ♪ i'm goin' up the country, baby don't you wanna go? ♪ ♪ i'm goin' up the country, baby don't you wanna go? ♪ geico motorcycle, great rates for great rides. watry...duo fusiong heartburn relief? duo fusion goes to work in seconds and lasts up to 12 hours. tums only lasts up to 3. for longer lasting relief...in one chewable tablet try duo fusion from the makers of zantac >>> what was vladimir putin hoping for in that meeting between his ambassador and then-senator jeff sessions and what did he get? the man who