let's bring in live white house spokesperson sarah huckabee sanders. thank you for joining us. >> good morning. >> these are extremely serious charges the president is making. where is he getting this information? >> look, i think there have been quite a few reports. i know that jonathan and others earlier in the program mentioned that that it was all conservative media. that's not true. "the new york times" and bbc talked about the potential of this having happened. the bigger thing is, let's find out. if they're going to investigation russia ties, let's include this as part of it. that's what we're asking. >> was the principal source the breitbart story, which links to "the new york times." but "the new york times" doesn't say anything definitive. donald trump does. there's nothing equivocating about what he says. i just found out that obama had my wires tapped. that's not looking into something. he says it happened. >> look, i think the bigger thing is you guys are always telling us to take the media seriously. well, we are today. we're taking the r

this is trump spokesperson sarah huckabee sanders speaking to martha raddatz on abc's "this week" on sunday. >> look, i think he's going off of information he is saying that has led him to believe that this is a very real potential. and if it is, this is the greatest overreach and the greatest abuse of power that i think we have ever seen and a attack on democracy itself. the american people have a right to know if this took place. amy: it appears the "information" trump spokesperson sarah huckabee sanders is referring to is a breitbart article that has been circulated within the white house. the article draws on a thursday report by the far right wing radio host mark levin, who claimed without evidence that obama submitted a request to the secret fisa court to tap trump's phones at trump tower. both democratic and republican lawmakers, including florida senator marco rubio, say they've seen no evidence supporting these claims. this is california democratic congresswoman nancy pelosi. >> this is -- it is called a rap up smear. make up something and then have the press write about it,

sarah huckabee sanders, spokeswoman for president trump, both appeared separately, but i want to play for you a little bit of what both of them had to say and then we'll talk about it. >> we know exactly why president trump tweeted what he tweeted because there is one page in the trump white house crisis management playbook, and that is simply to tweet or say something outrageous to distract from the scandal and the bigger the scandal the more outrageous the tweet. >> i think he's going from information he's seen that has led him to believe that this is a very real potential and if it is, this is the greatest overreach and the greatest abuse of power that i think we've ever seen and a huge attack on democracy itself. >> reporter: at this point, there is no evidence, of course, that any of this -- these wiretaps did happen and the president, sean spicer in his statement calling on congressional committees to investigate whether there was any inappropriate wiretapping of trump tower. we now have adam schiff, the ranking member of the house intelligence committee out saying, look, this i

to do that. >> we have one more piece of sound i'm told from martha rad it is interviewing sarah huckabee sandersa court issued a warrant to surveil someone in trump tower. this is sarah huckabee sanders. >> the president of the united states is accusing the former president of wire tapping him. >> i think that this is, again, something that if this happened, martha -- >> if, if, if, if. >> i agree. >> why is the president saying it did happen? >> i think he is going off of information that he's saying that has led him to believe that this is a very real potential. if it is, this is the greatest overreach and the greatest abuse of power that i think we've ever seen and a huge attack on democracy himself and the american people have a right to know. >> because we're being tough on my profession here, that was an example, i think martha just gave sort of a textbook example of doing it right. >> yes, and god bless her. this man is terrified. to me he's running scared. you don't do these types of mistakes if you had nothing to hide. you know, if i were him, i'd play dead and hope this whole thing was

. >> reporter: trump administration spokeswoman sarah huckabee sanders did not reveal the source of the wiretapping information. >> i think the bigger story isn't who reported out but is it true? and the american people have a right to know if this happened. if it did, this is the largest abuse of power i think we've ever seen. >> i'm not sure what he's talking about. >> republican senate intelligence committee member marco rubio. >> if it's true, we are going to find out very quickly. if it suspect, obviously he'll have to explain what he meant by it. >> reporter: democrats across the board are incensed by the president's suggestion. >> to make that type of claim without any evidence is, i think, very reckless. >> reporter: james clapper, the outgoing director of national intelligence, denied knowledge of any court order that would allow covert surveillance at trump tower. >> for the part of the national security apparatus that i oversaw at dni, there was no such wiretap activity mounted against the president, the president-elect at the time or as a candidate or against his campaign. >

. >> the allegation, it is reported and this morning white house deputy spokesperson sarah huckabee sanders would not say if he believes the fbi on this matter. >> does the president accept that or not? >> the president wants the truth to come out to the american people. he is asking that it be done through the house intelligence committee and that that be the process that we go through. >> hallie jackson pressed in today's off camera briefing. >> has the president spoken with the fbi director about the allegations he made saturday morning and does he have confidence in his fbi? >> to my knowledge i am almost 100% certain he has not. >> does he is confidence in his director? >> and then there is this, the former director of the nsa in this very studio on morning joe this very morning talking about the president and his possible motive. >> he is trying to distract attention from what was a very very bad news cycle. let me go very very dark on you. the president of the united states put his own reputation, the reputation of his at risk to get at least a draw out of the next 24 hours news. >>

>> reporter: the question is, when you talk about would what spicer is referring to, sarah huckabee sanders, they konlt to refer to this. the fbi would oversee any type of surveillance if it would ever happen. there's no evidence of that. the fbi under per view of president trump himself. >> i don't think they will repeat what he has been saying. it so ludicris and mickey mouse. >>> joining me right now member of the judiciary committee. i have been around a long time. i don't think either party has it figured out. this is below discussion. there is nothing to investigate. there was no wiretapping. there is no real serious charge here. he just releases these rabbits and people in the interest of so called objective journalism go chasing after him. how do you cover this? tell me, senator, how do you treat a president because he had a bad day with the press and starts releasing the claim that he is sick and he is nixon and organized some plumber's operation based on no evidence, none, just said it. >> i guess first you remind him there is a warrant application that's required before you can h

i watched of that interview on sarah huckabee sanders. i thought that you really compose yourself.rying to explain the perspective of the white house. i think of her crying on election night because trump won. >> i cannot get to the motive of everybody, but it is a very serious allegation. we are going to take it very seriously. nunes has been looking into russia for more than a year. but now we will expand that to look at what is going on with this allegation of wiretapping. there are variety of different ways that that could have happened. and it is going to take some time to do that. he will continue to lead out. >> when you see some of these headlines that are so over-the-top and so dramatic, it has to anger you? it angers me. i have not always been the biggest fan of president trump. >> they are so duplicitous. on one hand, the democrats want their own way and only their way, and their heads are kind of exploding over this issue. we are going to take it very seriously. they do not have very much evidence to suggest that russia was actually conspiring with the trump campaign, a

>> this was a strong dance for sarah huckabee sanders to have to not criticize her boss and yet defend. probably the most memorable quote from this particular situation is that one from senator ben sass. he said, this trafficking in unsubstantiated roomers represents a civilization warping crisis of public trust. and, but, you know, the voters out there who support trump might just continue to see this this could be a, you know, that tv show "homeland" could base a whole season on this. >> and probably will. to the point about messaging, again, matthew. sessions recuses himself. trump said he didn't need to. sessions was listening to his lawyers. what about accusations of perjury that you may see there? back to the russians. >> i think, well first, the lawyers can talk about this. first, the idea of perjury is a difficult thing to prove, baz you have to prove he had the intent of doing that. i think this is just another example of donald trump's behavior chrks is basically to make the -- assert these allegations. he did it with voters. he said 3 million illegal voted in the election. t

so this morning, his deputy press secretary, sarah huckabee sanders was on a morning show and she wasased on real information or some right wing website that he stumbled upon. here was her answer. >> there was wide reporting suggesting his administration, whether it was directly ordered by this president specifically, his administration could have done this. i love how now anonymous sources don't matter anymore. we've been dealing with anonymous sources and having to fight back against that for the last six months. >> interesting because they don't like anonymous sources unless it's a story that they like. this is based on two anonymous sources on a right wing website. >> listen, i think that's true of every white house. they like the anonymous sources from their side getting a story out. those that are coming at them they don't like so much. notice what she did there, she's tried to broaden it out and change what president trump tweeted about over the weekend and say, well, maybe the obama administration opened this up, not president obama himself. >> that's not the charge president

and according to sarah huckabee sanders, the president doesn't put much stock in comey's reputation. >> does president trump accept the fbi director's denial? >> you know, i don't think he does, george. i think he firmly believes that this is a story line that has been reported pretty widely by quite a few outlets. >> i'm joined now by robert costa, national political report for "the washington post" and msnbc political analyst. and bob, let me start with this. i was following your coverage rapt over the weekend because you seemed to have a sort of inside line what was going on there. one of the things you talked about was that breitbart article which itself isn't really an article, to write-up mark levin. that really does seem to be the source of all this. i think that's important to establish here. >> it's very important to establish. this starts about thursday night. the president comes back from his military event in virginia. he has watched attorney general sessions recuse himself. he starts to fume inside of the white house. and it's important to know. i've been covering this p

here's what white house spokesman sarah huckabee sanders said early whier. >> sasha, the president made these allegations 48 horse ago. has he called the fbi director since he made those allegations and asked if they were true? >> i don't know that he has talked directly with the fbi director. all we are asking is let congress do its job. let's let the intelligence committee review it as they committed to do over the weekend. >> the context is everything. the president's early morning weekend twitter frenzy about this came on the heels of the president lashing out at his staff for missteps with the russia investigation and other issues going on inside the administration. and i'm told the president has been voicing concern to friends questioning the competent ten of his own white house aides. let's tornado now to cnn's senior washington correspondent joe johns at the white house for us. joe, you have been covering this white house. you have been talking to aides inside that building. how much do you think all of this is a distraction? and how much do you think that this is trump just try

the only white house official to speak publicly today, sarah huckabee sanders, appeared on the abc programthis week" and tried to change the subject and call for an investigation when martha raddatz pressed for an answer about the source. >> let's look into this. if this happened, if this is accurate, this is the biggest overreach and the biggest scandal. >> the president of the united states is accusing the former president of wiretapping him. >> i think that this is, again, something that if this happened, martha. >> if, if, if. >> i agree. >> why is the president saying it did happen? >> look, i think he's going off of information that he's seen that has led him to believe that this is a very real potential. >> reporter: but the president's series of twitter messages were not about the potential. rather that the wiretaps actually did happen. "terrible! just found out that obama had my wire tapped in trump tower just before the victory. nothing found. this is mccarthyism." as president, mr. trump has unlimited access to the country's greatest secrets. but tonight it seems increasingly cl

we're joined from the white house by sarah huckabee sanders spokesperson for the president.hank you for joining us this morning. so, we now know that the fbi director has told the justice department that president trump's explosive claims are inaccurate. does president trump accept the fbi director's denial? >> you know, i don't think he does, george. i think he firmly believes this is a story line reported pretty widely by quite a few outlets. the wiretapping has been discussed in "the new york times," bbc, fox news and we believe that -- >> sarah, i have to stop you. sarah, i have got to stop you right there. every single article you just mentioned does not back up the president's claim that president obama had him wiretapped. not a single one of those articles backs that up. so, what is the president's evidence? >> it does back up the fact that the administration was wiretapping american citizens. there was wide reporting sugg t suggesting his administration whether directly ordered by this president specifically his administration could have done -- >> sarah, i have to s

and spokeswoman sarah huckabee sanders tried to hedge in an interview today with martha raddatz. >> the president of the united states is accusing the former president of wiretapping him. >> this is again, something -- if this happened, martha -- >> if, if, if, if, if. >> i agree. >> reporter: it all comes with the white house engulfed by the growing controversy over his contacts with russia. cameras captured a heated meeting friday in the oval office, and the chief strategist, steve bannon, and the president's daughter, ivanka, and president trump went ballistic. president obama remains unfazed as he and mrs. obama arrive at the gallery in washington over the weekend. he says the statements from trump are completely false. >> let's go live to brian ross at the justice department tonight, and more than 48 hours with no proof from the white house? >> reporter: that's right, david. it's a familiar story with donald trump. he spent years fueling a right wing theory that barack obama was not an american citizen. no proof. also saying people voted illegally against him. no proof. and now the

howie: sarah huckabee sanders is out there and what martha raddatz is arguing the president stated it as fact. he said this happened. michael says you cannot cover it, yet we don't know if there is any there there. >> it's a story the media should be covering. if the media is going to lecture about covering things when there is no there there, when they have been covering things for months with no evidence, it doesn't hold credibility. the president cannot just go out and say things without evidence of the claim. he put his team into a position where they have to defend it. and they are saying they are not going to comment on it. if this scene ongoing investigation, they can't comment on it. there is not a lot of information you can give because people are investigating whether a crime was coming. howie: some of the media is covering this as if it's a conspiracy theory. >> anybody can accuse anybody of anything if you are going to make stuff up. the point is both for politicians and journalists in public life and have a responsibility to watch what they say, the point is to make sure

let me break down what sarah huckabee sanders told me moments ago., look, debate is expected to start on the bill tonight. and then she said, for scheduling purposes, so that there's not a vote in the middle of the night, they expect this to happen tomorrow morning. now, we pressed her. weher. we asked her if she thought they would ultimately have enough votes to get this passed. she said yes. we said how is that going to happen? you don't have enough votes. we know the president will meet with moderate republicans in a little bit. and he'll be working the phones. sanders essentially told us, look, he's going to continue to work this down to the wire. i asked if the president would be open to any more concessions to conservative republicans. she wouldn't go that far. but she did say, if anyone has an idea to improve the bill, the president is certainly open to that. i thought that was an interesting response, kate. the bottom line is the white house has offered a major concession to conservative republicans, and they are effectively saying, it's not

and spokeswoman sarah huckabee sanders tried to qualify what the president stated as fact when pressed by martha raddatz. >> the president of the united states is accusing the former president of wiretapping him. >> i think that this is, again, something -- if this happened, martha -- >> if, if, if, if, if. >> i agree. >> reporter: it all comes with the white house engulfed by the growing controversy over his advisers' contacts with russia. cameras captured a heated meeting friday in the oval office. animated chief strategist, steve bannon, the president's daughter, ivanka. insiders told abc news trump went ballistic. as for president barack obama, he seemed unfazed by the trump twitter attacks, getting a round of applause as he and mrs. obama arrived at the national gallery of art in washington over the weekend. he says the statements from trump are completely false. >> let's go live to brian ross at the justice department tonight, and more than 48 hours with no proof from the white house? >> reporter: that's right, david. it's a familiar story with donald trump. he spent years fuelin

howie: sarah huckabee sanders is out there and what martha raddatz is arguing the president stated it as fact. he said this happened. michael says you cannot cover it, yet we don't know if there is any there there. >> it's a story the media should be covering. if the media is going to lecture about covering things when there is no there there, when they have been covering things for months with no evidence, it doesn't hold credibility. the president cannot just go out and say things without evidence of the claim. he put his team into a position where they have to defend it. and they are saying they are not going to comment on it. if this scene ongoing investigation, they can't comment on it. there is not a lot of information you can give because people are investigating whether a crime was coming. howie: some of the media is covering this as if it's a conspiracy theory. >> anybody can accuse anybody of anything if you are going to make stuff up. the point is both for politicians and journalists in public life and have a responsibility to watch what they say, the point is to make sure

. >> bill: that is sarah huckabee sanders reinforcing the call for the investigation into former president obama and his administration. where does it go now? a house committee member is with me and says it's already happening. good morning to you, sir. you met with the fbi director last week, crick correct? >> yes, sir and he stayed later than he was designed to stay to answer more of our questions. >> bill: how much of that can you share with us and our audience now then? >> exactly what i shared. he came, he answered our questions and he stayed a good long while. there's a reason we do it behind closed doors. >> bill: there was no knowledge of what the president tweeted saturday morning about the obama team surveilling trump tower? >> first i heard was saturday morning. >> bill: what did you think when you heard that, sir? >> it's hard to cross-examine tweets. i need witnesses. i need document. there's only two ways u.s. citizens' communications can be communicated is fisa inqui inquiry and there's a paper trail, an application and warrants and right now the executive branch is controll

spokespersonse sarah huckabee sanders spoke about the issue on "this week." >> let's look into this. if this happened, this is the .iggest scandal >> the president of the united states is accusing the former president of wiretapping him. larry: james comey has asked the justice department to reject the claim that former president obama wiretapped trump tower. house and senate investigations will continue. ofria: after weeks controversy and postponement, president trump is expected to sign a revised travel ban today. the previous executive order was halted by the court on constitutional grounds. immigration attorneys with legal d waiting for the new executive order. group trained 120 volunteers last week. tonight the city of rockville a hearing on enforcing those immigration laws. they are discussing making rock though sanctuary city. tonight's hearing begins at 7:00 at the city hall building. larry: blue and yellow line riders feeling the crunch on their commute. trains on single -- are single tracking around the clock. sam sweeney has more on how this will affect you. sam? sam: this

. >>> and then discussing the wiretapping accusations, sarah huckabee sanders, and former obama white house press secretary, josh earnest, will speak exclusively on the show. you can watch the interviews on "this week" with george stephanopoulos this morning here on abc7. >>> water officials in the south bay are keeping a close eye on anderson reservoir and coyote creek. expected rain could raise levels above capacity forcing water over the spillway. and tens of millions of dollars done in damage, and water district officials are not expecting any problems but say the crews are on standby just in case any issues arise. >>> crews on the central coast continue to work around the clock trying to repair landslides that have cut off hundreds of people around big sur. homes have been isolated because of damage to the pfeiffer canyon bridge, and landslides on highway 1. the supplies are expected to last at least a couple weeks. >> this is a dire situation, and i really worry that people don't understand how severe this really is. >> part of the highway is expected to open in about a week. ca

the only white house official to speak publicly today, sarah huckabee sanders, appeared on the abc news "this week" and tried to change the subject and called for an investigation when martha rad it is pressed her for an answer about the source. >> let's look into this. if this happened f this is accurate. >> you are not saying let's look into this -- the president of the united states is accusing the former president of wiretapping him. >> i think that this is again something that if this happened, ma that -- >> if, if, if, if. >> i -- i agree. >> why is the president saying it did happen? >> i think he is going off of information that he's saying that has led him to believe this is a very real potential. >> reporter: but the president's series of twitter messages were not about the potential, rather that the wiretaps actually did happen. he wrote, terrible, just found out that obama had my wires tapped in trump tower just before the victory. nothing found. this is mccarthyism. as president, mr. trump has unlimited access to the country's greatest secrets. but tonight it seems increasi

look at the foolishness -- sarah sanders, sarah huckabee sanders, she looked foolish. >> what is herif she cannot answer for the president, she hasn't spoken to the president -- >> on national talk shows as spokesperson, you should have spoken to your administration and know the questions and have answers. >> how is it okay she doesn't have them? >> i don't know. it's not okay. even today we don't know where he got that information. ey're all making it up. they're saying well, maybe he has access to documents we don't have. maybe. but why don't we know? that would be something you would know. that's something the president would have access to. i suspect since that didn't happen, he more than likely listened to a radio talk show, read breitbart news and went from there. it all leads you to believe the speech he gave was really the outlier. >> rick tyler, jeff weaver, thank you for joining me today. >>> more often than not on capitol hill, republicans have had trump's back, but did the president's tirade of tweets against president obama go too far for some in his own party? i'll ask

. >> reporter: they will not say where the president got his information and sarah huckabee sanders tried to state the fact. >> the president of the united states is accusing the former president of wiretapping him. >> i think this is again, something that if this happened, martha -- >> if, if, if, if. [ laughter ] >> i agree. >> reporter: it all comes with the white house engulf fed ed b growing controversy. cameras captured a heated meeting friday in the oval office, animated chief strategists steve bannon, the president's daughter ivanka. insiders told abc news trump went ballistiballistic. for president barack obama, he seemed unphased by the trump twitter attacks, getting a round of applause as he and mrs. obama arrived at the national gallery of art over the weekend. his spokesman says the allegations from president trump are completely false. brian ross, abc news, new york. >> let's turn to the weather now because we're in for a wintery night. >> here is a live look from the camera at pier 15. abc 7 news drew tuma is here with a preview of the forecast, drew? >> hi, we're starting

now his aides don't have any evidence to back it up, or they're suggesting, as sarah huckabee sandersmorning, that this is based on classified information that only the president has access to. it does not pass the smell test. it's irresponsible for the white house to be going out there, using their platform, using the credibility that comes with their platform, to suggest something that is baseless potentially but certainly not substantiated by any sort of information that's out there. it does put pressure on republicans in congress to find something, anything to back this up. it should be putting pressure on the white house to back it up but as we're seeing, they're not doing that. >> the truth and evidence should be something that matters to everyone. ron brownstein, to rebecca's point, the pressure on republicans to back up the white house, they're not really backing up the white house right now. listen to jason chaffetz this morning. >> i learned a long time ago, i'll keep my eyes open, you he never know when you turn a corner what you may see. thus far i have not seen anything d

on today's morning shows, administration officials kellyanne conway and sarah huckabee sanders pressedsident trump's case. >> the president firmly believes that the obama administration may have tapped into the phones at trump tower. >> let's get to the bottom of it. that is the president's entire point. >> yang: like the president, they offered no evidence, but conway said mr. trump may have "information and intelligence the rest of us do not." in the senate today, democratic leader chuck schumer said the claim added to the need for an independent probe of alleged ties between russia and the trump campaign. >> the events of this weekend which included another troubling baseless tweet from president highlight and in fact strengthen the argument for a special prosecutor to conduct the investigation. >> yang: the president sparked the firestorm with a weekend tweet: "just found out that obama had my wires tapped in trump tower just before the victory." a spokesman for former president obama swiftly denied it, as did his former director of national intelligence, james clapper. >> there wa

and what we do know is that kaley and kellyanne and sarah huckabee sanders, all came out during the electiond said most of the proverbial indictments were against hillary clinton. what we now know is true that the trump campaign and his associates were under investigation and still are today. i think the american public, for me this is not a democrat or republican issue, this is an american issue and we had a foreign agent trying to subvert our democracy and we should stand up and say bring us a special prosecutor, an independent committee, take the partisan politics out of it and if somebody goes to jail, so be it. >> let me put it this way, does the president and do republicans want answers when it comes to this investigation because the bottom line is if there's nothing to hide, shouldn't that be something that they are encouraging to clear their name? >> of course, yes, and they have encouraged this investigation. we do want to see this take place, an attack on the dnc, a cyber attack on the dnc is an attack on all americans so i want to be clear here,er associates of the trump campaign,

interesting to note, he had a conversation with sarah huckabee sanders about the contacts he and other trump campaign advisers had over the summer. it's clear that this white house is trying to get a handle on how many of these trump campaign associates, advisers and so on had conversations with the russians. >> very important for sean spicer and the time line of michael flynn. interactions did not include the meeting with the russian ambassador. thank you jim acosta. now, i want to get to the details on the attorney general, jeff sessions insisting he did nothing wrong after it was revealed he met with the ambassador twice. >> reporter: under mounting political pressure, attorney general, jeff sessions stepped aside from any fbi inquiry into russia and the trump campaign. >> i have decided to recuse myself from any existing or future investigations of any matter relating in any way to the campaign for president of the united states. >> reporter: after revelations sessions met twice with the russian ambassador. sergey kislyak is considered to be one of russia's top spies and spy recrui

there's no one i've heard who has any information relating to the fbi including sean spicer and sarah huckabee sanders. do you have any recommendation to show this is true? >> i have no reason to believe this is true, but i also believe that the president of the united states could clear this up in a minute. all he has to do is pick up the phone, call the director of the cia, the director of national intelligence and say, okay, what happened? because they certainly should know whether the former president of the united states was wiretapping trump tower. >> do you have any concern about the constant barraging? >> well, the president has a unique style. he was elected president of the united states and i'm not going to tell him how to conduct the presidency. but on an issue such as this, accusing a former president of the united states of doing something, which is corroboration. i'll let the american people be the judge. this is serious stuff, jake, because it -- if true, or the allegation is left out there, it undermines the confidence the american people have in the environment. >> instead of meeting

republican representative sarah huckabee sanders. >>> big travel news now. get ready for changes at airport security. the tsa is unveiling a new hands-on procedure. eva pilgrim has more on how all patdowns will be more thorough. >> reporter: this morning, a backlash. over the tsa rollout of its new plan for comprehensive patdown screenings. >> someone who is inexperienced would be very -- could be very threatened. would be traumatic. >> reporter: tsa officers used to evaluate the perceived risk associated with each passenger in question. and then choose one of five different patdown options. now there's one option. a full patdown. airports across already putting out warnings. denver international saying the patdowns will be more thorough and may involve an officer making more intimate contact than before. >> no discretion. if you're going to pat someone down, you have to do it the same way. >> reporter: the tsa saying this is not a new style of patdown. this does not involve any different areas of the body than were screened in the previous procedure. this n