james woolsey is with us. it was cia director under the clinton administration and was a senior adviser on the trump campaign so gentlemen, welcome. and admiral kirby, to that obama administration official quote on how he or she felt like they choked, do you agree that the obama administration choked. >> to be honest right out of the gate there, brooke, i wasn't party to these conversations at the time so i wasn't in the room when these decisions were getting made. that said, i think it's fair for people to look back with hindsight and wonder whether they did the right thing, whether they treated this as much as a political problem as it was a national security problem and whether those decisions were right or not and i think those are fair questions for people to raise and ask themselves. i think when you read this story, two things really should come out to your viewers. one, when you are dealing with cyber threats, that's hard enough. when you're dealing with it, intrusion of this magnitude during an electi

lou: we take up the hearing with ambassador james woul woolsey. >> we have story much more lou: president trump today announcing he will nominate christopher wray for fbi director, he led justice department criminal division during george w. bush administration. wray known for leading federal investigation of enron, and he represented new jersey governor chris christie in bridgegate scandal. my next guest said he sees no smoking gun in james comey's accountses of his past meetings with the president, joining us ambassador james woolsey, great to have you with us. your thoughts to the testimony to come from jim comey. as to how exciting it is, and how determining it is on the some of the charges, that have been lighting up washington, d.c. >> i read through it, late today, when it came out, i think if you put the day's hearings together with the testimony that is coming tomorrow, we really do have a rather substantial victory for the white house and the president on this. i think it's pretty clear that all of the talk of obstruction of justice of garbled almost entirely, fbi does two kinds

lou: we take up the hearing with ambassador james woul woolsey. >> we have story much more straight ahead, we'll be right back. liberty mutual stood with us when a fire destroyed the living room. we were able to replace everything in it. liberty did what? liberty mutual paid to replace all of our property that was damaged. and we didn't have to touch our savings. yeah, our insurance won't do that. well, there goes my boat. you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance. choicehotels.com. badda book. that's it?. he means book direct at choicehotels.com for the lowest price on our rooms guaranteed. plus earn free nights and instant rewards at check-in. yeah. like i said. book now at choicehotels.com lou: president trump today announcing he will nominate christopher wray for fbi director, he led justice department criminal division during george w. bush administration. wray known for leading federal investigation of enron, and he represented new jersey governor chris christie in bridgegate scandal. my next guest said he sees no sm

james woolsey joins me now here in new york. jim, what was your reaction to james comey's testimony? >> i found it worrisome. because we kind of know how to argue with one another in madison structure in this country with the legislature going one way and the white house going another and battles. it's what we do. and madison planned it that way. we haven't had any dictatorships and that was the purpose. but it works partly because most americans, even if they did not support the president in an election, the person who won, they still have a certain allegiance to the presidency and the president symbolizes the country and so forth. and that's not really functioning that way here. >> you saw that in comey's testimony how? >> well, i find it amazing that he would take detailed notes of a meeting with the president and then leak them to a friend who's %-p them to the press. >> but let me just interrupt you. >> amazing. >> he insists, i think by obligation, the word leak is not appropriate. he was a private citizen. let me present

i'm delighted to be here with you and with james woolsey. listen, the lawyers went tout day and said the president is not being investigated. he said numerous other times, the president is being investigated. then he said another time, really doesn't know whether the president is being investigated because they haven't been told anything. and so it reminded me very much going back way back in history of president eisenhower who was a very smart man but he sometimes in press conferences gave very, very confusing answers. he looked and sounded like he botched things up. he didn't know what he was talking b then went behind the scenes and said he is asking what is going on out there? he said that is very intentional. i want to keep my options open. so i created a fog bank of words. and that's what he did today. he created a fog bank intentionally. the special counsel is looking hard at the president and what happens over the firing of comey and whether there was obstruction of justice. >> ambassador, the president and his legal team worked real

i want to discuss all of this now with ambassador james woolsey, the former director of the cia and retired rear admiral john kirby. thank you both for coming on. admiral kirby, i'm going to start with you. nicholas burns, a former state department official under president bush testified before the senate intelligence committee today on the threat of russian influence in our election. listen to this. >> i find it dismaying and objectionable that president trump continues to deny the undeniable fact that russia launched a major cyber attack against the united states. it is his duty -- president trump's -- to be skeptical of russia. it's his duty to investigate and defend our country against a cyber offensive because russia is our most dangerous adversary in the world today. and if he continues to refuse to act, it's a dereliction of the basic duty to defend the country. >> admiral kirby, those are strong words. do you agree? >> i do. there's nobody in my mind more respectable or reputable on this issue than ambassador burns, and i completely agree with his view. it is stunning to me that thi

back with the panel and senior adviser james woolsey. let's start with you.ertainly know how to be discrete about conversations you had with former presidents or current presidents. did they do the right thing in not answering those questions? >> i think they could have saved themselves a lot of hassle by agreeing to go into some of these issues in closed session. whether or not it's strictly responsive to an individual rule or not i think is less important than helping when you can help. but a private conversation with the president to testify about it in public i wouldn't. >> even if the president hadn't -- no executive privilege. >> if the president told me, jim, we're talking about in here last friday, ask you about a question about it in the congress, don't hesitate to talk about it, all right. i wouldn't -- i worked for four presidents and not do that just to answer a question. i've also been general counsel of the senate armed services committee back in the '70s and we would work these things out. if a witness had a problem, absolutely sure it was clas

jim woolsey thought it was p peculiar and didn't want to get into business with flynn, too.this has ensnared mike flynn and presented legal challenge which may be why he wants immunity deal when talking about russia. he understands he has legal jeopardy. >> he has the turkey and russia for not disclosing contacts with russia. he also has the one thing lawyers, most defense lawyers worry about is he was interviewed by the fbi. >> right. >> the statements you make to the fbi, false statements, that's a felony. and, of course, the fbi often thinks that you're not giving it to them straight. >> right. as you know, they will hunt you to the ends of the earth if they think you have lied to them. >> do you have any idea what these documents, any money he received -- >> i think right now what they're looking at, my understanding from the investigator's side is to sort of see what matches up in the very beginning from the public narrative that we know about, the time line and what they can see in those documents. deals he may have had, meetings he may have been having. i think they'r

leaks should be investigated, along with all of the others that are being investigated. >> so jim woolsey, the question is, to the point here made earlier by adam, he actually get the time line wrong. he pointed to the fact the time story, the dinner, for loyalty appeared on may 11th. the day before the tweet, but the first "the new york times" story that cited a memo, not just sources, it appeared on march 16th. so he got the time line wrong, do you think it should be investigated? >> i agree with my three colleagues. i don't think this is a legal problem. but he is beginning to look like he works for the federal bureau of public information, instead of the fbi, wrong initials. he turned loose the memo about hillary, changed direction on that several months ago. he was making public statements, saying he now wants to leak five documents, maybe one classified. i heard that perhaps that is not classified, it was on a class y classified computer, and it's just in terms of one thing after another informing the public. the reason it has such confidence in the people of the united states is it

. >> ambassador woolsey, you heard sara murray's report, why can't the president separate election tamperingeatening this is to our future elections from investigations of collusion? >> i don't know. my -- i think the two previous speakers were right and my overall impression here is you ain't seen nothing yet. the russians will top up their efforts to undercut our whole way of life and our whole political structure. they go after religions as well, the catholic church, jewish groups. they call it disinformation. what's now is the technology of cyber makes it possible for them to reach across oceans and do terrible things that they would have had a physically much harder time doing just a very few years ago. i'm not sure why the president can't -- doesn't seem to be, anyway, sorting this out because this russian problem is going to get big, going to get worse. we have got to take some strong steps with respect to our voting machines or we're going to have mr. putin casting our votes in 17 months. and i don't think we want that. >> admiral kirby, is it fair to say that president trump is weak

lou: joining me now, ambassador james woolsey, former director of the cia.with the revelations that president trump did nothing about the cyber attacks by russia, particularly of the dnc, and permitted the obama cia and the obama department of homeland security to say, never mind, we don't want to bother you if you don't want us to take a look at your servers. this is stunning stuff. >> i agree. i think it's amazing for the country to be under this kind of attack. if there were missiles, we would know it. but be under this kinds of attack and not have a word said by the president warning people of what might be taking place it was an uncomfortable time for him because it was during the political campaign. but that shouldn't mean that the public doesn't get to know when we are under some kind of very serious attack. 17 months from now, in the next election, the russians may be a lot mortal ended and they may be doing a lot more than what they did this time. lou: it risks the integrity of the f.b.i. and homeland security, rinsing to jeh johnson testifying he a

. >> james woolsey joins me live next.'s revelation that he shared documents in order to get a special counsel appointed in the russia probe? you're live in the cnn newsroom. think again. this is the new new york. we are building new airports all across the state. new roads and bridges. new mass transit. new business friendly environment. new lower taxes. and new university partnerships to grow the businesses of tomorrow today. learn more at esd.ny.gov my belly pain i could build a small city with all the over-the-counter products i've used. enough! i've tried enough laxatives to cover the eastern seaboard. i've climbed a mount everest of fiber. probiotics? enough! (avo) if you've had enough, tell your doctor what you've tried and how long you've been at it. linzess works differently from laxatives. linzess treats adults with ibs with constipation or chronic constipation. it can help relieve your belly pain, and lets you have more frequent and complete bowel movements that are easier to pass. do not give linzess to childre

to james woolsey's point, if he's expressing his opinion, sure wish you could say this publicly, sure wish you could clear my name, is that interference? >> i could express all that as an analyst on cnn, and that would be interesting maybe, but i'm not the president of the united states. this is someone who is saying -- now, i think what the president's defenders would argue and what the ambassador is saying, he's saying, look, we know this to be true, you're telling me i'm not being investigated, telling me there's no evidence. i'm expressing to you as a practical matter this is really making it difficult to govern. will you please go out and say what you know and what i have been told, perhaps not thinking that's inappropriate or abusive. and again, that will be viewed differently by different people. again, a separate matter from whether he is obstructing justice. >> that's the point i'm looking at here. you've got to separate the political implications from potential legal implications. that's why i'm asking you about how significant it is that these two intel chiefs were saying t

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i want to bring ambassador james woolsey, former director of the iowa and cnn contributor john dean, the former white house counsel for president nixon, who is the author of "conservatives without conscience." good to have both of you on. i'm going to get to comey in just a minute. i want to get your take on the breaking news. this federal contractor under arrest for allegedly leaking classified information to an online media outlet. the report supposedly details a 2016 russian military intelligence cyber attack on a u.s. voting software supplier. what's your reaction to this story? >> this is just the first big public round of this we're seeing. we'll see a lot of it. we made a bunch of changes in our voting system after the mess in 2000 in florida and one thing that we now have is about a quarter of our voting machines are touch screen only and don't have paper backup of any kind. that means about a quarter of our votes cannot be recounted because you can't -- you cannot recount what is in thin air and on electronics that the russians and others have tampered with. so unless we mak

also joining us, james woolsey. he's the former u.s. ambassador to the conventional forces in europe treaty and former senior adviser to the trump campaign. ambassador, let's start with you. thank you so much for joining us today f jeff sessions has nothing to hide, wouldn't he prefer a public testimony where everyone can see that he's open and direct? >> quite fos posblpossibly. this all reminds me about a mark twain line about the fellow that rode off on his horse in all directions at once. the first thing they ought to figure out is what criteria they're using and what they're trying to do. i think that, for example, it would have made some sense in the oval office when they were going back and forth about who said what to whom for mr. comey to have suggested that the president's counsel, white house counsel join them and they have a three-person discussion so people can understand exactly what criteria are applied where. for example, a requirement, i'm told by andy mccarthy, a very fine prosecutor, for any notion of being able to bl

prosecutor, and leon jaworski, and john dean, former nixon white house counsel, and ambassador james woolseyrmer director of the cia. >> always nice to be back together again. >> was comey within his rights, john dean, to share the contents of that memo with his friend? >> i think he was. we have no official secrets act in this country. he's a private citizen. it was a memo he made of a conversation that might have been considered a government document. might also been considered a diary document. so it's hard to tell. i don't think he broke any law. >> sadly on most counts, he said he did it. he said he did it in response to the president's tweet. here's the tweet on may 12th, james comey better hope there are no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press. is leaking the memo the only way to get a special prosecutor? >> i think it was one of the techniques he thought he would have to use. he didn't have confidence at that point in the deputy attorney general who was then the person who seemed to have been responsible for providing the grounds for sacking him. although

woolsey was uncomfortable with him. we know other people on trump's team were uncomfortable with him and we know president barack obama was uncomfortable with him and we know it got to the point where even the vice president said his presence is untenable. i think it's interesting that the cia director was expected to report through him. i think that's pretty interesting. >> but from what we're hearing, i mean president trump still really likes michael flynn and kind of wishes he was back in that position sometimes. so it's interesting even though people like chris christie said he would have never had mike flynn in the white house, president trump has still seemed to be pretty loyal to him. even in all these issues. >> the other big headline we're following today is the paris deal news, it is expected to be announced on the other side of the building we're in front of in front of the rose garden, administration officials so we can be clear on nbc reporting, he is expected to pull out, likely to be caveats and the usual

former cia dirt, attorney and former general counsel to senate armed services committee james woolsey is with us this morning. ceo flywheel sport is here. wanting to enter business as well. astrid caucus member, florida congressman ron desantis is here. the united capital in home depot big show this morning. stay with us right now. president trump set to whether the u.s. will withdraw from the climate accord. expect did for 3:00 p.m. eastern. white house officials say the president expected to pull out of the agreement that the president himself said he's not made a decision yet. [inaudible conversations] >> you will find out very soon. maria: meanwhile, top corporate executives including tim cook and the ceo of tesla e. l-lima scarlatti in the white house remain in this paris agreement. don't know which way paris hotel, but i've done all i can do to advise directly to trump. he was stopped advising the president of the u.s. pulls out of that global part. let's talk about that right now. they could save your tens of billions of dollars over the coming decade. we know that this is a pr

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