yates? >> i can't speak to this specific situation. >> jim sciuto joins us, despite all these different topics, this was actually learning about russian interference in the u.s. election. >> reporter: general clapper confirmed this before that russian hackers targeted both republican and democratic party officials, but only leaked on the democrats. looking forward, agreement that russians will, they believe attack again and attack both parties, oddly we did not hear much about what to do about that in this hearing. for the most senior level, they are normally subject to a far more invasive clearance process than the clearance that director flynn already had. that coming from director clapper and he's been through numerous administrations and has seen this process go through before. >> essentially saying that flynn was vetted by the obama administration and they're the ones who messed up? >> reporter: exactly, they're saying that because basically he had a courtesy clearance, as a lot of offi

yates. you have stated you warped the white house on january 26, nearly three weeks before flynn resigned that he had not been truthful and might be vulnerable to russian black mail. and finally, there are other troubling questions regarding russia's relationships and connections with trump advisers and associates and there are questions about whether anyone was the question of russian intelligence either exploited or cultivated. i will put my whole remarks in the record and i hope to ask questions around these comments. thank you so much for this opportunity. senator whitehouse: may i put into the record a letter dated vember 18, 2016 from the representative cummings giving president-elect pens what he alled aparent conflicts of interest regarding general flynn. senator graham: without objection. on march 5, 2017, you said the following, here's the question, does intelligence exist that could answer the question whether there were improper contacts between the trump campaign and russian off

sally yates testified today. not only did the justice department have prove flynn lied but the russians did too. is it a dream come true for russian intelligence? >> if all the statements are accurate, yes, it would be an advantage to the russians. i think we're looking at the wrong election. if you want to make sure we don't have a russian take over, we've got to do something to these voting machines, 25% have no paeper. they'reobely electronic. so once they're hacked you can't do an effective recount. it's utmost urgency to get them fixed. we can go back anytime we want and do whatever you want. it doesn't matter. we might learn stheng and that would be good but the mane thing is to protect the system from hacking in the next election. russians are not interfering -- >> i thik people would like to have a system where you have checks and balances with the system and then you can go back and do a recount. >> there was a hearing today. james clapper spoke and sally yates spoke and specifically talking about the ve

yates, what did you tell the white house about mr. flynn? >> sally yates speaks out. >> we believed that general flynn was compromised with respect to the russians. >> for the first time ever, former acting attorney general on what she told the white house about michael flynn. >> the underlying conduct that general flynn had engaged in was problematic in and of itself. >> tonight, what we now know about what michael flynn was doing with the russians and why president trump ignored all the warnings. >> president obama had told the incoming president elect that two days after the election, don't hire this guy. >> then, the kushner family caught selling real estate visas and access to the white house, why jared kushner's family is today apologizing with the reporter who broke the story, all of that and plus house republicans feel the heat at home over trump care. >> nobody dies because they don't have access to health care. "all in" starts right now. >> good evening from new york, i'm chris hayes, for the first time today, the person at the cen

yates. i would note that might be the case if there's reason to suspect partisanship. >> an aggressive back and forth there. senator, do you think cruz has any point, that yates may be motivated by personal and political reasons? >> i think it's not only wrong. i think it's really low. this is a woman who has worked in the department of justice under republican and democratic administrations without blemish for 27 years. she has risen to the top of her profession, and did a terrific job as deputy attorney general with broad support from republicans as well as democrats. you know, in this particular matter, she has been -- by the courts that looked at the same order and said, yeah, sally yates was right. this is unconstitutional. we throw it out. so the idea that you can cobble together some partisanship on her part out of making the right legal decision after 27 years of loyal service to the country, it was a low moment and a low blow. >> from senator cruz. well, thank you very much, senator

i started by asking him what he learned today about flynn and yates. >> sally yates gave us a very thorough and complete time line in terms of her knowledge of the fact that general flynn was in a position where he could be compromised because of public statements that he made and the fact she took that information immediately to the white house not once but twice to warn them that he was vulnerable to blackmail because of things he said that weren't true. >> do you give any motives to the trump white house for the 18-day gap between the time they learned that general flynn was compromisable and when general flynn separated from the white house as national security adviser? >> listen, it's almost impossible to understand because president-elect trump had been briefed in detail about the russian involvement in the election. he had also been told by the former president, barack obama, about misgivings that president obama had about his choice of general flynn. he now was warned by the department of justice that he had said -- flynn had said things publicly and to the vice president that were

sally yates was fired and now for the first time in her only television interview she's speaking out. the white house has called her pa partisan and opponent to the president now she wants to set the record straight. what did you think when you heard director comey had been fir fired? >> i think this is a really troubling situation there's serious questions about the timing and motivation of the president's action. >> what was he like. >> jim is obviously he held my position deputy attorney general and we had a common back ground and i found him to be shoez boater but he would speak his mind. i don't want to go much more into it other than that. the explanation seemed to changes on what is an hourly basis seems there's only one truth and we better get to that. >> he. >> the idea of a direct yoor of white become asked for some sort of loyalty pledge is that appropriate? >> not to him individually our loyalty should be to the people of the united states and no one and nothing else. >> why isn't loyalty to the president something that should be pledged. >> because our oath is to uphold t

yates sold senators she gave the white house a forceful and detailed warning. that flynn lied when he denied discusses u.s. sanctions with the russian ambassador. >> we walked the white house council who had an associate with him through general flynn's underlying conduct. the contents of which i obviously cannot go through with you today because it's classified. we took them through a fair amount of detail of the underlying conduct what flynn had done and then we walked through the various press accounts and how it had been falsely reported. we also told the white house counsel that general flynn had been interviewed by the fbi. >> michael flynn. >> in nesh the day after his firing by the president, sean spicer claimed yates had only give and much less substantive heads up about flynn's comments. >> the acting attorney general informed the white house counsel that they wanted to give quota heads up to us and some comments that may have been louisiana may have seeped in conflict with what the -- he had sent the vice president. >> but yates said it was much more

yates -- >> jack, jack, leery about what?you think they're giving him classified information? this isn't whispered something. the acting attorney jgeneral an the it president of the united states. that's not someone just repeating rumors about swub. >> she said he did not tell the truth to mike pence and mike pence was using this information and that the russians knew that flynn had lied to the vice president. that's a lot different than saying good gosh you realize he's selling nuclear secrets out the back door. i think all this trauma is not getting over the election. he started shifting from somebody who was a loyal soldier on the campaign trail to a friend and confident and realized this is serious. not ready to act oit but i have my eye on this guy. that's what are friends do. >> she wasn't appointed by a republican but she had been before. >> and that's an excellent point. going into today the clear strategy was to try to describe her as some kind of partisan when she'd spent 27 years in the middle district of glk gj u.

anything else, miss yates ? . >> not from me, sir. >> i yield back my nine seconds. >> you're a trend setter. >> senator grassley. >> mr. clapper, you said yes when i asked you if you ever unmask a trump associate or a member of congress, but i forgot to ask which was it, was it a trump associate, a member of congress or both? >> over my time as dni, i think the answer was on rare occasions both, and, again, senator, just to make the point here, my focus was on the foreign target and at the foreign target's behavior in relation to the u.s. person. >> okay. how many instances were there or was it is just one? . >> i can only recall one. >> could you provide. >> it could have been more and the best accounting of this would be in accordance with the proceed you're the collecting agency. >> yeah. >> and that would be a better source of records than top of my head. >> okay. could you provide us more details in a classified setting? >> i could. >> okay. >> miss yates, the same question. you said -- i don't know what y

sally yates testify today.nd not only did the justice department have evidence that flynn lied to the vice president but that the russians did, too, and could blackmail him. as a form head of the cia, is it a dream come true to have a former national security advisor in that position? >> well, if all these statements are accurate, yes, it would be an advantage to the russians. but if you don't mind my saying so, i think we're looking at the wrong election. because if you want to make sure we don't have a russian take over of american votejerk we want to make sure we protect our electoral system, we've got to do something to these voting machines we have now, 25% of which have no paper. there are only electronic. which means once they're hacked, you can't do an effective recount. it is of utah most urgency to get voting machines for our next election fixed. we can go back any time we want and look what happened in this past election. form election council offices, it doesn't matter. we might learn something, and

yates, what did you tell the white house about mr. flynn?. >> we believed that general flynn was compromised with respect to the russians. >> for the first time ever, former acting attorney general on what she told the white house about michael flynn. >> the underlying conduct that general flynn had engaged in was problematic in and of itself. >> tonight, what we now know ab

yates earlier today, ask sally yates under oath if she knows how classified information got in the newspapers soon after she explained it to white house council. trish, the cameras will be trained on yates on capitol hill. trish: very interesting. blake berman, thank you so much. joining me right now for all analysis, former cia officer buck sexton and gina and stewart holiday. good to have you here. buck, you're a former intelligence guy. i'm going to start with you here. she's plain training that she somehow gave the information this heads up, that she actually gave them information that was relevant to general flynn whic shou have nt him running for the hills but at the same te if that information did exist, why the heck did he have hearing in the obama administration to begin with? >> well, we have to know what the information was that was passed along in terms of whether it was just we don't trust this guy, we don't like him or if there was greater specificity, that hasn't been made clear. anybody afacilityuated with the obama administration that doesn't like general flynn or have concer

yates meeting took place january 26th. on february 10th, president trump said he was unaware of reports on flynn. three days after that on february 13th, "the washington post" published a story that flynn had lied to vice president mike pence about his conversations with the russian ambassador. flynn resigned that night. yates testimony on may 8th will be the first time the former acting attorney general will publicly speak about that white house meeting. a source familiar with the situation said yates will be limited on what she can tell the committee because many details on flynn remain classified. yates previously scheduled appearance in front of the house intelligence committee was cancelled by chairman nunez. that move sparking outcry from democrats who believes he was trying to shield the white house from damaging new revelations. jim sciutto, cnn, washington. >>> hillary clinton offering her pointed comments on what she characterizes immediating by the russians and fbi director james comey. the former candidate said

sally yates telling congress she alerted the white house. that general michael flynn could be blackmailed by the kremlin. >> general flynn was compromised with respect to the russians. >> president trump, predictably responding to her sworn testimony with a tweet storm. i want to begin with pamela brown. thank you for joining us. former acting attorney general, sally yates, says she warned the united states that michael flynn could be blackmailed by the russians. listen to this. >> the russians also knew about what general flynn had done. and the russians also knew that general flynn had misled the vice president and others. not only did we believe that the russians knew this, but that they likely had proof of this information. and that created a compromised situation. a situation where the national security adviser essentially could be blackmailed by the russians. >> so, having listened to that, pamela, break down some of what we heard today from sally yates and from the former director of national intelligence, james clapper. >> she laid o

to probe sally yates. on how the interview went and what was the scope of the investigation. she rightly shut him down. that suggests there's underlying criminality here and perhaps there's exposure on michael flynn's part which would explain why he's seeking immunity. >> the president is sticking by flynn, saying nice things about him. whereas others in the white house seem oo be trying to put distance between the president and michael flynn. we don't know if michael flynn talked to the president or president-elect about his conversation with the russian ambassador or if donald trump knew in advance. we don't know if there's something there. >> he's an orphan from everybody except donald trump. i think it tells you something about donald trump, which may be a good trait, although maybe an extreme trait in this particular case, which is that he was warned by president trump don't hire this guy. there were people on his initial transition, i've been told, who said to the president-elect, you know, you reall

>> it is. >> yates, however, was less definitive. >> ms. yates, do you have any evidence or are you aware of any evidence that would suggest that in the 2016 campaign anybody in the trump campaign colluded with the russian government or intelligence services and in a proper fashion? >> and senator, my answer to that question would require me to reveal classified information and so i can't answer that. >> over all, the hearing was a tale of two hearings. many democratic senators focused mostly on flynn, many republicans focused on leaks. >> have either of you ever been an anonymous source in a news report about matters relating to mr. trump, his associates, or russia's attempt to meddle in the election? >> and unmasking. >> do we know who unmasked the conversation between the russian ambassador and general flynn? was there unmasking of this situation? >> now on the issue of general flynn's security clearance, you heard from the president, white house press secretary, again today that he had security clearance from the obama administration. b

when we saw sally yates today, as ken said, what a compelling witness she was. she and clapper side by side, i think represented everything that is noble and impressive about the national security establishment that has taken a beating recently from president trump. they really were nonpartisan, fact-based, not making wild accusations, very conservative in this non-political sense about what they were willing to say. when you see them making these arguments and yates in particular, i find that to the extent that the white house was relying on the theory that you raise there, i find it hard to sympathize with that going up against sally yates who made such a compelling presentation and must have been very compelling in person in her meetings with white house officials. >> i totally agree her presentation was one very straightforward. seems like the white house dropped the ball enormously. i'm trying to figure out if the white house was sorry their head or willing to do anything to try to help their friend, general flynn and that's what we're getting to the bottom

that is not what sally yates said. she said lying. so we know that sean spicer is not telling the truth in the first part of that answer. but he gets into the particulars. he says that don mcgann, the president told don mcgann to find fought there was anything criminal or anything in the underlying conduct that was worthy of review. and sean spicer says that was immediately determined that there wasn't. >> while the fbi was investigating flynn at the time and might still well be. but the key thing here when he says that, he is not really taking into account not just that sally yates said that flynn had been lying, but that sally yates had said he was susceptible to russian blackmail. i mean, that may not be a crime, but nevertheless, it's a serious matter. and so this is not a heads-up if the acting attorney general comes to the white house and says your top national security adviser is vulnerable to russian blackmail. i think you ought to do something about it. so he, you know, spicer -- this is a cover-up. he was covering up the ess

sally yates came here on the 26th of january. then she informed the counsel's office that there were materials that were relevant to the situation. it wasn't until about seven days later that they had access to those documents. after that time they did -- what you should do frankly, is an element of due process. they informed the president right away after they were informed of her giving us a heads-up and ultimately the president made the right decision. i guess the question or the point that i would put back on you is, somebody came over, gave us a heads-up on a situation, told us there were materials. we were provided those materials seven days later. reviewed those materials. underwant a p underwent a process of reviewing the situation and ultimately the pred ma president made the decision and it was the right one. >> you're saying the president stands by that decision and he made the right decision but why does he continue to defend mike flynn? >> i don't think -- it is not a question of defending mike flynn or not. >> he sa

miss yates, the same question. you said, i don't know what you said to answer my question about, if you were involved in any unmasking, were you involved? >> no. i've never asked for anyone to be unmasked. >> senator graham, both you and i and maybe other people have said that we need a classified setting to get some answers here. i assume you're going to pursue that. >> yes, sir. >> okay. i have time for a couple more questions. regardless of any disagreements that we have about allegations of collusion, the fact russia tried mettle in our democracy is an afront to all americans twoefl punish russia and deter all nations from these shenanigans. do you two believe the government's response so far has been enough to deter future attacks of this kind? and fnl, what else would you think we should be doing? miss yates, would you start out? >> i think they're coming back and i think we have to do a whole lot more. both to harden our election syste systems, to ensure folks out there know when they're looking at news feed

don't have a huge surprise in what yates said. this was suspected that she would come out. she put more meat on the bones. but the shock has to be the reaction from the white house. you have the president and his frenzied tweeting which screams do it doth protest too much. for sean spicer to say this is on obama. how damning to hear sean spicer say, really, this should have been on obama's watch. they should have figured this out. he didn't disclose the money before then. obama fired the guy and they made him the most important white house intelligence official apparently with no background check. >> they never vetted him. they never properly looked into his background. >> meaning the trump people. just to clarify for everyone at home. >> let's step back a minute and take a look at this from a political standpoint. here you have basically the premiere foreign policy voice in the president's ear throughout the course of the campaign that's not just a policy adviser and usually for national security and foreign policy advisers will

sally yates was a career justice department employee. she is somebody who prosecuted many very important cases, eric rudolph, for example, and others. she also went after democratic politicians in your hometown of atlanta, and she got a lot of democrats upset with her. even and including john lewis, who evan perez, our now colleague who back then was working in 2009 for "wall street journal" did a story he showed me yesterday, that that story said john lewis was trying to block her appointment because he was afraid she was a republican. yes, she was working for the obama administration but obama was the guy who was the president. she had also worked for other administrations technically because of her job as a career justice department official. the other thing about the heads-up. to me, heads-up is hey, mom, put on cnn, i'm going to be on brooke's show. not oh, my gosh, there's a matter of national security and your national security adviser could be compromised by the russians. you need to know this. to me, they are very different. i t

right now on "msnbc live," what will sally yates say? we'll soon find out when the former acting attorney general takes the hot seat answering questions about russia and what she told the white house about michael flynn before she was cut loose by the president. >>> trump tweeting some shade earlier this morning ahead of yates highly anticipated testimony. also at the capitol, health care shifts to the senate. but the debate on the highly controversial house gop plan isn't cutting it with the number of senate republicans. one, even vowing to start from scratch. >>> and france goes with macron, defeating le pen in the election. we are joined live to discuss how they turned the tide against a wave of nationalism across the west. >>> good morning, everyone. i'm chris jansing in washington, d.c. and we do start with a highly-anticipated hearing on capitol hill in the russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. sally yates will talk publicly about her warnings to the trump white house about former national security adviser michael fly

what might we learn from sally yates?ll learn whether it was a haeeads up or somethin else. all indications is it will be a great deal more than that. i think it will be probably the most important thing we learn. you know, it's just a reminder when john mccain said this story was a centipede there are so many different angles of the relationship between the campaign and russia and any possible collusion to try to destabilize that base clu there basically there's a lot of fuel here. none of this is going away any time soon. >> second topic, the white house memo proposes 95% cuts to the office of national drug control policy. they would be seen as the tip of the sphere in terms of the opiod epidemic. how do you reconcile the promtss of taking this on? we came back from new hampshire where the president went to the fire house and said i will be there with you with a 95% cut. >> not only a 95% cut, but if you look at what's happening in the health care bill passed last week with medicaid, in kentucky, for example, seven time

the former acting attorney general, sally yates, the same sally yates, of course, who refused to enforce the president's travel ban and lost her job because of it. she will be testifying along with the former director of national intelligence, james clapper, before the senate. and while we don't know, of course, what yates is going to say, we do know that expectations could not be higher. her testimony's expected to contradict how the white house has described her warnings about the president's national security adviser, michael flynn, and his contact with russian officials. and this morning, the president has something to say about all of this and tweets in part, blaming obama with this one. let me read it. "general flynn was given the highest security clearance by the obama administration, but the fake news seldom likes talking about that." president trump also targeting the witness with this one -- " @sallyyates under oath. if she knows how classified information got into the newspapers soon after she explained it to white house counsel." with that, let's get to cnn's chief national s

they don't trust sally yates. that's a judgment about whether mike flynn could be blackmailed, not a fact. then we have a president being so confidence in his judgment that he steps in it all the time. if you look at these characteristi characteristics, 18 days doesn't seem like that. i'm betting the president is saying, don't worry about it. i just him. he's okay. >> we don't know if president obama knew what kind of investigation was going on of michael flynn when he talked to him. we don't know if don mcgann communicated to the president. sources around the president suggest that they were all figuring out what to do about mike flynn. do you think part of the answer could be that every time they hear about russia, earmuff is go on and they don't pay it any mind? >> i think they certainly believe that every time russia comes up it is a political salvo. there is obviously a defensive crouch that the trump administration has been in from the beginning. but let me add one point here, that we, as compelling as sally

sally yates is a classic career prosecutor. she spent years as a line assistant attorney general in georgia, prosecuted the mayor of atlanta, prosecuted the bomber terrorism case of eric rudolph, the most far reaching case the justice department had. she became u.s. attorney at the beginning of the obama administration. there are 93 u.s. attorneys across the country. when there is a vacancy, either at the deputy attorney general or the attorney general level, all 93 think they're the leading candidate. she is the one that donald trump and eric holder picked as the leading candidate. she was the leading prosecutor most respected by people, and you saw her at the confirmation hearing where she was supported by democratic senators. >> jeremy bash, for those people not watching "billions" this season, what is the job of u.s. attorney like? how is it regarded in the federal system? >> it's the pinnacle of law enforcement of the prosecutorial system. in atlanta, those people are responsible for working day in and day out with career

yates, the same question. you said. i don't know what you said to answer my question about if you were involved in any unmasking. were you involved? >> no, i've never asked for anyone to be unmasked. >> senator graham, both you and i and maybe other people have said we need a classified setting to get some answers. i assume you're going to pursue that. >> yes, sir, . >> i've got time for a couple more questions. regardless of any disagreements we have about allegations of collusion, the fact that russia tried to meddle in our democracy is obviously an affront to all americans. we have to punish russia and deter all nations from these shenanigans. do you to believe that the government's response so far hae attacks of this kind? if not, what else do you think we should be doing? ms. yates. >> i think they are coming back, senator, and i think we have to do more to harden our election systems, to ensure folks out there know when they are looking at newsfeeds that it may not be real news they are reading. i think we have to

sally yates was later giving some warnings. even as glor ra reporting even some transition officials were saying this is not a good idea. hold that thought. we'll listen to sean and then we'll get back you to. >> nmove this up a little bit. i appreciate your flexibility today. so that the pool can cover the vice president as they welcome honor flight veterans to washington on the anniversary of "d" day. the vice president is hosting more than 120 veterans as part of national military appreciation month and public service recognition week he lighting the trump's administration commitment to our military and public service. also today the vice president secretary price, secretary shulkin all attended an event on the scientific opportunities in medicine. key leaders from government, the private sector discussed the united states comprehensive bio medical landscape and further educated white house staff on in important topic. the meeting was organized by the national institutes of health and was led by direct dr. francis collins. l

that will give yates for mewmory to talk. we saw the fbi director here on the hill last week tightlipped about it. we can expect yates to be tightlipped as well as jam clapper. he the director of national intelligence during much of the obama administration, he will be testifying alongside yates. we can. them to say the unmasking can go to the intelligence gathering agencies and say who is this individual that you picked up on signal intelligence. tell us the name. normally when they receive the report there's no name attached to it. we expect clapper to say that is not unusual, that he did it on occasion as well. and that brings up susan rice who had been asked to testify on this subcommittee of intelligence. lindsey graham is going to be chairing the committee. she declined. said she would be open to testify at a later date just not sitting there with yates and clapper. >> here's what a lot of the folks are going to be listening for. will sally yates contradict this comment in sean spicer in mid february. listen. >> what th

today is the first time we had sally yates testify about t this. so, this is really a very important first step as these questions proceed up ob capitol hill and subsubsequent investigations go about. >> thank u. fit does. >> former washington news anchor turned politician kathleen matthews is new head of democratic party in fact voted in over the weekend. >> she's been acting chair since march and she's here to talk about this tonight. did you ever expect this would be a position wow be at a news desk addressing yourself chair woman of of the democratic committee. >> i spend 25 years at news anchor at one of the other station as i came to washington originally because of pol politics. i was motivated as a student coming out of vietnam war and all the issues at that time and equal rights for women, roe v. wade. motivated by politics to number washington. but i also see the real value of news media as forth estate. to have a chance now to be involved at the political end is really i think a dream come true for me. it all most takes me full circle wh

yates, however, was less definitive. cnn's own reporting is that the fbi continues to investigate both communications between trump advisers and russian officials as well as possible collusion. clapper confirmed that russia collected on democratic and gop targets but only leaked on the democrats. he and yates both expect russia to continue to attack u.s. elections and both parties in u.s. elections going forward. christine and dave? >> thanks a lot, jim. yates and clapper's testimony forming the back drop for a meeting tomorrow between russian foreign minister sergey lavrov and secretary of state rex tillerson in washington. the official agenda is ukraine, syria, and other bilateral issues with russia's hack of the u.s. election likely looming over these talks. for more, we turn to cnn's matthew chance in moscow, where president putin spoke this morning at a parade marking russia's victory over the nazis in world war ii. matthew, is this the typical show of force by vladimir putin? >> reporter: yeah, it is. it's sort of

we'll see sally yates appearing before the senate committee. >> sally yates at 2:30 this afternoon. we'll be leading into that with a host of coverage and also this white house press briefing, which you're watching with us on the left hand side of your screen, where sean spicer is set to begin. let's talk with matt miller and jeremy bash. matt, i want to get your reaction to nbc's exclusive reporting, that the president of the united states warned donald trump while he was in transition less than 48 hours after the election that mike flynn was not somebody that he should be hiring. >> i think it's stunning. if you think about that meeting, this is two days after the election. donald trump comes into the oval office, gets briefed by president obama about some of the country's most important secrets, some of and president takes time to tell trump is that you should not hire mike flynn. mike flynn had worked in the obama administration. president obama presumably was speaking from experience. president trump ignored that warning. it was just one of many warnings. some public, some priv

>> sally yates doesn't know the whole picture there. what she does know is that white house counsel, don mcgann, one of his reactions was rather astounding. why does the justice department care whether one white house official lies to another? she answered, of course, it's a problem because mike flynn could be blackmailed. so she doesn't know what happened inside the white house. we just know from our reporting that mike flynn did his job for 18 days until the story leaked to "the washington post." and that's when the trump administration moved to fire mike flynn. >> ken delaney live for us. thank you. >>> senator ted cruz had pointed questions for sally yates as well. cruz had questioned yates about refusing to implement the controversial travel ban, a move that led to her firing. >> are you familiar with -- >> not off the top of my head, no. >> whenever the president find that the entry of any alien or class of aliens into the united states would be detrimental to the interest of the united states he may, by proclamation and for any p

and we begin with former acting attorney general sally yates. her testimony ending just a short time ago, offering in detail the warning she says she gave the white house about president trump's national security adviser, retired general michael flynn. yates telling congress about her two meetings inside the white house, with the white house counsel, and what he then asked about flynn. and she made it clear today, she says she warned them flynn was in her words, compromised, and could be blackmailed by russia. yet michael flynn would stay on the job for weeks and was there for a call with president trump and president putin. abc senior justice correspondent pierre thomas leading us off. >> reporter: she walked into a crush of cameras. senator lindsey graham opening with this -- >> back in your cages. >> reporter: the intense scrutiny following every word of the testimony from former acting attorney general sally yates as she outlined the steps she took to warn the white house about then-national security adviser michael flynn. >> because this wa

yates. >> yes, i have. can't give you details. >> he was pressed on the conclusion there was no evidence of collusion with the trump campaign and moscow. >> i was not aware of the counterintelligence investigation. >> neither witness could explain today whether the white house blocked flynn's access. >> bret: thank you. let's talk about what we heard. senior political analyst brit hume joins us. >> the take away was after we heard this and what we heard what the justice department said about general flynn and we could see he was lying about the extent of his discussions with the russians and warned the administration about it. my take away was, they better get rid of flynn. but he is long gone. there were probably be discussion about why it took them 18 days or something for him to be gone but in the end, what sally yates said about flynn was that he was lying to the administration and lied to the vice president, and that's what he got fired for. i don't think as a political matter that that revelation with

the white house describes yates as a political opponent. was it more concerned about the messenger than her shocking message? >>> sending more troops? a decade and a half after u.s. forces first went into afghanistan and years after a huge drawdown, president trump is weighing a troop increase. but could a few thousand troops do now what 100,000 failed to do earlier? >>> comey's confusion. fbi director james comey mistakenly told congress that hillary clinton's former top aide forwarded hundreds and thousands of e-mails to her husband's laptop, but comey got it wrong, and the fbi is now looking for a way to clean up his error. >>> and putin's parade. vladimir putin puts on a huge parade to showcase the victory over the nazi. is this just a way to flex his muscles in a time tension? i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >>> breaking news. first on cnn, senate russia investigators have asked the treasury department's criminal investigation division for any financial information related to president trump, his top officials and his

[laughter] yates: do not worry. i'm not about to launch into an exhausting discussion of constitutional law or immigration law. and i appreciate that people of good will can have very different views, both on the legality of the order, and what i should have done in this scenario. but i do think it is illustrative of an unexpected moment when the law and conscience intersected, and the decision had to be made in a very short period of time. after reviewing the legal challenges and reading cases and conferring with the doj lawyers, i came to the conclusion that defending the constitutionality of the travel ban would require the department of justice to argue that the executive order had nothing to do with religion, that it was not intended to disfavor muslims, and this was despite the numerous prior statements made by the president and his surrogates regarding his intent to effectuate a muslim ban. i believed this would require us to advance a pretext, a defense not grounded in truth. and so, i directed the departmen

we are awaiting for sally yates to testify on capitol hill. that's going to happen within ten minutes about what she knew about michael flynn. it is the most talked about this afternoon. we'll talk with senator john kennedy next a member of the committee that will grill her moments from now. plus what's next on the agenda for healthcare? >> the premiums will lower. we're trying to get premiums lower, more choice, more options and the individual to go into the market and choose. ♪ the sun'll come out tomorrow... ♪ for people with heart failure, tomorrow is not a given. but entresto is a medicine that helps make more tomorrows possible. ♪ tomorrow, tomorrow... ♪ i love ya, tomorrow in the largest heart failure study ever, entresto helped more people stay alive and out of the hospital than a leading heart failure medicine. women who are pregnant must not take entresto. it can cause harm or death to an unborn baby. don't take entresto with an ace inhibitor or aliskiren. if you've had angioedema while taking an ace or arb medicine, don't take entre

yates put out an article that if yates would run for governor of georgia as a democrat.her if she had spres in r running for governor or getting into politics. >> are you going to get into politics? >> no. >> there's pundits that say you've been approached by folks in georgia about running for governor or some political office? >> i read that. i haven't returned the calls. i'm not running for governor. >> the president watches a lot of tv the cable news. if he's watching, is there anything you want to say to him? >> i don't think so, no. >> after 2 years in the department of justice, is it strange to have your career defined in the public consciousness, by the last week of your career? that's base -- >> yeah. >> people see you on the street. they recognize you. they recognize you as the person who testified or who took the actions you did on the executive order, were involved with michael flynn. you had a career before that. is it strange to be defined by the last couple days? >> it feels a little weird. after being a deputy attorney general, that folks would define me i

yates. >> a great question. all of this -- >> i thought so. >> i don't know the answer to that. >> nor do i know the answer to that. >> is it fair to say if somebody did make an unmasking request, we would know who they were and we could find out from them who they shared the information with? is that fair to say? the system would allow us to do what i just described? >> unmasking requests -- >> no, to the agency that does the collection. >> that's my understanding. >> so there should be a record somewhere in our system whether or not an unmasking request was made for the conversation between mr. flynn and the russian ambassador which should be able to determine if it was made, who made it and then we can ask what did they do with the information? is that a fair statement mr. clapper? >> yes. >> okay. now, what did you finish, what did you tell the white house? >> i told them again there were a number of press accounts, of statements that had been made by the vice president and other white house officials about

host: sally yates the focus of yesterday's hearing.he former acting attorney general was eventually fired for recusing -- refusing to defend president trump's original immigration a second order. -- executive order. [video clip] >> is it true that the office did conclude that it was properly drafted? >> yes, they did. >> and you overruled them? >> i did. your authority to overrule the office of legal counsel when it comes to legal determination? >> cap is of legal counsel has a narrow function, to look at the face of an executive order to determine whether there's some set of circumstances under which some parts of the executive order may be lawful. they do not look beyond the face of the executive order for example, with statements made contemporaneously or prior to the execution that may bear on its intent and purpose. that office does not look at those factors. in determining the constitutionality, that was an important analysis to engage in. i thought the department of justice had a long-standing tradition of defending a presidenti