cnn. we're following a lot of news this morning, so let's get right to it. >> michael flynn is taking the fifth, refusing to testify without immunity. >> when you are given immunity, that means you probably committed a crime. >> he has a story to tell. >> did you meet with the president or any of his aids while you were there that night? >> no. i'm sure people in the west wing had no idea i was there. >> we invite the senate and house ranking members and chairman to the white house to view that material. >> the timing certainly looks fortuitous and probably more than fortuitous. >> it looks like a cover. >> this is new day. >> welcome to your new day. chris is off. john berman is with me. happy friday. we begin with break news. michael flynn offering to testify before congress if he is granted immunity. flynn's lawyer says he has a story to tell, but we do not know what that story is. this comes as the fbi and congress investigate russia's interference in the u.s. election. >> another controversy is consuming washington. several media reports revealing officials inside the whit

u.s. viewers "new day" continues next. >> michael flynn is taking the fifth. >> refusing to testify without immunity. >> when you are given immunity, that means you probably have committed a crime. >> he has a story to tell. >> did you meet with the president or aides while were you there that night? >> no. in fact, i'm sure that people in the west wing had no idea i was there. >> two white house officials found the intelligence and provided it to mr. nunes. >> we invite the house senate and ranking member to review that material. >> the timing certainly looks fortuitous and probably more than fortuitous. >> it looks like a coverup. >> this is "new day" withes chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. >> welcome to "new day." chris is off. john berman is joining me. happy friday. >> great to be here. >> we start with breaking news. president trump's fired national security adviser michael flynn offering to testify before congress did they grant him immunity. his lawyer says flynn has a story to tell about russia's alleged meddling in the u.s. election and ties to the donald trump campaign. >

adviser michael flynn offering to testify before congressional investigators if he gets immunity. flynn has a story to tell and he wants to tell it should the circumstances permit. no reasonable person with the benefit of advice from counsel would submit to questioning in a highly politicized witch hunt. flynn's lawyer saying discussions with the white house and senate committees have taken place. the trump administration is already battling allegations of collusion with probes in the white house and senate about the russian meddling into the election. the white housin white house de comment after flynn's words loom large. >> the last thing that john podesta said no individual too big to jail. that should include people like hillary clinton. five people around her have had been given immunity. when you are given immunity, that means you probably committed a crime. >> then candidate trump echoing flynn's words. >> why do you need immunity? >> reporter: for weeks, house and senate investigators expressed interest in speaking with flynn in addition to three other former trump associatasso

know mike flynn was surveilled, he was wiretapped. >> no, he wasn't. the russian ambassador was. they picked up flynn on a conversation, and we don't know that happened in trump tower. very different. >> at which point they should have minimized their surveillance of mike flynn unless they had evidence -- >> we don't know they didn't. >> i think the burden is on the intelligence community, what was the crime? why did you tribe the conversation of an american citizen that was potentially at trump tower. >> we don't know that. >> you know who could clear this up right now in five minutes? the president. he could call the intelligence agencies. tucker carlson pressed him on that last night. listen. >> you're in charge of the agencies, every intelligence agency reports to you. why not immediately go to them and gather evidence to support that? >> because i don't want to do anything that's going to violate any strength of an agency. we have enough problems. >> that argument, van zwroens, i don't want to hurt the agencies that i have spent the better part of my almost two months in of

at all? do you have any evidence to suggest that? >> other than general flynn we don't. >> the ranking democrat on that committee expects fbi director james comey to debunk it when he testified on monday. >> there's no evidence of this at all. >> this as the trump administration confronts sharp criticism from fellow republicans over the budget proposal. >> we can't spend money on programs just because they sound good. >> congressman harold rogers deeming it careless and counter productive. marco rubio says proposed cuts to the state department undermine america's ability to keep our citizens safe. the budge aims to slash billions from government agencies to boost military spending hitting hard social services like after school programs for children and programs that feed the elderly. >> meals on wheels sounds great. that's a state decision to fund that and take the federal money and give it to the states and say look we're going to give you money for programs that don't work. i can't defend that anymore. >> meals on wheels is a wonderful program. it is one i would never vote to

sessions and michael flynn that met with the russian embassy but also donald trump's own son-in-law also met with him in december. >> i have recused myself in the matters that deal with the trump campaign. >> let me be clear i never had meetings with russian operatives or russian intermediaries. >> but defending himself amid revelations that he failed to disclose he met with russian emotions bass dor twice during president trump's campaign last year. >> i don't believe there's anything wrong with united states senator meeting with an ambassador from russia. >> under oath, sessions had a different answer. >> i did not have communication with the russians. >> the attorney general admits. >> in retrospect i should have slowed down and said i did meet one russian officials a couple of times. >> and now plans to admit a supplement. >> my response went to the question as i indicated about the continuing surrogate relationship that i firmly denied and correctly denied. i did not mention in that time that i had met with the ambassador so i will definitely make that part of the record. >> se

leaks and who revealed former national security adviser michael flynn's identity. >> one thing you and i agree on is the felonious dissemination of classified material, most definitely, is a crime. >> reporter: with the president's government account even suggesting obama might have played a role in the leaks. tweeting, "fbi director comey refuses to deny he briefed president obama on calls made by michael flynn to russia." the president heads to capitol hill this morning with his campaign promise to repeal and replace obamacare on the top of the agenda. back to you. >> all right, joe, thank you very much. a lot to get after, so let's do it. we have our panel right now, cnn political analyst, senior congressional correspondent for the "washington examiner," david drucker. cnn justice can want, evan perez. cnn senior legal analyst, jeffrey toobin, and cnn contributor in washington, salena zito. good to have you all here. evan perez, from a reporting perspective, what were the big surprises and what were you surprised not to hear yesterday? >> well, the big surprise as we kind of laid ou

lieutenant general michael flynn. flynn was later fired for misleading the vice president about discussing sanctions with russia. obama administration officials scrambled to preserve any information about possible contacts between president trump's campaign aides and russia before mr. trump took office. the officials quickly spreading information about russia's efforts to leave a clear trail of intelligence. the white house has repeatedly denied any such contact. >> at what point -- how many people have to say that there's nothing there before you realize there's nothing there? >> reporter: on facebook this morning a spokesperson for the russian foreign ministry disputing cnn's characterization of the russian ambassador. also this morning, another network caught up with attorney general sessions. he denied any wrongdoing and said he would recuse himself in this case if necessary and when appropriate. chris and alisyn? >> joe thank you very much for that update. top democrats want attorney general jeff sessions to resign or at least recuse himself. some republicans also insisting

investigating four former trump campaign associates. michael flynn, paul manafort with contact with russians known to u.s. intelligence. all four men denied improper contacts and what is interesting here is that one of the obstacles that the fbi now faces in finding this conclusive evidence is that communications between the trump associations and russians has ceased in recent months given all the public focus on russia's ties to the trump campaign and some of the russian officials changed their methods of communications making it all that more difficult for the fbi to monitor the situation. >> thank you for sharing all of your new reporting with us this morning. we'll obviously follow it throughout the show. >> now to another top story the political battle intensifying over the president's spying claims. house intel chairman revealed that the trump transition teams private communications may have been intercepted by u.s. intel agencies monitoring foreign officials. nunes decided to brief the president before telling his own democratic colleagues on the committee. so is that congres

, and who revealed flynn's identity. >> one thing you and i agree on is the dissemination of classified information most definitely as a crime? >> with the president's account suggesting obama might have played a role in the leaks, tweeting fbi comey refuses to deny he briefed obama on calls made by michael flynn to russia. despite the cloud hanging over the white house, the administration is going to do its very best to try and change the subject today and focus on the plan to repeal and replace obamacare, and the president headed to capitol hill this morning, alisyn. >> thank you very much, joe. let's discuss all of this with cnn political commentator and former white house communicator, and matt schlap. now that director comey said there is no basis for president trump's accusation against president obama about wiretapping, why is the white house continuing to push it? >> well, i mean, i think what director comey said is he has no evidence that says barack obama wiretapped president trump, but he also said there was an investigation, and he finally publicly acknowledged th

of all this has been the resignation or the firing of mike flynn, the fact that mike flynn lied to the vice president. the vice president in turn misled the american people about a sur ripity shows conversation with the russian ambassador. >> how do you know mike flynn lied to the vice president? i know that's what the white house says. but do you know that's what happened? >> i can't go into what we've been preefed on. but i do think this has reached the point of rightness where we need an independent council, not the current attorney general, to make a decision about what the facts are about something that may lead to a prosecution. >> that means you would suspect an underlying crime. if you're going to have an independent prosecutor, you need a crime. what's the crime? >> well, the question is whether the false statements of mike flynn in any form were prosecutable. >> the fbi said they weren't going to charge him and they didn't think he was misleading, which is why i'm asking the other question. the fbi gave the white house such great cover to keep mike flynn. they said we hea

. >> lieutenant general michael flynn and jared kushner. >> what is done is unprecedented in the history of this country. the investigation has to be strong. >> this is new day with chris cuomo. >> good morning and welcome to your new day. president trump standing by jeff session. attorney general fighting back against perjury allegations and recusing himself from investigations into russia but he is still under fire for his failure to inform congress about two meetings with the russian ambassador. >> more information has come out about staffers and meeting with a russian official. >> there's no question they see it as a threat and are calling for sessions to re-sign but you also have republican lawmakers calling for sessions recusal and saying a special prosecutor may be peshl. this russia connection is looming over day 43 of donald trump's presidency. let's begin our coverage with sarah murray live at the white house. >> jeff sessions may have recused himself from probes into the trump campaign but questions about ties between the president and russian officials do not end ther

more than jeff sessions and michael flynn who met with this ambassador. >> i'm not going to deny i talked to him. >> we need the fbi to fully cooperate. at this point the director was not willing to do that. >> this is "new day" with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. >> good morning. welcome no your "new day." president trump blasting democrats for what he calls a witch hunt. jeff sessions recusing himself from investigations involving russia and the trump campaign. sessions is under fire. why? he failed to disclose that he met twice with the russian ambassador during the 2016 race. >> lawmakers from both parties are battling over what's next for sessions as we learn more about who in the trump campaign met with that very same diplomat. the shadow of russia looms over the trump administration on day 43 of his presidency. let's begin our coverage with cnn's sarah murray live at the white house. good morning, sarah. >> good morning, alisyn. jeff sessions may be recusing himself but that doesn't answer all the questions about ties with this president and his advisers and russian offici

do know they investigated four former trump campaign associates including michael flynn and roger page for contacts with those known to u.s. intelligence. now all four of these men have denied improper contacts and i'm going to tell you one of the obstacles and interesting things here, one of the obstacles in finding this conclusive evidence is that communication between trump associates and the russians ceased in recent months and some of the russian officials they have been watching have also changed their methods of communications making it all that more difficult for the fbi to monitor what they're doing. >> appreciate it. thank you very much. keep us in the loop. another story. the political battle brewing over president trump's spy claims. how intelligence chairman did something very unorthodox. he went to the white house with information he learned about private communications of the president and his transition team being intercepted by u.s. intelligence monitoring of foreign officials. remember the distinction. he did not have information that they were the target of any

. intelligence intercepted conversations between him and michael flynn. flynn was later fired for misleading him and discussing sanctions with russia. obama administration officials scrambled to preserve any information about possible contact between president trump's campaign aids and russia before mr. trump took office. the officials quickly spreading information about russia's efforts to leave a clear trail of intelligence. >> i have nothing to do with russia. >> the white house repeatedly denied any such contact. >> what point, how many people have to say that there's nothing before there you realize there's nothing there. >> so what is russia saying about all of this? it's foreign ministry spokeswoman posted something on her facebook page referring to cnn. russian ambassador to the u.s. considered by u.s. intelligence to be top russian spy and recruiters. she writes do you think this is the media bottom or do they have to fall further? the administration was hoping to get on policy today with a trip out to the tidewater area of virginia but apparently the white house is back

transitionings of those attorneys general. let's look to michael flynn the national security visor, and the recognition from the white house that they knew or at least informed that he was lobes for a group that had the interest of turkey and now registered as a foreign agent. when we heard from sean spicer yesterday, errol, he didn't get specifically to the issue of judgment there. what are we hearing from the white house, from the white house allies, not about the legal element, but the judgment of keeping on michael flynn after that acknowledgement? >> well, they're not so subtly, victor, trying to push the question back on to michael flynn and saying, look, we're not in charge of the transition and we're not in charge of the disclosure by nominees, it's up for them to figure out how to get right with the law and how to make clear how any potential problems might be for them. that's sort of the opposite of vetting, actually. when people were criticizing the trump transition team for rushing things through for not properly vetting nominees, this is a prime example of it. there's a certain

now national security adviser michael flynn was lobbying to help the turkish government during the u.s. presidential campaign. also today a bit of a mild post for this as the cabinet meeting and two of his nominees have been confirmed. >> let's bring in our panel of political super stars. host of the podcast examining politics. washington bureau chief for the daily beast and david gregory the author of how is your faith. set the table. let's play this sound with kellyanne conway and the claim about the potential wiretapping against our president. let's play it. >> what the president has asked is for the investigation into surveillance to be included in the on going investigation that the house and senate intelligence communities are already doing. that's actually how they have agreed to do that. what is the investigation about? it's about the campaign's connection to russia. and by the way, director clapper who worked for president obama was on television a week ago sunday and he was being asked about the wiretap and he said that leaves a lot of people in a big administration. obam

ambassador. the same ambassador that mike flynn was meeting with. you know who he is and what happened to him. he was still a senator sessions when advising the trump campaign and had these meetings. >> these new revelations contradict answers that jeff sessions gave to senators during his confirmation process. they're calling on the attorney general to re-sign as more calls for him to recuse himself. let's begin our coverage with joe johns live at the white house. good morning. >> good morning, allison. the confirmation hearing of jeff sessions was must see tv as his then colleagues in the senate got to grill him. he was sworn in three weeks ago today as the federal governments top law enforcement officer and now there are questions about whether he may have made a misleading statement during the hearing about contact with russia that could at least potentially have far reaching consequences. the justice department revealing that he met with him twice. contacts sessions did not disclose under oath at his senate confirmation hearing. >> i have been called a surrogate a time or two duri

his first national security adviser that general michael flynn had been a paid lobbyist for turkish concerns at the height of the campaign and through election day. we'll examine these new revelations. >>> a panel of correspondents and political experts standing by to break all of this down for us this morning. we want to start with ryan nobles, in washington. ryan, good morning. what are you hearing? >> reporter: let's talk first about the health care plan and the battle that the white house is under way on two fronts. first they have democrats that are firmly opposed to any effort that would dismantle the affordable care act which president obama worked so hard to put into place. and then they're dealing with conservative republicans who believe the house gop plan to fix obamacare doesn't go far enough. many of these republicans calling it obamacare lite. the trump administration seems committed to sticking with this plan and pushing it through as soon as possible. this week the president himself saying that there is an urgent need to fix the problem as soon as possible. take a li

lobianco, eugene fan, thank you for that. >>> we know now more about michael flynn. there turns out he was paid to represent the administration. despite claims to the contrary. here's cnn's jessica schneider. >> reporter: the white house saying president trump had no idea when he chose his first national security adviser that lieutenant general michael flynn had been a paid lobbyist for turkish concerns at the height of the campaign and through election day. but a source tells cnn white house council was well aware, both before the inauguration and after general flynn was named national security adviser that his company was planning to file a foreign agent disclosure form. >> he didn't file until two days ago. nobody would have known that because he hadn't filed until two days ago. >> reporter: flynn's counsel and said. why wane the president made aware of that recommendation? >> there are tons of individuals that consult with the lawyers and with ethics experts and say, i own this stock, or i have to sell it. i own a business, i own this house. and for the most part, they're given gui

. that can't be. we know general flynn was wiretapped. we know -- >> general flynn was not wiretapp wiretapped. >> i'm sorry, that people leaked the conversation. whether he was wiretapped -- >> he was not wiretapped. what i'm saying is we know that conversation he had was leaked somehow. so somebody is giving information that they should not be. >> leaks are a problem. that's not what the president asked for. he said i was wiretapped by president obama, accusing a former president of a felony, and he called him bad or sick. he has no proof to support calling president obama, a man who he says he likes, bad or sick. what about that? >> what about the rest of the obama administration. >> what about calling him bad or sick? was that right for the president to say? >> chris, i'll let the president speak for himself. he's perfectly capable of that. he's the president of the united states. do you think he's covered -- >> does that make it right? >> i want to ask you a question. the level of disrespect for the president of the united states and the way he is described by people, people wh

michael flynn because his statements regarding his contact was the russian ambassador did not match up with what was picked up about the conversations. i'm told that some of the what she would say and as patrick pointed out, what will be said some way. some of the white house statements of the conversation are not correct. >> that sounds important. that sounds like something would be helpful to hear if it hasn't been cancelled. >> thes white hou white house t frame sally yates, not the white house, but republicans as barack obama holdover. she will be able to go to the hill and say this is what we saw. >> let's think it through. jackie, sally yates comes in and said i went to the white house and there is a mismatch here. they forced flynn to resign. what do they fear in terms of exposure? >> they don't want to talk about nie michael flynn anymore. look at the answers that sean spicer was giving. you saw the frustration are. the idea that new information coming out that makes it look like the white house is not being straight with the american people because it has nothing to do with th

general flynn is pivotal in this. that was last year. that was just about the election. general flynn is a sitting national security adviser so now this is part of the administration itself and i think that guarentees even if it might be slow, we will get to the bottom of it and answer the question about what the trump connection to this russian hacking was. >> i'm one of the few that holds out skepticism about flynn. about whether or not he was a political fall guy. the fbi said they weren't going to charge him. they said he wasn't misleading. we don't know that for a fact about what happened. a little skepticism on flint. we'll see how he advances the ball today. do you feel that the wiretapping is as these other ones you have been profiling on the show but do you think it's a distraction? >> it's a distraction but once donald trump tweeted out that president obama wiretapped him we have to get to the bottom of it. we absolutely have to get to the bottom of it. we need to see whether the president was trying to distract us or why he was trying to distract us or is there someth

come out about surveillance in general and how they got flynn while they were surveilling the russian ambassador and he can say that is what i meant. will that be enough. >> i think for domestic politics i think that will be enough in that these kind of episodes the president uses to strengthen his connection to the base and keep them doubting critics so everybody is always after him then you can't trust people that are critical of his policies and i think he uses situations like that to do that and to pretty good effect. now as david gregory pointed out what people around the world see as another matter and that is problematic. the word of the president of the united states is supposed to matter and other countries and foreign leaders could use this against him overtime saying you can't trust what the president says because he says all sorts of things. that gets us back to republicans and the people he's looking to to dend him and what i noticed in talking to them over the past month or so is they have gotten used to his twitter tirades and him being unconventional as they sa

. >> you're calling them bogus. >> the wiretapping thing is bogus. and he one talking about flynn. we both know he one talking about flynn. >> you guys said you're making allegations that may not be true. i wasn't making allegations i'm at an open question about what's going on with these jewish community centers and we discovered that there was a person. let me explain to you why it's not different. he's 21 or 22 months as a poll situatio tigs. he used several devices to deliver information to his base. he said a few weeks ago he would not have been president in his opinion had he not had those devices. his instincts have been very good. sometimes he gets stuff wrong. you have gotten some stuff wrong and i have certainly gotten some stuff wrong. as it relates to this situation he said let's let more time pass. >> doesn't hold up to scrutiny. if i ever got anything wrong anywhere close to what he gets wrong on a regular basis i would be picking up garbage somewhere. >> sounds like you didn't vote for him and that's fine. >> you don't know who i voted for. don't make it personal. >> sounds

shut it down when they got discovered? why would they do that? why flynn and now sessions have been found saying things denying they were in contact with russian diplomats when they were. i want to know why they were misrepresenting the truth. we know they were, but why were they. these are things i think the fbi could shed light on. i hope they're in it for the long haul. i don't think the truth is going to be forthcoming. if it were, mr. sessions would go back to the committee as senator franken has invited him to do and clarify exactly what he meant when he denied any contact with russia. that's what i'm hoping we can get from comey's presence on this. i'm glad we're trying to get to the bottom of this. look, this is stunning when you think about it. far worse than watergate when you believe a hostile foreign power engaged in an attempt and with the collusion of the sitting administration -- >> hold on. you don't know that -- >> we don't know it. >> you said collusion. there's no evidence there's collusion. >> alisyn, if people in the trump administration are having meetings with

adviser michael flynn was lobbying to help the turkish government during the u.s. presidential campaign. and while all of that is going on, the president has got a busy day on the calendar today. he's expected to hold the very first cabinet meeting of his administration, all but two of his cabinet nominees have been confirmed. >> joe johns, appreciate it. white house counselor kellyanne conway suggesting without evidence that surveillance of the trump campaign may have involved even more than wiretapping. we spoke to the columnist who interviewed her moments ago. here is what he said. >> i think she was throwing things up into the realm of the possible. here's the problem. this isn't just anybody speaking here. this isn't like you and me at the bar suggesting something may be going on here. this is the special counsel to the president, suggesting something may be going on. for that reason i think it's significant. i think this is a serious strategy on the part of the trump administration. what i think is also at work here, chris, is something deeper here. there is an enormous destain tw

. stephen flynn, a retired coast guard commander, says cuts to his former agency will hurt, not help the president's national security and immigration agenda. >> just as a lesson we've learned post 9/11, you can't do this piecemeal. you have to have a comprehensive approach. >> reporter: among the coast guard's duties, securing the waterways near mar-a-lago in florida when president trump visits. the proposal calls for a 14% cut from its $9 billion operational budget. that includes slashing $43 million from the maritime safety and security teams which board vessels trying to bring illegal drugs into the country. over the past five years coast guard cutters and aircraft have removed thor than 630 metric tons of pure uncut cocaine with a wholesale value of nearly $19 billion from the high seas. drugs have been a focus for president trump. >> and for drugs to pour in at a now unprecedented rate. >> reporter: flynn warned cuts to the coast guard could also affect national security. >> something the president certainly knows, the coast guard is a front line agency for that. >> reporter: t

two extremes i just explained to you. >> so you don't think that the fact that flynn was meeting with the ambassador and talking to the ambassador or the same with jeff sessions none of that concerns you but you say the problem is telling the truth. what do you mean then? what's the concern? >> we all know that general flynn had a problem possibly with the vice president in terms of depicting the conversation he had. that's an internal matter within the administration but it has consequences obviously, secondly attorney general sessions in his hearings said something about his context and doesn't seem to have reflected what happened and it's trying to explain to the committee what happened. those are the points of concern. not whether we speak to the russians or not. >> so the concern becomes why was it not fully disclosed. appreciate the perspective as always. >> what is president trump telling the people closest to him about those wiretapping allegations? mr. trump's personal friend joins us just ahead. hello, welcome. so chevy is the most awarded car company three years in a r

witnesses, former national security adviser michael flynn and the president's son-in-law jared kushner. kushner is expected to testify about his russian banker about an effort to engage the russians and accomplish a point person. senate intelligence chairman refusing to rule out the possibility of collusion between the trump campaign and russians. >> we would be crazy to try to draw conclusions from where we are in the investigation. >> the bipartisan showed unity in the senate. house intel chair, devin nunes continuing to fend off charges of collusion with the white house and refusing to answer questions about the probe. >> what's been the hold up about the specific information you saw on white house grounds? >> it's just trying to get the agencies in order for them to get the information to us in a timely manner. >> there seems to be this fascination with the process. it's how did he get here? what door did he enter, as opposed to what is the substance of what we're finding. >> i just don't know how to conduct a credible investigation in you have let alone one person but the

surveillance? that's how they knew about flynn, how they knew about these contacts in the first place. he didn't talk about your reporting and the underlying reason for it. does it start to feel like this was a stunt. it was to help the white house narrative, not necessarily give the late of the information. >> it seems to implode what nunes was trying to do with that committee. at this point we don't know who the associates were being investigated for this possible collaboration or coordination. the fbi already said it's investigating four former trump campaign associates for contact with russians known to u.s. intelligence. all four have denied improper contacts. chris, one of the obstacles that the people we're talking to say that the fbi now faces in finding any conclusive intelligence is that the communications between trump's associates and russians have ceased in recent months giving the focus on russia's ties to the trump campaign. some russian officials they've been watching have changed their methods of communications which is going to make it all that more difficult for the fbi

transcript of conversations between then national security adviser michael flynn, well, in his role in the transition as incoming nsa director and then obviously he was talking to the russian ambassador. that made it's way to the press and ultimately lead to his firing because he laid to the vice president about it. what they plan to do is muddy the waters. if there's no evidence that president palm balm got a warrant from a court to have then candidate trump to wiretap or he did it illegally. if they can't come up with that and there's no indication that there's any of that, james comey already met with members of congress met meeting with him and i think what the white house staff tends to do is muddy the waters the way hillary clinton used to say, i'm sorry i used a pry mat e-mail the way everyone else does. she had her own private server. they keep talking about reports of wiretapping. she was a candidate for president. she is president and has to answer a lot of questions from his own republican colleagues in the house and the senate. you have lindsey graham coming out and saying if t

get to is who are the leakers? how do you find out about the flynn conversation with the russian ambassador if there isn't somebody that leaks it -- >> but the leaks are a legitimate thing. flynn was not tapped but the russian ambassador was, and leaks are a legitimate issue and they are a separate issue from this, and words that can come back to haunt, and sean spicer did not like that i was reporting on a politico story from the omb of what the analysis might come up with, and he said please don't cite a false and misleading story. false and misleading will come to bear fruit or not this monday. true or false? >> i'm not sure that it will. i can say this, and in terms of intelligence and in terms of congress in general, the goal posts are always getting moved by both sides. whatever the findings are, something will find something -- it's like the clapper interview two weeks ago, and if you were a republican, you said no collusion, and if you are a democrat, you would say, no wiretapping because he would have known about it. whenever you have a hearing, whenever you have a witne

of the political right with flynn. they said flynn was wiretapped. no he wasn't. the russian was wiretapped and he got picked up on that. it's a meaningful distinction when you talk about what the facts are versus what you want them to be. >> i spoke to a number of republicans and said what is the president doing? is it anything different than he has always done? they couldn't really give me an answer. they said number one, the president needs an enemy. he needs to fight with somebody because that keeps his base loyal to him. and, number two, he doesn't really want to find out whether or not this happened, in their point of view. what he wants to do is inject into the discussion exactly what we're doing, which is talking now because of the president's so far baseless charge. >> to the cost of his own credibility and his relationship with the intelligence community, he may have to rely on them for a life or death situation. >> he measures his relationship with everybody and his political credibility differently than we do. and he is not -- what he wanted was a discussion of whethe

flynn or somebody else, we ought to know that and what was the compelling evidence for a fisa order. that's something we ought to know. that's the foreign intelligence surveillance act order. and if, in fact, some conversations may have been caught up, as we were doing what we should do, which is monitoring the conversations of foreign ambassadors, that's important to know, too. but, yeah, i think anytime you make an accusation of a former president, in essence of committing a felony, we need to know the answer to that. and it seems like over the last few days, and i'm happy for this, the white house has begun to walk that back. i think they need to come out and say, look, maybe the word wiretap was used, this was not a wiretap, it was x, y, or z or nothing. and that's what we need to find out. and the intel committees are doing their jobs to get to the bottom of it, as well. >> but why is it their job? the president comes out. he's a phone call away from getting the answer. he can declassify any information he gets wherever he wants. he's got almost the most power in that regard, m

conversations tailbone general flynn and formal national security adviser and russian ambassadors. some of these other discussions are going to unwhine over the coming weeks and months. >> let me turn to president trump's supreme court nominee, do you think this is going to be smooth sailing. >> one of the leading democrats schumer says they they block him. whether or not judge gorsuch will be asked about donald trump's travel ban, again, being held up in the court despite the revisions the administration has made. whether or not what he says will contract di contra contradict the oval office. how he will weigh in on this travel ban. i think that's the biggest thing we are watching for. >> david, we got to turn to healthcare of the now gop plan is coming out on thursday. >>> could it could be huge, do e all republicans on board? there is a lot of push back within his own party. >> it is going to be close. republicans need 216 vote in the house. normally you need 218. the house has five empty seats. it can go either way. a couple of moderate members who think the bill goes too far in cut

focusing on leaks and who revealed former national security adviser michael flynn's identity. >> one thing you and i agree on is the felonious dissemination of classified material most definitely. is a crime. >> reporter: with the president's government account suggesting that backup may have played a role in the leaks. tweeting, "fbi director comey refuses to deny he briefed president obama on calls made by michael flynn to russia." the administration's defense after learning of this investigation got off to a rocky start yesterday, with white house press secretary sean spicer trying to make the case that one of the figures potentially in the middle of all of this, paul manafort, had a limited role in the campaign. in fact, paul manafort, was a chief strategist and campaign chairman. chris? >> spicer didn't even have the dates right about when manafort had joined the campaign and what happened there. it was an odd cover-up, to be sure. joe, thanks for pointing that out. appreciate it. joining us now, republican congressman will hurd of texas. take a listen to his questioning of fbi

moscow and the trump cane. the former adviser michael flynn and jared kushner. the meetings were an effort to engage the russians and establish a point person for the administration. senate intelligence chairman richard burr refusing to rule out collusion. >> we would be crazy to try to drawl conclusions from where we are in the investigation. >> reporter: the show of unity in the senate is a stark contrast to the chaos on the other side of the capitol. devin nunes continuing to fend off charges of collusion with the white house and refusing to answer questions about the probe. >> what is the hold up about the specific information you saw? >> look, trying to get all of the agencies getting the information to us. >> reporter: the white house deflecting. >> there seems to be the fascination with the process. how did he get here? what door did he enter. >> reporter: the ranking democrat on the house committee expected to meet with nunes today. >> i don't know how to conduct a credible investigation if you have one person, but the chairman of the committee saying i hahave seen evidence,

everybody else testify chg is who knew about general flynn and can we figure out who leaked from those intelligence sweeps and they're looking either to get actual names for people that served under barrack obama or in the intelligence community. either way that's something they want to find out. >> their chance of satisfaction on that isn't the best in the world. they have been asking several steps down. but you never know. on the wiretapping question, the real success will be that it's not about wiretapping. he has to go further and talk about any kind of surveillance to really make any news in terms of our understanding but the russia question, much more wide open. just an admission that there has been or is now an on going and wide ranging investigation of potential collusion would be something. >> i think people will be surprised if he announces that he is done. there is an on going investigation and legal scholars argued that there's an inverse relationship between the amount he discloses and the extent to which the investigation is active. the more vitality there is to the inves

say the president is just upset because he feels like between mike flynn and all the russia stuff there's been leaks and nobody is looking into them. the house intelligence chair and senate intelligence chairman both said that the scope of their russia investigations are going to include how information was revealed, whether there were warrants going after russians that swept up americans that they weren't supposed to and leaked so it's all theoretically going to be looked at by his alabama lice on the hill. he didn't need to do any of this for that to happen. >> he says we are in the middle of a warping crisis of public trust. a writer called this vd, a viral disruption. you have the fbi going to the doj. just go to the fbi and he is the president. he would probably find out. they go to the doj and say push back on the president of the united states. push this wiretap story. say it's not true. what do you make of that. >> have you seen the doj do that yet chris? >> no. >> they're not actually acknowledging. you can imagine what the round of questions are going to be since jeff se

what was discussed in the meeting? this is what did michael flynn in. >> if he says sanctions came up, but i made no promises. >> you can say that, but why were you meeting with the bank? financial institutions in russia are not just financial institutions. u.s. treasury designated veb. >> you say taking the meeting with the bank alone was a mistake. >> yeah. >> you don't care what happened as a result of the meeting? >> if you absolutely want to do it, or you felt you had to do it, again, be for the cothcomin disclose the information. the fact it is leaking in the media goes to the notion that the trump administration has something to hide. >> this is meeting than meeting with the russian ambassador. >> yes. >> thank you, michael. thanks to you. our international viewers for watching. "cnn newsroom" is next. for u.s. viewers, we have headlines. what do you say? let's get after it. >>> the investigation has ground to a halt. >> they asked you to cancel the hearing. >> nothing has been canceled. >> evidence of a coverup. >> what it says we don't want that testimony. >> the reality is,

, look, no, the burden is on you to explain why michael flynn didn't disclose his ties to turkey and everything else. the burden is on you to explain why you never vetted this. the burden is on the trump people to explain what happened with paul manafort and what was going on inside of trump tower where he owns an apartment. these are not questions that are going to go away. >> jose, pam larks thank you for sharing your reporting with us. panel stick around please we have many more questions. so fight to repeal and replace obamacare is heating up on capitol hill. is the trump administration privately bending to conservatives? and could that somehow kill the entire bill? we take a closer look at what's happening next. dearthere's no other way to say this. it's over. i've found a permanent escape from monotony. together, we are perfectly balanced. our senses awake. our hearts racing as one. i know this is sudden, but they say...if you love something set it free. see you around, giulia how's tcheck it out.t going? lights. meeting configuration. blueprints. call hruska. we've gotta set u

, paul mannefort, roger stone, michael flynn. the list goes on and on. all of them have bizarre and ongoing contacts with russia. most of them then lied about the nature of those contacts. in the context of a president who will attack the cast of hamilton, chuck schumer, attack "the new york times," will attack you, but doesn't have a nasty word to say about one of the biggest antagonists on the planet, you put all those things together and you have enough questions so that not just congress, but hopefully the fbi would be investigating why all of that is true. >> also, congressman, i hear a bit of a finess point. stop saying collusion. we're not looking at just col collusion. we want to hear about knowledge, whether any of the trump people had knowledge that russia was doing it. what do you mean? >> if there were collus. on, if the trump people were working with russia to get him elected -- watergate would pale by comparison. but even knowledge -- remember, this investigation is just started in the congress. but even knowledge, if paul mannefort or roger stone, who had a bizarre ab

, the top law enforcement officer of the country, whether it's general flynn and his misrepresentation to the vice president. if these are all on the up and up, that's a lot of smoke that needs to be investigated in a fair, open way and i think president trump realizes this is going very badly for him and he may be grasping for straws right now. >> but you're saying he could get the answer with one phone call to director of the fbi james comey. sit incumbent upon director comey to come out in the national interest now that these major accusations have been made and said whether or not fbi got a pfizer warrant. >> i think it's incredibly important. this goes to a very serious issue. you know, we have the credibility of a president of the united states making an incredibly serious charge against his predecessor. we have to know that the president of the united states is actually backed by evidence and real facts. the american people need to know that and homeland security there will be very serious national security issues this country will surely face in the next few y

there. some of the players absent, amber, carter page, paul man fort, steve bannon, michael flynn, any chance these committees will demand to hear from them? >> we'll see. it took this house intelligence committee holding this hearing monday a lot of public wrangling and i'm sure behind scenes wrangling to try to get these big national security players from the trump administration in the chair with the cameras on to testify. so i think it's going to be a question then of resources and how much time and effort congress wants to put forward to try to put the rest of trump administration officials forward. at least in a public setting. we do know that these intelligence communities that are investigating russia meddling in the u.s. election and to some degree some potential of trump ally ties to russia during that campaign tend to hold hearings behind closed doors. but the bottom line is that congress is really frustrated with the fbi and more broadly the trump administration for not being forthcoming on what it knows and what it's investigating. i think that's a major question they hope

house did the democrats a favor with flynn. you can argue they didn't need to but they did. do you think they'll be able to make a real case which won't mean anything anyway. >> if they make it as a partisan issue maybe it doesn't matter as much. but the problem lies to your point earlier about trump's credibility. i think it was just a day or two ago he was trying to say that paul manafort wasn't a major part of the campaign. he was campaign manager. >> chairman. >> chairman. different title but the same function. that's not true. he was closely affiliated with the came pain and when you're talking about paul manafort it's not a good day for the white house or republicans that have to answer questions about paul manafort because they don want to. >> it was worse to be honest. i have not seen the facts that back up the allegations. i get that it doesn't smell good but to take that next step legally i vn seen it. to try to trivialize that guy that was the save wror going into that convention he made phone calls and totally righted the ship. >> just delegates and they put together a

hacked. it comes as the white house says it was aunaware that michael flynn was lobbying to help the turkish government during the u.s. presidential campaign. >> meanwhile the work goes on here at the white house. the president holds his first cabinet meeting all but two of his nominees have been confirmed. chris. >> all right joe. every time we want to say that we'll double down. it's getting a little cliche. there's no reason to say it. you just saw white house counselor kellyanne conway alleging without evidence that surveillance of the trump campaign may be broader than even wiretapping. take a listen. >> with what the president has asked is for the investigation into surveillance to be included in the on going investigation of the house and senate intelligence committees are already doing. they have agreed to do that. that's smart. here's why. what is the existing investigation about? it's about the campaign's connection to russia and by the way, director clapper that worked for president obama was on television a week ago sunday. and he was being asked about the wiretapping and

see any evidence on that. and on other end of the spectrum -- >> what about the michael flynn conversations? what about the paul manneforte having resigned? isn't that evidence? >> the house intelligence committee will lead out on that. it's flimsy at best. there's incidental contact. but to make that leap and say that there was some degree of collusion, we haven't seen anything yet that would lead you to believe, yes, indeed, other than incidental contact, that there was some sort of collusion. on the other end of the spectrum, to be fair, what president trump has said, we're at the very beginning of that. that happened, i think, on saturday. we want to see evidence of that. anybody in the government can come forward particularly to house intelligence but also the oversight government reform committee and provide us that evidence. we would like to see it. >> how often do you wake up in the morning and read a president trump tweet and go uh-oh? >> you have to get up kind of early. well, it is interesting. it's a different and new dynamic. he chooses how he wants to communicate