clovis. he lost that senate primary in 2014. in 2015 he started to run rick perry's iowa campaign. that ended up being a short job. in 2016 he ended up joining the donald trump for president campaign. sam clovis became the national co-chair of the trump for president campaign, became the top policy official and weird russia stuff kept following him around. when the wall street journal reported earlier this year about a republican political operative named peter smith who mounted a campaign to get hackers' imma e-mails. he was supportive to find russian hackers to obtain documents from the democrats. peter smith also bragged he was in contact with sam clovis from the trump campaign on that operation. now, as far as i know, sam clovis has never had to answer any questions as to his alleged role in peter smith's project to try to work with the russians to help trump and hurt clinton during the campaign, but, like i say, weird russia stuff follows sam clovis around. sam clovis is also credited, if that's the right word, with bringing on to the trump campaign, carter page, who traveled to mo

trump's nominee for chief scientist at the department of agricultural, sam clovis, withdrew his nomination after reports surfaced that he had alleged ties to the ongoing russia investigation. so who is sam clovis and why is he still working for this administration? it's time for the "check-in." ♪ [ applause ] >> seth: sam clovis was trump's national co-chairman during the presidential campaign. of course you may know him as the security guy in every syfy film who sees a spaceship and drops his flashlight. [ light laughter ] he's also been serving as the white house liaison to the department of agricultural while awaiting his hearing to be chief scientist at the usda. that hearing was scheduled for this thursday, but then last week this happened. >> a former trump advisor has withdrawn his name from consideration for a top position at the agricultural department. >> sam clovis, who admits he's not even a scientist, took himself out of the running due to his reported relationship with george papadopoulos. that's the former trump campaign foreign policy advisor who pleaded guilty to making

radio talk show host, and his name is sam clovis, and he lost that primary in 2014. in 2015, he started to run rick perry's iowa campaign and that ended up to be a short job. and then in 2016, he ended up joining the donald trump for president campaign. sam clovis was the co-chair for the trump campaign, and top policy official, and weird are russia stuff kept following him around. when "the wall street journal" reported earlier in the year about a republican operative peter smith with the effort to contact foreign hackers and specifically russian hackers to try to get hillary clinton's e-mail, he claimed that he was working with retired general mike flynn from the campaign and he described mike flynn as not only aware of, but supportive of trying to find the russian hackers to obtain stolen docume documents from the democrats. but in contact with the contact with flynn, he was also in contact with sam clovis from the trump campaign on that operation are. now, as far as i know, sam clovis has never had to answer any questions as to his alleged role in peter smith's project to tr

adviser sam clovis the president's nominee to be the department of agriculture chief scientist has now withdrawn from that position, being under consideration. joe, how significant is this and explain what has led up to this moment? >> yeah. i think it's important, one sentence statement coming out from the white house press office, we respect mr. clovis' decision to withdraw his nomination, now coming from the press secretary sarah sanders. the significant is, he was up for the job as the top scientist at the u.s. department of agriculture. there were questions about his qualifications for the job but more importantly i think he had connections to george papadopolous, who is the one person who has actually pleaded guilty so far in the russian investigation. he pleaded false statements after an interview with the fbi. and clovis had a connection to papadopolous. apparently they exchanged e-mails, perhaps some other connections and there was a question about whether -- and the extent to which clovis may have encouraged the idea that trump officials might travel overseases to meet with r

reporting that papadopoulos' superior former trump campaign co-chair sam clovis testified before a federal grand jury last week. now clovis' attorney appears to deny a key part of what papadopoulos revealed to investigators, that our client encouraged a trip to russia on behalf of the campaign. dr. clovis vigorously opposed a trip. adding that if someone proposed foreign travel in a personal capacity dr. clovis could not prohibit such travel. that's lawyer talk. documents unsealed after clovis testified appeared to show he did encourage such a meeting telling plows i would encourage you to make the trip if it is feasible. mueller is creeping closer to the white house itself. "politico" reports his investigators are scheduled to interview trump's close aide hope hicks, later this month as well as three or four other current white house officials as early as this week. by now there is no question that they are aware of the consequences of making false statements to investigators. i am joined by nicolle wallace, joy reid, kari ca dera from the office of director of national intelligence and s

nominees, and we know clovis has been talking to the special counsel. this is a development just into cnn. joe johns has more for us. what are you learn? >> reporter: well, he is a former campaign official for trump. now he is a nominee to be the top scientists at usda, the department of agriculture. a white house source familiar with the situation tells several of my colleagues at cnn that he is in danger, his nomination is in danger, that either he may have to with draw and if he doesn't with draw he may be forced out. the problem with clovis is his connection to george papadopoulos. this is the former trump campaign foreign policy adviser who has pleaded guilty to making false statements to the fbi and the russia investigation. apparently mr. clovis is one of the individuals referred to in court documents as exchanging e-mails with papadopoulos, and this, obviously about sending trump staff overseas to talk with russians, a lawyer, a very important to see a lawyer for clovis has said mr. clovis was adamant about telling papadopoulos that, no, there should be no trump staff foreign

today is that sam clovis, who was the nominee for a top science position which he was arguably not qualified not being a scientist in the ag department, is not going to be up for a hearing. that nomination withdrawn. he's been under quite a shadow because we've reported, kim delanian of our team, reported he is the unnamed supervisor with george papadopoulos. the question would be, what did you know about russian contacts? what did papadopoulos tell you as the supervisor? >> reporter: that's right, andrea, and that is a big part of the reason why this, of course, has been derailed, although i will also say there was a story in the "washington post" this morning, the paper obtaining a letter in which clovis admitted in questions from some of the senators that he didn't have nyack dem i can or scientific credentials at all, and that, of course, this position was as the top scientist at the usda. so a conflue nernce of factors there. we have reported that clovis has spoken to special counsel mueller about all of this russian meddling investigation, and that he is potentially involved.

for the top agriculture post is withdrawing. sam clovis was the supervisor for the former adviser who wanted to set up campaign meetings with russians and now cooperating with the special counsel. the president has big economic news on two fronts. the job announcement that the white house moments from now and later today his choice to lead the federal reserve. we begin with a policy and political fight over what you pay uncle sam. house republicans unveiling their tax cut plan. now they have the daunting task of selling. >> we are getting rid of loopholes and leveling the playing field. are we going to let them see our country down this downward spiral or are we going to realize the promise of our country and revitalize the american idea? this is our chance to make sure that generations to come don't just get by. they get ahead this this country. >> the plan cuts taxes on corporations and offers relief to middle class families and promises to roll back deductions for mortgage and medical expenses. it will help working families, they say, and create millions of jobs. democrats call

. sources tell nbc news sam clovis now president trump's pick to be the agriculture chief scientist met with mueller's team and testified before the vecking going last week. his lawyer would neither confirm or deny his interactions with the mueller team. court documents describe e-mails between george papadopoulos arrested in july after admitting to lying to the fbi in its investigation and in an unnamed camp supervisors t. supervisors responded great work after papadopoulos discussed his interactions with russian, who wanted to arrange a meeting with trump and russian leaders. clovis' lawyer confirmed he was the supervisors but added that clovis never encouraged papadopoulos to pursue improved relations between the united states and russia. yesterday the white house addressed where clovis stands, given this new information. >> is the president still comfortable with him saying clovis serving the administration. >> i'm not aware any change would be necessary at this time. >> clovis who is not a scientist is serving as an unpaid white house adviser to the agriculture department. he awaits a c

know -- we know mueller's people have been questioning the people in that room. sam clovis, who was papadopoulos' campaign supervisor, was before the grand jury a week ago and had to resign -- pull back from his nomination to be at usda this week as a result of these disclosures. but mueller has some answers about what trump's response is, and i think that's very critical. >> i would just say i think that the march 31st meeting is extremely important, but i think the key to all of this is looking at it from what happened after papadopoulos was informed by this russia-linked professor that the russians had these thousands and thousands of e-mails that they said came from hillary clinton's campaign. when he essentially learned that the russians had dirt and they wanted to give it to the trump campaign. after that you saw a consistent effort by papadopoulos to reach out to high-level members of the trump campaign, apparently not j.d. gordon and jeff sessions because they shot him down but to paul manafort, corey lewandowski, to pitch this trump/russia meeting. why did he want the presi

to the special counsel's office, which included communication between papadopoulos and sam clovis, the trump campaign national code chairman. the plea agreement citing those emails says that the campaign supervisor, now known to be clovis, told papadopoulos "i would advise and you other members of the campaign to make the trip to russia if it is feasible." but sanders tried to contradict that account today. >> my understanding is there wasn't encouragement. he made multiple attempts. >> reporter: clovis has been nominated to a top scientific post in the department of agriculture, and despite questions raised by the top senate democrat on the agriculture committee, the white house said it sees no reason to withdraw clovis' nomination. >> mason: social media executives total a senate subcommittee today that russian- linked accounts began trying to interfere with the election in 2015, and they kept at it long after the voting had ended. here's nancy cordes. >> we take what happened on facebook very seriously. >> reporter: executives from facebook, twitter, and google told senators to

a cleansing. for more on this we will go to original correspondent, clovis. what can you tell us about this deal? deal is designed to enable the return of these hundreds of thousands of rohingya refugees who are now in bangladesh, and came from the rakhine state. the deal was signed with the de facto leader and bangladesh's foreign minister. it is based on the 199992, 19933 were factoryry should -- repatriation, when there had already been a cycle of violence targeting the rohingya muslims, the minority that was persecuted. there are specific rules to enable a possible return of the refugees. those in bangladesh will have to fill out forms, giving the names of their family members, their previous addressn rakhinee state, and they will have to sign a disclaimer saying they are returning voluntarily. to be accepted back to burma, the authohorities there have sad that t they will have to show id papers t to verify their identi. it is a huge problem, because many of these rohingya muslims fled the violence, they fled burning villages and left a lot of belongings behind. some s say th

national campaign co-chairman and colonel sanders getting "high on his own supply," sam clovis. ( laughter ) now, when papadopoulos wrote to ask clovis about going to russia to collude, clovis replied. "i would encourage you... to make the trip, if it is feasible." well, that's nice. betray your country, but only if it's no bother-- you know, like, "on your way home, could you pick up some bread, some eggs, and half a gallon of treason?" now, this email from clovis sounds damning, but clovis' lawyer explains that his client is a "polite gentleman from iowa" who "would always have been courteous to a person offering to help the campaign." "why, shucks, you've gone to all this trouble. it would be rude not to engage in an international conspiracy to undermine our democracy." go on. so things are looking bad for the white house, and they can't wriggle their way out of this one. it's as if-- it's as if all of their lies have suddenly come back to entangle the white house in some sticky mesh of interwoven threads. what's the metaphor i'm looking for? yeah, yeah, that's right, that's right. yeah

man is making news. sam clovis, formerly a white house adviser is withdrawing his name for consideration for department of agriculture. it was clovis who allegedly encouraged papadopoulos to continue talking with the russians, writing in an e-mail "great work." >> our thanks to pierre thomas there in washington. and clovis climate makes it impossible for him to do the job. he's already under fire for being named chief scientist. he's not actually a scientist. >>> a new poll reveals what might be some alarming results about the investigation. 58% approve of robert mueller's handling of the russian investigation and 68% approve of the charges being filed against paul manafort and his associate. the abc news/"washington post" poll finds 39% of americans think it's likely president trump broke the law in terms with russian attempts to influence the election. >> and the former leader of the democratic national committee is addressing the controversy surnding hillary clinton. in her new book, donna brazile says the primary was rigged in clinton's favor. because her campaign was l

trouble. sam clovis, who was a senior campaign official we know he has been speaking to the special counsel's office. senior washington correspondent joe johns has the story for us. joe? >> john, sam clovis, as a lot of us know, was a very visible member of the trump campaign, on cnn's air a lot and he was also a high-ranking official in the campaign. he is now up for a job nominated as the top scientist at usda, the department of yal culture, but he has a problem, we are told, by a white house person who -- with knowledge of the situation that sam clovis may have to withdraw his nomination or be forced out, and that's because of his apparent connection to a man named george papadopolous and the russia investigation. papadopolous, as we all know, pleaded guilty to a count of making false statements as a result of an fbi interview with him. apparently clovis is one of the individuals who e-mailed and had other contacts with papadopolous and, among the topics of conversation, was whether staff for the trump campaign ought to travel overseas to meet with russian officials. as you know,

contact with russians during the election campaign has already tainted paul manafort and sam clovis. now it appears that attorney general jeff sessions who attended a meeting with papadopoulos and the president. there's the picture in march 2016 was at least aware that papadopoulos wanted the campaign to make an overture to russia. according to a source close to sessions, quote, attorney general jeff sessions rejected a proposal by a junior campaign aide who offered to use his russian contacts to set up a meet between donald trump and v lead mir putin himself. he was not aware of anyone on the campaign who had communicated with russia. here's what he told al franken in his confirmation hearing in january. >> if there is any evidence that anyone affiliated with the trump campaign communicated with the russian government in the course of this campaign what will you do? >> senator franken, i'm not aware of any of those activities. more recently we saw sessions was careful to avoid a direct answer to this question posed by senator lindsay graham just last month. >> did you ever overhear

surrogates and the russian government is totally false. >> reporter: sam clovis, trump's pick for the agricultural department, has withdrawn his name from consideration. the unsealed court documents show papadopoulos contacted a campaign supervisor who was clovis and he encouraged papadopoulos to take the meeting. clovis said he didn't want to be a negative distraction writing, "the political climate inside washington has made it impossible for me to receive balance and fair consideration for this position. the relentless assaults on you and your team seem to be a blood sport that only increases in intensity each day." the clovis pick was already controversial since he has a history of homophobic comments, wolf. >> brianna keilar reporting for us, thank you. let's talk more about the breaking news in the russia investigation. joining us now, ted yoho, a member of the foreign affairs committee. congressman, thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having me on, wolf. >> let's talk about the special counsel for a moment. he's asking about jared kushner's role in the firing of the fbi direct

between campaign officials and leadership. it was clovis who responded great work. one of the people sort of rengiren ringing the alarm bells of this as loud as anyone else. first, your reaction having sat on the other side of this campaign, having watched all this development, having thought about the degree of russian involvement, your reaction to the facts we learned yesterday. >> well, the first thing i thought about was how far we've come, chris. the trump campaign and trump himself initially denied there was any interaction with any russians at any time. that fell by the wayside. ask enthen interactions they had with the ugz russians had nothing to do with the campaign in anyway. that fell by the wayside. now they're saying this is with some low level volunteer. but we see from mueller's investigation it actually reaches furg reaches further up into the trump campaign. the bottom line is what we have suspected for months is now clear, that the russian government offered help to the trump campaign to help him win and hurt hillary clinton, and the trump campaign was eager and wil

. well i think we're going to also be now looking at somebody else who played a role sam clovis sam clovis was another person in the campaign that's who it is appears that george papadopoulos was talking to as well as paul man of fort sam clovis has a confirmation hearing coming up to be the chief scientist for the u.s.d.a. the agriculture department even though he has no science background so i think we'll see the media digging in a little there again the cover a couple of wood responses from each of you melanie is donald trump any closer to impeachment or not i think there's definitely a step closer to him impeachment if not and if not that indictment so i think the walls are closing in on mr trump and he's going to be panicking and it'll be interesting to see what he does as we all know he can be fairly erratic ross. there is no chance of impeachment as of today based on these indictments and with the current makeup of the congress then your thoughts thomas. indictment is a legal act impeachment is political and legal we have to see whether in fact there are enough legal facts to

named sam clovis, who was national co-chair of the trump campaign, chief policy adviser to the trump campaign, sam clovis last week met with robert mueller's investigators. and nbc news reports tonight that sam clovis has also testified to the grand jury in this investigation. so if the trump white house decides they want to keep distancing themselves from people who have turned up in the russia investigation, distancing themselves from sam clovis is going to be particularly difficult, given not only that he was a national co-chair of the campaign but also that they have nominated him to a senior position at the u.s. department of agriculture for which sam clovis is supposed to face senate confirmation next week, which is probably going to be very, very awkward now. joining us is joyce vance, former state attorney for the state of alabama, thanks for being here. >> thanks for having me, rachel. >> so reading this document tonight that was unsealed by the court, this is a representation -- first there's the warrant, then there's the terms of confinement under which gates and manafort

there's more fallout involving papadopoulos and russia. another former campaign aide sam clovis withdrawing his name to be top scientist at the agriculture department after revelations he also had conversations about russians with papadopoulos. clovis saying his decision to withdraw was prompted by the political climate inside washington. >>> and on thursday, paul manafort who was indicted for charges ranging from conspiracy to money laundering was back in court along with his former deputy rick gates. a federal judge saying both are a flight risk and have to remain in home confinement and continue to wear their monitoring devices. philip? >> kristen, thank you. and new insight this morning into just how americans view the russia abc news washington post pole saying they approve of the way special counsel robert mueller is handling the investigation. and nearly a majority 49% saying it is likely that trump himself committed a crime. another a 51% believe the president is not cooperating with the investigation and just 37% believe he is. >> it was with great fanfare that congress

administration. sam clovis was the president's pick for chief scientist, but he withdrew after court documents revealed e-mails between papadopoulos and a campaign supervisor whom the "washington post" identified as clovis. the court papers show papadopoulos contacted clovis, who was then the campaign co-chair, about a potential trip to russia to meet with russian officials. clovis wrote, i would encourage you to make the trip if feasible. clovis said he was withdrawing from the usda post because he didn't want to be a distraction. and we've learned tonight that the trial in the paul manafort and rick gates case, it won't happen until may of 2018 at the earliest. that's because of the judge's schedule. prosecutors say it will take at least three weeks for them to lay out their case. that will push the case into the summer, keeping russia in the spotlight as the midterm congressional races heat up. wolf? >> all right, jessica, thank you. jessica schneider reporting. joining us now, a key member of the house intelligence committee. democratic congressman eric swalwell of california. th

direct knowledge was same clovis. a trump campaign aidewho aprooifed of the request to go to russia. clovis lawyer said he would never approve of that. president trump ignored shouted questions but called his former advisor a low level volunteer and proven liar. >> the guy was -- he was the coffee boy. >> he was not a person involved with the day-to-day operations of the campaign. >> reporter: the president's chief of staff acknowledging the probe is taking a toll. >> it is very districting to the president as it would be to any citizen to be investigating for something. >> reporter: there's discord about the path forward. the president's legal team urging him to stay the course and keep cooperating with robert mueller even as steve bannon is advising the president to fight back very hard against mueller. on capitol hill bipartisan calls for the investigation to proceeds unincup bkucunincumbe. >> i've had full fate in bob mueller from the beginning. >> reporter: late today the federal counsel told the judge paul manafort who has been charged with 12 counts of money laundering poses

and russia. another former campaign aide, sam clovis, withdrawing his name to be top scientist at the agriculture department after revelations he also had conversations about russians with papadopoulos. clovis saying his decision to withdraw was prompted by the political climate inside washington. and today paul manafort, who was indicted for charges ranging from conspiracy to money laundering, was back in court along with his former deputy rick gates. a federal judge saying both are a flight risk and have to remain in home confinement and continue to wear their monitoring devices. lester. >> kristen welker, thank you. >>> also in washington today, president trump made it official nominating federal reserve board member jerome powell as the next chair of the u.s. central bank. if he's confirmed by the senate, he'll succeed janet yellen when her term ends in february. it's the first time in decades a new president has not renominated a sitting fed chair for another term. >>> in colorado tonight, a search for answers after a gunman went on a rampage inside a walmart opening fire seeming

manafort and corey lewandowski as well as sam clovis now nominated for a high level position at the department of agriculture. his views about clovis but the white house is distancing itself from papadopoulos. >> i think that papadopoulos is an example of actually somebody doing the wrong thing while the president's campaign did the right thing. what papadopoulos did was lie and that's on him. not on the campaign and we can't speak for that. >> in fact, the white house and president trump yesterday belittled him calling him, quote, a low-level volunteer who has already proven to be a liar. >>> time now for a look at your weather on this wednesday morning. millions of trick-or-treaters made their way through halloween snow. the heaviest part of that was in michigan, it got up to 8 inches in some areas. snow also fell in the plains and in new york state near the great lakes. temperatures will be in the 40s in that area today. it'll be pleasantly warm across the south. 80 in miami, 79 in dallas, 72 degrees is unseasonably warm for denver. it'll also los angeles. 50s can be expected in

, tomorrow night was going to be when the white house revealed the clovis white house revealed the clovis nomination was withdrawn. >> yeah. >> i will still be here tomorrow night. >> good. >> i will definitely be here tomorrow night. so viewers of the hour of television of course knew this on tuesday. america found out today that, of course, sam clovis will not be having a confirmation hearing to answer questions about the dealings with the special prosecutor. >> the sam clovis story, something about the fact he is a talk radio show host from iowa and makes you think that like maybe this is kind of low level story. he's still a current administration official. he spoke to the grand jury without notifying the white house. he started to speak with mueller's investigators without telling the white house. we have no idea of an immunity agreement with the discussions and brought carter page and george papadopoulos on the trump campaign and oversaw this national security group that involved them that's now posing such difficulty for the attorney general. i mean, sam clovis is listed in

. sam clovis allegedly encouraged george papadopoulos to continue communicating with the russians. the president was already, though, under fire for naming clovis who is a controversial figure. he was going to be named as chief scientist but many say he lacks credentials on science. >>> this all comes as our new poll shows 49% of americans believe trump likely broke the law during the presidential campaign. more than half approve of how robert mueller is handling the investigation. >>> on the other side of the aisle the former head of the democratic national committee claims hillary clinton staged a, quote, secret takeover of the dnc to rig the primary against bern si sanders. in her new book donna brazile says the dnc was rigged in clinton's favor because clinton's campaign was largely financing the party early in the primary season. president trump is calling for a criminal investigation and he spoke to fox news last night. >> it's a major story. now, i don't know if the mainstream fake media, because they are fake and phony but i just don't know if they'll pick it up. that is a big

clovis will not be the department of agriculture's chief scientist after withdrawing his name in a letter to the president this morning. questions had also been raised about his qualifications. i want to bring in the washington correspondent for "the new york times" and an msnbc contributor. mccabe koppens is a staff writer at the atlanta. you've written about george papadopoulos who pleaded guilty in the russia probe. now you have sam clovis withdrawing. although he says he's going to keep his job right, in the government. help us put this development with clovi into context. >> you may recall when special counsel mueller put out the charges against manafort and his partner and also revealed that george papadopoulos had pled guilty to lying to him about his conversations with russians as a trump foreign policy adviser, in the information filed with -- in court about papadopoulos there were all these references to senior campaign officials, campaign supervisors, to whom he was returning and saying, hey, i've been talking to this professor who seems to have ties to russia. we've bee

special counsel. communication between papadopoulos and sam clovis, trump campaign national co-chairman. the plea agreement citing eflt-mails said the campaign superviser told papadopoulos i would encourage you and foreign policy adviser to the campaign to make the trip to russia if it is feasible. but sanders tried to contradict that account today. my understanding is there wasn't encouragement. >> clovis nominated to top scientific post at department of agriculture, despite questions raised by top senate democrat on the agriculture committee, the white house see no reason to withdraw his nomination. >> major garrett again at the white house. thank you. social media executives told a subcommittee that russian linked accounts began trying to interfere with the election in 2015. and they kept at it long after the voting had ended. here is nancy cordes. >> we take what happened on facebook very seriously. >> reporter: executives from facebook, twitter and google told senators today that russian trolls were more prolific than they initially believed. posting 80,000 pieces of conte

to a top department of agriculture posts sam clovis this morning withdraw his nomination amid questions on his role of the russian probe. he was one of the campaign officials revealed to a correspondent with papadopoulos according to to the washington post. our team of cnn reporters is back with me. i want to go to capitol hill and manu raju, what are prosecutors telling you? >> some republicans are raising questions as well. you'll recall over three hearings this year, including his confirmation earlier this year. there were questions about what he knew about any communications, contacts with russian officials, time after time, attorney general sessions said that he didn't know. he didn't recall some key details and sometimes he denied that there were such contacts that particularly democrats are raising questions about. in the aftermath of the relations of these court documents being unsealed and showing that george papadopoulos did in fact pose a meeting with vladimir putin and candidate trump in a meeting that sessions was president at and sessions rejected. democrats are

the president's nominee for department of agriculture sam clovis withdrew his name from consideration after those same court filings revealed it was clovis who was the supervisor who encouraged papadopolous him to make contact. "the washington post" reported clovis, nominated for a job called chief scientist, admitted he has no actual scientific credentials. so that was sort of a tough one too. clove advice isn't the only trump official for whom unsealed filings are causing trouble. members of congress on both sides of the aisle are depending an explanation from the attorney general of the united states. jeff sessions. they're demanding it about the discrepancies between his sworn congressional testimony and the actual events recounted in those filings. sessions appeared before both the senate intelligence and judiciary committees in recent months where he categorically denied any knowledge of contacts between the campaign and russian nationals. >> i have no knowledge of any such conversations by anyone connected to the trump campaign. >> you don't believe that surrogate

adviser sam clovis who was nominated for a senior position at the department of agriculture who has today announced he is withdrawing his name. saying this. the political climate inside wash made it impossible for me to receive balance and fair consideration for this position. the relentless assaults on you and your team seem to be a blood sport that increases in intensity each day. >> he was one of the people that papadopoulos was communicating with. he was apparently encouraging papadopoulos to try and set up these meetings. what jeff sessions said is he was not aware of anyone who had communications with russians and so i think there is a disconnect here. it's a problem for clovis. i think sessions probably ought to amend his testimony, but -- >> it's a bigger problem for clovis than the attorney general. >> that's why clovis is going to be working at the department of agricultu agriculture. a former trump campaign adviser carter page is grilled on the u.s. presidential election. this is president trump insisting he is not under investigation himself. we are standing by for the p

researchers who do the work, into that job trump put a man named sam clovis, who is basically known as a right-wing radio talk show host from iwhat who has actually no science background at all. now, what happens? what happens when you do that? well, he's not himself capable of participating in the conversations you need to have to decide where this money should go. what probably happens is you politicize the science budget. he himself doesn't think climate change is true, so he's not going to be directing money to prepare for climate change. these jobs, they're powerful, influential jobs. if they're veigh contacted, for a brief time career civil servants stepped in and filled the void without any direction and trying to guess what the trump straight might want, but they're already risk averse government employees, and now they're more risk averse. there are places in the government where we need them the take risks because they're preparing us for the future. this enterprise is important. >> dickerson: sam clovis withdrew... >> he's still in the department of agriculture. he withdr