fbi director christopher wray testified before a senate panel last week that he was not aware of any improper spying. on twitter today, the president called it treason and said his campaign was conclusively spied on. the trump administration is backing off of tariffs on two fronts today. the was will lift steel and aluminum duties on canada and mexico, in exchange for a stronger enforcement action. that should clear the way for a new treaty that would replace nafta. meantime, president trump is blaming auto tariffs -- delaying auto tariffs. that will give negotiators a chance to work out a deal respecting imports. japan and china have agreed to boost their ties ahead of a planned visit by xi jinping to japan in june. china's top diplomat met with the japanese prime minister shinzo abe today. the asian powers have some disputes but their relations have improved recently amid the u.s. trade war with china. hermann wall, the pulitzer is dead atng author, the age of 103. hisas just 10 days shy of 104th birthday. according to his literary agent and was working on a book until the end.

positive that christopher wray -- pres. trump: i did not understand his answer. i thought it was a ridiculous answer. thank you. >> [inaudible] president trump making comments as he leaves the white house on his way to joint base andrews and then onto louisiana. going to look at an lng export facility at lake charles. those comments on china, the president has been trying to soothe the market. they were not all positive but the market is higher off the back of that. bloombergg in internationally comics and policy editor, michael mckee. not to suggest you might be our president trump whisperer, but did you hear anything new? he said the u.s. always wins. can he guarantee that? michael: he cannot guarantee that. you may deem -- he made the point of the us economy is bigger than china so it will be tougher than china -- tougher on china. our political system is different. xi jinping does not have an election next year and he has essentially controlled country. he may be able to withstand some of the political pressure better than donald trump. it is a standoff in terms of who has the

here. thank you. >>> fbi director christopher wray disagreeing with the attorney general after william barr brought into the president's baseless conspiracy theory that his campaign had been spied on. we're going to discuss that next. you know what i would really love for mother's day this year? for you to get engaged to rachel. but if you're not "ready", you know who else likes jewelry? momma. get engaged this mother's day or get mom something special. jared. monitor their blood glucose every day. which means they have to stop. and stick their fingers. repeatedly. today, life-changing technology from abbott makes it possible to track glucose levels. without drawing a drop of blood, again and again. the most personal technology, is technology with the power to change your life. life. to the fullest. >>> the fbi director christopher wray is distancing himself from attorney general william barr's use of the word "spying" when describing the fbi's surveillance into the trump campaign. listen to this. >> well, that's not the term i would use. lots of people have different colloquia

his re-tweet that criticized christopher wray? >> that's right, brianna. we're seeing a bumper crop of outrage from the president on twitter, a harvest of outrage from the president on twitter over the last 48 hours. he was just yesterday attacking his own hand-picked fbi director chris wray. we can put this tweet up on screen as he continues to attack the mueller investigation, the same mueller investigation that the president claims cleared him, and here's what the president tweeted about the fbi director. the fbi has no leadership. the director is protecting the same gang that tried to overthroat president through an illegal coup. now the president is quote tweeting there, something he's been doing there lately, a conservative activist here in washington, but the president again parroting this language that he was somehow the victim of an attempted coup through the mueller investigation and the president has been talking about that a great deal. one reason why chris wray may be finding himself in the president's not so good graces is because, as we know in the last week or so, he ha

president takes issue. >> do you have confidence that christopher wray after he said he -- >> well, i didn't understand his answer because i thought the attorney general answered it perfectly so i didn't understand that answer. i thought it was a ridiculous answer. >> here we go again. >> in this case it's important to have the inspector general looking into it because here's a guy who is required to be impartial at least according to the terms of his office so in a sense it's good that we have two different bodies looking at this the because we can't be entirely sure based on barr's influence that what durh ha n is going to do is free from influence. >> the general counsel for the fbi asked about this very question because it's been a constant recurring theme. the president said it was the dirty steele dossier paid for by the clinton campaign. he ignores it was originally funded by a conservative group in the beginning and the fbi general counsel is saying go ahead and look. we did this just right. >> there was a point in time relatively recently where i just became sick of all the b

. we always win. what's up? >> did you have confidence in christopher wray after he said he -- >> i didn't understand his answer because i thought the attorney general answered it perfectly. i certainly didn't understand that answer. i thought it was a ridiculous answer. >> all right. president trump speaking right there as he often does on a number of topics as he was leaving the white house. let me get over to correspondent kaitlan collins joining me right now. of course, the president hit on a lot. a couple things really stood out to me. one, he's trying to strike a very optimistic, positive tone in terms of where things stand with trade talks with china and trying to make the case that things have not collapsed. also his response to the reporting from "the new york times" about presenting a plan to white house, some of his top national security advisers on 120,000 troops possibly be sent over to take on the iranian threat, he says if we were doing it, we would send a hell of a lot more troops. amazing. >> two very big things coming out of the president's gaggle with reporters th

adviser, chris christie. christopher wray is not a random person, but president trump is seeing attacks coming from all fronts, and he's pushing back pretty aggressively. i think this is just a sign of how they are going to go forward with all of these investigations for months and months to come. >> yeah, i mean, easier to count friends than enemies at this point. great to see you. thank you. joining me is daniel lipman, a white house reporter for politico. co author of the politico playbook, and sun minkim. reporter for "the washington pos post". one line from the first graph of your piece kind of encapsulating the scope of the stonewalling coming from the white house in your analysis is amounting to what many experts wall the most expansive white house stonewalling in decades. do you get any concern the white house is concerned about this? >> no, and from the president on down, they have taken that defiant attitude, that defiant stance towards congressional investigations because they do believe it's political. they're trying to make their case to the public that it is political. his

christopher wray just last week said white nationalist violence is a persistent and pervasive threat. do you believe the trumped a mun stragz has emboldened white supremacy and far right extremism? >> i personally couldn't tell you one way or the other. but i willtle you thex tremests themselves will say he gave them a platform. that he's given them a nod, a wink, a go ahead and a rise unapproval that they haven't had in many years. those are words from david duke, richard spencer and others. >> if the president were watching, what would you say to him? >> well, i've always said the same things i say to the president, which can are number one always think before you speak. always tell the truth. and be accountable for your actions. the same thing i would say to fifth graders, the same thing i try it to say to myself. it's just a basic tenant of of being a decent human being. >> susan bro, we appreciate your time and thank you for standing up and doing what is right and we are deeply sorry for your loss. thank you for coming on tonight. >> thank you so much. thank you. >> we'll be right b

director and -- christopher wray and also the attorney general. here is what i think is happening, certainly the fbi director is speaking to his audience, his people who don't think that they did anything wrong. certainly nothing has been proved that there was anything wrong in this. bill barr had some skepticism before he became attorney general. the question that i think arises is there is a part of this "wall street journal" interview in which bill barr raises the question of whether or not there could be changes in the way the fbi handles counterintelligence investigations. in other words, you know, we may raise the par, so to speak, before we allow you to open these investigations. that's a big deal if that ends up happening. i'm sure he's going to hear from wrist wray that if you do that then there are things we might miss and then we will all remember, we will all go back to that day when bill barr said we have to change the standards. >> raise the bar. i'm going to let you copyright that, evan perez. i will always quote you if i repeat that. laura, let me ask you a questio

and preside d over, christopher wray, republican. the person who decided to appoint a special counsel to preside over the investigation and then monitored it at the helm of the department of justice, the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, republican. the person who actually conducted the investigation, a war hero. a law enforcement professional, bob mueller, lifetime republican. who is the attorney general going to investigate? the republican party? the notion that it's a politically inspired witch hunt is just one of 10,000 or more misrepresentations that have been spun out of 1600 pennsylvania avenue. it's a shame that you choose to adopt it and parrot it. second thing, reputational interests? really? many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle actually perpetrated a witch hunt as it relates to securing more than 800,000 documents from this very same department of justice without regard to the reputational interests of americans who have served this country. you weren't concerned with the reputational interests of hillary clinton. in fact, the top republicans said the

like christopher wray are asked about the similar topic, they say the opposi opposite. they, themselves, who have been there longer than he has, don't have this idea of backing up the surveillance. bill barr doesn't say things by accident and, yet, shehe's thro chum in the water on this sensitive topic. you have to wonder why. given how careful he knows how to be, why does he continue to say things, but at the same time, declining to provide any supporting evidence for his claims, and seeming to prejudge the outcome of this investigation that he has now authorized into the origins of the probe. >> david, that leads us to the up te intelligence of iran and what is happening between the escalations with the u.s. and iran. according to "the new york times," as recently as april, the intelligence suggested iran was not doing anything wrong, i suppose is the right word, or doing anything, at least, to exacerbate the tension, then something shifted on may 3rd. now, you know, there are reports that senior advisers are being presented with contingency plans to maybe send 120,000 tro

very much. >>> we have news just in just moments ago, the fbi director, christopher wray, pushing back on the use of the term spying when it comes to government surveillance during the russia investigation. that, of course, is the word the attorney general bill barr used last month during a congressional hearing with the president picked up on. >> well, that's not the term i would use. >> thank you. so i would -- i would say that's a no to that question. >> well, i mean, look. lots of people have different colloquial phrases. i believe the fbi is engaged in investigative activity and part of investigative activity includes surveillance activity of deshapes and sizes. to me, the key question is making sure that it's done by the book. >> very different picture, jessica schneider, is it not from bill barr, who raised spying, says he's investigating now the investigators, the opening of this investigation, but wouldn't it be the fbi that would be investigating? if the fbi director says it wasn't illegal, where does that leave us? >> well, the fbi director, christopher wray, there danc

. >> reporter: over the weekend the president lashed out at his own fbi director christopher wray after he failed to echo his attorney general's concerns. he quoted a conservative activist saying the fbi has no leadership. the director is protecting the same gang that tried to over throw the president through an illegal coup. he laid into former white house counsel don mcgahn after he refused to say he did not commit obstruction of justice. don mcgahn had a better chance of being fired than mueller. never a big fan. lindsey graham is advising donald trump jr. to ignore a subpoena to testify from the senate intelligence committee. >> if i were donald trump jr.'s lawyer i would tell him you don't need to go back into this environment anymore. i o call it a day. >> reporter: >> the day richard nixon failed to answer that subpoena is the day that he was subject to impeachment because he took a power from congress over the impeachment process away from congress and he became the judge and jury. >> reporter: the president raised eyebrows when he praised hungary's far right leader as he welcomed

he appointed in christopher wray. the idea this was a coup attempt against the president of the united states is -- what do you make of those who say this was a coup attempt? >> it's preposterous. i was there. i was the general counsel of the fbi. i didn't see any coup, attempted coup or conspiracy to commit a coup. there was nothing going on like that. i've said before i would have stopped such a thing. i would not have allowed such a thing to go on. i would have found a way to bring that to light to the appropriate authorities and prevented that. i've gone to the map before on some things of a significant nature and there's no way i would have supported such a thing. >> even using that word coup it's a dangerous word to use to talk about people of career civilver haven'ts. people who have dedicated their lives to upholding the law and working in law enforcement at great risk themselves. the word coup is something, you know, it's what some tin pot dictator accuses some colonel of doing in order to execute him. >> it's not language that helps the country. i simply don't understa

of the president's closest allies and chief strategists suggests that christopher wray could be in trouble. ♪ i have heart disease, watch what i eat, take statins, but still struggle to lower my ldl bad cholesterol. which means a heart attack or stroke. could strike without warning, pulling me away from everything that matters most. (siren) because with high bad cholesterol, my risk of a heart attack or stroke is real. ♪ repatha® plus a statin seriously lowers bad cholesterol by 63%. and significantly drops my risk of having a heart attack or stroke. do not take repatha® if you are allergic to it. repatha® can cause serious allergic reactions. signs include: trouble breathing or swallowing, or swelling of the face. most common side effects include runny nose, sore throat, common cold symptoms, flu or flu-like symptoms back pain, high blood sugar, and redness, pain, or bruising at the injection site. i won't let a heart attack or stroke come between me and everything i love. neither should you. tell your doctor to lower your ldl and reduce your risk with repatha®. pay no mor

the subject, criticizing his hand-picked fbi director, christopher wray, who testified he didn't think federal investigators were spying on the trump campaign. >> well, i didn't understand his answer, because i thought the attorney general answered it perfectly. so i certainly didn't understand that answer. i thought it was a ridiculous answer. >> reporter: that answer from wray came at a hearing last week. >> do you have any evidence that any illegal surveillance into the campaigns or individuals associated with the campaigns by the fbi occurred? >> i don't think i personally have any evidence of that sort. >> reporter: a rare but notable moment of public disagreement with the attorney general. >> i think spying did occur. >> reporter: while the president has aired his frustration with special counsel robert mueller's investigation, that probe did find a fan in russia's vladimir putin. >> translator: despite the exotic nature of the work of special counsel mueller, we must give him credit. >> reporter: secretary of state mike pompeo, who is meeting with putin in russia warned th

out at own fbi director, christopher wray, after he declined to echo attorney general william barr's concerns that the trump campaign was the victim of improper surveillance. mr. trump quoted a conservative activist on twitter, saying the fbi has no leadership. the director is protecting the same gang that tried to overthrow the president through an illegal coup. mr. trump also laid into former white house counsel don mcgahn after he refused to state publicly that the president did not commit obstruction of justice, tweeting, actually, lawyer don mcgahn had a much better chance of being fired than mueller. never a big fan. lindsey graham is advising donald trump jr. to ignore a subpoena to testify from the senate intelligence committee. >> if i were donald trump jr.'s lawyer, i would tell them, you don't need to go back into this environment anymore. i would call ate day. >> reporter: that's despite's graham's comments during bill clinton's impeachment saga. >> the day richard nixon failed to answer that subpoena is the day he was subject to impeachment because he took from the power

, dan coats, cia director gina haspel, and fbi director, christopher wray. >> i didn't ask him to do that. i didn't know it. >> reporter: while trump claims he didn't directly ask barr to investigate, he has long complained about the mueller probe and publicly urged barr to look into it, including just a few weeks ago. >> what i'm most interested in is getting started, hopefully the attorney general, he mentioned it yesterday, he's doing a great job, getting started on going back to the or g igins of exactly where this all started. >> reporter: barr previously testified he intended to look into it, even though the justice department's inspector general was already investigating. >> many people seem to assume that the only intelligence collection that occurred was a single confidential informant and a fisa warrant. i would like to find out whether that is, in fact, true. >> reporter: barr this week adding another layer to his investigation of the investigators, tapping the u.s. attorney in connecticut, john durham, to help conduct a comprehensive, 360-degree review. >> we finally have

them sparring that is the aberration and not christopher wray's defense of them as normal investigative procedures and surveillance programs. >> michael, how do you see this? because attorney general barr and director wray said the real issue is whether the law was followed. wray said he's not personally seen any evidence of any illegal surveillance occurred. >> right. look, first of all, barr did say right after he did say that he thought spying was occurred and the question was there an adequate predicate for the "spying." now fib director wray is absolutely right that it is not usually the term -- "spying" is not the way law enforcement officials would describe the standard surveillance they do in investigations. including undercover surveillance which involves using informants to approach targets and try to get them to say something incriminating or find out what they know. but beyond all this, the semantic disputes and "spying" or "surveillance", there is a serious issue underlying and that is the inspector general report that is underway and maybe out very soon. and

necessarily a pejorative." keeping them honest. and today christopher wray appointed by president trump after the firing of james comey distanced himself from the president and the attorney general use of the word and even took it a step further. >> i want to ask you, and i'd appreciate a yes or no answer, if possible. when fbi agents conduct investigations against alleged mobster, suspected terrorists, other criminals, do you believe they're edge gauging in spying when they are following fbi procedures? >> well, that's not the term i would use. >> thank you. so i would -- i would say that's a no to that question. do you have any evidence that any illegal surveillance into the campaigns or individuals associated with the campaigns by the fbi occurred? >> i don't think i personally have any evidence of that sort. >> joining us now is michael isikoff, chief investigative correspondent at yahoo! news and garrett graff. garrett, do you see this as an act of defines by director wray to push back how the attorney general used the word spying or just answering it as he sees it? >> i think it's

counsel, who served during the start of the russia probe, backed up what rosenstein and christopher wray had to say. >> the idea that this was a coup attempt against the president of the united states is -- what do you make of those who say that this was a coup attempt? >> it's preposterous. it's preposterous. i was there, i was the general counsel to the fbi. i didn't see any coup. i didn't see any attempted coup. i didn't see any conspiracy to commit a coup. there was nothing that was going on like that. and i've said before, i would have stopped such a thing. >> so, despite all of that, a new investigation is now underway, one of at least three being conducted. the others are led by the department of justice inspector general and the u.s. attorney in utah. while on capitol hill, republican senator lindsey graham announced today his judiciary committee will now back off, in his words, their own investigation to give the investigator appointed by barr space to do his job. joining me now is democratic congressman, jim himes, who serves sonnet house intelligence committee. so congressman hime

logic. >> what david is saying goes against what many others have ahead including christopher wray. >> paul manafort is the chairman of the campaign. and he is working with a close business associate for a long period of time konstantin claim inic who the fbi says had active links to militarien of russia at the time. sharing polling data with the russian linked spies. >> again. >> why would you go to paul manafort to tell him. >> i did not say paul manafort. i said specifically flynn and christie. but look you and i can spend an hour going back and forth. what i will tell you let's be real. you all applauded for two yeerps an extensive and expensive mueller investigation well i suggest it could have been done by congress. >> net, net made month basted upon paul manafort's taxes. >> let's have a basic deentcy of replying the rules to this exercise. i would be happy as a patriotic american when it's proven that nothing bad happened. let's find out. instead of just saying let's not ask questions. can you marriage what conversation you had have had if i towelled a here go ago why go through the

weak. christopher wray was a man of impeccable credentials you he's not. what does this pattern say to you? >> well, it says to me that boy, think twice before you go to work in the trump administration, because one day you're getting praise. the next day you're getting knocked, and it's -- it's all about him. you know? people that turn on him or have an independent mind is not a good thing in this administration apparently which is, by the way, not good for the country. >> director clapper, it's a pleasure having you on. thank you so much. >> thanks, don. >> thank you. >>> howard stern has two words for donald trump's presidential campaign. quote, publicity stunt. well, he's actually got more words than that to say about the president. and you're going to want to hear them next. to a single defining moment... ...when a plan stops being a plan and gets set into motion. today's merrill can help you get there with the people, tools, and personalized advice to help turn your ambitions into action. what would you like the power to do? i don't know...our relationship is just kinda boring. u

cohen was a very talented lawyer. now he's weak. christopher wray was a man of impeccable credentials, now he provides no leadership. don mcgahn was a really good guy, now trump says he's not a fan. what does this pattern say to you? >> well, it says to me that, boy, think twice before you go to work in the trump administration because one day you're getting praise. the next day you're getting knocked, and it's -- it's all about him. you know? people that turn on him or have an independent mind is not a good thing in this administration apparently which is, by the way, not good for the country. >> director clapper, it's a pleasure having you on. thank you so much. >> thanks, don. >> thank you. >>> howard stern has two words for donald trump's presidential campaign. quote, publicity stunt. well, he's actually got more words than that to say about the president. and you're going to want to hear them next. ♪ [spanish recording] so again, using "para", you're talking about something that is for someone. ♪ pretty good. could listening to audible inspire you to start something new? down

congress -- "surveillance" when he was in front of congress. christopher wray had an exchange with jeanne shaheen about the use of the word "spying" and whether the fbi used proper procedures in 2016. you can see the full thing at c-span.org. here is a bit of that exchange. [video clip] >> i would like to follow up on senator moran's question about the hearing with attorney general barr because i was very concerned with his use of the word "spying." it conjures a criminal connotation. i would appreciate a yes or no answer if possible, win fbi investigations against alleged mobsters, suspected terrorists, other criminals, do you believe they are engaging in spying when they are following investigative policies and procedures? >> that is not the term i would use. >> thank you. i would say that is a note to that question. -- no to that question. >> lots of people have different colloquial phrases. i believe the fbi is involved in investigative activity and that includes surveillance of different shapes and sizes. the key question is making sure it is done by the book consistent with o

who replaced him and presided over the investigation, christopher wray, republican. the person who decided to appoint a special counsel to preside over the investigation and then monitored it at the helm of the department of justice, the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein, republican. the person who actually conducted the investigation, a war hero, a law enforcement professional, bob mueller, lifetime republican. who is the attorney general going to investigate? the republican party? the notion that it's a politically inspired witch hunt is just one of 10,000 or more misrepresentations that have been spun out of 1600 pennsylvania avenue. it's a shame that you tchuse adopt it and parrot it. second thing, reputational interest? really? many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle actually perpetrated a witch hunt as it relates to securing more than 800,000 documents from this very same department of justice without regard to the reputational interest of americans who have served this country. you weren't concerned with the reputational interest of hillary clinton. in fac

advertisements. there are some efforts but we saw christopher wray said yesterday there's more to be and i think for many it is still a process of learning about what russia did and how the threat is evolving going forward. tellsk the mueller report us a lot about what was done in 2016 but i also think that could be fundamentally different from what we see going forward and i think now the public is focused on this and members of congress in washington are focused on figuring out how to respond to the threat going forward. host: democrat line from virginia. caller: being that the russians object it was not only to influence the election but so division in the united states, to where move forward we can determine whether or not or justifiable for the executive branch to tell other members not to comply with a subpoena and also has this ever happened in recent u.s. history where people are being told to actually break the law? have seen past administrations tried to exert evadeive privilege to document requests like this. the trump administration has taken a much more vocal and sweeping approach.

feel comfortable christopher wray won't do it. he's more interested in trying to rebuild the image of the f.b.i. without actually correcting anything. so i'm sure he has creggetted some things. but certainly he is not changing the witness statements taken down in writing as the f.b.i. agent's interpretation. t -- and there are other indications he is more interested in trying to have a good front and making it look like the f.b.i. is better now. but their actions do need to be taken. t this story going back to that reporting included documents specifically pages of notes that were taken during an interview of cohen by the f.b.i. in those notes, one law enforcement source wrote that, ote, d.j.t. personally asked cohen to say negotiations ended in january and white house counsel office knew cohen would give false testimony to congress sanctioned by p.j.t., joint lawyer team reviewed lawyer that cohen sent about his testimony about trump tower moscow knowing it contained lies. well, it turns out that the notes that were taken by f.b.i. agents were not accurate, which, again, causes probl

in washington this week, today, fbi director christopher wray will be testifying on the president 2020 budget request. will have live coverage of that on c-span3 at 9:30 a.m. eastern online at east c-span.org or lin app.e c-span radio also, a hearing on the role of intellectual property and the pricing of prescription drugs. coverage begins at 10:00 a.m. on c-span. also, interior secretary david thehardt testifies before house appropriations subcommittee on the 2020 budget request at 3:00 p.m. eastern c-span.org,an3, on or on the free c-span radio app. the senate judiciary committee's subcommittee on border security and immigration holds a hearing to discuss the humanitarian and security challenges at the southern border, happening tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. eastern time on c-span three, online at c-span.org or the free c-span app. the president will be in panama city, florida for a make america great again rally wednesday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern. orerage begins on c-span2 again on the website, or on the radio app. happening on the house floor this week, c-span's producer tweeting -

comey, republican. the f.b.i. director who replaced him and presided over the investigation, christopher wray, republican. the person who decided to appoint a special counsel to preside over the investigation and then monitored it at the helm of the department of justice, the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein, republican. the person who actually conducted the investigation, a war hero, a law enforcement professional, bob mueller, lifetime republican. who is the attorney general going to investigate? the republican party? the notion that it's a politically inspired witch hunt is just one of 10,000 or more misrepresentations that have been spun out of 1600 pennsylvania avenue. it's a shame that you tchuse adopt it and parrot it. second thing, reputational interest? really? many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle actually perpetrated a witch hunt as it relates to securing more than 800,000 documents from this very same department of justice without regard to the reputational interest of americans who have served this country. you weren't concerned with the reputational in

circuit court of appeals. and on c-span3, fbi director christopher wray and interior secretary david bernhardt appear at separate hearings to testify on the president's 2020 budget request. >>> the c-span is stopping at high schools across the country to meet and award the winners of our student cam video competition. we were recent in sacramento, california, with our cable partner, comcast, and met with second prize middle school winners from the tomas charter school. >> although we're slowly progressing, there still needs to be more loaws protecting lgb individuals so we chose this as our topic. there's always room for improvement, and we met with many give interviewees who really gave us different opinions on this matter. and so we really have to see how there is not just one definition to being an american, but how all individuals with different backgrounds really make up our country. >> to watch all the winning entries from this year's student cam contest, go to studentcam.org. >>> next, former federal reserve chair janet yellen sits down for a conversation on monetary pol

, and 15 republicans. >> tomorrow fbi director christopher wray will testify on prurcht 2020 budget request. live coverage of his testimony starts at 9:30 a.m. eastern here on c-span 3. >>> c-span's newest book "the presidents" noted historians rank the best and worst chief executives. provide insights into the lives of 44 presidents. explore the life events that shaped our leaders, challenges they faced, and the legacies they have left behind. order your copy today. c-span's "the presidents" is available as a hard cover or ebook at c-span.org/presidents. >>> we're back with ellen herring of the service women's action to network and we'll tals about the current controversy over thehe military draft and women's role in it. ellen, good morning.ti talk to us a little bit about your organization. >> i'm the ceo of service women's action network.oc we're a none profit that advocate on behalf of active duty and retired women veterans. we conduct research and have a membership organization. >> there's been a lot of talk lately abou' women being drafted and the possili

comes to the surveillance warrant application. and that matters because the fbi director christopher wray and the attorney general, william barr, have told congress to expect the findings on that from the inspector general either this month or next. and it's not just the fisa surveillance warrant that's under investigation, it's also leaking by senior fbi executives which the attorney general now characterizes as criminal leak investigations which suggests to me based on my experience there have been some referrals. and there may even be a third tranche simply looking at james comey's decision to leak the memos in 2017, to kick start the special counsel investigation and, of course, those memos, some of them contained classified information, liz. elizabeth wow. this story's not over. >> reporter: big one. elizabeth: thank you so much, catherine. >> you're welcome. elizabeth: one of the best journalists in the cup on intelligence. >>> coming up, the acting defense secretary gave the go ahead for another $1.5 billion for border security just as the u.s. is about to see a record crush o

2016 trump presidential campaign. is that apparently the thinking of the christopher wray, listen to what he constructed saying this today before the the senate appropriations committee. >> when fbi agent as conduct investigations against alleged mobsters, suspected terrorists, other criminals, do you believe that they're engaging in spying when they're followinging in thive policies and procedures? >> well that's not the term i would use. they're lot of people with different phrases i believe that the fbi is engaged in investigative afnght and part includes violation activity of different shape and sizes and to me the key question is -- making sure that it is done by the book. just jr. reference spying among other definitions to watch secretely usually for hostile purposes to watch secretly as a spy. even former director of national intelligence director james clapper admits that the fbi's actions against the presidential campaign do, in fact, meet the definition spying and it took him a while to come to that conclusion perhaps ray will be next in line to do so. joining us tonight j

us all. lou: concerning, too, the as we conclude here, john, is the role of christopher wray in trying to bury the memorandum. and sealing it for 25 years. your thoughts. >> yeah. originally when the state department surfaced this document in response to the foia by citizens united, the fbi tried to claim unclassified, was marked unclassified, the fbi tried to classify the memo. i objected and started to call around to the fbi and justice department, as did citizens united, and remarkably, they agreed it's silly to retroactively classify something that was unclassified all along. and when you see what it was they redacted, it was the most damning information to the fbi. this was not about protecting national security, it was about protecting the reputation of the fbi people who produced that fisa warrant. lou: john solomon, what a story this is and what a sorry scandal it is, in my opinion, already. the worst in this country's history. i can't wait to see the next installment, however, just to be very straightforward about it. >> thank you, sir. lou: thank you very much. john so

director christopher wray for his part, says he's helping the attorney general find out what happened. >> he is trying to get a better understanding of the circumstances at the department and the fbi surrounding the initiation of this particular investigation. he and i have been in fairly close contact about it. we're trying to work together to help him get the understanding he needs on that subject. lou: he is a peculiar kind of deputy to say the least. one that contradicts both his boss, the attorney general and his boss, the president of the united states. and who curiously won't stand behind attorney general william barr's claim that spying did occur against the trump campaign. we take up the efforts to obstruct and to resist the trump presidency even in small matters such as the semantics of a word like spying. harmeet dhillon, congressman matt gaetz among our guest tonight. stocks today sold of big as both wall street and the left-wing national media renewed their focus on the china trade talks and the diminished prospects of a china trade deal. much of the business press seemed

leave us with much information to surmise anything from. lou: and christopher wray, this nonsense that he started the other day in front of the senate appropriations committee, arguing with the attorney general about the use of the word spying. he's become an irksome fellow. he is arrogant, elitist and not apparently very bright. and he seems to be covering up rather than leading a charge to bring the fbi back to its storied status. >> well, the very fact that he tried and he did classify some of the recent information only recently -- lou: he got the heck slapped out of him, too, didn't he? >> yes, he did. he was andrew wise marn's supervisoman'ssupervisor in thef justice when mr. wiseman was doing his worst, hiding evidence, making up crimes aneverything else on the task force. and he was also a friend of comey and miller. lou: first he helped kill arthur anderson and for that there's a special place reserved for him in, again, another place. >> exactly. he's part of the problem, i fear. and he brought into the fbi's general counsel who is one of the people who signed one of the inva

grassley sent to christopher wray and mike pompeo. the ten points that they mentioned in their letter was why, basically, why didn't the fbi check out the dossier that, as it turned out, was bought and paid for by the dnc and the hillary clinton campaign? and so it's, it's hypocrisy at its high. and, you know, we don't -- as the president said, this can't happen to another president. we've got to stop wiretapping innocent citizens and in particular the president of the united states just because a certain number of people did not like him, did not like his thoughts. i'm glad that they're not going to deter the attorney general, and i think he'll get to the bottom of it. david: now, james comey, clearly, if there was a memo from the state department to the fbi saying don't trust this guy and they went ahead anyway in front of a fisa court and vouched for him under oath that he was a very credible witness for their fisa warrant, shouldn't james comey have known something about that? >> absolutely. and he knows. i mean, comey's trying to cover his tracks. look at what he did over the last co

. please join us tomorrow. thanks and good night from new york. trish: tonight christopher wray, head of the fbi confirming he is working with attorney general general barr to see why they had the probe in the first place. with a weapon i said to take down the trump campaign? we have new intel that suggest that peer plus major developments in venezuela for the united states removing sanctions against nicolas maduro's former intelligence chief.this is a big deal because he is publicly breaking rank from the socialist regime. what does this tell you? sanctions work. and i will tell you what is a matter of time until others defected from the rogue regime. it is happening. plus children from a muslim american society in philadelphia saying they would sacrifice themselves and kill themselves for the army of a lah. we have more information tonight, all of this. and nancy here at ilhan omar is saying about this disturbing video. -- gordon chang and a lot more. "trish regan primetime" begins right now. the head of the fbi, christopher wray, for the first time saying that he is working with th

christopher wray, today arguing on cbs about the definition -- are you ready? as if this is the point -- the definition of spying. >> the attorney general says he believed spying occurred in looking after the president's then-campaign. what do you think about that? >> i have no idea what he's talking about. the fbi doesn't spy. the fbi investigates. we investigated a very serious allegation that americans might be hooked up with the russian effort to attack our democracy. the republicans need to breathe into a paper bag. lou: yeah. i think he's the one that's going to be breathing into paper bags and taking deep breaths, indeed. joining us now, former secret service dan bongino. could you believe the arrogance of that person? he doesn't realize we know what he did, and we know when he did it? >> yeah. lou, the euphemisms game, spying, surveillance, you know, unauthorized, undocumented viewing of people, whatever you want to call it, is a magic act for idiots. and comey likes to play that little game with people. everybody's called this spying, lou. spying as bill barr said appropriate