. >> should i call the fbi? >> i think it would be wise to let the fbi -- >> you are going to be the director of the fbi. here is what i want you to tell every politician. if you get a call from somebody suggesting that a foreign government wants to help you by disparaging your opponent, tell us all to call the fbi. >> to the members of this committee, any threat or effort to interfere with our elections from any nation state or any non-state actor is the kind of thing the fbi would want to know. >> i will take that we should call you. that's a great answer. now this is what don junior said saturday before the e-mail came out. if i can find it here. this is his statement. about what i just read to you. it was a short introduction te meeting. we discuss aid program about the adoption of russian children. that was active and popular with american families and was ended but is not a campaign issue at that time and there was no follow-up. i was asked to attend the meeting by an acquaintance but was not told the name

at the fbi oversight hearing on may 3, i said that a cloud of doubt hangs over the fbi's objectivity. the previous director james comey said that the people of the fbi don't give a rip about politics but mr. comey installed as his deputy director a man who's wife ran for the have a state senate and accepted almost a million dollars from the virginia governor political machine. that's a lot of money for one state senate seats. governor mccough luf say long time friend and fund raiser for the clintons and democratic party. deputy director andrew mccabe meant in personal with the governor about his wife's political plans. his official fbi biographic was used in setting up the meeting and the goal was for the governor to close the deal and get his wife to run for office. the office of special counsel is reviewing whether that coordination was a violation which prohibits -- the inspector general is reviewing whether mr. mccabe should have been reviewed from the clinton investigation based upon mr. mccabe's financial ties to the clinton political network. mr. mccabe was also named in a sex

he's still out there. >> this photo shows fbi agents in new jersey. two of the suspects live here apparently with their two young daughters. >> we had no idea. they just seem like a nice quiet family. >> this is just a throwback to sort of i spy and james bond. >> all of the couples were held within the various difference correctional facilities in boston, new york and washington. >> the question then became, would this be in the tradition of spying an opportunity to trade. why not use them as chips in order to be able to get back some people who had actually been willing to put their live nz ot line to do their job of spying. it was an interesting opportunity for a director of the cia particularly somebody who kind of you know loved spy movies and was thinking about it. and i thought for god's sakes, i'm now in the middle of what would be a great movie about the effort to try to trade for spies. >> one of the biggest questions that we had was whether or not the russian federation would acknowledge that they are in fact russians. >> i got on the phone

at the fbi from the mission. in conclusion, i pledge to be the leader that the fbi deserves and to lead an independent bureau that will make every american proud. thank you, mr. chairman, senator feinstein. i look forward to answering the committee's questions. >> before my first ten-minute start, we're going to have ten-minute rounds, just in case nobody -- came late and didn't hear what i said about that. there are two votes scheduled at 12:30. senator feinstein and i had a short conversation before the meeting. i asked if she thought we could get done by 12:30. she said, we hope so. but obviously, we're going to let people go as long on their questions as they want to. but i would ask people to think in terms of people chairing the committee so we don't lose a whole 45 minutes while we're having votes. so think that in mind. my first series of questions are going to seem maybe very softball. and they probably are softball. but i think that they're very important to every member of this committee, particularly

should have done was call the fbi. he said yes, i have no reason to believe that russia didn't meddle in the election, he said at the end, no, i don't think it's a witch hunt. as the president said again even today to be investigating this. >> it just sort of underscores how isolated this president and his team, his own nominee for fbi, he answered every single question in a way that was at odds with what the white house and their top people have either said or done. so i do think that we obviously -- i don't think there was a lot of question that that's how he was going to answer these questions, a professional law enforcement official is going to answer those questions the way he did, and i think he'll be easily confirmed, i think that's pretty clear after this hearing. but the more important thing is less about wray and more about where this leaves president trump, essentially by himself, and with every allegation just lashing out at the media. >> i have two takeaways both along the same point here. i agree with lau

so i go to you as fbi to-be. one of your key responsibilities will be overseeing investigations into threats to national security, your predecessor repeatedly affirmed his support for 702 as a national security tool. so will you tell us whether section 702 will remain important to you under your leadership and also whether the fbi under your leadership will make sure that it using this national security authority with proper training, execution and oversight to comply with the law and protect the fourth amendment rights? >> well, senator, it's been a number of years since i had anything to do with fisa, although i did deal with it a certain amount when i was with the government before. and section 702 was passed after i left government. but from everything i understand from the people in the intelligence community, 702 is a vital tool and one that we need to put at high priority and one that i would expect to place a high priority to seeking reauthorization on. my answer to the second part of your question is tha

you must contact the fbi. it is standard operating procedure. >> it's also interesting, gloria, to hear gorka and others from the white house saying, look, we should be paying attention to ukraine and alleged outreach to the dnc which the dnc denies, was looked into by a lot of fact checking organizations. it is not sebastian gorka portrayed it. i certainly believe if there is wrongdoing, anybody should be investigated. but the fact is there is not, as far as we know, an ongoing fbi investigation into ukraine involvement in the election. there is one into russia. >> right. and, you know, that is sort of the knee jerk reaction, which is to deflect everything to hillary clinton. and it starts at the top. the president does this. and then it flows down. and everybody else says, well, the democrats did this. the democrats met with ukraine and plotted and, you know, that has not been proven at all. and what we do have -- >> there was a contractor who worked for the dnc who met with people from the ukrainian embassy

so all of this is now one reason why the fbi is going to take a look at all of this, the fbi investigators that are working with robert mueller's team. it should be noted that the fbi has in the past year taken a look at don jr.'s finances, his associations as part of the broader look at whether or not there was any collusion or whether or not there was any ties to russia that crossed over into criminal territory. obviously that is something that has been going on now for about a year. >> donald trump jr. released the e-mail chain only after he was notified by the "new york times" that they had it and they were about to publish it so he decided to release it before it was published by the "new york times." >> exactly. >> let's get back to senator blumenthal. the fbi only recently learned about this meeting with the russian lawyer. are there other meetings that investigators have not yet uncovered? >> i believe very strongly, wolf, that there are a trove of additional e-mails bearing on criminal intent, on the substantive criminal actions that may well have taken place, and the reports that

foreign government contactss you absolutely pickup the phone and call the fbi. eventually he got there, but listen, this is washington so he's aware of the politics. by the way, it was a republican asking the question. it wasn't a democrat leading him to that answer. >> i love that line, listen, pal. >> also ben sass, another republican senator, said to him, like i want you to make you a pledge to us if anybody comes to you and tries to shut down an investigation of yours, this is another comey moment. if anybody comes to you and -- you'll tell us. you're going to come to our committee and you're going to tell us. and he said yes eventually, he got there. and he said yes. again, you know, it's all about what happened with comey. it's all about the president firing comey. and i think that he was prepared for these, but -- >> phil mudd, did that answer satisfy you? does christopher ray make you feel comfortable about how he'll respond to president trump? because undoubtedly, i mean, i suppose you might be able to believe that president trump won't try, but i would

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house wasn't honoring the independence of the fbi, the president kept trying to speak to the fbi director in ways and through channels that were unacceptable to the fbi. ray has to say yes, comey was right, there are channels and that the white house is going to have to honor the traditional mechanism by which white house people communicate with fbi people and that you have my word the congressional committees, that i will tell you if that's not being honored, yes, that's an area of questioning, and ray has to support comey in that determination, that is protocol. >> what do -- what needs to be known about ray? he has worked at doj, he's been working in private practice in atlanta. what needs to be known about him to see if he is up for the job of fbi director. >> well, judgment, independence, intestinal fortitude, backbone, these are -- this is a very hard job, it's a particularly difficult job at this point in time because of the special council investigation, and because of the counter intelligence investigation. they want to know from ray, do you understand in a sense the position tha

no fbi, no department of justice. i like mentioning them because i know knee-knockers when i see them and their knees will start knocking. >> you don't want to call people out, but obviously reince priebus is out there. do you have concerns about him? >> say that again. >> reince priebus' name is connected to this every time it comes out in the last 24 hours. do you have concerns about him. >> reince priebus can speak to you about that and he can address that himself. >> all right, we will ask him. >> people know my history between me and reince. i can speak for my own actions. he's going to need to speak for his own actions. i think we're going to go on too long. i'm going to take one last question and i'm going to hang up. >> that's it. >> i'm committed, as is the president, to building as clean of a shop as possible. no more dirty pool, no more dishonesty, no more ha, ha, ha to your face and stab you in the back. we're new yorkers. we don't want to run the place like that. we want to run an honest and clean shop so

>> i think it would be wise to let the fbi -- >> you're going to be the director of the fbi, pal. so here's what i want you to tell every politician. if you get a call from somebody suggesting that a gordon governme -- a foreign governmentmen wants to p you by disparaging your opponent, tell us all to call the fbi. >> to the members of this committee, any threat or effort to interfere with our elections from any nation state or any non-state actor is the kind of thing the fbi would want to know. >> mike rogers, president trump is still, to this day, calling the russia probe a witch hunt. yet the man he's chosen here to lead the fbi says, no way. cnn's reporting trump believes mueller is out to get him. do you consider that rational thinking at this point? >> well, i mean, look, i know bob mueller. i worked with bob mueller as chairman of the intelligence committee. i don't believe he is on a witch hunt by any stretch of the imagination. i think where the president gets himself in trouble -- >> why is the president continuing to call it a witch hunt? >> he just keeps talking about

you the fbi and the special counsel. it is not a media conspiracy. you have multiple bodies that consider this an important question, and they're going down this path. >> no, absolutely. and you have more reporting behind the scenes what's going on particularly as it pertains to jared. >> well, yeah. as i said, everyone seems to have a different version of this story. and the question of why this story went out the way it did. for example, the fact that an incorrect statement was issued in the name of donald trump jr. on saturday, which was quickly -- >> it was a misleading statement. >> a misleading statement, which they had to quickly correct. this is malpractice of public relations 101. >> do they just not think it -- because they've known about the e-mails since june 21st. do they just not think it will ever come out in the media -- >> no, this is what happens when lawyers and public relations people get together and try and come up with a statement they believe will do the least harm in a way. what i think they didn't realize at this point is th

she, this lawyer, has been on the fbi's radar previously. the key issue here probably for the fbi is was she there on behalf of the russian government? was she sent there on behalf of vladimir putin? i don't know that and as part of the counterintelligence investigation, they would want to know that. we want to hear back from the fbi if this was part of the investigation and it would be fair to speculate and this raises some additional questions about what was going on here during the campaign, and you know, ana, it's important also, how much vetting was the trump campaign doing before meetings with folks? we know that even after he won the election there were -- there's been a lot of questions raised about who his folks attached to his campaign and some of the people close to him had met with. it's no surprise that maybe the vetting here wasn't so good and they may not have known exactly who they were meeting with and obviously, these are all questions that the fbi will probably look to answer and may have already answered and we just don't

the president's own fbi nominee said exactly that. someone offers you that, call the fbi. gop representative add an kinzinger on, got an offer like that, call the fbi. seems straightforward. you had advantage of being with the fbi as a are rm f former la enforcement official. does it matter, part of the donald trump jr. defense is, came in saying they had damaging information on clinton. didn't bring it. therefore it doesn't matter? does it matter? >> i agree with you and the admiral. the standard for ethical behavior is not predicated on solely if the activity is illegal. whether or not this fits the narrow statute that collusion or obstruction of justice would fit into. what's unsettling here is i think that donald trump jr. and obviously the president in the defense of his son, they're applying situational ethics. you can't be a good person, trustworthy and honorable? learned that at west point and as an fbi agent. our motto, fidelity, integrity, honesty. when you agree and say, i love it and you're willing to meet with somebody, whether or not there are in fruits to be

>> i think it would be wise to let the fbi know -- >> you're going to be director of the fbi, pal. so here's what i want you to tell every politician. if you get a call from somebody suggesting that a foreign government wants to help you by disparaging your opponent, tell us all to call the fbi. >> to the members of this committee, any threat or effort to interfere with our elections from any nation state or any non-state actor is the kind of thing the fbi would want to know. >> so i'll take it that we should call you and that's a great answer. >> wray also said the president did not ask for and he would not have taken a loyalty pledge before being nominated. wray said he feels like it would be a bit unusual to meet with the president alone about anything other than some sort of pressing, serious national security situation. jim, one more thing. wray says that if the president asked him to do anything illegal or immoral, he would first try and talk that president out of doing it, and if he couldn't, he would resign. republicans and democrats are both extremely complimentary today,

so, the question is, what else does the fbi have and does this amplify or add to what the fbi already had and robert mueller, the special council, what they already have as part of the yearlong investigation into the trump campaign and ties to russia. as you mentioned, i think a couple times, you know, what's key in these e-mails that donald trump jr. released is the specific mention that this lawyer who was coming over from moscow is referred to as a government attorney. his reaction is simply, okay, great. see you at 3:00 tomorrow. it is really a remarkable thing because over the weekend and over the last couple days, we heard repeatedly from the white house that they weren't aware who this woman was. they didn't know she had ties to the government of russia. that there was nothing discussed about the campaign. all of these explanations have fallen apart with every new revelation, so, i'm not sure whether this is the final story, whether this is all the e-mail chains, but we certainly know the fbi would want to look at this. >> i want to be clear, evan. there's a lot going on in my

acting director of the fbi, andrew mckeggy and tweets this at 6:21 a.m. this is the president. problem is that the acting head of the fbi and the person in charge of the hillary investigation andrew mccabe got

now anthony scaramucci says he's going to the fbi. this bizarre episode began with a cryptic tweet from scaramucci. here it is -- "in light of the leak of my financial disclosure info. which is a felony, i will be contacting the fbi and justice department. #swamp." and he tagged reince priebus. >> now the reference to priebus is not at all clear. but cnn contributors tweeted this, "in case there's ambiguity in his tweet, i can confirm scaramucci wants the fbi to investigate reince for leaking." that's the chief of staff to the president of the united states. all this coming after a political story that listed millions in earnings and salary from his stake in the company called sky bridge. before he left to go to the export/import bank in june. not clear whether politico got the document by leak or public record. in an interview taped before all this happened, scaramucci said this -- >> i know i'm in the cesspool called washington or a swamp called washington. so it will be virtually impossible to get rid of every leak. but i think we

again the president's pick to replace fired fbi director james comey. i want to bring in gloria and our chief national security correspondent, jim scuitto. jim, wray seemed to say everything lawmakers wanted to hear. we heard a lot of affirmation, good answer, in response to questions including whether he believes donald trump jr. should have gone to the fbi about his russian contact. >> well, it's interesting. perhaps a more nuanced answer on that. on the big picture things, he was very clear cut. he said he was not asked, for instance, for a loyalty pledge by the president, that, of course, referencing back to what james comey said that he was. he said if he was given an illegal order, he would not obey that order. he said he might even resign under those circumstances. all those answers that really senators wanted to hear from both parties, as well as a definitive statement from him that russia is an adversary and on that point somewhat contradicting the president or going much further than his commander in chief has been willing to go in public. but

and as we've seen, he has the ability to fire the fbi director. but the key point here from the jim comey story is that jim comey had made clear that he was going to be independent, that he didn't answer those questions the right way as far as we could see, and then the next thing you know, the president who later said i fired him because of that russia investigation. >> do you think part of it is just his going back to his businessman perspective where, if you hire someone, you can fire someone? maybe -- >> that is one way to think of it, but when you're the president of the united states, you take an oath to the constitution, and the constitution says all kinds of things, including that we don't have foreign interference in our democracy and the constitution talks about the independent judiciary, and we have a system in which these law enforcement people are -- they are beholden to the law. >> i want to ask you about one of your colleagues, senator john mccain, who has just been, as we learned and everyone was so surprised to learn he's had a br

this investigation was opened up last july in the fbi. this has been going on for a year. it started off with looking at russia's meddling when it came to hacking the dnc server releasing information. i'm told simultaneously, the fbi noticed there were individuals connected to donald trump talking to russians. they wanted to figure out what's going on over here. at some point, the two investigations converged and they wanted to look at possible coordination. there were indications there was possible coordination. but at that time, don junior wasn't even in the picture. jared kushner, the focus really was on paul manafort, michael flynn, carter page as we previously reported. they have all denied they've done anything wrong. it is amazing how this has unfolded and to gloria's point how we continue to peel back layers of the onion in this investigation. >> gloria, let's talk about the tumult that the "washington post" is reporting. is it considerable? >> yeah, look, i think you have people inside the white house now trying to figure out how to get back on track, how to get o

the fbi says we will continue the investigation. the department of defense says, no, we will not implement this on transgenders until you give us guidance. the cia says actually russia did help. checks and balance isn't just judiciary and the congress, it is us. >> in your conversation last night with anthony scaramucci, you brought in the fbi. tell us about that. there are a couple excerpts i want you to read. >> that was a little unusual because he was wrong on the basic facts, right? there was a story in "politico" yesterday where information from his financial disclosure form was released. this information was just obtained by the reporter when normal public channels. scaramucci didn't know that. he saw the information in "politico" and he immediately jumped to the conclusion that it was reince priebus and went so far as to believe this was illegal. he said to me, i called the fbi and the department of justice. and i was flabbergasted by this and said, are you serious? he went on, the swamp will not defeat him. he said this sort

president trump on fire about the russia investigation unloads on his own attorney general, the fbi director he fired, and the special counsel investigating it all. i want you to listen to what he tell it is "the new york times" about jeff sessions. >> sessions should have never recused himself and if he would -- if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job and i would have picked somebody else. >> he gave you no heads up at all? >> zero. so jeff sessions takes the job, gets into the job, recuses himself. i then have -- which frankly i think is very unfair to the president. how do you take a job and then recuse yourself? if he would have recused himself before the job, i would have said thanks, jeff, but i can't -- you know, i'm not going to take you. >> president also accuses fbi james comey as using that dossier as leverage over him and issues a warning to the special counsel robert mueller about delving too far into his family's finances. this comes as we're learning tonight dates are set next week for hiss son, don junior, his son-in-law jared kushner

talking about the fbi director and to whom the fbi director reports and frankly should be loyal to, here is what the president said. the fbi person reports directly to the president of the united states, which is interesting. the thing is, senator, he doesn't. i mean, that is not how the independence of the fbi director works. does his understanding of that concern you? >> i think it may be a different understanding. in a sense, it's my understanding that at least once weekly the fbi director goes and speaks with the president of the united states regarding real or possible threats to the united states. i suspect that is what the president is referring to as a report. clearly, the fbi director can be appointed by the president. you are right on the diagram, he's the one the fbi director goes first to the department of justice -- >> attorney general. >> then to the president. but the president, obviously believes in a flatter organizational structure and all other presidents as well. i suspect that's what he meant. >> are you concerned it could be more than that? in the lead up to james c

let's understand how the fbi works. the deputy director is a civil servant, someone who comes up through the process who serves as an advisor. he's supposed to be an enemy of comey? my point earlier was, if you want to fire him, your cause is your spouse is participating by choice in the american political process. so the message is if you serve in the federal government your spouse can't participate in politics? this is about the president drip, drip, drip, trying to get to the attorney general out because he's too much of a si y y to fire him. >> he was being interviewed to succeed comey at one point by the president. >> simple reason why, if you served with him at the bureau, as i did, and as he moved up through the system promoted very quickly because was tall lented, very well liked, experienced across the field and the president says i have a political problem with him. he was interviewed because he was so talented. and the president turns on a dime and says i don't care. i want you out because i don't like jeff s

that will threaten the fbi. what does that mean? >> that means very simply we may see a repeat of jim comey being fired. the threat to the political independence of the fbi, the threat to its integrity and its dedication to the rule of law may again be threatened especially as its investigation through the independent counsel comes closer and closer to donald trump himself through his son, through his son-in-law, through his foreimer campaign manager. so my question to christopher wray was will you resign if the president demands a pledge of loyalty or ask you to go light on someone like james comey and he was unequivocal and convincing not only in that hearing yesterday but also when he spoke to me privately that he would resign. and he also said very tellingly that the investigation ongoing by special counsel mueller is not a witch hunt. the president's called it a witch hunt, but christopher ray, the next director of the fbi, i hope, has said it's no witch hunt, it should be pursued vigorously. >> senator ric

. >> he said yeah, you should probably alert the fbi. he was very clear in this is a very serious matter when a foreign adversary wants to take a meeting with you and according to the emails offering incriminating information on your part. >> and lindsey graham from south carolina. how did you take hearing that defense from donald trump in effect? yesterday the whole thing was he's got to stay out of it, he's only going to tweet support for his son. >> i think he listened to his lawyers for a day and then he decided to go out and defend his son. it is his son afterall and i was talking to somebody who talks to the president quite frequently today and he said look, the president, his frame of mind is that it has always been. this is a media exercise, this is a media creation. this is the media trying to create a conspiracy that doesn't exist and that he also believes he needs to fight back, punch back. this is what he's always done and that he still believes in the end the special counsel, mueller will be out to get him. >> interesting. a

your committee just unanimously approved christopher wray to be the next fbi director. now goes to the senate floor. do you think president trump is trying to send a message to him, you work for me, pal? >> president trump sends all sorts of messages. some of them focussed, some unfocussed. some of them in long form interviews, some in twitter ranlts. frankly, what matters here is what christopher wray understands about his job. and he comported himself well in front of the judiciary committee, the reason he got a unanimous vote that was he persuaded the members of the committee that he understands his obligations to the constitution, not loyalty to the president. >> the white house is saying that president trump was making it clear that special council robert mueller should not, quote, move outside of the scope of the investigation. in your view, do you think president trump was threatening special counselor muler in any way? if you peek too much into my family's finances, i'm going to fire you? >> the language of the interview certainly was implicitly threatening, bob

he said "we're interviewing replacements at the fbi. did you know mueller was one of the people that was being interviewed?" haberman "i did, actually." trump "he was sitting in that chair. we had a wonderful meeting." haberman "the day before, right?" schmidt said "did he want the job?" then trump says, "the day before, of course. he was up here and he wanted -- he wanted the job." haberman "he made that clear to you?" "he would have." trump says "now what happens is he leaves the office, roeszen stein leaves the office. the next day he's appointed special counsel. i said what the hell is this all about? talk about conflicts. but he was interviewing for the job. there were many other conflicts that i haven't said but i will at some point." chris, is he laying the groundwork there? >> reporter: oh, yeah. and, frankly, has been, don, for a long time. i remember talking to you a month or two ago about this when trump was -- trump had done this before, but when he started describing it as this whole special counsel investigation as a witch

so the fbi has probably had this information for some time. and so, you know, as to why they now chose to tell us, you know, what they say is the whole story, you know, we'll see, and it's also going to be interesting to see if the fbi's going to want to talk to donald trump jr. or anyone else about their contact with this lawyer. >> and maybe they have already, and we just don't know it. thank you both. i want to get our national security analyst and former homeland security department official in here. juliette, the president's son does not deny that he, paul manafort, and jared kushner met with the russian lawyer last year. he confirms it in a statement to cnn. he says it was set up by a 2013 miss universe pageant acquaintance of his and he didn't know exactly who he was talking to going into the meeting. he didn't have the name. how does change things if the reason they attended that meeting was this lure of information that could potentially hurt the clinton campaign? >> i think it adds to a narrative, two-part narrative. the first is jus

but we want to make sure that we get a full investigation from the fbi. and also, from the senate and house intelligence. >> and do you have confidence that the administration -- or that the fbi, the justice department and special counsel mueller will be able to do an investigation? >> i have no reason now to say that they won't. you know, the fbi has maintained its independence and i have every reason to believe that they will continue to do that. >> senator warner, thank you very much for the time. >> great to see you. >> poppy, back to you. >> phil mattingly, great interview. thank you so much for giving us that exclusive. we'll get reaction from republican senator bill cassidy to that next hour. >>> meantime, president trump's take. what he said to "the new york times" in this bombshell interview about what really happened in that second undisclosed, previously undisclosed meeting with vladimir putin. [car tires screech] [bell rings] we carry flowers that signifyn why we want to end the disease. and we walk so that one day, there will be a white flowe

we know they didn't go to the fbi. we know they didn't own up to it. >> and kushner changed his decision closure form when this e-mail chain came up in his preparation. to your question, how do we know they were on the e-mails, during jared kushner's preparation for this, the reporting is that these e-mails were discovered. so ostensibly, if they were discovered as part of jared's prep, he must have had a role or exposure to them. >> or disclose, oh, i was in a meeting. >> that's exactly what he said. >> and then they dug into it. there's a lot that we need to still discuss. thank you, gentlemen. we're out of time. >> the headline winds up being clear, don't attack the investigation. there's some real things to follow up. look what was done to your son. all right. let's change topics for a second. breathe in, breathe out. the american league baseball trying for its fifth straight win in the all-star game. they needed extra inning heroics to do it. we will give you the moments we will give you the moments that matter ne

because he is undermining the justice department, obviously the fbi and part of that. he is undermining all of these institutions. he tries to undermine the media as well. and it seems like a deliberate campaign, because everyone, he goes down the line in this interview. in one of those he talks about james comey, right. he accused the fbi director james comey of trying to leverage that dossier and trying to keep his job. that sort of salacious dossier that came out. in my opinion, he shared it so i would think he had it out there, mr. trump said, as leverage. as leverage? yeah, i think so, mr. trump said in retrospect. your reaction to the claim that the former director comey actually testified the exact opposite of that. >> i think your point about institutions is really important because i think fundamentally what distinguishes president trump from other presidents is a systematic assault on institutions since he took office, since before then. and obviously the media is one example of that. but judges and the law are another example, the intelligence community. and

and i think we're going to have a great new fbi director."

pushing information, is that something, is there some legal obligation for informing somebody, the fbi, about? >> i mean certainly there are laws that require you if you have essentially -- it's a crime that suggests that you not only know of a crime but take a positive act to either hide it or do something to advance it, it's one of the prosecutor's favorite tools when they can't really prove any other case but they know that somebody has participated in a crime. but otherwise, i don't -- there is no direct obligation under these facts as we know them that he should have done it. but i will tell you, and i've heard today on cnn many people say that they have been involved in campaigns where this type of information or similar information has come about and that they did report this to the fbi or to the appropriate authorities. so i mean i certainly think it is a best practice that this information, you know, if it is -- again, we have three people that have seen this e-mail. i have not seen this e-mail. i don't think it's generally available. certainly bob mueller will be very interes

then june 23rd he met with the fbi to be interviewed for his security clearance. does this lack of transparency mean trouble? >> it could very well mean a lot of trouble. one of the -- this is done electronically today, these fs-86. one of the things i'm told repeat itself in the form is a warning that the failure to disclose information can result in a violation of the false statement statute, criminal statute. so you're constantly being reminded not to forget. but yet he had these lapses in memory time after time. you wonder what -- if he did indeed meet with the fbi agent who took him through his form on maybe more than one occasion, if he made false statements to that agent as well. that's just going to compound it. so this could be a heap of trouble and it certainly is a lot of leverage for the special counsel to get him to talk seriously about what's going on. >> go ahead. >> one point, don, is any of those crimes under that have to shown to be intentional. and if he amended them before it was brought to his attention, that would suggest he didn't have the i

now he wants to fire former fbi director, mueller to stop the russia investigation and he's willing, apparently, to contemplate getting rid of jeff sessions, if that's what it will take to stop the russia investigation. even though everybody admits he did the right thing by recusing himself of the trump campaign. it's clear what's going on is the only thing trump believes in is loyalty. this is a carry over where he valued personal loyalty. he has no notion that office holders are supposed to be loyal above all to the constitution and not to the president and they're not there to protect the president from the consequences of his own misconduct. that is what's revealed here. it's pretty obvious for a lot of us and i hope the rest of the country, including the suppo supporters are waking up to this. and i would hope they would make it clear he could not get rid of special counsel, mueller. he could not short circuit this investigation into his own campaign conduct. that is -- would be further obstruction of justice and further grounds for impeachment. >> i'm sorry our time is short. w

investigation supported by the fbi with bob muller. do you really want somebody that could be implicated or might say something they didn't say to the fbi. i was a little surprised to see that they are going to actually testify on the hill. they are under oath. they could be charged with perjury if they lie. if they tell the fbi one thing and the senate another thing, they have trouble ahead of them, legal trouble. they might now only be in political trouble. i was a little surprised to see it. it is going to be interesting to watch. i guarantee you, there are going to be folks watching from the department of justice patching as eager as any other viewer of that testimony. >> so the former campaign manager, paul manafort, is the vet here among the three in terms of politics, being involved in many political arenas. how much will he be pressed on knowing how this proposed meeting with russians should have been handled? he wouldn't be able to proclaim being naive. >> if a foreign government says that, i don't buy that argument as a forme

trump firing his fbi director. >> i was going to fire comey. my decision. >> over a russia investigation the president simply does not trust. >> it's my judgment that i was fired because of the russia investigation. >> now a special counsel. the fbi and four separate congressional committees are pursuing investigations. how did we get here? and how did russian influence potentially reach the highest levels of the u.s. government? >> canio say when you were first made aware that russia or some country was attempting to infiltrate u.s. political organizati organizations? >> sometimes in the summer of 2015. >> james clapper was then the director of national intelligence. the senior most intelligence official. >> was it clear to you how serious it would become? >> i don't think it was because obviously the russians have us as maybe the primary intelligence target anyway. >> the first quiet warning came september 2015 when a midlevel fbi agent notified the democratic national committee that russian hackers had compromised at least one dnc computer.

certainly after the fbi -- it turns out cnn made a phone call. i made a phone call on the 26th in which i informed them i was aware of the adjustment and so what happens behind the scenes is a lot of strat jzing about how to deal with this? because they know the day is coming about how tomanage this news and the instinct that kicks in is not to disclose despite the advice of other people of let's get this out, rip the ban dade off. instead what their instinct was to partially tell the story and tell it falsely. their first statement was false. >> that led to immediate changes. and the next day there was another story. >> and this has been the problem for jared kushner all along is the disclosures he's made and to members of congress have not been complete. this is what mark warner, the top democrat raised today. i asked directly what is happening with jared kushner right now? kushner himself offered to come before the panel in march. we're in july and there's no sign of him coming. and one reason why is because of them going back and forth over r

fbi about it. my point is -- >> a meeting where nothing transpird. donald trump releases the information. >> you're very good at the deflecting. >> but that's last year. >> the law doesn't change last year to this year. the law is the same. law doesn't change. >> i doin't know what you're talking about. donald trump jr. released the complete e-mail chain today. you got it. everybody's got it. >> right. so let me -- >> hillary clinton erased 33,000 e-mails. the irony in that is something you have to -- this is in the middle of a political season. >> it's not ironic and also the reason donald trump jr. did it was because "the new york times" was about to publish it. "the new york times" had the chain and they were about to publish it. and donald trump jr. -- >> i don't represent donald trump jr. but he released it. it was fine. >> let me ask you a question. it's escaped none of our attention that president trump has been very restrained in his twitter and public comments about this while his beloved

they have fired the fbi director in order to keep him from getting at the truth. i assume we know just a small percentage of the whole story and it will ultimately take the good work of you and other investigators to get to it. it's not going to be the trump white house that is all of a sudden going to cop to the full story. >> let me get your opinion on the health care legislation stalled in the senate right now. donald trump spoke and list anyhow he thinks it affects the changes in medicaid. >> when it comes to medicaid, not only does the senate's health care bill expand state flexibility, it ensures that every state in america has the resources you need to take care of your most vulnerable. president trump and i believe the senate health care bill strengthens and secures medicaid for the neediest in our society. and this bill puts this vital american program on a path to long-term sustainability. under the senate health care bill, federal medicaid spending will be 300 to $500 billion higher over the next decade relative to current amounts, ensuring that our sta

we don't know if they left the fbi or his possession. some was handed to a columbia university professor. do you have concerned based on this reporting about the fbi director that the memos could contain classified information. >> memos in the files of the fbi director contain classified information. the information he made public was not classified in any way but, instead, relate to the threats made against him. he was a man that wanted to keep his job. >> he said hillary clinton's handling of classified information was careless. the question becomes, even if that classified information were in the memo he handed over to his friend in columbia, which he testified had no classified information. what about the handling of it. was it on a note pad? how did he maintain the documented? did he take them home? do you have questions as they pertain to this information? >> i have no questions at all. i have no reason to think the fbi director mishandled information. you can raise questions about anything. but, to say that there's classified info

adam schiff said they should call the fbi because somebody said that? that's ridiculous. >> i could see that if it was georgia in the united states, not georgia in europe. >> somebody is talking about the crown prosecutor when there is no such thing in russia? if we're going to do this, what about the ukranian government and alexandra chalupta, who was a clinton aide -- >> she wasn't a clinton aide. she was a consultant to the democratic national committee. >> she was in the democratic government -- >> hillary lost. >> it doesn't matter. >> it does matter because the chalupa thing is nothing like this. >> if we're talking about code 531 where they got something of value -- >> ukranians offering information about what paul manafort did in ukraine is not the same as this. >> it is the same thing. >> jim, your response to e-mails today. >> i think the most striking piece to me was what he knew about going into the meeting. we don't know a lot about what happened in the meeting, we heard different reports, but the fact he knew going into the meeting that th

the meeting that we're told the fbi did not know about until now. the first e-mail from rob gold stone, a confidant of the trump family, sent june 3, 2016, reads in part, the crown prosecutor russia met with his

graham. >> you're the director of the fbi, pal. so here's what i want you to tell every politician. if you get a call from somebody suggesting that a foreign government wants to help you by disparaging your opponent, tell us all to call the fbi. >> we should all contemplate for a second what we witnessed today. democrats and republicans on the senate judiciary committee quizzing the likely next director of the fbi about the challenges he might face in maintaining the rule of law and basic norms of legal and ethical behavior, challenges that these senators clearly fear mr. wray might face from the president of the united states. the backdrop for all of this is not just the russia investigation but the just-revealed june 2016 e-mails from donald trump jr. expressing a desire to meet with a russian government lawyer for incriminating information on hillary clinton. let's bring in cnn's mana raju on capitol hill. mana, we heard some strong comments about how concerned he is about these e-mails. what are you hearing from k kinsinger's fellow republicans on the hill? >> chuck grassley mad

any one with half a brain would immediately call the fbi. you go back a year ago when robbie spoke about this, the questions of russian leaks and whether or not russians were involved in spreading information that would discredit hillary and help the trump campaign, donald trump jr. criticizes robbie and said that he was disgusting liar and questioned his moral compass and that's the concern. he knew exactly what was going on. he knew what robbie said and others and journalists were right in what they claimed, however, he tried to discredit them and i think that's the concern. moving forward, this isn't going to be about something that might be illegal. it might be improper. i don't think it's about a crime. it's about credibility and it's not about litigation, it's about the repeated lies we have surrounding the story which continues to raise many more questions. >> i want to ask you about one thing, robbie that keeps coming up. we have had a dozen guests, supporters of donald trump, republicans say this, which is a-ha, the clinton campaign