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

>> i'd say immediately call the fbi. what bothers me probably most about junior's responses that there was no instinct that there was something wrong about this. you don't need to be an authority on federal election law to have an instinct that, wait, there's something wrong with my meeting are russians who may or may not be corrected to the kremlin who are talking about bringing in dirt on mrs. clinton. it's just the wrong instringt. >> robert deets, jennifer rogers. i think we're going to have to lee it there. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> up next, more on today's confirms hearing for president trump's pick to replace fired fbi director james comey. we'll talk to someone who personally knows chris way and get her take on how wray would handle the job. stay tuned. there's nothing more important to me than my vacation. so when i need to book a hotel room, i want someone that makes it easy to find what i want. booking.com gets it. and with their price match, i know i'm getting the best price every time. now i can st

i think the fbi would want to collect that information and pursue that. >> ron hosco, former fbi assistant director. good to see you. >> you too. >> what about jared kushner, the president's son-in-law, under fire for failing to report that meeting under his security clearance forms. he has updated the forms but is that enough. could he lose his clearance? ♪ me to the moon (elegant music) ♪ and let me play (bell rings) for over 100 yearsaking like kraft has,al cheese you learn a lot about people's tastes. honey, what do you want for dinner tonight? oh whatever you're making. triple cheddar stuffed sliders. sold! >>> pump saying he only found out about the secret meeting a couple days ago. so much focus on donald trump jr. >> it became pretty apparent to jared and paul. >> you remember that. >> we were all there. the whole contact too how long? >> about 20 minutes. and he left after five or ten? >> so jared kushner we know was there. why wasn't that disclosed initially and is this a pattern? because each day she chooses to take the stairs. at work, at home... even on the escalator. that

as the fbi director?. >> i don't know enough about the specifics but i would say that my commitment on these issues that is faithful to the law and constitution so in response to ruth senator ben is that we need the cooperation of the muslim american in the community and those that did it has been obtained so the fbi director needs to be the fbi director for all americans. >> so to raise some concerns this is a foundation of religious freedom with racial profiling. so as fbi director you would be sensitive about moving forward on any type of program to treat different groups in a discriminatory way?. >> discrimination is abhorrent not something you would condone our what you pay close attention if it would raise those types of concerns is the issue with religious freedom one of the cases that was more meaningful than i have ever done was a case where churches all around the country were burned down over a particular religion. >> i am over my time. saw your firm has represented individuals with energy inter

that's how some are looking at the decision to cancel plans to build a new headquarters for the fbi. the j old, and cracked. three locations were under consideration for a new facility, but the feds canceled all of that last night. >> while this may have been scrapped, the elephant still is in the room, which is where does the fbi go for a headquarters, and what do we do with this antiquated facility in springfield? >> we work hard. i don't care what anybody says. we work hard. he's so busy bashing everybody that you just take your chance on if it's your turn. >> we may learn more reasons behind the decision tomorrow. >>> a dramatic reaction to a shocking spike in violence, happening right side now in prince george's county. the police department put all of its officers on 12 hour shifts until further notice. the result will be an immediate surge of police on patrol. the department is trying to put a cap on the included 11 murders in the past 13 days. >> we need them to not get so upset that they think fatal force is the only thing they can do. >> investigators have found no obvious

the president chose christopher wray to lead the fbi. today he was grilled over a slew of topics. for a nonpolitical position, things got political pretty fast. >> did the president ask you to do something unlawful or unethical, what do you say? >> first, i would try to talk him out of it. and if that failed, i would resign. >> why did the president fire director comey? >> you know, senator, i don't know. i'm not familiar with all of the information that the president may or may not have had, so i'm really not in a position to speak to that. i do know there's a special counsel investigation under way. in all my dealings with jim comey, he was a terrific lawyer, a dedicated public servant and a wonderful colleague. >> from there the president's e-mail chain that he dumped on twitter is taking up a lot of oxygen. he did so today. while all that's going on the president himself will head to paris, france, tomorrow in lieu of the latest edition in the russian meddling saga. here to give her take on all of it is martha mccallum. >> harris, how you doing? harris: great, thank you. today

the confirmation hearing for fbi director the nominee chris wray. the man president trump has chosen to fill this seat left vacant after the firing of james comey. the trump/russian collusion and donald trump jr.'s e-mails showing he was willing to work with russia to help swing the election in his father's favor. here's more with lindsey graham who pushed for his thoughts on the actions of don jr. >> should donald trump jr. have taken that meeting? >> well, senator, i don't -- hearing for first time your description of it so i'm not really in a position to speak to it. >> let me ask you this. if i got a call from someone saying that the russian government wants to help lindsey graham get elected, they have dirt on the opponent, should i take that meeting? >> inyou'd want to consult -- >> i think -- >> 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 natio

christopher ray is widely regarded as well qualified to lead the fbi. after the messy fireding of james comey, ray faced unusual pointed questions. pete williams has details. >> christopher ray entered the hearing with one overriding mission. demonstrate his independence from the president who nominated him after firing james comey. >> i will never allow the fbi's work to be driven by anything other than the facts, the law and the impartial pursuit of justice. period. >> he said no one, including donald trump, asked him to it pledge loyalty, something kocom said the president asked of him. >> it got then awkward and i then said you will always have honesty from me. >> to one asked me for a a loyalty oath at any point during this process and i didn't offer one. >> if the president asks you to do something unlawful or unethical, what do you say? >> first, i would try to talk him out of it. if that failed, i would resign. >> wray is a former federal prosecutor and a senior official in the justice department at a ti w deputy attorney general and his boss. h

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

>> 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

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

an fbi agent who was a key fbi interrogator, testified to us about the contrast between the fbi's techniques and the enhanced interrogation techniques used by the cia during the bush administration. he testified that these enhanced techniques were operationally ineffective and unreliable. and harmful to counterterrorism. we learned that bob mueller ended the fbi's participation in the interrogation of other cia detainees. because of the harsh torture methods they used. and because they were undermining the investigation. he pulled his people out. this is important because the issue of interrogation techniques isn't just something of the past. trump said that torture works, and he would immediately bring back waterboarding and much worse. so i'm interested in knowing more about the nominees knowledge for the cia's use of torture during the bush administration and knowledge of detainee abuse in iraq. the cia's use of torture are a stain on our nation's values and history. the senate intelligence committees torture report was issued in 2014 when i was chairman of that committee. it all lined th

the headquarters of the fbi is inefficient, with cracked concrete, but the fbi is now staying put. >> the big losers, unfortunately are the fbi employees. >> reporter: springfield supervisor, jeff mccab worked with private sector leaders 0 bring -- to bring the fbi to this property. it's already owned by the federal government. >> you have a private sector that has extended millions of dollars in planning to put in bids. you just canted this with no credible reason. it will have a chilling effect on the private sector who want to partner with the federal government on projects like this in the future. >> reporter: he worries that increasing attack on federal workers. >> if even, we can't fund the headquarters for the fbi, then of course you would be foolish not to be concerned about the effects on the rest of our federal workforce. >> do you feel like it has to do with trump's seeming war against the fbi? >> i'd be foolished to not think that's playing a role. this would be the time to say this is where your headquarters is going to be, when you don't have a director, and they're alre

the gore campaign immediately called the fbi and turned the book over to the fbi. well, what should he have done? some would say, what do you expect him to do? under these circumstances, i expect him to call the fbi and say this is what happened. because when a foreign power gets involved with trying to affect the sovereignty of the united states, it doesn't get much more difficult than that. and a president, the power of the presidency, which we all so often talk about, a central power of the presidency is the power to persuade. in the military they put it this way. down the ranks, they have to have faith in command. the american faith in the command of donald trump overall, it was never high and has been sinking ever since he got into office. primarily because of this business with the russians. now, as is so often the case, chris, whatever happened in that meeting or didn't happen in that meeting, it is the lies that have been told since then, the conflicting testimony, the backtracking. they are in a word and have been from the beginning even he before the pres

my loyalty is to the constitution, to the rule of law and to the mission of the fbi. and no one asked me for any kind of loyalty oath at any point during this process and i sure as heck didn't offer one. >> and from what you told me yesterday, you would not give one if asked. >> correct. >> if the president asked you to do something unethical, what do you say? >> first i would try talk him out of it. if that failed, i would resign. >> whoa! i'm joined by senator chris kuhns. i was impressed. you were there. what do you think of this guy? >> well, i was impressed as well. as i said at my opening statement in christopher wray's confirmation hearing. he had two challenges. first he needed to persuade us that he had the skills, the management capabilities, to be a good filibuster director. but given this pittal moment in politics, he had to persuade that he has the i understand and that he understands how important it is to restore confidence in the fbi and to protect the ongoing investigation being led by bob mueller. i think he met both those tests. >> what would you do

>> i think it would be wise to let the fbi -- >> you're going to be the director of the fbi, pal. i want you to tell every politician if you get a call 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 nonstate actor is the kind of thing the fbi would want to know. >> where does ray stand on the russian investigation? the firing of former fbi director james comey and whether all of this is a witch hunt. >> do you believe in light of the don jr. e-mail and other agencies that this is a witch hunt? is it a fair description of what we're all dealing with in america? >> senator, i can't speak to the basis for the comments. my experience with director -- >> i'm asking you as the future fbi director, do you consider this endeavor a witch hunt? >> do you have any doubt that russia interfered with our elections. >> i will tell you have i no reason to doubt the assessment of the intelligence community. >> did

about the fbi. based on some of the testimony that this committee and others have heard in the past, not today. here's what i'm looking for. i want you to be apolitical. i don't want you to exhaust yourself trying to make political friends up here. i want you to be socrates. i want you to be dirty harry with the bad guys, and i want you to tell me how you're going to do that in this environment. >> well senator, first let me say that i have, i think a heightened appreciation for the point that you're making about the power of the fbi and what you said about the fbi's ability to ruin people's lives. one of the things that i did even as head of the criminal division was i tried to meet with every new hire, we're talking about over 400 lawyers, every time we had a new hire, i would spend 10-15 minutes with that person and one of the points i would try to make is that the decisions that that prosecutor would make, and the same thing would be true, obviously for fbi agents in spades, short of their weddi

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

some of which the former fbi director has admitted to leaking to the press. welcome, congressman desantis, thank you for being with us. >> thanks for having me. >> that was an extraordinary interview you gave. in it you said four things, former fbi director comey has to be investigated by the department of justice, that they have to subpoena his memos of conversations with president trump, that former national security deputy adviser ben rhodes needs to be investigated and every remaining holdover from the obama years at the nsc should be fired. that's a lot for one interview, congressman. what triggered that? >> well, the reports of comey's memos potentially containing classified information were very concerning to me. i don't know if they did. i think we need to find that out. comey himself under oath, incredibly he admitted he leaked these memos in order to trigger a special counsel against the president. it was really weaponized leaking. if he was willing to disclose or was careless with classified information, i think that's very, very important. i thoug

president trump's pick for the fbi director testified today. the trump pick for the fbi director that special counsel robert mueller's investigation on russia is not a witch hunt. obviously. we'll have more ahead from that hearing. the daily beast reports that the russian lawyer has ties to the russian military and intelligence officials including officials from two of the kremlin's top intelligence agencies. according to the website, an american financial executive who has investigated russian corruption for a decade is set to brief the senate judiciary on the woman's ties to the russian government. this is not a variable. this is not an unknown. she is fully tied to the russian government and russian oligarchs. there's no doubt. e-mails show the middleman told donald trump jr. that she was a government attorney for russian. in the initial message to donald trump jr., the british publicist rob goldstone wrote -- >> russian officials deny she has any connection to the kremlin, of course. a spokesman for vladimir putin saided the on the whole, i

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

and we think the fbi, as well. when they try to make that dossier into the basis of the whole case dpeagainst donald tr and try to link the whole fbi investigation to that dossier, where they are going with that is to try to undermine, to try to cast aspersions on the fbi investigation of the trump/russia affair, which continues to this day, by casting aspersions on its origins. chuck grassley, who is the senator who's the chair of the senate judiciary committee, has been sort of the leader in -- among republican members of congress on that subject. and he's the one who's signaling most strongly that he would like this to be the counternarrative in this story. so, watch for that. watch for that in particular tomorrow, at the christopher ray confirmation hearing, which will be chaired by krchuck grassley. the christopher ray confirmation hearing is not supposed to be about the russia scandal, but it will now have to be substantially about the russia scandal. because the magnitude of that scandal now and because of t

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

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

the fbi director confirmations are always interesting. christopher ray will be the eighth person ever confirmed to this job if confirmed. but this time, this hearing tomorrow in the middle of all this, given the reason this job is open in the first place, this thing should be a doozy. again, starts 9:00 a.m. eastern here on msnbc. that does it for us tonight. see you again tomorrow. now time for "the last word with lawrence o'donnell." good evening, lawrence. >> good evening. do you think he will be asked about recusing himself from matters involving investigations of the president? >> i think he will be asked if the president asked him to pledge his loyalty. he is going to be asked if anyone has already tried to impede his work on anything related to the russia investigation. he is going to be -- i mean, tomorrow is going to be -- it is going to be so distinct and so different from any other confirmation hearing for an fbi director ever. i don't even really know what to anticipate. >> i'm fascinated to see what position he will take on r

election to help his father, neither the president's nor the campaign reported this information to the fbi. when it became obvious the emails were being dumped, when it was obvious this was being done by the russian government, when our own intelligence committee issued a statement in october of firming this was being done by the russians, did the trump campaign than disclose they had received an overture to receive damaging information. the answer is, no they did not. significant, deeply disturbing new public information about direct contacts between the russian government and its verymediaries in the center of the trump family, campaign, organization. obviously, we need to get to the bottom of exactly what happened. and what was said in that meeting. any information that went into organizing that meeting, as well as, if that meeting was just the aginning, or if that was testing of the waters by the russians to see whether the campaign would be receptive to their engagement and involvement in the presidential election. developmentry key in terms of what the public is aware of. our work co

arm and now you've got the new fbi director who the president appointed. i'm testifying before the senate today saying no this is not a witch hunt. a further more the fact tha. his son disclose the email chain was done only because it was about to be released by the new york time so that's not so much transparency as it is. trying to get an upper hand. is he innocent those of us any legal misdemeanor there seem to be quite a few lawyers who is saying that there was. actually nothing illegal in war don junior did. so the fec is very clear that no candidate. or operative can recieve anything of value from a foreign national. now value isn't determined by money it's determined by something of value getting dirt on hillary clinton would be something of value. it's the equivalent of off research but you're not getting it from someone in the united states are getting it from a foreign government or foreign nationals. that would subject him i believe to an fec action. you sit on the intelligence committee do you have anything else in terms of communications. of t

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

and if the fbi was in fact conducting an investigation into russian interference into the 2016 election would those notes in and of itself be part of that investigation and would the details that comey went into be classified. and now, when we get neat situations like we've had over the past six months would the president tweets something and then everybody kind of shifts folk us to what it you also have to remember there are things going on outside of that spotlight. and that things going on right now is the investigation by the special counsel robert mueller. we had reporting in the last couple weeks that muller is working on obstruction of justice case looking into whether or not the president firing jim comey was, in fact, obstructive act, which he could then bring criminal charges on. also, remember, let's talk about the last 24 hours of news segment. you opened up 5@630 tonight and flurry of activity and controversy over donald trump jr. meeting that was going to dominate the news cycle this morning and all anybody would talk about and the president up jped into that. not with any

or for that matter, any other political interference into the fbi. having a strong, independent fbi that maintains those its law enforcement mission and counterintelligence mission, free of political interference from white house or the president himself is absolutely critical. i think he gave that public assurance yesterday and i believe he gave that private insurance today. on top of that, it is very important that we continue a good working relationship with the fbi because there will be asormation that we will need a congressional investigation continues, and i believe we will have that working relationship. >> what is next in the russia investigation? are you interviewing witnesses? >> matter how may times you ask, i'm not going to get into the specifics of when we will see , but weecific witnesses are just now starting to interview those individuals who are affiliated with the trump campaign that may or may not have had contact with russians. the one thing we do know is that we have a repeated pattern, election,ith the the transition and into t

the head of the fbi for his entire career. and they want to divert attention away from the stories over the weekend in which the three most influential members of the trump campaign met with the kremlin official about dirt on hillary clinton. so, today's actions are twofer for them. trying to hurt comey. that won't have an impact on the investigation and divert attention away from what people should be paying attention to. >> john, i want to ask you now that we are learning about the meeting with the russian lawyer. would you have taken a meeting like this? >> kate, i have been on nine presidential campaigns. not one of them has anyone, in any of them met with foreign officials at that level, much less with the impact of trying to find dirt on an opponent. so, no, i wouldn't have. normally, our campaign wouldn't have. the thing is right now, kate, they can't keep their stories straight. they are zigzagging more than a band of road runners on crack. it's hard to keep up with what's going on. initially, we saw different dots on

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

or jared kushner should have notified the fbi about this meeting? >> yovi don't think there is my question they should have notified the fbi. when you're in a political campaign and then you're told that somebody who is a russian agent wants to provide you information regarding that campaign, the bells should have gone off. there is no question that somebody should have said, wait a minute, wait a minute. we shouldn't do this kind of meeting because of the implications involved. nobody seemed to do that. nobody raised those questions. and that's why the mere fact that this meeting took place creates evidence that there was a willingness to listen to that kind of information coming from a foreign agent. >> sunday morning president trump tweeted this. i'll put it up on the screen. "putin and i discussed forming an impenetrable cyber security unit so that a number of things would be guided." later he revised that saying, quote, the fact that president putin and i discussed a cyber security unit doesn't mean i think it can happen. it can't, but a ceasef

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

guest: i cannot answer why the the fbi looking at service. i have read what they said and i think they should fully cooperate. this is not a tit-for-tat situation, that if the dnc to not want the fbi to look at its servers, we should not investigate whether russia was involved. host: does it matter that the russian lawyer reported he was cleared by the department of justice to come to the united states? guest: no. it is not affect whether a violation occurred. we are not saying the person snuck into the united states. you can be here illegally, but unless you are a resident alien or citizen, you cannot make the contribution of be involved in our election. again, one thing a foreign national can do is volunteer for campaigns. .hey can volunteer for campaign they cannot use other people's money, for nationals money to help the campaign or use their own money in minimal amounts to help the campaign. host: isn't volunteering for campaign giving something to it? guest: that is the debate at the time, and they decided your own individual activity i

>> well, from my old fbi days, you have to look at it this way. were there any contacts subsequent to that meeting? this meeting was probably a get to know you, feel them out a little bit, see if there is any possibility if you are the russian intelligence service or if they're operating as cut outs, was there a second meeting? does d did they get another meeting out of this or a phone call or recommend they talk to a certain individual, they being the campaign, that would be able to provide that information. all of that you don't know. so now what investigators are looking at is, okay, we know that this was likely a dangle operation. now we're going to have to figure out what steps did the russians take next. did they try to contact them? again, did they say, hey, why don't you go talk to person x in new york city about these things, they can help you out on that particular issue. all of that has to be dissected. and again it's going to come out. and what they don't want to do if they're under investigation and going under oath and talking to eit

tom called the fbi right away. then he called the bush campaign chairman and said you have a traitor in your midst and recused himself from the debate. i had to play this. that's what an honorable person does. donald trump jr. is not an honorable person. >> how come donna brazile -- the cnn debate about questions that were going to be published. at the time she accepted it. >> what she did was -- >> she accepted the information and passed it on to hillary clinton. >> what she did was incredibly sleazy. you are refusing to characterize anything about donald trump jr. >> i'm saying that donald trump jr. did nothing with that information. >> robbie, would you if a russian somebody russian said they were from the russian government and were sending a russian government attorney, is that business as usual? >> no, not at all. there's a lot of people who come up to campaigns with information. for example, when i was running hillary's campaign we had a lot of donald trump's former employees talk about how they didn't get p

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

. >> 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

then he fired the fbi director. and he's made it clear to putin during a face-to-face meeting that he wasn't going to punish him for what he did. instead, he's discussed parng with him on ieber security matters. specifically surround sg donald trump jr.'s meeting during the campaign paints an equally troubling picture of what happened and perhaps why it happened. in early june, after russian hackers penetrated the dnc and john podesta e-mail accounts but before it was publicly known, he was offered a meeting. he was told it was part of a russian effort to back his father and, quote, incriminate clinton. a mere four hours after the date and time of that meeting was confirmed, mr. trump as candidate is teasing that he's got dirt on his opponent. >> i am going to give a major speech on probably monday of next week and we're going to be discussing all of the things that have taken place with the chin tons. i think you're going to find it very informative and very, very interesting. >> so now we now know that it's two da

you will speak with a former fbi assistant director about what the fbi needs right now. meanwhile, back at the ranch, what will the latest russian disclosures mean for congress's plans for dealing with health care and tax reform? ♪ our top story at this hour, donald trump junior and the questions surrounding a meeting he had with a russian lawyer during the presidential campaign. hisp junior today used twitter account to reveal a series of email exchanges with a british tabloid journalist. they show he was promised damaging information about hillary clinton at the meeting and the information was said to come from the russian crown prosecutor as part of the government's quote, support for mr. trump. joining us from capitol hill is bloomberg's chief washington correspondent, kevin cirilli. megan murphy, and also here in new york is bloomberg's executive editor of global, legal, and financial regulation and enforcement. let's start in washington, where the bombshell broke loose. what is the reaction down there so far? incendiary. that's how house minority leader nancy pel

would want to know. >> as a future fbi director do you consider this a witchhunt? >> i do not consider director mueller to be on a witchhunt. >> president trump took to twitter to defend his son. my son donald did a good job last night. this is the greatest witchhunt in political history. the president says there was nothing illegal about the meeting and the president had no idea that it happened. >> the email is not provided to him until we saw it yesterday when you did. >> it appears likely donald trump jr. will be called to testify before committees investigating russia's meddling in the us election. special counsel robert mueller is looking into the emails. >>> a new healthcare bill for senate republicans should be released tomorrow. mitch mcconnell changed the bill after gop members publicly opposed it. republicans have promised for seven years to repeal and replace obamacare. president trump says it is now or never for the gop. >> it has to get past it have to get together and get it done.>> what if they don't? >> i don't want to talk about that i would be ve

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 the fbi has an important rule. one of the most moving cases to me as a line prosecutor was a different kind of hate crime with a serial church arsonist who went all over the country burning down churches and ultimately, one of the churches he burned killed a volunteer firefighter. i think i mentioned that meeting with the mother of the dead firefighter and the roughly 7-year-old daughter of the dead firefighter is a memory i will take with me forever. i've a personal appreciation for the importance of prosecuting those crimes. >> very good. if we have a second round, i will ask about human trafficking which is one of my top priorities. i have one other question about terrorists online recruiting. we had a number of instances of that in minnesota and our former u.s. attorney. i've met with the fbi in minnesota on this issue, they've showed me some of the internet targeting that's really designed to focus on people in our state because of the major somali population that we are so proud of the minnesota. could you el

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