and russia. we need to reestablish substantive communication between our two militaries in order to avoid such incidents, and when they occur, to move towards deconfliction. in our initial communication and/or cooperation, if it is successful, then more senior dialogue might be warranted. maybe a son would permit us to see if there is a basis for cooperation on a number of global issues of possible interest to both of us. that should start with a subject that is bent at the heart of relations between washington and moscow for over half a century. that is nuclear disarmament. this area has been dormant since the first obama administration. equally important especially for president trump, his potential joint action against -- or islamic state of iraq in the lot, isil. the problem here is that thus far moscow's extensive military operation in syria has devoted little attention to the extremists. it has instead been directed against the weak martyrs who we support, and lately as it works against the

and he favors cooperation between russia and syria, even though we know that russia is complicitous in war crimes. luckily, trump's russia policy is risky and dangerous to america. perhaps the thing that got me most concerned about this was the moral equivalency that he made in regards to putin's murderous conduct and what he does in russia, versus any activities in the u.s. have any moral equivalence, it is outright outrageous. russia is not our friend. they have different values, they have different objectives. they are trying to bring down our democratic system of government. we need to acknowledge that. what should we do? we have to be strong, we have to be bipartisan, and we have to stand up for our values. we can't give russia any space. if we give them space, they will take it. they will use it to interfere with the free election system. they will use any opportunity we get them, and we have to make sure we not give them the space to do other aggressive actions. russia has attacked our democratic system. it was our political pearl harbor. it may have been by mouth, but it was ju

we know we have to engage russia. we understand that, but when you engage russia, recognize that they're not our friends. they're trying to bring down our system of government. approach them with strength and with resolve and be willing to lead our international coalition that needs us to stand strong against russia. that is our challenge and that's what i hope the congress, that the independent article i branch of government will stand for in trying to create the right relationship between the united states and russia. thank you all very much. [ applause ] >> thank you, senator. that was terrific. i'm just going to ask a couple questions and then turn it over to our audience so if you could all be thinking about your questions. just to start with the thing that's in the news today with general flynn's resignation. something that is striking to me about the situation is first of all this is the second person who has resigned from the trump organization based on public pressure about relationships with russia. i think

, was in russia in 2007, he was not in russia in 2007. you know, it sounds to me that you are dealing with somebody who was clearly talking to somebody who wanted to promote himself and portray himself as an insider. he did not know the people he was talking to would take it literally and that something like that ever, ever would find itself on the desk of the president of the united states. >> paul, when you were speaking, you expressed some concerns about kind of the wider issue here. you didn't call it a red scare but pretty close to that language. where are the ditches here? should we just be concerned about the theft and subsequent publications or should we be concerned about the second piece since we don't engage in prior restraint and should we be concerned about rt, france 24, in a post citizens united environment doesn't everybody get a kick at the can here and is this something a fact of life and we should be willing and able to accept and welcome the participation of other countries even if they're financed by their government

nato and russia. when we have such overall general statistics, it will become clear what the general picture is. what's the state of military security in the e.u. continent? and with that starting point, we can further go on to agreements about settlements on weapons and how to provide extra security measures. i would like to repeat once again, we did not stop the practical work with nato. >> thank you very much. >> i have two questions from over there. if it's okay with you, we'll take both questions and then go back to you. the first one is, former defense ministry of germany and another is from paris. so, if you want to go first. >> thank you very much. you heard this morning what the federal chancellor said. you heard what the federal chancellor said this morning? on the relationship to russia? when it comes to the european peace border? i think it would be necessary now that russia should also send out a positive signal so that we come to a better situation when it comes to our relations. so my s

we certainly should not reward russia for that. and we should, as democrats and republicans, be angry no matter who it was that russia attempted to help. the last thing we want is an undemocratic, adversarial country interfering with american political tradition and american elections. so we ought to be sending a message now that we're ramping up sanctions. not that sanctions can be taken away by one person, even the president of the united states. congress has a very, very important role to play and that's what we're doing here. so i think the members up here will be remembered for doing the right thing. we're not ducking and covering. and we're not bowing down to putin's threats to american democracy. we're standing up strong and saying unless congress concurs there can be no lifting of sanctions against russia. now ranking member adam schiff. mr. schiff: thank you, and i also want to thank whip hoyer for all of your leadership on this issue, for bringing together a bipartisan group in the house to match the bipartisan group in t

i own nothing in russia. i have no loans in russia. i have no deals in russia. >> i had nothing to do with it. i have nothing to do with russia. i have no deals there. i have nothing to do with russia. paul manafort was replaced long before the election took place. >> eliana. >> i think what is becoming clear is that trump thrives when he has a foil, which he did always during the campaign. there were opposing candidates in the republican primaries. he talked about lyin' ted, little marco. crooked hillary. he is trying to make the press his foil now. when the focus is just on him, what's happening in his administration and what's going on, it doesn't go so well for him. you saw today an attempt for him to revert back to campaign mode to shake attention off of himself and his administration. those are things he has a lot more difficulty talking about. >> ramesh, the goal was to distract from russia, his inability to give a coherent answer on it, i don't know if it stops the bleeding. >> you wonder what the goal really was. so many times

proof that trump camp talking to russia all along, russia celebrates when trump wins. lot of coincidences. >> and add the fact that the trump camp tried to change the republican position on ukraine for some reason, and putin responds to u.s. sanctions by doing nothing. despite russian tradition of throwing american diplomats out when we throw theirs out. >> what is logical explanation? again it could be nothing. we don't know right? >> here is the reason why this all smells badly. it's that people who understand the challenges for a president knew that the worst thing that donald trump could do in the election was to put himself in a box and to close off his options. and time and again he was given an opportunity of opening his ongss by saying that maybe putin was doing something wrong in crimea. saying perhaps it's right, perhaps it's true, u.s. intelligence community is right about the role of the russians in hacking. but each time he said no. said he didn't believe u.s. intelligence, said the rest was fake news. time and again when he should have opened possibilitie

future policyk at on russia and ukraine. a formerinclude secretary of the bush administration and senator murphy. from the carnegie endowment on international peace, this is just over one hour. afternoon,good everyone. my name is bill burns. i'm the president of the carnegie endowment for international peace. i'm pleased to welcome all of you to today's event. thank the terrific members of this bipartisan task force for sharing their time, ideas, and expertise. in particular, i want to thank senator chris murphy and my former boss and role model, richard armitage, for cochairing the task force. daalder and the carnegie endowment for their support. i also want to thank andrea mitchell for joining today's discussion and her remarkable efforts over many years to help americans to understand the world and the role in it. last but not least, i went to congratulate my colleagues. you should be very proud of the work of the task force. i'm certainly proud to be your colleague. for the past quarter century, every new u.s. president

russia. do we have any idea whether that is a priority with the trump administration right now? >> well, we don't know for sure, but we do know that, for example, nikki haley, the new u.n. ambassador coming from the united states, said sanctions will not be lifted unless russia gives crimea back to ukraine, and that's an indication ukraine is still an spornt issue. we know the discussions that were off the record held yesterday between secretary of state tillerson and foreign minister lavrov touched on ukraine, lavrov said they did. so ukraine is still an issue. it's really bad because the fighting is increasing in ukraine once again. a lot of people believe putin is testing the resolve to trump to see what it takes to get a reaction out of trump. >> hockenberry: and there are other tests. we've got a spy ship off the east coast observing connecticut, apparently not to buy real estate. land-based cruise missiles were deployed and that was a surprise and very serious. a destroyer buzzed a ship

-russia relations. so that generated a number of expectations inside of russia. by, professional class. by people who, are generally liberally-minded forums and changes domestically, political and economically and when mr. putin decided to return to the kremlin as president, to take all reins of power his decision triggered substantial protests in mos could you. winter of 2011 and 2012. and, the obama administration at the time was critical of the way that the putin government treated the protesters. suppressed them with considerable force, brutal force at times. prosecution of some protesters. that trigger ad backlash in putin's mind, presumably. we have sent inside of his mind. based on his actions, at the time backlash against the west. backlash against the liberal reforms that were somewhat very cautiously pursued by president medvedev and was then followed by a series of domestic legislative steps to greatly constrain the ability of that position, to engage in political life. greatly constrain the ability much ngos to pursue their activities. and really that

do i think russia is my enemy? no. am i cautious of russia, absolutely. and our goal is to make sure that we have strong foreign affairs relationships with all nations. we've got to have a reset on our foreign policy, and it's not just over the last eight years. i'm going to say over the last 20, 30 years our foreign policy is leading us in a direction that's, you know, created a lot of where we're at. and, of course, there is different players in the world than there was 20 or 30 years ago, but we need to reset our foreign policy, and we need to have strong alliances with all people around the nation. i was fortunate to become the chairman of the asia pacific committee. and we were sitting with people talking about realining our relationship, focusing on trade, economy and national security and i also sit on the western hemisphere and the chairman of that committee he's doing the same thing with our partners in the western hemisphere. >> to go back to this tweet. it's so puzzling. >> his style. >> he has a certain style, but he's -- i mean, he's using a

i did not do anything for russia. i've done nothing for russia. hillary clinton gave them 20% of our uranium. hillary clinton did a reset, remember with the stupid plastic but that made us all look like a bunch of jerks? he looked at her like what the hell is she doing with that cheap plastic button? that was a reset, remember that? if i do that, oh, i am a bad guy. if we could get along with russia, that is a positive thing peered we have a very talented man, rex tillerson, who is going to be meeting with them shortly. i told him, i said i know politically it is probably not good. the greatest thing i could do is shoot that ship that is 30 miles offshore right out of the water. everyone in this country is going to say, oh, it is so great. that is not great. that is not great. i would love to be able to get along with russia. you have had a lot of presidents that have not taken that tact, and look where we are now. look where we are now. if i can -- i love to negotiate things. i do it really well and all that stuff, but it is possible i won't be a

has been definitely a revival in russia and russia is a multi-religious, multi-confessional society, there is muslim society, as well, russia is a multi-religious, an as other smaller denominations. a lot of talk in return of the influence of the orthodox church most important religious force in the life of russian society. government has been very solicited of the orthodox church, legitimizing force for its actions, but the church has carved out some independent space, as well, so fair to say some people charged russian orthodox church the russian tool of state. and efinitely religion church do play a much bigger role in russian society and has the case for the past 25 years. host: can you add your to illuminateying what you know about the relationship between our state, rex exxon, president putin and russia? guest: i don't know much, beyond anything publicly available and exxon operated in russia excite successfully from what i exxon, president putin and russia? guest: i don't know much, beyond for a long time and been a profitable relationship for exxon. and tillerson and his capa

there is still the will in russia. the president saying he thinks it would be a good time to restore dialogue with u.s. intelligence agencies. there is a sense of excitement when donald trump took office is starting to fade. >> confusion and mixed messages. hallmarks at this point. clare sebastian, thank you. >>> president trump also sticking with the line that it's more important to investigate the source of all of the recent leaks that embarrassed his administration rather than looking into the substance of them. here is what he said when asked about the forced resignation of michael flynn as his national security advisor. >> that was classified information. it was given illegally. that is the problem. how does the press get the nf information? >> you know why? it is an illegal process. the people that gave out the information to the press should be ashamed. >> the fbi is not expected to pursue criminal charges against general flynn over contact with russian officials. law enforcement tells cnn that flynn was coopera

was sympathetic to russia. they have lost in ally and gotten in there is in the process by having contacts revealed. so this together elements of the situation -- this particular element of the situation is not good for russia. and now they are looking out of touch with reality and corrupt in the trump administration and it does help russia, because anything that hurts the u.s. helps russia. john: ed, you followed russian espionage. what is the goal? ed: completely consistent with what he said, putin has said central policy is opposing a unipolar world dominated by america. he is against america. what we are looking at inside of this space is basically a new phase of the intelligence war. and to understand this new intelligence war, the rise of the russian intrusions, the aggressive intrusions, we cannot understand it unless we understand the decline of the capabilities and impairment of american intelligence, especially the nsa. john: i thought you were about to mention the word snowden, which has allowed russ

putin says russia will not retaliate. that same time, that same day this tweet from then president-elect trump. great move on delay by vladimir putin. i always knew he was very smart. sometime after december 30th, communications between flynn and russia's ambassador are intercepted by u.s. intelligence officials. the white house is warned about flynn by the department of justice on january 26th of this year, and thanks to sean spicer, we know the president found out the same day. >> immediately after the department of justice notified the white house counsel of the situation, the white house counsel befed the president and a small group of his senior advisers. >> from that date on, the question is, how long did it take for the erosion of trust to occur that led to flynn's resignation? that was the reason given today. on january 28th, michael flynn was in the room when the president called russian president vladimir putin. michael flynn came into the white house briefing room and communicated for the administration to anot

>> russia is a ruse. i have nothing to do with russia. haven't made a phone call to russia in years. don't speak to people russia. not that i wouldn't, i don't have anyone to speak to. i spoke to putin twice. i spoke to him on election and he called me on inauguration. lasted a long time. it was classified so i'm sure everyone in this room has it. we had a very, very good talk. i have nothing to do with russia. to the best of my knowledge, no person that i deal with -- manafort denied it. people knew he was a consultant in that part of the world for a while, but not for russia. i think he represented ukraine or people in ukraine or whoever. but people knew that. everybody knew that. >> in his capacity as your campaign manager, was he in touch with election officials -- >> he said no. i can only tell you -- he was replaced long before the election, you know that, right? he was replaced long before the election. when all of this stuff started coming out. it came out during the election. paul manafort, a good man, paul manafort was replaced

a partnership with russia could push away allies. human rights groups have accused the russians of war crimes in syria. president trump told sean hannity it would be a great thing to get along with russia and to go out together and knock the hell out of isis. peter doocy is on capitol hill. analysts say this is not worth it. >> the reason they're saying that, shep, they don't think the united states and russia have any shared interests other than wanting to keep isis out of their countries. so the one expert witness summed it up for the house armed services committee was like this. >> partnering with the russians to destroy isil in my view comes at a high political cost and offers very little in return operationally. >> that witness from the rand corporation, a think tank has concluded that participating in the kind of anti-terror raids that russia has been using in syria where there's widespread damage to hospitals and builds that could make some in the u.s. military uneasy if they were asked to participate. >> shepard: president tr

flynn, under fire for his contacts with russia's u.s. ambassador before president trump took office. a number of sources said flynn inappropriatelyties cussed sanctions imposed by the obama administration. and the justice department had warned the white house in january, that flynn might be vulnerable to blackmail by russia. >> let's head straight out to washington. cnn's senior white house correspondent, jim acosta, joins us. jim, i suppose his position had been untenable or growing that way. wasn't this sort of accusation of potential blackmail that was the turning point? or was it that he misled mike pence, the vice president? >> i think that revelation that the justice department had warned the trump administration a month ago, michael. that was certainly a turning point in all of this. i think also, this feeling inside the white house, that it just was unacceptable after the national security adviser, michael flynn, the former national security adviser, had misled intentionally or unintentionally, the vice president, mike pence, abo

the primary being russia and iran. from the trump administration is we are trying to pull putin away from iran. >> that is the problem with bilateral arrangements. you quickly get into the complex cities of other people's relationships with other people where the enemy of your friend is your enemy. >> look at all of america's allies who feel betrayed or abandoned or don't know what to ine of american leadership the last eight years or certainly now with this court jester, improvisational man in the white house. we should not be in the state we are in. russia, china, andy roddick have a strategic relationship. and china have a strategic relationship. to exacerbateing the contradictions and tensions? we are enabling a proxy that the turkish government sees as a primary national security rent. mainly the pyb or the syrian workerse of the turkish party. this is strategic management. it is all tactics. i think vladimir putin gets classified as a tactician and not based just. i think he does look into the future. he knows wh

russia has denied any incident it's. said it was frankly surprised that the pentagon was concerned about this but this certainly raises tensions within that relationship. for russia, a real cause of concern at this point is the suggestion we heard from sean spicer yesterday that president trump wants crimea to be returned to ukraine. we heard just now from its foreign ministry spokesman saying this would not happen, crimea is part of russia and will not give it back. >> clare sebastian in moscow. thanks so much. >>> sources tell cnn the white house is in chaos, as it tries to move past the michael flynn controversy. and we're told that top officials aren't speaking to each other because they're try too busy trying to take each other down. our source described it as a game of thrones. and we're finding out more about the leadup to flynn's resignation. the white house says the level of trust between the president and general flynn had deteriorated forcing a change. >> and now we are told the v.p. was one of the last to fin

were stopped from doing any business in russia. they had to go through this agency that had sanctions imposed on them. the reality and optics are very, very different things on something that is so incredibly untenable right now, vis-a-vis the political arguments that many people are making in this country, in the president's own party that you have to be tougher on russia, and show no sign of letting up. >> speaking of sanctions, it looks like the trump administration is going to tighten sanctions against iran, because of its ballistic missile test yesterday. there are some who are concerned, this could escalate, things could get out of control, what's your analysis. >> tightening sanctions in terms of president trump saying all options were on the table. all options always have been and will be on the table. >> once you start issuing statements like this, what do you do to back it up. if the iran revolutionary guard core take our sailors hostage again, do we fight, do we impose more sanctions? that is the unknown and is the test

and one, russia doesn't have more significant ground forces than russia does. and plus, there's the question is cleaning up in russia mean teaming up with with attacks on civilians. it's not a matter of does assad step back and stop bombing. is russia going to change its approach to fighting wars the way they're supposed -- so, i don't see. >> i think we need to remind ourselves why they've managed to stay in power for six years. that was because -- with russia. the russia foreign minister said a few weeks ago, that they interfeened in 2015 because damascus was about the fall and 2012, as you know, about to collapse, iran entered military. moves from a strategy into a peacemaking strategy. our aim is to transition power from this regime into the syrian people. it's not up to me or any other countries to say i want this person in power or this person should not be in power. it should be up to the syrian people. this is what we mean to transition this power to the syrian people and they'll make up their mind and everybody will accept it. >> i think the panel will

sure, russia could have carried these tests out on its own. just like the soviet union did create and test the atomic bomb in 1949, just four years after world war ii. but it would have taken immeasurably more time. it would have increased the danger of environmental catastrophes and would demand colossal financial expenses. that's why thanks to the joint effort we were able to complete the task with maximum safety and in a very short time frame. in the new year p new opportunities will open up for reviving relations between the two countries. in my view one of the priority tasks in this context would be the kraefgs a joint mechanism to prevent accidents in the nuclear sphere in the air and on the high seas. alet me express the hope that these opportunities will be used effectively. in human history russia and the united states never have been at war with each other. [ speaking foreign language ] [ applause ] >> it is now my privilege to give an award to a great man. let me just say as has been said often today, we owe a great deal to the carn

the primary being russia and iran. future policy i am hearing out of the trump administration is we are trying to pull putin away from iran. >> that is the problem with bilateral arrangements. you very quickly get into the of other people's relationships with other people where the enemy of your friend is your enemy. >> look at all of america's allies who feel betrayed or abandoned or don't know what to make of american leadership in the last eight years or certainly now with this court jester, improvisational man in the white house. we should not be in the state we are in. russia, china, and iran have a strategic relationship. in the chinese case, it is more transactional than in terms of power. second largest army in nato is the northern country to syria. what are we doing to exacerbate the contradictions and tensions? we are enabling a proxy that the turkish government sees as a primary national security rent. -- threat. the syrian affiliate of the turkish workers party. this is strategic madness. it is all tactics.

i think russia is more comfortable with a tougher stance on russia. donald trump has never been shy to do things differently. . democrats ask republicans and independents would have a stronger stance against russia. >>> breaking news coverage. when we come back, spf our to resolve the issue with the president of the united states and get it resolved it tonight. surprising. yes!!! what's not surprising? how much money david saved by switching to geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. who's next? >>> we are back covering the breaking news tonight. there was speculation all day and into the early evening to the point of the politico report about replacements being picked out by the president's son-in-law, but then tonight we received the confirmation that this man, retired u.s. army three-star general and intelligence specialist, had resigned as national security adviser. andrea mitchell had read his letter aloud just after it broke. most of it is cursory, thanking the president for the opportunity to serve, talking about how dona

do we know what vice president pence meant by holding russia accountable? >> we don't know yet, fred, but obviously, on the minds of a lot of european leaders is whether the united states will keep up the sanctions against russia for the seizing of crimea and its actions in eastern ukraine and you remember last week, u.s. ambassador to the u.n., nikki haley, said the u.s. would keep sanctions on russia until it changed behavior and returned crimea, but european leaders remember when donald trump said that he might forget about those sanctions and lift them. so i think they're getting a mixed message from this administration. clearly, in the last few weeks, the tone has definitely hardened against russia and i think now, people are hungry for more and want to see some actions by this administration. vice president pence was short on what type of policies the u.s. would institute and talked about these broad concepts. on the russia file, looking for more information. >> matthew, that hardened tone coming from the vice president and also the u.s. ambassador to

russia. this is just under one hour. on a day where explosive national security news is dominating our headlines, we are honored to welcome one of our nation's most distinguished voices on foreign policy. senator ben cardin. senator cardin is the ranking democrat on the senate foreign relations committee, where he plays a key role on all national security issues. make sure progressive voices are heard in these critical debates. he has taken a leading role in the fight for human rights in russia. he is working to make sure that there is no special deal to left -- lift russian sanctions. those fights have become more important with the new administration. has donald trump caters to prudence wishes, it will take strong senators like sender cardin to set up for what is right. cardin hear from senator need for aa and the thorough investigation into russian interference in the 2016 russian inter--- election. the resignation of general flynn as national security advisor underscores this need. genera

-russia relationship. t on managing the relationship, a relationship that will remain competitive and adversarial. , andou take off of that your expectations and advice on how the u.s. can manage this relationship. whether the president's report is meeting expectations. >> thank you for the question. let me add my thanks to the staff at carnegie who did a fantastic job of facilitating a group of strong personalities , put together a report that i think will act as a foundation for a bipartisan consensus, which is always underneath the political fervor over the last 21 days. i want to thank senator burns for asking me to be around the table with a lot of my heroes on foreign relations and international affairs. it has been a real treat. i described it to my colleagues before we came on stage as a lovefest. republicans and democrats agreeing on the broad parameters we laid out in this report, which is to understand this relationship in the context of the moment. to find compartmentalized areas of agreement,

i own nothing in russia, i have no loans in russia, i have no deals in russia, president putin called me up nicely to congratulate me on the win of the election. he called me up to congratulate me on the inauguration which was terrific. i have no deals there. >> you have not aware of the contacts during the course of the election. >> how many times i have to answer this question -- russia is a rues. i have nothing to do with russia. >> susan, either the president's not playing it straight or the media has it wrong, at least from the tone of the questions. your thoughts on this. >> there's no evidence that had he had nefarious relationship with russia. there's a lot of leaks from current and foreign -- officials are all unanimous. we don't know are these obama officials there to under line trump. what your reporter was saying earlier, what is this story about. is it flynn having lied or some kind of weird leadership with the russia or about him misinterpreting what the sacs sanctions were. it may have amount to russia ambassador called flynn, and asked him about the sanctions and flynn

can you tell us about plans to sanction russia and if you would keep obama's sanctions against russia? >> the current sanctions are in place, and i would say sanctions are an important tool that we will continue to look at for various different countries. it's a very important program within the treasury department. >> can you tell us what you think the bottom line will be at these particular sanctions you announced yesterday and are referring to today for the venezuelan vice president? >> first, let me just comment again. this is as a result of a very long effort. yes, this was underway. this was a very long effort. the implication is quite significant. we expect that there will be frozen tens of millions of dollars, and, again, the sanctions are a very important way of us sending a message that we will not stand for i will lift activities, whether they're drug trafficking or terrorism. >> secretary, including sanctions, what other tools are you looking at? >> i can't comment on all the tools, but, again, let me just reinforce that sanctions are a very important tool within the depar

and russia began cooperating. we did not reach -- we did not get to test that because the violence escalated so dramatically and found it untenable. if you are to envision a scenario in which we are able to work together, there might be possibilities. it has to be in the context has to be in the context of humanitarian aid reaching these populations and the very serious violations can is talking about stopping. it is difficult to visualize how we could have the operation we might want to see. >> with the syria opposition between the u.s. and russia, -- d you come in think we favor what we call the local option. their families have been killed. those people can be the core element to make sure that daesh is not coming back. in many areas. we bring outside people, i think what we have seen in many situations -- recently, we have , where it is the local group supported by turkey, progress.o make huge think if we need to succeed in terms of countering and defeating daesh, we need to resort to this local option. we hav

she is close to russia. you know what i gave to russia? nothing. >> can we assume there will be no response to this provocation? there will be no response. i don't say i'm going into mosul in four months. we are going to attack mosul. next week, we are going to attack mosul. you know why? i don't talk about military and i don't talk about other things. and by the way, my whole campaign, i didn't say that. i didn't want to say, yes this is what i'm going to do. wait a minute. i don't have to tell you what i'm going to do in north korea or what i'm going to do with iran. you know why? because they shouldn't know. and you guys are going to get tired of asking the question. when you ask me about the russian ship, i'm not going to tell you. hopefully i will not have to do anything. >> could i just ask you -- >> where are you from? >> bbc. president trump: another beauty. >> impartial, fair. -- just like cnn. >> on the travel ban, we can go back and forth, on the travel ban, was that a good example of the smooth running of government? >> wait. w

let's speak about russia for a second. i've always been a russia skeptic and hawk. new administrations these days try to get better relations with russia. the bush tried to get better relations with russia. the clinton administration -- or hillary clinton and the obama administration did the reset. so i understand it's reasonable and rational to try and improve relations with russia, that's what new administrations inevitably do but i'll leave it up to the administration to describe the circumstances surrounding what brought it to this point. i think the key is this, that as soon as this person lost the president's trust, the president asked for his resignation and that was the right thing to do. i'm not going to prejudge circumstances surrounding this until we have all the information. >> reporter: [ inaudible ]. >> i said a muslim ban would be against our country's principles or a religious test. this is not that. >> reporter: [ inaudible ]. >> reporter: just to clarify, would you support an independent investigation into russia ties and are you concerned the whit

to russia. there are russia hawks now, i think there are more russia hawks in congress than there are congressmen and senators, and so we are happy to expand this investigation. i welcome it. however, we are not going to go on witch hunts against the america people, against american citizens. and, you know, basically putting names of people in newspaper outlets, that is not real credible evidence that an american citizen has done something wrong, but if there are american citizens, from any political party that are communicating with russia, russian agents, i want to know about it. bring it to the committee, because we would like to investigate. >> dickerson: and you are referring to the stories that the white house said have no merit to them, which is citizen whose are involved in the trump campaign had any contact with the russians, is that what you are referring to? >> that is correct. as far as i know, our law enforcement en that information, so if there is someone else that has this informa

>> you know that the relations etween russia and nato and the nato-russia council activities was frozen through nato initiative. though after the caucasian 2008, our ugust condoleezzaleagues, rice, in particular, said that he freezing was a mistake and it should be even more active during the exacerbation time. make the same mistakes and alliance made a decision to practical activities. and, yes, it was reiterated yesterday. he said it in the context, the ambassadors in the nato russian council and his they are ith me, prepared to continue that, but the practical work has been back.d at a certain stage, the president of finland, which is member, expressed concern that not only russian but also nato airplanes fly with turned off transponders over the baltic region in. his visit during russia he touched on this topic with putin.nt after that, he test our military propositions in order to how to solve the issue of transponders and the overall security in the nato region. our military has brought -- in of last year, some proposals, and there was a nato back n council meeting then. we were p

ties to russia. the big question here and new calls for new investigations all part of the equation. the white house trying to figure out what's going to happen next. >> the evolving and eroding level of trust as a result of this situation is what lead the president to ask for general flynn's resignation. >> key republicans now joining democrats demanding investigation into ties to russia. >> we have no idea why flynn was doing this and trying desperately to help russia. he's not going to get off that easy. we need answers to a whole lot of questions. >> already looking at russian involvement. it's highly like like they want to take a look at this. >> the president knew for weeks about flynn's calls with russia. on january 26th, the justice department first warning the white house council that intercepted calls show that flynn misled them. lying about discussing sanctions with a russian ambassador making him vulnerable to blackmail. that same day the white house says the president was briefed. >> the

namely about the issue of russia. mccain has been a sharp critic of the way the trump administration has handled russia believing they should take a firmer line on this country. do you think there should be an investigation into this? he says there should be a bipartisan select committee looking into the allegations as well as michael flynn, his involvement there. th's not what republica leaders want but what john mccain wants, kate. >> he hasted wan that all along. i wonder if this changes that dynamic of pushing mitch mcconnell any closer to wanting to have an independent committee. i'm guessing no, but who knows. manu thank you so much. >>> so michael flynn resigns his post, and hillary clinton is weighing in. details on that ahead. >>> just days after north korea tests president trump with a new missile launch, cnn is live on the ground in pyongyang. coming up, we'll take you inside that hermit kingdom. to explore their family history with myheritage.com now we'll see what happens. these are my great grandparents.

i say it is better to get along with russia than not, and if russia helps us in the fight against isis which is a major fight and islamic terrorism, all over the world, major fight, that is good thing. will i get along with him? i have no idea. >> dickerson: he is a killer, putin is a killer. >> there are a lot of killers, we have a lot of killers, do you think our country is so innocent. >> countries so innocent, do you agree? >> this is -- this is an enormously important moment in the, the role of our nation in a world stage because we now have a president who is reengaging a world from which america has been stepping back over the last eight years, and i have been talking to my counterparts in other countries and i will be traveling to the munich security council in a few weeks. what i consistently hear from counterparts around the world is how much they welcome the fact that president trump is reengaging on behalf of america's interests, leaders around the world in which you heard a in that quote was a commitment to explore the possibility of starting anew and looking for common ca

i own nothing in russia. i have no loans in russia. i don't have any deals in russia. >> obviously that's going to take deep reporting, the last sentence. i have no loans in russia, i don't have any deals in russia. he's now invited everybody to check whether or not it's true. russia is fake news. the leaks are fake new how do you make sense of this? >> what's not fake news, the russians expanded their efforts to attack the ukrainians and trump is doing nothing about it what so ever. i wonder why that could be. this problem with talent is much deeper than not wanting to do this. there are young people who will not accept staff positions in the national security keown till. that's insane. a junior staff position shouldn't get you in that kind of trouble. there are young people who won't accept positions in the state department because of trump. this guy cannot get the kind of people he wants to join them. >> the testimony that took place before the inauguration, they went before congress, that was brought up. one of the leaders of the i

russia has a justice system. russia has a court system that doesn't necessarily mean that russia has the rule of law in the same way putin has taken over almost all sources of news in his country in the same weay he's taken over big business. it's not possible to run business in any significant scale without putin being cut in and involved. in the same way he's technically presided over a democracy for 17 straight years while opposition leaders consistently find themselves arrested or dead and opposition parties find themselves outlawed or otherwise structurally sidelined, so, too, the russian just system. on paper looks great, right? but in real life everybody up to and including punk bands and billionaires find themselves in inside literal cages in russian courtrooms at the pleasure of the president. and his political opponents get prosecuted and convicted when he wants them prosecuted and convicted and that's how the justice system worked. the rule of law cannot just exist on paper, it's only real, it only rea

he has great confidence, he knows russia. he knows russia properly, notjust because he had business dealings there. he must realise in talking to sergei lavrov, it is not the person who makes decisions, he may feel questions as to whether he can make any decisions. what he said was good. principally on ukraine? ukraine isa good. principally on ukraine? ukraine is a central issue. there are consequences and if you think about it, there is more for putin to get from an american relaxation than for him to give. i'm not sure he can give anything at all. what would it ta ke give anything at all. what would it take for the americans to decide to relax the sanctions given the fact they would know the situation in ukraine is controversial. a great deal of rather naive faith, the russians give something back for a favour done. they do not. that is not the art of their deal. it is who gets too, not dissimilar to what trump said in his book. they would also get the russians friction in nato, doubt as to what the russian policies of the