Page 865 - Backgrounds News Today

Groups do. youve seen spec races turn on there issue. look at the senate race in new hampshire where kelly ayotte was blasted for voting against a backgrounds checks bill. thats one of the reasons she lost her seat. you slowly see the issue turning. it is a social change movement not unlike the others that took decades in order for us to start withining legislative fights. its changing but certainly slow. >> final question and ill let you go. the nra spent more money trying to elect donald trump...

Level that jared kushner is operating? >> well, the fbi used to conduct all the background investigations. but theyve got a lot to do these days, to put it mildly. and contractors have gotten into doing the background investigations. and that sometimes has produced confusion and delay. and its one of those aspects of government, at least in my experience, that doesnt work very well. >> what contractors? because the fbi is saying they did the backgrounds. >> well probably they did. i have no know...

Confusion and delay. and its one of those aspects of government, at least in my experience, that doesnt work very well. >> what contractors? because the fbi is saying they did the backgrounds. >> well probably they did. i have no knowledge of this particular case as all. but as a general proposition, contractors are frequently hired to do background investigations. >> the fbi is saying in march of went a partial report was submitted to the white house, in july of went, a final report schmitted t...

We care because people who have possible business conflicts of interest, people in rob porters case who could be blackmailed to use their influence. these are people without clearances who are working on some of the biggest issues including the first summit. >> the security clearance process is far from perfect but the security process gives the u.s. government an opportunity to look at peoples backgrounds, understand their suitability, their trustworthiness and the opportunity that an adversary...

This it is not uncommon for a process to take this long. in a new administration, some taking as long as two years. that mr. kushner will take longer than usual because of his lengthy holdings. extensive travel and holdings and there was no worry about the potential of his ability to do his job. josh, does this process really take up to two years? why would that be? >> i flagged that as well when you put the quote up on the screen. two years is a stretch. it is not unusual for the fbi to take up...

If theres a backlog, its not that theyre not providing the resources. its more likely that the problem involves the people and their backgrounds. its not unusual to have an investigation that runs a year, an interim clearance is there for a reason, it allows people to start doing their jobs on day one. but the interim clearance was never meant to be a long-term solution to a background investigation problem. >> right. bill, what kinds of staffers -- go ahead, bill. >> yeah. it says pretty clearl...

Permanent security clearance. its a lot of folks. is that unusual? >> the fbi is taking a lot of hits lately, especially today with regard to the process and how that all works. i will say that -- i know this from experience working with colleagues. in the runup to a new administration the fbi will surge resources to the team conducting the background investigations. its more likely that the problem involves the people and their backgrounds. its not unusual to have an investigation that runs a y...

Josh, does this process really take up to two years? why would that be? >> i flagged that as well when you put the quote up on the screen. two years is a stretch. it is not unusual for the fbi to take up to a year to conduct an investigation. sometimes you are digging into people who have complex backgrounds, maybe financial records, maybe travel. its not unusual to go up to a year. the farther you get beyond that it raises some questions. is this something that the fbi is trying to mitigate, ma...

Image. its huge and the green pops to the naked eye in a different way the way it does on news print there. the artist kehinde wiley who did the presidents portrait gave a speech after it was unveiled describing the situation. the flowers evoke the variety of president obamas background. there are the national flower of kenya on there, the flower of chicago, theres some greenery from hawaii on there and the idea is that you have these diverse backgrounds trying to claim him. >> it is growing aro...

It made you wonder what he saw that day when he was looking at frederica wilson and what he sees -- what did he see when he looked at rob porter. >> right, rob porter harvard gradua graduate, missionary, road scholar. you write this, you say is it that people like wilson, dreamers and porters former wives never come into view for him. and i think this is an important question to ask. >> you have to wonder, does he see people and think that certain types of people, certain backgrounds who look a ...