Page 27 - Collusion Question News Today

>> kat: the russia investigation in the spotlight today with top, current, and former intelligence officials testifying. comes after a new strike by leakers for this time alleging in "the washington post" that president trump had asked intelligence chiefs to publicly deny collusion between his campaign in russia. the collusion question played big during john brennans hearing. >> did evidence exist of collusion, coordination, conspiracy between the trump campaign and russian state actors? >> i do...

>> of course we did. thats our job. when youre running for president and your campaign, thats very different, so director brennan said what he thought was concerning enough that he pass it along to the fbi she was actually there. this is what the investigation will bring forward. thats what we have this investigation. >> martha: on saying is so far, we have is if there were discussions and there have always been discussions between administrations and russian officials. there have always been di...

Job. when sean spicer came out there and lied to the entire country about the crowd size at the inaugural, it was ridiculous. and that set the tone from the beginning, and no one should go out there to that poetd podium and say things they know are not true. >> nicolle wallace said exactly that on the "today" show this morning. i think we should just listen to it. steve schmidt as well. both of them have held those positions. take a listen. we dont actually have that sound. anyway, i will explai...

Why did he tweet that? what should we interpret from that? >> as i mentioned, the president has nothing further to add on that. >> are there recording devices in the oval office or in the residence? >> as i said, for the third time, there is nothing further to add on that. >> does he think its appropriate to threaten someone like mr. comey not to speak? >> i dont think thats -- thats not a threat. he simply stated a fact. the tweet speaks for itself. im moving on. >> is the president of the unit...

Attorney general, came to the white house counsel to warn about national security adviser mike flynn. and to say that mike flynn could potentially be blackmailed by the russians for lying about his contacts with the russian ambassador. so this raises the question of did that issue come up in this meet something now, nobody ive talked to knows whether it came up. only jim comey and donald trump may know whether it came up. but its a really interesting question. the other thing to keep in mind is ...

Accuracy. for more on this, lets bring in tonights "hardball" roundtable, nick conva sorry is a political reporter with "the new york times," katherine rampell, an opinion writer with "the washington post," and former democratic congressman from tennessee harold ford is an msnbc political analyst. so thats the question. do they have a credibility problem? do you trust anything the white house says whether it comes from the president or the spokespeople? is there a point to those press briefings?...

Be a little upset about the question, but it was a legitimate question. and one can only hope that their follow-ups with the press, that they talk to the president before they follow up with the press. >> sean spicer said hes doing the best job that he can, and so are the other communications staff members. but sometimes they just dont have access to the president. i mean thats a big deal to not necessarily know what the president is thinking or believing or why he made a decision before you get...

To say, and i attempted to -- certainly to clear up this misunderstanding about what i meant. >> so how does he control what he hears and he sees? obviously hes controlling that dvr and watching back certain mentions of him that arent so positive. >> yeah. i mean the president records, you know, a large amount of cable news during the day and then watches it back in the private dining room. he wants to be able to see it. he wants to bring aides in and sort of do color commentary. its almost like...

>> no. no, i didnt. but i dont think it would be a bad question to ask. i think loyalty to the country, loyalty to the united states is important. you know, i mean it depends on how you define loyalty, number one. number two, i dont know how that got there. >> mm-hmm. >> because i didnt ask that question. >> mm-hmm. what about the idea that in a tweet you said that there might be tape-recordings? >> well, that i cant talk about. i wont talk about that. all i want is for comey to be honest, and i...

Important question, because trump has, ever since that day, that press conference, defended michael flynn and repeatedly suggested that he did nothing wrong, even in the face of all of this talk about the risks of blackmail. theres that problem. i think in general on the collusion question, the folks who are looking at this situation fairly need to be more comfortable with the idea that we dont know what the answer to the collusion question is. it is not as the president says that there was no c...