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Walter, its great to see you. you are the fourth director. this has been going on since 1938. how was this sustained? >> in 1938 nobody dreamed it was going to continue for 85 years. thats unheard. but my predecessors were so dogged. they kept eight. they would send people thank you notes and birthday card when they participated with us. they kept a community of people involved in the study. that was the key 0 keeping it going. brian: 724 people in the beginning some poor kid and some rich kids ...

Walter, its great to see you. you are the fourth director. this has been going on since 1938. how was this sustained? >> in 1938 nobody dreamed it was going to continue for 85 years. thats unheard. but my predecessors were so dogged. they kept eight. they would send people thank you notes and birthday card when they participated with us. they kept a community of people involved in the study. that was the key 0 keeping it going. brian: 724 people in the beginning some poor kid and some rich kids ...

Their investigating and make conclusions in private without public scrutiny. it could be, however, if there are certain levels of classified documents that still pose a threat to our national security that there could be private briefings with the intelligence committees. but we are not yet there because it seems at least in the biden case that the documents have some limited level of vulnerability at the present time to national security interests. so i dont think that briefing really seems at ...

See him that way. theres certainly a lot of opportunities for politicians to make hay out of the similarities. but what it comes down to is, right now, at this point, and neither investigation has concluded, so we cant be final about it. but we, on the biden side of things, have absolutely no indication or evidence at this point that any of this poswas intentional. on the trump side, you have a lot of evidence and indicators it was intentional. the most persuasive being the former presidents own...

Ukrainian side? >> i think primarily its interpreted as some kind of a failure. this is the fourth leader they have had in one year. so clearly something is not going right that they keep shifting and changing tactics. i think for people who are really watching the minutiae of, why would he change leader now and why would he choose gerasimov, this general whos basically and de facto leader of all of russias armed forces? and different people have come up with different conclusions as to why that...

And again, i think it is a thing that will differentiate the conclusions reached by jack smith. and the conclusions reached by mr. her. what is one document, theres still a national security concern, potentially, depending on what is in those documents. and that is a serious and real issue. but in terms of criminal liability. having one straight document doesnt suggest, in any way, the kind of facts that we are seeing with respect to the former presidents. >> mayor mccord, when donald

I think for people who are really watching the minutia of why would he change leader now and why would he choose gerasimov, this general who is basically the de facto leader of all of russias armed forces, and people have come up with different conclusions as to why that may be. it may be that putin is looking for a fall guy ultimately if things dont go right, that he would be the one to take full responsibility for it. it may also be a kind of declaration of intent that not only are we going to...

And the president, i believe that this will actually highlight what is so wrong about the mar-a-lago case, the willful attempt to obstruct the taking of the documents and placing them at mar-a-lago willfully. what is the bar for special counsel, and do you think the biden case met it? >> well, first of all, mika, theres a great deal to be humble about in this because we dont know all kinds of things. and leaping to conclusions, theres partial evidence. theres a very inexact chronology. all of th...

Whether anybody is using a discretion inconsistently. but if you look at the factors, the principles of federal prosecution, and the elements of the offenses, you would hope that they would reach similar conclusions based on the facts that theyre presented. so the facts are different, as you just said. so far what weve said in the trump case does appear to meet those aggravates factors that typically results in prosecution. willfulness and obstruction of justice. it appears. where as so far, in ...

Both sides. rarely do we see something with this much whiplash this quickly. republicans now very -- a lot of hand wringing about the biden documents when they were often silent after the trump documents and similarly democrats saying we need to take a deep breath and not jump to conclusions. this is from the republicans change of face. >> what i seen that the national archives concerned about trump in the possession didnt go to a hill of beans. >> will that be a priority? >> not a priority. >> ...