Encounter Intelligence News Today

it was a good week. and thanks to you at home for joining us. as you are probably aware there is a balloon in the sky. it is a big balloon, about the size of two school buses according to the pentagon. it traveled from china, to the solution islands of alaska late last week, through the northwest canada, until finally being spotted somewhere over montana on wednesday. chinese officials said that the balloon was a civilian air ship used mainly for weather research and that it had just b...

it is a big balloon, about the size of two school buses according to the pentagon. it traveled from china, to the solution islands of alaska late last week, through the northwest canada, until finally being spotted somewhere over montana on wednesday. chinese officials said that the balloon was a civilian air ship used mainly for weather research and that it had just been instantly innocently been blown off course. the pentagon says that they are confident that it is a surveillance bal...

It could remain for several days. nbc news has learned tonight that the u.s. is taking precautionary measures to weaken the balloon surveillance capabilities, including these encounter intelligence measures to obscure its views and physically moving things out of its path. and we do not know exactly what it is doing out there but. we can guess. the pentagon would not get into specifics and said that it is manoeuvrable. and typically spy balloons flyover sensitive areas to collect information. to...

To do it. and in fact, when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, i said, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made-up story. >> joining me now is sam nunberg, a former trump campaign adviser, who was interviewed by the senate intelligence committee just yesterday. and back with me, our david cay johnston, former prosecutor, barbara mcquade, and msnbc contributor, malcolm nance. i want to start with you, sam. thank you for being here, first of all. i want to get your top o...

Alaffers. >> jared kushner wasnt involved in the campaign. >> he was involved in the social media aspects of it. >> not while i was there. >> what about the son? >> not that im aware of. i dont believe so. >> lets bring in the rest of the panel. barbara, i want to start with you on the questioning that sam faced with the senate intelligence committee. in light of this new information, what would you have wanted to know? >> from sam, well, you know, i think that the senates goal is somewhat diffe...

Eased pressure on the investigation. just having covered donald trump for as long as you have, why does he seem to not be able to keep it in? why does he seem to be so open and overt about announcing his fealty to russia? >> because, while donald understands right from wrong and guilt, he really creates his own reality. and he has no moral core. so saying things just come out of him, without any filter. and lets not forget who else was in the room. the only other person in that room was a russia...

Himself, he had to say it. he said to lester holt, hes the reason hes being investigated encounter intelligence. i wonder as were digesting this at msnbc and people around the united states, a lot of reaction is shock an american president being investigated whether he is working in the interest of a foreign country, shocking. as a former state department spokesperson, what do you suspect our allies are thinking as theyre digesting this? what are foreign ambassadors thinking as they read this st...

Counter-intelligence investigation and obtained any evidence it would have resulted in some action or they are emperilling our national security. there typically are two different lanes, the counter intelligence investigation lane and criminal investigation lane. am i right in saying counter intelligence investigations dont necessarily result in someone being arrested, theyre counter intelligence because theyre trying to ascertain information? >> yeah. both barbara and malcolm have properly char...

This counter-intelligence and criminal investigation were opened to scrutinize the conduct of the sitting president of the united states while hes in office. lets bring in our mega panel to break this down. a former state department advisor, rick wilson, former strategist, author of "everything trump touches dies." >> and author of "its even worse than you think." former assistant general and malcolm williams, author. and benjamin, joining by phone former assistant to counter intelligence at the...

Australians or brits or others. all of that working together could -- this is really the hard part to get your arms around, literally our allies may have been helping and our intelligence community may have been supporting a case and evidence development against our own president. >> we know the george papadopoulos information was sourced when he was meeting with a professor from another country where that information then winds up back in the hands of the fbi. i want to go -- i will come to you...