where general flynn got a blistering rebuke from the judge. and at the top of the hour you saw how the administration s top spokesperson dealt with it, or failed to be. jim acosta joins us from the white house. what does it tell you we actually haven t heard from the president himself since michael flynn left the court? reporter: john, i think that s interesting, though he did tweet about the wall and how he wants a wall on the border, despite the fact they cements to be giving up on funding on the wall, and this showdown with congress over a possible shutdown, but i think it is notable that the president didn t weigh in, when he started off the day wishing the general good luck. obviously the luck did not turn out the way the white house hope, when they read the tweets, that michael flynn basically said he knew he was committing a crime and his legal teams said,
country out. now, he later walked that back, and he put off sentencing until march. so quite a day. not a good one for claiming anyone claiming, as the white house did, that flynn was ambushed by the fbi. this is what sarah sanders said this afternoon. those are facts, and certainly there may be other issues there, but that we don t have any reason to want to walk that back. wait, what? was that some sort of attempted jedi mind trick? general flynn himself today blew a hole through the claims that sanders and those around her were making. he wasn t trapped. he said so himself today. sarah sanders, the sarah sanders who last week said she wanted her legacy to be honesty and transparency, said she didn t see any reason to walk back her claims. those are not the droids you re looking for. as you know, michael flynn has
more now on some of those unanswered questions about why michael flynn seems to be getting kid glove treatment from the white house s inability to say why. joining us now retired army lieutenant general ralph peters. i appreciate you being here. thank you, john. what do you make of the president pre-emptively urging michael flynn good luck today? does that make any sense to you? i think he s dangling a pardon. but also if you look at the disparity of the treatment of cohen and the treatment of flynn it suggests to me as a former intelligence officer that flynn knows things that are even more damaging potentially to trump than cohen does. and again, looking at it, reading the externals, as it were, it would appear to me that flynn was the messenger boy. he was the conduit between igor, ivan x and the president. and we shall see what emerges from the mueller investigation.
inexplicab inexplicable. but jeffrey, i m just wondering, isn t it possible they re lying in the hopes that they re going to get pardoned by donald trump? that by doing trying to cover up for him? i don t think in january of 2017, last year sitting in the white house, a newly appointed national security adviser michael flynn is thinking, i m going to lie, plead guilty and then get a pardon. i don t think people think that far in advance. today he may want a pardon. today i would say he s a pretty good bet to get a pardon, but i don t think that was the original motivation to lie. the other thing, kirsten, he s lying about something they already know. they said, did you say this to kisliyak? hi s not withholding information. that s why this doesn t make any
the judge was an independent party who interposed his decision. he decided to delay the sentencing, as you know, and i think it could be an important development, because i think it gives michael flynn a longer period of time to cooperate. kenneth starr noted michael flynn didn t want it to go this way, but also for robert mueller s team. they had suggested no jail time. they had suggested it be over today. i wasn t in the courtroom today, but just seeing the reports of the judge s mood, it certainly would be an encouragement, if you will, to michael flynn to be entirely forth coming, so that mr. mueller will renew his proposal for no jail time when the sentencing comes up. you ve got to remember, and i said last week there was all this ado about i think the