Favoring the wealthy . My guest this morning, republican senator Susan Collins and democratic senator Dianne Feinstein. And well talk about that russia connection with former Trump Campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and david bossy. Finally, after another week of Sexual Harassment stories, were going to look at the generation gap over what is considered unacceptable behavior. Joining me for insight and analysis are doris, mike murphy, and Danielle Pletka and eddie glove of princeton university. Welcome to sunday, its meet the press. Announcer from nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history, this is meet the press with chuck todd. Good sunday morning. We have two huge stories were dealing with this morning, one is the tax plan passed by Senate Republicans over night friday into saturday, a bill that democrats point out favors the wealthy at the expense of parts of the middle class, while republicans insist the bill will pay for itself with Economic Growth. The other big story is former National Security adviser Michael Flynn pleading guilty to lying to the fbi about conversations with russias ambassador to the United States during the president ial transition. Yesterday, President Trump tweeted that he had to fire flynn in february because he lied to Vice President pence and the fbi. That tweet suggests the president knew he lied to the fbi when he asked james comey to drop the flynn investigation. So in an attempt to clean this up, mr. Trumps personal law john dowd has taken the fall and said he wrote the tweet. We have asked him how many times he tweeted for the president and he has told us just once and said it will be the last time he does it. Nevertheless, what flynns guilty plea tells us definitively is what the Trump Campaign and administration having saying about a russia connection for the last year plus doesnt appear to be true. Why would there be any contacts between the campaign . I cant think of bigger lies. There is no connection. We have no dealings in russia. We have no projects in russia. We have nothing to do with russia. This conversation has never happened. I have nothing to do with russia, folks. Okay . Flynns cooperation deal suggests that mr. Trumps Transition Team was running a rogue Foreign Policy operation and it brings muellers russia investigation straight inside the white house. What has been shown is no collusion, no collusion. Michael flynn was a top surrogate for mr. Trump on the campaign trail, introducing him at rallies nearly two dozen times, even floated briefly as a possible Vice President ial running mate. A great general. Great guy. Great man. How good is general flynn . You see that . As National Security adviser, one of the president s key confidants. General flynn is a wonderfulman. Flynns guilty plea was part of a deal to avoid more severe charges for himself and his son signaling he has valuable information about the president s inner circle and mr. Trumps family members that he is willing to share. He is pleading to a really very minor charge considering the scope of all of the exposure that has been reported. Flynn admitted to lying about two separate contacts he had in december with then Russian Ambassador to the United States sergey kislyak. The first on december 22nd, when prosecutors say flynn was directed by a very Senior Member of the president ial Transition Team to urge foreign governments to oppose a u. N. Security Council Resolution against israel. Sources tell anybody news that the senior official was the president s soninlaw Jared Kushner. A week later after president obama announced new sanctions against russia for interfering in the u. S. Election, flynn discussed what, if anything, to communicate to the Russian Ambassador about sanctions with another senior transition official at maralago. We learned that official is k. T. Mcfarland. Flynn requested that russia not escalate the situation and Vladimir Putin said he would not retaliate prompting mr. Trump to tweet, great move by putin. I always knew he was very smart. Top officials later said no sanctions conversation had ever taken place. They did not discuss anything having to do with the United States decision to expel diplomats or impose a censure against russia. The subject matter of sanctions actions did not come up in the conversation. In february, the president said flynn was fired for misleading the white house about those contacts. But the plea deal suggests that members of the president s inner circle did know about the conversations at the time. Whats unclear, is if pence and priebus were a part of that inner circle. Last week after mr. Flynns legal team stopped cooperating with his own lawyers, the president made a not so subtle jab at his former confident. You never know about an ally. An ally can turn. Youll find that out. And on saturday, we saw more evidence that the goodwill is over. Well see what happens. Joining me now is republican senator Susan Collins of maine sits on the Intelligence Committee. Senator collins, welcome to meet the press. Thank you, chuck. I want to get to two stories and start with russia. I have to put up taken at face value, theres two sort of alarming quotes over the weekend. One comes from the president s twitter feed we referenced it earlier in the leadin, that he said he lied the reason he fired flynn. Lied to the Vice President and fbi. And then let me show you this k. T. Mcfarland quote, the deputy National Security adviser for a short period of time. Theres an email she sent around during the transition that apparently said this if there is a tit for tat escalation, trump will have difficulty improving relations with russia, which is just thrown usa election to him. Now we have the white house trying to backtrack, clarify those things. How alarming are those two quotes to you . Well, they are the reason why we have two investigations rnd way right now, the special councils investigation clearly is baring fruit as weve seen with the guilty plea with general flynn. And we have the Senate Intelligence committee investigation, which is a different kind of investigation, a counterintelligence investigation. And were also making progress. Its interesting you said bearing fruit. Do you believe that there was collusion . Do you believe that this is where this is headed, that mueller is slowly by surely proving his case there was collusion between the Trump Campaign and the russians . We dont know that yet, but what we do know is that there were conversations during the transition period. During the transition period there is still only one president and that was president obama, so those conversations should not have confirmed been taking place, but that does not confirm collusion. This deal for flynn to work with mueller now, how much does that slow down the Intelligence Committee investigation . Well, thats a great question because we had already asked general flynn to come before us and to also produce his personal papers and his attorney asserted his fifth amendment right against selfincrimination. So now, really, the special counsel is in the drivers seat as far as general flynn is. I still want to hear from him because i believe that he could contribute a great deal to our investigation. Do you think at this point you guys have some cooperation between the special Prosecutors Office and what you guys are doing. Does that include your ability to get read all the Interview Transcripts for instance of Michael Flynn . Well, ive been reading the Interview Transcripts that our staff is doing do you get access to muellers . We do not get access to muellers. And i understand that because only he can pursue criminal wrong doing. Right. Ours has different mission, but also a very important one. Im curious the scope, does it include the transition . I know the scope is about the campaign, does that include the transition . Yes. You believe the scope of Intel Committee does include the transition. Everything up to january 20th or even more . It not only includes the transition period, it includes the campaign period. Right. And thats why were looking at the conversations that occurred during that period as well. Do you have a sense of where mueller is in his probe . Do you feel as if this is the end of the beginning, beginning of the end . Do you guys have a sense of the length of this probe right now . Although were in touch or the chairman is in touch with the special counsel, its very difficult to say, but clearly he is making progress. Hes had guilty pleas from two individuals. Hes had two other indictments. So he is making progress. The chairman of the Intelligence Committee, fellow republican richard burr, acknowledged in an interview to the New York Times that the president has talked to various republican members of the Intel Committee, encouraging them to move the probe along, end this probe. Senator burr wrote it off to inexperience in government. He didnt view it as an attempt to obstruct justice. Two questions. One, has the president called you . No, he has not. That doesnt surprise me, frankly. But second, do you think richard burr do you agree with his take, oh, this is just inexperience in government by the president . He doesnt realize hes violating some protocol here. Well, even if its inexperience, that doesnt make it right. The president should have no comment whatsoever on either of these investigations and the only thing he should be doing is directing all of his staff and associates to fully cooperate. All right. Let me move to the tax bill. I want to move to the debt part first. Let me play a little mashup of what youve said about the debt in the past. Take a listen. And senator collins, you supported president obama on the stimulus package. Can you support his budget . No. Why not . Because it brings our debt levels to an unprecedented level. Our current debt is unsustainable. Its 14. 3 trillion. And it is a threat to the future prosperity of this nation. All right. If the debt is unsustainable at 14 trillion, how do you how did you make yourself comfortable voting for something that is going to increase the deficit, this tax bill . Were at 20. 6 trillion now and the best estimates say its going to, even the best estimates of dynamic scoring that we could find still add half a trillion to the deficit. Economic growth produces more revenue and that will help to offset this tax cut and actually lower the debt. I where is the evidence . Can i explain to me find a find a study that actually says what youre claiming. It doesnt exist. Let me do that. First of all, if you take the cbos formula and apply it, just. 4 increase in the gdp generates revenues of a trillion dollars. A trillion dollars. Even the joint committee on taxation has projected that the tax bill would stimulate the economy to produce hundreds of billions of additional revenue. Ive talked to four economists, including the dean of the Columbia School of business and former chairs of the councils of economic advisers, and they believe that it will have this impact. So i think if we can stimulate the economy, create more jobs, that that does generate more revenue. But why isnt there a single study im going to show you three studies that we have. Sort of a liberal one, a conservative one. The most pro Economic Growth argument still has 516 billion to the deficit over ten years. Well, talk to economists like Glenn Hubbard and Larry Lindsey and Douglas Eaton who used to be head of the cbo. They will tell you otherwise. So i think you will find that economists just dont agree on this. Youre comfortable with your vote on this tax bill is it there really no gnatter what comes out of conference . No. I mean, obviously i want to see what comes out. I believe that the amendments that i added on medical expense deductions, on property tax reductions, on helping Retirement Security for Public Employees improve the bill. I got a commitment that were going to pass two bills including the Alexander Murray bill and one that i fought for that will help offset the individual mandate repeal by lowering premiums. And i also got an ironclad commitment that were not going to see cuts in the Medicaid Medicare Program as a result of this bill. All right. We will be watching that commitment that was made to you. Im curious to see if they keep their deal with you, senator collins. Thanks for coming on. Im out of time. I appreciate you coming on and sharing your views. Thank you, chuck. All right. President trump has controversially denied that russia interfered with the 2016 election, an issue that the lead democrat on the senate Intel Committee mark warner took issue with on friday. We see Senior Intelligence officials appointed by this president acknowledging the massive russian intervention. Weve seen the social Media Companies that at first resisted but now acknowledge massive russian intervention. Frankly, virtually every one of my republican colleagues acknowledges russian intervention. The one individual that still seems to deny that this is not a major issue is donald trump. Well, joining me now is democratic senator Dianne Feinstein of california, who like senator collins also sits on the Intel Committee. She herself was a longtime chair and vice chair of the Intel Committee. Senator feinstein, welcome back to the show. Thank you very much, chuck. Same question to you as i started off with senator collins. As a member of the Intel Committee. Ill reference those graphics in a minute. Just at face value, and we know that the white house has tried to walk back both the kt mcfarland email that seemed to imply that they are as fact that the russians did this, and, of course, the president apparently admitting to potentially obstructing justice. Theyve walked all of those back. But do you look at that what does that say to you these two, even call them mistakes, is it sort of accidental admissions in your mind . Well, i would begin by saying this, as you know, im ranking on judiciary, and the Judiciary Committee has an investigation going as well. It involves obstruction of justice. I think what were beginning to see is the putting together of case of obstruction of justice. I think we see this in the indictments, the four indictments and pleas that have just taken place and some of the comments that are being made. I see it in the the hyperfrenetic attitude of the white house, the comments everyday, the continual tweets. And i see it most importantly in what happened with the firing of director comey. And it is my belief that that is directly because he did not agree to lift the cloud of the russia investigation. Thats obstruction of justice. You know, the president a few times has insisted hes not under investigation. Is the president everything youve seen now, the deal with flynn, does that indicate to you that actually the president may now be you just laid out the obstruction of justice case. That would mean or imply that the president is now under investigation, hes a target. Well, i would assume that many in the white house are under investigation in this. I would assume, you know, i do not believe that general flynn was a rogue agent. I dont believe that on his own conclusion he would go out and try to tell the russians in two instances, once to stop a National Security resolution going through the United Nations regarding israel, and on the sanctions that president obama had just put in urged that they not be tampered with by the transition committee. And that he would go in on his own and attempt to tamper with them with russia. I just dont believe that. I think he had to have been directed. Now whether the special counsel can find that evidence or not, whether we can, i dont know yet, but i see that thats where this is going. All right. We have kt mcfarland who was for a short time deputy National Security adviser. Shes now i believe nominated to be the ambassador of singapore. She has not been a person who has been publicly connected with this investigation. Has the Intel Committee interviewed her . You have no, the Intel Committee i cant tell you. The staff has done more than 100 interviews. Asked to have her come before the committee . N