Testify about Michael Flynn and Russian Ambassador kislayak. At todays briefing, sean spicer pushed back hard on the allegation and at one point the briefing kind of went off the rails when russia came up. Listen. Reporter how does this Administration Try to revamp its image, 2 1 2 months in, youve got this yates story today, youve got other things going on, youve got russia, youve got wiretapping. No, we dont have that. Regarding the allegations of capitol hill. I have said it from the day that i got here until whenever, that there is no connection. Youve got russia. If the president puts russian Salad Dressing on his salad tonight, somehow thats a russian connection. But every Single Person no, sean i appreciate your agenda here, but the reality is, no, hold on, at some point, report the facts. Lets talk about the facts tonight, the facts about this
white house and those close to it and ties to russia. We want to show you a flowchart just so that everybody can follow along because its con fusing, there are facts about House Security AdvisorMichael Flynns russian ties during the campaign. He sat beside an antipropaganda network which the kremlin paid flynn 100,000 to attend. And he discussed sanctions with russians ambassador Sergey Kislayak and then lied about to the Vice President and others and the fact that it cost him his job as National Security advisor. Thats a fact. Then theres the facts about President Trumps soninlaw Jared Kushner. Kushner also met with the ambassador, his also met with Russian Ambassador surkov in 2015. And Paul Manafort also partnered with a russian oligark to benefit the putin government. Fact, former Policy Advisor of some sort, carter paige, worked in russia for about three years, and travelled to russia over the summer while he had been named a close advisor to the president. Then, that same month, carter paige spoke to ambassador kislayak on the sidelines of the republican convention. As you might know, republican senator Jeff Sessions was the first senator to endorse donald trump, despite testifying he never had any contact with russians during the campaign. Michael cohen is President Trumps personal lawyer, two facts about him, last month he met with a russian immigrant with connections to the mob,
reportedly. And then there are the facts about Longtime Donald Trump associate roger stone who communicated with someone known as guccifer 2. 0 which was actually a front for the russian hackers. The ones we listed, they might be legal, they might be totally legal connections or nef far u you, the white house is saying reporter the white house vehemently denied that today, they did not try and block her from testimony. But a review of the letters from her lawyers to the Department Of Justice into the House Intelligence Committee, shows at the very least they tried to discourage her testimony. Lets take a step back and remember who Sally Yates Is, she
was Acting Attorney General for the first ten days or so during this administration. She was fire bid the president , but she was also Deputy General in the Obama Administration and she was the one who fired some warning flares that there were some Communications Going on between Michael Flynn and the Russian Ambassador. That is why her testimony here is important. But sean spicer said this morning at the White House Briefing said no, were not trying to blocker. I hope she testifies. Lets be honest, the hearing was actually never notified. If they choose to move forward, great, we have no problem with her testifying, plain and simple. Reporter and again, anderson that hearing was supposed to be today on capitol hill but the white house did not want another russian related hearing to dominate everything. And one of the reasons she was perhaps not testifying was because of Executive Privilege, the Department Of Justice said that the president owns the Executive Privilege, not her. Her lawyers argued on friday that in fact most of this has been in the public domain, so she can testify. Then suddenly on friday, that Hearing Today was cancelled. So chairman nunes, is the administration offering any new details about who signed him into the white house grounds last week to see the classified information that he claims he saw . Reporter in a word, no, theyre not, and the white house said, look, i will follow up and let you know more information. He did not take questions on that today. And the white house in fact said, look, were not going to say who swore him in, who escorted him in, but in talking to former government officials, we do know that even house intelligence chairman, even members of Congress Must be escorted in the same way as everyone else. So there is a log of him visiting, the white house could easily access it, but they have chosen not to release their visitor logs as they did during
most of the Obama Administration. The only person who knows for certain why the House Intelligence Committee cancelled todays public hearing and the closed hearing that didnt take place, he scheduled it himself. What news did nunes give you about sally yates and this hearings . Reporter the answer to that is to have a private meeting, after a lot of unanswered question, they wanted to have this private classified meeting today, thats why he cancelled that Hearing Today, but that private hearing was cancelled, all meetings in fact of the House Intelligence Committee were cancelled today and its showing just how gridlocked this committee is. And nunes was asked by both me and other reporters, this question, did the white house
ask you to prevent sally yates from testifying . This is how he responded. Look, you guys are just speculating, im sorry, whenever theres time, well do a press conference. Reporter did they ask you to cancel the Hearing Today . Come on, guys. Reporter why did you cancel the hearing . Nothing has been cancelled. Reporter so after that, chairman nunes spokesman actually put out a statement suggesting that they either had no discussions with the white house, saying that no one at the white house spoke whatsoever with any two members of the committee or chairman nunes himself, but his answer earlier today dodging that question, really raising questions about if there are any discussions whatsoever between the chairman and the white house on the hearing itself that did not happen today. Im confused. He says nothing was cancelled. There was supposed to be a public hearing, i mean i remember last week, i had it penciled in on my schedule. It didnt happen. How is that not canceling . Reporter yeah, and i pushed him on that question, anderson. And he suggested that perhaps that there was no official notice of that hearing that actually went out, even though they announced that publicly that there would be a Hearing Today, so curious explanation from the chairman nonetheless. Because im sure sally yates, jake clapper and all those people were told that they were to have a laehearing, correct . Reporter there was some ongoing discussions between staff and sally yates and her investigation into Michael Flynn and of course her suggestion privately that perhaps he could be blackmailed, potentially because of his connections with the russians and perhaps thats one reason why people do not want this issue with russia to be aired publicly. But nunes said that was the reason, that it was more important to have these private meetings with comey and rogers, but that meeting also not going forward, so theres questions as to how this committee is move forward about these ties between Trump Campaign and russian officials. Theyre saying that they still want to hear from Sally Yaittes but chairman nunes says he doesnt know when thats going to happen. Was this Meeting Cancelled . Of course it was cancelled. It was scheduled, the witnesses were there to testify, a room was reserved, we were all set to go, we had our questions and it didnt happen. And the idea that it didnt happen because the comeyrogers meeting was to have happened. There are more than two hours in the week, comey and rogers are on capitol hill a lot. So there could have been time for a private meeting and a Public Meeting as well. Its no coincidence that that private hearing was scheduled for exactly the same time that the private hearing was supposed to happen. All of his behavior since last mondays open hearing is bizarre, and thats not a partisan statement, right . I mean no less that senators mccain and Lindsay Graham say what is this guy doing . Hes out on a lark. I believe Lindsay Graham referenced inspector crews sew. Director comey confirms, and forget about what the congress is doing, Director Comey confirms that there is an investigation into links and coordination between the Trump Campaign and possible links and
coordination between the Trump Campaign and russia. Pretty ugly fivehour open hearing for the white house and i have to look at the fact that the open hearing did not happen today and say that was not an accident. So do you think nunes was trying to basically, if there had been in your opinion a certain momentum after the last hearing last week, was he basically just trying to shut that down . I you can draw your own conclusion, an open hearing that was scheduled for today, you can say cancelled, you can say it did not happen. The American Public did not hear what wou from those who would be able to contribute to this investigation. Sally yates attorney sent a letter, telling the committee, Telling Nunes that she would testify about conversations relating to mike flynn and russia, and that executive
privilege would not apply if they didnt hear back from them by monday. That very same day, if my timing is correct, okay, that hearing is cancelled. You can surmise that the Deputy Attorney general was a particularly painful potential witness. She was apparently at the center of the whole Michael Flynn thing, and all the characters that we talk about, stone, manafort, carter paige, jared kushn kushner, Michael Flynn is the one person who actually lost his job, there was action taken against him for something that he did. So her testimony would have been particularly difficult for this white house. The New York Times broke the story yesterday and we have been reporting on it, that Jared Kushner during the campaign, met with this german ambassador, who has ties with a russian bank, and the white house is saying
that was a perfunctory meeting, and the white house is saying, no, no, no. The head of this russian bank is a Russian Intelligence officer, trained by Russian Intelligence. And it gets to the whole larger issue, theres nothing illegal or bad here, but what is add here and the reason were having this conversation is that there are at least half a dozen people who had a bizarrely intense set of ties with russia. I have run five campaigns and i dont think any of the people involved in my campaigns had any contact with russia and those people, certainly the attorney general, certainly Michael Flynn, it looks like maybe even Jared Kushner were not entirely up front about the nature of those contacts. And you put that up, a quick little flowchart, theres a lot more there. You know for the white house to come out very aggressively and say this is all media
association, if the president put Russian Dressing on his salad, which is a clever line, but you cant say there arent meaningful connections, the Security Advisor lost his job. They would try to paint this as a partisan thing. A midnight run to the white house that puzzles both democrats and republicans alike, thats not a republican or a democratic thing to do. Come back to the fact that there is an active fbi investigation under way. That is not a partisan thing. So has the work of your committee basically just ground to a halt. And the way you said that, the investigation certainly has grounded to a halt. But heres the odd thing, all meetings have been cancelled. We were supposed to have a meeting this morning, that has been cancelled and thursday morning we were to have a meeting and that has been cancelled. And there will be not a meeting of the committee and were charged with oversight of some
profoundly scary things, were not going to do anything until this closed door meeting with comey and rogers occurs. Any clue wen thats going to happen . Its not on the calendar. Well get the panels take on all of this, plus how deep to Paul Manaforts russian ties really go . Theyre certainly not going away. Why pause a spontaneous moment . Cialis for daily use treats ed and the urinary symptoms of bph. Tell your doctor about your medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. Do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, or adempas® for pulmonary hypertension, as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. Do not drink alcohol in excess. To avoid longterm injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours. If you have a sudden decrease or loss of hearing or vision, or an allergic reaction, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. Ask your doctor about cialis. The markets change. At t. Rowe price. Our disciplined approach remains. Global markets may be uncertain. But you can feel confident in our Investment Experience around the world. Call us or your advisor. T. Rowe price. Invest with confidence. At red lobsters lobsterfestime. Any of these 9 Lobster Dishes could be yours. So dont resist delicious new lobster mix and match or lobsterfest surf and turf because you wont have this chance for long. Doctors recommend taking claritin every day distracting you . Of your allergy season for continuous relief. Claritin provides powerful, nondrowsy, 24hour relief. For fewer interruptions from the Amazing Things you do every day. Live claritin clear. Every day. Wanna get away . Now you can with southwest fares as low as 59 dollars oneway. Yes to low fares with nothing to hide. Thats transfarency. Before the break, we walked you through some of the ties that seven donald trump advisors have had with russia, we dont know if any of these connections, if any of them would be nefarious, but they do exist. Jonathan turley, ryan liza, matthew rosenberg, gloria borger, kirsten powers, and bill press. I know, gloria, you have been talking to sources today what, have you learned . I think that if sally yates had testified, she would have been an embarrassment to the white house. And i think that starts sort of peeling the onion away from why devin nunes didnt want her to appear, she may end up
appearing, it may back fire, but i have heard from multiple sources that she did not go see the white House Counsel just to give him a heads up about flynns communications as said by Reince Priebus and sean spicer, but in fact she went over there to say that she had significant concerns about an issue of compromise. And that in fact he may have been compromised. And i think then we have to ask the question, about after she went to the white house, why did it take so long for them to finally decide they were going to Fire General Flynn only after the Washington Post had revealed in a story about his communications only after it became public. Matthew, it is extraordinary to see in real time a house skbel Intelligence Committee investigation just break down. You heard from congressman heins, even their regular
meetings have stopped. Its amazing. And we have heard the same thing, in that sally was going to get up there, our sources basically seem accurate. Sally was going to get up there and talk about conversations they had in the white house about flynn being compromised, potentially, about flynn being a Real Security risk. And then the fact that it took another two weeks before he was