There was no surveillance done for political purposes against our campaign. Sarah sanders also said, quote, it was also agreed that white house Chief Of Staff kelly will immediately set up a meeting with the fbi, doj and dni together with congressional leaders to review highly classified and other information they have requested. The claim of a spy within the Trump Campaign comes with as of yet little or nothing to back it up and plenty to raise suspic n suspicions about its validity, including someone the president went out of his way to praise today. And a very courageous man, hes courageous, congressman devin nunes. Thank you very much, devin, for being here, appreciate it. He is the chairman of the house Intelligence Committee. For weeks hes been seeking information on a Top Secret Intelligence Source who reportedly contacted two Trump Campaign advisers and one official, including carter page, who was already under suspicion for contacts with russia andGeorge Papadopoulos, whose drunken boasting about getting dirt on the Clinton Campaign triggered the investigation in the first place. Senior fbi and intelligence officials warned that providing the information could jeopardize the source and at that point the president agreed. Then rightwing media got ahold of the story. On may 10th an oped ran in the wall street journal. Did the bureau engage in out right spying against the trump 2016 campaign. Rush limbaugh talked about a spy in the campaign citing devin nunes and two days later Andrew Mccarthy wrote from pain staking research, nunes and Committee Staff believe they have identified such a spy. Last week the New York Times did some careful reporting not labeling this as a spy which Breitbart News said leakers confirm fbi ran spy operation against Trump Campaign. Of The Press Corps Out of there. Today was another day the white house has not given a briefing. Have they given an explanation as to why . No, no explanation why. They were taking our questions and our calls throughout the day as they often do, but there was no reason i dont think why They Shouldnt Have had a briefing today. The president did speak over at the cia. Sometimes they say when the president is speaking they want that message to carry the day. But we are seeing, and this may become a trending, but were seeing fewer and fewer briefings. There were only two last week. On friday, sarah sanders, the White House Press secretary, did not hold a briefing but somehow she had enough time to go on sean hannity for a pretaped interview in the evening. She had time to do that but not to give us a briefing and there wasnt one day. Thanks very much. On capitol hill Chuck Grassley has joined the call for information on the russia probe. In a letter to Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein he requested former associate Deputy Attorney general bruce orrs communications with christopher steele. Richard blumenthal also serves
stuff happened. And so the precedent is very dangerous that an investigation will be launched simply because a president wants to stop an investigation. There are some do you see this as Rod Rosenstein capitulating for the president or buying time for the investigation . If theres no there, there whats wrong with having the Inspector General look into it and, you know, settle it once and for all . Thats a really important point, anderson. There is no there, there so all of this is likely to be seen eventually as a sideshow. The Mueller Investigation is proceeding, grinding along, bringing indictments and seeking and obtaining convictions. But the point here is that the principal of the objectivity and independence of the Department Of Justice has been its a facesaving bone to the president but has larger implications. The second thing that came out of this meeting is that Chief Of Staff kelly will meet
with the fbi, the Justice Department and dni with congressional leaders to review intelligence, highly classified and other information. Does that concern you . Is that appropriate . Im very concerned that information relating to a covert agent and informant may be made public and some of it unfortunately already has. There are criminal penalties against that kind of disclosure, ten years in prison is the punishment. But our credibility around the world depending on our ability to keep secrets is very much at risk here. There was a similar meeting last week, just as the Inspector General investigation already is ongoing. So the change here is not all that dramatic, but the disclosure of any of this Classified Information could be extremely damaging. The New York Times is reporting that this was not a spy within the Trump Campaign spying on the Trump Campaign, that this was a person, an asset
to meet with George Papadopoulos and carter page and same clo cl was the third person. I can understand from Trump Supporters why theyre suspic n suspicious of the deep state and why should they take the word of what the New York Times has reported and others have said. Theres no reason for them to take anybodys word. There is simply no evidence that that informant or agent acting covertly, seeking information about russian interference in the campaign, was anything more than that kind of informant. Not a spy, not conducting infiltration or surveillance. But ultimately there will be no there, there and i think that the Inspector General investigation will vindicate that part of the investigation. The president s attorney, rudy giuliani, has been claiming that the mueller team hopes to wrap things up, their investigation, by september 1st. Again, that only comes from rudy
authority. He has Constitutional Authority to ask the Department Of Justice to investigate. Its the circumstances here that are so concerning. Number one, no factual predicate. You know, when an fbi agent begins an investigation, they sit down and they do a form that says heres the factual predicate and the potential illegality involved or tell their superior or Special Agent in charge what is the violation of law here, whats the factual predicate. Again, no evidence whatsoever except whats going through the president s mind. Thats one dangerous point. But also weve been through some dark eras where officials asked or directed investigations without any factual basis, si l simply on suspicion or for political motives. Do you believe the credibility of the Department Of Justice and the fbi is being permanently harmed . I think it has been harmed. I say that with great sadness. Ive spoken on the floor of the
senate to say that there are dedicated hardworking people working in the fbi day in, day out, they make cases, they put their lives in danger, and the president s continual, consistent, relentless attack on this agency has had some effect. But i think we can rebuild that credibility. When i say we, its on us as Public Officials to speak out. My republican colleagues as well. The Republican Party used to be the Law And Order party. This is about our public safety. When an fbi agent goes to talk to a potential witness and he or she has heard the president of the United States attacking the fbi, it undermines that agents ability to do his or her job. Senator blumenthal, appreciate your time. Thank you very much. Coming up next, what has the president played. Well tell you what a conservative ally of his says what the senator said was a facesaving bone thrown to the
president. Later, an update on some stunning pictures. Look at this lava spewing from a volcanic fissure on hawaii. Thats ahead on 360. Ways to lthe northern belly fat. Percussion massage. Not cool. Freezing away fat cells with coolsculpting . Now thats cool. Coolsculpting safely freezes and removes fat cells. With little or no downtime. And no surgery. Results and Patient Experience may vary. Some rare side effects include temporary numbness, discomfort, and swelling. Ask your doctor if coolsculpting is right for you. And visit coolsculpting. Com today for your chance to win a free treatment. If you have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, Little Things can be a big deal. Thats why theres otezla. Otezla is not an injection or a cream. Its a pill that treats psoriasis differently. With otezla, 75 clearer skin is achievable after just 4 months,. With reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. And the otezla Prescribing Information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. Dont use if youre allergic to otezla. Otezla may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. Tell your doctor if these occur. Otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. Tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts, or if these feelings develop. Some people taking otezla reported weight loss. Your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. Other side effects include Upper Respiratory Tract Infection and headache. Tell your doctor about all the medicines you take and if youre pregnant or planning to be. Otezla. Show more of you. One second. Barely enough time for this man to take a bite of turkey. But for cyber criminals its plenty of time to launch thousands of attacks. Luckily Security Analysts and watson are on his side. Spotting threats faster and protecting his data with the most securely encrypted main frame in the world. Its a smart way to eat lunch in peace. Sweet, oblivious peace. Iteach Day Justino Eatat work. Walk. And after work. He does it all with dr. Scholls. Only dr. Scholls has massaging gel insoles that provide allday comfort. To keep him feeling more energized. Dr. Scholls. Born to move. Lets do an ad of a man eating free waffles at comfort inn. They taste like victory because he always gets the lowest price on our rooms, guaranteed, when he books direct at choicehotels. Com. Or just say, badda book. Badda boom. Book now at choicehotels. Com before the break you heard a democratic senator weigh in
against the president s demand on the Justice Department. Moments ago his republican colleague, jeff flake, had this to say. Its not appropriate, it really isnt, how doj responds will tell if were in a crisis or not. So far its held. As for one of the leaders of the conservative House Freedom caucus, his take seems to be that the Deputy Attorney general put one over on the president. Mark meadows tweeting Rod Rosenstein knows exactly what happened and what is in the documents requested by congress. Either the matter warranted investigation long ago and he did nothing but hes seen the facts and believes nothing is wrong. His belated referral to the i. G. Is not news, it is a ruse. Here to talk about it is gloria borger, phil mudd and carrie cordero. You have senator blumenthal saying he worries about the precedent it set and the president supporters are saying the president got played. Right. Conservatives like meadows, i talked to a conservative attorney involved in all of this today who said, look, this is
just sweeping it under the rug because the Inspector General, a, will take a while and, b, doesnt have subpoena power. So theyre saying how are you ever going to get to the bottom of this . They believe that rosenstein was just trying to diffuse this, maybe save his job, and thats president eventually will get frustrated. Phil, you worked in the fbi and the cia. Is there precedent for this . You now have this investigation from the Inspector General being expanded and you have Chief Of Staff kelly going to be going through some Classified Information with folks from the fbi, the doj, the dni, and also congressional leaders. Yes, sure. But i remember talking to Vice President cheney back years ago before the iraq war when he was coming over to cia headquarters saying whats the intelligence you have, whats the connection between al qaeda and saddam hussein. So there is precedent for political involvement. I think the interesting story here and gloria alluded to this
is timing. This is really fascinating from inside washington. This might look like the Deputy Attorney general and the fbi director sort of capitulated. Whats going to happen in the next two or three months . I would speculate that mueller will come up with some of the final stages of the investigation. If he goes where i think hes going to go, which is indictments that get closer to the white house, this issue falls by the wayside. So you think rosenstein is buying time for mueller. Yes, hes punting, buying time. Look at the alternative, he says no. What does the president do . More collusion that theres evidence against me, not me against the russians. More evidence that they rolled over on Hillary Clinton. What was his option, to say no . It might have torpedoed the investigation, anderson. Carrie, do you have any doubt that folks on capitol hill, the president s allies, theyre not going to ratchet down their attempts to obtain information from the fbi and doj, theyre going to have these meetings with kelly. Do you have any doubt are they acting as private investigators on behalf of the president . Well, you know, it really looks a lot like there is
coordination between the white house and some of his allies on capitol hill to get access to information. Im going to disagree with phil a little bit in terms of i think theres a big difference between Vice President cheney asking for intelligence information in the context of making National Security decisions and the white house today demanding making demands about investigations that need to be expanded based on an investigation that targets individuals or has subjects or individuals who are affiliated with the campaign and who has interviewed many people affiliated with the white house. So this investigation i think is very different than a National Security activity. With respect to the Justice Departments referral to the Inspector General, there is no underestimating the extent to which an Inspector General potentially can be disruptive to ongoing investigative activities. So while i understand why the Deputy Attorney general went ahead and handled things in this way by saying, you know what,
were going to have the i. G. Expand their look into whether or not there was any inappropriate political influence, i am worried that then that causes i. G. Investigators, who are they going to be interviewing and who are they going to be investigating . Theyre going to be investigating the fbi. And that is disruptive to Ongoing Operations if theres not a real reason to do it. And carrie is right. I confess, im wrong on this one. But on the point of the i. G. , thats right. People who look at this as sweeping this under the rug have never dealt with the i. G. The i. G. Is a sledgehammer. When they came after us when i was at the bureau, if theyre investigating you, they will find something wrong. Its like looking at an hour of an Anderson Cooper program and saying was there ever 30 seconds that Didnt Go Completely right. Look at what happened with andrew mccabe. These are serious investigations that take a while. And so, you know, theres the question, the president wants an answer tomorrow. And that isnt going to happen. Does this whole thing of whats happened with this confidential informant, the
president is alleging hes a spy targeted at the campaign, does it hurt other confidential informants who cooperate with the fbi or with the cia who feel like, wait a minute, am i going to get blown . Yeah, of course. If you walk into somebody remember, political corruption is part of the fundamentals of what the fbi does. Forget about the president. Its a city council in a city across america where one of the City Council Members is saying im going to give you a contract because youre a friend of the family. What do you do tomorrow if youre the fbi agent running that investigation. Do you say i guarantee you, we can protect your