It happened to hurt Hillary Clinton and help donald trump. You know who says it wasnt to hurt Hillary Clinton and donald trump . Vladimir putin and the republicanled house Intelligence Committee. So devin nunes is an interesting and lonely company. Another question, will this come up when President Trump and Vladimir Putin meet alone in helsinki just after the nato summit . Will the president , now armed with a clear assessment from republicans and democrats alike use that consensus to bolster the case he makes with putin . Now in normal times, that might be the question. These days, though, the night before Independence Day, the question is will he even make the case at all . He recently said he would, sort of. Were going to talk about ukraine. Were going to be talk about syria. Well be talking about elections. Which elections . We dont want anybody tampering with elections. Yet, if his lips say yes, albeit in a russia nongeneric way, his fingerers are saying Something Else. Just a day before that he tweeted russia continues to say they had nothing to do with meddling in our election. Just this morning the president trashed the security agency. He has attacked nato in recent days, weeks and months. On other days when asked about russian interference, the president has deflected attention instead to the Intelligence Communitys failures on wmd in iraq. Even as the Intelligence Committee was warning that russia was up to no good, candidate trump and later President Trump was saying things like this i mean, it could be russia, but it could also be china. It could also be lots of other people. It could also be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds, okay . Maybe there is no hacking. But they always blame russia. And the reason they blame russia, because they are trying to tarnish me with russia. They know nothing about russia. It could be somebody sitting in a bed some place. They have no idea. As far as hack, i think it was russia, but i think we also get hacked by other countries and other people. Knowing something about hacking, if you dont catch a hacker, okay, in the act, its very hard to say who did the hacking. Well, i think it was russia, and i think it could have been other people in other countries. It could have been a lot of people interfered. I believe that president putin really feels, and he feels strongly, that he did not meddle in our election. What i said there is i believe he believes that, and thats very important for somebody to believe. Yeah, believing is important and today the senate Intelligence Committee said they believe the Intelligence Communitys assessment, or ica of russian interference in the 2016 president ial election. Let me give you the bottom line first. The committee believes the conclusions of the ica are sound and notes that collection and analysis subsequent to the icas publication continue to reinforce its assessments. Now some of the details on the Intelligence Communitys assessment that russian interference in 2016 was significantly worse than past elections. Quoting here again, the Community Found that this judgment was supported by the evidence presented in the ica. Since its publication, further details have come to light that bolster the assessment. Harm Hillary Clinton, and help donald trump. Quote, the Committee Found that the ica provided a range of all source reporting to support these assessments. On the assessment that the method used was to publicly discredit secretary clinton and publicly contrast her to candidate trump, the report has this to say. The Committee Found that the ica provided intelligence and open source reporting to support this assessment in information obtained subsequent to information by the ica provides further support. Now as to all the heat the Intelligence Committee has been taking lately, all the men and women who go to work daily and do their jobs are somehow suspect, todays Committee Report offers these words. The Committee Heard consistently that analysts were under no politically motivated pressure to reach any conclusions, which you might think these days constitutes a minor miracle, but in fact for years has been business as usual. What is not normal is what will happen in helsinki. Donald trump and Vladimir Putin are expected to have a meeting with no one else in the room, just their interpreters and them, no one taking notes, nothing for the record, nothing but their own accounts of what was said, and perhaps what went unspoken. We should mention that tonights intel subCommittee Report only covers election interference, not whether anyone included with russia. This is one in what is expected to be a series of reports. Still, plenty to talk about all by itself. Joining us now former cia and fbi senior official phil mudd, former federal prosecutor Jennifer Rodgers and steve hall, chief of russia operations at the cia. So phil mudd, way back in january of 2017, the Intelligence Community gave us this report that said the russians meddled in the election to help donald trump and hurt Hillary Clinton, and now its july 2018. The senate Intelligence Committee says yeah, yeah, thats what we see. It happened that way. Significant to you . It is for one simple reason. Look, when youre an intelligence analyst, in my world, youre developed, youre trained to look at events overseas. North korean missiles, iran Nuclear Program, what Vladimir Putin is doing in places like syria, whats going on with isis. To look at domestic political issues for somebody at the cia or the National Security agency is like bubonic plague. You dont do it unless you have. To its seen as something you never want to step in to because thats domestic politics. My point, john, is for the Intelligence Community to step into domestic politics and say not only did we collect intelligence about russian engagement in the american electoral process, but were persuaded that that intelligence tells us that engagement by the russians favored donald trump. There is no way the analysts did that unless the intelligence was pretty persuasive. They dont want to get into the american electoral process. So the Intelligence Community says they saw it like that. The Senate Intel Committee, phil, says they saw it like that. Yet the house Intelligence Committee said huhuh, they saw no evidence that russia meddled in the election to help donald trump. So how do you explain the discrepancy is there, phil . This is pretty straight forward. If you look at the leadership of the senate committee, that is leadership that you would teach in a civics class in eighth grade. The democrats and republicans leadership of that committee rarely spoke in public. It is an intelligence issue. When they did speak in public, they spoke together. When they had final judgments, as they did today, they spoke in unison. On the house side you had a division between republicans and democrats, as weve seen for months. Devin nunes talked to the white house before he talked to his democratic colleagues. If you want to see in sort of contrast to the senate side, if you want to see how not to teach a civics class, how government works, look at the house side and look at devin nunes. No partnership and no unity between the democrats and republicans. So steve hall, pretty clearly this report from the senate Intelligence Committee echoes the Intelligence Community, which says that Vladimir Putin directed this cyberattack on the 2016 election to hurt Hillary Clinton and help donald trump. So how will this play out in this oneonone meeting between President Trump and Vladimir Putin in a couple of weeks . Well, as you pointed out initially, john, we might not really know very much, because if it is indeed a oneonone between Vladimir Putin and donald trump and a couple of translators in there, you know, we might not have a real clear indication as the what happened. I would be very surprised if President Trump pushed hard on this because, of course, its not in his interest to push hard on this. He doesnt want to hear anything about this. The greatest problem for him when anybody ever mentions russia is his grave insecurity that whenever you mention russia, whenever you talk about something the russians might have done, it somehow calls into request whether or not he is valid as the United States president , whether he was elected without any help of the russians. Vladimir putin, for his part, also probably doesnt want to talk about it very much because it was a very successful operation, and why get into it, especially when you might have more where that came from when youre talking about 2018 midterm elections and of course 2020 president ial elections. Its in neither guys interests to want to say much about this. So jennifer, this report from the Senate Intel Committee does talk about collusion. Thats coming later there. We know special Counsel Robert Mueller has been investigating now for more than a year. There is not necessarily direct overlap between what the intelligence Community Found today, but does this give him some cover to say, hey, look, the foundation of what im doing here is legit. Just look at what the Intelligence Committee just said. I think so. One of the things he is basing his investigation on, of course, is all the different kinds of interference. We saw the indictment with the social media manipulation. Were still waiting for an indictment on the dnc hack and for interfering in the electoral processes. For them to say yes, there was interference, yes, putin directed it, yes, there was social media manipulation, at least it justifies and says mueller is on the right track. He is doing good work, but they stayed out of the collusion lane, which i think is smart of them. Theyre leaving that to mueller and his team. Theyre much better at doing that than the Senate Intel Committee. In a way, it flies in the face of what President Trump is saying. It is a little curious that the Intelligence Community chose to release this on Independence Day eve. Hours before everyone is getting in the car to go drive to the beach and have a barbecue somewhere. They dont seem awfully proud of their findings. You know, its hard to say. Maybe that was the chairmans decision to do it then, because he thought maybe it would make less of a splash. But people are picking this up. People are going to talk about this. This is a big deal. Its a shame that its a big deal, that a republicanled committee would actually do the right thing and do its work and do what should it be doing, but it is. So its going to be a big deal no matter when they released it. We say republicanled there is a great deal of bipartisanship here, phil, as you noted between richard burr, the Committee Chair and mark warner, the ranking democrat. Warner today said russia will be back in 2018. We need to be ready. Based on everything you know, do you think the Intelligence Community, and perhaps more importantly, this administration is ready to fight possible russian interference in the 2018 midterms . No, for two reasons. First, on day two of going into the oval office, any president typically would look at the National Security staff and say we need a plan thats coordinated across government that includes Homeland Security, state department, cia, fbi, et cetera to figure out how to stop this and coordination with silicon valley. People who are carrying those messages like facebook. Ive not seen anything that suggests that the president has ordered a coordinated plan to figure out how to stop this. The second and more significant issue is the most powerful pulpit in this country is the oval office. Going into mid terms in the next president ial election, who is going to talk to the American People about how theyre vulnerable . And most significantly, to close here, john, what happens when people like the cia director or the department of state, the department of Homeland Security see stuff about russian interference and get out and speak and the president says its not happening . Who do the American People believe . Steve, maybe you can help me out with something here. I must have spoken to five or six members of the house Intelligence Committee, republican members who told me that it was trade craft. They looked at the trade craft here from the Intelligence Community, and they felt there was something fishy in the trade craft, and thats why they were not confident there was evidence that the russians did this to hurt Hillary Clinton and help donald trump. The senate Intelligence Committee uses that word trade craft all through its report and says hey, were confident. Were comfortable. This is consistent with all of our findings here. What does that mean . Trade craft is one of the phrases that is being slung around, and apparently everybody has it. I guess if the plumber comes and fixes your bathtub, he has great bathtub trade craft. Its the ins and outs of your job. There is is analytical trade craft which both the committees were talking about in saying hey, analytically did they come to right conclusion. Having worked with the committees before when i was one of the representatives to the oversight committees when i was at cia, i can tell you that those guys really dont have a clue as to what they mean when theyre talking about tradecraft, because you really have to be in the weeds to understand that. Their staffers overall a great group of people but are really stretched very thin. There is really nobody i think on either of those committees that can really goat the bottom of the trade craft when you a whole bunch of analysts who have dedicated their careers to getting it right with regard to the analytical results. Thats what the trade craft. I think its really undoubtable that its the senate guys that there is really anything wrong with it. Again. I asked you if this would give the special counsel confidence or people dhafs the special counsel is basing his investigation on this firm foundation. Anything in here where you think the special counsel will say hey, ive got to go look at this ail will bit more . Where do you think he heads now . I think he is, as i said before, is working on what i hope will be an indictment on the dnc hacking and on the actual efforts to interfere in specific state elections on election day in 2016. So those are the two areas that we havent seen legal action from the mueller team yet where we know there were actually crimes committed and crimes committed by russians. So im hoping that well see those indictments. And the question is of course, will there be americans in those indictments. Two, is this the collusion that people have been talking about or is he just going to charge the russians who have responsible . Thats what were all waiting for. We have seen a round of indictments on russians and Russian Companies already but not specifically for the happening. Right. Thanks so much. We appreciate it. Next a report from thailand where the kids trapped underground face danger from the rising rain. And the hard retails of kims Nuclear Program which doesnt seem to be going away. Fareed zakaria joins us with that. Before discovering nexium 24hr to treat her frequent heartburn, lucy could only imagine enjoying a slice of pizza. Now its as easy as pie. Nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts for allday, allnight protection. Can you imagine 24 hours without heartburn . For allday, allnight protection. Head to the sears® and save big on home appliances. To help make your holiday a blast. Get up to 40 off appliances, and save 50 off the regular price on all kenmore elite washer dryer pairs. 48 off this kenmore ice and water dispensing french door refrigerator, and free delivery. This Independence Day, find your new appliance at the sears fourth of july event. Online or in store. [ drum roll ]. Emily lapier from ames, iowa. This is emilys third nomination and first win. Um. So, just. Wow um, first of all, to my fellow nominees, it is an honor sharing the road with you. And of course, to the progressive snapshot app for giving good drivers the discounts no, i have to say it