Hackers were targeting the dnc and other democratic operations. By the way, as candidate trump was publicly calling on the russians to publicly hack Hillary Clintons emails. We dont know the contact or motive before the conversations, but the word they happened is a big real development. We should note the kremlin and donald trump this morning are calling it fake news. Cnns jim sciutto has been working sources all day, all night on this story. Jim, bring us up to speed on where we are right now at 9 01 eastern time. I should knnote calling it fe news without the president or the white house responding to the substance of the reporting which weve asked them to do. Lets get to what the reporting is. One, two things caused alarm, raised red flags in u. S. Law enforcement and intelligence. First, the volume and frequency of the communications between trump advisers and the russians. Communications happen during campaigns, typically at a much lower level and much less frequent than what they saw not for me to judge. I it depends on where the investigation goes and what his party and the democrats hold him accountable for. I think on the collusion, no evidence of collusion. The context is important and this is what officials keep reminding us. These contacts were not happening in a vacuum. Its not like they were contacting a u. S. Ally repeatedly or china, another country. These were repeated contacts at the most senior level in the midst of an unprecedented cyber attack on the u. S. Election system, political organizations, parties, individuals, et cetera. That context adds to the alarm and concern why. Why have those contacts in the midst of what was going on. Thats something thats a legitimate question. It hasnt been answered yet, and its the kind of thing that the white house and others have to give a substantive answer to, and they havent done that yet. I hope people are listening to you, jim. Youre talking about the frequency of it and the high level of the conversations. That is true li remarkable. If i can take another step back and talk about, again, why this all matters when were 27 days, 28 days into the administration. General tony thomas who runs special operations command, he was speaking, and he said something that i think raised a lot of eyebrows about the overall situation 28 days into this administration. He says our government continues to be in unbelievable turmoil. I hope they sort it out soon because were a nation at war. As a commander im concerned our government be as stable as possible. Kimberly dozier, youre incredibly well sourced in the community. Im not sure ive heard a general speak like this before, talking about the stability of our government. In fairness to general thomas, we did catch him off guard at a conference where he was speaking yesterday and asked him what do you think of the turmoil. He answered honestly. That said, he also said from his
perspective, special operations raids, missions, et cetera, were Going Forward without delay, without hiccup. But he expressed disappointment with what happened with mike flynn. And others in that community are saying they can handle this for a while, the wheels will keep turning. But if theres a major sustained crisis, the wheels could start coming off in terms of the Decision Process which is why they say they need somebody in charge at the National Security council as soon as possible, to keep this on the level. We have a russian spy ship now off the u. S. Coast. There are going to be questions about, okay, what is the u. S. Strategy and policy for that, and who is guiding the ship . Philip, to you, senator john mccain echoed a little of hat the general said. To sum prize what he said, when you see you dont know who is in charge, he calls it a dysfunction of the Trump Administration, significant
dysfunction in the countrys National Security apparatus. Obviously Important Note to that, john mccain doesnt exactly love the president , but this is significant. Thats exactly right. We have to consider this russia situation is not happening in a vacuum here. You have a lot of other factors that are coming into play to create this feeling of upheaval in the administration. Just over the weekend, President Trump was dealing with the north korea situation in an open air dining room at his golf club in front of an audience of all sorts of people who could hear what he was saying. Hes had very testy conversations with World Leaders including our allies like australia. You have a lot of foreign leaders, ambassadors ive talked to over the last few weeks who are very concerned. They dont know who is in charge, they dont know who to talk to, they dont understand what direction this administration is going. So i think its incumbent now four weeks in, on the Trump White House officials, to really take control of this situation and project more an air of
competence and confidence. Great reporting, jim, to you, pamela brown and evan perez. Coming up, the Trump Administration facing many questions this morning. Will congress ask them . Lindsey graham raised the possibility of a select committee. Will others follow suit . A key member of Congress Joins us next. This happens as the white house awaits the arrival of Benjamin Netanyahu, due to arrive shortly. The two have been effusive in praise for one another. You can bet or you can hope President Trump will face questions about this new report on russia. I suppose well have to wait and see who he calls on. Well discuss coming up. Why are you checking your credit score . You dont want to drive old blue forever, do you . [brakes squeak] credit karma, huh . Yep, its free. Credit karma. Give yourself some credit. And the wolf huffed like you do sometimes, grandpa . Well, when you have copd, it can be hard to breathe. It can be hard to get air out, which can make it hard to get air in. So i talked to my doctor. She said. Symbicort could help you breathe better, starting within 5 minutes. Symbicort doesnt replace a Rescue Inhaler for sudden symptoms. Symbicort helps provide significant improvement of your lung function. Symbicort is for copd, including Chronic Bronchitis and emphysema. It should not be taken more than twice a day. Symbicort contains formoterol. Medicines like formoterol increase the risk of death from asthma problems. Symbicort may increase your risk of lung infections, osteoporosis, and some eye problems. You should tell your doctor if you have a Heart Condition or high Blood Pressure before taking it. Symbicort could mean a day with better breathing. Watch out, piggies child giggles symbicort. Breathe better starting within 5 minutes. Get symbicort free for up to one year. Visit saveonsymbicort. Com today to learn more. News that senior trump advisers were in constant communication with russia sparked a strong response from republican senator Lindsey Graham who pushed for a select committee to investigate. Listen. Heres the question. If theres contacts between theTrump Campaign and russian intelligence officials outside the norm, thats not only big league bad, thats a gamechanger and i would change my view as to what congress should do. If there are contacts between Trump Officials and russian intelligence operatives during the campaign, we need a joint select committee in congress to get to the bottom of it and also look at trumps Business Ties to russia if it is true. I can tell you this, congress is not fake. There are real members of congress up here, republicans and democrats who love our country and are going to make sure that checks and balances that have been in place for 200 years work even when the president s in your own party. Here to discuss with, republican congressman ron desantos, member of the House Oversight and Foreign Affairs committee as well as the freedom caucus. He join us us from a loud capitol hill. Thank you for being with us. I hope you heard senator Lindsey Graham raising the possibility of a joint select committee in
congress to investigate the russians connections between the Trump Campaign. Whats your take on that . Do you agree with the senator . I think what we theed to do is lets get the transcript from the communications and also get the 302, if the fbi did interview him so we can see what the truth is and whats simply innuendo. A select committee is used when theres Overlapping Jurisdictionment we did it in benghazi because you had four different committees investigating it. I think this matter falls squarely within the intelligence committee. It should be very easy to get this transcript and get some of the information from the fbi to see what did flynn does, did he do anything wrong and obviously how did he communicate that to the white house. What would you have to see then, congressman, in that transcript that would tell you, okay, a select committee is needed. As you noted, in the benghazi investigation, you called for a select committee, a special
council to investigate Hillary Clintons emails. What do you want to see in the transcript to tell you whats needed. Benghazi we had four dead bodies, we had susan rice go out on the sunday shows and concoct a false store richlt we werent getting any information from the administration. It was in the middle of the campaign. You clearly had a Terrorist Attack there and the stonewalling. Some of the stuff about the russian contacts, i read the New York Times article, and they said there was no evidence that there was coordination. It undercut the splash she headline a little bit. Congressman, with all due respect, you dont have answers from the administration today. Theyre not even responding to jim sciuttos reporting and calling it fake news and saying the leaks are the issue here. One more point, as recently as january 15th we had mike pence saying there were no conversations. Yesterday we had sean spicer denying conversations. That doesnt appear to be the case. The story from the white house
doesnt appear to be based on reality. I think we would get, if you get the transcripts from flynns conversations, you can see what they discussed. On one land, discussing the sanction, although im opposed to decreasing sanctions on russia, i want to increase sanctions. If they discussed it, thats not a criminal offense. Theyre an Incoming Administration and can say hey, here is where were looking to go. If thats what they discussed and flynn wasnt honest with people in the white house, that obviously will be an issue. How then the white house handled it, i know supposedly the doj went and reported there could be an issue. Im not sure how that checking out either. They may have done investigation. I think those are a lot of questions that the white house will answer. Remember, when en we tried to investigate things with obamas white house, we wanted to investigate the iran deal and ben rhodess role, we didnt get anybody because theyre going to claim executive privilege. We have to focus on the agency action, what the fbi knows and
what the Intel Committee knows. On executive privilege, this happened before he was president , so it isnt at all clear no, but youre saying once flynn reported it and the Vice President was told something else, they were already in office as an administration. Theres a question in the press about, okay, why did they wait a couple days, what were they investigating . I dont know the answer to that. It would be hard for congress to be able to get there, whereas we can get the transcript from flynns communications, potentially get the fbi and we should get, and Chairman Nunez in the house is working to get the information about who is leaking all this stuff. You really have a concerted effort to undermine the sitting president. That is not the appropriate role of the intelligence committees, to act as political actors and to do selective leaking. On that point, nunez is calling for an investigation into the leaking but not into the russia connections here. I wonder if youre in agreement with senator rand paul who came
out yesterday and said i dont think its useful to do investigation after investigation, particularly of your own party. He went on to say youre not going to get anything done, like obamacare, et cetera. Do you agree regardless of party, do you agree thats a good frame of mind helpful to the American People to say maybe its not the best thing to investigate our own party. Our job is to investigate facts. When there are legitimate issues like flynns conversations, we should get the truth for the American People. Thats our job. At the same time a lot of my democratic parties, nancy pelosi was reading fake tweets from mike flynn supposedly. Theyre very upset about the election, throwing everything against the wall seeing what will stick. Yes, we have a responsibility to get the facts. Lets get that transcript and see what actually transpired. If you dont get the transcript, congressman, whats your next step . I think youll have Chairman Nunez investigating in the house, and i support his
efforts. And the senate Intel Committee is investigating broader than just the leaks and i think theyre well positioned to do it. Weve done things on the Oversight Committee in the past. Any time we get into the classified communications, we basically hit a brick wall and it gets referred to the Intel Committee. Congressman, we appreciate you joining us this morning. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me. Still to come, democrats have a message for Attorney GeneralJeff Sessions, step aside. Why some lawmakers say he should recuse himself from an investigation into Michael Flynn next. One in 30 boomers has hep c, yet most dont even know it. Thats because hep c can hide in your body silently for years, even decades, without symptoms and its not tested for in routine blood work. If left untreated, hep c can cause liver damage, even liver cancer. But theres Important Information for us the cdc recommends all baby boomers get tested for hep c. All it takes is a simple onetime blood test. And if you have hep c, it can be cured. Be sure to ask your doctor to get tested for hep c. For us its time to get tested. Its the only way to know for sure. Democrats are calling for Attorney GeneralJeff Sessions to step aside into any investigation into National Security adviser Michael Flynn. The White House Council cannot lead this investigation, and the new Attorney General cannot be Jeff Sessions cannot be the person to lead that investigation. Its not an investigation that should take place by Jeff Sessions. Jeff sessions, too tied to the campaign, too tied to the president. It needs to be an independent or a special prosecutor. With us now, democratic congressman benny tomlinson. Nice to have you on. Thank you for having me. Do you believe Attorney General sessions should recuse himself from this investigation and any investigation surrounding Michael Flynn . I dont think theres any question. Attorney general sessions was intricately involved in the campaign, made serious political positions as he moved into the
campaign. And so for the American People, i think its absolutely essential for the integrity of his office and for the American People to know exactly Whats Going On. So step aside, independent prosecutor. Im one of those individuals asking for an independent commission to look into this situation. So democrats are interested, the American People are interested in finding out exactly what went on. Congressman, you released a pretty scathing statement yesterday. You said President Trump campaigned on hiring the best people, but the unnecessary chaos hes brought the American People in the first three weeks is bordering on sadistic and is clearly a threat to National Security. What else do you have that its harming National Security . Well, what i cant tell you is what i received in a classified setting. Theres a lot going on. So much of what theyve done in the white house has put us at risk. So for the issuance of that statement is to say, look, we need to pause, look at this situation and fix it. The white house is in disarray, theres Competition Among staffers against each other, and its not good for the safety of this country. Back to you saying no question Jeff Sessions shouldnt lead any in