Leads it. Potential ties between moscow and Donald Trumps president ial campaign. Among the possible witnesses, former National Security adviser Michael Flynn and the president s soninlaw Jared Kushner. Kushner is expected to testify about his russian banker about an effort to engage the russians and accomplish a point person. Senate intelligence chairman refusing to rule out the possibility of collusion between the Trump Campaign and russians. We would be crazy to try to draw conclusions from where we are in the investigation. The bipartisan showed unity in the senate. House intel chair, devin nunes continuing to fend off charges of collusion with the white house and refusing to answer questions about the probe. Whats been the hold up about the specific information you saw on white house grounds . Its just trying to get the agencies in order for them to get the information to us in a timely manner. There seems to be this fascination with the process. Its how did he get here . What door did he enter, as opposed to what is the substance of what were finding. I just dont know how to conduct a credible investigation in you have let alone one person but the chairman of the committee who is saying ive seen evidence but i wont share it with anyone else. This after schiff refused to sign on to a closed door hearing unless nunes also agrees to reschedule the public hearing he canceled this week. Comey defending the fbis impartiality atten event last night. Were not on anybodys side ever. Were not considering whos ox will be gored by this action or that action, whos fortunes will be helped. We just dont care and we cant care. All this as ivanka enters the fray, joining the white house as an unpaid advisor. The Senate Intelligence committee today gets underway at 10 00 a. M. And they are kicking it off by looking at the role of fake news in the election and how rush shea may have tried to weapon nice it to influence the outcome. Thank you very much for all of that. Joining us now is oklahoma senate, james langeford a member of the senate Intel Committee. How will you all be different than the House Intel Committee . Were going to stay focussed on what were doing. This is a very serious set of accusations, serious set of charges out there, and, so we need to be able to resolve it. We are as chairman burr mentioned were going to go with the facts lead us and be able to walkthrough this. But we have to walkthrough it together so we have trust. At the end of this we plan to put out a bipartisan letter and report. That means we have to be able to washington together the whole time. How will you avehicle code descending into partisanship. There are differences of opinion. When we get behind closed doors, we talk those out and get a chance to share those with each other. The chairman and vice chairman go together. We do briefings as a committee together. We agree on what key documents we still need. So we Work Together with that and which means we have to meet a lot. We have to walkthrough things, but it is the right way to do it. After the house debacle, many senates, republican senates even are calling for an independent commission tho investigate this because they say that all the things that have been fraught in the house proves that Congress Really cannot do this task. I dont agree, actually. There are you cant find ten independent people in washington, d. C. As you get a chance to walkthrough the security clearances to pull up a committee and say these individuals are going to be nonpartisan. We need to allow the house Intelligence Committee to bear the action and go through this together as well. At the end of the day we have the security clearance. We have the connections. We have the access to all the documents. If you started a new committee, it will protract this thing two years while they get caught up. Do you have faith that the house will be able to bury the ax . I have faith. Thats a start. Are you investigating Different Things than what the house said they were investigating . Because the house at times seemed pretty focussed on the leaks and the unmasking of sources. Were going through everything on that, alison. Im not going to go through all the details of exactly what we dochlt but we are independent from the house in our investigation. Were asking them to be able to do the same with us. Were not conducting it in coordination with the house. Were an independent investigation to were walking through that process as we can. It is a broad sweeping piece, not only what the russians did, but clearly they were trying to influence our election as they have done to other nations. We are also trying to investigate was there any connections with the Trump Campaign. Was there any other conversations . What happened to all the leaks . The leaks are serious as well. When you walkthrough a process for any classified document or conversation to suddenly be in the public, thats a serious issue as well. All these things get collected together. We have got to resolve that. The russians will not stop doing it. We have to expose what they do and how they do it and put a stop to it. You will call many witnesses, including top aids to donald trump, paul manafort, Jared Kushner for starters. Who are you most interested in talking to . I would say all the above. We are trying to work today a good process to get to a voluntarily agreement where we dont have to push it to involuntary system. So far people have been able to meet with us and go through that system at times. So some of these will be in public. Many of them will be in private because were dealing with public sources and methods. As president obama mentioned, he made the statement as well, the American People arent going to see all sources and methods. There will be questions at the end of it because were dealing with classified information and sources. We have to get out as much as we can so the American People can see it. Personally speaking, whats your burning question that you want to ask some of these folks . We have to determine was there any collusion between the campaign and any russian individuals. I have no doubt the russians were trying to interfere. What we dont know yet is were individuals trying to reach back out. We have to be able to determine that with certainty and we have to be able to determine how do we block this in the days ahead because this will not stop. They have not done it to the american elections as they have done this last time like this ever. We have to find out why they did that and how they could stop it in the future. Are you surprised he hasnt been as vocal about all of that as you just have been . Hes hit or missed on it a few times. I are read some famous tweets that are out there. Hes frustrated because i think he feels like he wants to get this down and over with and get the investigation finished. These take a long time. We have to take it seriously and try to push it as fast as we can. But at the end of it we cant say did you ask such and such and say no you didnt because the investigation loses credibility. We have to really check our stuff as we go through it. Im sure hes frustrated by that but at the end of the day we need a solid answer. I want to ask you about another looming threat about the government shut down. It sounds as though yall could be headed for a possible government shut down on or about the time of the president s 100th day in office, about april 28th, over military spending. How are you going to avoid that . Well, were working through that over the next three weeks. Weve got three weeks and we will bring these bills to the floor. We have to have all funding done at that point or continue to have a resolution. Id like to have an appropriation bill done. There are a lot of important aspects when you do appropriations, not a continuing rez rugs, which is taking last years budget, changing the dates and putting it into this years. Were trying to be able to get to that appropriation process. We have three weeks and then well talk more about it from there. I dont see a looming shut down. I do see a deadline, though. Quite frankly, Congress Works best when it has a deadline. It hardly works at all when it doesnt. Thats quite a statement. You know, john mccain, senator john mccain does not sound as optimistic as you dochlt he says i will not vote for a continuing resolution, no matter what the consequences because it destroys the ability of the military to defend the nation and puts the lives of the men and women at risk. He wont vote unless it is the number he thinks hit it is spot. This is an ongoing situation. So this is part of the negotiations you have seen for a long time as well. There will be a lot of noise, a lot of smoke as we work through the process, but well get this resolved. You will also get it resolved at the 11th hour. Yes. Thats another thing that congress enjoying doing. 11 59 actually. Thanks so much. You have some breaking news on the russian front. Slat mere putin speaking out moments ago. He denies russia interfered with the russian election. Used some pretty salty language. Live with the details. Reporter yeah, john. This is supposed to be a round table on northern issues. He was asked did russia interfere in u. S. Elections . Vladimir putin called all of that provocations and outright lies made up for the american political cycle and he said, look, im going to say it the way ronald region said it. He said it was made up for political gain in the political cycle. He said he believed americans wanted to cooperate with russia and they were ready to do that. He said if they were going to have a summit perhaps that he was ready to meet with President Trump at any time and that he would be willing to be there and discuss issues. But Vladimir Putin really coming out and saying there is no absolutely nothing to this. No evidence will ever be found of this and these are lies that are made up for political gain. He also called it in his words by many warmongering, he insisted it was dangerous and harkened back to the cuban missile crisis. He hoped what he called this kind of irresponsible talk would end sooner rather than later. Alison. All very interesting to hear putin weigh in on the conversation that we all here have been having for months. Thank you very much for that new reporting. Dozens of democrats are planning to filibuster gorsuch. Well ask about it next. Energy is amazing. How we use it is only limited by our imagination. And at Southern Company were building the future of energy, for you. Kevin, meet yourkeviner. Music plays throughout Kevin Kevin KevinKevin Kevin KevinKevin Kevin Kevin trusted advice for life. Kevin, hows your mom . Life well planned. See what a Raymond JamesFinancial Advisor can do for you. I wanted to know where i did my ancestrydna. The most shocking result was that im 26 native american. I had no idea. Its opened up a whole new world for me. Russian president slvladimi putin moments ago denied the russian interfered with the election and he added hes open to meeting with President Trump. This is literally the man in the middle of it all right now. Senator, thanks so much for being with us. Let me read you some of this breaking news. He said any allegations that the russians meddling in the u. S. Election are fictional, provactive and lies. Do you see it like that . Hes wrong. Hes absolutely wrong. I mean, every indication we have from all of our intelligence, briefings we had thats not accurate at all. They were very much involved and try to be involved more than ever before, made more attempts to infiltrate. Also didnt have any change of the outcome of the election, but what they learned, are they trying to use that now in different parts of the world whether germany, bulgaria or france. Hes wrong. Thats a pretty blunt answer. I know you are having your first Public Meetings later today. House Speaker Paul Ryan was interfewed this morning on cbs and he was asked about certain aspects of this investigation. He was asked flat out if the investigation was focussed at all specifically on President Trump himself. Listen to how he answered it. I dont believe that he is. So i dont think that he is under investigation. No one has suggested that he is and not even in a vague way. I dont believe that he is. Do you have any indication, senator, that President Trump himself is the focus of this investigation . No. President trumps name has not come up in any of our briefings that i have been attending and i dont think i missed any of them. The campaign is being looked upon and basically were coming in and well be coming in to answer questions. So well find out. What weve said before t senate has been very, very diligent. Its been very bipartisan and i believe in the Senate Intelligence committee, the members of that committee will put their country and the government before any individuals. So wherever the intel takes us is where we will go. Weve had that indication just moments ago on this show from the republican from ok okay who told us the number one thing he wants to find out is he wants to be able to determine if there was collusion between Trump Associates and russia. That stuck out to me because President Trumps staffers have flatout said they have seen in evidence of collusion and senate langeford says he still wants to find out if that evidence exists. Well, james langeford is a quality human being. Hes a good friend of mine. It doesnt matter whether youre democrat or republican. This committee is a professional committee with extremely confidence and professional staff. We could get to the bottom of this quicker than anybody else can. We are not objecting to any select committees or special prosecutors, whatever they want to dochlt. I will assure you we will do our jobs based on the facts and have a determination when we make a finding and basically disclose that to the public that we will be unanimous in how we do it. Would it be premature to say there is no collusion at this point . Oh, it is very premature to say that. We just know there is an awful lot going on, an awful lot of seriousness of us to be checking into to making sure our whole freedom, our systems of freedom and democracy and election basically transfer of power has not been breached. That is our job. The public has to have confidence and faith in these elections, that the person in power was put there in the most legitimate, open fair process we could have. At least so far the public is pleased to see that the senators on your ncommittee are getting. You are a key vote for the confirmation of kneel gorsuch. Up until this point you have refused to say how you will vote. You met with him again. You had time to sleep on your meeting. As you sit here this morning, have you decided whether you will vote to confirm . Im getting close to making that decision, and i have gone over everything as diligently as i can, chris crossed all of the info and asked all the questions i thought needed to be asked to make a determination, an evaluation based on the facts i have from him in his meetings. So i will do that very soon, john. But the most important thing hang on. You say youre close. Which way are you leaning . You have known about this for a long time. You say youre close. I kind of think you already have made up your mind. Well, lets just say please let me say im very, very close. Im going to do this as quickly as i possibly can and i want to move on and i think we should. We have a responsibility to have a working Judiciary Branch of government. If you dont have nine members youre in trouble. Seems to me youre suggesting voting yes on judge gorsuch. You look for all the different attributes in a person thats going to be there a long time and were looking at all those things, and this is a quality individual. I dont think anyone disputes that. Tremendous education, background, held in high regards. The main thing were going through is basically the cases hes ruled upon, his opinions, how hes written on those opinions and evaluating that to make sure hes fair and balanced. Im finishing that process and i will finish it soon. His attributes so far have they impressed you . Good man. Good man. Youre not going to budge no matter how hard i try on that. Youre good, john. Some of your colleges have said they plan to filibuster the nomination. You have come out against that. You said you hope that doesnt happen. On the republican side, if it does happen, it seems as if the republicans are willing to use the socalled Nuclear Option, which means you dont need 60 votes anymore. You just need a bare majority. What is your take on that . Harry reid in 2013 pulled the Nuclear Option after doing everything he had done to get cooperation because we were not getting on any bills. Nobody was getting approved. The replacements and basically a putting a staff together, whether its president obama, President Trump, whoever should have an opportunity to do that. Nothing was getting done. So harry pulls the Nuclear Option. We basically all i was totally opposed. Im the only democrat that opposed that and voted against it. I thought it was wrong. The 60 vote rule gives the minority so, the democrats have been the minority right now. It gives them input and creates an atmosphere where you have to cooperate and build consensus. You have to sit down and work. If we end up breaking this on the Supreme Court or anything else, then basically all you have is a sixyear term as a house member. That means a 51 simple majority. That is not what the intent of this body. Its not good for this body or this country. Senator in the middle of it all