With Victor Blackwell and christi paul. Top of the hour now. Good saturday morning to you. Two revelations, two candidates, two very different reactions as we learn the u. S. Intelligence community believes russia is putting their support behind President Donald Trump and senator Bernie Sanders in the 2020 race. President trump calls the discovery by his own Intel Community a, quote, disinformation hoax by democrats. And now a loyalist hes brought in to take over as acting director of National Intelligence is making aggressive moves one day into the job. Senator sanders is calling on russia to stay out of american elections. Hes dealing with in new reporting and what it means for his campaign in nevada ahead of todays critical caucuses there. Following all of the angles of the story. We have more from las vegas. Want to go first to Sarah Westwood at the white house. Sarah, so much to talk about here, i know. What are you hearing regarding the president and his intel, how is he trying to frame this . Reporter well, we can see that President Trump is essentially rejecting this conclusion from the Intelligence Community that russia would prefer his reelection in 2020. Sources say that President Trump was angry that he found out about a briefing for lawmakers on capitol hill last week not from his own aides but from a republican ally on capitol hill. Sources say that was republican congressman devin nunes. In that briefing, a top intelligence official told lawmakers about this conclusion that russia preferred trump in the 2020 election. Trump is already labelling that a misinformation hoax in a series of tweets. And also at his rally in las vegas yesterday. Take a listen. I was told a week ago, they said, you know, theyre trying to start a rumor, its disinformation. Thats the only thing theyre good at. Theyre not good at anything else. They get nothing done. Donothing democrats. That putin wants to make sure i get elected. Listen to this so doesnt he want to see who the democrats going to be . Wouldnt you rather have lets say bernie, wouldnt you rather have bernie who honeymooned in moscow . Wouldnt that be these people are crazy. Reporter the president clearly believes that democrats weaponize to russia after the 2016 election. That perception driving fears that the statement could happen in 2020. And the fallout from the briefing led the president to remove the acting intelligence director, joseph mcgwire, in favor of a loyalist, ambassador to germany Richard Grenell who started on the job making aggressive moves. His appointment was met by criticism from democrats who view him as woefully under qualified ed for the position. Listen to what Speaker Pelosi had to say. So for the president to object to Congress Getting that information is frankly not unusual, but that it is public is unusual, a. And b, for him therefore to oust the director of National Intelligence and put somebody in with absolutely no credentials whatsoever for the job for something that is very much a part of our National Security. This is dangerous. This is dangerous to our country because intelligence is how we force protection, how we protect our troops, how we try to avoid war, but if we have to engage in a military action how we do so with the most information and best intelligence possible. Reporter now grenell has asked for the underlying intelligence backing up the conclusion about russias preference for trump, according to the new york times. Of course, his appointment and want president s reaction to this intelligence is only fueling speculation about how the president will handle russian interference in the 2020 election if it comes as the Intelligence Community has assessed. Sarah, tell us about this new reporting out this weekend from the Washington Post about the president s involvement in the the clearance of his former National Security adviser john boltons book. Reporter boltons book is set to be published in a few weeks, victor, in march. But the president wants to keep much of its contents secret. He would like to, according to the Washington Post, exercise executive privilege over virtually all of the conversations that he had with his thenNational Security adviser, john bolton. Those make up a good portion of the book. Now boltons lawyers and the white house Records Office have been engaged in something of a battle as the white house Records Office looks over the manuscript for what could be classified information. Boltons team still wants to get that book out by march. Sarah westwood at the white house. Thank you. Meanwhile, today is caucus day in nevada. Hours before the contest is set to start were learning that officials briefed senator Bernie Sanders that russia is trying to help his campaign in an effort to interfere with the contest. Cnn business and politics correspondent in las vegas with more. Hes being vocal, isnt he, vanessa . Reporter yeah, theater. Good morning. You know, just as voters are starting to head to the ballot box in just a few hours this morning, were learning that Bernie Sanders says that u. S. Officials briefed him saying that russians are trying to help him win the election. Senators came out right away and said that he condemns this. But this is coming about a day or so after President Trump revealed that he in fact received the same style briefing. Senator sanders was asked why he didnt come out and say this sooner. This is how he responded to that question it was not clear what role theyre going to play. We were told that russia, maybe other countries are going to get involved in this campaign. And look, here is the message to russia, stay out of american elections. And what they are doing, by the way, the ugly thing that they are doing, and ive seen some of their, you know, their tweets and stuff, is they try to divide us up. Reporter and the senators Campaign Said they didnt reveal this information because they thought it was sensitive information. They also said that they didnt know exactly how russia was trying to interfere. Now were starting to hear from some of the other democratic candidates, joe biden, Pete Buttigieg expressing their concern. But were also hearing from Michael Bloomberg who is sort of jumping on this. This is what he tweeted just yesterday. He said they, referring to russia, either nominate the weakest candidate to take on their puppet trump, or they elect a socialist as president. Hes referring to senator sanders there. But cnn reached out to the other campaigns, and we have not heard of anybody else receiving this similar style of briefing as sanders received. You know, victor and christi, this is coming on the day of the caucuses. The Sanders Campaign clearly does not want this on the mind of voters and in the doubts of voters as they go to cast their ballot in just a few short hours here. All right. Vanessa, we appreciate it so much. Thank you. Want to bring in crystal hayes, washington correspondent for usa today and Senior Citizen contributor Garrett Graff for getting up with us. Garrett, since Bernie Sanders confirmed that he was briefed on this a month ago, there are a lot of questions this morning about why he held on to that information. Is the onus on him and his campaign to release that he had this conversation that russia was interested in helping him, or is that the onus of the government . Its a hard call. And part of the challenge of this and you saw this come up as the Obama Administration weighed how to respond to the russian attack in 2016, is that when you have foreign interference like this, you dont want to advance the goals of the foreign adversary. Remember, they are actually, you know, politically agnostic as to what actually happens in u. S. Politics. What Vladimir Putin and what russias goal in an election attack is is to spread chaos and to just sort of generally destabilize and fuel discord in the u. S. And in the west. Thats thats what theyre trying to do by supporting Bernie Sanders, by supporting donald trump. Sort of what and you actually remember saw russia support Bernie Sanders in 2016, particularly as part of their goal to spread division and discord in the democratic party. So any time you get a briefing like this, any time you see a foreign adversary weighing in, its a very difficult decision about whether to make that information public. Crystal, you cover congress. And there are Election Security bills that are held up in the senate. Do you expect that any of the reporting not just the last 24 hours but the last 48 hours, what we learned about the Briefing Regarding russians and President Trump will motivate in progress on those bills . Its a big question for republicans. So far over the last couple. Years, throughout trumps presidency, this issue of russian interference has hung over his presidency. And its been something that democrats have harped on republicans to work on. And so far it doesnt seem as though republicans are willing to do anything more. They point to funding that theyve increased, but it doesnt seem as though that will happen. I mean, it will be a big question next week when we get back, of course. Uhhuh. Garrett, i want to move to some of the questions about Richard Grenell, the new d i here. And a lot of people noticing that the president is putting people in these positions, these acting positions that are loyalists, seen as loyalists to him. You wrote a recent article in wired regarding acting directors. And people in temporary positions. You wrote this, by the end of the day almost all of the roles created after 9 11 literally to prevent the next 9 11 will be either vacant or look permanent appointees. You go on to say President Trump is endangering this country by doing so. What is the most imminent danger do you think . The imminent danger is simply that there arent people in these roles who necessarily have the background or the longevity ahead in order to make real change and to do the job as they said after 9 11 of connecting the dots of intelligence. I mean, after 9 11, we went through this big process to figure out what went wrong. And the u. S. Government and the u. S. Intelligence community did a major reorganization, creating roles like the director of National Intelligence, creating departments like Homeland Security in order to help organize and ensure that the u. S. Was focused on the threat stream coming down the road. As of this morning, right now, there is no confirmed director of National Intelligence. Theres no Deputy Director of National Intelligence. Theres no head of the National Counterterrorism center. Theres no Homeland Security secretary, theres no deputy Homeland Security secretary, theres no commissioner of customs and border protection, theres no director of immigration and customs enforcement, and theres no director of u. S. Citizen and immigration services. Thats an incredibly huge hole in the u. S. Security apparatus, over 100,000 federal personnel i want to just ask, how does the president justify that . Well you heard from the president go ahead he likes to say that he just likes actings. They are more loyal than Senate Confirmed appointees. Crystal, to you, garrett talked about the inability to do the job that was laid out after 9 11. The question is, what is grenells job specifically . The deputy was ousted yesterday. Joseph mcgwire, former acting d i is out, bringing in patel, an aide to nunes. What is his job over the next few weeks or months as we understand it . Well, you can be sure that this issue of russian interference is going to be a top priority for him and kind of getting to the bottom of this briefing between before the House Intelligence Committee that led to trump reportedly being pretty angry about a hearing about these findings that were given to the House Intelligence Committee, including adam schiff who, you know, as we all know is the head impeachment prosecutor. But above that, i mean, like garrett mentioned, the politicalization of these these agencies, of the heads of these agencies has been has been an issue. And you know, in a way this could be him showing whether or not hes worthy of fulfilling this role and passed just a an acting role. The president said that he might not be the fulltime director. But this will be him kind of taking in and remaining that loyal defender of the president. And well see kind of what actions he takes. So garrett, let me ask you this. As shes talking about the russian interference. It puts President Trump in an interesting position because hes saying its a disinformation hoax. If its a disinformation hoax for the president , is it then a disinformation hoax for Bernie Sanders, as well . Does he fall under the same defense as the president puts it out there . Well, its a little bit i think we cant take the president s language at face value here. That this is right. The question is how will he react to it. Yeah. And i think what we are going to see is probably the same reaction that weve seen to the 2016 election attack which is the president has denied it straight through. He has cast aspersions. One of the core parts of the impeachment battle this past year was the president s belief in a Conspiracy Theory that ukraine played a role in the election attack. You have a president of the United States who refuses to acknowledge one of the most significant attacks on the United States in the last 75 years. And thats an incredibly damaging and challenging and dangerous position for the United States in foreign policy. Crystal, let me wrap up with you want again, this is a shortterm job for grenell. The question is, whos the permanent nominee . The president tweeted four people being considered. Announcement coming in a few weeks. Twopart question. If you could tackle that who would want the job when they now know that the president prioritizes wants this person to prioritize his political sensitivities, and does this make the job in the senate any harder if confirming someone now that weve seen what happened to joseph mcgwire and we see the pick of Richard Grenell . Well, for the senate question, absolutely. I mean, theres going to be questions about staying loyal to the president , keeping politics out of this job. Weve had the same question of who would want these jobs since the start of trumps presidency. Theres been lingering kwegsz about politicization questions about politicization of numerous agencies, the department of federal justice. We saw in the last few weeks with the sentencing of roger stone, one of his the president s top allies. And, you know, the president having comments about his sentencing to the state department. We saw this throughout impeachment. In the aftermath, the president working to reframe who is working for him and wanting to keep loyalists there. But its been a lingering question. Something that, you know, we see a lot of career officials continue to take top posts in his administration which is something i wouldnt be surprised if it happens in the future. All right. Crystal hayes, Garrett Graff, thank you both. Thank you. Still to come, there are so many questions about whether these caucuses are going to go off smoothly today in nevada. The major areas of concern and how officials are planning to remedy things. And Mike Bloomberg says he will release three women covered by nondisclosure agreements detailing complaints against him. Ahead, how the other campaigns are reacting to this decision. One more mile look reply all look own your look. With fewer lines. Theres only one botox® cosmetic. Its the only one. Fda approved. To temporarily make frown lines. Crows feet. And forehead lines. Look better. 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