Russian interference . Im going to ask general michael hayden, formally the head of the nsa and cia what the white house could and should have done. And Green Party Candidate jill stein back in the news this week with a round of finger pointing over Hillary Clintons loss. Shes here to respond. Plus, in wisconsin, the partisan voting map let the gop win 48 of the votes, but they got 60 of the seats. Will this be the Supreme Court case that finally ends gerrymandering . Bill cosbys case ended in mistrial, and the prosecutor immediately declared hed retry it, but isnt he forgoting all the costs . Financial, human, and otherwise . But, first, did we all misread a critical tweet about taping from President Trump . Lets review. Tuesday, may 9, President Trump fired fbi director james comey, and then, three days later, friday, the 12th, the president tweeted this, james comey better hope theres no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press. The tweet seemed to be a reaction to the New York Times story that day by this headline, in a private dinner, trump demanded loyalty. Comey demured. Two offered an account of the dinner that was at odds with the president s version as he told nbc the night before. The president said loyalty was never raised. Everybody assumes that in the tweet President Trump was suggesting that he had taped their conversations. And that he was threatening comey, that he might release them. I have a different interpretation. Maybe President Trump wasnt threatening to release tapes. He was saying, hi, jim comey, you better not have taped me. It all depends on how you read the president s tweet. Comey better hope there are no tapes. I thought of lynn trusss book, you remember eats shoots and leaves, zero tolerance approach to punctuation. You can either be talking about a panda that eats both bamboo and leaves or a violent diner that eats, then shoots, then leaves. On thursday, six weeks after that first tweet, the president sent out a new pair of tweets. They said this, with all the recently reported electronic surveillance intercepts, unmasking, and illegal leaking of information, i have no idea whether there are tapes or recordings of my conversations with james comey, but i did not make and do not have any such recordings. Notice he still is not saying, well, i didnt tape comey, but he does not rule out the existence of other tapes or recordings. Hes leaving open the door that somebody taped him. And then yesterday, the president appeared on fox news. When he found out that i, you know, that there may be tapes out there, whether its governmental tapes or anything else, and who knows, i think his story may have changed. I mean, youll have to take a look at that because then he has to tell what actually took place at the events. So now hes saying that his tweet forced comey to be an honest witness, but theres never been evidence of comey as a per vary cater, so put it together. President fired comey. Then he told nbc he never asked for loyalty. Then he was contra didicted by comey with specificity in the New York Times, and then he, the president , worried comey had a tape, so he issued the tweet as a warning, and then only after the passage of 42 days when satisfied comey was not taping him because there were no further reports, he put the issue to rest. It was never about him taping comey. It was his concern that the reverse was true. Of course, the whole comey controversy is just one aspect of the russia meddling investigation. According to a detailed report by the Washington Post news of russian interference first landed on president obamas desk early last august when a cia courier delivered an eyes only file directly to the white house. Inside was intelligence, a report showing that russian president putin personally ordered a Cyber Campaign to damage democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and help elect donald trump, so the administration was forewarned, but was it fore arounded . Did the president do enough, meaning president obama to head off the russian meddling . Joining me now, former head of the cia and nsa, general michael hayden. This is a tweet from the president yesterday on the Washington Post blockbuster, just out, the Obama Administration knew far in advance of november 8th about election meddling by russia. Did nothing about it. Why . All caps. Then, tomorrow, hell appear on fox news, but already, this tape has been released. Roll it. The cia gave him information on russia a long time before they even, you know, before the election. If he had the information, why didnt he do something about it . He should have dope something about it. I mean, the president is the same guy who said, look, it may be the chinese or a 400 pound guy in new jersey in his bed. Is he trying to have it both ways, like, hey, why didnt obama do something while at the same time being dismissive of it . Michael, i think he is. Keep in mind hes never fully embraced the theory of the case that you just laid out there. The russians actually did it, and its up to him now to do some things about it. Now, look, theres an element of truth, i think, in what President Trump says. I think the Obama Administrationfuadministratio w in the response. Its not that they didnt do anything. They actually did several things to try to warn the russians away from this activity. I think in retrospect, even the obama team thinks they should have done more. Michael, one of the reasons they were reluctant to do more was the narrative that then president elect trump had, that the election was going to be rigged. So any overt activity from the white house would have fed that narrative as well and delegitimized the election in a different way, so even candidate trump bears some responsibility here for what happened. In other words, the concern, if you buy into the narrative of the post, and i think it makes logical sense, the concern on the part of the Obama Administration was the political ramification of whatever they might do on the 2016 election, and the consequence was, we really didnt treat it, perhaps, like the National Security matter that it was. I think we appreciated it as the National Security matter that it was, michael. The article in the post yesterday just drips with urgency from the intelligence guys, from john brennan and clapper, remaining urgent out of this even out of government. The problem was then what did the guys do about this . Again, were agreeing they didnt do enough. I think they recredit, i regret they didnt do enough, but i understand why they were reluctant to be more active, and, look, look at the circumstances we have here, michael. We have a political campaign, and mr. Trump seems to legitimize a chance of lock her up campaign rally, that praises wikileaks as a legitimate source of information, that claims that the election is going to be rigged. Now, i dont want to get into any formal witting collusion, but that may be all the collusion that the russians needed to have the effect that the russians wanted to have on the electoral process. The lead of the story speaks of putins direct involvement, although it does not share exactly whats known of it. You ran the cia, the nsa, you know his personality. Does it comport with his m. O. As you understand it . It does, and, michael, i need to put the caveat out there. Been out of government for years. I dont go back for briefings. I did read the very detailed article in the post yesterday, and it does have a powerful ring of plausibility in terms of all the elements in the article based upon my life experience. Yes. President obama spoke the date was october 1 8, addressin the aspects of this. Lets listen to the comments and comment on it. Play it. There is no serious person out there suggesting somehow that you could even you could even rig americas elections. In part because they are so decentralized, and the numbers of votes involved. Theres no evidence that that has happened in the past or that there are instances in which that happens this time. And so id invite mr. Trump to stop wipie in whining and go ma case to get votes. But, general, president obama surely knew at the time according to the post the russians were trying to tap into 21 different states electoral systems, and at minimum cause chaos, if not alter the outcome of the election, but to screw with us. Thats all possibility, michael. You had the president warning Vladimir Putin in a a facetoface meeting, i believe, in september, not to meddle in the actual electoral process. On the margins of the meeting, the president said something i found striking at the time, and now it makes sense. Out of the blue, he suggested that the United States has the greatest concentration of cyber power on the planet, both offense and defense, and i wondered who he was talking to. Clear now. He was talking to putin, and i think the president was fairly firmly grounded. The biodiversity of the american electoral process, i think, does give it a fair amount of resilien resilience, so i understand why he said what he said, but, again, michael, i return to the earlier point, Even Team Obama now wishes they were more forceful, direct, and more specific with the information they had in hand. Well, what could what could the white house have done . What could the Obama White House have done differently . So, what they did do was to offer help to state election officials, and probably because they were not as forward leaning as they might have been in explaining the danger to state election officials, telling them what we knew already, most of them push back. And didnt want to accept federal help on the grounds of federal meddling in what were state and local procedures. So, again, michael, being a bit more transparent, a bit more open, maybe even a bit more, can i say this, alarmist, in terms, or alarming, in terms of what we were saying about the intervention. Now, we did other things. We warned the russians. According to the story, we quite visibly began to plant some things in russian infrastructure. Now, i dont know that if that is true, but, again, it has the ring of plausibility demonstrating to the russians so far and no further, we have tools in this kind of dispute as well. What concerned me the most from the story is the fact that it seems that when those in our political apparatus were in the lop, they were partisans first and americans second. You know, used to be our partisanship ended at waters edge and united against a common enemy like russia, but in this case, if you read the story closely, there was a callus going on in too many minds whether this would bend their party or the other party. Michael, the saddest chapter is when the administration sent experts to the hill to greet the Senior Leadership of American Congress seeking some sort of bipartisan statement with regards to this, and they couldnt get it. The republicans, particularly, backed aspeculating here, because they felt joining that consensus might have hurt candidates chances. I dont know. Coming out of that meeting, we now have the administration pulling back, not as forceful as i suggested they should have been, again, to avoid the appearances that they were partisan, and they were trying to rig the election. This was not our finest hour. And, finally, you will not offend me if the answer is no, but did i convince you with my opening monologue that perhaps everyone misread the intent of President Trumps tweet when he talked about comey and the tapes . Michael, that was a very impressive workable hypothesis. I need to think my way backwards now from your conclusion. I will tell you what struck me, you know, the preamble there, where he said, well, i dont know who may or may not be taping, and he talked about unmasking and surveillance and so on, i have to tell you, michael, in the lens i use to look at that. That was just one more example of the president for political convenience throwing his Intelligence Community under the bus. They were a political prop or at a minimum, trying to on the skate a giant climbdown in the back half of the tweet. Ill take your qualified endorsement of my thinking, general hay skbden. Thank you for that. Thank you, michael. Whats your thoughts . Whats your tweets . Hit me, what do we have . Facebook and twitter. Ill continue to read your comments, opening commentary is disappointing, exactly what trumps teamments, sad. Nicole, how many times do i say it . Its not whether it helps or hurts the president. I call it as i see it. I offered you, i think, a plausible alternative. Next, what do we have . Why would comey immediately write a memo after conversation if he had recorded it . Well, because he did not record it. He didnt record it. President trump comes from a place where hes suspicious that everybodys wearing a wire. So, no, comey did not record it. Im trying to get in the mind of the president , and perhaps the president picks up the New York Times, saying, holy crap, look at the level of detail in this story. Was comey wearing a wire . One more. Quickly. My favorite part of the show, you are just like the rest of fake news, how about the good he has done all negative with you. We are safer with trump than obama. Theres a front page story in the Washington Post today confirming that russian president Vladimir Putin directly screwed with our election. Now, sir, maam, you want me to ignore that . Is that fake news . Come on. Coming up, we all know about Michael Flynns dinner date with putin. Guess who else had a seat at the table. Green candidate jill stein. Eager to chat with her next. I cy with all the overthecounter products ive used. Enough ive tried enough laxatives to cover the eastern seaboard. Ive climbed a Mount Everest of fiber. Probiotics . Enough avo if youve had enough, tell your doctor what youve tried and how long youve been at it. Linzess works differently from laxatives. Linzess treats adults with ibs with constipation or chronic constipation. It can help relieve your belly pain, and lets you have more frequent and complete bowel movements that are easier to pass. Do not give linzess to children less than six, and it should not be given to children six to less than eighteen. It may harm them. Dont take linzess if you have a bowel blockage. Get immediate help if you develop unusual or severe stomach pain, especially with bloody or black stools. The most common side effect is diarrhea, sometimes severe. If its severe stop taking linzess and call your doctor right away. Other side effects include gas, stomacharea pain and swelling. Talk to your doctor about managing your symptoms proactively with linzess. There are the wildcats til we die weekenders. The watch me let if fly. This i gotta try weekenders. Then weve got the bendy. Spendy weekenders. The tranquility awaits. Hanging with our mates weekenders and the its been quite a day. So glad we got away weekenders. Whatever kind of weekender you are, theres a hilton for you. Book your weekend break direct at hilton. Com and join the weekenders. Just like the people every business is different. But every one of those businesses will need legal help as they age and grow. Whether it be with customer contracts, agreements to lease a space or protecting your work. Legalzooms network of attorneys can help you, every step of the way. So you can focus on what you do and well handle the legal stuff that comes up along the way. Legalzoom. Legal help is here. Zblrch theres been commentary as to the influence Green Party Candidate jill stein had on our election. Just look at the headlines, as a matter of fact. Im curious what she has to say about this and other current events, and im thrilled that joining me now is dr. Jill stein. Dr. Stein, this Washington Post story, blockbuster, pointing fingers directly at putin for having directed the meddling in our election, i find to be pretty coal pmpelling of involvement. Does it make you reconsider the dinner invitation you received in 2015, and whether him giving you that platform was, itself, a form of meddling. So, lets be clear, and i have not yet seen that article from the Washington Post, but theres been quite a lot of evidence appointmenting to the hacking into our election systems, especially voter registrations, and theres concerns about the vulnerability of the system. Thats not new. I called for recount to examine, in fact, the Voting Machines and the software to know, in fact, because, right now, its acknowledged that we got a real problem here, and whether its the russians, whether it is other hostile nations, whether its criminal networks, we know that our Voting System is wide open and vulnerable to all of this, so we need to get to the bottom of it, and above all, we have to start protecting our Voting System right now. That means, paper ballots because you cannot corrupt them. Thats an enduring record. It means auditing the on the kl scanners to know we have accurate counts, and then go back and recount if theres questions about it. We need cyber security, best practices in all levels of the Voting System. People can go listen to the testimony before congress. Just last week, by one of the foremost cybersecurity experts. Its not Rocket Science how to fix it. We need to make our systems not just against russian interferen interference, chinese, or mafia, but private corporation who control the Voting Software and who have a stake in the outcome of the elections. This system needs to be protected so that americans can have faith and confidence in it. Okay, im f