This death comes after two people were killed during a protest in kenosha, wisconsin, where a 17yearold trump supporter has been charged with those murders. And with less than ten weeks until november, we have breaking news about the security of the election. Jake tapper learned that the office of the director of National Intelligence will no longer brief congress in person on Election Security. It is a move that House Speaker nancy pelosi and intelligence chairman adam schiff called a, quote, betrayal of the publics right to know how foreign powers are trying to subvert our democracy. I want to get straight to the chair of the Senate Homeland security committee, republican senator ron johnson. Looks like we have adam schiff, no, there we go, adam schiff is coming up next. First, were going to talk to ron johnson, one of those mornings. Mr. Chairman, thank you so much. First, i want to talk about what happened in portland. We saw someone get killed overnight, amid clashes there. And the president has been tweeting and retweeting before dawn this morning. He called for the mayor of portland to resign and be arrested. He painted protesters as thugs. And cities in chaos. You were the chairman as i mentioned of the Senate Homeland security committee. Are you comfortable with the president appearing to enflame tensions instead of what we normally see from president s which is trying to to calm them down . Well, good morning, dana. Ive been urging calm across the board particularly in light of what happened here in kenosha. But as i said in the Opening Statement when we had acting secretary wolf before my committee, when you encourage the disdain for the police you encourage criminals. When you do little or nothing to stop rioting, you encourage anarchy. Peoples lives are lost. You have more and more destruction, more and more violence. So what we need to do is get control of the situation. And until we do, were going to have more violence, unfortunately potentially more loss of life, so we need to get control of the situation, we need to encourage calm, and heres somethingless else we no do, we need to figure out what we agree on and we share the same goal, a safe, prosperous and secure america and states and communities. Lets concentrate on those areas of grievance. Thats how we achieve the u. Nit that everybody wants. You say everybody should be calm, which sounds logical. Look at twhat were seeing one thing on the president s twit tr feed this morning, he seems to be encountering his supporters to go into portland which is resulting in some of this violence. Is that what you want to be seeing from the president , sir . There are people agitating all over the place. Hes the president of the United States. Kenosha, kenosha can be a model. What happened in kenosha is congressman style got into the city really quick, found out the Law Enforcement were looking for help, he called up the president , the president responded immediately and said what can i do to help . He offered to bring in some out of state given everything that you are saying unfortunately our governor turned it down one night, two people died, and given what youre saying, would you prefer but we have searched agitating comments and agitating ideas on his twitter feed . Thats how you typify it. What we need to do is there is no other way to see it. Stre it is very different from what you said. Dana, let me finish. The way you stop the violence, the way you stop the rioting is you surge manpower and resources, citizen soldiers, National Guard, and you overwhelm the numbers of rioters so they cant riot, you can protect peoples First Amendment constitutional right to peacefully protest and they dont turn to riots. At some point in time, peaceful protests dont even result in rioting. At some point in time become a siege. I was in kenosha yesterday. The downtown is boarded up. The businesses are shuttered. They cant operate. Other citizens now cant earn a living because the businesses are shut down. Part of the problem there is we also have to stop that siege on our cities. Okay. Thats fair. Pardon . Thats fair. It is very fair. And needs to be said more often. Let me ask you the question i was going to ask you, sir. We saw two People Killed by a trump supporter in your home state of wisconsin, in kenosha last week. And these deaths do appear to be the result of clashes between the right and the left. Doesnt the president have a responsibility to call out violence regardless of who is committing it . And the governor has responsibility to accept im asking about the president. So that citizens dont believe they got to protect their own im asking about the president we can talk about yes or no. No, what the president did was he offered to surge manpower resources so the violence could end. The governor did not accept that, that day, that night, tragically, two people lost their lives because citizens took matters into their own hands. Im not for vigilanteism. Im not sure thats what was happening. People felt because the governor and local officials were looking for help. The governor did not accept the help. And so there was not the resolve to end the rioting and so people took matters into their own hands and thats what ended up happening. People die. You have to get control of the situation and the way you do it is what happened in kenosha, where local officials said, please, we want help, we want manpower, the president offered, the governor accepted it and now the streets are not violent, we still have the protests, the businesses are still shuttered. Those individuals Constitutional Rights are being violated. They cant operate and enjoy a living, so, again, you have to look at the entire situation. The 17yearold accused of committing those two murders was a trump supporter. It is a tragedy. Do you condemn it is a tragedy. Do you condemn it . It is a tragedy. It is a tragedy. It is a tragedy, but do you condemn it . Listen, i dont want to see any loss of life. It is a tragedy. And the way you prevent tragedies is you support a tragedy could be a car accident. You allow for peaceful protesters, but you dont allow you dont allow peaceful protests to turn siege into siege. Listen, i dont want to see anybody lose their life. I dont want to see the violence continue. I dont want to see businesses burn down. I dont want to see economic destruction. I condemn it all. Okay. Thank you. I want to move on to something that the president said when he was just a candidate in 20 16. He was speaking at the convention, then, and he promised to end crime and violence in the United States if he became president. Take a listen. Beginning on january 20th, of 2017, safety will be restored. The most basic duty of government is to defend the lives of its own citizens. Any government that fails to do so is a government unworthy to lead. So, what we are talking about right now is happening under President Trumps watch. Violence in american cities. Not to mention 180,000 dead from coronavirus. Is his government, the president s own words, living up to his own promises, is he worthy to lead . Well, first of all, where the violence is occurring is in big cities, governed by democratic mayors and democratic governors for decades. I know thats the republican talking point, but hes the way the way the well, you know, President Trump has a tendency to overpromise. I try to underpromise and overdeliver. Did he overpromise when he was running for president four years ago . To basically support Law Enforcement and place safety and security as a priority and thats what you need. If you want Economic Prosperity and opportunity, you neded a sae and secure community and states in america. Thats the goal we all share. Why dont we concentrate on the goal we all share and figure out how to accomplish it. Republicans in the senate, we tried to address the problems with policing. And we did it using tim scott, who looked at the house bill and found the areas of agreement, put it on the floor of the senate and the democrats said, no. It is either our way or the highway. We wont take just what we can all agree on. We need to have everything as well that we dont agree on. Were trying to do this. Were trying to provide the safety and security that america wants. The president is trying to do that as well. Riots is not the answer. I want to turn to the question of russia and election interference in the election were currently in. The office of the director of National Intelligence informed congressional oversight committees that it will not longer be briefing in person on Election Security issues. Do you think the dni should continue or his aides should continue to give those briefings . Well, they will in written form, and theyre not doing it in person because of the leaks, apparently. Ive been on top of russian interference in elections well before 2016. As chairman of the european subcommittee on foreign relations, three hearings on the way russia tries to destabilize the election systems of countries around the world. I know that. I want to get to that, but because they were aided and abetted by people like adam schiff, democrats and the mainstream media. But they cant real they have very difficult time influencing elections. Lets focus on the issue at hand, which is the dni briefing. You just said because of leaks. My question for you is, first of all, members of the committee, people who said on the intelligence committees dispute they leak. Secondly, why logically would having an all written big surprise. Why would having a all written briefing do anything to stop leaks . Wouldnt it make it easier if first of all, listen, i sit during through secured briefings. This is being blown so way out of proportion. I can probably count on one or two fingers the things that are actually classified in those briefings. There is no surprise here. We know that foreign actors are trying to influence trying to destabilize our political system. Were doing putins work for him. What adam schiff did with the false narrative with the news media did in terms of false russian collusion with the Trump Campaign narrative, criminal investigation, special counsel that is what is destabilized our politics, it is how the media and how democrats have taken that and basically done Vladimir Putins work for him. The oversight responsibility that people like you in congress have, shouldnt you have the opportunity to question people who are working on securing the elections which are happening now . We do and we will. And we all know what putin is doing, china wants biden to be the next president. We understand that. But, you know, it is very difficult to change votes. It is very difficult to actually affect the poll numbers, what you can do is destabilize our politics and thats exactly what russia succeeded in doing because of what adam schiff, democrats and the news media have done as a result. Do you believe and do you agree with the notion that russia as we speak is trying to destabilize this election . They always have, they always will. Yes. Yes. I held hearings on this a couple of years before 2016. Im not surprised at all by it. Yes, we have to we have to take it very seriously. But we cant play into putins hands. We cant blow it out of proportion. We have done it to ourselves. I want to ask you about something youre involved in right now, you are investigating whether or not ukraine was involved in 20 16. I want to read to you something from the Senate Intelligence committees report suggesting that speculation about yukraine interference is russian misinformation. The committee observed numerous russian government actors from late 2016 until at least january 2020 consistently spreading overlapping false narratives which sought to discredit investigations into russia interference. The Committee Identified no reliable evidence that the Ukrainian Government interfered in the 2016 u. S. Election. This is the republicanled committee in the senate saying this. And youre still investigating the claims. My question is why are you spending time doing this when it the theory that ukraine was involved has been debunked. First of all, first of all, you know, thats your typification that it has been debunked. It is not mine. They worked for two years on this investigation. And these are your Senate Republican colleagues. Are you going to less me answer . I just want to say this is not my opinion. This is something that came out of the senate. Okay, so my investigation, the corruption of the Obama Campaign or administration goes back to march of 2015. Our investigation is quite wide ranging. Our investigation is primarily using u. S. Government documents and sources from the state department, the department of justice, the national archives, and a democrat lobbying firm. The only russian disinformation that im aware of that has been involved in our politics is, first of all in the steel dossier and now democrats inserting into our records based on a false narrative that they created and leaked to the media and didnt even tell Chuck Grassley and i about it. The democrats, again, they are being putins puppet, not me, not Chuck Grassley. We have to leave it there. Thank you for your time this morning, Senate Homeland security chairman ron johnson. Appreciate it. Have a good morning. Thank you. I want to turn to the House Intelligence Committee chairman congressman adam schiff of california. We have a lot to get to. But, first, your reaction to what you just heard from your colleague in the senate. Well, dana, im not sure where to start. But as you point out, what the administration is saying makes no sense in terms of their refusal to brief congress on russian interference designed to help the Trump Campaign. Theyre going to put it in writing now instead of an oral briefing. That doesnt make any sense unless the goal is not to allow members of congress the representatives of the American People to ask questions, to point out the false equivalence that the administration is trying to promulgate that somehow russian interference in our election, russian active measures to try to decide our election to help donald trump is no different than other countries are doing, they dont want those questions answered. They dont want that information going to the public. This is what the president is after. After all, donald trump fired director maguire for Briefing Congress on the fact that russia was trying to help his campaign again. This president doesnt want to push back on that. He doesnt want the American People to know about it, he doesnt want to hear about russian bounties on the heads of our troops, doesnt want to hear about russian convoys colliding with American Forces in syria, and he sure as heck doesnt want the American People to know it either. So, mr. Chairman, as you know, the dni says his office is going to provide your committee with written reports. Why is that not enough . Because you can make a written report and you can state things in a written report that are not correct and you cant be subject to questioning about it. This is the problem we had. For example, we saw about a month ago the head of the Intelligence Community, his director of national counterintelligence, issue a public statement, that drew a false equivalence between what russia was doing and china and iran are doing. And he was called out on it. And we had hearings in congress where he could be held to account and others could as well, and the result was they were forced to issue a second statement that acknowledged no, russia is actually intervening to help donald trump and denigrate joe biden. China has a preference. And being able to call them out, hold them accountable, have them testify before congress, place them under oath if necessary, forces accountability. When you can hide behind documents or withhold documents and not have to answer questions about it, it lets you conceal the truth. And in this case, concealing the truth is concealing russians are again intervening to help the president and the reelection, the president believes that he cant beat joe biden without getting either foreign help or disenfranchising people from voting during a pandemic. And doesnt want the country to know about it. So, are you suggesting that the Trump Administration is trying to protect russia here . Well, no, the trump President Trumps motivation is solely about himself. It is to get himself reelected. And he realizes if the country learns again that the russians once again are intervening to try to help him in the election, he feels that takes away from their assistance. So he doesnt want the American People to know about it. Doesnt Want Congress to know about it. He wants to draw some false equivalence between what the russians are doing and others are doing. And he knows that if and when they do come and brief congress, we ask questions and we can get to the bottom of things. Thats what he doesnt want. After all, he fired a director for doing exactly this, and sadly the current director of National Intelligence doesnt have the will or the backbone to stand up to this and undertake his lawful responsibility. I want to play for you something that President Trump said about the reason that the dni no longer wants to continue briefing you, your committee and others. He says because of leaking classified infor