Governing part that you herald would go better if he exhibited perhaps a little bit more control. Look, its unconventional to say the least, but i think where we in the media and punditry divert from where your average american is, theyre much less interested in playing armchair psychologist about why the president does what he does or why he thinks what he thinks or who he is mad at or who he is not. Theyre pretty interested in what that tax cut looks like and how it affects their family. I think in that regard it has scored the president some points. For those of you just joining us, we just got a glimgs into President Trumps thinking on a variety of issues hovering over the white house. Top of the president s mind this afternoon. He was asked about it, of course, was the russia investigation. President trump repeatedly insisting there was no collusion, there was no collusion. He called the russia probe a, quote, democracy hoax, but avoided a question about whether he himself would be willing to sit down for an interview with Robert Mueller. Take a listen. I can only say this, there was absolutely no collusion. Everybody knows it. Everybody committee. Ive been in office now for 11 months. For 11 months theyve had this phony cloud over this administration, over our government, and it has hurt our government. It does hurt our government. Its a democracy hoax. Certainly ill see what happens, but when they have no collusion and nobodys found any collusion at any level, it seems unlikely that you even have an interview. With time running out to help the d. R. E. A. M. Ers facing the risk of deportation, those art around 700,000 undocumented immigrants brought to this country illegally through no fault of their own when they were children, President Trump also tried to clear up some confusion that resulted from his 55minute televised meeting with congressional leaders on immigration yesterday. Today the president said he would not sign any deal to help the d. R. E. A. M. Ers if it doesnt include funding for a border wall. Joining me to talk about this and much more is retired fourstar general michael hayden. He served as a director of both the cia and the nsa. General hayden, thanks so much for being here. Thanks, jake. Really appreciate it. Youve served both democratic and republican president s. What do you make of the president s claims that this is all a hoax and this is all just created by democrats . Its not a hoax. Its not all created by democrats. There is now historical record on which we can all agree on which there were contacts between the campaign and agents of the russian federation, there was some cooperation, synchronization of active between the campaign, the russians and wikileaks. Now whether its collusion or criminal, a completely different matter, but there is some there there. And what struck me about the president s comments is he needs he wants, he should be pursuing closure and he doesnt get closure until he talks to bob mueller. And here he made that very ambiguous as to whether or not that would ever happen. And one of the other things is he tried to make it all about collusion, where it seems clear from what we know about the Mueller Investigation in terms of information he has sought and interviews hes conducted is that he is at least looking into whether or not President Trump obstructed justice, either through the statement he helped dictate in which donald trump jr. Was not forthcoming about the real reason for that meeting with the russian lawyer or firing james comey or whether or not he knew that general flynn had lied to the fbi and on and on. Bob mueller is very conscientious. He is very thorough. You can see the increasing concentric circles moving outward in the investigation from criminal collusion, whatever that might mean, to obstruction of justice, perhaps even to other ancillary kinds of activities like the transfer of money and with whom you cooperate or dont cooperate. If you worked for President Trump well, you know what, let me rewrite this question. Do you think president politically can avoid sitting down with Robert Mueller if Robert Mueller insists on sitting down with him . Again, the president im really trying to speak here on behalf of the president s best interests. Right. The president is served by closure. This is a cloud over the administration. Whether or not hes responsible for it is a separate matter. The cloud exists. And the only way to get out from under the cloud is closure that this has been as complete an investigation as possible and i dont see how that happens if bob mueller wants to talk to the president and the president doesnt talk to bob mueller. Today, President Trump tweeted that, quote, republicans should finally take control, unquote, of the russia probes. He refused to answer a question shouted to him at the pool spray about what that meant. Right. We already have republicans in the House Intelligence Committee and in the Senate Judiciary committee accused of doing too much to protect the president. Things seem to be working out in the senate Intelligence Committee as of now. Then there is the mueller probe. How do you interpret that, republicans should finally take control . There are kind of multiple tracks here. Youve got the one going on on the house, which i think was fatally compromised last summer with all the activity that took place with regard to unmasking. The senate cooperation seems to have been more bipartisan. Its got longer legs, it has lasted longer but now were beginning to see that fracture as well. And youve got bob muellers criminal investigation over here. Thats going to go to the end. I know director mueller, i know how he works. You have a lot of respect for him. I do. I worked fwith him for many yeas within government. Thats going to go to this point. I think, jake, thats going to be insufficient. I think the American Public deserves more than just a legal resolution as to what went on here. There needs to be a political resolution. There is a difference between that which is illegal and that which is clearly inappropriate. And that second category is the kind of thing that could be developed at the political level by the second Political Branch of government, the congress, and i fear with the events, particularly in the last 48 hours, were not going to get that. Yesterday we learned that the british spy Christopher Steele, who worked on that trump russia dossier on behalf of this Opposition Research group being funded by democrats. Steele went to the fbi in july of 2016, not at the behest of this Opposition Research group or the democrats but because the research he was doing about any possible ties or compromising of trump or the campaign by the russians so alarmed him he went to the fbi. Heres is a quote from Glenn Simpson, the head of fusion gps, which is the Opposition Research firm. Chris said he was very concerned about whether this represented a National Security threat. He thought from his perspective there was an issue, a security issue about whether a president ial candidate was being blackmailed. Whats your reaction to that . So weve got a couple of examples now of genuine friends of the United States, members of the five is alliance, an australian ambassador and a retiree from britains mi6 having concerns about the wellbeing of americas democracy. They followed their conscience and made their concerns known to the appropriate organs of the United States government. Thats about as far away from a political motivation as you can get. Thats the instigation of what were seeing now. Now, has it been politicized since then . Oh, my god, yes. But the origin of it come from genuine friends being genuinely concerned. And did you ever you were at the nsa, did you ever work with Christopher Steele . No, i never have. Do you know his work at all . I have talked to friends in mi6 and ive been told he was a solid officer for britains intelligence services. So Dianne Feinstein, the top democrat on the Senate Judiciary committee, she unilaterally released this transcript and she saided to that she regretted not informing grassery that she was going to do it, the republican chairman. And President Trump tweeted, quote, the fact that sneaky Dianne Feinstein, who has on numerous occasions stated that collusion between trump russia has not been found would release testimony in such an underhanded and possibly illegal way is a total disgrace. Must have tough primary. It is true, she is facing a primary challenge from the left, but i dont know that her release of this at all was in violation of the law. Look, im not a lawyer, but my instincts are not in any way. Frankly, jake, what she did was a counterpunch to what two republicans on the committee had done with regard to the referral to the fbi about steele and potential criminal activity. I think her releasing the document was unfortunate in the sense that she was forced to release it unilaterally. It would have been far better if the committee had just made it public, as the testifier requested be done, because he was being accused in the press and by other parts of the american political process of at least untoward behavior. He wanted it out there. He did. Requested so in a New York Times oped. Last question, sir. I know this is an issue you care a lot about. Ben cardin put out a scathing report today that accuses President Trump and the Trump Administration of negligence when it comes to making sure there is not future election interference in 2018, 2020 in this country. Quote, without leadership from the president , any attempt to marshal such a response will be inherentlily weakened at the outset. Its been a year this month since the Intelligence Community has put out their report. Has anything improved . Are we safer . I dont know that we are. There is a lot of energy in the private sector and the think Tank Community around here that is looking at this question and they are actually learning a great deal about what the russians did and how they did it. Jake, this was an unexpected attack against an unknown weakness in the american political process. It hit a scene between public and private, a seam between Law Enforcement and intelligence. A seam before federal and local. And the open way you can come back from that is through an extraordinary effort. Let me ask you a question coming back at you, who is the goto guy in the u. S. Federal government now to make sure we fix this . And let me answer my own question. I dont know. We dont have a goto guy. Okay. As we develop even more information, where does it go for action . And without president ial leadership, perhaps even extraordinary structures like we did after the terrorist attack with the National Counterterrorism center, i fear even though we learned more, we wont act more. All right, general, always a pleasure. Thank you so much for coming in, sir. I appreciate it. The House Intelligence Committee investigation is at an impasse and the Senate Judiciary committee seems close to one because of partisan divisions. Is President Trump in that tweet today saying republicans should finally take control . He s. He referring to the senate Intelligence Committee . Is he referring to special counsel Robert Muellers investigation . When asked what he meant today, the president ignored the question but cnn senior Congressional Correspondent manu raju joins me now. And, manu, how are republicans on capitol hill responding to this call from the president er . Reporter well, republicans on the senate side say theyre still moving forward with their investigation, theyre largely ignoring what the president had to say, richard burr, the senate Intelligence Committee chairman said earlier this afternoon, saying i dont Pay Attention to the president s tweets. But in a lot of ways that was geared towards the Senate Judiciary committee in the aftermath of Dianne Feinsteins release of that transcript from fusion gps, cofounder Glenn Simpson talking about that steele dossier of russia and trump connections. I got a chance to ask chuck grassley, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee, about the president s call to take control of the investigation. This is how he responded. I dont intend to have a discussion with the president on that point and i hope he doesnt call me and tell me the same thing that you said he said. Reporter grassley suggesting, jake, that actually the release of this transcript will not undermine his investigation going forward. He said theyve scheduled other witnesses to come forward and i asked him specifically about jared kushner, the president s soninlaw, i said does this mean he is off the hook given the concerns that kushner may not come forward now. He said, no, hes not off the hook. Jake . Manu, grassley also said he was disappointed that his scleeg, the top democrat on the Senate Judiciary committee, senator Dianne Feinstein released this transcript. You spoke with feinstein. What did she have to say . Reporter shes saying sorry to chuck grassley. Shes apologetic she did not inform him ahead of time to release the transcript. She defended her decision to release the transcript. Saying the reason to do this it had been abused for so long. The testimony over Glenn Simpsons the public needed to see exactly what he said behind closed doors. Jake, she pushed back on the president s tweet. She said she did nothing illegal as the president alleged she may have done earlier today in his morning tweet. She would not respond to the president calling her, quote, sneaky. She said she didnt want to discuss that specifically, but pushed back pretty aggressively on the president s suggestion this was done to help her politically. She said that was absolutely not the case. She release this for the Public Interest but said, again, she did not do anything illegal as the president alleged, jake. Interesting. There is this other story, manu. Michael cohen, the president s corporate lawyer thats gary cohn. Thats the wrong cohn. Cohen, Michael Cohen is suing fusion gps, which is behind the dossier as well as buzz fe Buzzfeed News for publishing the entire dossier a year ago. Ive talked to some legal experts. This could be a risky move for Michael Cohen. Reporter no question. He presumably would have to sit for a deposition and his wife perhaps would also have to agree to do that. The standard for evidentiary standard in the discovery process is pretty low, jake. That means a whole range of documents could presumably be requested from both sides as they investigate this further. Of course he would be the closest person to the president to fight this in in the legal system, fight the dossier in the legal system. We just dont know what would come out, and clearly thats got a lot of people interested about what may emerge from these lawsuits going forward, jake. All right. Manu raju on capitol hill. Thanks so much. Dont go anywhere. We have lots more to talk about, including the president bringing up Hillary Clinton on his own just now, calling her his opponent. Stay with us. 75 million of us suffer from the gritty and frustrating symptoms of dry eye. We need theratears®. Theratears® is more than just eye drops. Its eye therapy. 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